Yesterday I joined Kade and his class for their field trip.  It was the one beautiful day in the last 2 weeks, I swear!  We went to Quarry Hill to learn about all things nature, then on to Chester Woods for a picnic and a couple hours of play.  It was a great day, Kade and I were exhausted after all that walking, playing and fresh air!!

Big day for the big boy, it was his day to be Line Leader and he definitely had a big role to fill!  Lots of lines formed for all of the different nature walks!

Waiting for the puppet show to begin.

It was a great day to be Line Leader...guess whose hand is in that bat.

Yep!  It's Kade!  

You can sort of see his face in the crack on the left.

Taking their bow after their fantastic puppet show.

First stop on the tour was the Butterfly Garden.

Here they are acting like butterflies.

Kade and his buddy Tyeson.

Next stop on the tour was the insect garden.

Biggest, juiciest worm of the day!

Boys and their bugs.  

Disgusting.

I didn't take any pictures of the Chester Woods portion.  I was in charge of Kade and 2 of his classmates so I was too busy chasing them down to have to time to whip out my camera.

I did manage to take a few pictures of Kade's class when they are all FINALLY sitting down!

Whoops, forgot to include the teacher!

That's better.

Gotta do a funny face!

Can't forget to include the little man Mason!

He's turned a major corner in swimming lessons.  He's finally warmed up to the teacher and now he can't get enough of the water!!  So proud of the brave boy!!

He jumped in 3 times!  On the 3rd time he jumped in from the standing position and went completely under water.  The only kid in the class to do that!!

Before Kade started school, I had 2 days off a week.  We'd spend 1 day cleaning, running errands, etc. and the 2nd day we'd do something fun.  Once he started school we had to change our schedules to accommodate the bus schedule so now I get just 1 day off a week.  Unfortunately that means most of the time Mason spends his day off with me doing chores.  Last week we took a break from jobs and spent the day at the National Eagle Center.  We called up G&G C and took a mini-road trip!

Trying to see what an eagle sees.

Eagle Eye Mason!

This was so cool!  

The eagles were so close we could touch them!  Not that we would because, holy cow, they're huge!  And those talons could do some damage!!

Remember what I said about those talons?  Yikes!

Afterwards we went out to eat the restaurant featured in the movie "Grumpy Old Men"!

Can't leave the big boy out of this week's post!

Mason is still securely in his "Daddy Only" phase, especially at bedtime.  We all gather in Mason's room for bedtime prayer then, without fail, Mason will say, "My want Daddy to lay with me".  It's just not worth the battle to try to take a turn myself.  I kiss his delicious cheeks, then Kade and I head downstairs to his room.  I'm not going to lie, I don't mind this phase of Mason's because that means I get Kade all to myself!  And that's a rare occurrence these days!

I tuck him in under all of his blankets, lay down next to him and proceed to ask him about his day.  Instead of just saying, "how was your day", I ask him 3 questions:

1.  What was your best part of the day?
2.  What was your worst part of the day?
3.  What was the funniest part of the day?

He's usually prepared right away for the best part.  It's almost always about phy-ed or recess and how his team won whatever game they were playing.  He goes into great detail about how he made the winning score (I have no idea if he's feeding me full of lies--no doubt there's a great deal of exaggeration--but I appreciate his enthusiasm for his greatness!).

His worst part is usually about how some kid was naughty at school or said something mean to him.  Every once in awhile he'll admit that his bad behavior was the worst part of his day.  We try not to dwell on the worst part, but it gives me good insight to how he's being treated at school by his peers.  So far, so good on that end!

He can never think of a funniest part.  I'll ask him if he ever laughed during the day and he can never remember what it was about.  However, judging by the conversations I've heard him have with his friends, and with Mason, I'm guessing everything funny had to do with the words butt, fart or poop.  Seriously, what is it with boys and those words?!?

I love this time of day with Kade.  He talks freely, tells me everything on his mind and he's always happy at this time of night.  If it wasn't awkward or weird, I'd do tuck-ins with him every night for the rest of his life :-)

A couple weeks ago the boys started swimming lessons.  I figured Mason was ready.  He's got no fear of the water--every time we've gone swimming he jumps in without anyone catching him, he goes under no problem and he swims away from us all the time.

I assumed he'd be even better at swimming lessons than Kade was when he was 3 years old because he's never been shy like Kade.  Turns out I was WAY way wrong.  Kade's always been shy, the kind of shy that used to cry when a stranger talked to him.  Mason is the kind of shy that just shuts down.  If he doesn't look at the person, make any facial expression, or any movement at all he assumes the stranger will go away.  That kind of shy is not conducive to the swim instructor taking Mason in the water for one-on-one time.

The first week he just cried the whole time, never going near the water.  At the end, I just put him the pool with the instructor where he screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time. The second lesson he still wouldn't get in the pool without me putting him in there, however he only screamed half the time.  Tonight is lesson 3.  He's already informed me he's not getting in but I'm hoping that when I put him in there will be no more crying.  Fingers crossed!!

Kade, on the other hand, is doing great!  He's swimming the full length of the pool, doing 6 laps at a time for all of the different strokes.  The instructor works them hard and by the end the kids are exhausted.  But he's got a smile on his face the whole time.  Hopefully next year Mason will be over his shyness because I think he'll be a great swimmer as well.

I don't have any pictures of swimming lessons because I spend the entire 30 minutes of Mason's lesson trying to coax him in the water.  And the entire 30 minutes of Kade's lesson making sure Mason doesn't disappear!

I do, however, have this super cute picture of Mason taking his favorite lady on a cruise...on a lawn mower....with his dad driving.  

Ladies Man.

Kade's music teacher had a mini recital last week of the songs they've been singing all year.

Kade, of course, was too shy to really let loose.  He looks like the kid who's too cool to perform.  I assure you, at home, he is not too cool!

Basketball Weekend

Easter weekend was also basketball weekend.  On Friday Grandpa Ranger and Erik took Kade and his friend Charlie to the Globetrotters game.  Then Saturday was the Alumni tournament at the high school.  Secretly I was kind of hoping Erik's team wouldn't win.  They have been in the championship game every year since the tournament started, which means we spend ALL DAY at the gym.  Turns out whether they won or lost we still had to spend ALL DAY at the gym.  Luckily they won so it made our ALL DAY at the gym worth it!!

Kade and Charles showing off their Globetrotter sweat bands.

Kade LOVED watching his Dad's team.  He soaked in every minute of the games, and more than once bragged that if he was out there they'd be winning by a lot more points!

Kade and Uncle Mike focusing on the game.

Ever since the Globetrotters and the alumni tournament Kade has been out in the driveway practicing his dribbling.  I think he's finally realized that the best basketball players are the ones who can handle the ball.  He's working hard on dribbling between his legs and behind his back.  

Mason, on the other hand, was much more focused on the concession stands at the game!!  He talked Grandpa into a bag of Skittles at 9:00 in the morning.

He did share a couple pieces with Kade.

I asked him to stand there and smile for me.

He did this instead...

While waiting for the last game to start, the boys goofed around in the hallway.

The old guys for the win!!!!

Harper and Mason at the end of the tournament doing their thing--being cute!

Easter Celebrations

We've gone from cold, boring weeks with nothing to post about to having so many pictures/topics I'm not sure where to begin!!  I'll start with our Easter celebrations since it was just yesterday and there's some pretty cute pictures to put up.

Last week A and S came for a visit to celebrate Easter and play for the day.  Of course the boys were spoiled rotten with lots of gifts, candy and attention!  The perfect trifecta when it comes to children, right?!

Kade's new sweatshirt he got from S.

Mason wanted in on the picture but of course he wouldn't give me a "normal" smile!

When Kade was really young he did not want a giant bunny hopping around our house while we were all asleep.  So, we started the tradition that Mom and Dad hide the eggs.  This year Kade kept asking if the Easter Bunny was real.  I told him I wasn't sure, that I'd never seen him and he probably doesn't come to our house because he knows that it used to scare him.  He told me he's disappointed in himself for being scared because now he wishes the Easter Bunny would start coming.  Maybe next year...

Easter morning before the hunt.

I realized I was photo bombing the picture in the reflection of the fire place.

That's better.

Showing Dad the goods.

Boys in their "dress up" clothes.

This is as dressed up as I cared to get them and it was hard enough to get them to put those clothes on!

This would've been a good picture...

if Kade didn't look so creepy.

Love.

Erik took these two pictures, hence the finger in the corner.

We went to Erik's parents after church for lunch and another egg hunt.

Unfortunately these are the only 2 pictures we have of the day.

Daycare and school were closed today so Erik took the day off to hang with the boys.

I gave Kade a list of outdoor jobs to do and they knocked off 3/5 of the list!

#1 was removing this nasty dog house and kennel.

Done and done!

Kade was so excited for Demo Day on the dog house, check out that tool belt!

Snack time!  

Tooth #4 gone!

Tuesday night...

Wednesday morning.

This time the Tooth Fairy left 8 quarters.  

Judging by his reaction you would've thought he got a million bucks!  

Love the age when more is better even when it's the same amount!

A couple Sunday's ago, I was laying in Kade's bed with him at bedtime when he told me to feel his gums.  I hadn't washed my hands recently so I told him no.  He insisted so I felt...nothing.  But I pretended I had felt something and just kind of brushed it off.  Then he said he's sick of having that bump in his mouth because he plays with it when he's sitting in school.  That got my attention so I turned the light on for a closer look.  I tried to hide my "Mom Fear" face when I saw a big bubble of yellow puss underneath his tooth!  I don't think I did such a great job though because he immediately started freaking out.  I got Erik out of Mason's room because I'd never seen anything like it and neither had Erik.  Thank goodness for Google because we found out right away it was an abscess.  Thank goodness for my Mom Friends (one of which is a hygienist) so we knew we had to get him in to the dentist next day.  They had an opening right away in the morning, got the tooth out (no antibiotics necessary) and he was back to school by 9:30.  Total tooth loss count is up to 3 now, with a front tooth currently hanging on by a thread! 

He told Erik he wanted $100 from the tooth fairy.

He got $2.

When he mentioned the next morning that it wasn't $100 we told him he actually got 200 pennies.  That seemed to satisfy him.

And then there's this guy.

Sweet stache, buddy.

Pucker up!!!!