Memorial Day

I'm not sure if our version of Memorial Day was in keeping with any sort of tradition. We did manage to catch a few minutes of the parade on Main Street. They do a really great thing here in Rutland, that I want to make sure we participate in next year. Veterans from the town gather in each of the towns cemeteries (I think there are 4 of them, all within walking distance of each other) and perform a 21 Gun salute and various other things in memory of those who have passed on in the service of our nation.

Unfortunately, this year we have been plagued by sickness. It really could be worse, although don't mention that to Joshua or Andrew as they are the ones to truly be miserable. Plus, Adam is working nights, which means sleeping days (or at least trying to - we just weren't meant to be up all night or sleep during the day). Anyway, in an attempt to do something patriotic I made a Flag Cookie. It's really a fruit pizza, but of course, today it's a flag. I hope we are on the mend, and can put this ill health behind us. Also, thank you to everyone who has or is serving for our country.

The Happy Birthday Month

So, there are a lot of pictures with this post because May is our birthday month. We had a surprise birthday party for Joshua this year. It actually worked out really well. We told him it would be on Saturday the 8th. He got to help plan the whole thing and loved that part of it. However, I contacted the guests and had them arrive Friday night for the surprise. Joshua got the best of both worlds - he got to help plan and be surprised.

Preparing for the SURPRISE!!

Marshmallow stacking competition. In the end the boys just ended up smashing them all together - it was a fantastic mess.

Joshua really wanted to have a silly string fight. I discourage this to anyone reading this post. I thought silly string disintegrated easily with a little water. Well, three weeks later and a few rain storms and we're still finding silly string. However - the boys loved it!

So the party started around 4:15. They played and then we had dinner. At 5:30 a babysitter arrived to watch Andrew and Samuel while we took the group to play Laser Tag. I HIGHLY recommend this to everyone. We played 6 or 7 games with all different variations of teams and everyone loved it. The "fish" stories on the way home were great. There were some girls who came in and challenged the boys and by the time we got home these girls were 10ft tall bullies that threw the boys into walls and kicked them. Can you guess who won that game :-)?

Now we come to the rest of the birthdays.

These are the Candy Monsters trying to attack Adam's Skor bar.

Don't worry, Adam defended it well.

Sam's turn. I can't believe he's three!!

It was the year of trucks, trucks and more trucks for our Sam. He loves them and so now we have a great collection of trucks.

The Birthday Breakfast

We chose to sing to Sam over his birthday donuts. We ended up singing 8 or 9 times. He'd blow out the candles, we'd sing and he'd say, "Again!" He also walked around the house all day singing, "Happy Birthday to me..."

The Cardboard Express and Random Pictures

This is Samuel enjoying a snack on the steps. He decided he was cold and grabbed some towels out of the laundry.

All aboard!

The following is what happens when you leave a 9 year old and a 4 year old to their own devices. Joshua and Andrew came upstairs one day laughing uncontrollably. Joshua had decided to shove Andrew into his hoodie, legs and arms in the arms and face in the hood. Fortunately for Joshua, Andrew thought it was hysterical and couldn't wait to document it. Apparently, they would get Andrew situated and start jumping. I guess life is full of simple pleasures.

Our bathroom

Over our Spring Break we refinished the boys' bathroom. It wasn't major, mostly it was a fresh coat of paint that worked wonders. This first picture is one of my favorites - Adam was cutting shelves for the laundry area. In order to avoid the loud noise and be safe, Andrew and Samuel would sit on the step and cover their ears during the cutting.

Now, the following pictures will either provide proof of our awesomeness as parents or our insanity. Either way, the boys LOVED helping.

Andrew was so proud of his ability to unscrew the light bulbs from the old fixture.

The Finished Product

So this laundry area use to be one wire shelf that was rusted, sagged and almost out of my reach (I know it's shocking that anything could be out of my reach). Now, I like doing laundry - almost.

One of the greatest Christmas gifts ever!

This is a big thank you to Annelise, Lucas, Olivia and Caroline for the butterflies. We had a great time watching them grow from tiny little caterpillars to really quite big and somewhat disturbing caterpillars. It was so cool to wake up one morning and hear the butterflies fluttering around. We did finally decide that their lives would be so much more fulfilling outside and we let them go. Samuel still asks where the butterflies are and then he remembers, "Oh, oh yeah, they're outside."