May's Happenings

Well it's May which means, not unlike in December, time speeds up and all sorts of fun things happen in rapid fire. We started May off with a Mother's Day program at Zane's school. Chicks and Cheerios, a morning program where the second graders could bring any important women in their lives, because as we know not everyone has a mother. A little girl in Zane's grades mother died the day he had surgery last year so this seemed even more poignant and necessary as she was surrounded by aunts and teachers who have rallied around her and became he surrogate mothers. Mom and I both went and had a lovely time watching Zane sing his little heart out. Mainly I like watching him with his friends. Zane is friendly with everyone and all the teachers love him so he gets lots of hugs and hellos at these kinds of events, which makes my heart happy.

 Zane and his teacher Mrs. Moore. He's had a great year with her this year and will dearly miss her next year.

Chicks and cheerios day was also K for kindness day in kindergarten. Thatcher was in school all day so I went and had lunch with little Rowan. I have only done this I think twice with each boy this year, which is much less than I had hoped to do, but the year has just flown by. Rowan came out wearing this bow tie, which he informed me was initially intended to be turned into a flower, which they were going to hand out to their specials teachers. He decided he should wear it as a bow tie since he had on a fancy shirt and he could be a "fancy guy" that delivered the flowers. I love his imagination. I love his very specific style. I love the brief moments that I get to spend with him when it is just he and I. It's been wonderful watching him find his own place at school, find his own friends, and hear all great things from his teachers. He's grown up so much and I cannot believe that he is almost finished with kindergarten.

Zane once again got to go to a play with his art teacher this year after I purchased the "experience" during the yearly online auction. I might have gotten into a bidding war over this "experience" that was highly unnecessary, but all the money went to the school and Zane adores Mrs. Austin so it was all worth it. They went to see a local college's production of Stinky Cheese Man and other stories. I couldn't quite get out of Zane what all that entailed but they ate pizza, had ice cream, and got to miss an entire day of school so it was huge success in Zane's book.

The kids' school is getting a complete overhaul this summer, new paint, new floors, new lights, new ceilings, and all new furniture. This is in an attempt to make all five grade schools more uniform, but also because Prairie Vale is the oldest and the most need of some touch ups. This means that all the teachers have to pack up their entire classroom so renovations can begin once school is out. From what I can tell their days are spent helping their teachers pack and organize. The cub scout troop went up and built hundreds of boxes for the teachers last weekend to help with this process. I love that my boys are such hard workers and they were both so excited to tell their teachers what they had done to help them. I'm excited for the new updates, though I do kind of hope they are doing some type of school work some of the time these last few weeks.

 This past week was teacher appreciation week which mean everyday had a different theme on top of the kindergarten having letter themes for each day. It got very confusing and we almost completely missed pajama day but our neighbor reminded us at the bus stop with plenty of time to change. I went to eat with Zane and his buddies on crazy hair day. As the day went on Zane's crazy hair started to grow on me and I began to contemplate using more product in his golden locks.

Thatcher and I continue to have lovely, quite, spring days at home together. Some morning we take walks around the neighborhood, sometimes we go to the gym, sometimes we run errands, but we never do anything to exciting. With that being said we have the best time. He could sit and look at the same duck on the pond for hours if I let him. I've learned to not to over think entertaining a two year.  Anything and everything is thoroughly entertaining to two year olds. We don't need to go on grand adventures because he can have the time of his life blowing bubbles in the backyard. Sometimes we have visitors like baby Alice or baby Worthy which he loves. He spent a whole afternoon laying on the floor playing with Worth. He forgot he could walk for a minute and just crawled around with him giving him toys and making him laugh. The following day he was very upset to wake up from naps only to find Worth was not at our house. How could that be?? I am trying to soak up these calm, quiet days, with a few hours of silence in the middle during naps. In a few weeks it will be utter chaos all day for the rest of the summer.

 We took a little trip in the rain to see the iris. Thatcher loved the umbrella way more than the flowers.

We're still trying to play baseball but it rains most days here now so games are getting pushed back and rescheduled. I'm getting concerned that we will be playing baseball in July when it's 110 degrees outside. Each boy got one game in last week and each one had a game cancelled. Both had games Tuesday night so Zach and Zane went to the early game and I brought the little boys to Rowan's late game. Zane had some great hits, so I hear, and is getting really close to being able to throw people out at first from third base. Rowan's game was less exciting. Rowan had no amazing plays, but had a great hit and he just has a blast playing no matter how it's going. Thatcher doesn't do great when he has to sit through warm ups and then an entire game. Zane showed up towards the end to keep him entertained. Thatcher wanted to sit with Bobo and they took turns throwing grass at each other, tickling each other, and eventually Zane took him on a crazy stroller ride. I just needed him entertained for one quick minute so I could see Rowan's last hit.

Mom made to a rainy game the other day. It wasn't cold just drizzly, so we watched the game under umbrellas and left with a dirty, wet boy. 

We took the boys to see the Deer Creek High School boys play baseball last weekend. Zane was inspired and left having dreams of playing for the Antlers one day. They are currently playing the state tournament so they must be pretty good.

Lastly, my garden has been in full bloom with gorgeous iris and peonies. Everyday is a new iris discovery and I'm loving it. Sadly it also rains pretty much everyday so they don't stay pretty too long.

Next week I'm taking kindergarteners to the zoo, we're going to attempt some more baseball games, and tomorrow we're headed to the farm to celebrate Mother's Day.





Zane's First Communion

One of the big milestones as a second grader is First Communion. Zane's been looking forward to this since Maggie had her First Communion last spring. Desperately wanting to wear a full tuxedo was his main goal. This year the RE at St. John's had a big shake up, ending with all new leadership/teachers and causing Sunday school to not actually begin until October instead of the usual August. This meant that the First Communion class had to fit a lot into a shorter time period. Zane worked hard and learned a lot each week and was excited for his big day this past weekend.

Saturday he and I spent the whole morning at mass rehearsal/First Communion retreat. This was the first year that they were letting the families sit with their first communicants so there was crazy logistical issues with seating charts and the like that had to be worked through. Zane had been chosen to help take up the gifts during mass so he got his instructions on how to do that as well. He was tasked with taking up the full pitcher of wine. There were definitely some nerves on his part and his parents part about him walking with a full pitcher of wine and not falling down.

 After practicing everything multiple times we then had another hour of retreat to sit through. We discussed his baptism, which is just a generally sad topic. "Why did you choose to get your child baptized." "Well let me see, he was going to have heart surgery in a few months and I wanted him baptized in case he died." "What's a special memory from that day?" "Well Zane also got the sacrament of anointing of the sick and basically a second baptism, so that was special?" That weekend was also the last time I saw my dad so difficult to talk about any of it without crying. So we did a quick review then moved on. After making it through four hours of First Communion prep we were ready to celebrate. Zane had a lunch of nachos with a side of chips and dip, a child after my own heart.



 

Saturday afternoon we had fun hanging out with Grammie and Papa who came down for the big event. Zach worked on his beloved pirate ship, adding some new sails, and there of course was also lots of baseball to be played.

 



 

Sunday morning we were up early getting ready for the big day. Zane definitely was a little nervous, due to this he briefly forgot how to smile like a human and his upper lip somehow began to disappear. Why do children forget how to smile sometimes? It's so frustrating, then you have pictures from big events with children looking like aliens. See first picture below where Zane has no upper lip.

 A full tuxedo was too expensive so we went for a three piece suit instead. I thought he look very handsome indeed. Grammie sent him this bow tie, which had little crosses on it. I loved the whole look. He seemed so grown up and quite dapper indeed. He was very careful to not get dirty before church so we managed to get through the whole morning with no dirt on this fancy outfit. Amazing!

 Here's a slightly better brother picture. Thatcher currently thoroughly enjoys taking pictures with his brothers. I should really have professional pictures taken while he's in the phase.

 Family picture before Zane and I headed off to church. He had to be there early for line up. I opted out of the staged portraits in front of weird backgrounds. I'll take my pictures with the iris over that anytime.

 On the way to church we listened to silly songs to try to get this kids nerves danced out. We probably were there a little too early, so we had time for silly pictures and chatting with his friend Chase. By the time I left him to go sit down he seemed much calmer and excited about his big day.

 Yes, Chase is also eight years old. They played on the same baseball team for a few years and have always been in the same Sunday school class. They are good buddies and I think talking to him and his dad helped Zane loosen up a bit.

 Then the parents went to their seats to wait for the kiddos to come in. Every child looked absolutely terrified walking in, but they were all so dressed up and adorable. I was glad we got to sit with Zane, not just so I could actually see him take his First Communion, but also so he could relax and not sit there terrified the whole time.

 When it was time to take up the gifts Zane did great. I could tell he was nervous about it, but once he got back to the pew he was so excited that he hadn't tripped. "I DID IT!" It was so funny and I was so proud of him.

 The rest of mass went great. He received the body and blood of Christ like a champion. He knelt for a solid twenty minutes while the rest of church did the same. He and I are going to be in the back of everyone's First Communion pictures, since we were in the second row, so hopefully we didn't look to bored kneeling forever.

After mass there was great excitement. We found the rest of our family, there were hugs, and crowds of people. We picked Thatcher up from child care and we all headed out to the front of the church for pictures. Well I thought we all were headed that way. I had eyes on Thatcher, in a crowd of people, refusing to be held, I felt sure he was going to escape or get lost. I was confident, as were I'm sure the other ten adults, that the other children were being watching and hurded by someone else. We got out front and quickly began taking pictures since Thatcher was actually cooperating with the process. When the two year old will actually sit down you have to take the pictures quick. We took cousin pictures and the big whole group picture, then it was time for just our family. That's when we finally realized we were missing a person, poor little Rowan. Yes, we had taken multiple group photos without noticing his absence. I feel horrible about this and have lost lots of sleep thinking about the damage to his sweet soul that this event probably has caused.

Blatantly missing a Grandchild

 Rowan was found in the Great Hall, wandering aimlessly through the crowd looking for us. As you know Rowan is my child that feels all the feelings. He's the sad one, the anxious one, the worried one. I named him after my father, this is what was to be expected. So of all the people to get lost or be forgotten this was the worst case scenario. He recovered much quicker than I would have expected and rallied for the second round of family photos.

Complete cousin picture

 A friend of mine saw this on Facebook and texted me saying Rowan's face cracked her up. Well he might have been slightly shell shocked having just been lost for a solid fifteen minutes.

 Zane's Godparents were in the house representing. Aunt Anna is not Catholic, but she was a trooper, sitting through all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with a big sacramental celebration. She had no idea what was going on, but she showed up and celebrated anyway. That's all it takes to be a good Godparent in my book. Show up, celebrate, and love unconditionally. Zane was thrilled she was there.

Then we headed home for more partying and celebrations. 

 My vision for the cake was classy elegance, gold and sparkly. In no way masculine, but that's ok because I never get to make classy or pretty cakes. Two cakes tall just didn't seem high enough so I went with four cakes high, which possibly might have been too tall, but I absolutely loved how it turned out. My super crafty neighbor friend made me this cake topper and I paid her in cake. It was perfect.

 Of course there were presents as well. A few weeks ago Zane asked me when he was getting his kindle from the church for his First Communion. When I asked what he was talking about he said, "You know you get a Kindle for you First Communion. Maggie and Brendan both got Kindles." Yes, they did but not from the church. So got him a Kindle white paper, the ones you can only read on not get on the internet with. He is reading a lot more lately and kindle books are usually much cheaper and this way I don't have to find room in my house to store them.

 

 It was a great afternoon of celebration and playing with family. It was gorgeous day so everyone spent lot of time outside playing as well.



 Rowan did require quite a few cuddles throughout the day. He did tell me at one point that his plan was to talk to a girl in his Sunday School class that he knew. He thought her mom could probably help him find us. We talked about how to determine who the helpers are in those situations, the people wearing name tags are usually a good place to start. In that particular situation any grown up would really have worked, but poor baby was terrified.

 My peonies bloomed for the first time on Sunday was well, joining in the celebration.

It was a wonderful day filled with all Zane's favorite people, all celebrating his big milestone. I couldn't have been prouder of him. I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful village of people who love my kids and who always show up for the big, and small, moments in their lives. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Zane's big day. We love you!