John is Four and Out of School!!

We celebrated John's birthday with all the family Monday night.  So hard to believe that John is four!!

He was thrilled to receive lots of Paw Patrol gifts...Ryder and his ATV, Chase and his truck, and best of all his very own Pup Pad that repeats each pup's catch phrase over and over (and just when you get tired of it, he plays it in French!!!).

 





Friday brought his Spring Sing and last day of school.  He wasn't too thrilled to be going and was a little shy about singing in front of the crowd.  Despite my flashbacks to Daniel, I stayed calm and told him he could do it.  A quick hug from Mrs. Maria and he was ready to go!!

A successful performance calls for cake...even if it is 9:45 in the morning!!

We quickly left Westminster and headed to the Eastern Shore Centre to play in the fountains with Campbell.  It was quite crazy there, but these two had fun coming up with their own adventures.

The day ended with a sleep over at Dee's for four boys and me getting to enjoy the company of this good friend!

Mother's Day Weekend

I am thankful to still have little ones whose teachers make sure Mother's Day doesn't go unnoticed!  Daniel had a special celebration for mothers on Wednesday.  His class put on an adorable play that left my eyes a little leaky!

Friday brought my fifth annual Westminster Mother's Day Tea.  Loved my time with Johnny.  Our place at the table was marked by this picture...

 

I passed it three times before I realized that it was John.  Those eyes.  Not sure what to do with him.  We had our usual lunch and laughed over his responses to Ms. Maria's questions about his mom.  My favorite was when asked where my favorite place to go was, he responded "to Queen G's for lunch with GranGran."  Ha, ha!!!

On Saturday, we all rose early to serve breakfast at All Saint's to the families staying there for Family Promise.  This little outreach has been a good one for our family...cooking for others just comes easy.  There were two little boys staying there and our four ran around outside with them and shared their Legos.  A good start to our morning.

Then we headed over to Creek Fest to celebrate Three Mile Creek.  Lots of neighborhood fun!

We ended the day by having GranGran and PopPop for dinner.  We celebrated Dad's birthday and Mother's Day in one meal.  I didn't take any pictures, but boy am I grateful for the example of these two.  My sweet mama shows her selfless love day in and day out.  She takes in my sick boys when I have commitments to keep without considering her own health.  She doesn't do chit chat but listens like no other.  She sets the mothering bar high and without a doubt I rise up and call her blessed!

And then without fanfare, Mother's Day arrived.  I slept in...6:20 am...and was slowly greeted by each of my boys. Daniel brought me this in bed...(it says I love you in Legos!)

Chris cooked us all pancakes and then we readied ourselves for church.  We attended St. Luke's for the special occasion of Reagan's baptism.  Oh how I love a baptism!!  It was a beautiful service and Father Cumbie did a great job of reminding this mama that these babies do not belong to me.  I need to hear that every. single. day.

Cameron and Heather served us all a delicious lunch and we had a fabulous time just being with family.  Chris and I are so blessed to have much of our family here with us!

So thankful for the four little boys that call me Mama.  Next to wife, it is the most important title I'll ever hold.

A Weekend of Birthday Parties

This weekend brought two birthday parties in our house.  We split the difference between William and John's birthdays and rented a jumpy for the weekend.  The boys had a blast!!

First came William's party on Friday afternoon.  Daniel and I were still pretty puny.  Daniel was banned to the upstairs while the rest of us entertained outside.  He was bummed but still got plenty of time to play over the weekend.  William had a good crowd from his class!

On Saturday, we had the Davidson's over for burgers and jumping.  I mainly plopped myself on the outside couch and didn't move!  Thankfully, Chris was in command of the whole meal!  William got some water balloons and they were as big a hit as the jumpy!

Sunday afternoon brought John's party.  We invited his class and a few extras to come and play!  At the start of the party, he simply wanted to play Legos.  The jumpy had lost its appeal.  After a little coaxing, he did have a ball jumping and sliding with his friends.

Instead of gifts, these two requested gently used books for the Little Free Library at different Mobile Public Schools.  They donated over 40 books to this cause.  Proud of these guys!!

A great weekend.  The weather was beautiful and perfect for all our get togethers.  Still have John's real birthday to celebrate with family!  These couple of weeks are always busy but a reminder of what good times we have together!!

A Month of Sickness

April 2015 will go down in the books as a month of constant sickness.  Chris came home on Good Friday feeling a bit puny.  We had a big weekend ahead...out of town friends for dinner Friday and loads of family for Easter Sunday.  He managed to get through it all, but it wasn't easy!

 

Easter evening, John went to bed with a fever.  We woke up to our Springbreak knowing that the next day or two would be spent at home.  Thankful that a sprinkler still keeps them happy....

 

I didn't realize that the whole week (and most of the month!) would be spent at home.  When this one fell on Tuesday...

 

we began to rethink our trip to New Orleans.  The weather didn't look good and clearly we weren't up to snuff either.

I did baseball Saturday morning with William...

 

and Chris took all but Philip for a round of  laser tag that afternoon.  It was their only outing for Springbreak!

All well and back to school on Monday, but Monday night brought fever for William.  He ended up with a walking pneumonia diagnosis and missed six days of school.  Another weekend spent at home. 

He finally got well enough to have the family over to celebrate his 6th birthday!!

 

A crazy weekend with a firm retreat for Chris, Liturgy of Light at church....

and then off to Atlanta for Philip and me.  We loved getting to meet baby Bru!

Philip's bone is continuing to regrow.  He was thrilled when Dr. Schrader told him he could go to wearing the brace at night only!!  Still no running, no jumping...but we are moving in the right direction!

Home from Atlanta for a day and Daniel falls victim.  A day in and I start running fever too.  Daniel and I spent some lazy days trying to overcome.  Pneumonia set in for both of us, also.  We had a busy weekend (for another post) and by Monday we were back at it.

Never has a virus hit all six of us and never has one lasted so long.  Each of us ran fever for 4+ days.  Four of us ended up on antibiotic.  We are tired of germs and hopeful for a healthy May!