Rooster Days/Anniversary/Mother's Day Weekend!

We started out the weekend with a parade!  Rooster Days is a fun time in Broken Arrow.  This year Daddy was in the parade so we were excited to wave to our favorite local celebrity (that's his arm there hanging out of the tank).  We got way too much candy, but had tons of fun!

After the parade, we decided to celebrate our eighth anniversary by....

Going to the carnival!  With our kids!  We're so romantic!

The carnival was full of germs, but no one seemed to notice but me, and fun was had by all!

On Mother's Day I went to the gym and then got a pedicure.  

We finished the weekend grilling.  It was a blast!  

I'm so proud and so lucky to be the mommy of these two boys.

 I'm still learning how to use the updated version of blogger
so sorry if this post is all over the place.

More blogs to come, including: Jackson's actual birthday and
Super Kids Day at Ethan's school.

Birthday Shenanigans

Jackson Dean, the sweetest little nightmare in the whole wide world, will be four on May 16th.  He had his first big boy birthday party on Friday, May 11th.  He was so excited and shy at the same time.  It was great to play with his friends from school and meet their parents too.  We will be heading to a horrific restaurant you may have heard of - Chuck E. Cheese - on the 16th at the request of the birthday boy.  More pictures to come!

We love you so much J-man, Jack-Jack, Jackers, Stinker, Jack Attack.....

Here Comes the Sun...

Here are some cute shots of the boys doing what they love the best (currently): SCOOTING!  I can't blame them; Andy and I have a Razor scooter that we share because we think scooting is pretty rad too.

I think Spring is over in Oklahoma.  Ninety degree temperatures are here!!

Bring it, Summer!

 Scooting like it's cool!

 Ethan survived this massive scooting wound.

 We LOVE scooting.  All. the. time.

Yard is coming along well.

Happy Spring/Almost Summer!

Head Start Literacy Breakfast

Jack's preschool hosted a literacy breakfast on Friday. I took part of the morning off so he and I could go. It was good food, conversation, and FREEBIES! Jack had fun too...until he won the award for reading the most books and had to go on stage to get his award. Let's just say, I don't see theater or any sort of performing in my youngest's future.

Aw, my little ray of sunshine.

We got free books!! (and magnets, notepads, pencils, coffee mugs, calendars....)

Jackson with his wonderful teacher, Ms. Quisha, after receiving his award

and the horror of having to go on stage.

Hoppy Easter!!

Happy Easter family and friends! Sorry for the blog-hiatus. I was busy with...uh...life. Work is crazy busy for both Andy and I, and Ethan keeps us busy with swim team and piano. I can't imagine what it will be like this fall when we add Jackson's activities to the mix. Guess I better enjoy the 'lull!'

We had a wonderful Easter. The Easter Bunny was uber-generous, and the boys had a fun egg hunt. We then went to church for a WONDERFUL brunch and service. After church we did lots of yard work, and it was so worth it. I think we added $10,000 to the price of our house. The boys had fun scooting, biking, and skateboarding while we were working. Then we dyed eggs and baked Easter cookies. This was all in ONE day! AND my dryer broke so I had to hang all of our clothes on the clothesline. Needless to say, I'm pooped!

Enjoy the pictures and HAPPY EASTER!!

Thank you Easter Bunny!

The competition for the egg hunt was fierce!

Good job Jack!

What a good looking group!

Egg dyeing fun!!

Spring Break

SPRING BREAK! Woo hoo!! Okay, so we weren't totally crazy and out of control, but we did have a really fun Spring Break. The boys spent the first two days of break at work with Dad (thanks to NO child care for the week), and then I took Wednesday through Friday off to spend with the boys.

We went to the planetarium, lots of parks, Ft. Gibson Lake, and we had tons of fun at home too - riding bikes and scooters and running through the sprinkler.

We also were fortunate to have Uncle Bobby, "Aunt" Erin, and her daughter, Jaelyn visit for part of the week as well. We are looking forward to their move to Oklahoma this summer.

We found a new park that allows the boys to play while Mommy runs the trail. We made a morning of it and brought a picnic lunch.

We went to Ft. Gibson Lake and visited the FREE Nature Center (I love free stuff). We got to play with lots of fun stuff - like this feather. We also saw a bald eagle, coyotes, snakes, foxes, beavers, turtles, and fish.

Besides putting snake skins on our heads, we also went swimming in the VERY full lake, but I was too busy soaking up the rays to take any pictures.

All three of the kiddoes were brave and petted the snakes. They also wanted to hold the snakes, but the park rangers said no. Oh darn.

Check out this garage sale steal! Jackson has definitely outgrown his tricycle so we'd decided to get him a new bike for his birthday, which isn't until May. While out for a run through our subdivision, I found a garage sale (shocker...I love garage sales). What are the chances they had a RED DORA BIKE, exactly Jackson's size, and only $10. Yes, Jackson desperately wanted a Dora the Explorer bike. I was fearful he'd be riding around town on a pink or purple bike, but we found the only RED Dora bike in town. Woo hoo!! Winning! Oh, and Jackson FLIES on this thing. I thought there would be a trial and error period of figuring out the big boy bike, but no. I literally have to run (fast) to keep up with him. I guess he was ready!

Mohawk Park

Last week we had to pick up Daddy at the airport. Mohawk Park is a great park near the airport, but we rarely go because it's kind of a long drive, but since we were going to the airport anyway, we decided to leave early and get in some play time first.

Andy was flying in from Salt Lake City. He took Grandma Vicki back home to Idaho, and now we are back to being a family of four. It's nice to get back to our old routine, but the old routine means back to child care. Today Ethan started at The Young Einsteins, a before and after school tutoring program. It's in a mother's home, and it's only Ethan and a few other kids. He seems really excited to be with kids his age, but away from the chaos of a daycare center. I love that the mother is focused on education! Jackson is now doing extended care at his preschool. He remains in his classroom with his teacher so I don't foresee him having any adjustment issues. The only difference is he'll take a nap and eat a snack at school, both of which he was excited to do! Neither option is as great as having Grandma here everyday, but I think we're going to make this work. Here's hoping for a smooth transition!

Enjoy the pics from Mohawk Park!