The Weekend in Review

We had such a fun weekend! It was jammed packed with non stop action, mostly outside (YAY!) due to great weather.

There was the Testosterone Zone.

  I am the queen in my house of blue and boys will be boys and we had LOTS of boys {and one lone girl} hanging out and playing.  We usually have lots of kids over, but, this summer our little group seems to have grown. A good amount of the pictures I took came out blurry and you can't tell, but, we had ten boys here riding bikes.  It was pretty entertaining!

We had a birthday party for Lovey Dovey's Webkinz.  They all turned TWO on Saturday.  I thought it was very sweet of them to all celebrate their birthday on the same day! 

Here is Lovey Dovey making his GF, EF, DF, NF chocolate cake for them bright and early Saturday morning.  This cake is amazing and it is probably one of the best I have
come across!

{notice that Lovey Dovey could not wait until their party to have some cake!}

We even had some basketball to round off the weekend nicely.

 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend with your family as much as I did mine!

Letting Go to Let Them Grow

I have always wanted my kids to stay little just a little bit longer.
I just adore them being little and it just seems to fly by a little faster every year.


I have tried to make deals with them not to turn a year older when their birthday arrives.
I have also teased my oldest this past birthday when he turned TEN and told him I was going to place 01 on the cake instead of 10.  Of course, being the smart cookie that he is...he told me that he would just swing the cake around until it read 10!


Sometimes people understand how I feel.
I feel conflicted inside.  I know that there is nothing I can do to stop this process, but, still there is that part of me that yearns for it to continue just a little bit longer.


I love all of the whimsical days of early childhood.  Looking for butterflies, seeing a robin pull a worm out of the ground for the first time, blowing bubbles in the breeze for what seems like forever! I actually miss things that I thought would never end and made me a little crazy at times..like endless hours of playing Thomas the Tank Engine, so many Wiggles dances that I considered trying out for the roadshow and playing Chutes and Ladders so many times I lost count!


But, we don't watch the Wiggles anymore and nobody has played with the sweet little engines in quite some time now and it is a passage of time changing for my boys.


I really do miss those days, but, I still have a five year old to savor just a little bit longer :-)



It has really hit me harder this year since my oldest just turned TEN.


TEN....I am still trying to figure out how that happened so fast!  He was just in my stomach and I can vividly remember being 41 1/2 weeks pregnant and on maternity leave and waiting, waiting, waiting for this child to make his grand entrance!


Trust me...it feels like just yesterday.


Of course there have been a few more babies in my belly since then and all of those sweet memories feel like just yesterday too.



I had a realization the other day that I need to let go and let them grow.  This is a new and exciting time right now.  Lots of new emotions and hormones floating through that little one of mine and the best thing I can do is not to dwell on his littleness, but, to do the best that I can to embrace his early manhood.  He is a good little man too.  Very polite, sweet and caring...always has been.


So...although I cannot keep my boys little forever, I still love each and every little thing about their childhood and am trying to embrace as best I can the realization that they will not be children for too much longer.
It is very bittersweet and lots of wonderful memories always wash over me, especially at birthdays.


With each year I am getting just a little bit better with letting go and letting them fly.  I would have not made a very good bird.  I still watch as the baby birds are born and am amazed that they fly away after such a short time.


This momma heart just loves her babies so much and just wants the best for her boys and letting them go so they can grow is just a little bit of what I need to do right now at this time.

Childhood Lost

My second son, Kit Kat, turned eight today.
We had a nice birthday party for him on Saturday.  We decided to have the party at home this year and keep it simple.  Since he always tells me that I make the best cookies in the world I decided to make him a giant chocolate chip cookie cake!

We set up volleyball and ladderball in the backyard, had a cookout and just planned to relax and enjoy the abundant sunshine!

Of course the best plans do not always go the way that you expect.

We had five boys (plus my three) over here and I would say that  3/4 of them immediately and constantly gravitated to the almighty screen.  They wanted to play on the computer, or watch television or play a video game.


*sigh*

I think I am really starting to date myself since all of this is not floating in my house at all lately!


I have been feeling the need urge to disconnect for quite some time.
I cannot really explain it too much, but, I truly feel that we are too plugged in at times and I really am pretty strict about what I allow.


My kids do not have an iPhone, iTouch or any handheld game thingies.  I just don't think they need to have these things.  I watch as all of their friends walk around the neighborhood oblivious to anyone around them like little moths to a flame and just don't feel that we were put here to sit in front of a screen for extended periods of time.



Of course I could say the same for what I do here on Blogger, but, I am trying to keep this as a journal of our experiences and really do limit the frequency of my posting.


Getting back to the party...
My kids were the ones who mostly stayed outside and played along with their bff from next door.  They have friends whose parents admit that their kids are addicted to the computer.  I hate that we as a society are like this and am so very thankful that I did not grow up in this era where there is so much coming at you all of the time.

This morning I spent 55 minutes in a live chat with Kodak because something happened with my son's camera and it would not transfer the pictures to the computer.  55 minutes that I will not get back.  I am not saying that I am not grateful for the assistance with the camera, but, really was using film that bad?
You took pictures, you had them developed and you got what you got.  There was time for things and everything had its place in time.  Now we have so much and not enough time to do it all!

Again...I am dating myself, but, things were simpler when I was a child.

That is why I am probably known as the unfun mom on the street who won't let her kids and their friends sit around playing video games aimlessly for hours on end.  I am also the mom who makes lots of cookies with her kids and their friends to sell at their lemonade stand during the summer and always makes sure we have a freezer filled with popsicles for those hot summer days.  My husband cannot believe we got through so many popsicles in a week!

I just want life to slow down a bit and for everyone to enjoy it the way it is supposed to be.
Can you imagine how much would have been missed throughout history if everyone was constantly plugged in most of the time?

I am also the mom who is prayerfully contemplating cutting the cable and going to regular tv for the summer.
We can do so much more if that is not an option.  Like I said we don't watch alot of tv, but, getting rid of it appeals to me for many reasons (money being one of the perks too!).

The most amazing things happen when we slow down and just take a deep breath of fresh air and look at all of God's beautiful creations around us.

It is just the way it's supposed to be, but, this is just one momma's opinion.