We Can Smell Summer...

School might not be out yet, but we are spending our afternoons with the Slip-n-Slide, pool and popsicles!!!

 First run of the year on the Slip-n-Slide!

 Lemonade popsicles!  This guy doesn't realize that if the popsicle is "too cold," he can't put it down and save it to each much later...

 Everyone else had goggles, so of course, Graham needed his own goggles!

Popsicles with friends are always better :)

Spring Caching, Plus Some Cute Boys

 Graham and I logged our first First to Find!!!  It was a special kind of geocache called a Where I Go, and it's more typical of a scavenger hunt.  You go to the starting spot, and your GPS follows along and pings up with the next question to answer/clue.  After you input the desired response, it moves on to the next one.  We completed this one by walking (twice because I didn't complete the program correctly) the path adjacent to the Marine Corps Museum.  It was a beautiful day, and I was SO proud of myself!!!

 Snuggled up under the favorite blanket in the house

 Rockin' out like such a big boy now!

 I was dying during this whole concert!

 This was one of my favorite hikes so far that we've taken the boys on for geocaching.  Their first pieces of swag were tiny ninjas!

This whole series was associated with Ranger Rick!  There was a special card in each cache with extra information/questions.  The hides were just so appropriate and fun!

 Looking out from the bridge

 Such a nice day with my boys :)

 This is Jackson posing with the map he followed all by himself to this cache!!!  It had a map to print out because it was a letterbox cache.  For letterboxes, the cache is not usually at the posted coordinates--there is a map to follow to get to the hiding spot.  

 He also signed the log on his own :)

 Taking advantage of some cool photo ops at this construction site.  You can't quite tell, but Graham is less than thrilled to be sitting in that bucket...

 This one was much better!

 Taking a snooze

While we let Graham snooze in the car, Josh took Jackson to a cache he had already found, but knew Jackson would get a kick out of.  

Mother's Day: A Day of Things We Like to Do :)

Another special day during which I didn't take enough pictures :(  When Josh asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day, I decided it should be a day of things I like to do with the boys!

Well, I don't necessarily like to sleep WITH the boys, but they all let me sleep in and then brought me breakfast and cards :)  Then we baked cookies and got ready for soccer!  

After soccer we went to Fantasy Playground, went for a little walk and had dinner again at Qdoba!  I know, twice in one week, but it's so yummy!  Plus, I wanted to go out, but there was no way we were interested in waiting in the long lines at the sit-down restaurants!

Bedtime story reading outside with my favorite reading partner!  LOVE these boys who call me Mommy :)  

Potty Training for Graham!!!

Preschool is approaching in September for Graham, and we knew tackling potty training would be better soon than later, so we didn't feel any more pressure!  To prepare, I read the blog I wrote about our experience with Jackson, and then re-read the 3-Day Potty Training packet.  Reviewing what we did with Jackson made me feel slightly less anxious...  We had Paw Patrol and Olaf and Sven undies ready to go along with lots of delicious drinks!

First pair of undies...

...and first chocolate milk!

Graham did AMAZING!  I was so, so, so nervous!  It just seems like such a big deal!  He obviously peed all over the kitchen floor for his first experience, and that really upset him.  For the rest of the first day, he kept telling me when he had to go potty!  There were several false positives, when he said he had to go, we ran in there, and then nothing happened, but I'd MUCH rather have it that way!  He did have one accident, because I broke "the rules" a little and we did play outside in the afternoon.  He went in the garage to get a toy, and that was that.  No biggie.  Everything has pretty much continued like that from then on!!!  He is much better at telling when he REALLY has to go, we even have a little lead time when he tells us.  Not very many accidents at all, and we don't have to nag him every five minutes to see if he has to go potty.  We do try to remind him during the day, but he's doing just awesome!!!  We are still using diapers for sleep times, but there isn't any confusion over that, so we'll continue rolling right along!  We have resumed our regular schedule of daily life, and Graham has no problem using public bathrooms, porta-potties, or peeing in the woods!  LOL!  I'm so proud of my Snuggle Buggle :)

Turning 33 :)

I should have taken more pictures, but I had a lovely birthday!

I did my regular volunteering time in Jackson's class, which is always fun!

Graham and I had a lunch date at Firehouse Subs--I let him steal my pickle!

While Graham napped I went over to Tropical Smoothie Cafe and redeemed my free birthday smoothie!  

We got Jackson off the bus, and he had this enormous envelope full of cards for me from his class!  That was so sweet!  

We all played outside and then headed to Qdoba for dinner.  It was such a nice, relaxing day full of my family and yummy food!  ;)

Flower Planting

All set to help plant with TMNT and Spiderman gardening gloves!

Some hanging baskets in the front yard

They found an inchworm!

Letting him crawl back and forth between their gloves :)

A little camouflaged on these gloves!

Showing off our flower box attached to the deck

Checking out the flowers

Cute helpers :)

And, of course, bubbles!

2nd Annual Birthday Weekend

Last year, I had such a good time during my birthday weekend, that we decided to repeat it!  We started off yesterday morning with the Manassas Air Show.  This year, they did the parking a little differently, so we had to park in remote lots and take shuttles to the airport.  The shuttles were school buses, and I'm pretty sure Graham liked that part the best!  

If you look super closely inside the jeep, you can see two little faces peeking out!

My three favorite men...dressed in orange!

Checking out the cockpit together

HAD to take a picture in front of this ORANGE plane!

Checking out more planes!

We packed a picnic lunch and watched the beginning of the actual airshow before taking a shuttle back to the car and heading home for naps.

After rest time, Josh and I headed off on my birthday date to meet Joe and Susie at Burke Lake Park to play frisbee golf again!  We had an equally beautiful evening and fun time!  And, of course, Red Robin was the dinner restaurant of choice.  It was so fun celebrating (a little early) with friends and fun memories :)