Muffins With Mom

This week was the annual "Muffins With Mom" at Ava's preschool. I always love going to these things and am always anxious to see just what cute little craft she's made for me, and what fun activities the school has planned.

I made sure Sean took a picture of me and my special girl before we left (it's so rare that I'm in a picture!):
The Community Room was set up very nicely:
Each year, the Mommies need to walk around the tables until they find their "place card" in the form of a personalized craft the kiddos made. This year, I got a trivet with a very lovely pink hand print flower courtesy of Little Miss:
We also got to decorate a terracotta pot and plant a real flower in it:


And once we had our flowers planted, the teachers walked around and gave us a special "Garden Angel" to place in our pots to help the flowers grow:
We even got to string some beads to make a necklace for me:
After all the muffins and crafts, we finished the morning by hearing the teacher read what the kids said they liked to do with their mommies, read some stories, and finished up with some silly dancing.

Sigh. Ava's last Muffins With Mom as a preschooler......

Betrothed

This week when Jenny was watching Ava, the kids were playing with sidewalk chalk. Apparently, Ava and Ian were writing love notes to one another...

...it started with Ian drawing a heart and writing "I love you Ava" inside with arrows leading away from it to another message that said "I love you".

Well, Ava started in on it and eventually their driveway was filled with love letters and pictures of them getting married...like this one below:

I know I've joked about them getting married before...but after seeing this, it might really happen (in 20 years or so)...

U Can't Touch This

I just can't even talk about how funny these kids can be...

One day, we heard "U Can't Touch This" on the radio. Naturally, I started singing along and the kids thought it was pretty cool so they joined in once they figured out some of the words.

Well, that was about a month ago, and they still enjoy singing it...

Notice anything???

For some reason, seemingly out of nowhere, Aidan has decided it was time to put on his big boy pants - literally!

Most of you know we have been struggling with a very stubborn, very strong willed boy who has been holding on to that last little bit of control he had by refusing to cooperate with potty training. We got to the point were we were going to lay off a bit and try it again when he was ready.

One morning, he said, "I'm a big boy, I want to wear underwear to school - NO PULL UP!". So I told him if he wanted to do that, he had to potty first thing in the morning and right when he gets to school. He said "OK", and three weeks later, he hasn't looked back!

Keeping those fingers crossed that this is it!
(Big man and his Spiderman "underoos")

Hoppy Easter

This Easter was quite the whirlwind - especially since we stayed in town. We spent all day Saturday getting ready for our celebration we Memaw and Pepaw: grocery shopping (x2), running (both Sean and I), mowing, baked carrot cake and banana bread, made chicken tortilla soup for Monday's dinner, made garlic bread, baths for the kids AND church that night. We must be crazy!! But, all that hard work on Saturday made for a nice, leisurely Sunday morning where we could enjoy watching the kids searching for baskets and eggs.

Aidan found his basket first and made a move for the Peeps as soon as he could. I was worried they wouldn't like them, because this was the first year we bought them (I cannot STAND Peeps). Turns out the boy loves them - can you tell?
And Ava. Poor, poor Ava. Let's just say it's a good thing she's pretty! This girl is one book-smart momma, but you know that people that are book-smart don't always have the most common sense. Ava was having trouble finding some eggs, so I told her to smell the flowers (because there was one hidden in there). She said, "OK" smelled them, then went about her business as Aidan said, "Hey there's an egg!":
I have the power!!!
And here we go with Ava again. She found an egg behind the couch and was so excited! But she was also a bit sad because she hadn't yet found her basket - it was literally 6 inches away from her face when she said that, and I was waiting for her to see it. But, as soon as she got her egg, she popped up and started looking for more:
After a light breakfast of yummy banana bread (that the kids helped me make Saturday), we got all dolled up and headed to Memaw and Pepaw's for lunch. We decided to let Ava wear her flower girl dress that she wore in Uncle Ross and Aunt Ashley's wedding, because she loved it so much and still fit. She looks like such a pretty little lady :(
And our sassy little man and that mischievous grin:
Sean has been teaching Ava to play "Do, Re, Mi" on the piano, so she was sure to get some practice in while we were there:
Pretty lady with her handsome daddy:

Spring Fever

This past weekend, we took advantage of the nice-ish weather and headed for the playground. These kids love them some outside play and we are counting the days for when we can do this every night after dinner.

It's so cool to watch the kids' progress each year with their coordination and play-set skills. Last year, Aidan was struggling to figure the "bigger kids" play-set, but this year, he's a champ:

He looks so old here! Those big blue eyes get me every time!
Working on his monkey bar skills. He should be good at these, seeing as how he's very monkey-like:
Little Miss is also getting more brave and trying her hand at some of the trickier obstacles:

Prom 2011

As hard as it is to believe, this year, our "little" Drew went to his junior prom. Most of you know that I have known Sean's baby brother for a LONG time (to remind you, this kid was 2 1/2 when Sean and I met).

I have been around for lots of his milestones, but those seem to keep getting even more important and are starting to make me more emotional. I mean, this is the little man who Sean and I used to take to see Disney movies and out for Happy Meals and the guy who always climbed up on my lap when I came to visit...

We drove up so that we would be sure to see Drew and his date Pritsana (Prits-on-a) on this very special day. It had rained all day, but the sun came out just in time for their big night. Here is the cute couple:
Her dress was so pretty! A very nice navy-ish/purple-ish with just a bit of beading. Very classy...I'd wear it if I was going to prom!
Aidan was so sweet! He said, "I want to dance with her", and Pritsana happily obliged:
And of course big sis wanted to get a dance in with this handsome prince:
Memaw and Pepaw seeing their last son off to his very first prom:
Our "little" man:
I think Aidan is showing his approval of Uncle Drew's date:
Also as a junior in high school, he's visiting colleges and getting ready to make that big move. Of course as he gets older, I stay the same age... ;)

Puzzled?

If there's one thing our boy likes, it's putting together puzzles. He has gotten to be so good at it that he can assemble a 48-piece puzzle unassisted in about 15 minutes.

It's always fun to watch him because he always has a process - he knows exactly what section of the puzzle he wants to work on, and you can tell he looks at the pieces very carefully until he picks the exact one he was looking for.

You can catch Aidan and his puzzle assembly most nights before bed. He typically likes to put together at least two, but sometimes goes for all four.

You'll also notice he has no puzzle bias...boy theme or girl theme, if it's there, he puts it together. Here he is working on Ava's "Hello Kitty":
Rockin' Daddy's old Twins cap:
He usually starts with the "Superman" puzzle, then moves on to Ava's: