2 hours of birthday fun!

tonight we had the boys birthday party.

when you get 17 boys together you get
a. a whole lot of energy
b. a whole lot of noise
c. a whole lot of craziness

BUT ...
you ALSO get ...

d. the PERFECT group for 2 hours of laser tag, food, and arcade games.

they all had so much fun!
and i'm sure they are all sleeping very well tonight.

happy birthday boys!

i do ... FOR REAL!

this afternoon we were on our way to ikea

i had drew and ben in my car and as usual they were covering a wide variety of subjects :)

at one point they started asking me about my grandparents

this eventually led to what my maiden name was.

at this point drew had to stop to make sure that ben understood what that meant.

'it's like this. when daddy and mommy got married -

then mommy's last name changed to daddy's last name.

and when mommy gets married to her next husband - then she'll take his name.

and when daddy marries his next wife - then she'll have to take daddy's name.'

i didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

of course i stopped him and explained that stacey and i plan to never have another husband or wife.

what is sad to me though, is that divorce is so prevalant that my kids think it is normal and something that will inevitably happen.

now i realize that noone plans for their marriage to end in divorce.

and it happens. i get that.

BUT ... after today i realized that my kids need to understand the vows that stacey and i took.

i don't ever want them to question the stability of our relationship.

i want them to understand what marriage means to us ...

and i want them to understand that when we said 'i do' ...

it was SO much more than a name change.

it was 2 people saying it won't be easy, we won't always get along ...

but we're in this together ...

and i am commited 100% to never having to change my name again

ben's puppy love

ben and his pluto are inseparable.

today as we were driving in the car ben was 'putting pluto to sleep'
he told me that ... and added ...

'mom ... pluto needs at least 4 naps a day.
yesterday he only got 3 and he was such a crab.
he was jumping all over my head last night when i was trying to go to sleep.
i just CAN NOT let him miss his last nap today.'

oh ben,
now if i could just get alex to understand that 4 naps a day would make him more fun to be around ...

all about me - according to ben

i got this on facebook - but wanted to do it on here so that i would have it to keep.
i sat down with ben and asked him each of these questions - and his responses follow :)
anyone reading this ... sit down with one of your kids and do this ... and then let me know when you do so i can read it too :)



1. what is something that I always says to you?
'i love you ben'

2. what makes me happy?
'when i do stuff that you can't do and help you'

3. what makes me sad?
'when i do bad stuff'

4. how does your mommy make you laugh?
'when you do jokes'

5. what was i like as a child?
'i don't really know that, mom. maybe you had freckles.'

6. how old am i?
'thirty one'

7. how tall am i?
'well we would have to measure you to figure that one out.'

8. what is my favorite thing to do?
'go to the y'

9. what do i do when you're not around?
'play with alex'

10. if i become famous, what will it be for?
'for being a rockstar'

11. what am i really good at?
'yoga'

12. what am i not very good at?
'you are not good at skateboarding.'

13. what do i do for a job?
'you do NOTHING. HA HA HA!' (literally that's what he did)

14. what is my favorite food?
'tacos'

15. what makes you proud of me?
'when you take good care of charlie.' (his stuffed dog)

16. if i was a cartoon character, who would i be?
'minnie mouse'

17. what do you and i do together?
'go to places like don pablos.'

18. how are you and me the same?
'we both have freckles and eyebrows'

19. how are we different?
'i have blue eyes and you have brown'

20. how do you know i love you?
'because you say "i love you ben".'

21. what do i like most about your daddy?
'that he has beautiful blue eyes'

22. where is my favorite place to go?
'disney world'

roll with it ...

for the boys' birthdays they were able to go pick out their own heely's
(thank you, grandma!)
we set out this morning to buy them -
and then came home to a GORGEOUS day that allowed for MUCH (very needed) practice time.

they started out practicing on the basketball court ....


they soon realized that wasn't working too well :)

SO .. i decided that maybe they should practice by holding on to a stroller.

SO ...
drew pushed alex ...



AND ....
well ...
although we have 2 strollers ...
we didn't have 2 riders.

ben still needed some weight so that the stroller didn't tip ...

SO ... we had to get a little creative ;)



should you drive by tomorrow,
and see one of my kids pushing around a bag of charcoal ...
they aren't crazy ...
they're just learning to skate ;)

happy birthday, 8 yr old!

8 years old.
wow.
8 YEARS OLD!!!
unbelievable.

drew,
i already wrote a letter to your class with you in mind ...
BUT ...
i want to write this letter with only you in mind.
you are SO special to me and i want you to know how proud i am of you.
you add something to our family that i couldn't even begin to describe.
you are loving.
you are helpful.
you are confident.
and you are the best big brother ever.
you are SO good to ben and alex.
you are patient with them
and you teach them
(even when they don't want to be taught:))
you love school and you crave learning - which i love!
(well ... except when you ask me to describe things like electricity)
you are respectful and you are kind -
AND
most importantly, you love God.

i am so excited about the person that you are becoming!
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, DREW!

you are one special 8 year old
and
i hope you had the most fabulous birthday ever!

my letter to 2R

ok .. you guys are trouble makers ... the letter that i wrote was to 2nd graders ... but now i have the pressure of having you all read it ...

just know ... drew gave me some 'specifics' to include ... and that after much thought i decided to keep it fairly simple ...

class of 2R …
7 months ago you got to meet drew for the first time. BUT … it was 7 years, 364 days ago for us! On March 19th at 1:10 in the afternoon Drew was born. He was our first baby and we were so excited to meet him! Since then we have had 2 more baby boys. Drew has a little brother, Ben, who is 5 and is in Mrs. Underbakke’s class. He also has a little brother, Alex, who is 2.

We think Drew is SUCH a good big brother to Ben and to Alex. He is patient and is very helpful. We think he is a great example. He is polite and respectful – and shows them how to have fun. Drew is such a deep thinker. He loves school and does very well at it. We are so proud of him for that. He always has such fun and wacky ideas and he keeps us on our toes.

I could go on and on … but because you are still getting to know Drew, I thought it would be more fun for me to tell you a few things that you may not know. Did you know that when he was 18 months old he knocked out his front tooth while we were on vacation in Boston? AND … did you know the new one still isn’t there? Did you know that he LOVES to travel? He has been to Disney World 6 times! Last year we went to Hawaii too and since then he has decided that it would be fun to live there! Did you also know that he LOVES the Twins? At one of the games that we went to, he even caught a ball! Drew also likes to play baseball. He has been playing baseball and soccer since he was 3! Drew is very adventurous. He LOVES fast roller coasters and big waterslides. This winter he took snowboarding lessons and in the summer he loves to go tubing. When he isn’t doing something crazy … Drew loves to read, play video games, and sing. He is on the worship team for the kids at our church. AND ... did you know that he is in a kids DVD that was done by the group Go Fish?!

Drew loves a lot of different things. And there are a lot of different things we love about Drew. I just wanted to tell you about a few of them.

Have a fun day 2R!

2nd grade homework

funny how i can sit down here on any night of the week and write -
i don't spend too much time thinking about it ...
and i don't get concerned about what people reading it will think.

BUT ...
i get asked to write something for a group of 2nd graders and i spend hours stressing about making it 'just right'.

with his birthday a few days away,
drew is the celebrity of the week in his class starting tomorrow.
being the celebrity of the week means that we have to put a poster board together of pictures
AND
i have to write a letter - to the class - telling them about drew.
sounds easy initially, right?
ya. not so much.

i want to fully describe drew -
but i want to do it in a way that interests 2nd graders.
i want to let drew know how proud i am of him (because that is the foundation of the assignment) -
but i don't want the class to break into giggles.
fine line here, people.

i have started ... and restarted ... and stared at my computer screen.
i have gone through my blog posts about drew
i have looked over my 'things i hope i never forget about drew'.
i have so many things i'd LOVE to say -yet here i sit concerned about my audience.

2nd grade homework, i tell ya.
i'd rather be doing algebra.

COME ONE COME ALL ...

yesterday was the school carnival.

all 3 boys got in on the action.
we didn't win much of anything ...
(some nice teeth .. and a BEAUTY of a bling necklace, as you can see)

but they saw friends ... had fun ...
and got a good reminder that we were there to support the school ... not win.
IN ADDITION ... i'm hoping ...
think love n logic with me here ...
it was a good example that not many fair/carnival games are EVER set up so that you can frequently win big :) if 25 cent tickets were hard for them to lose ... maybe they'll understand now why EVERY time we are at the MOA i tell them the games are a joke.

we ended the morning with snowcones for lunch
(once again ... our healthy parenting shining through)



AND ...
stacey even managed to capture alex having a brain freeze.



after he had taken about 5 bites he wouldn't eat any more because he kept getting brain freezes and couldn't figure out what was going on!
:)

my heartbreaker

ben and drew both have a special 'love' for their first preschool teacher.
although she has moved to texas :( (poor alex)
they occasionally send her notes -and she sends notes to them

so ...
today i got an email from her and ben saw that.
he told me that he wanted to write her back.
i figured he would talk about what he did today ...
or the snow ...
BUT ...
i watched as he typed and i did everything i could to keep my composure:)



mrs. levere (remember he writes phonetically)
i am busy. i can't come to the prom.
love ben

while still trying not to laugh i asked why he wrote that.
'ah ... just wanted to send her a joke'

ha!
ben, can i just say how much i love you ...
AND
that i CANNOT wait to meet the girl you end up with!