Mommathon

Liam had his first day of soccer practice. He has a nice team of about nine kids and I really like his coach. They play indoor soccer in the spring here which is a good thing since it rains so much. 🙂

Since Liam is in Black Belt Club he gets to do some extra activities like learning how to use these sticks (I am sure they have a more formal name, but I don’t know what it is). He really likes it and it is pretty cool. He is in the beginning stages, but when you watch the kids who have been doing it a while do all of their “fancy footwork” you can see why an 8-year old boy would be drawn to it.

The boys and their very full baskets after the post-Mass Easter Egg Hunt.

We were very excited to learn that there is an IKEA here and since we are going to be moving into a new house in the next few weeks (Yes, we sold our other house but that is another post entirely.) we decided to head over there and see what they have to offer in the way of shelving, kitchen tables and sofa sleepers (for all of our guests). 🙂 One of the first things we noticed when we first walked in is there is a place to drop off your kids so you can shop. Awesome!!! We waited patiently for our turn, filled out the paperwork and made sure the boys met their height requirements. Ooops!!! Liam was too tall. God bless him, it took everything he had not to cry right there on the spot. He was SOOO wanting to go in and watch whatever cartoon it was they had playing. He had been watching it the entire time we were waiting in line. They did give him a coupon for a free ice cream cone in their cafe though, so it wasn’t a total loss. Colm didn’t care if his brother couldn’t go. He was still game and off he went to play while Liam, Sean and I went to go check things out. We found several sofas that we liked and also some shelving, but we couldn’t agree on a kitchen table. Grrr. We didn’t end up buying anything, but when it gets closer to our closing date we will definitely be heading back. It was almost time to go pick up Colm (they can only stay in childcare for an hour) so we went and got him, picked up some ice cream cones at the cafe and headed home.

I got to help Liam’s class with their art project as well. Liam’s class approached their project a little differently since they are a little bit older. It was so great to see how the second graders’ projects turned out compared to the kindys’.

Sunday-Breaded Chicken, Pasta Salad, Grapes
Monday-Chorizo and Butter Bean Stew, Grapes, Fresh Bread
Tuesday-Tacos, Melon
Wednesday-Roasted Whole Chicken, Butternut Risotto, Green Beans
Thursday-Jamie Oliver’s Classic Spaghetti (I am going to make the version of this dish with tuna…look at the bottom of the recipe where he lists several different ways to make this.)
Friday-Kitchen Closed

Yes, I have been making a lot of Jamie Oliver dishes lately. He is my new hero and I absolutely love his new show. I wish everyone could be as passionate about food as he is.

Let me just start off by saying that I know the quality of this picture is horrible. Now that we have that out of the way…why is Liam wearing a nametag that says “Ray”? For April Fools’ Day his teacher let them pick another name for the day. He chose Ray. I have no idea why, but I thought it was a cute thing for the teacher to let them do.

I went up to kindergarten today to help with their Art Literacy program. It is a program the school has in addition to the regular art curriculum. About every six weeks or so the whole school learns about a new artist. This time around it was Paul Klee. The students first learn about the artist and their life, look at examples of their work, talk about what they see, how it makes them feel, etc. Then they concentrate on one of those pieces and make a piece of art in its likeness.

Liam took this picture. It all started when I showed the boys this video on my friend Dana’s blog. The boys were laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Then for the next half hour they were obsessed with looking up funny cat videos on YouTube. (We did find a couple of funny ones.) So anyways, when Liam went to go take a shower that night he saw Butch drinking from the toilet, he thought it was super hilarious in light of the videos we had watched and he had to snap a picture.

I got sucked into this book somewhere in the middle of the second chapter and could not put it down. Don’t start reading this book unless you have some time on your hands because your children may not get fed and the laundry won’t get done until you are done reading this book. 🙂