100th Day of School

Today was the 100th Day of School.  I feel like there's lots of hype about it.  I wasn't really sure which day it would be (surely it was recalculated several times with all the snow days) until Peter got off the bus and had all of this paraphernalia.  I'm the mom who was happy it worked out that way... to not have to "do" all the "homework" activities that I've seen for the 100th day.  We have enough other things we "do".  Not really looking for more.  

Last week Peter's teacher sent home a survey called "Wondering about 100".  We filled it out and sent it in.  It felt a little like a kid-sized personality test.  I would love to know the class answers and trends.  It had questions like, 

"Would you rather have 100 friends or 100 books?"

Hmm... an interesting and hard question for Peter.  He loves BOTH SO MUCH!  Which would he choose?

100 friends (love that boy)

"Would you rather have 100 eyes or 100 hands?"

Again, I wasn't sure which he'd choose.  He may like the "detective/hero" aspect of 100 eyes but 100 hands sounds intriguing too.

He choose 100 hands.

It makes sense with his touchiness and love of physical affection (like his mama).

What will the world be like in 100 years?

Old.

I love the matter of fact-ness.

I can't remember the rest.  I wish I'd taken a pic of the the survey to remember it all.

 We've been sorta wiped out the last few days.  Maybe all of the outdoor play on Sat.  He went to sleep at 6:15 last eve and I could tell he was wiped out when he got off the bus today.  He held my hand the whole walk home (100 hands).  He's not always willing, or in the mood so it was really super sweet.  And I keep knowing that my time there is limited.  I hadn't brought my phone with me so I had him come back out to take pics with my real camera.  The sunshine added to the glory of the day!

He was just done & exhausted.

(But we pressed on through speech and tae kwon do!)

 Cute work that they did at school.

And I don't know if I've said that we have really had a great year at school.  Its been so much better that I would have thought.  Peter has an amazing, awesome teacher who is so seasoned in teaching, has great respect and control in the classroom, and really knows her stuff and loves her kids.  I know that Peter really loves her.  I don't feel burdened by too many extra activities/homework, and I feel like the flow of the year & curriculum has made sense to me (not that I know anything about teaching... but its been simple, logical and consistent).

I am so so thankful that each teacher Peter's had has been so amazing and perfect for him.

Getting Outside!

We've loved the warmer days this week.  Its always nice when they line up with days that our schedule is more free!  We went to a park and then rode bikes.

 Handsome Boy.  

Its the last days or weeks of those little front baby teeth. l

The ground was still so wet mid week so he did a lot of mud riding through this puddle.

It was sooo good to be outside in the sunshine this weekend too!

I found them playing this little game.  :)

And this afternoon... a game of Mr Shark, Mr Shark.

Date Night

A few weeks ago, Mike "asked" Lily to the Father-Daughter dance at our church. 

She's been looking forward to it ever since!

A funny story in anticipation... A couple weeks ago, I was taking her into a public restroom.  

She says at the bathroom door, "I think this is the one for girls".  

me: "Yeah, see it has a pic of a person with a dress".  

(She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.)  

Her: "Yeah, but sometimes girls wear pants and just wear dresses to the father daughter dance or to church.". :)

As I got her ready, I felt a tiny bit of trepidation... that I want to maintain the innocence of not knowing that the world tells us beauty is based in our looks, that we don't need to compare ourselves to other girls, to feel like we "need" beautiful hair and painted nails, etc.  My mom was here so we "worked on her" together- curling hair (our hair doesn't really curl!), then a side braid, painting nails, etc.  Near the end of the process, she said "OK. I'm done!" meaning 'don't primp me up anymore'!  And I was thrilled. 

Mike asked her if she wanted his face to be smooth (shave) or scratchy (not shave).  She voted for scratchy, so he's rubbing his scratchy face on her for their pics. :)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Peter said he was really "jealous" when he heard about Mike and Lily's date.  But my friend, Blair, was taking her son to the Lego Movie and invited us to come along.  That sweetened the deal for Peter.  He was pumped.  

And the lack of work to get him ready helped me to embrace another boy.

We went out for dinner first to a burger/dog place.  Peter's food arrived and he totally did the nodding off thing.  He ate with his eyes closed.  He had everyone laughing.

But then he totally rallied and made it through the movie, sitting in my lap, which I sorta loved.

We went back for milkshakes afterwards.  And boy were they GOOD.

Peter with bloodshot, exhausted eyes at 9pm. :)

Such a fun eve for all of us.

For the Love

Who knew these two would be so excited to sit down and WRITE?!

We'd done after school activities and errands.

In my mind, these were for another night this week.

Nope, they had to write them tonight.

Of course, it wasn't quite as peaceful as these pics look.  

There was irritability, squabbles & stress over sharing cards. 

(I didn't even think of wanting to swap sets for the boys and girls in their classes!)

Friday {Hot Chocolate} Cheers!

26 weeks

I'll be 27 weeks pregnant with this little guy on Thursday.
Something Mike said in the last week reminded me to think of him as a baby, and not just a "pregnancy".  I think its the nurse in me that makes me want to wait til the bitter end to meet a baby, knowing that's best for the baby.  (Not that we really have control over that!)  But I have thought of myself as someone who doesn't wish away a pregnancy.    But there is something about having lost two babies early on that makes this baby feel far along already.  And makes me feel like I've already done the waiting.  I DO want him to say put til May (Lord, hear our prayer!).  Oh, just wait til I have to take care of an infant again and I'll be eating those words. Or maybe loving it?!
Maybe I just need to pray for endurance thru this next patch of transitions.  I'm ready to know how its going to play out already.
And I need the reminder that there's no heaven on earth.  We'll long for that til the day we get there and we won't be satisfied with things on this earth.  Lord, give us more of You. B/c on my own, I'm discontent and impatient!

I totally took a pic of the bump in the bathroom at Peter's OT place.

SnOw DaY AdVeNtUrEs in SlEdDiNg

We had another snow day today!  (#5)  And another tomorrow.

This time its about 2 1/2 inches and seems more like a legit VA snow.

Mike and the kids put a bowl of water outside last night.  This morning they had an ice bowl.  And they ate some cereal out of it. 

I am not a lover of cold weather.  I turned down an offer to sled with neighbors b/c I am so bah-humbug and was so cold already.  But after an early afternoon movie for the kids and nap for me, the motivation hit me.  I had a talk with the kids before hand.  We went through the order of preparation events (only took nearly an hour and a half) and then that they would carry their sleds the whole time, up the hill, over and over.  I would be watching, not carrying sleds.  They agreed.

(High water snow pants- each wearing a size or two too small.  Peter's snow boots are a size smaller than Lily's!  But he didn't complain once.)

 We hit the jackpot.  Where have we been the last few years?!  Clearly, not at the right sledding spot.  Or maybe just with younger kids who weren't quite ready?  And I don't think we really had a good snow last winter.  We went to one of our favorite parks in the next neighborhood over.  Clearly the whole neighborhood does it.  The street that is usually empty was lined with 15+ SUVs and vans.

And we passed friends on the way in. 

Peter is heading up the hill in the red hat and black coat.

 I feel a little lame about this "dirt" hill for our CO and MN siblings, but it was still fun. The snow was worn off this part but it was still plenty frozen.  :)

 Peter's top front left tooth is loose. See the big gap forming to make room.  Similar to his lower front teeth this time last year.  So handsome!

 I have to say I don't ever claim any mom awards but I was feeling quite proud of myself for taking them out.  They just had a blast.  It was written all over them.  And I really enjoyed it, too!  I even went down a few times with them!  

It was a step back in time for me.  I wore my size large jacket from college that I bought after growing up in Brunswick.  It fits over my belly.  I wore the snow pants that I bought at the A&N in downtown Harrisonburg.  I was really hoping I was incognito there b/c I was surely a sight.

And can I say, maybe first time ever... you know there has, in general, been plenty of complaining about walking up hills and in general, I don't often feel like P can hang with other kids.  But he was rocking it!  Up that hill over and over.  They both kept going and going.  No complaining.  No asking for help.  It was amazing and not overlooked by this mama.  And as I saw lots of mamas there holding babies, I couldn't help but visualize our family as having 3 next year.  :)