Busy weekend, soccer, dance, birthday!

 May 11 was a busy day for us!  The girls both had a soccer game that morning.  Thankfully, it turned out to be a beautiful morning, despite the huge rains that happened a few nights before.  The field made for some muddy socks and shoes!

After going home, giving everyone a bath/shower, eating lunch and giving Rives a super quick nap, we headed to Elyn's recital.  She was a part of "Jitterbugs", a dance and movement activity at her preschool.  It is the cutest thing ever!  She loved it and we loved watching her dance

 After Jitterbugs was over, we rushed back home to get ready for the biggest event that day, Rives 2nd birthday party!  Unfortunately, in true Dallas style, I was horrible about taking pictures.  But we had fun and are thankful for all the friends and family that came over to celebrate our sweet boy!

Rives is really into all things "boy", which is a little surprising considering he is surrounded by all things "girl".  God is amazing at how he works the gender thing!  Rives loves tools, cars, trucks, and balls.  And throwing balls.  And running.  And jumping. And dirt.  I love him!

To make my life easy, which is necessary these days (and even when I make it easy, let me assure you, I am two steps away from losing it all.  Sigh.) we did a "ball" birthday party.  Boy parties are way easier than girl parties.  Or maybe it is "3rd kid parties are way easier than 1st and 2nd kid parties".  Probably that is it.

My first "boy" cake.  I'm pretty sure you saw this on "Cake Boss" a few years ago :).

 Coordinated "ball themed plates".  See, I went all out.

 Awesome pictures of the guests.  And my crazy face.

 Ball themed balloon.  Stop it with all the awesome party decorating!

 Also, when you are the third kid and have two big sisters, they will open all the presents for you and read your cards to you.  And hopefully take over the raising of you when your parents are too tired to do a proper job.  Kidding.  Not kidding.

 Telling all his friends, "thank you".  I love him.

The family picture.  My sweet family.

sick Rives

 Right before Rives turned two, he got really sick and it was really sad!  He was running around a 104 degree fever, with tylenol and motrin.  Poor boy!  It just struck him from out of no where!  Matthew and I took turns staying with him at home.  The day that Matthew stayed with him was the day he was the most sick.  Matthew took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with croup.  Matthew showed me a video he had taken of Rives breathing and it broke my heart!  Saddest sound ever!  Matthew had taken the video to send to his sister to find out if we should take Rives in...um, yes was her immediate answer!

sick baby boy!

 Thankfully he perked up pretty quick and was back to himself.  He even mustered up the energy to help me make the cake for his birthday party.

 Happy boy, once again!

Muffins with Mom (and Elyn and Rives)

I got to celebrate being a mom at Elyn's school too!  However, I already knew every single thing that was going to happen...one downfall to being the director at the preschool she attends.

Even though I knew what would happen, I was still happy to celebrate with my girl and eat some muffins with her!

 Rives tagged along because it was an "at home" day for him.  I think he enjoyed the muffins just as much as the preschoolers!

Her classmates sang a song to all the moms:

What a blessing to be a mom to the three best kid in the universe!!!!!

It's hard to do warm weather things when the weather is still cold

Matthew and the girls ran in the Gold Rush Race for the second year.  Last year the weather was nice and toasty, this year, not so much...

They were troopers and ran the entire time (only doing the one mile run this year after an unplanned fall in the 5K, last year, that resulted in Matthew carrying Elyn a portion of the route).  I was super proud of them, especially Elyn since she did no "training".

Here they are crossing the finish line:

 Nora's friends that participated in the race too...

 The next morning, we had soccer games.  This is a picture of how I felt about the games...

 Rives was miserable too.  I don't know if he was miserable because I had him wear pink gloves or because it was 38 degrees.  Regardless, we were both ready for the final whistle to be blown!

 Some randoms:

Over May break Nora wanted to work on a "research paper"-ha!  Little nerd-haha!  Here is her report on rabbits (plagiarizer alert!).

 The night that Nora and I went to Shoguns on our little date, Matthew decided to get creative with making cookies.  He made some cookies with peanut butter, chocolate chips, red pepper and BACON!  And they were good!  Nora and Rives enjoyed crumbling up the bacon, he said :).

I asked Siri to tell me a joke the other day, while I was driving (I was a little bored).  This is the joke she told me.  Ha!  I did make me laugh out loud.  Oh Siri.

The day we had the historic May snowfall, Rives and Elyn spent quite a bit of time building a fort out of the couch cushions and pillows.  While Nora tried to lay on the floor and watch t.v.  Ha!

 I walked downstairs on afternoon to this....grrrrrr.  All three went up to their rooms so Mom could cool down.

 When your toddler gets your phone, this might happen...

 I was working on a small craft project for school and asked Matthew if he had an old paint brush I could borrow.  This is one of the options he brought me.  Ha!  Beggers can't be choosers, I guess.

Mom and Nora day

 While Nora was on her May break, she had to come to school with me one day.  I was worried she would be bored, but she entertained herself with books and movies on the iPad.  She also colored a million pictures and enjoyed talking to me.

 At the end of the day, I put her to work, cleaning tables and reading to some kiddos.

 When Matthew got off work, he came to pick her and Elyn up and Nora started crying.  I didn't understand why she was throwing a fit because she had been so good and happy all day long.  Matthew took her aside and told her to get it together and after talking to her for a few minutes figured out that she was sad our day together was over.  Well, that made me cry.  Ugh.  I can understand wanting to spend time all alone with someone and it not happening.  I told Matthew to leave her with me and we would go eat together.

As soon as I told her that, tears were done and she was happy again.  Break my heart!  She just needs more one on one time with me and Matthew.  Being the oldest is hard sometimes!

I let her choose where she wanted to eat and she chose "the fire place" aka Shoguns.  Yummy!

I love my time with this girl!  She is getting so big and growing so fast and I cannot believe that she is almost 7 1/2!  I need her to stay my little girl and WANT to spend time with me, all by herself.  What a blessing she is to me!

Snow in May?

The weatherman started predicting snow around the end of April and all got VERY excited about the possibility of making history with a May snowfall.  Who doesn't love to make history-ha!

Well, it happened!  Not enough to close anything down, but enough to make history.  One day 75 degrees, the next 38 degrees.  Crazy weather!

May Break

One of the best things about Nora's school is that it follows the "year round" calendar.  She has periodic breaks throughout the school year.  Sure, she starts a few weeks earlier than the traditional calendar and finishes a few weeks later, but the breaks in the middle make it AMAZING!

We didn't have any big plans for her May break, so she got to spend a few days at Matthew's mom's house and hang out with us the rest of the days.

On one day (that I was also off of work), we began our day with some hot chocolate at the press room and a trip to the park.  It was fun to have all three together!

 As you can see from the pictures, the weather was beautiful...this will change in the next few days.

 Our little town is precious and in the middle of downtown, they had a painting class going on.  All older ladies, painting the beauty of the day.

 We stopped for lunch before heading home.

 Both girls assured me they were not tired and didn't need a nap-ha!

A taste of Spring

 We have had the craziest weather this spring.  A few days have hinted at warm weather coming and then, bam, cold, wet, SNOWY weather strikes.  We took advantage of the nice weather a few weeks back and, after school, spent the evening with sidewalk chalk, bubbles and soccer.  It is so nice to have all three kids engaged and active...I can tell I am going to enjoy it when they can all really play together!

Mother's Day Tea

 Every year, at Nora's school, the first graders put on a Mother's Day Tea, right before their "May Break".  Nora was so excited about the tea and reminded me, frequently, about it.  She told me once, "Elyn and Rives can't come...JUST YOU!".  I made sure her younger siblings had a place to be so I could enjoy my one on one time with her.

Her teacher is great and goes out of her way to make sure that everything is "perfect" for each event.  I must say that I felt very honored and special at the "tea".

Since there was no room to put 25 extra chairs around the classroom, we all had our kiddos sit in our laps for the tea.  Nora would not quit touching my face and hair and hugging me.  My love language is NOT touch so this was a true gift from me for my affectionate child.  Ha!

I was happy to be with just her...my first born.

 Each child had drawn a portrait of their mom and we, the moms, had to find them, without any help-yikes!  I asked Nora if I was going to get a hint and she said, "No.  It looks just like you!"  Luckily, a few moms had gone before me, so I was able to use my detective skills to pick out mine.

 See the resemblance ;).

This was our present, a flowerpot with our little flower, who has grown up so much...sniff!