good times

This week is Spring Break for us and we have had a lot of fun so far!  Before the week started, I made plans for us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  Which is a lot of plans for me, since I'm a home body - who loves nothing more than staying at home in my sweats or jeans.  But now that the kids are older, I knew that they would need some distracting so they wouldn't fight all day long plans to keep our week from dragging on.

Included in my plans was a night out for me with my friends from MOPS {gasp}.  On Tuesday night we went to my friend Dawn's house to make hand stamped necklaces and eat dessert.  We used washers from the hardware store and sat in Dawn's garage hammering names onto them.  They all turned out great and it was so much fun.  Here are some pictures I got off my super talented friend Bri's blog.   Bri also has a link to the tutorial we used.

 
I have a hand stamped necklace with the kid's names on it that Mark gave me for Mother's Day a few years ago.  So I decided to make nesting washers with our names on it.  It turned out pretty well.

Yesterday we spent the day at Longwood Gardens.  Which is the most beautiful outdoor gardens in our area.  I remember visiting here when I was a little girl and it still has some of the same fountains - of course, you can no longer play in them but they look exactly the same as they did 40 years ago.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I have no cute pictures of my kids and our friends.  But we had a great time.  The boys all ran ahead and we moms pushed our strollers and talked.  It was great. 

Today was our down day.  And let me just say, it did not go well.  I had visions of the boys just playing nicely together while I got stuff done around the house.  I'm not sure where I got that vision since I live in the real world, but I have decided that we need more structure if not more planned before summer gets here or it will not be good.

We did get to go outside today since the weather was so nice.  John and Luke decided to fly their kites.  It was a nice windy day, so they had some success. 

While I was helping John get his kite string untangled, Grace walked away.  None of us saw which direction she headed.  So after 15 minutes of panic I found her.  Evidently she had walked behind the houses on our cul-de-sac, down a small hill, across a road (which thankfully is not a busy road) and was in someone's back yard.  Heart Stopping.  I will say it was shocking that she could get away from me that quickly and with no idea which direction she headed, we didn't know where to look. 

John was so cute, when we found her he said, 'Thank God that Jesus was watching out for her'.  Can I get an AMEN?!?
And my mind keeps creeping back to 'what if a car had been coming?', 'what if we didn't find her and she wandered into the woods / creek / someone's garage?' 'or it got dark and she was out there alone'.  It is so concerning raising a child who is 'total care' but has the ability to walk.  She will not respond to her name if it is called, so there is no use calling out to her to find her.  That is why most times we don't do things unless my husband can come too - my boys have missed out on many outings because I don't feel equipped to bring Grace along by myself and watch my other two.  Most of my friends understand our families limitations, but some do not and can't understand why I have to limit our schedule.  I have actually received criticism from other mothers because my kids don't get to do things that most kids do.  But I know my limits and the limitations of our family, so my decisions are based on what is best for us not what is popular to do or not do.

I have so many pictures of Luke climbing trees.  He just loves it.  We live in a new-ish neighborhood so their are no mature climbing trees.  So he is stuck climbing smaller trees, but he still loves every minute of it...

So far, most of our Spring Break has been filled with good times.