Throw back to Snow....

We had a little bit of snow this Winter (in March).

Oliver has been studying penguins and Antarctica at school. With our 2 hour school delay, Oliver decided to make his own Antarctica, how can you deny a kid that wants to do educational activities. So we broke out the trusty shrink a dink paper, and the boys went to work drawing all the animals they know live in Antarctica.

Than we made our very own Antarctica diorama's.

the bug chicks

At Pre-School, on a day Oliver had no school, the bug chicks came to visit, so not only did Max get to see the bugs, Oliver did to, what a fun day.

Mom.

Recently I started small business classes, talk about overloading my already full brain! All the parts I hate about business in a class.... Awesome.

Recently both boys started little league on separate teams, ugh... we are busy in this house, almost 4 nights a week we have practice or games, and 2 games on Saturday. What was I thinking?

Recently Oliver has been having problems with frustration, okay maybe not so recently but.... it is just now, as our life has been getting busier, really starting to show. I am reading a lot of information about teaching our kids appropriate ways to deal with frustration and anger. It is not my favorite part of parenting. What I realized, is I try the hardest I can, to keep everyone not frustrated, and have done this since the boys were little. Soooo now, since I can't follow Oliver around the entire day and keep everyone from frustrating him, I have kind of robbed him of a necessary survival skill. Learning this life skill has been a little painful for us, but we are doing the work, no matter how painful it is. Here is a good article on the subject!

No matter how chaotic, stressful, or overloaded I am. I am still one thing, and the best at it for my boys.

MOM

Yesterday my heart overfilled with love, as I got home from class, at the exact same time Brian was walking Oliver and Max home from picking Ollie up. Oliver saw me get out of the car and from about a block away yelled "MOM" and started running down the block with his arms open. Almost nothing in this world makes you feel more loved, more accepted, more full, than the unconditional love your child freely gives you.

This morning was late start at school, normally Max is in school and Oliver and I get a little one on one time. Our favorite thing to do is drop Max off at pre-school and than go to breakfast at the little cafe down the block. Today Max was sick, so no breakfast out for us. Oliver had a hard time getting ready this morning (getting us all frustrated). He wanted to ride bikes to school, but Max has this crazy cough, that seriously the only time he is not coughing is when he is sitting up right on the couch. Laying down coughing crazy... walking around the house, coughing like crazy, exerting any energy the kid is coughing the whole time. Needless to say no bike riding to school (frustrating for our first grader for sure). In the car Oliver on accident (purpose) threw a pencil at my head. Awesome. He got in trouble, not a good way to start your day. As I dropped him off at school, he was mad at me, he didn't want to look at me, he didn't want to throw his morning problems back in the car... he just wanted to get away from me. As a mom, as Oliver's mom, I knew this was not a good way for him to start his school day.

I watched him run across the street, and slowly walk to the school door. Once he got to the door, he turned around and waved to me, I waved back. He than blew me a kiss, I caught it. Put it in my heart. I blew him a kiss, he caught it and put it in his pocket. Our secret Love language. Again, Almost nothing in this world makes you feel more loved, more accepted, more full, than the unconditional love your child freely gives.

Coming to terms with it...

So, sorry blog land. I kind of hate winter, and this year has been extremely difficult. Hibernating has been my activity of choice. Well, I guess not hibernating, maybe hiding is a better description.

I have recently been diagnosed with Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding, Awesome Right!

I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I will most likely not have any more babies. So I think it is okay for me to hibernate for a bit. or hide, either one is good for now...

Way to set the bar.....

After almost an entire year of anticipation, watching his friends wiggle their teeth and come into classes with holes in their mouth, Ollie finally lost his first tooth!

What a rite of passage, especially for this little man who wanted so badly to loose a tooth.

So of course I went above and beyond, making a path of glitter and magic appear in a trail from the window, writing out notes on burnt glittered parchment, even including a new toothbrush and glittered note for Max, you know in the anticipation of his teeth falling out...

The joy and excitement of finding a little glittered note and new tooth brush was so exciting for the boys, Ollie barely took a second look at the two dollars he was left....

So, than what happens when you loose your second tooth. I was planning on writing a little note and slipping a quarter into the tooth fairy bag my Mom had made Ollie (he lost it at her house, so cute) but I fell asleep, forgot about the duties of Tooth Fairy... So B picked up the slack and at 6 in the morning slipped another two dollars under his pillow (we need to re-think the cost of a tooth) but in the process of the exchange of money we lost the actual tooth! When I woke Ollie up, the first thing he did was lift up his pillow, and look for a note! A note that was not there, Oh the disappointment! Than Max woke up, and max too, flipped up his pillow looking for the tooth fairy, glitter, her magic, her inclusion of him on his big brothers shirt tails.... Tooth Fairy Fail!

Than guess what happens three days later, The boys find the tooth in their bedroom, Now they are convinced the Tooth Fairy had dropped the tooth, and was probably wherever tooth fairies live getting in trouble for losing a tooth... So Oliver puts the tooth under his pillow again. Guess what, the Tooth Fairy forgot about that dang frickin tooth! Again, the eager wake up grab under the pillow happened, this time to find the same thing he put under his pillow when he went to bed... Oh Tooth Fairy you are freakin killing me here!

So before anything else could be done this morning... Oliver had to write the Tooth Fairy a note.

Tonight gosh darnit, that Tooth Fairy better get her freakin act together, and next time maybe not overdo it out of the gate... 

Master Chef

I love cooking with the boys. I have always had them in the kitchen with me, even as babies, strapped in a front pack, these boys have cooking in the blood. Which has made my boys awesome eaters, they will (almost) always eat anything I put in front of them.

Last night we had some fresh caught Kokanee gifted to us from Grandpa lee, (he stocked our freezer up, making room for 45 pounds of salmon caught). We stuffed them with Rosemary (from the garden) and lemon, than topped them with olive oil, lemon, leeks (from the garden) and potatoes. Wrapped them up tight in foil on cooked them up. Seriously soooo good. I am huge fan of rosemary, and mix that with the butteryness of the kokanee, and lemon... you should totally make this!

We made...

Today I helped out in Max's preschool class, I hate preschool. That is all I have to say about that. The teacher did have the kids do some leaf rubbings in class, which Max and I brought the idea home and made way cooler.

Love them.