If you have a floor to sweep, this is your man. He does a great job!! Be prepared though, to see him sweeping fully clothed one second, and stripped to his undies the next...

And, likewise, If you have a toilet that needs cleaning call Max. He has been cleaning toilets since he was 1 1/2 years old, so he has years (almost 2 years!!) of experience. He also cleans in his undies.

This is the kind of silly crowd I run with.

Ok, so I lied. I wasn't going to blog today or tomorrow but I just had to blog about this today.

Allow me to introduce you to little Gracie. (this picture is quite outdated)

Today is Gracie's birthday! One year old! Happy birthday Grace Ann! Isn't she a cutie!?

But, her birthday is not the reason for my bringing her up, I'll get to that in a moment.

My sweet little boys like to point out things/people that remind them of certain family members or friends. On any given day we will be walking down the street and the boys will see someone who reminds them of Grandma Sayler or Mrs. Larson (or any other family/friend), and declare this so loudly that the entire city could probably hear them. Or they will see an advertisement for Mama Mia and talk about their friend Mia for a good 20 minutes. Most of the time they are quite accurate and I would agree that the people they see do have a resemblance to our friends and family. They do the same thing with cars. They see a car that is similar to one they recognize and they yell out, "it's Uncle Shane's car, but he painted it blue." "It's Chrissy's car, but she painted it yellow and a man is driving it." Like I said, usually I can see why they are reminded of the person they mention.

There is one that really makes me wonder. As we drive or walk downtown we always see this scary man on a building:

The second they see it, both boys start yelling, "ahhhh, it's Gracie!!" and laugh hysterically all while acting like "Gracie" is going to get them if we don't run or drive faster. I don't quite see the resemblance, but it makes me laugh none the less.

It's hard to believe that R.C. is 3 days away from completing his first year of grad school. A difficult year for all of us, but also some very enjoyable moments.

Russell has completed 180 days of kindergarten, but we are going a bit above and beyond and still doing daily work.

We are going on vacation in just a few days and will see most of you at some point. The boys are having a hard time controlling their excitement for this trip. Each and every time it is brought up, they scream with delight and talk about all the great things/people they get to do/see again in the good 'ol Midwest.

So, once again I will probably not be blogging for awhile. Too much packing to do and too much family time to soak in during the next few weeks to take time out to blog. But we'll see...

I know my kids love me, and I know I love my kids. I know they think I'm somewhat of a fun/cool mom. We have a good time together. Of course there are the days when we clash and argue about everything, but we definitely do more smiling and laughing than yelling and screaming.

This is what I though/believed until recently. In just the last few days I have been wondering how my boys (mainly Russell) actually see me. There are a few reasons why I have been thinking about this.

Reason 1:
We stopped in Kohls to look around the other day. As we walked by the shoe section I saw a pair of red heels that I felt the need to try on. I had no intention of buying them, but I thought I would try them on none the less. As I slipped my foot into this beautiful red shoe Russell decided to give me his opinion. "Those look nice. But maybe people will think you are the devil." Hmmm. Maybe.

Reason 2:
We were playing in the boys room last night and Russell had a fake phone he was talking on. Out of no where he blurts out, "hey mom, you just got a text message. It's from Santa and he says you've been a bad girl."

Shoot. I just can't win.

*I do still believe my kids love me and I still love them. These are merely an example of funny things my kids say. Please, there is no need for concern. I am certain they do not see me as the devil and I am in no fear of being on Santa's naughty list.

A professor, who R.C. is an assistant to, was very kind and gave us 2 scooters that were no longer being used at her house. They have been a huge hit with the boys! This morning after going to the YMCA (where I finally ran 5 miles in a decent amount of time...without feeling like I was going to die!! OK, so I'm the only one that finds the excitement in this.) the boys felt they had not had enough physical activity for the morning so we took the scooters out. Russell was whizzing up and down the sidewalk while Max decided he was more interested in the ants that were crawling around. Each time Russell would pass Max (who was practically laying on the ground), he would yell, "run little buddies, the big Russell is coming!"
Yes, Max is once again wearing his Peter Pan costume. It's getting small and soon he will out grow it. That is going to be a very sad day for Max!

If I haven't said it before (but I know I have), I have the best 2 boys anyone could ever have! Today was Mother's Day and I was awoken with breakfast in bed (actually I was already awake and out of bed, but R.C. sent me back before the boys saw me so they could surprise me with breakfast in bed).

As I sat reading in bed, (as I do every morning, right?) the door opened slowly and in walked 2 little boys smiling from ear to ear yelling "Happy Mother's Day" while carrying a plate of breakfast. Russell had lovingly made me 2 pieces of toast with a generous amount of butter and Maxwell had taken time to peel a banana for me and get a cup of yogurt and spoon for me. R.C. helped by making the coffee. As R.C. said, sure he could have made a great breakfast and had them carry it in to me, but he thought it would be better if they actually made it all by themselves. He was right! It was wonderful! So wonderful in fact, that neither of the boys could keep their hands off my plate. They jumped in bed, made themselves comfy and helped themselves to all my yogurt, half the banana and half the toast while we looked at Pokemon cards together. Perfect!
Later we headed to one of my favorite places on earth...the beach! It was a beautiful day, a bit windy though. We walked along the beach further than we have ever walked before, were able to take our flip flops off to get our feet wet and watch people surf. Along the way R.C. found something that made me scream out loud. No, it wasn't a crab, a shark or a snake. He presented me with the most beautiful piece of sea glass I have ever seen/found. A deep cobalt blue piece of sea glass that is better than anything you could buy in a store for Mother's Day. We finished our day by getting ice cream at our favorite ice cream place and dropping R.C. off at school so he could work. Thanks for a wonderful Mother's Day boys. And thank you, R.C., for helping make it wonderful, and for these special boys!

Wading across a stream

Surfers

Us...Running
A new piece to add to my collection.Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

I thought I had a few years to go before one of my children came to me, telling me that they had a long day and needed a drink. I figured this would happen when they were in their 30's, CEO of some large company doing good for mankind, and had 2.4 children, a wife and a dog. I never would have expected my 3 year old to utter the words, "it's been a long day. I need a drink." When I asked what he had in mind he said, "nice cold milk, in a blue cup" (followed by a very large 3 year old sigh). As I looked down at Max it was obvious he was feeling exhausted. We had a busy day at the YMCA and then filled our brains with kindergarten/preschool knowledge, and Max was feeling drained today. He got his drink of milk, and, if you give a Max a milk, he's going to ask for a cookie. It was just what this little guy needed to make it through the rest of his "stressful" day.
*In case you are concerned, no, we do not say, "it's been a long day, I need a drink" often in this house. No need to worry folks.
*Russell was not interested in a cookie or having his picture taken. He is alive and well though.

I came across this article on cnn.com and found it oh so true. Everyone has these "guilty pleasures" and it's about time we (ladies) stop feeling guilty about them and just enjoy them like men do. I know I, for one, am tired of hiding my love for Keeping up with the Kardashians and Operation Repo. I am also no longer going to pretend that I don't enjoy celebrity gossip magazines or dancing to classic rock with the boys (ok, so I have admitted my dancing before, but maybe now I will not feel like I need to close the blinds before I start the music). I will also enjoy my Chinese food/pizza/burger without thinking about how I will have to workout extra long and hard the next day. These are wonderful little things that let you escape "the real world" for a few moments during the day and everyone needs that from time to time.

Ok, so I fessed up to some of my "guilty pleasures" and now it's time to hear some of yours...
I know I'm not the only one who has them.

What would you do if you had a sweet little 3 year old boy look at you and tell you that his kitty, Tipper (a toy cat), was having a birthday and he wanted to plan a party for her? What if a, just as sweet, 6 year old joined in on the planning? Would you allow a toy cat to have a birthday party in your home?

If you were looking at the same boys I was and saw the same happy faces I did as they planned a party for a "pet", then you would not have thought twice.

Yesterday Max informed me that he thought Tipper's birthday was coming up. Russell immediately chimed in and said he was sure Max was right, that Tipper's birthday was, in fact, tomorrow (today). Together the 2 of them spent a good part of the afternoon planning out Tipper's party. I thought it was cute that they were putting so much thought into it, but figured it would be much like the plans they have for building a roller coaster in the backyard; they would plan, plan, plan, and then ask to go outside to play and forget all about the plans they had made.

Last night when I tucked Maxwell into bed and placed Tipper under his chin, like always, Max whispered to Tipper, "tomorrow is your birfday" (yes, I intended to spell birthday this way...it's how Max talks). I knew then that this was not something he was going to forget about. Sure enough he woke this morning carrying "the birfday Tipper" and began the planning once again. We did our normal daily activities like we do everyday, but after school work was complete and the house was (some-what) cleaned we started celebrating the birthday.

Luckily I had a pizza in the freezer (and luckily R.C. was not home for supper or we wouldn't have had enough. Russell is a true boy now and can put away pizza like crazy!) and ingredients in the cupboard to make a cake....from scratch!! WHAT!! For a stuffed cat!!?? Oh yes, my friend!! Only the best for our furry friend. The boys were both very helpful and in no time we had a cake cooling and frosting made, waiting to be put onto our cake. Birthday plates were dug out from the back of the cupboard and candles were arranged on the top of the cake. We were fortunate enough to be able to skype my sister, Chris, and her cat, Sammy, and let them see the great time we were having and join in singing "happy birthday" to Tipper.

This is Tipper next to Max. She sure did get pushed aside even though it was her birthday.You might be thinking:

1. This lady is crazy! A cake for a stuffed cat!!
2. Boy, she sure does love her kids to do this for one of their toys.
3. If you really wanted cake that bad Melissa, just make one! No need to say it is for "the boys pretend pet cat".

What can I say. They all sum me up pretty well. I am a bit crazy when it comes to my kids (in a good way!), I do love them very much and would do (just about) anything to make them happy, and I did feel the need for cake...really bad, so of course I was not going to kibosh their plans!! "Tipper" (a.k.a mommy) might devour most of it tonight as the boys sleep. Shhhh.

We didn't have the balloons, clowns or Spiderman, like they were planning, but I think we gave Tipper a birthday that most stuffed cats don't get.

Just a couple of things today:

1. The best way to get around for the boys is a little something called "the daddy bus". They will let no one do this but R.C.. I guess we can all consider ourselves lucky?
2. It is hot here. Due to the hot weather, the boys shed as much clothing as possible in hopes to stay cool. We finally convinced Max that he should pack his sweatpants away for the season, and now he is obsessed with orange shorts. He has 2 pairs and to this 3 year old, orange is the only acceptable color of shorts to wear. Yesterday he wore orange shorts, bright red socks pulled up to his knees and camouflaged shoes. Today it was orange shorts, blue, semi tall, socks and blue flip flops. He will wear a t-shirt while we are out and about, but as soon as we get home, the shirt comes off.

They also have a great new game they "play". It goes a little something like this: put on mesh, elastic waist shorts. Pull said shorts up as high as you possibly can. Laugh hysterically when your shorts reach your armpits. Repeat as many times as you want so long as your shorts don't rip...

Here the boys are halfway to their goal. They still have some pulling up to do. Believe me, they made it to their goal several times, but I was laughing too hard to take a picture!

What do you do when it's 90 degrees in April? You head to the beach (as if we haven't been there enough already this year, right?)!!
We grabbed our football and a picnic lunch and went to the RISD beach. It's a beach/"farm" (no animals or crops though) that is for RISD and Brown students, faculty and family to use. This was our first trip here and we had a really great time! It was rocky and not quite as clean as other beaches we have found, but there is a HUGE open field to play in and the beach area is very quiet.
Before we left the house Max refused to wear anything but sweatpants (reminds me of one of my sisters when she was younger...) and Russell wanted to wear jeans so when we got there we tried to make their clothing choices work. Shirts came off and pants were rolled as high as they would go. They were told to only go into the water up to their calves, but that didn't last long, as we assumed it wouldn't. After about half an hour we watched as little Maxwell walked into the water up to his "bum bum" and squeal with delight as he came out of the water drenched. Neither of the boys flinched when their feet touched the water, but when I tried to get my feet wet I screamed it was so cold!

Max jumping for joy! Well, actually he was jumping to squash a sand castle he built, but he was still very joyful doing it.

Chasing a beautiful swan that passed by. Poor thing had no idea what was coming...

And finally, what do you do when you get all your clothes soaking wet and still have a 25 minute car ride? You ride in your underpants...

As I've said before...I love the beach!!

R.C. (and David since he was helping R.C. so much) needed a break from school after the show. We decided to make it a field trip day for Russell and Max and we headed to Mystic Seaport. It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed being out and learning about whaling and ships. We were able to listen to a "ship mate" tell a story of a whale hunt through song and then sat by the water and listened to an explanation of the different seats on a whaling boat. We then climbed aboard a few ships and checked out the deck and cargo areas. We saw where they would sleep and eat and all decided it would be great fun for a few days, but not months at a time. Nothing like Carnival cruise ships!!

Russell trying out the bunk beds. Not quite as comfy as his bunk at home.

The boys trying to pull in a line on the small whale boat.

Russell and Max got to help work the printing press. We were fortunate to visit this particular building when no one else was so the boys got to go behind the scenes and actually work the machine and print up their very own whaling advertisement.Below deck of a VERY old ship.

In the shipping yard where boats are still repaired and stored during off months.

All the boys (R.C. and David included) aboard the Joseph Conrad. We could only go on the deck since there was a boy scout group that was spending the night and all their belongings were below deck.

On The Village Green they had old games for kids to try out. The boys tried the stilts (only a few inches off the ground) and the wooden hoops that you were to roll along with a stick.

Max was more interested in hula hooping with the hoops.

We went back to the car to eat our picnic lunch and then went back for another round. We spent the entire day there and still did not see everything. We definitely look forward to going back this summer!

First of all, I have several things to blog about and many, many (probably too many) pictures I would like to share with you, so I am going to try to crank out 3 postings today. Yes, you heard that right, 3 postings today. Whoa!! They are going to be filled with pictures and probably (hopefully) very little writing.

Thursday night was an art show that the boys have been waiting to go to for weeks. PYT was a huge success! R.C., along with his sculpture grad classmates, rented a space downtown and had a fantastic show. I, of course, was not thinking. I got pictures of the boys doing silly things, but no pictures of R.C.'s piece. What's wrong with me!!?? But, here's a few pictures of the boys as they danced on this piece of art. They had quite a crowd around them as they danced...to no music. (I believe there is a video of these tiny dancers out there somewhere. Maybe we will get our hands on it sometime soon...)
Here the boys are sitting in a piece of art. A car. This is with the hood up. They LOVED sitting in the car and pretending to drive. They sat in here for at least 15-20 minutes, switching seats often so they each got to drive.

The show was, if I didn't already say, awesome! The place was packed and everyone was having a great time! We ended up staying until after 9:00 pm. At that time the boys had had all the fun they possibly could have. Max was beginning to fall asleep so we decided to leave and go celebrate the success of the show with ice cream at home. The boys didn't get into bed until well after 10:00 pm!! Great job R.C. and all you other PYT-ers!!

Oh, and, this is what happens when I try to have the boys "rest" in the afternoon so I can catch up on blogging (and so they don't fall asleep on the way to R.C.'s show tonight)...

There is just no shaking these 2.

Growing up we were always taught to recycle and pick up trash. My father, and some of his brothers, are the kings of recycling. When we were young it was annoying (I'm not going to lie). We would dread hearing the words, "come on girls, let's go sort cardboard". With a furniture business there was A LOT of cardboard that passed through our hands and each and every piece was sorted and recycled or reused. My father's recycling was so neat and organized when it was set at the curb for pickup, that it almost made it sad to watch it get crushed in the recycling truck. At home we would string milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles on a string to keep them nice and neat and easy to grab for the recycling men. We would take walks on Sunday afternoon to pick up cans along the country roads and we would spend Labor Day (or was it Memorial Day? Or was it both?) cleaning the garage and smashing pop cans so they could be recycled.

When we got older we found humor in recycling. I remember one specific time when all the Soman family got together for pizza and when the meal was over and people were ready to leave, everyone (well, maybe just my dad and his brothers) wanted to take the pizza boxes home with them for their recycling. They each thought these pizza boxes would be a wonderful addition to their weekly recycling pile. I don't remember who actually won rights the boxes, but I do remember laughing, along with sisters and cousins, until we cried, at these grown men who LOVED to recycle. You name it, and we recycled or reused it in some way.

Due to all this, recycling is just what we do now without even thinking (my phone even says "recycle" as the wallpaper, for crying out loud!). For years Greenville had no form of recycling so R.C. and I would save our recycling and wait for the day when my parents would come and visit. They would take our bottles, jugs and newspaper all the way to Wisconsin with them so it could be properly disposed of. Finally, the day came when Greenville got a recycling "center" so we could take our items across town instead of it traveling hundreds of miles in the back of a station wagon. Now we just take it to the curb.

We try our best to please Mother Earth. No plastic water bottles or plastic shopping bags for us (once in a great while we have to use a plastic shopping bag if I forget my Envirosax or if they are already being used). We use "green" cleaning supplies (such as these AWESOME ones I recently discovered). We walk when possible and drink tap water. We turn the thermostat down in the winter and wear an extra sweater and we recycle envelopes to use for other items needing to be mailed. I could go on and on about the ways we try to care for our earth. I'm not saying we are perfect!! Please, don't read this and think that I am saying we do no harm to the earth. I know that everyday, each and everyone of us does something to add to the pollution problem we have gotten ourselves into. I think it's the little things we do though that will help slow the problem down. It's really not that hard to switch to different cleaning supplies so water is not polluted quite as much or using a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water (not only are there 40 million water bottles being put into landfills each day, but bottled water is stinkin' expensive!).

Yesterday, as you know, was Earth Day. To celebrate this day the boys and I set out to pick up trash in our neighborhood. We got a bag full of recycling and a bag full of trash. Yes, we did use plastic shopping bags to pick this stuff up, and NO I did not throw the bags in the trash. The bag used for picking up trash was emptied into the trash can and the bag was put into recycling. I hope to make my kids love to recycle such as my parents did with me. So far Russell is very happy to recycle. He picks things up and carries them home if we are out walking and even got after Aunt Chrissy for even thinking of throwing a pop bottle in the garbage can. He made sure she carried it home in her purse and put it in recycling. Max took a little convincing yesterday, but soon became very interested in picking up trash. He wasn't interested in the big pieces, he went for the tiny scraps that were almost too small to pick up. Russell liked the big pieces, so together they made a GREAT team.


After a morning of work, we got home and washed our hands extra good so we could enjoy a popsicle that we made the day before.
These little guys really do help make it easy to do all we can to care for the earth. It would be nice to know that their grandchildren won't have to walk around with gas masks on 24/7 due to mistakes that I made.

(I'll step down off my soapbox now....)

For starters...what's not to love about this...(other than Russell is missing)David is here visiting for a bit so we took him to our favorite beach. It was windy, but the temperature was perfect! People were even able to take their shoes and socks off. It has become a tradition to build a boat out of trash found on the beach and then sail it in one of the streams near the beach. After it has set sail, R.C. gives "the call" and we all bomb it with rocks and try to sink it. It's really very fun. Don't believe me? Come visit and we will bomb a trash boat together. You will love it!

We decided to take another beach trip, a day later, and head to Cape Cod. It was a beautiful drive, but a bit chilly. We enjoyed the beach, but were really looking forward to a cup of nice hot coffee for the ride home.

We made it out to Provincetown, and walked along the beach and found several crabs. Everyone found and held at least one. We also found a live shrimp, some sort of sea worms and more sea gooseberries.

Once again we were able to go barefoot. Max was brave enough to wade in the water a bit and he didn't think it was too cold.

It's great having David here helping R.C. get ready for his show this week. The boys also LOVE having him around. They have come up with several names for him, and he has introduced them to Gumby. One afternoon we (I say we because I was sitting there talking, but I really didn't help "create" anything) spent time making Gumby, Prikle, Goo, and someone else but I forget the name, out of clay.

In other boy news: Russell has been taking several "quizzes" so I can determine if he retained ANY information from this school year. I was very pleased with how well he did. The only thing that tripped him up was the state that Mt. Rushmore is located in. Other than that, he is ready for 1st grade! We are still in session for a few more weeks, but it is going to mainly be review. One thing that Russell is interested in now, that is not required for kindergarten, is map reading. He LOVES to look at maps and tell the streets that intersect and how to get to a certain place if you are here or there. He doesn't always find the most direct route, but he does find a way that will get you where you need to be if time is not an issue.

Maxwell has been obsessed with mazes lately. I print out several mazes each day so he has something to work on while I am working with Russell, but he is done so quickly that it doesn't work out how I would like. He is also working on writing his name and other letters. Max has yet to get rid of his dancing bugs. He is getting quite good at keeping a beat, and LOVES to be recorded while dancing. Both boys are into Where's Waldo books right now also. We have checked out all I Spy books at least twice and all Seen It books at least 3 times from the library and then R.C. remembered Waldo. We looked through, and conquered the first 2, not we have to find a library that has the other 4...maybe it will go on our summer to do list...

R.C.(along with the other first year sculpture grads) has a show opening on Thursday night. It should be really great and I'm sure he will post pictures and information about it later. I don't know what more to say about what he is doing in his studio other than he works stinkin' hard there! I have said it before, and I will say it again, I just don't know how he does it! The hours alone would kill me, not to mention the hundreds of pages of reading, papers to write, art to make, working a TA job, lectures to attend, and not to mention patting 2 little boys heads. It's crazy!

That's all that has been happening in our home the last week. Earth Day is tomorrow and I had planned on taking the boys out to pick up trash around the neighborhood, but it is supposed to be very rainy. We may have to wait until the weekend, when it is supposed to be 80 degrees.

In case you were thinking that I had not blogged in awhile due to lack of excitement here, well, let these pictures put your mind at ease. There is plenty of excitement and hopefully tonight I will get around to posting more pictures for your enjoyment and some tales of our fun being had.

Maxwell looks like this for at least half the day each day. The boy needs a guitar and a stage!

Russell has solved a problem that didn't need to be fixed. He was concerned that when he and I are not around each other I might start to miss him. His solution: make a paper Russell that I can take anywhere and dress up in his clothes. Here you see him laying on the living room floor wearing pajamas. This would be great to have if I feel myself missing him. So far though, since August, The longest I have been away from the boys was 2 hours. Maybe someday I will get to have a 3 hour break and I will find myself longing to see Russell's toothy grin and this will help me get through.
After I took this picture and stepped around "Paper Russell" I accidentally stepped on the hand. Russell (real Russell) screamed in pain and yelled, "OUCH!!!! Mom, you stepped on my hand!! Be more careful please!!" This boy doesn't miss a beat.

More to come...