Easter 2019

We had a very busy, very productive Easter weekend. Saturday we spent all day working in our garden/yard. I am not quite sure why I dig up my little vegetable garden every year and try to plant new veggies. They never grow or really produce any vegetables, but it's just in my DNA to put some plants in the ground at this time of year. So we dug up the whole area and started again. It should be noted that I love gardening. I grew up working in the dirt, getting my hands dirty, planting seeds, and plants and then enjoying the fruits of my labor later in the summer. Sadly I also have RA, which means shoveling and pulling weeds is a terrible idea. Zach would gladly do all the heavy lifting and Zane helped me dig, but I over did it and have spent the past few days paying for it. My hands are on fire and I'm sadly realizing all the things I really have to avoid doing, all things I love to do.

The new bushes are smaller currently, but in the end will be so much bigger and prettier. 



First iris of the season

We also finally redid our front flower bed, getting rid of the ugly, generic bushes that were there when we bought the house, replacing them with crape myrtles that eventually will be tall and bloom all summer. My gardening goals are things that bloom for long periods of time. Bulbs are beautiful, but for a week, I need more flowers that will continue to bloom through the crazy Oklahoma heat. We finished all our planting and working Sunday afternoon before our family festivities.

 Thatcher was a big helper, as you can see.



The night before Easter the boys went to Scouts Night at the Oklahoma City Dodger's game. I stayed home with Thatcher and Grandma joined us for a trip to the plant store. The boys got to go on the field before the game for an Easter egg hunt, followed by the Scouts parade around the field, and they got to stay on the field for the National anthem. It was eighties night at the ball field so every one got 89er hats. I hear they had a great time and I was fast asleep when they finally arrived home from the game at eleven o'clock at night.



Easter morning started later than normal thanks to the boys late evening, but when everyone was finally up the Easter bunny had left his traditional scavenger hunt for the boys to find their Easter baskets. After running through the house and out to the pirate ship their baskets were finally found in our big blanket basket. There was lots of screams of delight then everyone shoved as much candy in their mouth as they possibly could before we had to get ready for church. Just a normal Easter morning.

Rowan was on the ball this year, guessing the locations before Zane was done reading the clue.

Books, candy, legos all the normal Easter basket things.

 Thatcher is a big fan of a the chocolate carrot.

 Brother pictures went amazingly well with the bribe of bubbles when we were finished. I love their matching shirts so much and every year I think it's going to be the last year we can make this work, but so far I've managed to find some every time. But seriously this could be the last time with matching shirts, for real.

 Zane even took a picture of Zach and which never happens.

 Then we were off to Easter morning mass. It just doesn't feel truly like Easter without the live animals and the creation story, but it was gorgeous mass and we did sing Jesus Christ Has Risen Today, all be it way too slowly. There were tons of brand new babies sitting around us being adorable, but we opted to send Thatcher to childcare so we could actually enjoy the mass. The whole Blakley clan was there, Able and Kari snuck out with their squirming babies before pictures, but I loved that we were all there together.

Our family celebrations took place at Able and Kari's this year. It was borderline hot but we had a great time hunting eggs and playing with cousins. There is really nothing cuter than Thatcher and Alice strung out on candy. They did great hunting eggs and the big kids did a great job leaving all the easy eggs to them. We did get a picture of all the cousins in the same place, if not all looking in the same direction.

 Baby Worth is a big fan of Uncle Zach, specifically eating his nose. Look at those chubby cheeks. I cannot get enough of him.



My siblings and mother were all at this celebration as well but I didn't manage to get any pictures of the grown ups. Dinner was delicious and we all get to eat at one big table, which never happens, and was a real treat. So now that Easter is over we are preparing for the big First Communion weekend this weekend. Lots more celebrations to come.





Field Trips and Normalcy

After years of guilt trips (spoiler alert Zane guilt really has no effect on me) I finally was able to go on a field trip with Zane. Let me be clear his previous field trips included trips to the zoo and pumpkin patches. All day, outside events where I would be in charge of multiple children. Crazy town, which I was not really too sad about missing. I was working on all these days I wasn't just not going on field trips. So imagine my excitement with the second grade spring field trip was scheduled for a day I was off work and it was a trip to the movies. Perfect!

Zane was so excited for our day together. He was going to get to sit with his two best buddies at the new fancy movie theater. Let me just say how proud I am of Zane's friend choices. Zane is admittedly friends with everyone, but the people that he hangs out with the most are the sweetest, kindest, smartest kids. At the first of the year he was very sad that his best friend from first grade had moved to a different school. They had bonded over their love of pirates and their lack of enjoyment in playing football and fortnight. The first few weeks of this year I could tell he was frustrated with not having a best buddy. As time went on he has found new best friends. A boy and a girl in his class who all like Harry Potter, who like to pretend to be fancy British gentlemen, who will go along with his pretend adventures on the playground instead of playing football or talking about video games. They are the smartest kids in their class, they talk about books, and are competitive, to a fault, about who can reach their AR goal first. Earlier in the year I brought Zane lunch and he invited his two friends to come eat with us. They were polite, funny, kind, and called me Mrs. Korenak. They are the sweetest little kiddos and I'm thrilled Zane has found such a great group of friends.

So I was in charge of these three musketeers, and as chaperone of the year, I bought boxes of candy for them all, even making sure sweet B had something that she wasn't allergic to (she's allergic to most things). Then we got cozy in our reclining chairs and enjoyed a movie. This is the absolute best case scenario field trip. He got to see all his other friends during bathroom breaks and when the movie was over. I checked him out of school for the day and my favorite part of the day was what followed, some one on one time with Zane that did not involve any type of doctor's appointment. I took him to eat his favorite lunch, white mac and cheese at Panera Bread, which he usually only gets to eat after doctor's appointments or procedures. He told me in great detail about his baseball game the night before, which I had missed since Rowan also had a game. He told me about the book he was reading and which book he wanted to read next.

Then we went to find him some new cleats and shoes for my ever growing boy. This was our first shoe buying trip where he is officially in men's shoes. He's eight and is wearing a size seven shoe. I wear a size nine so this seems insane. He also is wearing boys large shorts and his officially 100% too big. He, very sweetly, was concerned that he was going to be coming home with two new pairs of shows and his summer quota of shorts, and Rowan wasn't going to get anything. Since he's so kind I let him pick out a pair of shorts for Rowan was well. Zane was beyond excited to get to pick Thatcher up early so he would have time alone to play with him before Zane got home. Thatcher was thrilled to see him and they had a blast together.

As we were going through our calm, fun, afternoon together I stepped back and was grateful for the calmness and normalcy of it all. There was no drama, no fits, no stresses, no tough conversations or hard things to do (except a brief conversation about how wearing men sized shoes does not make you a man). He was polite, kind, gracious for all the things I bought him, and for me coming with him to the movie. He was excited to play with his baby brother and happy to go outside with him for hours instead of watching TV. He happily helped me do chores and preparing dinner.

Nothing about this seems note worthy I know, but it so is. A year ago at this time our life was in absolute shambles. Zane didn't have a day where he didn't have a full blown meltdown, about something, for months. There were always fights, always hard conversations to have, always pain, always stress, and our house was a ball of dread. All of that makes me beyond grateful and painfully aware of how amazing a calm, normal, regular day is. That has been a big silver lining from all of our hard journey last year, I am grateful for the normal. I'm grateful for schedules that are full, but only of baseball games, work, and school things. There is nothing on my calendar that I'm dreading. There is no huge dark cloud hanging over all of us. It's lovely and Tuesday was a normal, boring day, that seemed like a miracle compared to this time last year.

Thatcher's Dinosaur Party

I'm not sure how we hadn't had a dinosaur party yet at our house, but we finally corrected that error last weekend with Thatcher's second birthday party. T isn't hugely into dinosaurs, he isn't hugely into anything, but will play with the big box of plastic dinosaurs if given the chance and enjoys Dinosaur Train from time to time so it seemed like as good of a theme as anything. His party was postponed a week due to everyone in our family coming down with the stomach bug the weekend after his birthday. It all turned out great since last Saturday the weather was absolutely gorgeous, perfect for playing in the backyard with cousins.

How about the party hat I made for our biggest dinosaur? Zane picked him out for his second or third birthday as the present he wanted from Toys-R-Us (RIP Toys-R-Us). He's been with us through all the moves and has never really gotten put away because he's just so fun. We also had hoards of other dinosaurs lined up all on the counters/tables around the house for the entire week. Easter decorations are also up so it was sort of an Easter Dinosaur party. 

 Saturday afternoon I sent out a request for donut holes to the Aunts and Uncles. They are Thatcher's favorite and I had neglected to acquire any. His Aunts and Uncles delivered big time, both sets bringing dozens of donut holes and Aunt Abbey even brought real donuts as well. Thatcher would have stood in his tower and eaten this entire bowl of donut holes had I not taken it away from him. He has a real problem.

 Caught red handed.

 His brother's helped make the cake, which turned out to be one of my favorites. I bought new, smaller dinosaurs for the occasion, which came with the perfect sized trees as well. Also my secret to most cakes is chocolate rocks. They are adorable and I use them in the majority of my cake creations.

Finished product, it looks pretty similar to Rowan's first birthday Zoo cake.

Thatcher loves singing happy birthday to people and quite enjoyed having it sung to him as well. The big dinosaur joined in on the singing too.





 Thatcher blew out his candles like a champ!

 Kid's table fun!

Present time! Thatcher still isn't a huge fan of unwrapping presents, but his cousins were happy to help get his goodies out. The Richard's bought him his own scooter and the Blakley's got him more dinosaur things and tools for his play dough.

 Then we headed outside to play and somehow this little stinker convinced me he needed another donut after all those donut holes and his piece of cake. Look how proud of himself he is.

 The cousins played a pretty intense dodge ball game against the Uncles. The Uncles are all getting old aren't as quick as they once were. I also have decided I need to plant a tree for third base, there is always lots of confusion as to where third base is and arguments ensue. I'm thinking a red bed tree.

 Alice found her daddy running very entertaining.

 Baby Worth is getting so big and has the most wonderful, chubby cheeks. I got to snuggle and love on him and even put him to sleep. These two are the cutest things ever.

 Not sure what the final score of the dodge ball game was, but every one seemed to have a great time and went home full of cake/donuts. In amazing, ground breaking news no one got sick at this party. I feel like that never happens with my kids birthday parties so I'm taking it as a big win.

 Monday we woke up and had leftover donuts, courtesy of Aunt Abbey, then headed to his two year old well doctor's visit.

 He is every minute of two, immediately being scared of the nurse when she came to get us. Stranger danger is real for two year olds and she's the one who always gives him shots. He is, as you probably guessed, large. He weighs 34lbs and is some equally ridiculous height. When we measured him on our growth chart board at home he is right at how tall Rowan was at three years old. He's definitely my big model.Other than being large he is a healthy, happy, little guy and took his shot like a champ. He got a Spiderman Band-Aid which he talked to the rest of the afternoon. "Spiderman, what you doing?" So it was all worth it.