I can't say it's always been this way, but for the past five years, I think March has been my favorite month. There is always a shift that moves through our house - when the winter is behind us, and the hope that accompanies spring has arrived. Of course I'm a summer-lover, but there's something special about March. It's not all sunshine, but it's like I can finally take a deep breath - my muscles unclench. I think the kids know something's different, too. There's a certain freedom that creeps in when the backdoor lingers open longer.
This has been a good month.
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| there's nothing like after nap time TV time to bring a family together |
Charlie's been mostly home, we've all been mostly healthy, the weather has been pretty amazing, the kids have been fairly easy to manage, my to-do list seems to be getting shorter, and we've had lots of opportunities to get together with friends and extended family. I'll count that as a win.
Highlights and Kidbits for the month:
Bruce has been a money making machine this month! We started paying Bruce for chores a little over a year ago - not much, but trying to establish a link between work and money. There have always been some things Bruce *has* to do for his weekly allowance, but then he can always earn extra money if he chooses to do extra chores. (I'm a math nerd, but a fair math nerd, so based on the current minimum wage in Oklahoma, and the average amount of time it takes him to complete a chore - he gets paid a quarter a chore.) I don't want to say that Bruce is lazy necessarily, but he really hasn't had much motivation to go the extra mile. Until now. Wow, that boy can work hard when he wants too! He regularly loads the washing machine, adds the soap, and knows which buttons to push to start it up. He can switch the laundry from washer to dryer, and knows how to get the dryer going, too. He can sort laundry, but not fold. He knows how to properly clean a toilet and wipe down the bathroom sink. He knows where to find and how to empty all the little trash cans around the house. He can clear the dishes from the table, and unload and sort the clean silverware from the dishwasher. He can feed all the animals and collect chicken eggs. I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. And the deal is, he has to have a good attitude about the chores, and be helpful - not just make things harder for me - in order to get paid. So what has lit this fire? Legos. Legos. and
more Legos. The boy loves his Legos, and wants more of them. And they're expensive. I really think he's made the connection between work and money, and more work making more money - and man is he excited when he can afford to buy something new. Love that kid.
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| Bruce squeezes between our two front doors so he can be "Carbonite Han" - that's the next set he's saving up to buy... |
Aside from Legos, there's something else I want to brag on that boy about! (okay, so I think it might still be related to Legos...) Bruce has never really been interested in anything to do with coloring, drawing, writing, etc. And his teacher's biggest concern at the beginning of the year was that he won't hold a writing utensil the proper way - he just fists it. I haven't really made a big deal about it because he still seems young and I didn't want him to stress out about it, but he has come such a long way in the past six months! At the beginning of the school year, the color pages he brought home would generally just have a single line scratched over the picture. Now though, he's coloring with such detail - using multiple colors, filling in entire white spaces, and for the most part, staying "in the lines" as well as should be expected of a four year old I think. I know that might seem like a little thing, but I know it's something he's obviously been working so hard on - and that makes me incredibly proud of his efforts!
He still won't hold the crayons with his fingers, but maybe playing with Legos all day is helping his dexterity!
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| And he drew his first ever "people" - any guesses as to who they are? (Susie? Any thoughts... haha) Think Star Wars best friends. |
I've seen some big changes in Abby this month, too. Namely, trains have taken over her life. Bruce pretty much skipped over the "Thomas the Train" phase, but I think Abby plans to camp here for awhile. Which, although unexpected, is fine by me. It seems like maybe Bruce was about this age when he started needing to "be" someone all the time, and making you call him by that character's name. Abby is obsessed with this now. At the beginning of the month she was "General Grievous" from Star Wars. Then after playing on the big train at the library one day, she became "Conductor" for awhile. The past two weeks though, she's been rotating between different Thomas the Train characters, but always inserting a "Big" before the name. "I Big Gordon," she'll say when I get her out of her crib in the morning. And she won't let you forget it throughout the day, either. If you slip up and call her Abby, or even "babe" - she'll immediately correct you, saying "I Big James, Mama"
every.single.time. It's incredibly humorous. And ridiculously maddening.
When she's not reminding you of her own name, she's asking you what everything else's name is. Sometimes it's a legitimate question - she'll see a little girl in line ahead of us at the grocery store and ask, "What's that girl's name, mama?" but then there are times when she just drives me crazy with it. Like when she's eating a pack of fruit gummies and she needs to know the name of every single gummy in the pouch. It's a regular occurrence for us to be in the car going somewhere and I'll hear from the backseat, "What's this guy's naaaaaaame?" So I'll ask what color it is (Yes, I have them all memorized by now...). "It's purple." So I'll tell her the name. A few seconds later, "What's this guy's naaaaaaame, mama?" Again, I'll ask the color. "It's purple, too, mama." I'll remind her that all the purple ones are such and such. A few seconds later, "What's this guy's naaaaaame?" And it goes on and on until they're all gone.
sheesh. I'm looking forward to the end of this phase.
We had a lot of fun things going on this month!
We made a trip to visit Grandpa and K! Yvonne had to have surgery on her arm, so we spent a lot of time snuggling in bed with her, building Legos and reading books. We found some new baby kittens in the hay barn, too!
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| Abby was being too quiet, so I went looking for her and found her in another bedroom - she had tucked herself in... |
We made an overnight trip to Dallas over Spring Break and went to the LegoLand Discovery Center there! And my brother Paul, his wife Leah, and one of their daughters were able to join us! We ate at the iconic Rainforest Cafe for lunch and spent the afternoon exploring the LegoLand play space. I knew going into it that this place was not going to be as dramatically fantastic as the big LegoLands, but I still think my expectations might have been a little too high. It was fun, but I was slightly disappointed that they didn't seem to keep up with maintenance well - a lot of things were broken, or dingy, or out of date. My kids didn't seem to notice any of that though, which is what's important, and we had a really great time there. The website said the splash pad section wouldn't be opened until May, but the weather was nice enough that they ended up opening anyway - which was great, because I think that was my favorite part! We didn't bring swimsuits with us, and it was still pretty chilly, so we didn't stay long - but it was amazing! We stayed at a hotel that night, then killed some time at the Bass Pro next door in the morning while we waited for the mall to open so we could go BACK to the Lego store when it was a little less crazy. Maybe we're the crazy ones... it's hard to tell.
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| enjoying the giant fish tanks while we waited for our table at the Rainforest Cafe |
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| Bruce took a "tour" with Charlie to look at all the animals while we waited for our food, Abby was too terrified... |
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| playing at the Lego store while we waited to meet up with my brother and his family |
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| finally inside! |
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| the only giant build that didn't have a "please don't climb on" sign |
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| Abby singing karaoke |
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| Abby enjoying a play table in the Princess Palace |
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| Abby helping Jocelyn... |
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| another build table |
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| They had some really amazing Star Wars scenes! |
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| Bruce and cousin Jocelyn admiring the battle on Geonosis. |
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| Much to learn, you still have. |
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| borderline inappropriate, but we went for it! |
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| I made Bruce keep his pants on though... |
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| okay... so it might have been a little too cold for the splash pad... No one complained though! |
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| Bruce - the fish whisperer |
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| Abby playing with the giant foam bricks while I fall victim to the "Pick a Brick" wall in the background... |
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| like a candy store... but better! |
We got home from our Lego Spring Break adventure just in time for Bruce to go to his March Lego Club meeting! I was *supposed* to get to bring Bruce this month, but he decided he'd rather have Charlie bring him. Sigh. Maybe next month I'll get to go. I really want to go. Maybe more than Bruce even... haha.
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| They made bunnies, and then got to make something for their bunnies to eat - Bruce made a great garden! With a bed for the bunny to take a nap after he ate, and lots of fences to keep predators and bugs out. Haha. |
Abby helped me file our taxes! No, I didn't send this copy to the Treasury, but I did wonder what they would think if I did. I know I'm crazy, but I love filling out tax forms! And now, after kids, I love it even more!!!
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| I know some see tax refunds as an "interest free loan" for the government, but I like to think of them as the government forcing me to set aside a little blow money each year... |
We got more of the garden planted! Lots of little seedlings are starting to come up - now I just have to get back in the habit of weeding! Next month we'll get even more started, I'm hoping for a really good season this year!
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| I love all the colors in our lettuce patch! |
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| Abby couldn't help herself, and picked all but three of our cabbages!!! I keep reminding myself that gardening with Littles is about the process, not the product... |
I had a blast from the past with old friends! My friend Susie from high school came through town and stayed for a few days with our friend Kim, who lives in the city. With it being March, coincidentally we could celebrate our 17 year "friendversary" - meaning we've now been friends for more than half our lives. That's fun. I stayed up way too late for too many nights, but it was worth it to catch up, and get some card playing in, too.
We went to Pizza Night for the Book Fair at Bruce's school - and it was STAR WARS THEMED!!! We knew some characters would be in costume walking around... but were so shocked to bump into BOBA FETT!!! along with Chewbacca and Princess Leia. Can you tell he was excited???
We had an Easter Egg Dyeing party! I love this tradition! We had some neighbors and friends come over to join us, and it was a really nice evening together!
We went to our first "Egg Hunt" at the church down the road from our house. It was a programmed event, that wasn't come and go, with the hunt at the very end. I think the kids had fun, but it was definitely hard to make it through to the hunt!
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| entertaining themselves while they waited... |
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| Lined up in age groups - they really should have just called this a "candy grab" because there definitely wasn't any hunting, and hardly any eggs... haha - but I didn't hear any complaints! |
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| Abby picked up about four pieces (after the first few she tried to drop in actually fell right back out) and then said she was ready to go home. Not because it wasn't fun, but because that seemed like "enough" - if there had been chocolate on the field, I might have persuaded her otherwise... |
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| instead she just let Boy fill up her basket with his overflowing collection... |
We wrapped up celebrating Easter! This year for Lent, we kept things pretty simple. We have a copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible - a children's version of the Bible that I would highly recommend everyone read, regardless of age. There are roughly the same amount of stories in there as there are days in Lent, so we just read one story a day, from Creation all the way to the Resurrection. On Ash Wednesday, we also planted a Resurrection garden and took care of that over the lenten season. Bruce seemed really interested in the stories, and sometimes wanted me to keep reading past the story of the day - it was so fun for me to see his desire for that. When they get a little older, I want to start having a more traditional Passover meal with them, but for now, our "Passover" still just consists of feet washing and communion. I think this was such a stirring experience for Bruce last year, that I definitely wanted it to become a tradition for our family. This year, we made Passover bread together, then read through the Easter story - from Passover to the Resurrection - stopping at different points to wash each others' feet and share communion. I'm still not sure what our kids think of this story but I love the way the Jesus Storybook Bible makes a clear connection between Jesus washing the disciples' feet, and Jesus washing our hearts.
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| We talk about how just like they can't come into our house with dirty feet, we can't come into God's house with dirty hearts - and I know that's something they can relate to. |
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| And just like they need help washing their feet, we need help washing our hearts |
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| our Resurrection Garden |
I also hosted an Easter dinner and Charlie's parents were able to join us for the evening. We had another egg hunt, and also squeezed in a mini-birthday party for Bill.
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| We ordered some more black market Star Wars mini-figs from China for Bruce's eggs |
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| And Abby got some mini Thomas and friends trains |
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| It was rainy, so we had to hid them inside this year |
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| We hid a few for them to find in the morning, and a few more to find when Grandpa and K came |
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| putting together the Lego tractor set we made for Grandpa's birthday |
We capped off the month tonight in the backyard, where I'm assuming we'll be spending most of our evenings for the next few months. Bring it on.
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| even the chickens got to taste some freedom this evening! |
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| I think the blooming of our wisteria tree that creeps over the chicken coop is my favorite part of Spring! |
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| and a photo bomb to boot! |
"See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land." Song of Solomon 2:11-12
