Simple Pleasures

One of the wonderful things about having children is that the seemingly mundane is made exciting. Take birthdays for example. Once you get past 21 you only really celebrate the ones that have a zero at the end. Children however are so excited with the concept of birthdays that they count them in halves. Andrew got to attend the whole number birthday party of one of his class mates at Little Gym. This place is pretty entertaining. It has all the apparatuses you expect to see at the London Olympics wrapped in multiple layer of protective padding. Brody Bear was also our guest for the weekend, so he accompanied Andrew to the party.

Another event that we, as adults, take for granted is cooking. I would go so far as to consider meal preparation a chore. But not Andrew and Noah. No, they think cooking is such a big deal that they were ecstatic to receive a kid sized kitchen designed and built by my mother. It only cost us a trip to Memphis Pizza Cafe.

We closed out our weekend doing what has become a Sunday tradition...making whole wheat tortillas. Although they are a little more work, they only contain four ingredients and we can pronounce all of them.

Of course we ended the weekend pleasantly exhausted.

Horsing Around

Sometimes, it's just nice to have a reason to get dressed up. The proms and formals of my educational years have long ago faded, and the events necessitating a suit now, are either job interviews or funerals. Luckily, I haven't had to attend many of either. This weekend we had reason to dress up. The Down Syndrome Association of Memphis was hosting the "Get Down and Derby" The event took place atop the Clark Tower at The Tower Center situated on the 33rd floor.The theme centered around The Kentucky Derby, which was running that evening, and the invitation said "dress up" and "wear your best hat." We did both.

 

 

Andrew must have been worried about us, because he waited up for our return home that evening. The collectively late bedtimes led to a very lazy Sunday morning. But not so lazy that Andrew couldn't get some ironing done while Noah entertained us with "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

The early spring has led to an early pool opening and even though we have set some record highs lately, the water can best be described as ... refreshing.

I love the feeling you get after spending some time at the pool. The sun and water leave you drained, then you spend the rest of the evening trying to make it to a bedtime that isn't laughable for someone over the age of eight. I have to admit, it was tough getting motivated to return to work on Monday.

Strawberry Fields

This is Agnes. I’m filling in for Taylor this week, as he is still reeling from the effort of trying not to strangle his oldest child. Andrew had a lot of energy this week, some of which is his natural go-getter style and some of which was the result of ice cream induced sugar overload. Bad judgment on our part! We had a few weak moments and the four year old made us pay. Note for future self: three servings of ice cream in one day is a bad idea!  But it wasn’t all poor parenting this week. With all that ice cream, we also ate a whole lot of strawberries. Jones Orchard had a big crop of beautiful berries at Shelby Farms. Even though the day was a little chilly, Andrew didn’t mind. With so many berries to choose from, it didn’t take us long to fill our bucket to the brim, and then some.

Noah supervised and practiced standing.

It didn’t take long to devour the strawberries, and we actually made a second trip to get more (which resulted in this strawberry cake. So good, and easy to make! Taylor and I will be fighting over the last piece later. Too bad for him that I’ll be getting home first!)The weather has warmed up considerably and we played outside to enjoy pre-mosquito season. (which lasts all of about 5 minutes here, but we make the most of it.) I’m trying to convince Noah to embrace sand, in anticipation of our trip to the beach in a couple of months. He’s usually not a fan of new textures, so I was very impressed with his open-minded attitude. He was knocking down sand castles as fast as I could build them. Andrew, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered playing in the sand. He had more important things to accomplish, like mowing the deck. Good thing he took care of that ‘cause it can get so weedy this time of year.

Saturday was all about knocking out some projects, like this one for my soon-to-be-blooming hydrangeas. Andrew + hammer = instantly distressed wood. He’s got mad hammer skills.  (It’s an outlet for all that ice cream.)

Noah decided that he needed to organize the grocery bags. This seems to be a popular project at our house, one that’s handed down from one child to the next, not unlike a pair of shoes or a super cool toy. 

As you can see, Andrew was caught in a similar situation back in 2009. 

Next was Andrew’s All About Me poster for school. It’s finally his turn to make a poster, which will be displayed on the door all month long. He is getting a little jipped on the deal, since there are only 3 more weeks of school left. I guess that’s what happens when your name starts with W, so get used to it kid! He took his frustrations out to the driving range and pounded out a bucket of balls, rapid fire, machine gun style.

Good swing, no? Future pro career, maybe? I can see the money rolling in already. (Hint to future Andrew: I’d like a vacation house at the beach, please!)