Deja Vu

Justin and I are home tonight with only Silas at home. Ella and Mason have sleepovers this evening. Anytime we just have Si at home we always flash back to the "just Mason" days. Especially tonight since we are in the finished basement which is nice and cozy and reminds us of our old living room across the street.

This boy...I love this kid so much. Even as rotten as he can be...

His ball got run over in the soccer field parking lot. He was not pleased. This face says it all...
but he ended up getting a pretty snazzy neon blue and green ball to replace this one, so that made him happier!






He's been reading like a champ. It's really amazing what he's learned this year. His teacher continues to say how amazed she is with his math abilities and he's been LOVING the science they have been doing in class. He's so excited to come home and tell us all about it!

 Thursday evening Ella had soccer practice and just Silas and I were home.  We hadn't been outside much because it has been pretty chilly and rainy lately. The sun came out and we decided to run down to the school for a little fun and exercise.  The sky was looking beautiful from the mix of the rainy day, sun coming out and setting.  I snapped this picture with my iPhone and I think it will get added to one of my eternal favorites of the kids.

Ella and Silas were looking at the kids' baby books last week and as I was flipping through, I saw this picture.  The fact that Mason can curl up on just 1/2 of the couch...if I could rewind, I'd go back and have a do-over from here.  All 3 little for a while longer.  Hmm, or maybe flash forward a few more months to when Silas is sleeping through the night.  That would be better!

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter and noise. {Story People}

Always playing the Catch-up Game!

Lot's of catching up to do on the blog!  The last few weeks have been very busy!

Mason got his license!!!!  I have to say it wasn't a smooth process but he eventually got it done.  He went for his (3rd) test on St. Patty's day and I think he had a bit of the luck of the Irish on his side!

(maybe wearing grandpa J's duck sweatshirt

helped!)

We had our spring break...Ella was the only one of us that got to go anyplace.  She went to the beach with the Mascos and had a blast. 

Though she did get homesick...we did a LOT of texting and Facetiming!

She was happy to be home again! :)

While Ella was at the beach, I took a weekend trip to Chicago with Beth to go help Andrea out and meet Baby Jack. It was a super quick trip but fun to snuggle with him (and to let Andrea try to get some extra sleep!).

Running season is here again...I participated in a 10k training run with the neighbor friends.  This coming weekend is the 15k and then on May 5th, my 2nd Half Marathon!  Yippee!

The Easter Bunny came for a visit and left some movies and chocolate goodies for the kiddos.

Silas was ECSTATIC when he got a Pokemon card holder in his basket.

The whole family got together for our Easter dinner at the church.  I took about 10 pictures and someone has their eyes closed in every one!!

The kids had worked hard on an Easter play - The Bunnies that Saved Easter, was the name I believe.
Guess who the bunny was?? :)
It was cute - they did a really good job and Justin was a natural!

Things have just been busy, busy, busy...Mason is back in track, Ella and Silas have started soccer and Justin is coaching both teams again.  Work is kicking my butt, Justin is trying to finish up a kitchen remodel and move on to a few bathroom remodels (here in the neighborhood which will be great for the gas budget!).  We continue to work on clearing out some clutter, keeping up with things like laundry, grocery shopping, and having some fun (we've got to a few more concerts in the past month).
Summer will be here before we know it and we've got some family vacations and fun stuff planned!

I'm (over)due for a YOSP update too...soon, soon...

Ella's Y Birthday Party!!

My baby girl is 9! 

 

On Sunday we celebrated Ella's birthday with a party at the YMCA. I am generally a VERY bad birthday party planner so this year I tried hard to plan it early and do something fun besides a sleepover or party at home.  She chose the Y and it was a good choice!

On Saturday (her actual birthday) we went shopping and got her a couple new swim suits. I love the one she decided to wear to her party.  She looked super cute in it (and I also love that she "doesn't like bikini's" - she's still my little girl :)

Some of her friends in the pool during the first hour of the party, and Silas
who got to enjoy the party too!

 The 2nd hour of the party was wall climbing. All the kids did great.
There were a couple of them that decided it wasn't exactly their thing, so they just watched.
Ella did a great job. She is definitely part monkey. 

 

I was impressed that Silas tried and got almost to the top too. 

The wall looks SO tall to me in this picture below. This was
Ella's 2nd time climbing up.

We were SO thrilled with her birthday cake.
I have a neighbor that has a cake business and (knowing how much
Ella love fancy cakes) I asked her to do one.
This was the result!!
Ella was ecstatic when she saw it :)

 Even the top ribbon was edible, which the kids all tried..

And of course, Ella got some very fun and cool presents.
One of the girls got her a dippin dots maker. That should be
fun and messy to try!

I think that this will go down as a party that she'll remember for a long time.
I know I will...

 LOVE her hat that matches the cake!  :)


Happy 9 Miss Boo!  We love you!!

Can't Complain...

I've been so frustrated lately because I feel like I don't have any time to keep up with the blog and I'm barely taking any pictures, unless it's with my iPhone. It's sad to not get to do these things that I greatly enjoy.
Work is really crazy, has been for months and will be that way for the foreseeable months.

It's really hard to complain about work though, seeing that I have such flexibility. I love being here when the kids get home from school or being 30 seconds away from the school when the nurse calls that some isn't feeling too hot. While working from home has tons of hassles, it's also something that I feel blessed to have for my family life.

While the crazies of life have limited my photography and blogging for the time being, We have been doing lots of fun stuff.

I have been running pretty regularly the last 4 weeks. Sarah and I have been meeting at the trails on the weekend and running together. For someone that usually runs alone, it's a nice change to run and chat and it's a good motivator.




It's been pretty chilly on our runs but I love running in cold weather. Even the little ice balls hitting my eyeballs last weekend didn't derail me from going 7 miles.





Another thing I've been making time for is music. We've been to a few great concerts in the last couple weeks and have 4 more already planned in the next few months. On Sunday we saw the Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys and WOW, they were awesome!!










And Young the Giant the week before.

 (YG's picture from the stage)

Much of our time has also gone into working on getting the basement settled. It's close to completion but very functional now. We have an office that I LOVE (but still needs decor and organized).




We have the TV/movie space and a new table that will be perfect for some euchre! The kids have loved hanging out in the new space.




Oh and I also went to an OSU basketball game too! It's been a lot of years since I'd been to one and it was damn fun.




So it hasn't been all work and no play.  Rather than complaining, I'll just have to try harder to get out with my camera and to sneak in a little more blogging time.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wacky Wacky Winter!

This has been the oddest winter that I can remember.  Very mild, very little snow, changing on a dime...just odd all the way around.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I took Ella and Silas to the park to play and ride bikes.  Today it was over 50 degrees and Wednesday it's supposed to get to 64 (on the last day of February!).

I'll take it but it makes me VERY nervous that March, April, etc are going to be bad!!

Last Couple Weeks

The last few weeks have been extremely busy and I've had no time or energy to blog.  Just a couple highlights.

Ella and her class put on a great play at school.  It was 3 skits with parodies of Fairy Tales.  The kids also all wrote their own fairy tales as well and made them into books. Ella's was called The Princess and the Spaghetti. They really did a fantastic job!!



While we were at the school for Ella's play, we saw some of Si's artwork on the wall in the hallway.
This was a person he created on the computer.


And this was a snowman that he made. I love kid art!!




Last weekend, Justin and I went on a little road trip to Cleveland to go to a surprise party for Justin's longtime friend, Johnny C.  We had a fantastic time and it was great to see him and his wife (Reggie) and catch up. 

Reggie went all out and the party theme was Vegas style, with games and dealers!!

Justin and Johnny stayed up until 6:30am gabbing away.  I luckily, found a nice comfy couch to lay on for a few hours.  It's great to be able to celebrate special occasions with friends that we don't see often enough.


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100th Day of School

Silas and his class celebrated the 100th day of school on Friday, complete with Elton John glasses and hat.




It's a good look for him :)

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