Happy Mother's Day!

My girlfriend from West Point, Amy Crispino, lives right down the street and her husband is also deployed so we decided to spend the day together.  We took the kids to Pope Air Field playground this morning.  They had a ton of fun and it was cool watching the huge planes take off just across the field from where we were playing.

Patrick, James and Henry...

Petey enjoying the swing.  He only fell out of it once.  ;)

Amy and Anna...

Henry with about 50 stickers on his shirt...

Sweet James...

After the park, Amy took James out to lunch and back to her house and Pete, Henry and I all took a NAP!  It was absolutely wonderful.  I can't remember the last time I got a chance to take a nap.  What a perfect Mother's Day gift!

Must remember...

Every once in awhile I read a quote that really resonates with me and this is one of them.  I put this as the screen saver on my phone so I am forced to read and think about it throughout the day.  I want to be ever mindful that there is absolutely nothing more important to me than my four boys.  Not a clean house.  Not a matching outfit.  Not the opinions of neighbors.  Not a run on the treadmill.  I certainly don't do things perfectly and I'm sure I yell way more than I should... but at the end of the day, all I care about is that my boys know they are loved beyond measure and that Chris is safe.  Happy Mother's Day to all the fabulous moms I know.

Findings...

Today we found all sorts of things...

1.  Henry found a teeny, tiny baby frog.  Poor thing didn't last long in his little hands.  Of course Henry's convinced he's just been sleeping.

2.  Henry also found a baby bird egg that didn't hatch this spring.  That, along with the baby frog, spent the entire afternoon in a sealed Ziploc for everyone in the neighborhood to see.

3.  I found a local grass cutting service who was willing to cut the yard today.  Our mower won't start and the grass has been growing like crazy with all the sun and rain.  The yard looks so nice with the grass cut and edged and leaves picked up!  What a nice treat to have that big job taken care of for me this week.

4.  I found a new friend today!  My father-in-law works with a young lawyer, Nicole, who is dating an attorney here at Bragg.  She stopped by this afternoon and we ended up talking for over 3 hours.  I loved her!  We have plans to get together again next time she's in town.  What a nice surprise!

5.  James found out he hates sweeping.  This is his new (and only) chore and he hates it.  Which is precisely why he will be doing it nightly.

6.  We all found out that cereal really does make a dinner.

7.  And... the boys are all about to find out what early bedtime looks like.  Well... hopefully!  :)

Fort Bragg Fair...

Surprisingly enough, it was a lot of fun!  Normally I don't really like going to fairs.  In fact, the last one I went to I broke out in hives (not that piddly one I just posted about but the last "big" fair Chris and I took the boys to).  All I usually think about when I'm walking around fairgrounds are germs, kidnappings, staff infections, and pedophiles.  None of those things were apparent tonight (with the naked eye at least).

At any rate... the boys had a blast and my sweet friend, Nicole, volunteered to keep James with her so that he could enjoy more rides and fun after I took Henry and Pete home for bed.  Here are a few highlights...

The 1st ride of the night was a big one!  

James went alone and his little face fell when his body did.  Whoa!

 A safer choice for ride #2...

This ride took me about 10 minutes to recover from...

Soooo dizzy...

Smart Nicole looking on...

Wyatt, Riley, Shawn, Shelby enjoying a ride...

Nicole, Suzanne and me (with Mason, Austin, and 

1/2 of Pete-- James took this pic)...

James zip-lining!  How cool!

What a great night!

BusyTown...

It was busy up in these parts yesterday afternoon.  In the span of one hour... the AC man came (thank God!), the neighborhood survey team came (because they're starting construction on new homes around ours and had to check property lines), a cute little old lady came by to talk about the Bible (not today), and a fireman stopped by to ask for donations (hmm, betcha wouldn't like to know that I had to unplug two of our alarms in the night because they wouldn't stop BEEPING!  Ha.  I know, I know... I'll replace the batteries today.)

I wonder how much help Henry was... I overheard him telling her (yes, that's a woman) that his middle name is Davis but he doesn't like it.  He wants it to be Christopher, like James.

Well, getchaself comfy now....

Then James decided to "help"...

Let's just chalk this up to an "educational" experience for the boys.  

Digging, dirt, being outside... they're made for this kinda stuff.

3rd baby, lower standards...

Things I will do for just five minutes of peace and quiet...

Yes, that is a chocolate pudding cup (but hey!  It's sugar free so that should count for something, right?!).  Oh... and have I mentioned yet that we haven't had air conditioning for the last 5 days, all of which have been in the mid 90's!??  IAMDONE.

Keepin' It Classy...

So today was our "Brigade Family Fun Day" at Fort Bragg from 10am-1pm.  Hmmm.  There's so much to say and yet, I'm speechless.  Clearly the D-team was in charge of putting this together as there was no food (except an open bag of Cheese Doodles, Chips Ahoy cookies, and what we brought.  Ironically I thought my original dish-- a veggie pasta salad-- wasn't good enough so I picked up pastries from Panera on our way.  Clearly I am crazy.)  Okay, so even though there was no food, surely there would be drinks, right?  Think again.  It is ninety-five degrees here today and there were NO drinks.  Right.  Let's move on to the "family" activities, shall we?

Nothing says "appropriate" like a young woman in a WHITE SHIRT and BLUE BRA at the dunk tank with children in line, right???  Keepin' it classy...

And nothing says "talent" like two black magic marker stripes from a Face Painter Extraordinaire...

And nothing says "friendly" quite like a soldier with tats all over him, spitting out chewing tobacco, running the egg relay station...

But truly nothing makes me say "thank God" more than having Nicole with me through it all...

(And, yes, nothing says "solid outfit choice" quite like the chick in pink.)