Last Day of School!

Charlotte and Jensen had their last day of preschool last week. It seriously seems like just yesterday that I was dropping them off for the first time, fighting back my own tears as I left a teary-eyed Charlotte (and happy-go-lucky Jensen) in a strange new place. On the last day of school, the kiddos marched right in, happy to see Mrs. Clark and their friends Hunter and Lane, oblivious to the fact that this would be their last day in the Mrs. Clark's class.

Before school, I asked Charlotte and Jensen to sit on the porch and smile so Mommy could take some pictures of them. When they did exactly what I asked, I realized just how much they'd grown and changed since they started school last August!

I was the room mom this year, so I was in charge of the end-of-year gift for Mrs. Clark (the other two moms and I became friends and always went in together on gifts). We intended to get her a museum membership for her and her daughter, but I didn't want to mess anything up with the paperwork so I just gave her the cash to get it herself! To make up for that, I wrote her a little poem about the year and put it in a frame along with a small vase of four flowers to represent each child in the class.

I spent the last day of preschool...actually I don't even remember what I did! I do remember that I met Brian for lunch; we knew it would be our last chance to have a lunch date until next school year. When I picked Charlotte and Jensen up from school, they were happy to see me.

(Charlotte was always way happier to see me than Jensen. I attribute this to the fact that they had always just woken up from naps and Jensen takes a good half-hour to be fully awake and not comatose.) We got some goodbye hugs from Mrs. Clark and then the other moms and I took the kids to get frozen yogurt.

While Jensen only had eyes for his fro-yo, Charlotte had quite the time running around (and doing a bit of flirting) with Hunter and Lane. Fortunately we had the place to ourselves (except the teenage boy working there, who kept retreating to the back room to escape the crazed toddlers).

I can't say enough about how great this school year was. Charlotte and Jensen made friends and learned how to be part of a class. I made friends with a few of the other moms and enjoyed being able to run errands sans-toddlers. The last day of school was rough for me; not only because we will miss Mrs. Clark so much, but because it truly hit me how fast the year went and made me realize how fast the years will continue to go. Terrifyingly fast. I wish I could hit pause and enjoy these days for just a little while longer.

A Tour of My Lovely Home!

I glanced around the house this morning around 9 a.m. and for some reason thought I should document the mess. I swear the house was clean picked up the night before, but my kiddos are apparently masters of destruction.

First, the foyer...and Troublemaker A:

To be completely fair to Charlotte, she was picking up the balls that Jensen dumped out. She picks them up while singing, "Clean up, clean up!" and Jensen likes to wait until she has the bin about 1/3 full before coming over and dumping it out again.

Next, we make our way to the living room:

Okay if I'm being honest, the living room often looks much worse. A couple school buses, a few toy cars and Chicco the rocking horse? Not too shabby. Until, that is, you notice Troublemaker B:

His toys of choice? A yard stick (I really don't even know where he found that) and a yellow rubber light-up ring from Hotel ZaZa (thanks, Kim!).

Moving onto the heart of the home, the kitchen:

(They're colored popsicle sticks.)

And finally the master bath:

Sesame Street characters, or, as Charlotte calls them, her "people". (Note the two peering into the shower.)

They did all this (and probably more) in less than two hours (with a 30 minute break for breakfast). I have said it before and I'll say it again: It is astounding how fast two toddlers can turn the house into a disaster area. This is one of those things that I'll miss someday, right?!?

Mother's Day 2012

We had a difficult Mother's Day this year as we learned that morning that Brian's Mema Shelton had passed away. This news was shocking to all of us as we were all expecting to see her at brunch that very morning. We spent the rest of the day just being together as a family. The memorial service was held the next weekend, and although we were all sad, we had such a nice time being together and remembering Mema. The way that, when she gave you a gift, you had to give her back the gift bag; if you didn't, you got your gift in a paper bag the next year! The way that she had the shortest phone conversations in history...she would say what she needed to say then pretty much hang up on you. Brian and his cousin Sarah have lots of funny memories of trips with Mema and Papa Shelton in the RV, heading down to see some kind of swimming pig in Aquarena Springs? (I thought Brian made this up, but it turns out there really was such an attraction.) Mema taught school for 40 years and even had a master's degree! Pretty rare for an almost 87-year-old woman. She drove herself to Denton every night after teaching (while also raising two kids) until she completed her degree. She was sharp as a tack and also a huge sports fan who could talk UT football with Brian. Anyways, I have known Brian's grandparents for far longer than I ever knew my own, so they are like grandparents to me as well. Here are a few of my favorite pics of Mema:

This pic of Mema and Brian's cousins Sarah and Kate was taken at C&J's first birthday party. Sarah and Kate are such wonderful people and I love spending time with them. They were also such wonderful granddaughters to Mema.

This one is Jensen and Mema at our nephew Laird's 5th birthday party. I love how she is smiling at him.

For some reason I can't find any pictures of Charlotte and Mema. I know I have some, because Charlotte always was fond of Mema...she was very content to hang out in her lap. At any rate, she was very special to us all and family gatherings will not be the same without her.

As you can imagine, we were not in a very celebratory mood on Mother's Day...but Brian and the kids were very sweet to me and showered me with gifts and even a homemade card. And of course we had to spent some time with my mom...the very best mom in the world. Here's what I made for her...it's a set of planters that I painted and stacked.

It's hard to tell in my artsy Instagram pic but the colors are raspberry and Tiffany blue, which is one of my favorite color combinations.

I hope all you moms had a wonderful day!

Martha Moments

A few weeks ago, I got the idea in my head that I should teach the stinkers about gardening. (If you know me, you are probably laughing right about now, because whatever the opposite of a green thumb is, that's what I have.) I just had this sweet little picture in my head of two adorable kiddos diligently planting and watering flowers while learning life lessons about responsibility. I asked if they would like to go to the store to pick out some plants to bring home, plant, and water. They thought this sounded like a grand idea (although I really don't know that they understood what I was saying, but they did say they wanted to go to the store), so the three of us headed to Home Depot to get some plants, planters and potting mix.

Right about the time we entered the little outdoor garden area of Home Depot, Charlotte started requesting to "go in the store!". I explained that we were in the store and we needed to pick out our plants. She became angry and kept insisting that we go in the store. I was confused about why she would want to go into Home Depot until she starting saying, "Go in the store! Get a snack! Pumpkin bread snack!". And then it all made sense: Pretty much every time I take the kids to the store, we go to Target. And when we go to Target, we stop at the little Starbucks where the kids each get a piece of pumpkin bread to eat while Mommy shops. At that point I knew I had better hurry up at get the plants and get out of there before we made any more of a scene...so we grabbed some herbs and checked out, Charlotte screaming for pumpkin bread and "Taaaarrrrrget!" all the while. (No I'm not kidding. My daughter screams for Target. I am so proud.) Even when we made it to the car, the kids were both very upset that we had no pumpkin bread, so I asked if they wanted to go to Target and was met with a resounding "Yes!". So to Target we went, where the happy children got their pumpkin bread and I got my planters.

We came home and got to work planting. (Translation: I planted the herbs. Charlotte and Jensen threw potting soil at each other.)

She's smiling because she knew I didn't have it in me to wash the potting soil off her face.

A few nights later, Cristi and I went to dinner and I was telling her this story and how my vision of having a Martha Stewart-like moment with my children was shattered by the reality of having two 2-year-olds. We laughed about how, when you have kids, things seldom go the way you pictured in your head...but it's pretty fun nonetheless. And the other night, I made Brian and I a salad of mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and fresh basil from the yard...a very Martha moment if I do say so myself!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Brian celebrated his 31st birthday about a week after Charlotte and Jensen turned two. Charlotte was very excited to sing Happy Birthday to Daddy (actually, two weeks later she will randomly look at him and start singing it) and Jensen enjoyed telling him Happy Birthday in his own Jensen language (which sounds a bit like, "Chugga choo-choo, Daddy!"). I got Brian's gift several months ago on Groupon (gotta love a bargain!) because I knew he would love it. It's a half-day driving lesson at a local race track...I am going to have to remind him not to go too fast...no accidents, please!

I took Charlotte and Jensen to meet Brian and his mom for a birthday lunch at Spring Creek, where they pretty much ate their weight in macaroni and cheese and Blue Bell ice cream.  That afternoon, I had planned for Charlotte and Jensen to help me make their Daddy's birthday cake (aka blueberry cobbler, his fave) but Jensen (perhaps in a sugar coma) decided to take a verrrry long nap. Fortunately Charlie was up and ready to be my little helper. First she signed his card...

Then I tried to get her to smile for the camera...

Didn't go so well.

Then we got to work on the cobbler! Charlotte loved to help stir.

Then the clothes came off. I would like to say that she was getting messy so I took off her dress, but the reality is that my little tomboy just kept saying, "Dress off!" until I obliged.

When Brother woke up, he joined in the fun too!

Trouble. Just pure trouble.

It was a pretty low-key birthday (I guess most 31st birthdays probably are!) but we had fun celebrating as a little family of four. I am so happy that C & J are at the age where they can "help" me make cards and cakes...it's so much fun to do things with them, even if a huge mess is made in the process. And it was so cool to hear them say (and sing) "Happy Birthday" to their Daddy. I am excited for the day that they realize how blessed they are to have the best dad anyone could ever ask for. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Bye-Bye, Butterflies!

As many of you North Texans have probably noticed, this year brought an influx of Monarch butterflies to our area. Jensen, my little butterfly whisperer, was in absolute heaven. We had so many in our front yard one day that it was seriously like being at the butterfly exhibit at the Botanic Gardens.

There are four in this pic.

And there is one yard in our neighborhood that has these special butterfly-attracting trees...I swear there are probably hundreds of butterflies in that one yard. Jensen routinely asks to go walking to see the butterflies, so we head that way, park our stroller, and watch the butterflies until Charlotte gets bored and insists we move on.

Jensen got this little guy to land on a stick the other day...

Kind of hard to see because Brian took these with his phone, but there is a Monarch on the end of the stick. J was quite pleased with himself!

I got the idea to go cut up some watermelon and set it out for the butterflies to eat...er, I mean drink. Butterflies don't eat. They drink, using their proboscis (thank you, Sesame Street!). It seemed to work at the butterfly exhibit, but it didn't go so great in our front yard. Perhaps this was due to the two toddlers who thought it would be much more hospitable to shove chunks of watermelon in the butterflies' faces (proboscis'?) rather than simply leave it on the plate for them to drink at their leisure.

This next one is my favorite. You can see the butterfly rapidly escaping while Charlotte shoves watermelon at it and Jensen watches.

Unfortunately, the other day we noticed that the butterflies are gone. I guess they've continued their migration to...well, I don't know where they go. Sesame Street didn't cover that part. Bye-bye, butterflies! I guess we'll see you next year!