Mother's Day and Mike's Birthday

Spring has brought us so many fun things to do, and so many things to celebrate! We have had a lot to do with birthdays, Mother's Day, showers, school, and soccer. We love that we are able to spend so much more time outside (though it would be nice if it would just get warm and stay that way... wet weather is headed our way next week, so we are making the most of today!).

More time outside means more baths for these guys... how cute are they in their little hooded towels? Jack is on the right in these.

We had a great time with family on Mother's Day. I have to start with this picture because Ben looks JUST like his dad in it. I picture Dave looking just like this when he was a two year old.

Steve was the hero of the day because he gave all four kids rides in this pretty awesome car, or, box.

One of the best parts of the day was when Nana opened her gifts and found a cell phone! She has no idea how to use it, but it's a 'just in case' kind of phone for when she is at doctor's appointments or out shopping. One of us will have to go down and give her a little lesson in how to use it. How great would it be if we could get her to text?

Can you hear me now?

Jen made a ton of appetizers and Katie, of course, brought her creative desserts.

In honor of the royal wedding- fruit with a fascinator.

The kids, as usual, had a lot of fun playing together.

And Mairead helped all the moms to open their gifts.

Mother's Day was also Mike's birthday. We hope he had a great day and we are excited to celebrate with him as a full fledged brother in law (as soon as they set a date... stay tuned...).

School is going pretty well for Mairead. She still has a lot of anxiety about going and shows some resistance to getting ready, getting in the car, etc. It's hard to see her get so worked up about it, but she seems to be ok once she gets there. She will be staying in the same class with the same teacher next year, so we hope that she is able to settle in easily in September. Soccer is still pretty rough. We will try again tomorrow to see if she likes it any better when the weather is a little warmer. Right now, we are just working on her staying near the field. She doesn't have to play, but we'd like her to feel more comfortable with just being around the noise and the crowd. Sports have always been a big part of our lives so we hope that our kids enjoy them, too.

At home, the kids are playing with each other a lot more (mostly basketball). Mairead has been especially great lately about trying to help the boys, offer them toys, share her snacks, etc. She holds their hands when we are all going somewhere, either from the car to the house or even just upstairs. She says, "C'mon, Jack and Ben. We holding hands."

Jack wins the award for the cutest thing lately. If I haven't been in the room with him for a little while, he will come find me, snuggle up on my lap and say, "I miss you, Mommy. I miss you."
Seriously. Talk about melting my heart.

We had a fun playdate this morning- I wish I had brought my camera because the group included FIVE sets of twins plus two siblings. Not only were there five sets of twins, four sets were two year olds (and one set of three year olds). Add in another 3 year old and a 16 month old, and it was crazy! The kids did well playing together, except that Jack found a basketball hoop and assumed it was his personal hoop.

After school and naps, we are off to the playground to make the most of the weather. We have soccer tomorrow and a birthday party on Sunday, plus a million things to do around here. Let's hope we get SOME sun for the weekend!

Playdate, Playgroup, and plenty of other things

First, I need to tell you about the amazing thing Mairead did about an hour ago. She was up in the office while I was with the boys and she yelled, "Mom! Mom! Look what I did!" I went in to see that she had written some letters. She said, "I write your names." And sure enough, she almost did. I swear- I have not worked on this with her- I have never had her practice writing our names or anything. She has asked me in the past to write out 'Jack, Ben,' etc, and then she came up with this,

Mom (amazing, right?) And it's on a heart... best thing ever!


The shamrock has 'Dad' and the heart has "Mairead" She usually spells her name correctly- guess she got distracted today.


The brown is 'Jack' and the orange is 'Ben.' Though, I suppose we could call him 'Blade' from now on!

I just marvel at how far she has come in the past year... even in the past few months. School is going really well for her and she makes progress at home every day. Little things like this mean so much to us, especially since we had a tough few days with her. On Thursday, I went to pick her up from school and her teacher came to the door and beckoned me to come in. Mairead was hysterical. Sobbing to the point of not being able to catch her breath. She flung herself into my arms and clung to me so tightly- she was shaking. The teacher had no idea what happened. The kids were lining up to come outside as they do every day, and all of a sudden Mairead burst into tears and dropped to the ground. She couldn't tell anyone what was wrong and she was so incredibly upset. It was hard to see her like that. The teacher felt terrible about it because she wasn't able to figure out why she was so upset, and she wasn't able to console her. Those moments are really, really hard for me. I hate that my sweet girl can be so scared and not be able to communicate why or what she needs. It must be such a lonely and terrifying feeling, and I hate knowing that she feels that way.

She did go to school the next day without a problem, so that was encouraging. She does like school, though she still has a lot of anxiety about it. I think each week is a little better than the one before. We really like her teacher and know that she is in good hands; we just wish it were easier for her.

Soccer is another thing that is hard for her. Dave took her this past Saturday and she was too scared to go on the field with her team. Dave actually left, but then Jen called to say she was at the field, so Dave took Mairead back and Jen was able to coerce her to go sit on the sidelines and at least watch. She did that for a few minutes and did run on to the field at one point, but it was too much for her. It is very loud and very crowded there, and I think she just has a hard time processing everything. We will just keep encouraging her to at least go and watch the other kids, and maybe try to get her on the field occasionally. We want her to be able to participate in team sports and to be able to enjoy them, but it's going to take baby steps to get her there.

Those days are hard for us. It's tough to see her be upset and difficult to have it so obvious that she is struggling with things that are just 'normal' or fun activities for most kids. No parent wants his/her child to struggle, and to see her facing this at such a young age is hard. But, we know that she is amazing and that she has made such great progress. We can't wait for the day when she is just one of the kids and she is out running around and having fun with everyone else.

She made steps toward that at our playdate today! We met up with some of my 'mom friends' and their kids and enjoyed the beautiful weather! Mairead did well with the other kids- even sharing her coloring books and crayons, trying to swing with another little girl, and even giving out hugs when the day was over. One of the moms made my day- she had met Mairead about six months ago and commented how far she has come since then. Mairead was answering questions, making eye contact, etc, and last time we were together, she wasn't doing that. It was really nice to hear that- thanks, Katie!

There were four of us moms with 8 kids (and one on the way) between us. Each of us has a three year old girl, so it was nice to get them together. And, three of the little girls have little brothers!

Last week, Mairead had picture day at her school. She wore this outfit because *I* wore it for picture day when I was in kindergarten! My mom saved it all these years! Of course, I was 5 when I wore it and Mairead is 3, and it was short on her! I hope the pictures came out well- I will post them when I have them!

We have been going to playgroup at a local church once or twice a week for a while now, and the other day I brought the camera. We spend so much time there, I figured we should have some pictures!

Jack-- yes- the notebooks come to playgroup, too.

This was a great moment- Mairead and a little boy (who doesn't speak much) actually played together and worked together to build a tower of blocks. It was really nice to see them enjoy interacting.

On Easter Sunday, we visited with our cousins and the kids had a great time! Mairead enjoyed a 'royal wedding' donut for dessert.

Apparently, hanging out with the big kids is exhausting.

We discovered that Jack LOVES Bugles. He seriously couldn't get enough of them!

Mairead worked on some Easter projects that we sent to Grandma and Rachael. We hope they made it through the mail safely!

This is old news, but the boys had their first 'real' haircuts just a few days before Easter. It was time to let those curly baby 'dos' go... no more babies- just two big boys!

The before (Jack)

Ben

It was hard to get pictures of the actual haircut since we had the boys go at the same time, and they sat on our laps for the cuts. But here's Jack in the chair.

And Ben on Daddy's lap.

The 'after,' still with notebooks in hand...

Thanks for checking in with us!

Fake Easter Picture Eggstravaganza

I hope you have some time on your hands because there is a serious overload of pictures in this post. There were just so many cute ones! Thanks to Jen for taking a lot of them. I was even able to be in a few pictures with my kids- a rarity! And, thanks to everyone who made Fake Easter a really fun day. It was great to see the aunts and uncles hiding eggs for our kids and to see everyone playing with them and making such a great day for them. Jen and Mike brought a fantastic punch to start off the afternoon with a festive drink. Dinner was great- thanks to my parents for cooking and to Jim and Jess for the potatoes- and Katie (of course) brought some delicious desserts. Christin even made these fun Rice Krispie treats that were shaped like eggs and had chocolate inside. Totally good for you. ;)





For these pictures, Ben is in a blue sweater vest and Jack in white with an argyle pattern. They all looked so incredibly cute in their Easter outfits-- I am excited that they get to wear them again today at another family gathering!

So many adorable moments- like when Mairead was spoon-feeding Ben some of the sherbet punch and he was loving every minute of it.

Or when Mairead took it upon herself to set the table with the appetizer plates.

Ben was jealous of Mairead's hat so he tried it on for size.

He wore it for a while! At one point, things got too hectic downstairs so he took his lawnmower and headed for someplace more quiet.

Katie had Lily on her lap and Mairead hopped over to sit on Lily's lap! The girls are really sweet together- there were numerous hugs throughout the day.

Lily and Jack shared little cousin kisses, too!

Another hug.

The Easter Bunny brought this pretty awesome bubble machine that generates millions (according to Mairead) of bubbles. The kids LOVED it. I highly recommend this- they love it and parents don't have to blow bubbles! It does go through a lot of bubble stuff quickly, so have extra on hand.

The aunts and uncles set up an egg hunt for the kids and they went nuts for it! Some eggs had prizes and others had goldfish. The kids were literally trying to break down the door to get into the room before the eggs were hidden.

Fake Easter is tiring!

And, of course, we had to fit in some time to play basketball since Jack is obsessed. I can't tell you how much time he spends shooting 'big baskets' every day. Ben loves it, too, but nowhere near as much as Jack. They are both getting pretty good-- Jack's shooting is pretty amazing!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day. We love that so many people are sharing in our kids lives- they are very lucky to grow up surrounded by so much love!