Six More Days

I'm not sure how to title this post without making it seem like someone is dying.

But we are coming to the end of something pretty big, and it just kind of hit me a few nights ago.

There are six days left of summer.

Six days before school starts.

Six days before Drew heads off to kindergarten.

Six days before the everydayness of life with Drew will come to an end.

It really just occurred to me two days ago.  Once school starts, everything changes.  Yep, I've been looking forward to it, to be sure, for many reasons.  For one, Drew is so ready for all-day everyday school.  He's nervous, and it depends on the day whether or not he says he actually wants to go, but he's ready.  He's bored here at home.  I can't stimulate him enough, nor do I feel like I do a good job of trying.  And yes, I'm looking forward to what my days will look like with just Reed - namely, how much easier certain things will be with only one son around!  Although as I type this I'm reminded what an adjustment this will be for Reed, too.  He's going to miss his big brother terribly.  

So, Drew's ready.

I'm not sure I am.

This is the end, really.  The end of my days home with him.  Sure, there's weekends and breaks and summer...but it'll all be different now.  For five and a half years, it's been him and me.  Brad's been around.  Reed, too.  And for a while, my parents.  But Drew and I...oh man, that kid.

I'm gonna miss him.

I'm feeling a lot like I did on his first day of preschool two years ago.  He's taking off on this new adventure, and leaving me behind.  After being a part of, or at least knowing, virtually every second of his every day, I will soon be left out of almost all of it.  We'll talk about school everyday, yes, but Drew isn't real great about relaying as many details as I like to hear. :)

And I'm so nervous for him.  Because he's nervous.  I'm feeling his feelings so deeply.  He's timid and shy and not the least bit comfortable with new things.  He'll make friends, I know he will, but whoever that might be, he/she will have to be the one to approach Drew.  He'll do well in school.  He's so smart.  But if he struggles here and there, we will walk beside him and work through it together.  He will find community at school.  He will be challenged and he will have an outrageously good time.  He will come home and show us things that he has made.  He will soon be reading to me, instead of me to him.

He'll be a kindergartener.  He'll be off without me.  It'll be so so good for him.  And so so good for me.

I love it and hate it all at the same time.

But for now, I have six days.  Six days to party with my little man before we start this next step of life together.

Yep.  Together.  Because even though we'll soon spend our days apart, we're definitely doing this thing together.

Oh drats.  What will I be like when he starts high school?  College?  Gets married?

Lord help me!  

Project Life, Week 34

 Our church has a Thomas the Train toy set and boy oh boy is it tough to get out of the building on a Sunday morning!

 We gathered for dinner with some new friends on Sunday evening.

They have a trampoline.  

Could they be any more fun?!?!

 Reed caught a cold sometime earlier in the week.  He's been rather snotty.  If his nose isn't clean before you pull off his shirt...well...there you have it.

 PB & J.  The lunch of choice for many many many many many many many days.

We're fancy around here.

 Tire swing.

I heard a wonderful little rumor that Saturday (yesterday) was Banana Split Day.

So we celebrated.

Because, frankly, it doesn't take much.

Around Town, Part 2

It seems as though we're really getting comfortable in our new town.  Much like last week, we were able to toodle about Midland and experience a few more of the fun things it has to offer.

First up, Sanford Beach.

We trekked out to the beach on Tuesday afternoon for what was scheduled to be one of our summer events for church.  As it turned out, a total of six other people showed up.  This is a bummer as far as church enthusiasm for the beach is concerned; however, it turned out well for us as we were better able to experience the beach as "just us."  The picture above, however, is about as much of the actual beach we enjoyed...as Sanford Park also had this...

 Turtle Tides Splash Pad!

It was a hit, especially for moms who are a little less than thrilled with lake swimming.  Thank goodness for alternative water fun!  To be sure, we did build a sandcastle and we dipped our toes in the lake.  Eh, good enough. :)

Another big attraction in town is the Great Lakes Loons; a single A ball team for the LA Dodgers.  We wanted to take in a game before the end of the season next week, so we headed out to Dow Diamond Thursday night.  {Why Thursday?  Dollar dogs and pop.  Aww yeah.}  We made it through the end of the sixth inning before heading home.  It was 10pm by the time the boys crawled into bed, and come to find out, the game went into extra innings.  Good thing we didn't stick it out!

 Another fan gave us a couple coupons for free snow cones.  So nice!

While we do have an awesome little park right across the street from our house, the boys and I decided last week that we should go check out a different park in town (there are several of them!).  This worked out perfectly as our Friday morning play group was gathering at Thrune Park.  Thrune is a bit different from other parks as instead of swings and slides, it is made up of paths and tunnels for kids to ride their three-wheelers on.  It also boasts a small "mist pad" - not a full splash pad; no suits required - but it does provide a bit of a relief from the summer sun.  It is also completely gated in so kids can stay safe while riding about.  There is also ample grass for picnics!

And then today.  Before heading to the library to pick up some new books, we headed downtown to the farmer's market.  I totally loved it there, but it was so busy!  It's apparently a very popular attraction in these parts!  We picked up some sweet corn (which was delicious) and then the boys each got to pick a sweet treat.  An apple muffin for Reed and a cinnamon roll for Drew.  Because while you can buy all the produce and flowers your little heart desires, we go straight for the gut.  Oh boy, do they take after their mother...

One more week of summer!  School starts in 10 days!  Holy cats!

Correction

To follow up on a post a couple weeks ago about what the boys were going to do when they grew up...

Here was the conversation {out of the blue} that I had with Drew the other night while he was in the shower.

"I changed my mind, mom.  Remember I said I'm gonna make cakes?  I'm not gonna do that anymore.  I'm gonna be a dad!"

That's great, sweetie.  But you know, you can do both.  You know, like Daddy's a daddy but he's also a pastor.

"Oh.  Yeah!"

Yeah!  How many kids do you think you'd like to have when you're a daddy?

Thinking.... "Ummm....maybe three.  Yeah, three.  Three's a good number.

....... Or maybe six!  Whoa!  That's a lot!  If I had six kids, I'd definitely need a mom!"





Bwahahahahahaha!!!!  Oh. My. Lord!   That is so funny on so many different levels!

Project Life, Week 33

I'm trying my darndest to get back into my routine for these weekly posts.  This album is so important to me, and I have so much fun putting it together, but it has taken a backseat to everything else (good stuff!) that's been happening the last several weeks.  I tried to have this (week 33) posted six days ago.  We'll see if I can do all of this again in just a couple days as we now wrap up week 34.  {What can I say?  I'm a girl with lofty goals.}

So, here was our week last week...  

 I fear Reed may be starting to outgrow his afternoon nap.

Dear Lord, not yet.  Please, not yet!!

 Sunday afternoon spent at the dog park right across the street from our new house.

Mighty convenient.

 And this neglected pooch is in heaven!

 I suggested we should have these {chicken spring rolls} for lunch.

Reed insisted he have them for breakfast.

I've learned to pick my battles.

 Lots and lots of work going into our new house and property, including cutting down some dead tree limbs.  That's my hubby with a chainsaw.  Oh dear.

{No fear!  He still has all his limbs!}

 Brad pulled an all-nighter Friday night as he took the youth kids to the Kokomos {an adventure park of sorts with go-carts, mini golf, laser tag, etc} as an end-of-summer-start-of-the-school-year kick off event.  At 36, he's apparently not too old for this sort of thing.  Huh.

 Saturday was an awesome day.  Bob the Builder in the morning (while Brad slept in), McDonalds for lunch, a nice quiet time, homemade pizza for dinner, followed by a walk through our neighborhood and a round of Disney Scene-It when we returned home.  Best day in a long time. :)

This is why we can't have nice things.

This is the screen door on our patio.  We took it to the hardware store to replace the screen as it was in pretty poor shape when we moved in.  Two days after picking it up and putting it back on, Luci saw a squirrel...and attempted to go through the screen to catch it.  Awesome.

Around Town

One of the recurring themes we have heard about Midland since our very first visit here is what a GREAT town it is to raise a family.  After only three weeks here, I concur.  There really are so many great options and opportunities to see and experience things around the area, and I am sure we have only learned about a handful of them!

We have had the chance the last couple days to preview a few of the larger attractions here in town.  On Friday, we went with our play group to Dow Gardens for story hour.  {Click on that link to learn more about the Gardens.  It's 110 acres of pure beauty, and we saw barely a fraction of it.  It's a "must see" when ya'll come to visit us.} :)  

Within the larger Gardens is an area for children, appropriately called The Children's Garden.  It is there where we had story hour on Friday.  It was "Super Heroes" themed, so the kids were encouraged to wear their super capes.  After we listened to two stories about Super Heroes, we were able to do a craft (make super masks) and play a few large muscle games.  It took us a bit to complete the craft and the adults got a bit caught up in conversation, so we opted out of the games and instead took a slow walk back to the parking lot.  But anyway, it was pretty sweet.  So much to see and do at the Gardens {there are tons of activities for kids within the Children's Garden} and we've purchased our yearly passes so we'll be heading back there a lot!

 Listening intently.

 Brad spent the morning with us, which we were all thrilled about. He even took it upon himself to be the mask-maker.  Free-handed these bad boys.  Wondering if Drew can breathe through that baby... :)  

 And Reed stood eye-to-eye with a really big pig.

Oink oink.

Again, the entire place is a dream.  I'll be sure to share when we go back for more.

The second attraction we were able to make a short visit to today is the Midland Center for the Arts.  It is a theater/concert hall/science exhibit/art gallery (and probably much more) all in one.  One of the exhibits they have had this summer is Bob the Builder, and upon the invitation of a church member (Kris) who is a member at the Center for Arts, we were able to experience the exhibit ourselves {as a member, she can invite us to come with her and we won't have to pay.  Free is good.}  The boys and I met up with Kris mid-morning (Brad was up all night at an event with the church youth so he was sleeping while we were playing), and had an absolutely awesome time building with Bob!

And we apparently visited at the right time... on Saturday mornings kids can do a Lowe's "build-it" project while at the exhibit.  It was my favorite part and both boys were pretty keen on it.

 What did they build?

 Piggy banks!

Pretty sweet.

So, let's see here.  We've already made some pretty awesome friends.  And we've done a few sweet things.  And we've seen some spectacular stuff.

Yep.  It's pretty great here.  

I'm smitten.