Silly Willy

💯 th Day of School

Will wanted to build something with 100 Legos for his 100th day project. He ended up making a boat. 

Parading

Will's 6th Birthday

I brought birthday cupcakes to his class at school

Playing nicely

Will and Hugh playing pirates and paw patrol together pretending the ground is an ocean.

Spring is here!

I'm in love with spring at our new house in the country. It's so nice to see everything turning green and find out what has flowers! There's birds chirping all day all around. We've put up some bird feeders that the cardinals love. Sometimes butterflies flutter around everywhere too.

It's so pretty. The kids keep picking wildflowers and enjoying the nice morning weather playing outside.

Lexa was excited o find some blue bonnets. They're mostly done now though.

There's lantana blooming here and there.

This is the butterflies favorite spot.

Just hanging around

I'm finally going to try (again!) to get back to our family blog. I'm realizing and accepting it's just going to be snippets of our lives here and there. It's hard for me to accept that it will be incomplete with big gaps in time, and not tell All The Stories, and use All the Pictures! It is what it is though. 

I'm supposed to be "watching Will's show". He's put some chairs next to a tree, and I'm watching him hang from things. 

Hugh wants to climb the tree too, just like his brother.

Morning outside

It feels so great outside this morning! I love watching Will play. He likes wearing hats. He just requested that we do Easter now. Hmm..

The Blondie Bears, smothered in sibling love

They said, "Take our picture, Mama!"

Hugh doesn't get left alone much. They're always picking him up, much to my dismay. Lexa's totally in love with him. Will is always trying to play with him.

Edited to add: 

Speaking of Will's constant attempts to play with Hugh and never leaving him alone, here's what was happening while I was just trying to write that post!

Let's go swimming!

There's a swimming pool here at the ranch. It's over next to the house and patio where the hunters stay. Mario, the ranch hand, told us it was ready, so we headed right over to check it out. We brought some drinks, music and pool noodles and spent all afternoon there. The kids never tire of swimming. Lexa dived for rings for the first time. (She begged me for some at the store.) she was too scared to dive for them at her swim lessons. Once I told her she didn't have to try to let herself just sink down to the bottom for them, but actually swim down to them, she had no more problems, and she dived for them many , many times.

Lexa also said she's loves to float because  "it's just so peaceful."

Banana Poothies

The kids are always asking for banana smoothies. I remember my mom making these for me when I was little, and I loved them just as much, and still do! For some reason I have very clear fond memories of her making me these. I'm glad I can share this special banana smoothie from mom experience with them. 

Will calls them Banana Poothies. Adorable, I know.

They are just a banana, milk and a squirt of honey. We used to put vanilla extract in as well. I think there was something about a raw egg in the original. We don't do that, not sure if mom ever did when I was a kid. If the kids enlist Patrick to make them one, he'll add ice and possibly water. 

Another delicious one is to add heavy cream and peanut butter.

Banana poothie mustache!

A package from Granddad

Z

The kids got a package today, chalk board globes and a big box of chalk for each of them, from Granddad. 

Will had Patrick draw his face and Will's face. Then Will added legs. He's finally more interested in drawing a little bit lately.

Lexa drew rings of different zones around hers: lava, rock and water.

Timmy made his into a fantasy world inspired by one of Patrick's games. It included an "ethereal island." He continued it into some big banner paper with his chalk as well.

It'll be fun to take some of the chalk to the park and draw on the pavements there. I'll keep some stashed in the car I think for impromptu sidewalk art. :)

I think there was a world map in the box too. Will really loves maps. He keeps walking around with it, pointing at places and saying, "Where's dat?" And then, "Otay, we go to Trussia?"

Timmy also started listing off places he wants to go: Washington again, South America!, California, Madagascar, Arkansas, Utah I think maybe he said?, Greenland, Australia!, Canada, and China, but then he said we'd probably need to learn Chinese first. He said he wants to go places without big cities, like Mt Rainier Park was.

Swim lessons

The kids just finished their swim lessons for the summer. Timmy and Lexa finished up last week, and Will kept going for a 2nd week since he was a complete beginner. Timmy and Lexa loved it. Timmy and Lexa worked on their breathing and taking breaths and improved his underwater swimming and floating. Timmy enjoyed diving for rings, but Lexa was still scared to. She was excited to be swimming around in the deep end. Their teacher said Lexa did amazing and Timmy did great too, although he came into it thinking he could do more than he really could do well. I feel better about them being better swimmers now. They all can't wait to go to Grandmom and Granddad's and show off what they learned in their pool.

Will was so scared of the water. It was like trying to wash his hair. (screaming and tears.) He didn't want to go back again because he didn't want to put his head under water. The teacher was really good with him though and would let him start out just sitting with his feet in the water, helping to throw the diving rings out, then she'd hold him a little while, and by the end of the lesson he'd be doing everything right along with everyone else. During his second week of lessons he'd start talking himself up before the lesson telling me he didn't think he'd have to go underwater this time. But he did it! By the end of the lessons I was so impressed. He came so far from where he started, swimming underwater and floating. (which he also hated with a passion.)

Lexa loved watching Will at his lessons, and cheering him on. She would run and tell me every time he tried swimming underwater, so excited and proud of him.

Here's the video clips I took of him on his last day.

River Summer

I'm looking forward to spending so much time at the rivers with the kids this summer.

 For the longest time we didn't realize that this Sabinal River crossing was literally 1 mile down the road from our house. We just never had a reason to drive south instead of north.

There's usually not much water there, but after all the rain and storms of the past week it was deep and moving fast!

 Hugh and Will in the shallows

 Patrick piggybacked each of the kids across some deeper faster water to a little rock island where they played in the water in the shade.

An interesting plant Timmy gave me while I held Hugh and watched them play

My view of the most adorable little feet in my lap

Lexa enjoyed banging these two rocks together

My Boys

I never would have guessed I'd be a mom to three boys one day. Three boys. Three wild and rambunctious, mischievious and silly, busy and super active, boisterous and funny, and so very sweet boys! I think I've got some loud, often tumultous, always bustling, and mostly FUN years to look forward to  as they grow up together in this crazy, loving house of ours.