Nate's birthday

I cannot believe Natie is two! He is starting to get a personality and can really talk! I'm sure most of his talking comes from the various quizzes the boys do while we are in the van. Nate say trash can. then laughter... Nate say... and it goes on like this for most of the errand.

Nate is full of laughter. He always has a good time although, he's still a little unsure of pools. It may have to do with the fact that the big boys splash and get water all over him. He doesn't like yucky things (as he calls them), sand, sticky marshmallows, dirt or anything that the boys splash on him. While wearing sandals he will come to me hold his foot up and say "Yucky" in other words shake the dirt out! He loves shoes and always wants them on his feet.

If Sammy is around he seems to get hurt more often...maybe Sammy is rough with him but I think he just knows he's gotta play harder/more aggressively to keep up. Zack watches over Nate and usually gets tasked with "Where is Nate?" or "Go get Nate." He absolutely loves his daddy!

Nate loves music and singing. He seems to carry tunes,too. It's exciting to see him grow up a bit. He sleeps with a favorite blanket and pacifier.... But sleeps at least 12 - 13 hours each night. He has been such a delightful baby!

Twins?

My dear friend told me last week that with the boys haircuts and now that they are closer in size I'll start getting the "Are they twins?" question. I never in a million years would have believed that until this Sunday (a week after her comment!) I was asked that very question by a visitor at church!
Funny!

Kindergarten Graduate

Zack finished Kindergarten! To celebrate I told Zack that we'd have an end-of-the-year party. Well the end-of-the-year party sneaked up on me, and I'd forgotten all about the party. Thankfully, Mumsy ended up being here and ran some errands to pick up party supplies for our Kindergarten Graduate! I made a construction paper graduation cap to fit Zack (a friend had posted pictures of her daughter in one- so I thought I'd see how difficult it was to make) It was very easy and Zack picked out his colors--orange with a little bit of blue! No, we aren't Auburn fans, he just likes those colors or maybe it's his cousin's favorite color!

Anyway, Mumsy made some "K Graduation portraits" that I will post soon! And it was even more fun to have a special guest at our victory party!

Motivation

This morning I'm looking at laundry, dishes, school work, and the list goes on... I just am so unmotivated.

I'm looking to make a summer math, handwriting ,reading, and Bible program or at least get some sort of schedule so that Zack has something to work on- summers can get boring and I don't want him to forget all that we've been working on. Apparently, K-2nd grade is a pretty critical time so we'll not take an entire summer but probably start 1st grade in late/mid July. We did that last year and it worked pretty well. We took a few extra breaks and this past year we had more sickness than we've ever had... So it ended up working out well.

Jogging Stroller

Our new Schwinn Free Wheeler AL Jogging Stroller arrived on my birthday and it is a dream! It actually makes you move a little faster. You can literally push the stroller loaded with 27 lbs of Nate with little or no effort. It has the ability to switch the front tire from swivel to stationary. The swivel allows you to move in all directions very easily while the locked position makes running/jogging much more easy-It keeps the stroller on a tracked line.

I wasn't sure if I shouldn't spring for the BOB stroller, and I'm sure I'd have been incredibly pleased with it, but this Schwinn has met all my needs and more. I'm a very happy jogger and actually have looked forward to getting out. Of course, Nate feels like he's moved up into a Cadillac!

Spiral Binding!

I just took my Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading book and had the binding cut off and a spiral put in! I LOVE it and it was so incredibly cheap! I may have a new obsession!

Updated

Tim updated our computer to run on Linux or Ubuntu and well it's not crashing as much or freezing up, but I cannot figure out how to copy pictures and all that extra stuff that I could do effortlessly before. I know I'll just have to relearn all that stuff, but I have so little time for relearning!

I've gotten frustrated with the picture upload... and there is a ton of pictures I need to upload!

Hence no updated pictures!

Excercise

Tim has been (seriously) running for about a year now. I've never really been interested or enjoyed running. However, now that the boys can ride bikes we can go running/jogging/bike riding as a family and that has been a good activity for us to do as a family. Tim and I were just taking turns running/jogging but I invited the boys to ride their bikes while I jogged and Tim ended up meeting us with Nate in the stroller. So since then, we all go. We had a few bright ideas to make running/jogging/ bike riding more safe with strollers, bikes and cars. The first was a whistle! We each have one and they work great. When the boys are down the road, we can simply whistle and it tells them to get over and stop for a car. And maybe the cars hear it too? I also found some flags for the boys' bikes. They aren't as tall as I thought, but they do work well for small hills, curves and the rail road tracks. Of course, the boys wear bike helmets. And we are getting ready for our new jogging stroller to arrive.

Nate and I will never be the same, I'm sure. The old four wheeled stroller, is about to see it's last use, and Nate will enjoy a smooth ride. I'm guessing it'll be a while before Nate is riding his own bike! But we have all enjoyed the benefits of getting outside and getting fit.

Zack biked 5 miles one day with Tim and then 2 more miles with him the next day. Sammy has the stamina for about 2 miles, which is about as far as I go at this point. We'll see how we fare in the summer heat.