The Kindergarten Presents: Alphabet Adventures of Sometimes Y

Howie has his first public school musical tonight.  The children were darling and the teacher in me was applauding the way the school combined phonetic concepts to the music curriculum.  

Howie has a speaking line, "What am I suppose to be?  Where do I fit in?"
We are so proud of him that is brings out enough family to fill an entire row of seats.  

Great job Buddy!

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!!

Hiking

Worm!

Living in a home of boys... dirt, mud and worms are inevitable.
Johnny is especially susceptible to finding the "cute squirmy wormy".
In fact, he found a record breaking one the other day.
Look at how proud he is...

 We love our worms. 

Momma Bird

We discover a small miracle....

A momma bird is perched up in the bedroom window of Boy #3. 

We can see her.  Right there.  

We look out the window and admire how she takes care of her eggs. 

And I can't help but hope that this momma bird is telling me,
"Trust God, Baby J will be with you soon." 

So we wait.  We wait for her eggs to hatch.
We wait for the email from Haiti.  We wait.

Oh, but what days of rejoicing are ahead....

Scavenger Hunt

My mom use to set up scavenger hunts for us as kids.  We would run throughout the house to look for clues to the treasure (aka dessert or treats).  It is such a fond memory for me that I recreate it with my children when I think to do it.

The boys "hunted" for their after-dinner treats the other night.  And Johnny actually said, "Mommy, I don't have a clue!"  Pretty funny when you think about it...

Howie's Granola

Howie and I invented a new granola bar recipe:

Howie’s Granola Bars

Ingredients

2 cups crushed rice chex 

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons creamy sunbutter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips

½ tsp cinnamon

1.   Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch square baking dish.

2.  Spread the coconut evenly across a baking sheet.

3.  Toast coconut in preheated oven until browned, about 10 minutes; transfer to a large mixing bowl with Chex, cinnamon, and chocolate chips.

4.  Mix honey, sunbutter, vanilla extract, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook and stir until smooth. Pour the honey mixture over the Chex, cinnamon, chocolate chips and coconut; stir to coat. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.

5.   Bake in preheated oven until beginning to dry, about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Family Selfie

We take a hike at Caesar's Creek and get this great selfie...

My Job

Johnny asks me the other day, "Mommy, what will you be when you are all done being a mommy?"

When I ask him what he thinks I should be, he replies, "Maybe a lion or something."

For now, I am content with being a Mommy and grabbing fun moments like these:

Cousin Love

We got to see Nate and Danny this past weekend.  

Joy!  

The boys are always so happy, happy, happy to be with their cousins.  

We hit the aquarium to enjoy some family time together and to visit our new turtle friend from the Galapagos Islands.  

Brrrr...

It was a cold winter.

We had record lows, bus stop normals were hovering around 0 degrees.

We had record snow days: 8

Thank goodness spring is almost here.

Germany

Howie and I had a European adventure together.  

We traveled across the ocean to see our good, good friends in Northern Germany.  

We love you guys and miss you tons!!

Hamburg, Germany:

Playing tag on the street of Stade, Germany.

An ancient gate in Lubeck, Germany.

Howie and I enjoy the streets of Bremen after taking the ICE train from Hamburg.  Bremen has many fairytale attractions that made the day trip a fun one.

At the Bremen train station:

The spielplatz (playgrounds) were a highlight for Howie. 

At the playground at E and N's school in Hamburg:

Enjoying German Go-Go Squeeze.  Food was a little tricky, but thanks to the extreme research of the BFF, we had a safe and fabulous week...