School Life

Right now we are in the process of finishing up the school year.  The kids have had loads of field trips and end of school concerts and art shows.  Here is Avery's choir concert from a couple of weeks ago.

This concert she said she actually sang.  The first one she just moved her mouth because she was so nervous.
I went on a field trip with Avery to the Planetarium and on a preschool field trip with Ryan to the zoo.  Grant and my sister, Lynnette, and her girls came to the zoo, as well.

Both A.M. and P.M. classes were there.  That is one brave teacher.  Luckily there were lots of moms.

 The baby elephant.

 Lili looks really excited about the sleeping gorilla.  It looked like we had two sets of twins.  But I was just a wise mommy and matched my boys so I could keep track of them.  It worked!  No one got permanently lost.

 Ryan is holding on for dear life.

 Grant was not happy about me taking him on the Carousel.  I ended up holding him, standing next to Ryan.

 But he did like the train!

Grant was kind of obsessed with crocodiles the whole time we were there-looking for them and asking about them.  We finally found one and then he went ahead and jumped in the cage and stuck his face in its mouth.  Right before I saved him, I took this picture.  Just kidding.  

 Abi inside a turtle shell

 Uh oh.

 Ryan.

The Joy Project

I had a wonderful Mother's Day last week. Do you see our skirts?  I made them.

And then the next day I was being incredibly grouchy as I cleaned up the mess from my wonderful Mother's Day, and complaining and whining to my good friend, Jacque, about how I was sick of the complaining and whining going on at my house.  I had been ignoring my boys for a little bit while I cleaned and when I checked on them, this is what I found:

I felt a little joy inside.  So I took a picture.  And I remembered that recently, I prayed that I could notice the joyful moments of motherhood.  Because some days (or weeks, or months) it gets difficult to find those happy moments in the midst of some frustrating ones.  More and more, I am noticing those moments and I am grateful for that.  Jacque suggested that I do a little project, where I find some joy every day and photograph it.  So I did (3 out of 7 days at least.  I was forgetful).  Here is some of the joys I had this week.

Grant being a robot

 Abi and Lili eating ice cream cones.  I may have felt so joyful about this because I was eating one, too.

 We made a cabin for our cars.

 The girls slept in their fort under Maren's bed.  I'm not sure when that joy happened.  It may have been last week, and therefore not officially part of the project.  But I'm the project manager, and counting it anyway.

 Tarzan eating his dinner so well!  Green beans included!

There you have it.  A week's worth of joy.  And there was actually more!  I went on a field trip with Ryan and another field trip with Avery.  And today I took an hour nap, uninterrupted.  Technically that wasn't with my kids, but again, I make the rules for this project and I am counting it.

What I Find My Kids Doing

It's always fun to find my kids doing (fairly) innocent things, rather than the naughty stuff.  Here is some of the recent discoveries. 

The other night when I went to check on the girls before bed, this is what I found:

Good night, Maren.  Maren?  You are looking a little pale...

 Oh wait!  Here is the real Maren.  I must admit I was tricked for a second.  So was Dustin.

Sometimes I find this (Waiting for cookies to be done. Come on, already!)

 I like to find this.

Finding sleeping children always makes me happy (Hmmm. Grant isn't so good at faking yet.  Don't worry, he will learn.)

And I find these kinds of pictures on my camera about every other day.