The boys dutifully dressed in coordinating shirts for the occasion.
And enjoyed themselves. Despite the lack of hoopla and candy being thrown.
The parade was really for my enjoyment. I love me a good parade, no matter what the occasion.
Afterwards we had a barbecue at our house that included swimming in the pool, and fun in the yard with my parents. The weather was perfect. We had our first taste of watermelon of the season, which was deliciously juicy.
And had special ice cream sundaes for dessert. Because nothing says summertime like ice cream outside on a warm summer night. (Also, look at those eye lashes - dont you just want them for yourself?!)
I even got some gardening in during the long weekend. And a fabulous new gate to keep out the groundhog that was munching on my zucchini plants.
On Tuesday, after the long weekend, the older boys reluctantly dragged themselves back to school and we fell back into our routine. Never fear, summer is just a short couple weeks away!!! Im busily planning a themed summer for the kids, to include activities that can span the nearly 7 year age span between the boys. And believe me, this is no small feat.
G and Evan have been jet-setting the country this week visiting G's relatives and celebrating the high school graduation of my nephew. Its actually the second of such trips in 4 years for G. Two years ago, when Justin was in kindergarten he and G took Justin's first airplane ride to see my other nephew graduate from high school. Now its Evan's turn to take his first plane ride and attend a high school graduation. When I met G and these very nephews they were 6 and 8 years old. The younger of the two held my hand in the car, the older asked me why I had a belly button ring (why did I have that belly button ring?) Six and eight just happen to be the current age of my two oldest boys and it is not lost on me that in what felt like the blink of an eye they have grown up into men who are graduated from high school. Much like my boys will, sooner than I'm ready for them to be. Already time has passed too quickly and my boys have grown too fast.
This weekend was quite a milestone in our family. Nathan has potty trained. And after nearly nine years in diapers, our family is currently diaper-less (minus the nighttime and nap time diapers for precautionary measures). While I am elated to be free from diaper changing duties, and so proud of Nathan's accomplishment, I'm also aware this truly makes Nathan no longer a baby. And despite the fact that I constantly still refer to Nathan out of habit as "the baby", he is not a baby. This is a little sad.
I look forward to discovering who my boys are to become. I can't wait to meet their grown up selves, towering over me and calling me "mom" in a voice so deep in contrast to the "mommy"s I hear today. I am excited to learn if they will resemble their little boy selves. Will Justin still have such white hair? Will Evan's brown eyes and sweet smile still melt my heart? Will Nathan still look more like his oldest brother? These discoveries to come make the reality of the swiftness of time a little less hard to bear. And, I still have a never-been-worn preemie diaper from Nathan's first few weeks, impossibly tiny, tucked away in the back of my drawer. When I long for those baby diaper days, I take it out and marvel at how much Nathan has grown, despite thinking he might never get bigger. Some changes, like little boys growing healthy and strong, are very good indeed.
While G was away the hooligans ran the house, and by that I mean me mostly. We did things like eat fast food for dinner and chase it with brownies for dessert, stay up past our bedtime and watch PG rated movies (we are generally a G family). We ate when we wanted, did what we wanted and played hard. So hard that Nathan got literally stuck in the mud. We were walking through what can only be described as the muddiest place on earth and I hear "mommy help me" and turn to see Nathan unable to move his foot at all. It was hilarious and a very, very, very messy situation. Needless to say, we had alot of fun. Dont believe me?
Nothing says 'dads away' like eating on a counter top while half naked (if you take a combine total of the boys and clothes pictured here, they make up one fully clothed child ironically enough). SHHHHHH....
And some of us ran around half naked in an empty swimming pool pretending to swim. Getting beyond filthy. It was great fun.
Don't worry though, we brushed our teeth every night!!
This week is kindergarten open house, the culmination of Evan's year of work will be on display. I can't even begin to describe how far he has come this school year and how proud I am of him. It promises to be an emotional visit for me. Also, Evan says good bye to his childhood and enters the big leagues of first grade, full day school. And he happens to be leaving behind the *best* teacher on earth. Fingers crossed that I can manage not to cry.
Enjoy your week and stop and smell the peonies, they are in full bloom right now and simply wonderful...
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