Peonies

Peonies are my new favorite flower.

But first, some other stuff. 

The other day I looked out the window at my boys and the Dicksons, and they had taken their shirts off and were whipping each other with those shirts. 

I just shook my head and said "Jim, you be in charge of boys and I'll be in charge of girls. Boys are so weird."

Avery went to her first Activity Days activity. She was talking about it out in the neighborhood, and Bea asked if she could go...

They were so cute together. They were both the "new girls", so they stuck together and whispered shy things to each other. 

Those activities can get pretty rowdy with that age group of tweens, but on the way home they both said they had so much fun and Bea wants to go every time...

I go in and sing with the nursery kids on Sunda, and last week I took puppets. 

Andrew put on the lion, and immediately pretended he was playing baseball (they are still obsessed with baseball), and the lion was his mitt. Then he scrounged up a little white plate and pretended it was the ball. He kept throwing that plate, and the teachers would kinda scold him about throwing. I had to explain what was going on. 

"He's got a game of baseball going on here!"

I took a bunch of crappola to the thrift store, and browsed around for more crappola to take home. 

I found this art case full of oil pastels and water color and good colored pencils! 

This is NOT something we usually do at almost 9 o'clock at night, but new art supplies, man!

Yesterday Avery had a little birthday party. 

It was the most quiet, subdued party ever. It was so strange! But then I realized that they are all Avery's closest friends, and they are a lot like her, so they are mellow, kind, and drama free.

We dyed hair and painted nails in calm and quiet. Then one of the girls exclaimed "this is the best party ever!" 

It cracked me up. I wouldn't have known that they were having such fun.

But then we turned on some Taylor Swift and things got more lively. 

It's almost time to talk about peonies.

I absolutely love how brave Avery is. She is not afraid to sing and dance in front of her friends. 

After everyone left, we had an after party with the Dicksons.

It involved making giant water balloons with food coloring, throwing them high in the air, and watching them splat on the drive way.

Dad activity. you know. 

Ok. Peonies. 

Such a fun word to say. 

When Emily dropped off Izzy, she also delivered these peonies. I can't stop staring at them. They are so delicate, yet hardy. They look like tissue paper. They smell! They smell so good. 

Their colors are so delicate and feminine. I love the fully bloomed ones.

I love the little balls that are still waiting to bloom.

While the girls were painting nails, I sat there with my nose deep in the petals. 

Avery said "if you love them so much, why don't you marry them?"

And I said, "ok!" 

and they ordered, "kiss them!"

and I did.

(The kids are kinda obsessed with kissing lately, so they all died.)

I have been noticing peonies around the valley lately, and I am losing sleep at night planning for a cutting flower bed in our back yard with a bush or two of

peonies.

Right Now

Our last game was a double header. We had fun and lost by a lot.

My kids and the Dickson kids play together like cousins because they are together all the time. A day doesn't go by that they don't spend hours playing together. They are the best. I get annoyed by all other neighbor kids, but not them. I just love them. 

Awards night at the park...

The fence.

The boys get filthy dirty out there kicking around the dirt that hasn't been rained on in forever. 

Andrew's soothing routine involves that pasi and "feeling" the underneath of his pillow with his arm. 

Remember Evan's was a pasi and feeling his blanket,

and Avery's was a pasi and twirling her hair.

I need to ween him from that pasi...but I love how mellow he gets. It's worth the braces he will need in a few years. 

So...I saw a meme a few months ago that said,

"three year olds are a walking, talking middle finger"

and I almost cried because YES! That is the most perfect description of Andrew right now.

This day, after the gross macaroni and cheese dinner was over but not yet cleaned up, he returned to the table and dumped all the abandoned, half eaten bowls on the floor. And all the half full cups of water. 

And squished the noodles into the floor.

Just for fun.

Just to flip me off. 

Mariners

On Wednesday, the highly capable kids got to go on a field trip to Safeco stadium to learn about weather with the local weatherman, and then they got to stay for the baseball game. 

We joined them for the game.

The boys are obsessed with baseball. They got the bug from watching The Sandlot. 

They "play" ball all the time out in the street with the neighbors. 

For how fleeting their attention spans are, they paid pretty close attention. Evan came home and told his friends all about the broken bat and the home run...

It was right about now that Andrew had a beer. 

The jumbo tron was playing different songs and telling the crowd to do certain dances... "All the Single Ladies" came on, and Avery started dancing (she knows the song from Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakual)...and they showed her dancing on the big screen! It was so fun. Once she knew she was on the screen, she really revved up the dancing.

We love stadium food way way too much. We purchased A LOT of it.

We talked about how fun it would be in a different life to have season passes and come to lots of the home games and know all the players and not sit up in the tippy top of the stadium.

Also note to self: parking was such a nightmare. In the future, park far away and mass transit into the stadium. 

Mother's Day

My cherubs with their new Mariners hats. 

It's hard to sum up the polarizing feelings that come with being a mom. 

When you have a child, it's like a layer of skin is removed from you and you are extra sensitive to fears and dangers that involve your children, and you are extra vulnerable with all the love in your heart. I think that is something that comes to women/mothers specifically, like it is a chemical instinct to hold this burden of extreme love for your children...so that you don't end up killing them...so that the species can survive. This harks back to early man survival tactics. 

I loved Mother's Day this year. 

Sometimes I like to have alone time and revel in the quiet, but this year I just wanted to cuddle with my kids. I wanted them right near me within cheek kissing distance. 

We laid in bed all morning watching Big Hero 6, then Jim made sugar dusted eibleskivers and brought them up to us. I was super hungry from all that laying and cuddling. They were hot off the griddle and so delicious. 

I didn't change one single diaper. I took a giant nap after church. 

My one complaint is that I had to put the boys' church shoes on. That is such an awful chore. 

You come down dressed in a crisp dress, fresh makeup, maybe a hair do... and you have to dig through the shoe pit, wrestle socks on sweaty feet, get all hot with armpit sweat, have child on lap while pulling shoes on, wrinkling the dress. The shoes are big and clunky and knock at your shins. Break your back. Yell at the child to hold still! Dang it! Hold still while I tie this shoe!

For some reason (for all these reasons), putting shoes on kids before church kills me to death.

I love what is going on with Evan and my pinky in this one.

Me and the halo-wreath.

I'm all: "alright you little nerds. That's enough."

Speaking of little nerds:

The three year old.

My current state of motherhood includes many feelings. Relief that we capped out on three kids, enjoyment of doing fun things like soccer and baseball with the olders, worry about Evan's tendency toward impulsivity, and a constant shaking of my head at the three year old.

Andrew is crazy. 

While everyone else gave me extra care and attention throughout the day...he...was a turd. 

 Before we left for church (post shoe sweat), he reached into the garbage can and threw garbage into the air like confetti, including a banana peal.

I locked him in his carseat (like, 20 minutes from go time) and threw a package of fruit snacks at him to keep him busy.  Later I notice the wrapper floating in the driveway. 

He pooped his diaper during nursery and someone brought him to me. I have a strict policy about changing diapers on mothers day, but Jim was busy teaching.  

So I sat him by me and he ate/dripped mother's day ice cream all over everything. 

(I realize this one is my own fault. I should have just taken him and changed his diaper and sent him back to nursery, but there was like 10 minutes left and it's a very strict policy. 

ps The diaper count this year was 3 poopy diapers. Pretty average).

After church he took off running across the empty parking lot, with a full diaper, toward the fence. I yelled for him to come back. He picked up a tuft of mowed grass and ate it.

Back at home in the neighborhood he goes over to Robert's house and throws landscape mulch and dirt into the air also like confetti.

Later in the week he went to Lindsay's house and pulled rose petals off of her beautiful rose bush! This is mortifying. I feel so bad. He is grounded from playing over there for a few days. 

Yesterday at the ball game he wandered around the empty stadium seats, found an abandoned can of beer, and took a drink. 

See what I mean? He's completely insane. 

Soccer!

I kinda thought I would be ready for the season to end, and that I would get sick of coaching,

but I am surprised at how much I love every second of it. 

I love getting out of the house and putting on my teacher hat, and researching drills.

I love love the team. They are so fun and have improved so much.

Our neighbor Bea, pulling the wagon here, is our top scorer and about a foot taller than everyone else. So glad she is on our team. 

Warming up.

We were playing the other Blaine team this game, so we had to wear different color shirts. That's why we aren't in our usual too big uniform shirts.

I try and keep my trap shut during games, but it's hard.

Half time pep talk. It was 0-0 at this point, but we ended up winning 3-0. 

woo hoo!