This and that for May

 Just some random pictures from May...

It has taken many years for my Corban to voluntarily pick up a book and read it.  He does it now and it's wonderful.  In related news, on Thursday, he and I finished his reading textbook.  We started that book four years ago and many tears have been shed along the way (by both of us).  Perhaps I should have changed course at some point, but I won't get into that now.  The point is that we finished the book, Corban can read, and he enjoys reading.  Success.

My dear husband bought me a HUGE rimmed baking sheet.  I can fit the entire double batch of granola on it.  The kids come running when I make granola.  They grab at some every time I take it out of the oven to turn it.  But, I started out writing about the sheet pan.  I love it.  And I love that it fits in my oven.

"A man's gotta do what I man's gotta do..."  When we came back from our Ohio travels, we discovered that a rat had taken up residence under our chicken coop.  It wasn't bothering the chickens, just eating their food; but we didn't want it hanging around.  This was a great excuse for Jack to pull out the BB gun.  It's always more fun to shoot at a moving target, right?  I don't think that the rat was ever hit, but it didn't stick around.

My big boy turned 11 this month.  Geesh.  I read this quote recently:  "The days may be long, but the years are most certainly short, so enjoy the time we have".  That is so true.  

Jakin's present from us - a back pack for the annual Adirondack backpacking trip.

Mother's Day

My three handsome sons.  This picture is already a favorite.  How blessed we are.

Almost 1

Our little man will be celebrating his first birthday soon.  Aidan saw all of his grandparents a few weeks ago.  I'm so glad they will all see him again soon because he has grown and changed so much in the past weeks.  He can stand unassisted, play peek-a-boo, play with balls (actually throwing them back and forth with someone), and even do a few signs ("more" and "all done").

One thing that has not changed is his obsession with my hair.  When I pick Aidan up, his immediate and instinctive response is to grab on to my hair.  It's like a little security blanket for him. 

Holding on with two hands.  "Noooooo, mama!  Please don't put me down!"

Aidan has been enjoying all of the new opportunities to be outside now that the weather is getting warmer.

 I still haven't gotten a good picture of Aidan standing unassisted.  For the past two weeks or so, he is getting himself into a standing position many times every day.  He's still not interested in walking, but this new standing trick makes him happy.

We haven't given Aidan many sweets in his short life.  I made scones last weekend and Aidan discovered them.  He liked them.  Really really liked them.  In this picture he is begging for another bite from Corban.

Got it!

Standing!

Another new development in Aidan's life is his new-found love for balls.  He says, "Baaawww" when he sees a ball.  Then he does his sweet little one knee, one foot crawl to get to the ball, picks it up, and throws it.  Over and over and over.  He's very happy when someone will sit with him and throw a ball back and forth. 

He loves this spot.  I'm often in the kitchen.  So this pantry play space is close to Mom and has lots of cans and bowls and things to pull down and make messes and noise.  And every time Aidan pulls everything down, someone comes along and puts it all back where it goes, so he is compelled to come back and put it all back on the floor again.

Aidan's fingers got greasy the other night while he was eating.  The fingers went to the hair, so the hair was greasy.  Greasy hair makes for an easy mohawk.

Home school rocks

 I'm sharing some pictures from one of those "feel good" home school days.  Along with our good friends, our family is doing an unit study of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.  In an attempt to do an art project for each of the countries that Phileas Fogg and Passepartout pass through, my friend Julie set up a mock Sistine Chapel painting site for our stop in Italy.  The kids were trying to guess what on earth they were going to do with this contraption.  "Is it a boat?"  None of them guessed they would be painting on their backs.  They loved it.  And, of course, we moms made a few little comments about how none of their friends at school were doing anything this cool.  It's all in the packaging, you know.  Fortunately, for this project and for these great kids, we didn't have to coax them into it.  What a joy (most the time) to spend my days with these kids.

 Corban's time table on anything, especially art, is different than anyone else's time table.  He just had to think about things for a while before actually painting anything.

And the final products!

A family wedding weekend

From my in-laws' house, we continued on to my cousin's wedding.  (Pay attention... weddings are going to be a theme this summer...)  We hadn't been with my Dad's extended family for about a year, so it was nice to be with them all again and to introduce Aidan to them.  In fact, the last time I saw my Ruble aunts, uncles, and cousins was at my sister's wedding exactly a year ago today when it was quite obvious that I was about to give birth.  Back to the 2012 cousin wedding.... one of the best parts of getting together with extended families is that my kids love to play with my cousins' kids.  I grew up having so much fun with my cousin Jenni, and now our kids have a blast together.  That's so cool!  Lauren and Keira are pictured above, and Annie is with Kylie below.

 I very much wish that I could see these two little guys more often.  My nephews Thomas and Josiah live in Michigan so we only see them a few times a year.  This visit was short, but we'll take what we can get!

Although Josiah is 2 1/2 months younger than Aidan, he runs circles around his older cousin.  Josiah wants to walk and walk and walk, while Aidan has no interest.

They really are handsome boys....

Annie and Aidan on the dance floor.  

Lauren and Aidan.  The girls danced and danced and danced.  The boys could not be dragged out on to the dance floor.  sigh.  They've grown up enough to be self-conscious, or maybe it's just not cool anymore.  I don't know, but Jack and I had a blast with the girls and Aidan.  We talked about how dancing with a three- and six- year old girl is what makes wedding receptions fun.  It wasn't nearly as fun when it was just Jack and I out there trying to look like we could dance.

Everyone but one cousin made it to celebrate Dana's wedding

The number of people in this group has increased in the last year.

And a smaller group than the last two pictures, but not such a small group...

And then there's Jack and I, married for 13 years!  

A first for Lauren

 Lauren is our crazy girl.  If a thing involves jumping, flying, or swimming, she shows no fear.  When it comes to animals, however, she's more timid.  In the case of my in-laws' dog, she's downright terrified.  Anyway, whenever we are at Jack's parents' house, the kids ride the horses.  Jakin and Corban have been riding by themselves for a while and, given the fact that they only ride once or twice a year, are pretty good.  It should be noted here that I know nothing about horses, so maybe they just look to me like they know what they are doing.  Annie does well and looks so proud of herself when she rides.  But Lauren has been a little bit shy.  She still talks about how the horse tried to eat her foot.  (It was a wet morning and she had grass clippings on her Crocs.  The horse was going for the grass, but she will not be convinced of that.)  On our recent trip, she finally rode without anyone else riding with her.  After that first ride, she wasn't interested in taking turns with her siblings anymore.  She wanted all of the turns.  She was hooked!

Corban waits his turn.  I've taken lots of pictures of they boys and Annie riding over the years, so I guess I just focused this years' pictures on Lauren.