May Wrap-Up

May flew by so, so quickly. We are in the home stretch towards summer vacation (2 more weeks) and even though our summer schedule is pretty much the same as our school-year schedule, I'm looking forward to the slightly less hectic pace. I'm working on vacation plans for the week of the 4th; really, really looking forward to my girls' weekend at the end of June; really, really, really looking forward to our family vacation in Mexico at the end of the summer (all-inclusive resort near Puerto Aventuras), and hoping to make the most of the pool and the beach and all the other opportunities summer has to offer.

One of my summer wish list items for the past 3 summers has been to grow tomatoes or other vegetables. This spring, I finally got on that and bought and planted a cherry tomato plant and a pepper plant. The tomato has grown like gangbusters (it really needs a bigger pot) and the pepper is doing great, too. So far, I have been hand-picking insects and bugs off of the plants. I don't want to use pesticides, so I need to research some "safe" repellants. (And order some lady bugs, and maybe a praying mantis? Can you order a praying mantis? LOL) But we seem to be okay for now. We have about 6 tomatoes growing, and lots of flowers blooming.

We're also growing a Venus's fly-trap, and that looks great, too. I'm feeling pretty proud of my mad green-thumb skillz. (Of course, it's been a very wet, cool spring, so it probably has nothing to do with me. The hard part is yet to come!) And the boys, especially Seth, love watching their plants grow. Seth has decided he wants to sell the tomatoes for $1 each when we pick 'em. Go for it, buddy!

Finally, I need to recap our Memorial Day weekend. We were busy, visiting friends, getting haircuts, and joining in our city festivities. On Sunday, we celebrated Ed's cousin's baby's first birthday. After the birthday boy dug into his cake, he started breaking out in hives around his mouth and on his arms and legs. His parents asked me about my experience with William and his allergic reaction to peanuts. I told them that I gave William Benadryl, so someone went out to buy some. When they got back, I offered to squirt it into his mouth, although Ed's cousin was pretty skeptical that the baby would swallow the medicine. I sort of laughed at him in that "let an expert do the job" kind of way. (The universe will always find a way to knock you down a few notches when you start to think you know everything. LOL) As his mom held the baby, I squirted the Benadryl in his mouth, (aiming at the back of his throat) which he promptly spit back out (all over his mother) and then he proceeded to throw up all over his mother. It was awesome. Thankfully, the mom laughed hysterically, the baby was fine (felt great after a bath and opening some presents!), and they didn't hold me personally responsible.

On Monday, we woke up at our usual time and at the last minute, decided to take part in our city's 3K fun run. We made it to the starting line on time and started running. At first, Seth was not happy about how many people were there, but then he started running and I had a hard time catching up with him. Ed got lost in the crowd, as well, so I was trying to keep my eye on both boys by myself. We ran for about half a mile and then ran-walked another half mile, and then William found a friend and started walking, and Seth decided he was done. So I carried Seth the last .8 miles of the race while William happily chatted it up with his friend.

Later that afternoon we walked back to the "town center" for the festival and then marched in the town parade--William with his Taekwondo studio and Seth and me with the baseball league. Thankfully the weather was awesome--sunny but not too hot. And while I was tired and sore, it was a very happy tired and sore. Can't beat that!

To Hell with Time and Dead Fish

I am stressed and tired, and while I had intended to write a post about how sometimes, I just have to say "to hell with time" and stop trying to cram in the regular routine each and every school night, instead, I need to vent about dead fish. And screaming kids. And a messy house.

So today, the boys had their well doctor visits--5 year for Seth and 7 year for William. They are both great, but Seth had to get two shots. He hates shots. And now the entire building 3-story building knows this. I heard our nurse say to another, "We've got a screamer--I need some help." Fortunately, she was experienced and quick. It took Seth a little while to calm down. Our 3:00 appointment finally ended at 4:30 and I agreed to stop and get ice cream on the way home. (I think I needed the ice cream more than Seth did.)

I had also told William that we could stop at Pet Smart on the way home to finally get fish for his aquarium. We've been "cycling" the aquarium for 2 weeks, so he's been very anxious to get fish. He decided on 4 neon tetras and a ghost shrimp. We brought them home but before we even got the bag upstairs, two of the tetras were dead. We acclimated the two that were left and the ghost shrimp, and the boys went outside to play. We came back in and put the two alive fish and the shrimp in the tank and then headed out to Pet Smart to replace the two dead fish. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and got home around 7:30. We let the new bag of fish float on the tank and noticed that another tetra was now dead, as well as the shrimp  WTF? After the boys ate we headed upstairs, skipped bath, put on PJs, and saw that two more of the fish did not look well. By the time reading was done, we had 6 dead tetras and a shrimp. William was upset and stressed out and I feel really bad. We had the water tested on Sunday and it tested fine. The woman at Pet Smart said it should be fine for the fish.

I did some Googling, and it could be the water temp is too cold. It could be that we didn't acclimate them long enough. I was supposed to incrementally put water from the aquarium into the bag before putting the fish into the tank. Apparently, neon tetras are a bit "fussy" so maybe we should consider something else. Poor William. It's so hard when expectations are dashed.

So now I'm researching neon tetras and aquarium cycling and acclimation, instead of cleaning up downstairs (Ed is playing hockey tonight--otherwise, he'd be doing the cleaning) or reading, or taking a shower to wash this stinkin' day off of me.

Getting back to the whole the-hell-with-time thing, it can be really stressful to get everything done each night that we need to get done and still get the boys to bed by 8:30 p.m. (I'd really like to have lights out at 8:00 p.m., but it just hasn't been possible. And even 8:30 is sometimes pushing it.) When  we get home, I want them to have time to play. I want them to get outside time, to play with neighbors, to chill out and have time to do whatever THEY want to do. And yet, William has homework to do, and he has to read for 15 minutes and I have to make dinner and they have to eat and they have to clean up toys (if they even got a chance to play with toys) and they have to take a bath and brush their teeth. And of course they want me to read to them and I WANT to read to them. It's too much! I'm looking forward to summer, where we'll at least have no more homework to have to worry about. But I still want William to read every night. I still want to get him to write every day. And I want to work on sight words with Seth. And we're still not going to get home until 6:00 p.m. every day.

When school starts in the fall, Ed and I are hoping to hire a babysitter for 3 days a week, and we'll enroll the boys in the aftercare program the other 2 days. William will be moving to the 2nd-5th elementary school, and they have designated homework time during the aftercare, so that should help. I'm also hoping having a babysitter will help with after school activities and play dates. But still, it's only going to get worse--harder to juggle--as the boys get older and get more homework and projects and are required to read for longer periods and want to participate in more activities. So I better stop whining and we better just come up with ways to deal with it.

In the meantime, as we all agree, it's okay to have days where we eat ice cream, and McDonald's, and go to Pet Smart twice, and skip baths even though we're sweaty and dirty, and don't go to sleep 'till 9:00 and leave the messy house for tomorrow (or for the husband who will be cranky when he arrives home late to said messy house--but to hell with him, too! LOL).

Hopefully, my next post will be a lot more cheerful than this one. (Remind me to tell you about Memorial Day Weekend--the fun run! The parade! Making Ed's cousin's baby barf!) If not, you'll forgive me, right?

Birthday Party and Mother's Day Recap

A boring post title for what was definitely an UN-boring weekend. We had William's birthday party on Saturday, in the late-afternoon, at an indoor swim place. It was so much fun! As usual, my mom was a HUGE help and I don't know how I'll every manage a birthday party without her. We ended up with 18 kids, and after swimming for 2 hours, the kids changed out of the their swimsuits and we had pizza and cupcakes and then they got to play on the playground 'till it was time to go home. I ended up swimming with the kids almost the whole time--mostly because Seth wanted to swim in the areas that were over his head. It was super fun, though. Unfortunately, as per usual, I got no pictures of the party. My camera broke right before the party, and my mom had hers, but the flash wasn't working. And my iPhone battery died. D'Oh! But since I never take pictures anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter.

I did manage to take a picture of the leftover cupcakes, the day after the party. We had a shark theme, so we made shark cupcakes. These are looking a little haggard, but you get the idea:

William's actual birthday was Monday, and I did manage to get a picture of him in his new Minecraft shirt (a gift from Seth):

And Seth and I went to his school for lunch and shared ice cream sandwiches with friends. Here are Seth and William with one of William's good buddies:

Ed and I went back and forth for a while about what we wanted to give William for his birthday and we finally decided that we would give him an aquarium. He was THRILLED when he opened it. He kept hugging and thanking us. We went to the pet store on Monday after school and bought the decorations for the tank--gravel, plants, a pirate ship and a rock formation. We set it all up later that day, and we'll pick out the fish this weekend. It may end up being a lot of hassle, but I think it will be totally worth it.

On Mother's Day, William woke me up at 6:30 a.m. to give me the gifts he made for me at school. He had managed to hide them from me all week, and even tried to play it cool by saying they hadn't actually made anything for the moms at school. But in fact, he had written a book for me! Here are a few pages:

I'm so touched and I know it took a lot of effort on his part to put it all together. I was especially impressed with the handwriting on the first page. I can't wait to show this book to William's future wife one day! The rest of Mother's Day was lovely, with breakfast out, and then dinner at our house with my mom and Ed's parents and his sister and brother-in-law. So really, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I hope all of you moms who are reading this--all of you who inspire me and support me and laugh with me and lift me up--felt just as blessed as I did.

Happy 7th Birthday William!

Dear William,

Happy birthday to the most amazing 7 year old I know. I am blown away by the kid that you've become this year--blown away by the fact that I am now a mom to a big kid! Your 7th year has been full of changes and new challenges and lots of fun. You finished up kindergarten, went to several new summer camps and learned to swim, traveled to Florida (twice) and North Carolina, stayed at the beach, started 1st grade, slept over at Charlie's and Peyton's, performed in your school musical, spent lots of time riding your bike, grew 3 inches, and learned to play Minecraft. You still found time to snuggle with your mom and let her read Harry Potter and lots of other books to you. For that, I'm very grateful!

At age 7, you love to play video games--mostly Minecraft and your DS games. You love your school, your teacher (Ms. Lightbourne), your friends, and most of the time, you even love your brother. You love to ride your bike (especially when Jack and Charlie ride with you), and you love to swim. You even asked me when you could take more swim lessons. Finally! You still take Taekwondo (you've gotten really good!) and you're playing t-ball this year. You still love to draw and get very focused when you're drawing pictures and making up stories. You are so imaginative and interesting and so much fun to be around.

Daddy and I are so proud of you--of how hard you try in school, of what a good friend and brother you are, of how thoughtful and caring you are, and how inquisitive and curious you are. You are quick to laugh and love to be silly. You adjust easily to new situations and are not afraid to try new things. And you love to learn new things. I hope you will always keep your open mind and loving heart.

Now that you are 7, I can no longer deny that you are your own, very unique person. You are so independent now, and so capable and so ready for new responsibilities and new challenges. Daddy and I love you so much and we will do our best to help you continue to grow and learn and be the best person you can be. It's really hard for us to figure out when to hold on and when to let go, so cut us some slack if we don't always get it right. Just know that no matter what, we will always love you and we are always here when you need us. We hope your 8th year of life will be just as fun and interesting and happy--full of new things to learn, new adventures to discover, new friends, new interests, and new skills. We hope you've had a wonderful birthday, and that you feel treasured and loved and valued and safe--today and always. Thanks for being such a great kid. We can't wait to see what the next year brings. Happy birthday William! We love you.

Camping, FTW

This past weekend, we took the boys camping at a nearby campground. Some of you may remember our last attempt at camping 3 years ago. That time, it did not turn out well. This time, however, it was a hit!

Our camping consists of car camping, so we pack our car with everything but the kitchen sink. We had to borrow a 4-person tent from a friend, and I bought an air mattress so Ed and I would be more comfortable. But we already have all of the other supplies we need--sleeping bags, camp chairs, camp table, propane lantern, propane stove, water pot, utensils, charcoal, lighters, matches, kindling, etc., etc. The campsite we chose is on a bay off the Potomac River. You could walk to the water and rent a kayak or canoe. Our plan was to set up camp and then go kayaking for an hour. But when we got there, it was way too windy to kayak. A few brave people were out in the water, but they were going nowhere, And one couple even got tossed into the water by the wind. When the boys heard that, they quickly agreed that we would have to try kayaking another day.

Instead, they played on the two playgrounds and we took a short hike through the woods.

Back at our campsite, Ed got our campfire going and the boys raced back and forth between our campsite and the playground, which was practically right across from our campsite. Score!

Seth quickly met the family at the campsite next to ours. They happened to have a daughter the same age as Seth (Aleena), and the two of them became fast friends. After we ate dinner (hot dogs cooked over the campfire), Aleena's father and brother played Monkey in the Middle with Seth and William for a solid hour while Ed and I sat back and relaxed. Why yes! We'd love for complete strangers to entertain our kids, thank you! Once we started roasting marshmallows for s'mores, Seth declared that Aleena's campfire was much better than ours, and he took the bag of marshmallows and his roasting stick to their campsite. I'm surprised he didn't ask them if he could sleep in their pop-up! (He probably did and I'm just not aware of it. LOL.) BTW--this time around, the boys enjoyed the s'mores quite a bit more than the last time.

When it was finally time to go to sleep, we walked across the path to the bathrooms (no roughing it for us--we like bathrooms with electricity and hot water) to wash up and brush teeth. Once in the tent, we read books and William fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. It didn't take Seth long to fall asleep, either, and Ed and I hung out by the fire and enjoyed the peace for a little bit longer. William slept like a log the entire night. Seth woke up once with leg pains, but fell back asleep after I rubbed his legs for a little while. Ed, and I, however, did not sleep at all. It got pretty chilly (although the boys did not seem to notice), and I was feeling the full effects of a sinus infection. The air mattress was comfortable enough, but we just couldn't get settled. I think we both finally dozed off just before dawn. So that part of the trip sucked.

It was worth it, however. The boys woke up excited and we made bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. While the boys played on the playground (with Aleena and her brother and father again), we packed up our campsite (why does it take twice as long to pack than it does to unpack?). We got back to our house around 11:00 a.m. And then I had to turn around and head back to the campsite because William had left his jacket on the playground. D'oh!

I made it back in time for our annual spring block party, where we rented this for the kids on our street:

I'd say it was pretty much a perfect weekend for the kids!