inside the mind of this 5 year old

This boy...

He always amazes me.  He's a thinker for sure.  He has a million and one questions all the time.  

Here's a little glimpse into the mind of this boy...

{I recorded some of the questions he would ask me before bedtime.  This is the list after a few months.  Enjoy!}

What did Ellie have for snack?
Can the tooth fairy die?
Can some people die as babies?
Is daddy going to work tomorrow?
What are you doing tomorrow?
Are you married?
How did the people find Daddy's boo boo?
When are you going to wear my necklace again?
Why did they have to give me a book?
Why do the grown ups have to know what kindergarten is about?
What are we going to learn?
Did you lock all the doors?  All 3 of them?
Is it a Valentine party?
How many more days until Valentine's?
What are we going to do after tomorrow?
What are we going to do at G&G house?
What if we all die at the same time?  Would we be sad or happy?
How do you tell God to get you stuff when you are dead?
Are you dead in Heaven?
Is Hippo in Heaven?
Do you miss her?
Does Bella know Hippo?
Is it going to be a long time before I'm a dad?
How old do you have to be to be a dad?
When I'm a dad can I still sleep here?
Can bears go to jail?
How about someone shoots a bear, what does the person say?
What happens if all the police go to jail?
Why is there no president (principal) in my school?
How do you spell fart?
How do you spell excuse me?
How do you spell spray, water gun?
Who is MeMe? (Answers grandma)
Does God make more people?
What happens if all the people are in Heaven?
Who's going to be their Mommy?  The Dollar Store people?
What if someone wants to marry but they don't have a dad (he means husband)?
What happens if you really want a baby and don't have a husband?
After you're married, how do you get the baby?
Does bat, at, cat rhyme?
What does 20 10s equal?
When are we going to go swimming again?
How many more seasons until swimming?
Who made Ellie's name?
Who built our house?

{love}

Oh my.  

I {love} these people so much!  My heart is full.

Our family photo shoot.

Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend.  It included a little yard work, some soccer, and time with family.

First, this is what our garden now looks like.  Yes, you are right it did grow even bigger than last time.  Oh boy!

Life on a farm, I mean in the city, sure is fun I guess...right Ryan?!  Don't worry the Stark Farmer's Market will be opening mid summer :)!

And a great battle on the soccer field against our good friends!

Then it was off to G&G's house for an Easter egg hunt!

My bunnies dying eggs.

The Easter bunny came and hid their baskets again this year!  Ellie found hers first!

Like big brother like little brother!

A few pictures outside with the family on a beautiful Easter morning!

Finally, off to Aunt Bette's for a yummy lunch and another Easter egg hunt with cousins!

Love our family!

a billy goat, knights, hunters, wolves, dirt, frogs, and the crazies!

Sorry we are doing a lot of week/weekends in review around around here, but life keeps happening and I am trying to record what's going on as fast as possible, which means we have to look at everything at a glance...stay tuned...this summer I am going to make myself get back to daily blogging or at least that's the plan as of right now ;).

First, we'll start with Avery's 1st grade musical.  He was the very cute official "Billy Goat #2".  Oh you can't see him you say...

There he is singing his little heart out :).

And here's his very official one line he had in the musical.  {If you can't understand it, he says, "And what do you think would ruin our day."}  Yes, a very important role :)...and way out of Avery's comfort zone...but he survived!

Another day and another soccer game.  Both of my boys played goalie on Saturday and neither of them let a point get scored on them!  Our Silver Knights are still undefeated!!!

Then we rushed straight from soccer to Ryan's work's Easter egg hunt!

These kids are old pros at this!

Happy campers with more candy!

If a soccer game and an Easter egg hunt weren't enough for one Saturday morning we also had family pictures taken!  No sneak peeks yet, but hopefully I will get to show you something soon!  Of course my kiddos were bribed to behave for pictures {yes, we are all for bribery around here!!}...which means we had to go buy them their winnings {gum} after pictures were over.  We headed over to our new Hyvee, where everyone and their brothers have been hanging out for the past week in our town ;).

Yes, we all love it...yes, it is a grocery store, but it is pretty fancy one at that :).  {Don't worry devoted blogger followers Aldi is still my favorite grocery store...no worries I am not straying...it will still be my main grocery store...the nee Hyvee is kind of like Target...it's fun to go in and look around and buy things you don't really need!}  While we were there we happened to run into KC Wolf {non KC friends, he's the mascot for the KC Chiefs}.  In the past Ellie has not been a fan of mascots...she had a melt down last summer when the Chik-fil-a cow tried to wave to her.  Well he didn't get too close, but she did wave at him...so it looks like we are making progress...the Little Debbie his assistant gave her probably helped out a little.

Don't worry we aren't done with Saturday yet...

A quick change of clothes and then this happened...picking up a load of free compost.  If you know us at all {what I really mean by this is Ryan} then you know this means another yard project is in the works.  And if you have been around here long and have paid attention to our his recent obsession with our gardening then you can probably guess what's happening in our backyard.  {If you still don't get it look at what happened in the last picture of this blog post ;).} 

Evan's favorite part is always climbing on top of the mountain of dirt.

Saturday ended in our springtime ritual...frog hunting in our own backyard.  Yes, our little pond is a HUGE frog magnet and we have to haul off {aka we dump them at a nearby park} a bucket load of frogs every year!  The kids make a game out of who can spy the most frogs.

Then Sunday after church looked like this.  This is a picture of three kiddos going CRAZY because they have reached that point in Lowe's {you will know that point if you have ever done any home improvement projects and you bring your kids shopping with you...our kids have hit this point a lot in this store :)} when enough is enough.  This goes along with the dirt pictures from up above.

Since the three crazy kids had reached their "point" I spent the rest of the trip to Lowe's waiting in the truck with the three crazy kids...I did mention they were crazy, right?!  The storm clouds blowing in were kind of creepy!

We will finally end the weekend with some pretty springtime flowers from our yard...which I had to pick because we are getting SNOW tomorrow...yes you read that right, and no I don't want to talk about that anymore!

first day of year 32

Another year in the books for me...

I would have to say 31 was a great year!  I will have to classify it has my half marathon year since I accomplished two...not sure when the next race will be in my life because I am now enjoying other forms of exercise that doesn't include all running ;).

I have really enjoyed my 30s...I don't know if you believe other people's lies, but the 30s are so much better than your 20s!

Here's to another great year!

What did I do on my birthday?  What every mom out there does, spent time doing stuff for my kiddos, but I truly do love this time in our life and wouldn't change it for anything! {Don't worry I did celebrate with family over the weekend and I will be celebrating with friends this week!}

I have talked about my lack of picture taking of myself before, but since it was my birthday I tried to include as many pictures with me in it as possible.  Here's a look into a pretty typical day, which just happened to be my birthday :).

This was on Sunday, but I had to include it first...Evan was so sweet he said he was going to do all the chores for me so I wouldn't have to do them on my birthday.  Such a sweet boy!

Ryan volunteered yesterday morning at Evan's school as a Watch DOG dad so that meant he got to eat breakfast with us too!

Then while the boys were all off at school, this girl and I took our weekly trip to Target.  She's my best shopping buddy :)!  We stopped at Starbucks too for my birthday treat drink and they gave Ellie some extra special whipped cream, which she thoroughly enjoyed!

Ellie's last class of this dance session was also yesterday.  These girls had so much fun together!  All their expressions crack me up!

Instead of working out while she was in dance class, I stayed and watched today...she loves having people watch her.  {That's crazy to work out on your birthday ;)!}

I received some beautiful flowers from a friend!  I love springtime flowers!

Then Ryan & Evan came back home to eat lunch with us too!

It was a beautiful afternoon so E&E & I spent a lot of time hanging out outside enjoying the weather!

And of course jumping on the trampoline!

Then it was mommy duty time to pick up Aver from school.  Ellie is back there sleeping in the car while we wait on brother...it's never good when she takes a nap...that means late bedtime around here...

Ellie actually had a big day on my birthday...she also had her first ever soccer practice!  So while Ryan took Avery to baseball practice Evan & I headed off to Ellie's soccer practice.  She has so much fun with all her friends!!!

Isn't she the cutest soccer player ever?!

Waiting on Ryan & Avery to get back home too.

And that's the day...bedtime for all!

It was a great first day of year 32!!