Happy Last Day of {3 & 4 year old} Preschool

Hard to believe an entire schoolyear is behind us. (It went SO FAST!)

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL:

Sydney's "Birthday" at school today. He got to pick out what color crown he wanted.... BLUE! Also, he got to pick out a treat from the treasure box... a PURPLE CAR!

2013 May birthday celebrations

Some birthday party weekend celebration pics - in no particular order.

Cookie Monster cupcakes. Elmo cake. (Compliments of Nana.)

The new sandbox looks like their own private deck. 

Nana & Papa brought them their own mini table and chairs. 

They LOVE to eat out there now.

Silas helps Daddy build the new (WAY BIGGER) sandbox.

Silas still needs some help BLOWING candles. (We've been practicing with dandelions, but he isn't catching on... YET. Better luck next year.)

Nana was busy making cakes. (She's loving her cake decorating classes.) 

Made a lemon cake with lemon filling for Sarah... lovely basket weave and cute flowers. 

Made cookie monster cupcakes for each of the boys (to house their candles) AND an ELMO cake! AWESOME!!! Of course, Sydney JUST ate frosting... no cake. Silas had some of everything.

Lemon cake with lemon filling for Sarah.

Lovely basket weave! Great job, Nana!

Silas is waiting for his brother to join him for dinner.

Mmmm, CAKE!

Mike and his boys.

Self-portrait of Nana and Sarah

These two ADORE their Daddy!

Papa Olson assembled the bike trailer and pumped some air in our tires. Might have to have a family bike ride one of these days...

Mother's Day reflections 2013

I I have a tough act to follow in the Motherhood department. My mom made it look SO EASY raising twins and then, babysitting for a handful of kids all those years while Mike and I were growing up.

I could only HOPE to be as great of a mother as she was.

She means the world to me. 

She's pretty much my best friend. We talk nearly every day.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

I LOVE YOU!!!

I saw online how someone had a framed picture that included multiple generations of mother with child. For example, my grandmother with my mother... my mother with me... myself with my children. (Pretty awesome.)

Although, I'm convinced that there are ALMOST NO PHOTOS of mom with us kids. You see, MOM is the one holding the camera most of the time and is NOT in many of the pictures.

I was able to find ONE picture, circa 1979 where mom is photographed WITH both of us kids. I suppose that with a little creative cropping, this COULD be a photo of mom and I together... just like it could be a picture of Mikey with Dad.

I love the blue eyeshadow, by the way.

I am thankful that times have changed. I am thankful that more emphasis is NOW put on mothers using self-portraits, timers and passing off the camera so that they, too, will be photographed.

I feel SO FORTUNATE for meeting Mr. Right, marrying and starting a family. I have TWO of THE BEST GIFTS IN THE WORLD... two incredible little boys! (Thank you, hubby! I am SO LUCKY to be their mom and even luckier to stay home with them - even though sometimes I feel as if I am a little crazy for doing so.)

Recently, I took it as a HUGE COMPLIMENT when my mom informed me that she thought I was the BEST MOM she's ever known. Truth is, I had a great role model and teacher!

Sydney and Silas, you mean the world to me! I'll love you forever.

TWO: terrific celebration

We had a busy day... ate breakfast, baked a cake, cleaned the house, played outside, had company, ate lunch, took a nap, read some books, played some more, watered the flowers, made supper while the boys played at the park with Grandpa, made/ate dinner, had birthday cake, practiced blowing out the candle, opened presents, and at last got ready for bed.

As soon as Silas woke, he wanted to make his birthday cake. Sydney was THRILLED to show him the pile of presents, but he wanted to MAKE CAKE!!!

Nana helped us decorate the cake. (Sydney and Silas picked out the cake, frosting and candle.) Sydney picked the yellow-yellow-blue pattern for the cake decor and both boys took turns working with Nana to decorate the cake. 

Silas sang with the rest of us for HAPPY BIRTHDAY and smiled from ear-to-ear. Had a hard time blowing out the candle. Sydney started to yell "Blow harder, Silas! Blow harder!" because he was getting frustrated that his turn to blow out the candle wasn't coming fast enough.

Opened presents.

Got ready for bed. Went to bed a little late.

Everyone is tired tonight.

(I've been up since 4:20am and HOPE for a good night of sleep tonight. Mike didn't sleep well last night either.)