Moving (as in emotionally moving)

I'm not moving, sillies!

I came across this recently. I found it inspiring, heart-wrenching, and moving. Thought you might, too.
The picture should link to the site...so go ahead...click on it.

Kid Quotes:Vol. 3

Man. I'm on a posting roll. I just didn't want to forget these funny (or precious) little moments. I have to post them ASAP before they escape me!


Wyatt: (in the grocery store with the mission of getting some cold medicine) Mom, can you get me some medicine to help keep my boogers in?


Brendan: (Tonight. He didn't know where I was. Crying.) I was lost in the house!!!!!!
(Later. In bed. After his scare. Calmly talking to himself. Big sigh.) Okay. I'm a little scared. But I know that God's with me.

Loving...

One little boy who is especially cuddly and wonderful when he is sick, albeit a little needy...



One little boy OBSESSED with saving the world from bad guys, dinosaurs and monsters... What could he be hiding?


Aaaah. His super identity. Of course.



And this little mama bird. Had to post this picture I caught of her sitting on her nest. She's pretty camouflaged in there. Look on the left hand side of the picture.

Nesting

This weekend Rand got me a picnic table. I got clips for my picnic table to hold on my table cloth. Wyatt took my clips and threw one into a shrub that was littered with leaves up against our house. While I searched (grumbling, mind you, for I had already told them to leave them alone because I didn't want them to get lost) for my clip I accidentally ran across this (and almost destroyed it in the process):

Luckily I didn't destroy it or remove it or pick up the egg or anything like that...even though I kind of wanted to. One lonely egg is all we saw. I showed the boys and then we sat at the picnic table and watched. Pretty soon a little sparrow showed up chirping and hopping all around the shrub. This morning I went to check on the little nest because I was afraid that because of our intrusion it might have been abandoned, but sure enough, there was mama bird sitting on her cute little nest. She saw me and hopped out and went to chirp at me from a safer distance.

I looked and saw there were now 3 eggs in the nest!

Look how cute they are!

And here's mama...anxiously waiting for me to leave:

From what I've read, Dad should return upon hatching to help with the feeding duties (what a good Dad). We have a window right above this shrub, so I'm hoping we can keep our eyes on all the Spring time action.

Heat Wave

So the summer weather that recently blessed the PNW has finally made it's way East. We are having summer right now! Hot Friday, hot yesterday, hotter today and hotter tomorrow. It is 90 degrees right now (I'm guessing this isn't normal for Pennsylvania in April and that heat records are probably being broken). It is feeling lovely. 90 is a little warm and sticky, but no complaining from me. We all slept in the backyard last night and I had to keep reminding myself, 'it is only April.' We got a lot of work finished up in the yard including the first mow of the season (we have a HUGE yard) and a vegetable garden (modest...but at least there's something), tent, baseball, hose, hammock, campfire...you name it!

I'm excited to have my vegetables planted. Rand is excited for his little creation....
I went grocery shopping while Rand was mowing yesterday, and came home to this:


That's right, Rand mowed a baseball diamond into our backyard. Yes, he's pumped. And yes, you remember correctly, there are 6 Little League ball fields right across the street. But they aren't in our backyard...and this time of year, the ones across the street are almost always in use. So. Now we have our own. Rand suggested we plant corn in the outfield. See where his mind is going?? Our very own Field of Dreams. There are plans for more creative mowing to include a chipping green for golf practice in the back part of the yard, as well as extending the ball field a tad to be able to accommodate a couple soccer goals. I guess this is life with boys, right?

At least I got a little patch for myself and hopefully it will provide at least a few fresh grown veggies of our own.

Amazingly, I've managed to squeeze in peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and green beans. There's room for expansion, but I may not want to spend any more time ripping out grass and turning all that dirt by hand. This was big enough!

Yesterday (and today for that matter) felt like full blown summer. We spent all day outside, working and playing. The warm weather has caused the trees to explode with leaves...literally overnight in some cases. After a long, cold, gray winter, all this color and warmth is causing a very welcomed sensory overload.

Here are a few more pics of fun in the sun.

AND A VIDEO:

--Forgot to mention....Remember Rand's eye??? Click here for a reminder. Well, this morning Rand woke up with that horrible eye infection again. We think it was triggered by too much sun and allergies. (We're pretty sure a sunburn triggered it last year, too) Yuck! It's really bad. He is taking the anti-viral pills that he still has left over from last time, but it looks like we'll be going back to the doc. or at least getting more medication from the doc. in AZ. Shades are drawn, sunglasses on...just like last time. :( Pray this heals up quickly. It literally took months to heal last year when he had this. (I'd post a pic, but seriously, it's pretty sick.)

Just FYI

Just wanted to let y'all know....

Southwest is having a 50% sale on all their tickets to Philly! TODAY ONLY!

Check it!

Anyone want to come for a visit??? (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Ok, here's some reasons to come to Philly:
1. Me & Rand
2. Brendan
3. Wyatt
4. .....Really, do you need any other reasons??? Okay, one more....we are having some fabulous weather right now!!!!!

Suprise! Dessert

For my birthday, my mom gave me a sweet book called Hello, Cupcake! Lots of fabulous ideas for super cute cupcakes. As I flipped through the pages, one particular idea caught my eye. You see, our friends, Mark and Kelly, recently finished their basement for the purpose of housing Mark's new pool table, inherited from his grandmother. (You can see the finished product here.)
So, when I saw these cupcakes, I couldn't resist bringing them to our next small group meeting. And they were pretty fun to make. :)

Artsy

For my birthday I got a gift card to the Lakeshore Learning store....which I spent immediately and bought some much needed art supplies.....and an abacus. In my opinion, you can never have too much art supplies. So yesterday the kids spent much of the morning painting. They started out creating some flowers to hang in our indoor tree and then moved to more paper on the floor and painted some dinosaurs and some "bad guys". I have a feeling all that paint I just got will be gone in no time! :)

Please Touch

Today we spent the day at the Please Touch Museum. It is an amazing place for kids! If you've ever been to this one in Olympia, The Please Touch Museum is along the same lines but at least 1o times bigger. It was awesome. We are so tired tonight.
Thanks Matthew and Joleen for inviting us!

Warning: Lots of pictures!