Life Lately

We are back from a long weekend in Texarkana, helping Nik's family.
We worked hard and had fun with his family while doing so!
I didn't take pictures - except of Zane at the park, catching his first fish!!!!

 Look closely at the right picture below.
It’s hard to see - but his expression is pure excitement!

 

He was so excited!
Now we have to plan a few little fishing excursions for him and Jaxen this summer.

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Here's a little glimpse into our life lately...

Jaxen's school had a fundraiser at an ice cream place, Freezing Moo.

It's a fun place. Not the best ice cream...but unique.

Jaxen was the only one who got ice cream -

Zane was too busy playing and like I said, it's not the best.

My boys still crawl in my bed every now and then. 

On this particular morning Nik found Zane right up against me and 

Jaxen on his pillow, under the covers. Ha ha!

Jaxen is doing so well at reading!

He was being a "librarian" in the pics below...

When the weather is nice, we love to sit out front and play!

Zane loves drawing "big snakes" and "big dinos".

 I love his dirty little feet.

We enjoy playing Ladder Ball and Bean Bag Toss.

Did you know when Zane is tired and drinking his milk (or any anything really)

he will rub his head with his fingers? 

He will play with my hair if he is next to me. Or Nik’s. And even Jaxen’s.

It is cute.

I finally completed a project that was long overdue -
filing things I want to keep that the boys have done.

I labeled a file folder for each school year and then decided what I wanted to keep.

I only kept what would fit in a file folder. And then I tossed the rest. 

I still need to purchase a plastic file box, but at least everything is sorted by kid and year! 

It felt good to accomplish that little task.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Last Day of 1st Grade

Yesterday was Jaxen's last day of school.

His last day of 1st grade.

"1st grade" sounds small.

"2nd grade" sounds big.

And that makes me sad...and proud!

Wednesday morning Jaxen woke up and sat on the edge of his bed and was smiling.

Before I could ask why he was smiling, he said "Do you know why I'm smiling?"

"It's because I'm almost a 2nd grader."

It was so sweet and young and innocent.

He had lots of changes in 1st grade...

He started out with 1 teacher and a student teacher,

then we moved from an apartment to a house,

then he said good-bye to his friends he had been with for 1 1/2 years,

he moved to a new school, new class, new friends, new teacher,

then his teacher went on maternity leave,

he had another new teacher,

and then the last month of school his original teacher came back.

Wow. That's a lot for a 6 year old.

He has done so well, overall, though - and has not lost his 'spunk'!

He has excelled at reading.

He is a great speller.

It takes him a little time, but can do math wonderfully - he is even working on "time tables"!

The only area where he really needs work in, is his writing.

And we will work on that this summer.

I am excited for Jaxen to be in 2nd grade!!!

First / Last day of 1st grade

Soccer!

As you know, at the last minute Jaxen decided he wanted to play soccer, and so I signed him up. He was so excited and has done really well this season. His favorite position is goalie. I think it's because he doesn't have to run as much! Lol. At this stage all kids play everywhere and over the last 8 weeks or so, Jaxen has really improved! He knows how to "dribble" and "pass" (instead of kicking as hard as he could), understands the "goalie" position and has gained confidence overall! I am very proud of him!

Last Tuesday night Jaxen's soccer team had a make-up game and this past Saturday was the last game of the season.

The sad news - his team did not win one single game :( The kids were bummed, the coach was bummed and the parents were bummed. However, all the kids played and improved SO much!!! Nothing to be disappointed about!

Here are a few pics from last week...

Worms

We had beautiful weather last week! It makes us all happy.
(What does not make us happy is thunderstorms all weekend).

I planted an Azalea plant in our front yard (given for Mamaw's funeral) 

and I had a little helper who was more interested in the worms than the plant!

Which led us to digging for worms for a full hour.

Zane would only touch them with a stick. 

He did not want to hold them...until Jaxen did.

Then I witnessed a really sweet moment of Jaxen "teaching" Zane how to hold a worm.

Jaxen was very patient and helpful as he helped Zane hold a worm for the first time.
And Zane loved it!

 

I eventually made them come inside and wash their hands

while I released the worms back into the ground.

Zane was so sad he had to come in.

He wanted more worms.

And even cried at bedtime that he could not have worms.

3 year old problems! Haha!

Weekending

Is Weekending a word?

It should be.

Especially when you weekend well :)

I'm not sure if the lack of pictures help or hurt my case...but we will go with help!

Friday night we went to soccer practice for Jaxen and he did not listen well 

so he went straight to bed when we got home. 

And that was a good thing.

Saturday both boys were up early.

Jaxen was supposed to have soccer pictures at 8:20am and then games at 9am and 11am.

Because of all the rain we have had - the soccer fields were mush and they cancelled everything.

So I did the next best thing - cleaned out my pantry and fridge!

And it made me feel good that I only had to throw out 3 things because of expiration dates.

Anyone else clean out stuff and find they have been eating expired food?!

(Asking for a friend - lol)

I worked on a few house things while the boys played and played. 

When they don't see each other everyday (Jaxen in school) 

they play better on the weekends together.

The picture is crooked, but you can see the "doggie obstacle course".

 

Don't mind our lawn - it's a work in progress - killing weeds, getting grass to grow...

But what you need to see is Zane putting a small rake in his pants before riding off on his scooter.

That afternoon we had our first fire in our new fire pit (it was cool weather)...and it made me happy!

The boys played outside and then we had some neighbors join us for our fire, dinner and games.

We had a great time getting to know them better and the kids stayed up playing until 9pm!

Which is not something I let my kids do very often - lol!

Do you know that donut places run out of donuts fairly early on Mother's Day?

The thought never occurred to me before.

We went to get donuts on our way to church and ended up at a grocery store 

because the donut shop was out!

They were still yummy though, and I loved my breakfast treat.

After church we had pizza for lunch and then our whole family laid down 

and relaxed the entire afternoon. 

I'm not sure how we had such a chill day - but we did, and I loved it!

Nik offered to grill me steak for dinner - but I was still full from pizza so I passed.

I did get a few pics with my cuties after church though!

Funny story...I was telling Nik that I was sad because we did not have a nice tree/place in our yard to take pictures in front of. (And right now, our yard is muddy and we are trying to get grass to grow in many places). So after church he randomly stopped at some business that had a nice wooden back to their building, a wooden fence, and green grass (right next to their dumpster). So we stopped and took some pictures! I love that about Nik. He goes out of his way to find a nice place for me to take a few pictures with my boys :)