**For some reason, some days I am able to format and do paragraphs and other days I do the same thing but it runs it all together as one LONG paragraph (as the post before this). Sorry if this makes it difficult to read.** A recent outing to the pool. As we headed out there it was 73 degrees and sunny. When we arrived it was 63, overcast and slight breeze. Did not know if we were going to freeze or not, but the boys wanted to give it a try. By the time we got all changed, it was sunny and nice. We had the pool to ourselves.

Caught B as he was coming off the slide!

Jbird cracks me up...he won't take the arm floats off yet, but he also loves to wear the ring...so he does both...

Just random stuff.... B lost another tooth. We are at 5 and almost 8 years old. They keep telling me the slower they come out, the better. He has another appointment this week with the orthodontist to see if his 6 year molars are in enough to look at an palate expander. I don't realize how tight his teeth are until I see other kids with huge gaps and plenty of room for teeth to come in. JB has turned into a jumping maniac. He will get on the back of the couch and somersault onto the cushions and then the floor. Then he will just start jumping around, being crazy. Maybe the kid needs some gymnastics! The other night he woke up and was in bed saying 'wa Mom'. I went to get him water. As I left the room I told him good night and he replied 'ni Mom'. Almost brought tears to my eyes! His cute little language where he drops off the beginning and end of words. This morning I heard B say "J, give me your face...I won't hurt you" Not sure what that was all about but they were doing some kind of wrestling. One thing I am really working on the older two with is thinking before they speak and not feeling like they have to be sneaky/deceitful to get what they want. They are so quick to answer a question and end up not giving a truthful answer or hands will get into things without asking. The other day one of them spoke without thinking it through and ended up 'telling' a lie. I sent them to their room for the day! I figured it was getting to be more consistent and punishments needed to be painful (not physical). We had a birthday party for that afternoon and figured it was not fair for their punishment to get in the way. So we went to the party (in the country) and left said child in the car, listening to the radio. Was he ever upset when we left an hour later and had not invited him inside. I was impressed though, I think the consequence was working because normally he would have climbed out of the car several times to come ask when he could come in. Today something happened and B decided nobody liked him and he was just going to leave home and be on his own. I thought, this will be good. A few minutes later he stood by the door and told Jbird that he was going to find a new home. I asked him if he thought about where he was going to live, he said no and I said 'that is sad...you should know where you are going to live' ('love and logic' training there...). He proceeded to walk out the door. Jbird followed him out and a few seconds later Jbird came back inside hysterical and crying...."Mom B just left and he is going to find another home. He started walking down the street" Poor kid was just sobbing. I casually walked outside to just watch what direction he was headed. He had gotten a house away and then turned back and passed by going the other way (as if he was strolling around waiting for someone to come rescue him). He only had a magazine in his hand. Jbird was still hysterical, so B turned back toward the house and trying to hide his smirk and his 'if i have to stay look', said 'Okay J I will give you one more chance.' I had to turn away to keep from laughing. The other day at speech therapy the older two had gone into the side parking lot to kick the soccer ball around. There is a drainage ditch out front so I told them to be careful. I watched them from inside. In a few minutes I saw a commotion outside and saw B run toward the ditch and J run toward the building. I guessed right, the ball was in the ditch! I went out there, I could not let the ball I paid money for float away and through town. I got far enough downstream that I saw the ball headed my way. Not real sure how to stop it or grab it, I stepped down into the ditch. It was only about shin deep. However the water was fast enough and the bottom of the ditch rocky enough that I lost my balance. I was able to throw myself forward to my knees as I was desperately grabbing the tall grass on the side - not much help it was. Then I looked up and there was the ball. I grabbed it and then slowly worked my way out. I can only hope no one I knew was driving by in those 30 seconds. Fortunately I had on shorts, so my clothes were not too wet. It sure was cold and fast flowing though. Then a few days later, I had run into the grocery store to grab a two things. I was in a hurry and walking fast. I had on sandals whose soles are just about worn out. I was right in front of customer service and fell. Dropped my wallet, the items I was carrying, etc. Silly me, I did not see the water on the floor and with my fast pace and pitiful sandals, I slipped big time. Of course everyone hustled to find the water trail and get it all cleaned up. They offered for me to fill out an incident report but I declined. I was fine. A little humiliated but all I could think was that I was thankful it was me that found the water and not an frail customer who could have been seriously hurt. Adios!!!

I like this little pool...I think I am going to like it a lot.

One of my goals this summer is to get Jbird comfortable in the water and swimming without any assistance. He loves hanging out in the blow up rings and will occasionally want the arm floats on. So, we checked out this pool yesterday. It was exactly what I had been hoping for. It ranges from 3-5 feet, has a small slide. Big enough to move around but not so big you lose kids in it. You can tell by the hillside in the back, it sits on top of a bluff. The people that work there are so incredibly nice and accomodating. The boys had a lot of fun. They were in the water about 2 hours. There were probably 12 other kids. It is just wide enough that it challenges B right now swimming all the way across the width of it. My hope is by the end of the summer he will be swimming the length of it. Jbird has been my challenging one but I got him to go like 2 kicks by himself. He does not have a problem with his face in the water, just the fear of sinking. JB was crazy in the water. He would sit in a float and kick all around the pool. When I was holding him, he would lay on his stomach, kick his legs and move his arms. He will even lay on his back and kick. Just not quite ready to put his face in the water. However, hopefully with this new, little pool all of that will change. The pool is open until mid October, which is about 6 weeks longer than any other outdoor pool around. Did I mention I like this little pool?

This past weekend I bought another bountiful basket and a tropical pack add on. It came complete with lettuce, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, bananas, oranges, coconut, nectarines, plantain, lemons, mangos, lychee, 2 pineapple, fresh ginger, mint leaves and vanilla beans. I got online and figured out what lychee was - interesting fruit. It is not very appealing to the eye but sweet. When frozen and then peeled, tastes a little like sorbet. I chopped some mint leaves and then soaked them in milk for a day. Then used the milk and some chopped chocolate to make mint chocolate chip milkshakes. Very, very tasty. I really nice subtle mint flavor. Every morning I have been making banana, strawberry, pineapple, lychee, nectarine, lemon smoothies. I never realized how a little lemon can change the taste of something. JR will enjoy the plantain and coconut. He has also told me how they use to take rind of pineapple and turn it into juice...so interesting to see how that goes. I had never had nectarines before, so the bountiful baskets have been good for me. The boys at times will even try a small bite. The tropical pack contained a note that listed everything in it and where it was from. The countries listed were Mexico, Ecuador, USA, Hawaii and Uganda. I need to figure out what to do with vanilla beans and I might try making a small batch of tomato sauce with the tomatoes.


Here is a random picture from a few weeks ago. The place where JB goes for daycare once a week (for socialization) took these and then made them into a card.

Can you guess what one of our recent outings was......

Jbird was on the move so had a hard time getting him to sit still. The boys loved feeding/chasing the ducks. Could not get any of them to eat out of our hand though. I have a summer schedule going! Mondays we head into town and I have a list of special town things that one of the boys picks. Tuesdays are our park days. After several conversations with some other moms, it was decided we wanted a park day once a week, so everyone can stay connected during the summer. Tuesdays are those days. Wednesday is our hang low, get things done around the house day. Thursdays are our play date days and fun bike trips around town, and Friday is hopefully going to be heading out to camp or hike. I have a list of play date friends and a tub of 'surprises' I can pull out when needed. Hopefully no more of the 'we don't know what to do' blues. A parent told me yesterday about a local pool that is small, has a slide, not well known and heated. (In our state, that is huge...most outdoor pools are pretty cold - especially for little ones and the indoor pools are cold for the lap swimmers.) Anyway this pool is kept at 85 degrees and they offer summer family passes for $75 a family. SCORE. It is a little bit of a drive, but by far a great deal and they are open 7 days a week from 12-6. But I can add weekly swimming to my boys life! Maybe by summers end Jbird will be totally proficient in the water. He has told me he does not want to take swimming lessons but wants Mom to teach him! We are already 'in town' twice a week, so we can add swimming to our stop. Nothing wears out a child quicker than being in the sun and swimming.

Look what my little boy can do.

He has finally figured out how to pedal a bike. He goes fast...faster than I can jog.  He loves his bike!

Yesterday was the last day of school!  B woke up that morning and cooked breakfast all by himself.  No one was allowed downstairs.  He got out the griddle, made up some pancakes.  Then he cracked the eggs and was in the process of scrambling them when he ran into problems.  He told me the eggs were not cooking because he could not get the oven to 350.  Panic set in.  I store things inside my oven.  Not sure what he was talking about, I tear off down the stairs.  The pancakes looked perfect on the griddle, toast was in the toaster oven and the oven was set to 550.  Fortunately, he alerted me soon enough and I got down there before the few plastic items had melted.  I then took the opportunity to tell him the about the different nobs on the stove.  I think he gets it now the difference between the burners and the oven.

Jbird insisted on helping but B said no.  So we compromised and Jbird made waffles that evening for dinner.  Amazed at how those little hands can perfectly crack eggs!

B ended up getting the coveted perfect attendance sweatshirt.  I think there were about 14 kids.  When you think about staying healthy for 185 days, that is a lot of days!  So thankful for good immune systems.  It is certainly not because we wash our hands before every meal.

One of my favorite sayings of JB's right now is 'otay Mom'.  The other word he says all the time, whenever he sees them, is 'peace' for police.  This past week we had his preschool meeting.  We met with the head of special education, the special ed teacher, physical therapist and two speech therapists.  No big surprises.  He tested normal in all areas except language.  There is some concern about his social interactions among peers.  He chooses more solitary play and I am sure it is because he cannot communicate with his peers.  It was interesting because they did not classify him as developmentally delayed.  At one point the director asked why everyone was requesting the preschool setting instead of continuing with private speech.  They simply explained that they did not label him developmental delayed but if you look at his standard deviations, he is at a minus two, which would qualify him for the program.  They really feel that the social interaction is very, very key, along with therapy, to progress the language.  So, he is officially accepted into the program.  He will be going 4 days a week for 2 1/2 hours.  They are also curious to get to know him more because they observed other peculiar things about him.  Things like when he would put the sheep's head on the sheep's body, he would put it on crooked, consistently, instead of putting it on the right way.  They were not sure if it was some other learning thing going on or just quirky.  I think quirky describes him perfect.  I know that he is so smart that sometimes he manipulates things just because he does not want to give you what you want.  I love that kid...always keeping us on his toes.  He has hit another milestone that I will try to get a picture of soon and post next time......one that I am very excited about!

Until then....

I am not sure how it has happened, but I have a worm lovin' boy.  Jbird gets so excited when he can dig in the yard and find worms.  We have a worm bin going.  Given all the fishing up here, I think there could be some money made in selling worms.  The overhead has to be next to nothing (just buying styrofoam containers), since dirt is free and worms create worms.  I was trying again to convince Jbird that he should try to sell worms and he finally looked at me and told me he would rather sell lemonade.  He was on the lemonade kick because big brother B had mentioned it. We just might have a lemonade stand this summer.  Now that B knows how to count money, could be really good for him.  I can only imagine how long they would sit outside at a table selling something.  But if I can build an entrepreneurial spirit in them young, why not.

I have been reading in the evenings with the boys.  A friend let us borrow some books from a Christian Heroes: Then and Now series.  We are currently reading about Nate Saint, who died in 1956 while trying to reach a savage Indian tribe with the Gospel.  Such amazing books to see the hand of God playing out in the lives of others.  The younger two are not really into them, but B sure can't get enough.  Also opens up great conversations about how God works in our lives and His plan for our lives!

This past Friday B's 2nd grade class had a sleepover in the classroom.  They had a great time.  Two parents helped chaperone.  From what I heard, the best part was a flashlight dance party.  I was at the school today because the B got to celebrate his birthday in the classroom.  His birthday is not until late June, but he had the option of celebrating early.  I took root beer floats up there.  The birthday person gets to sit in a special chair all day long.  Then just before we had root beer float they circled up around him and sang happy birthday and one other song.  I was so tempted to break through the circle and give him a kiss on the cheek - just to watch him blush.  I decided against it...

I love seeing how excited the boys get about them growing up.  We have a spot on a wall upstairs that shows their growth progress.  Periodically one of the boys will walk up to it and have me measure them.  They get so proud to see how tall they have gotten.  J can reach up touch my shoulders without standing on his toes.  B can now reach the temperature dial on the stove.  (Speaking of stove, today we walked into the house and the oven timer was going off.  I had set it to remind me to change the laundry when we got back home.  JB heard the buzzer going off and became very concerned.  He then went to grab a wooden spoon.  I was a little puzzled until I realized he had seen one of his brothers use the handle of a long spoon to turn the timer off.  Like big brother, like little brother!)

Off to curl up in bed with a book!

I am glad I was not the optimist and was hoping for nice camping weather this weekend. It was overcast, rainy, cold and tried to snow several times! So, we moved the camping inside. We started by roasting marshmallows over candles.

Then we set up a tent in the living room. B tried it all by himself.

Of course he needed some help from JB.

It proved too much with the small space, so mom stepped in. Then they kicked back and watched a movie from the tent.

I find it interesting how they all managed to switch places within the 5 minutes the pictures were taken.

I got it wrong last post. B moved from being a Cub Scout Wolf to Bear. This year he will learn how to handle a pocket knife and once he gets his Whittling Card, he can officially carry a pocket knife when he is wearing his uniform. He will also, next summer be able to start participating in overnight regional cub scout camps! JR has picked up some side jobs. One of which was clearing and hauling out stuff from a foreclosure unit. One of the nice things about this is that he scored a lot of barn wood (great from woodworking projects) and tile. We are hoping to use the tile in our upstairs bathrooms, since the pergo/woof floors are starting to buckle. Seems like it does not matter how hard we try to keep water off the floor during showers, it just does not work. Because of this 'loot', our garage was getting full. So he has been working this weekend on rearranging things. Jbird jumped at the opportunity to work along side his dad. He learned how to use the drill and made several airplanes. One for JB and one for me.

Off to Burger King to let the stir crazy kids burn some energy inside where it is warm.

Last night was the Cub Scout graduation. The tradition has become that the Cub Scouts have a cake contest....with the idea that they cook and decorate the cake by themselves. B came up with the idea and pretty much pulled this off by himself.

I was quite impressed with some of the other cakes!

This one obviously was not done by just a 7 year old....it took him and mom 2 days to pull this off!

Here is one last picture of our Bear before he crosses over to Wolf. Starting year 3!!!

OCongrats my precious B!

This past Tuesday was Jbird's preschool graduation. He looked so sharp and I was so glad we did not have a 'fight' over what he wanted to wear. He dressed himself.

Then the next day was the last day of preschool.  They had a fun day but because of the weather, it was moved inside.  They ran an obstacle course that concluded with jumping on the mini tramp.  One of the parents commented on how fast he was....the kid cruises.

Then we quickly moved outside to shoot/blow bubbles and watch a 'volcano' explode!

Looking forward to seeing what great things God has in store for this little guy! He is so excited for the fall and going to school like his big brother B.

Yesterday JB's therapist said she will start introducing some new words.  He has mastered the consonant, vowel, consonant words that begin and end with a closed mouth (mom, bop, etc).  He is responding very well to the cuing technique.

The other day he wanted his animals to have a snack.  So he sat them at the table and I heard him saying 'one, two, one, two, one, two'.  A while ago I was counting with him and after I said four I stopped and he said 'five'.  I love listening to him try to sing along to Old MacDonald Had a Farm.  He is producing the names of his brothers' friends consistently now.

Here is a picture of him with his animals at the table.

Was hoping to try to go camping this holiday weekend, but looks like rain and cool all weekend.  We did not camp at all last year, so really looking forward to getting out.  With the boys getting older, it can only get easier and easier.  I love being at a place to sit back and watch them interact and use their little minds.

Here is a picture of the bountiful basket I picked up last weekend.  It had lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, avocados, potatoes, bananas, apples, mangos, blackberries, pineapple, honeydew and apricots.  Definitely way more food than I could have bought at the store for 15 dollars.  There are in about 15-20 states - check it out on bountifulbaskets.org.  (They are in Texas).  I will probably order every other week or so.  Everything has been really good.  I finally got B to try fresh pineapple (they eat canned) and he loves it.  Ended up giving away some of the tomatoes and the lettuce was somewhat wilted when we got it so it did not last, but most everything else has been eaten.  We even ate the 8 pounds of strawberries that I got as an add on.

B had a soccer game today and he tore it up.  Scored 3 goals!!!  Yes, I know sports are to be fun and it does not matter if they score or not, just fun when they finally get to where they can compete with their classmates.  He took quite a few tumbles and always got back up.  The entire second grade at their school is doing a reading project right now.  For every 15 minutes they read, they score a 'run' in their baseball reading.  They have to score 4 runs by the end of this week and then they participate in a 'field' day the last week of school.  The teacher told the kids that they could either read or the parents could read to/with them.  That was all my precious little guy needed to hear.  Give him an inch and he figures out how he can take a foot.  He is convinced that I can read to him while he plays the Wii.  NOT.  He has to make 3 more bases before Friday!  Otherwise he will learn the hard way about procrastination.  His class is also having a sleep over this Friday in their classroom.  Sounds like a lot of fun - I volunteered to help but some of the other parents that don't get the opportunity to be in the classroom will be spending the night.  At Jbirds Mother's Day program I saw a lady that I recognized from the school.  She came up to me and asked if I was B's mom.  I said yes and she went on about how much she adores him, he is one of her favorites and how he has the best personality...always excited to tell you something.  The kind of interaction that just brought a huge smile to my face!

This week Jbird has his preschool graduation and B has his cub scout graduation - moving on up to the Bear rank.  Half way through Cub Scouts.  Not sure if he will go on into Boy Scouts but we sure do have an active Boy Scouts.  They camp once a month all year long.  Recently they had an outing where they invited the older Boy Scouts.  It snowed that night.  They started a 5 1/2 mile hike at 9pm under the full moon.  Not my idea of fun but I guess no better way to get them to be 'always prepared' unless they get out there.

Several days ago I took JB to a developmental pediatrician.  He still has some weakness on his right side.  She was great and spent about an hour with us.  As with everyone else that observes him, the weakness is definitely there but no one seems to know why.  Probably the most unifying theory is that he in fact did have a small stroke in utero in the left part of the brain.  Apraxia is also about motor planning and the lack of it.  So, whether  it was a stroke, bodily motor planning issues or something else, he has compensated well.  The weakness is not easily detected but very present if you know what to look for.  She saw no major flags and assumes he will outgrow it.  If it does get worse, our next step is a neurologist.

This past week JB started putting 3 words together.  Momma Help Me never sounded so good!  He still plugs away with therapy 3 times a week and seeing his improvement, makes me a huge proponent of early intervention!

We are down to the last 10 days of school.  Getting excited to not have to be out of the house early every morning.  The boys are also getting older and more independent that they don't require as much supervision when we go to parks, etc.  I can sit back a bit and watch!  B is still on track for perfect attendance.  He has worked so hard at staying healthy and so thankful he enjoys school.  I am sure it is more because of the social aspect than the learning aspect, buy hey, he enjoys it!

This weekend I am heading to the northwestern part of the state for a conference with some women from my church.  A quick trip but looking forward to some great music, fun and fellowship.  I think JR might take the boys camping!  I just need to make sure there is some food around to eat!

Off to grab B from school and help a friend pack up her house, who will be moving out of state in the near future!  One of the pinochle gals....:-)

The weather the last couple of days has been gorgeous!  The 'not a cloud in the sky' gorgeous.  With just a little snow on the mountains...beautiful.  Had a very quiet weekend.  Saturday was our 11th anniversary.  Had planned to get out Saturday afternoon/evening - something like hiking or bike ride.  However, our babysitter forgot and made other plans.  Oh well.  The older two boys and I were at a bbq so we were able to stay another 2 hours over there.  Then the highlight on Sunday was watching B tear it up on the soccer field.  That kid focused.  He had a drive I had not seen.  He even had a shot at a goal but missed, but at least it meant he was ahead of the pack and moving quickly down field!

Recently I took the boys to a Farm and Ranch show.  We were looking at the tractors and saw one of the 'jumping displays'.  Where they have small trampoline tires set up and they hook kids up to harnesses.  The boys were begging to do it.  I was not real excited about forking over the money, especially when you have to times it all by 3.  I told them if they were willing to take money out of their allowance to reimburse me for half, they could do it.  They quickly agreed.  Turns out you have to be 30 pounds so JB was just big enough.  The guy running it said they were very slow and they would give me a deal, all three kids for $15.  I said sure.  I gave him a $20, he handed me a $5.  He walked away and then came back to give me a $5.  I told him he already gave me my change and he insisted he had a $10 in his hand and had gone to get me a five.  He insisted, so I relented and let all three jump for $10.  They loved it.  JB was just heavy enough and he was grinning ear to ear.  Not scared in the least.  He probably went close to 8 feet high.  Jbird and B were having a ball, probably getting 15 plus feet.  Of course my camera was in the car.  After they were done they watched some older kids do and have told me next time they will try a flip!

Every time we ride in the car, JB is pointing to all the familiar landmarks.  Just amazes me how he remembers things.  We will pass a friends' house that we have not seen in weeks.  As soon as JB sees it, he is pointing and making noises.  The dentist office, the donut shop, Aaden's house, Joe's house, the doctor office.  Jbird has been going around singing the song 'I am sexy and I know it'.  Could not figure out where that came from!  I was talking with his friend's mother and she said her son sings it in front of Jbird.  Her son learned it from all things, an M&M commercial.  Really....???  Who ever thought to put a sexy twist to a candy commercial.

We have new neighbors.  Always scary until they move in...hoping for good, nice, clean, quiet neighbors.  They are!  JB loved supervising them as they were unloading the truck.  I don't know how many times I told him to shut the door and leave them alone.  No kids but a dog that barks a lot when they are gone.  The boys miss their little friends who moved!

This past week there was a Mother's Day Tea at Jbird's school. They gave us cards, flowers, served us tea and cookies and sang some songs. Here is my favorite song. (Unfortunately he was right in front of the window and by the most animated kid...)

I love this dirty face, especially since it means that we are now in a warmer season and there is dirt on the ground - as opposed to snow!

I am sure there will be lots more dirty faces appearing here and that is just fine by me. If I let my kid play soccer in the street with no shorts and red rain boots, what is a little dirt on the face.

Pictures from our day. The boys again wanted to go out and play soccer/baseball in the street. It was such a gorgeous day, they put on their shades. Here is JB, who likes to play soccer with his basketball.

My ragamuffin rockstar Jbird

I think kids hit a few milestones that really change their appearance. One of those being when their permanent front teeth come in. I tried to get a picture of B with his two teeth coming in, but oh well.