Date nite with Dylan

Tonight Dylan and I went out and had some time together.

We went to Great Skate...I haven't been there since I was a kid!

Dylan was pretty nervous at first, he wouldn't even put the skates on. I told him that he had to try to go around at least one time and if he still didn't like it we didn't have to stay. As soon as he stood up with his skates on he was flaying all over the place, he had no balance at all! It was so funny, thankfully he was laughing as well!

As soon as he got on the rink the skating did not get any easier (he had a hard time on the carpet let alone the slick roller rink!) :). I was laughing so hard I had tears, I have never seen someone's body go in so many directions at one time! We held hands the whole time and by the end he was able to keep his balance and did really well...but never let go of my hand. :)


We of course had our dinner there...yummy (not really) pizza and a soda. Dylan loved it!

The best part of the night for me was when we were sitting on the bench watching the other skaters for a little while and all of a sudden Dylan is on my lap...just because, for no other reason than he wanted to be close to me. I loved every minute and took it all in. I'm thankful I still have a "little boy" who enjoys being with Mom. :)

We got in the car and Dylan said, "Mom, can we come back again. That was so much fun".

Bummed

I'm so bummed out. Someone stole our bikes...all three of them (adult bikes, not the kids) from our backyard. Yes, that means my brand new bike that I got for Mothers Day that I only got to ride 1 time. The thing is that someone had to work hard to get them. We have 3 gates to our backyard and all three have pad locks on them that were locked. That means that had to put the bikes over the block fence...and the bikes were in two different areas of our yard!

The thing that I am really bummed about is that Mark made me a bike basket out of wood last week. It was amazing! But now it is gone and I have a feeling that I probably won't get another one since it take him so long to make the first one...

This is the picture I took of him making it for me. It was really sweet of him and honestly one of the best gifts that he has given me...because he made it.

Why do people have to do such terrible things.

They didn't apply what they learned in Kindergarten...don't take what isn't yours!

All I really need to know...

I learned in Kindergarten.

(From Dylan't journal entry from school)

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say sorry if you hurt someboday.

You can't really see this last picture very well (I found it crinkled up in Dylan's backpack) but the quote above is what his teacher had him write on it.

It's so true. If people would actually practice what we learned in Kindergarten...the world be a much better place.

Moving Up

Dylan had his moving up/graduation ceremony from Kindergarten last night. I can't believe he is done with his first year of school already!

The foreign language program (28 kids total) did 2 songs/dance, one in English and the other in Spanish. They were super cute, at one point in the song they all did a slow motion robot dance. :)

Here are his two teachers. They were so wonderful, a perfect balance of kindness but firm with the kids. Dylan learned so much this year. It was a great start for his future of school.

This is a little video of him receiving his certificate from his principal.

Dylan went to bed crying last night because he doesn't want to have to go to 1st grade. I reminded him that he was nervous about starting Kindergarten and ended up loving it...so it will probably be the same next year in 1st grade. :)

Friends sleep over!

Once a month we babysit our friends kids and they do the same for us so that we can have date nights. On Friday night Noah & Ava stayed the night for a sleep over! The kids were all soooo excited! This was the girls up on the bunkbed...Isabelle looks so old to me in this picture. When I took the picture she said "cheese". :)

Mark plays a game with our kids called "collection". He gathers up the kids and puts them on the top bunk of bed and trys to keep them there for his collection. He uses a silly loud voice that makes the kids scream every time, they love it!

Celebrating Mark

Mark turned 34 yesterday!

We celebrated by the girls and I meeting him for lunch during his lunch break at work and then in the evening we got burgers from Chicago Hamburger and had a little picnic at a park near our house. The kids all wanted to sit by him for his birthday. :)

We played for awhile...Mark doesn't look like he is having much fun but he was and from the look on Dylan's face he was loving that he was able to bounce him so much. :)

We ended the evening with Sprinkles cupcakes.

My prayer for Mark this year is that he would enjoy every minute & live fully without reservation.

Happy Birthday!

book thoughts...

I started reading a new book last night and a few quotes resounded in my heart...

so I wanted to share them. :)

Love another with all your heart and we place our hearts in jeopardy, one so great that the world as we know it can disappear...Love is grief's advance party.

Every time we give our heart away we risk having it dashed to pieces.

Grief can be avoided. The logic is simple. Distance yourself from profound attachments. Attachments are risky. Lock the door of your affections. Board your windows. Armor yourself. Hunker down safe within your garden. Follow your bliss to some other level. Transcend the tyranny of the short lived, where pain, suffering, and grief attend our days. To the extend that these strategies work, they do so by parching the love from our hearts.

Lincoln has taught me many things, one of those is that love always wins and it is SO worth the pain of opening my heart to love instead of being afraid of the outcome that it might have. I remember Mark telling me one day when we were talking about having more kids or not after Lincoln passed away and he said, "the love I have for our children is so much greater than the grief and I want to experience more of the love".

My prayer is my heart would always be soft and open.

Adventures in Lotion Making!

This week I started the endeavor of making my own lip balm, lotion and sunscreen. I wanted a all natural product but didn't want to pay $17 for 6 ounces of sunblock! So I thought I would make some from scratch...it is all surprising easy to make! :)

This picture above is the sunscreen cooking.

The picture below is the final product. It smells great and the consistancy is good as well. :)


I wish I could say that everything I made turned out wonderful at first try...but that wouldn't be the fun of learning to do something new. The picture below was suppose to be a sun block paste, making it a little more water resistant. As you can see from the picture...it did not turn out right. I have no idea what I did wrong but it was separated and super gross looking. Oh well, as we speak I am trying out a new recipe...so far it is looking much better!


The lip balm turned out great as well, I flavored it peppermint. :)

I also made my own vanilla extract this week...it takes 2 months to be ready to use but I think is well worth the wait for amazing organic extract!



I'm going to test out the stuff I made with a few friends & family, see what I need to change and then hopefully be able to offer it to others at a low price. :)

Cadences' Dance Recital

Cadence had her dance recital on Friday morning. It was so cute to see all the girls in the class do their performance. Cadence and Maggie kept giving love & posing for pictures. :)

I caught this picture of Cadence (although blurry) tapping her nose. I created a special "code" move with the kids that means, "I love you". So when we tap our nose with our finger at the person that means we are saying, "I love you". This was her giving the code to Mark. :) Precious.

Mark was able to leave work to come see her recital. She was excited to have him there!

And my sister, niece & both grandma's were able to come as well...(and you can kinda see drea, kati & camilla in the background). :)

I took some super cute videos but can't get any of them to download...not sure what the problem is.

I'm sure this is the first recital of many more to come. :)

ma you

Last weekend I picked up fruit & veggies from a co-op called bountiful baskets (www.bountifulbaskets.org). You choose from a regular basket ($15) or all organic ($25). We've been trying to buy our food more natural or organic so I was excited about all we got!

This last week I also unplugged our microwave. We really didn't use it that often but I had read some articles about how microwaves can change the structure makeup of the food when it is heated and then your body doesn't recognize those properties. So with reluctance from Mark... the microwave is in the garage in our yard sale pile. :)

I can remember when we got our first microwave growing up. We got ours way after most already had them in their homes.

Funny how life moves in cycles.

1st Field Day!

Last Friday Dylan had his first field day. I went and helped out during the morning and the girls also came along. I was talking to his principal and we were talking about how field day is one of those days that stay in your memory bank. I can still remember my elementary school field days, Mark asked if they got popsicles (which they did) because that was his memory...ending the day with a cold treat. :)

He won 1st place in the 50 yard dash. He is in the 2nd lane in the picture.

He is a super fast runner!

Most of the rest of the activites were group events. The tug of war was super fun to watch, it was Kindergarten against 1st grade.

Here are his ribbons for the day. A participation ribbon (which he said didn't count :)), 1st place for 50 yard dash and 2nd place for flag tag.

Fun memories!

Mothers Day

For Mothers Day I received a new beach cruiser bike! I've been wanting a new bike and Mark went out and surprised me with this beauty. :)

Yesterday morning we all went on a ride down the canal to the man made waterfall. I've never been there...super neat. It is a art piece that you would never know about, hidden along the canal (56th St & Indian School). It was a great day of enjoying my family in the morning and then celebrating with both my mom and Mark's mom in the afternoon/evening.

I feel very blessed with my children and also blessed with both mom's being involved in our lives!

Garden Update!

My garden is growing!

My squash plants are huge and have lots of blooms, I think we'll have so much we won't even be able to give it all away! And the lettuce and onions are doing great. The spinach for some reason just started not doing real well, I'm not sure why... and I had to dig up the peas from the planter. I think I had way too many and the roots didn't have any where to go. Lesson learned for next planting season.
I also planted some herbs in pots and have them in a area where the sun isn't as harsh, so I'm hoping they will survive a little longer than normal.


The only thing that is actually ready to eat are the radishes...I was so excited, pulled one up, cleaned it off and took a huge bite. And ughhh, I do not like radishes. I'm sure if you are a radish lover they were great. So I pulled them all up because I did not want to waste any of my precious garden real estate with something I don't like. :)

So, my mom got all of them that were ready.

I also built a new garden box along our side wall where the grass doesn't grow because the water doesn't hit that area properly. So this new box has green & sweet peppers planted and will soon have some corn transplants from my neighbors garden! I still have one more to build and those will house sweet potatoes. I'm so excited to be able to eat some of our veggies soon!

Diamondbacks!

Mid week this last week Mark had a team builder with work...going to the Diamondbacks baseball game. We were invited along to join in the fun. It worked out perfectly with it being a afternoon game on the day that Dylan gets out of school early.

And of course you can't go to a baseball game without the treats. The kids belly's were full of cotton candy, popcorn & peanuts. :)

The kids did great at the game in spite of it being in the middle of the girls normal nap time.

Cadence's path

Cadence definatly has something in her head that makes her put things in a row/path. I'm not sure what that means yet for her but I find it very interesting. She doesn't mind if other things are out of order but really enjoys putting things in a row.

I love the video. It was so sweet to hear her answer of what the path was for. :)