Swinging upside down

Today I snagged a picture of my son while he was swinging in the yard.  I yelled his name and he looked back at me.  :) My husband has almost finished building the most amazing play fort down there.  He added the slide and a big platform right in the middle of the trees this weekend - it's an awesome fort/treehouse.  The kids are so lucky and excited!  

Lazy Bones in a Tree

My son refused to change out of his new jammies after his nap today.  Here he is in the tree in our yard.  He happily played all afternoon in his pj's in our fort, on the swings, on the slide, and in the trampoline.  Too cute for words...

Simple pleasures

Lately I've been on a quest to simplify...  I'm trying to slow down, enjoy little moments more, smell the roses, do less "have to's".  This is hard for me...it goes against my nature...I'm pretty type A.  ;) I easily find myself feeling guilty if I say "no".  I've currently got two jobs going, and I'm a stay-at-home mom.  I'm busy.  However, I've noticed that when I manage to SLOW down and re-prioritize, it feels good, and my family reacts very positively.  I've been scaling back on activities, one sport/season per kid, insisting on family dinners more even if we're slammed with "things to do", and trying my best to de-stress daily life.   I don't necessarily believe we should always be running around from one activity to the next, stressed out and missing out on life in the process...especially kids.  They should have free time to just "be" and play and, gasp, be bored.  My children are happier when we are not "overbooked".  I spent about 45 mins this afternoon just pushing my son on the porch swing. We sang songs and just talked and spent quality time together.  It was awesome.  Later we quietly worked on two puzzles.  I'm going to play cards with my older son now.  This evening, we will enjoy some family time, dinner together, and then we're going out to a movie with friends.  Nothing else.  Isn't that enough?  This is the good stuff.  I don't want to miss it.  

A really good day

Today was a really good day.  I volunteered in my younger son's preschool class this morning from 8-11am.  It was awesome!  The kids were great and seemed happy to have me there.  I helped out with letter crafts, read them a great book about camping, played with them in the playground (I pushed the kids on the swings a zillion times), helped them at snack time, helped them line up and wash hands, watched them sing songs and do shapes and colors, and I even got to take a bunch of pictures.  The best part was witnessing my little boy starting to come out of his shell, to participate and to make friends.

Tonight, I made a special family dinner: lasagna and then harvest pie with whipped cream for dessert.  To top it off: as I was putting my older son to sleep he was talking about his two best friends: Jakub and Jack.  I said, as a joke, "Don't forget about me." He said, "Oh Mommy - you are waaaay beyond a friend.  You are the best friend and person I love the most in the whole world, past and present, and in all the 'googleplex' infinity.  You are above and beyond my best friend."  I just wrote it down as soon as I came out of his room so I would never forget. Seriously.... it does NOT get better than that!  

Now onto movie night to spend with my hubby and a glass of wine.  Life is really good.  :)

Guitar "concert" tonight

Tonight, we all gathered around my son in the the living room so he could play all the songs he has learned so far on the guitar.  It was amazing!  He is becoming this little rock star right before our eyes.  ;-)

Watching Animal Planet

My son watched some "Frozen Planet" on Animal Planet with me this evening.  He loves nature shows almost as much as I do!  Can't even tell you how irrationally happy that makes me.  ;) He turned off all the lights, got one of the bar stools and set it up right smack in the middle of the living room. So funny.

Just doing a little light reading on the couch

Tonight after dinner, my son went to his room and came out with a big pile of books that he said he wanted to read.  (Look at his pile!) Of course, my younger son had to copy his brother and went to get some of his own books to "read" to his Tiger.  This worked out well even though he can't read yet because he knows the words to so many of his books by heart. The two of them were so adorable lounging around reading.