Ten on Tuesday

1. My big boys (Bryce, Jarron, and Jackson) graduated from their respective AWANA clubs last week-Jackson is no longer a Cubbie and Bryce and Jarron are no longer Sparks. Jarron celebrated on stage by raising his plaque above his head (a la a senior with their diploma). It's always our kids that do something to make the crowd laugh. :) They are definitely not shy.

Jarron

Bryce

Jackson

All the Lakes cousins with Commander Ed

2. My baby boy turned eight months old last week. Time is just flying. He is such a joy to have in our lives. So happy and sweet. Our little Moose is amazing. He's crawling all over the place and into everything. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

3. We opened the pool this weekend. While we were waiting for it to warm up (it was icy cold), my Mom set up the wading pool for the kids to enjoy. Which prompted this phone call from Jackson to me at work:

J: Mommy, I'm in the wading pool!
Me: That sounds like fun.
J: Yes, we are wading for the big pool to get warm, that's why we are in the wading pool.

(He really thinks that's why it's called that!)







4. In addition to some pool time, the boys also enjoyed running through the sprinkler this weekend. Chuck has done a great job with our lawn, it's so nice to go out and sit on the front porch!




5. For Memorial Day, we spent some time at Chuck parents', where Brody got to play with Rizzo and the big boys got to play with some Nerf guns. Have I mentioned how much I love that the boys have lots of cousins their age?





6. The twins had school on Memorial Day due to all the school they missed with Hurricane Ike and the snow we had. (Yes, you read that right a Hurricane in Cincinnati-they missed a whole week of school!) The school honored veterns with a parade, that Brody and I attended. It was so cool to hear the kids signing the national anthem and saying the pledge of allegience.




7. We spent the evening of Memorial Day, playing mini-golf and riding some go-karts. I think my love of go-karts is well documented. I had a blast! (The boys had fun too!)





8. Brycers was hoping to audition for a musical that our local community theatre was producing this summer. Until he heard he had to sing for a whole minute in the audition, that is. Still he pondered signing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a couple of other classics. Then he said, "I know, I'll just sing some oprah." "How does that go?", I asked. "You know, la la la laaaaaaaaa", he said. "You mean opera?", I asked. He shrugged and said, "Oprah, opera, same thing." No, not really. Needless to say, he is not auditioning.



9. I planted some tomatoes and zucchini this week, I'm hopefully that they make it and that we'll be eating yummy home grown veggies later this summer.


10. Only a week and a half until the scrapbook night....I can't wait!!! :)

A Little Slideshow for Ya.....

No time for Ten on Tuesday (perhaps there will be a Ten on Thursday post...). But since Moose will be 8 months old this week, I wanted to share a little slideshow of the photos from his most recent photo shoot with Aunt Bobbi.
I love this song, "Looking at the Sun" by Gramercy Arms. I heard it in the season finale of Chuck and had to track it down. It just makes me think about how happy I am when I'm watching the kids playing in the yard. Corny, I know. :)

Ten on Tuesday

1. Happy late Mother's Day to all of you Moms out there! I had a wonderful Mother's Day. The boys made me beautiful cards and some amazing artwork for my office. (I'm getting an iPhone next month-that's my "official" present! :))

2. Jackson doesn't quite get the idea of Mother's Day. We went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch and got some cheesecake for dessert. He said, "Why am I getting dessert? Oh, because it's Mudder's Day! This is the best Mudder's Day ever!"


3. The twins are at an age were they can begin to help Chuck with the yard work. So this weekend we put them to work hauling mulch. They had a blast-I know that in a few years they will be dreading this kind of thing, but for now we are taking advantage of their enthusiasm.

Taking a break after unloading

Spreading the mulch out

4. Between mulch hauling, the boys took a break to play some football in the front yard. Thankfully, no one was injured (this time).


5. Brody and I relaxed on the porch and took a little walk-this boy loves being outside.


6. I love these shoes that I got for Brody. Unfortunately his feet are a bit too chunky for them, so they will most likely end up in the yard sale box. This make me sad to think about.

Come to think of it, his hands are a bit on the chunky side too! I love Moose!

7. This is a scene that happens pretty frequently at our house...three boys, three game systems-very little arguing!


8. Want to see what I do when I say I'm scrapbooking? I do a little bit of this...(many thanks to Chuck for wrangling the kids so I could get some scrapbook time in this weekend).




9. I'm organizing a scrapbook night at our church; it's June 5th from 6-10PM. Bring your materials and get some layouts done! :) Email me for the details.

10. We picked a vacation spot for this summer. We're going to the Wisconsin Dells. It looks beautiful, I'm really looking forward to it!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Hmmnnnn...I'm starting this post at 11PM on Tuesday, so it still counts, right? :)

2. We had a very busy weekend- 2 soccer games and a birthday party! The soccer games went well, the twins' team won, but Jackson's team lost. But, most exciting of all? Bryce scored his very first goal. It was such a happy moment (both for him and his very proud mama!).




3. The bowling party was Saturday. Let me set the scene for you-14 boys between the ages of 2-13, unlimited bowling, and lots of cake. It was loud and chaotic (and there were times when I was absolutely sure someone was going to get hit with a bowling ball!) but everyone seemed to have a really great time.

The Whole Bowling Gang

Checking the Scores...

B&J With Their Cake

4. We brought our neighbor's son to the party with us-he is in Bryce and Jarron's class at school and he just cracks us up. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for good neighbors. But this particular kid? He is hilarious. I swear I laughed the entire car ride. This conversation is literally word for word what he said, all in one breath:
"My brother is going to Ohio State. My cousin wants to be a brain surgeon. Hey, did you see that commercial where the motorcycle hits the car? That was scary! I think I have 300 Pokemon cards."

5. We've decided Brody is a genius. Seriously. We taught him how to clap this week. He also started really crawling this week. He's just so alert and intelligent. At one point I said that to Chuck, "Moose is a genius." Jackson overheard me and said (completely serious), "You mean like Jimmy Neutron? 'Cuz that would be awesome!" So now I'm pretty sure Jackson thinks Moose possesses the ability to build rockets or something.

He's not eating the book, he's reading it!

6. The girl that I mentor at Withrow High School won a $4,000 scholarship from my company on Friday. I'm just so proud of her. She came to the US from Pakistan when she was 9, she spoke no English at all. She now has a 3.8 GPA, is the student council president, and has become a mentor to younger students. It just really made me think about how easy the road is for some people, and how hard it is for others. But I never, not even one time, in the 4 years I've worked with her, heard her complain about how hard the road was. Congrats T, you deserved it!

An extremely unflattering pic pf me, T, and the big check

7. So have you seen the commercials for the $5 Subway sandwiches? Jackson LOVES this jingle and any time you mention the word five, he begins singing the commerical. Fast forward to Friday, when he found a prize in our box of cereal-a $5 gift card! (You know here I am going with this right?)
So, he calls me at work to tell me of his big prize. And then he says, "So when you get home I want to go to Subway." "Why?", I ask. And he says, "To get my five dolla', five dolla', five dolla' footwooooooong."
And so Sunday afternoon, we did!


8. I am a terrible soccer coach, it's true! During our game Saturday, the ref said "OK Coach, your team has a goal kick." To which I replied, "Yeah, I don't know what that is, could you maybe just show the kids how to do that?" The sad part? The 5 year olds I coach already knew how and proceed to explain to "Coach Christina" how to do it. I'm real glad we only have 5 games left, I am not a fan of looking like an idiot. (And for the record, it's Coach Chuck 2-1, and Coach Christina 1-2)

9. Jackson is now officially registered for Kindergarten. We absolutely love the Kindergarten Center and Jackson really seemed excited to tour his new school!


10. I'm in the midst of planning our summer vacation. Anyone been to the Wisconsin Dells? What did you think????