A Little Spring in Our Step

Is it spring already? Goodbye mildest winter that ever was. Come back again next year.

I call the picture below: The Blind Leading the Blind. I'm the world's spazziest mom when it comes to my kids being in the street. Since Eli and Carson often run ahead of me on our walks, I yell off to them, "HOLD HANDS!!" As they dart out into the road together. I figure if they're right next to each other, they are a bigger target to avoid as opposed to each of them darting all about the road unaware of impending danger.

And then there was the one time we were all on a "neighborhood walk," and Carson insisted everyone  have both their hands held. So Jeff, Me, Eli and Carson once crossed the street in a circle, everyone holding hands, as per Carson's request. Wish we had a picture of that one, but both my hands were occupied at the time.

Carson has also recently insisted on using a teaspoon to eat his cereal.

This is my favorite place to take pictures of the boys. In the morning, the light hits their eyes so perfectly, and the background looks black, and I just love the way the pictures turn out.

We went and visited Izzy last week! Eli and Izzy practiced their engagement shots.

The kids were cute on April Fool's Day. Eli even came up with a few original jokes! I was so proud of him. He came up to me after dinner and said, "Mom. I broke the couch." And I totally fell for it until he gleefully shouted, "APRIL FOOLS!" We ate "worms" for dinner and Carson thought that was pretty funny.

Eli caught the selfie bug and was under the impression our faces needed to be squashed together to capture a good shot.

Big milestone this week! Eli learned how to write his name all by himself! He was coloring and suddenly announced he had written his name. Much to my surprise, he did everything right! I especially love the dot on the "i."

Eli keeps begging for us to put the trampoline up. In the meantime, my bed is where the boys expend their energy.

Several months ago, we patched up all the holes on the walls in Eli's room. For the longest time we had white patches all over his walls waiting to be painted, but we didn't have any paint the right color, so I had to go buy some. I finally went to buy some paint and got his room all nice and painted, looking like new.

Seriously TWO DAYS after I painted the wall, I went into his room after quiet time to this:

If you can't tell, that's crayon ALL OVER the wall I just barely painted! I screamed. But hey. At least I have paint handy to roll on over that crayon for a quick fix. It just might take me another six months to get around to it.

The boys love to stare at our neighbors (who have four boys) playing in their backyard. They are always up to something fun, and they keep my boys entertained every evening. The only problem is, apparently there is only one prime spot for spying on the neighbors -- the very corner of the deck. Neither boy will rest until the corner spot is his.

Funny quote from today:
Eli came in from outside and wandered in to find me, "Mom. I'm trying to kill birds." He proudly announced.
"Eli!" I screeched, "We don't kill birds. Birds are nice."
"Hmmm. But do birds live on mountains?" He questioned.
"Yes. Birds live on mountains."
"Why did Dad shoot at birds on the mountain?"

Jeff went hunting one time about six months ago, and Eli remembered Jeff went to hunt birds, so Eli was on his own little bird hunt. I was speechless and couldn't argue his point.

I've started doing Jillian Michaels workout DVDs during quiet time. On this particular day, the boys refused to stay in their rooms and instead came down to squat and lunge with me.

Preschool was at my house this week. We had the letter "O." There was only one other girl at preschool this week because all the other kids were sick. It was funny to see the difference between Eli and the girl. Eli was all over the greens and blues, she was all over the pinks and purples. Eli stamped out as many toilet paper roll "o"s as he could, and then he was on to squishing bugs with his toilet paper roll. She was meticulously designing her "o"s, and then excited to reshape her toilet paper roll into a heart for further stamping options. It was cracking me up.

Eli's latest favorite word is "Fridurday." I'm not sure if it's a mix between Friday and Saturday or Friday and yesterday, but it's completely replaced the word "Friday" in his vocabulary.

The boys have been getting along so well the past month or so. I am so grateful they are the best of buds (most of the time).

Today was Pirate day at preschool for the letter "P." We did a little scavenger hunt, made hats and patches, popped popcorn, and the kids had a lot of fun! This picture is pretty good even without Carson staring at me like I'm a big weirdo, but when you take into account his little face in the corner, the picture becomes priceless!

Here's Jeffery with the willow tree we planted at the end of last summer. I was worried it wouldn't survive the winter, so we were thrilled to see some green on it this spring!

We're hoping to have a nice big, shade tree/climbing tree like our neighbor's. I love the pretty pink with the light green and the blue sky. Ahhhh. Thank heavens for spring!