Sizzling Summer

The kids and I have been loving the warm weather. It perfectly coincides with me trying to be more active with them. We have been to the park or out in the yard for playtime every single day for the last week and it's awesome!

Phoebe had her school concert. I'll see if I can figure out how to get the videos I took on here at some point. She was adorable. And I love the feeling of excitement in the air. School still goes for another week and a half unlike last year when the concert was the final day of preschool, but Phoebe still had school end gifts for her teachers and students. They all loved them.

This next week we have our seventh wedding anniversary, Phoebe's fifth birthday, a home tour in a house I think will be THE one, a field trip to the zoo where Walter and I are tagging along, James leaving for a ten day trip to NY, and June coming in with the heat!

I've been registering kids for their summer activities. I had delayed much of it foolishly because I thought we were moving to Oakland. I should have done all the registrations and just pulled them if needed. So, I got Phoebe on the waitlist for summer school. One of her teachers this year will be teaching it, and she'd get an opportunity to be with her school friends for a few more weeks. She's also officially signed up for T-ball. I believe she's doing dance (she wants to, I'm trying to figure out what day/time works).

Poor little Wally finished his last day of 'school'. I love that the high school kitty corner to our house offered this program. There were about eight students that held a daycare program three mornings a week for 2-4 year olds. Walter LOVED his school. And he loved seeing Miss Erin, a girl we had babysit for us a few times prior to his school. I contacted her about offering a summer program since Phoebe's calendar is full, but there isn't much for two year olds. We'll essentially have the Boberman head over to her house (or ours if Phoebe is at summer school) for Erin to read to him, do projects and some learning worksheets. We're thinking one or two days a week. I love that she's helping me out with this.

I'm super excited for summer to be here. I'm not happy that a 10 day span has to happen before it where I'll be alone with the kids, but we will be fine. Phoebe has school until June 5. There's the library reading program to sign up for both kids. And we have enough outdoor toys to keep them occupied outside and the inside of the house clean (*chuckle*).

Phoebe at Walter outside her dance recital.

Phoebe and her boquet collection (birthday party, dance recital, and school concert).

Birthday Girl

Soon our little baby girl will be five years old. I don't even know how that is possible. Life really does fly by in the blink of an eye. Phoebe is full of curiosity, compassion, and smarts. She's the best big sister a brother could ask for. She loves school, crafts, playing at the park, visiting her grandmas and other family, and helping me with any task she can.

We celebrated her birthday with my mom's side on Mother's Day weekend. It was the weekend of birthdays since there are a ton of them in May and June. Phoebe was blessed to receive a fancy new carseat (goes up to 120 pounds as a booster), dresses, a collection of porcelein dolls, craft supplies and much more. We spent a nice day playing outside and cooking out.

This year we decided to do a small party with her school friends. I had looked into party places like Monkey Joe's, but we didn't want to spend $200+ on a crazy party. Phoebe had picked out a book from her school scholastic order called A Little Fairy Magic by Julia Hubery. We didn't realize it at the time, but the story is about a mouse named Phoebe! She gets a new fairy outfit from her parents for her birthday and she tries to do some fairy magic.

Phoebe actually came up with the idea of doing a fairy birthday party around that book. She picked five friends for her fifth birthday party. I got to work figuring out how to do a magical party on a small scale at our house. I ordered costumes for Phoebe and all the guests from a website called Halo Heaven. The girls received a pink leotard with attached tutu, miniature fairy wings, wand, and halo headpiece. And I saw an idea on pinterest for little fairy houses (bird houses). Oriental Trading company had an inexpensive pack of houses that locked together. I also ordered some glittery butterflies, pink jewels, and flowers for the girls to use in addition to markers.

The girls had so much fun. Luckily two moms stayed to help wrangle all the fairies. The party was only scheduled for two hours since the kids were ages 4-5 and I figured that would be plenty of time to read the book, decorate fairy houses, eat cupcakes and open gifts.  We ended up having enough time to play in the kids' freshly organized playroom. The girls loved the baby toys and dollhouse.

I'm trying to upload pictures, but they are just showing up as red X's. Boo. I also have some pictures from the park. The kids ask every single day to go to the park. Last week I packed a lunch and we spent two hours there. It is so special to make those memories with the kids.

Photo Book

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Go Go Go

Life is busy. That's a fact. With summer fast approaching that seems especially true for the weekends. Since my last post, we've had birthday celebrations, school graduations, many house hunting excursions, and changes around our home.

May seems to be one of the busiest months of our year. Nick finished his semester at UWW. He was  totally part of our family these last few months. He was such an invaluable helper with the kids, third and fourth hand for me around the house, and support for James as well. He even helped give input as we've searched for homes in a pretty wide radius from Jefferson that will fit our family, work for James commute to work and Phoebe's commute to St. Joe's for kindergarten, and not have any tenants on the floor above waking our napping babies!

Phoebe will turn five this month. We've celebrated with my mom's side already on Mother's Day weekend. And she has a very small fairy party scheduled for this weekend where she will dress up and decorate fairy houses with her friends.  We will also celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary.

Tax season might have ended on paper in April, but James is still busy as ever. The suckiness of tax season was so lightened by having Nick around. I was even able to attend some Mary Kay events and teach religious education again this year. Poor James is still playing catch up and having some very stressful days even halfway through May.

I'll have some new pictures to load in the next few days. Even if our phones are a little expensive, I don't hesitate to give it to the kids for some much needed occupied time. They had it last Friday morning when I was running around trying to get Phoebe ready for school. And I haven't seen it since. I didn't realize all of the non-phone call or text ways that I use it. Phoebe ran a mile race with my dad on Mother's Day, and I had to pay $21 to buy two 4 x 6's because I didn't think to grab my very expensive but rarely used camera. The kids and I did go to the park after Phoebe's school today and I brought it with to get some updated pictures. It will be nice to have some non Instagram photos to share. And soon I will have Phoebe party pictures and five year old photoshoot to share too :)

Eesh! Sorry

Alrighty, we are still in tax season and I'm using that again. These passed months have flown by. How did St Patty's Day and Easter come and go without any cute blog posts?! Bad blogger, bad mommy recorder. Let's get updated with some pictures since this is such a better spot to record those memories compared to facebook and instagram :)

This family picture was taken on the weekend of Dad's church play. It was neat to see him in a project that he did outside of work, just for him.

Phoebe all dressed up for school picture day

 My birthday breakfast. I made fun pancakes with my new pancake pen including Mickey Mouse for the kids.

 Our house is crazy obsessed with puzzles right now.

Now you've seen some updated pics from the last few months. We've survived winter and loved the unusual heat wave of March. The park is definitely one of our favorite spots especially with a nice packed lunch and bottle of bubbles. The kids are hanging in there with our ongoing house search and had their first non-family babysitter when we went to look at houses one day. This will happen from time to time as I'm pouring myself into my Mary Kay business. Yes, I do love being home with them. And I've falsely used that to delay the grunt work that needs to be done to get it off the ground. Seminar is in July and James will be accompanying me as well. My goal is to add 50 new customers to my base by that time. I've lived in Jefferson for over six years and it is time I met new wonderful women!

Phoebe is still doing dance and is also in a six week gymnastics program. She is always a little hesitant at these classes, but ends up loving them and blossoming. I enjoy seeing her use her energy in such activites. She loves her 4K class and is starting to get really exciting for a new school for kindergarten. She's planning on a Chuck E Cheese party for her birthday where she says they have a really big room for parties. I believe she is thinking of the room at Flabbergast where her friend had his party or possibly the rooms at Monkey Joes. Either way, we'll have to figure it out soon and book something. Can't believe in a little over a month she'll be five years old!

Walter starts his 'school' tomorrow. There's a program at the high school for students to watch kids in a classroom setting. The class is under two hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The important thing is that Walter's time and Phoebe's are at the same time! That means time for Mary Kay calls, cleaning without immediate uncleaning, and anything else I need to get done during the day. The little man will also start potty training soon. He's ready in some ways like screaming poop immediately after he goes or his little game of peeing on the bath rug any time he can before bath. He has big boy underware that he adores in Thomas the Train and Toy Story, so I just need to prepare and follow through with the 3-day potty training over a long weekend.

I hope (as always) to update a lot more frequently. I'm currently reading Bloom by Kelle Hampton where she discusses how blogging is her record of her kids' milestones and pictures. How many times have the kids said or done something so adorable and I might have posted it on facebook or called my mom or sister, but not really recorded it? Too many. In two days it is my mom's birthday. Tax season will finally come to an end (cue angels singing), although that will be replaced by CPA exam studying. Then school will come to an end right after Phoebe's birthday and summer will be here. Let's see if I can't record all these big moments :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

James is working his horrendous tax season hours today, so the kids and I will do most of our Valentine's fun without him. We do have big plans to make Valentine's cupcakes for his surprise later today (strawberry cupcake, cream cheese frosting, heart sprinkles!).

Walter and I took Phoebe in to school today to help her distribute her Valentine treats. She picked out a pink outfit and I did her 'heart hair' from pinterest. We were a bit rushed, so I did my version instead of the 'probably easier actual' way.

Walter was a bit bummed out when we were finished helping Phoebe. He was reall enjoying her classroom and the new activities there. I told him we could go to McDonalds for a little bit of indoor climbing while she was at school. He ate a hashbrown and played while I sorted coupons. Then I realized I had all these big plans for Valentine's Day food and didn't have any supplies. So we ran to Walmart for pizza and cupcake supplies.

Both of the kids loved making their very own pizzas. They both seem to love mushrooms and olives, and we already had pepperonis at home. Walter now prefers his olives not on pizza and refuses to eat mushrooms. Phoebe used a lot of everything!

Her face was painted at school for their Valentine's party. I think she's a love kitty. I wonder if it will come off during bath night tonight.

Out of the mouths of babes

I need a tape recorder. Phoebe's especially sweet and cute at bedtime, and many times I fall asleep before writing it down. Last night she said two adorable things. I even repeated them hoping to remember. She asked why she didn't have a bigger brother or sister when she was little like Walter. I told her that she was meant to be our first baby. She said "Maybe God knew that I would be a good sister so that's why I came first".

She also told me she wished she had curly hair. I french braided her hair after bath night on Monday, so she has 'curly' hair for school on Tuesday. She really loves how it looks so I guess I'll have more chances to improve on my french braid. (pics to come)

Walter says new words every day. He likes watching "punzel", "rek", and "woody buzz" (Repunzel, Shrek, and Toy Story). If he hurts you like swinging around a toy, he says sorry right away. The other day I told him I loved him and he said "love you too!".