Brayden's First Cereal!

I completely forgot to blog about this big event! Brayden started solids a couple of weeks ago.  Normally I would have wanted to wait until he was 6 months to start cereal, but we went with 5.5 months since I will be going back to work and really needed him to master the whole eating thing before I went back-not a lot of time in the mornings! He definitely likes the food a little thicker-the runny stuff was not fun to feed and he didn't get much in his mouth! We started with rice cereal and moved to oatmeal cereal after a couple days.  He has also had pears and apples so far and he seems to like them.  The best news is that he hasn't experienced the constipation that tucker did!  Probably because we didn't do the rice for very long!  These pics are from his first time eating cereal-the quality is kinda lame because they are from my phone, but they captured the moment:)

I love this face:)

Worlds Collide

Today I took the boys to the Zoo.  The weather was AWESOME and we just had to get outside-so a special trip it was! One week from today I will be back at work-no more special trips.  I wasn't planning on going back to work this year.  The plan was to take an extended maternity leave through the end of this school year and return as normal in the fall.  This winter, I learned that unfortunately there would not be a job for me next year.  Due to enrollment decreasing, the district made the decision to cut a PE position at the elementary school.  I have been there the least amount of time, resulting in my cut.
I haven't written anything about it, because frankly, I was hoping it wouldn't happen. I was very very sad when I found out.  There were tears-quite a few.  I absolutely love my job. I love my kids and being with them too, but one of the benefits of a teaching job is that I do have more days off than the average working mom. It is a job where I really felt like I was making a difference.  I know I am a gym teacher and some might argue that the kids aren't learning anything super important (which is not true), but it is the perfect platform to have a ton of great conversations with kids about life and personal stuff.  I have been in to visit a few times since I left in October and the kids have asked if I am coming back.  Before I decided to return this year, I almost started crying in the middle of a class knowing that I might not be.  Thankfully my principal and superintendent were more than willing to have me back this year.  I am actually excited to be going back to work-for a whopping 2 months!

Last week my principal made a very profound statement to me.  She said, "it must be strange going in and out of the mommy world."  She is so right!  I feel like I have had the opportunity to do something that many people don't get to do.  I have had the chance to be a stay at home mom and working mom interchangeably for an extended period of time (5 months home, 10 months working, 2.5 months home, 2 months working, 6 months home, and I'm about to start 2 more months of work before I am off for the foreseeable future. In an ideal world, I would love to work a few days a week.  Unfortunately, that's not an option right now.
Back to the profound statement.  Both worlds are different.  Sure there are similarities-both involve being a mom and having kids.  Both involve tiring days spent at various jobs.  Both still require you to get your regular "life maintenance" things accomplished.  But the way that each of these things are accomplished is very different.  I think you can compare being a working mom and being a stay at home mom, but the argument of which is harder, can never be won.  Both are challenging in their own ways.
From what I have found, it is hard to be home all day, sometimes with minimal adult interaction. (although some may argue working with middle school kids is not much different!) It is hard to give give give of yourself all day and your workday never ends.  It is also hard to be away from your kids and know that you are missing things.  It is also hard to get everything that needs to be done around the house while adding 40 more hours of other work to your week and still trying to find quality time to spend with your family.  Both are hard, both are fun.  I wish I could do both.
There is also a difference in the mentality of a stay at home mom vs. a working mom.  I have experienced both mentalities myself as well.  I have had to relearn how to function in each world as I have left and re-entered them.  Thus the profoundness of my principal's statement.
As I am about the re-enter the working mom world, I am excited and sad.  I am very excited to go back to work, but I am very sad as well that this is "it" for me at the amazing school I have called "home" for so many years.  I will miss seeing my amazing "kids" every day and I will miss the amazing people who I work with.  I hope to someday soon return to teaching, but for now I will choose to enjoy my time with my kids to the fullest and make the most of the "extra" time I have in my week to spend time with people I don't usually get to see and to raise my children as best I can.  It is a privilege to be home with the boys-one I may have been too stubborn to choose on my own, but I am glad that they will get some quality time with their mom!

Let the craziness and early alarms/bedtimes begin!

Dump Everything! Tucker turned 2 and we had Loads of Fun!

Tucker LOVES trucks.  Driving down the highway he yells "buck" for every truck that he sees.  If he sees a construction truck though, watch out! He gasps, points, his jaw drops, and he yells "buck!".  

And thus his 2nd birthday party theme was born-construction!

Not working this year made it WAY easier to have time to plan Tucker's party.  Nap time allowed me a  lot of extra time to plan/put stuff together.  Of course I trolled pinterest and stole most of the good ideas from there:)

This was his super cute invite from The Trendy Butterfly shop on Etsy.

It is amazing how you can find things online for WAY cheaper than in the store...and with an Amazon Prime membership, they get delivered in 2 days for free!

This is my first homemade kid cake-way easy and totally worth it! I actually made 2-one for his kid/friend party and one for his family party.  I stole the idea from this blog.

All I had to do was make (from a box) two 8in. cakes and stack them on top of each other with frosting in between.  The I cut a chunk out of the top part and flipped it on top of the cake.  After Frosting the whole cake, I put crushed Oreos in the "ditch" and on the "mound".  The truck toy came in a pack of 5 for $6 from Target (yay) and the cones (poorly placed on this cake!) were from Amazon too. So easy!

We had pink and yellow "hard"hats and lunch sack favor bags for all of Tucker's friends.

More decorations

Max suggested renting a real port-a-potty after he saw my sign (I actually did not steal this idea from Pinterest!)

I did take the food out of the boxes before our friends arrived:)

We were finally able to put the boxes I'd been saving to good use with a "wrecking ball" station.  The kids had fun building them up and diving on them and Tucker's friend Rowan managed to open one and climb in too!

We have too many vehicles...

I was SOOOO excited that this treat actually came to fruition.  Thanks to Tallman Excavating, this mini-excavator camped out in our yard for the weekend just for Tucker's party! My dad works for Tallman Building and put a special favor in.  Since he knows how to drive it, he gave "rides" to the kids who wanted one too-although Max didn't want it actually moving because the treads were tearing up the grass!  I even took a turn on it towards the end.  It was kinda fun to steer-until my dad tricked me and made me pop a wheelie in the excavator!

This is Tucker's "hoose" that we have had for over 5 months and it needed to make an exit from our basement.  The kids seemed to enjoy playing in it. I don't think anyone actually colored on it, but there were crayons out.

This little guy was such a trooper (as usually) as we kept him up for WAY too long-and then he took a stellar nap!  He had a matching truck shirt to Tucker too.

 I tried to get him to wear his hat and worker-vest-thing, but he wasn't a huge fan.  Of course he came upstairs with the hat on today so go figure.

 a few of the kids playing with the hoose.  It gave me such joy to look out from the deck and see a ton of kids and people playing in our yard to celebrate Tucker.  We have such great friends and he is so loved and it was so fun to have so many little guys running around playing:)

Our free sandbox and super cheap "previously loved" trucks got a TON of action also.

 Some of the desserts! We also had some cupcakes and jello jigglers in the shape of tools and trucks.

 I wish I got Tucker's reaction to my dad coming around the back of the house during the party on video.  He started screaming and yelling "Papa" and ran from his friends towards him.  I LOVE that he loves him so much and they are so cute always playing together.  This was Tucker's first time in the excavator with it turned on.  We explored a bit when it came Friday afternoon, but he got to see it move! Dad had the real hardhat on:)

 more friends making use of our new swingset

Cake time! He was confused at first, but then he got that everyone was singing to him! He is so cute when he tries to blow out the candle-he blows air out (thankfully not spit!) but its not hard enough to blow out a candle.

more rides! Sienna was anxiously waiting-she made use of the construction vest at least!

Keane got in on the action too!

he had such a blast and was so excited when his friends started arriving! 

Tucker's bud ro-ro attacking the boxes

he didn't eat much of his own cupcake, but at the end of the party he downed someone's cupcake-building up his immunity I guess!

 snuggles from this little guy in between parties!

 We had our family party in the late afternoon. It was a tiring day but nice to do it all at once!

We had a small but nice party together:)

GG tried out the excavator too!

Tucker had fun visiting with Grandpa and Great-Grams too.

Nana and Poppy came also!

Lots of love from Grandma  and Papa-for some reason Tucker calls my mom Baba now! He always has a blast with them despite his exhausted look as he checks out his goodie bag! ha!

our attempt at a family photo-probably should have tried this at the beginning of the day. Do you see the extreme exhaustion in their eyes?!?!

We had so much fun celebrating your second birthday Tucker!! This may be the last year I get to pick the theme and run with it-so run I did!

It's Here!

Our new swing set finally arrived and was set up today!  We went back and forth about whether to get one or not this summer.  Tucker can do most of the stuff on it, but he needs to be under a close watch.  He also doesn't get the fact that he is going to be leveled if he walks in front of a swing...perhaps he needs to be gently hit once to learn that...not that i'm promoting the injury of my child.  We found a set that we liked a few weeks ago and they were able to come install it today!  They started while Tucker was napping and we tried our best to keep him from seeing it out the back window until it was finished...we almost succeeded.  When I knew he had spied something and wanted to see what it was, I, of course, had to get my phone out to record his reaction.  I am pretty sure he was more excited about the fact that there was a huge truck in our back yard than a new swing set.  

Please excuse Brayden's crying in the video...he was being neglected in his exersaucer to ensure the making of this video.

Sienna and Addie were so excited to come check it out...even though they have almost the same one:)  Tucker was PUMPED to have them over...he ran up the whole yard screaming "Addieeeeee" when she first came over.  He was definitely enjoying himself, as you can see:)

I'm kinda wishing we had gotten the rubber chips too since Tucker FLIES off the slide!  Perhaps in the future...

Thank you spring for finally showing up!

Oh have we enjoyed having spring actually be in town the past few days! We playe outside, went for a trail walk, had lunch with friends, went for our first three person run, played outside some more (pretty much we went outside after breakfast, after lunch, after naps, got tuckers hair cut, and after dinner!), and then enjoyed some cuddle time to watch the cool lightening tonight! More day like this soon please!!