Goodbye, Little Friends

On Wednesday Colin had his final school show at his preschool. This is his third year at his little school, so it was so strange for me to have it be his last show. On Tuesday night he was practicing singing all his songs for me and I started to cry when he started singing "Goodbye, Little Friends". It's the song they sing every day at his school before they run out the door to us, but it has more meaning when it's an actual goodbye.

He did great. I don't remember what he did his first year, but I know he didn't sing. I think he sort of stood there like a deer in headlights. His second year he sang a few words, did some hand motions and tried. But this year he sang all the words, did all the hand motions and was a star.

Some pictures...(And, yes, they are horrible pictures. They were taken over three rows of parents with Owen wiggling like a crazy person on my lap...)









Colin knows that it's almost the end of pre-school. This morning I picked him up from school and he told me he had a bad dream the night before (to understand it, you have to know one of his friends takes the school bus already to afternoon preschool at another school). Here's how I remember how he told me his dream...

"Mom, I had a bad dream last night. I dreamed that I got on P's school bus and you were here in your car. But the doors closed and you drove away and I was on the bus by myself. And I was scared."

We had a long talk about how maybe he was getting a little nervous about kindergarten and I think he felt better after the talk. But the dream just broke my heart. Growing up and saying goodbye to little friends is hard...even for mommies.

My Men

We took these pictures the morning of Colin's birthday.

My men.









My Five Year Old!:

Owen Wan Kenobi

Some pictures of Owen from this morning. One of his favorite things to do these days (besides playing Super Mario Bros. and shrieking at Colin) is pretending to be Obi Wan. He loves pretending. So much so that a lot of the time, he only calls me Padme or Princess Peach. When he's in the midst of a Star Wars pretend bonanza, I'm Padme, he is Obi Wan, Colin is Captain Rex and Tommy is Baby Luke. And when Chris is here, he usually get the honor of being Darth Vader.

Owen Wan Kenobi:

Flowers for Aunt Lydia

We have not really ever used our blog as a place to express things happening in other peoples lives, however, Chris has someone close to him who is battling cancer. Her passion is, simply, flowers. Chris has taken some of her passion to our home and is currently trying to grow roses. Some of the roses have started to bloom and Chris wanted to share them with Aunt Lydia. Aunt Lydia - not bad, right???

Evening at the Fair

Last night we took the boys to our annual church fair. It was a big deal this year because Colin decided he was ready for the Ferris wheel. I was prepared for Colin to ride it with Chris, but when Chris put Colin on with a friend, I proceeded to watch the ride while simultaneously having a heart attack. Maybe that's why there are both mothers and fathers. Fathers can challenge the children to try new things while mothers sit on the side and freak out.

But both boys had a great time.

The Ferris Wheel:





The Big Swings (I also had a heart attack during this one, for the record):











Snow cones and popcorn:

Cutest Pictures Ever

Not much to say here except this is CUTE.

Bike Riding

And thus begins my attempt to upload and put pictures from last month on the blog.

Colin got a new bike last month. It is actually a hand-me-down bike from some of our friends, but it's as good as new. And he absolutely loves it. Probably more so because it's an older kid's old bike. And he is wonderful at riding it.

The process of teaching Colin to ride a bike was long. He's the smartest kid in the world (OBVIOUSLY), but it seems that his brain sometimes has a hard time telling his limbs what to do. It's probably not a stretch to summize that that trait comes from me, my nickname has never been "Grace". But as much as he wanted to ride a bike last year, his legs just had a very hard time figuring out the complicated process of pedaling. He started to "get it" at the end of the summer, but obviously we didn't ride bikes this winter. But this Spring he figured it out. So much so that he asks to go "to the dead end" to ride bikes constantly. And he's getting really good at it.

And I think it was a good lesson for him that it was harder for him to learn to ride a bike. He said he wanted to give up a few times last year and that "I'll never be able to ride a bike". We explained that a lot of things take practice to learn and that it was OKAY that it was hard for him. For a child that *gets* a lot of things easily, it is good to have him know that not everything will come easily.

A few pictures...

Oh, Hi!

Oh, why, hello! Remember me?



I know, I know. It's been too long. I've missed too much. I have so much to tell everyone about. But I swear, I need some more hours of the day. I need another hand so I can feed Tommy and type at the same time. But I will commit to getting some of the things I missed over the last few months (Colin's birthday, his party, Easter, etc) on to the blog this week. I WILL do it.

For today, some Tommy squishiness will have to do.