School is Out!

Rex had his last day of preschool (until next fall) last week.  While I'm looking forward do doing lots of morning activities (ie pool time) with him this summer, I'm REALLY sad that he won't be occupied three mornings a week by wonderful teachers and fun friends.  He had a great year and I'm so glad that we put him in the school that we did.  Here are a few highlights from his last week:

Rex starring as a pig in his Spring Concert

Accepting his diploma with sleepy eyes - only pic I got :(

Rex had the sweetest, most patient teacher this year and he absolutely loved her.  

And on the last day I was a little sad while picking him up.  He jumped in the car wearing a disguise and made me laugh out loud.  Such a character!

 

And now that Rex is home more, Evelyn is getting much more of this:

 

And this...

A Very Happy Mother's Day!

Can I just say that I love Mother's Day?  And not just for all the selfish reasons a mother might love being celebrated all day, having breakfast in bed and receiving kisses all day from her sweet 4-year old.  I loved today because I was able to reflect on some important Mothers in my life.  Like this lady, for example:

The mother that gave me birth

I cannot even begin to list all the reasons I am grateful for her.  She has taught me everything and to this day, her advice and approval mean everything to me.  She's that good.

I also love this Mother:

The one who gave birth to my husband

She's a super neat lady who raised one heck of a son!  She is easy and fun to be around and the best grandma to my kids.

I also love being a Mom.  With the help of my husband (and of course, Rex) my Mother in law made this for me:

 

And for the record, I really do not eat very many tacos.

To top off this day, my husband came up with the most thoughtful gift EVER.  Do you all remember this awesome painting of my grandpa, painted by my cousin?

He got in touch with my cousin, got a high res photo of this painting and had it printed on a canvas that we are going to frame.  It is amazing and beautiful and I cannot wait for it to be hanging on my wall!  Thank you SO much, Cristall!

A Fun Lesson In Nature

Rex has very little interest in having a pet.  He already has a dog - that he didn't ask for - who he doesn't really love like a little boy should love his dog.  I've tried to entice him a few times into getting a fish, but he never wants to do that either.  This time, I didn't ask first.  I just ordered 5 caterpillars so we could grow butterflies and he LOVED it!  They were the perfect "first pet" for Rex.

 Here is Rex with the caterpillars

The caterpillars eat and eat and eat (just like the story) and get super fat really quickly.  Then they climb to the top of the cup and make a cocoon.  In about 5 days, they came out of their cocoons.

Then we fed them sugar water and oranges and watched them for a few days before letting them go in our back yard.

Color Me Rad 5K

My entire life, I've absolutely HATED running.  I remember in elementary school we had to run "the mile" twice a year, each year bringing a level of anxiety no school-aged child should have to face.  I huffed and puffed through each run feeling like my lungs and heart were going to burst.  I always attributed it to the fact that I had a bum heart when I was born.  I had open heart surgery at 6 months old to correct the problems and I was supposedly "normal", but I never believed I would or could run.

Fast forward to a year ago.  After having Evelyn I bought a nice pair of running shoes and took to the beautiful running trails in our neighborhood in NC.  It was really hard, but soon I found that I was improving.  This winter I signed Josh and I up for the Color Me Rad race so I would have something to help me keep running. It took a couple months, but being able to run a 5K (and not walk) was such a great feeling.  Plus, they throw colored cornstarch at you throughout the race.  How fun is that?  Rex thought we were pretty much the coolest parents ever.

Now, I've decided I actually like running!  Who would have thought?!  Bring on a 10K!

A Really Fun Weekend

The weekend after Josh and I returned from our trip, he was unusually free to hang out!  When we realized we were going to have a real weekend, we packed in as much as we possibly could.  Here are some highlights.

Friday night we did a segway tour of Richmond with our friends, the Crowthers.  We were a little nervous at first, only having heard the horror stories of riding segways, but we got the hang of it quickly. (If you need a good laugh, google - Segway Fail Compilation. You will not be disappointed.) It looks really nerdy, but trust me...it's pretty fun.  Plus, we learned a lot about this funny, little city we live in.  It made me realize that I'm taking the rich history of our city for granted.

 Rawr.  My segway had tiger stripes!

Never mind that I'm only 5'5" in this 6'+ club.  I seriously look like such a squirt.

Saturday morning, Josh ran the Monument 10K like a boss.  He hardly trained and did great.  I hauled the kids to the finish line just to watch him finish.

And as fate would have it, we happened upon two lovely ladies handing out free cans of Josh's beverage of choice.  Could this weekend get any better?

That night, Josh and Rex had planned to camp out in the backyard.  Rex was so excited, it was pretty sweet.  We fired up a fire pit and cooked s'mores.  Despite overnight temps dipping into the 40s Rex lasted all night in the tent.  He woke up a few times saying he was cold, but he did not want to go inside.  Instead, he jumped in Josh's sleeping bag and they lasted until morning. 

A Week in Paradise

Josh and I were lucky enough to be invited along on my parent's 50th wedding anniversary trip.  We went to Turks and Caicos for 6 glorious days with my favorite people - my family.  It was probably the most relaxing trip with the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.  I kept saying, "I can't believe a place like this exists." See for yourself!

View from our balcony

Josh found this little guy right off the beach from our resort

One of the days we chartered a sailboat to take us snorkeling and to see some things we couldn't see from the resort

Delicious dinners - some of the best fish dishes I've ever tasted (and I'm not a fish fan)

A GIANT thanks to Bruce and Melanie for coming out and taking care of the kids.  It gave me great peace of mind knowing they were happy and well taken care of.  We could not have done it without you.  And another GIANT thank you to my Mom and Dad for pampering us for a week.  So many wonderful memories were made!

Easter

Easter at our house was a little crazy!  Josh and I were preparing to leave for a week (without kids), Josh's parents were coming into town, the Easter bunny needed to bring goodies and we needed to attempt to teach the kids about why we celebrate Easter (among many other things).   I feel like my kids got a "skim milk" version of how I would really like to celebrate Easter in the future.  Good thing they are young!

We had to hunt for Easter eggs in the basement because we were having a nice, rainy, Easter sunday.

 

 

 Evelyn loved the sunglasses that were in her Easter basket