My Joys

I'm feeling the love from these two sweet boys who have given me the privilege of being their mom.  I have been showered with artwork and hugs but my favorite moment was seeing my babies passed out in the backseat on the way back from church and lunch.  One day they'll be too big for pictures like this!

 

 

 
Here is a sample of the artwork and crafts I've been given today.  I love their handmade gifts, especially the ones with unusual spellings!  (don't know why some are upside down...can't seem to fix it)

 (smart, trustful, nice, caring, loving, beautiful, friendly, special)

It's so much fun to be a mom!  I love these boys more every day and I appreciate and understand my own mom more all the time.  Thanks, Mom, for being such a wonderful mother and example for me.  You can keep laughing at all the paybacks I'm getting!

Fun at Home

These weeks have been flying past!  It seems like we don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done, but we've been having some good times.  These are my favorite pictures over the last few weeks in no particular order.

Ben finished his dinner quickly one night so I armed him with a nerf gun and put him in charge of Alex.  Every time Alex stopped eating he got shot with a foam disc.  Dinner wrapped up shortly thereafter!

 

Ben wanted to grow some strawberries on the porch and we finally beat the mockingbird to a juicy red one.  He was expecting it to be chocolate-dipped, but we made do with a smear of nutella and let Ben enjoy his first home grown fruit.

We enjoyed some time outside with the neighbors one weekend and Alex wrote his full name on the sidewalk.  He also announced that from now on he wants to be called "Alexander"...that lasted all of five minutes and thank goodness he forgot.

 The other kids decided to leave their names outside as well.

For some reason that evening, the back of Matt's truck was THE place to be.  The kids brought all kinds of toys in there and had a grand time.  Made keeping up with everyone pretty easy.

 

Inside the house, in front of the ipad is still the favorite place to be.  The boys are obsessed with building things on minecraft and eden and could sit like this and play together all day if I'd let them.  I do think it's sweet that they love to do it together.

Back outside, the boys found a frog and had a great time with it.

I don't know if the frog felt the same way, but he was certainly the fastest one around that afternoon.

The kids woke up early one day and decided to play Paper Cut Factory.  All their games have a name.  I prefer to call this one Trash All Over The Floor.

 

And when the day is done, this is still my favorite sight...two wiped out boys sleeping soundly and hopefully dreaming of sweet things!

 

 In upcoming news, Ben's birthday is a few short weeks away.  He's really turned up the heat on his campaign for a device (his school's term for any sort of tablet or electronic device with internet access).  Nothing like tugging on Mama's heartstrings to get results!

Ben's First Musical

Ben's school had an adorable first grade musical production called Squirm, all about snakes, spiders, and worms...right down a 6-year old boy's alley!  We have been hearing the songs for two months now and this little guy was super excited for the big show.  All the grandparents joined us for dinner and Ben's musical debut.  Unfortunately, so did most of the other 200+ kids' families, so our seats were less than ideal to see Ben but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  This was the best shot I got of Ben through the crowd and distance.

 

Ben was hard to spot through the crowd with the naked eye because he was on a lower step (I watched a lot through my camera on zoom), but a professional recorded the entire show so we'll get to keep a copy with a better view.

The theme song "Squirm"...and check out Sariah next to Ben.  She had a few solo lines later about an earthworm!

 

Alex did his best to cheer for big brother, but by the end of the show he'd totally given up on trying to see and instead found lots of entertainment under the chairs.  This guy is dying to get up on the stage one day!

Ben not only sang, he stared at the kids on stage, he picked his ear a few times, and he made sure his hair was looking nice.

So proud of my big guy!  (and of the backdrop that I was able to help decorate...lots of fun!)  As we were walking off the stage after the show, Ben pointed out the bright pink throw-up on the side of the stage.  I missed the drama, but apparently one of the kids had some stage fright and tossed her cookies.  Ben wanted a solo or speaking part but didn't sign up to audition because the practices were held during recess and he wouldn't part with his beloved free time!

When I went to retrieve Ben from his classroom, I found this hanging in the hallway with the rest of the class stories.  Yes, we need to work on his handwriting, but his imagination is endless!  (Translation:  Once upon a time there was a flying horse.  He had a lot of feet.  He belonged to a cowboy named Ben.  Ben liked to fight.  Ben liked to sleep.)

 

After the show, a happy boy and family.  Grandma and Grandpa had already left before we could get a picture together.

We also caught up with Therman on the way to the car.

It was such a cute show and so much fun watching Ben's excitement!  I love school programs :)

Easter and Other Pictures

We took advantage of the long Easter weekend to go to Alabama and the boys loved running around and getting dirty, as usual.  I figured it would be a great place to play with confetti eggs.  I hid a couple dozen and the kids hunted them down.

 

The little egg hunters did quite well.

 

And then the fun began!  The nice thing about the country is that no one has to sweep up the confetti :)

Yay for confetti fun!

The boys also love making things with playdoh there.  Ben made several different birds and performed heart surgery on them.

Alex did some tough work on his playdoh. 

 

Look, a snake!

 

The Easter bunny did find the kids in Alabama and Alex enjoyed his bunny sucker when we were back home. We tried to catch our church's evening service on the way back home but we couldn't time the drive just right, so we watched the webcast at home.  No cute pictures this year of the boys dressed up!

And while the Easter bunny didn't bring any chicks, Alex and I did happen to find a mama duck with her ducklings at a park this past week.

He had a great time feeding the mom and was dying to pick up one of the babies, but I had to say a firm no to that idea (even though I wanted to do the same myself!).

Matt and I are planning to replace the two big, ugly shrubs in the front yard.  We enlisted a little child labor to help us get the old ones out first.  The tried and tried, but it was much faster when the truck did the pulling!

After a t-ball game and a birthday party, this little guy crashed so hard in the backseat that I thought he broke his neck! 

Easter Egg Hunt

We missed the neighborhood egg hunt because of t-ball, so instead we invited some of our sweet neighbors over for a good ole backyard Easter egg hunt!  (L to R - Austin, Brandon, Ben, Alex (pouting for the picture because he couldn't wait to go hunt), Alexandra, Presley, Rowan, Maddie, and Michael)

Time to go!

They were serious!   The kids covered every inch of the backyard....

...and the 300 eggs we threw out were collected in about 2.5 minutes.

Checking out the loot...

 The kids were all really sweet, sharing and trading things with one another.

Then it was time for a big group jump.  We're thankful for such fun neighbors!

This just made my evening one night after bedtime!  Especially because it was to "Mom Kirkham", so we wouldn't get confused with any other moms in this house :)  Ben told me the next day he was using editing between the first line and the second.  I don't see what needed work, especially because the backwards Y is in both lines, but that makes it all the more charming.

T-ball

Our lives are lived these days according to the t-ball schedules.  The past week was much more fun, though, because both kids played their first games.  Ben was looking sharp in his Cardinals uniform!  He was an old pro at the t-ball routine and didn't get too worked up over his first game of the season.

His team played a good game but came up one point short.  I loved this shot of Ben and Coach Matt in the dugout.

 

Alex's first game was the next night and, unlike big brother, this guy was beside himself with excitement!  He was bouncing around the dugout (as were many other little guys) and thrilled when it was his turn to bat.

Alex and Aaron make some cute little Rockies!

Alex got to play catcher one inning and his coach had to physically hold him back from running after every ball.  It was hilarious.  Actually, the entire game was pretty entertaining just watching a bunch of 4-year olds learn to play baseball yet still tackle their own teammates for the ball.

Saturday was the real opening day with pictures and carnival games and Grandma and Grandpa got to join us.  We spent most of the day at the ballpark because of two picture times and two games and it was a lot of fun.

The kids' favorite part?  The dirt.  Again.  There is another cute set of brothers on the same teams and they all enjoyed a nice dig in the dirt together.  AFTER picture time, thank goodness.   

Even though it's really busy and it's hard to find time to have dinner together every night (and not from a drive-thru), I'm really loving this baseball season.  It's fun to do together as a family and I love watching the boys learn to work hard and be part of a team.  Plus, I love watching baseball.  I hope one or both of the boys continue to enjoy it and keep playing as they get older!