Marathon Monday

It's Patriot Day - also known as "Marathon Monday" - in Boston. We met a big bunch of friends for a picnic and marathon-cheering this morning. I love how Boston traditions are starting to feel like our traditions.

Caroline started planning her outfit yesterday - she wanted to be a cheerleader for our friend Steph who ran her first marathon today. Go Steph!

That little girl cracks me up. :)

Watching the marathon always gets me all choked up - does that make me sappy? We had a great time cheering for the runners, but not as much fun as when Amy ran two years ago. All of you who know her, will you please harass her to get moving and come out and run next year? I'm worried she's getting a little lazy. :)

Life Is Good

Yesterday afternoon I drove a minivan full of excited 4-year-olds to a birthday party. As I listened to the giggling and crazy conversations that only little kids understand, I thought to myself I love this. I know minivans and tons of kids and silly jokes are certainly not everybody's idea of a good time, but to me, I've wanted this my whole life. I feel like we've entered a new age - the era of carpools, parent-teacher conferences, little helpers in the backyard, volunteering at school, drop off play dates with kids you know so well they are practically part of the family. Ballet recitals and soccer games. Going out to dinner is easy, getting things done around the house is (sometimes) easy, traveling is easier. I've got my own life.

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At the prompting of Meg and Erin (btw, I love how the Internet can connect old and new friends) I've been reading this blog lately, and I've been so inspired by the writer. She is so optimistic, so grateful, so determined to find the good and let go of the bad. It's really reminded me how very lucky I am. I have an amazing husband. I have two beautiful, healthy children. My life is full of good friends and family. I live in an idyllic community. My hard working husband supports our family so that I can be a stay-at-home mom and not miss a minute. I'm living the life I always dreamed of.

I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say here, and why I feel the need to say it out loud on the Internet. It feels like we are right on the verge of leaving the baby days behind and moving into the little kid world. I'm feeling so torn about probably being done with that special time in our lives, even though I'm really, really enjoying where we are now. As we move forward, I want to fill my heart and mind not with regret or longing for what is past, but joy for the many gifts and pleasures of right now. Because there really is so much joy. And at the same time, I want to make sure that when we leave this time behind us, because someday we will, I'll have no regrets. I will have enjoyed it to it's fullest. I will have had tea parties, and cheered at t-ball games, and made cookies, and soaked up every bit of wonderful-ness that comes from having small children in the house. I will spend less time worrying about laundry and clean kitchen floors and running errands. And I will have appreciated how truly lucky and blessed my life is.

Super Dad

As those of you who know us in real life already know, in addition to being crazy smart and the nicest person on the planet, Steve is also insanely talented. I don't know either why he picked me, but he did and I'm not letting him go. :)

When we went on vacation with our bffs last summer, Ephraim had a really cool board that his great grandpa (right? I think it was Erin's grandpa) had made for him. Steve had his eye on it instantly, and has been talking about making one for his own little boy for months. And so he did, for William's 2nd birthday.


Each little door is made of a different kind of wood, and each is latched with a different kind of hardware.

When you open each little door, it shows, with words and pictures, the type of wood out of which the door was made.

Pretty cool, huh?

William thinks so.

I am thankful every day, not only for the greatest husband and best friend in the world for me, but also for the most creative, loving, playful, fun, awesome dad for my kids.

If I Had A Hammer....

Last week Steve emailed me a detailed list of jobs that need to be done around the house/yard with an outline for the next month of when and what he will be doing. Some might say his list was "ambitious." Some might say "delusional." I won't tell you what I called it. :)

I didn't know, though, that he was planning on hiring a crew to help him. And when you can get local labor this cheap, it's totally worth it!

I love that these two love doing jobs together. William has been asking about "pounding the fence" about every 10 minutes since Saturday afternoon.

I know all of these pictures are virtually the same, but I love how happy my boy looks in all of them, so I couldn't leave a single one out!

Besties

One of Caroline's closest friends, Cate, came over for "quiet time" yesterday. The girls watched a Barbie movie, destroyed my living room, changed dress-ups a million times, colored with chalk all along our front walk way, had a fight, made up, and then rode bikes to the park together. We spend a lot of time with Cate and her family, and having her at our house is pretty much effortless. The girls play (mostly) beautifully together and have lots of little games and activities that they love to do.

As I watched through the front window as the girls were drawing yesterday, I found myself very grateful that Caroline has so many wonderful friendships in her life. My own girlfriends are very important to me, and it is such a blessing to see my daughter make her own friendships so easily. I hope her life will bring her the kind of friendships my life has brought me, and I hope she will value her girlfriends, care for her relationships, and be a great friend in return.

I am deeply grateful for the friends she has made in our community, at her preschool, at our church, and, of course, the friend she had before she was even born. And I am equally grateful for the women I am lucky enough to call my friends.

Egg Hunt

Caroline, William, and I hosted an egg hunt in our backyard for a huge crew of the kids' friends. The kids had a blast. The mommies were disgusted by the extreme amounts of candy the children ate.



Caroline literally decorated 25 cupcakes by herself. She did a great job!

3 of Caroline's "princess" buddies.

All the kids waiting to start the hunt while the big girls from across the street hid the eggs...

The hunt begins!

William was so not into picking up eggs. He was into eating the candy, though.

Lots and Lots of Easter Pics

I had a realization while shopping for Easter candy last week: I won't always have little ones in my house for holidays. I know this is pretty obvious, but it literally made my heart race. All the hard work, all the cooking, all the shopping and planning is so worth it to make their holidays extra-special while they are young and truly believe in the magic of it. Here's a peek at how we made this Easter special.

We dyed eggs...

The Easter bunny had baskets chock-ful of goodies carefully hidden for Caroline and William to find on Easter morning...

We dressed up in our spring finest and had a photo shoot before church...

Hey, look! Proof that I was there, too!

Nana and Papa helped us celebrate...

We had an egg hunt at church...

I hope you will remember the Easter of 2010 as special, my little ones.