Last Day of Baseball

Alex had his last baseball game of the season on his birthday and he was playing against his best friends' team.  Big stuff all around.  I managed to snap these two pictures of him before the game.

That's a bonafide 7 year old you're lookin' at right there!

Good Call

"Hey Alex, can you please go get the mail?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't have any underwear on."

Fashion Icon

He wore this "outfit" for about an hour.  Most of that time was spent running around the house repeating, "I boots on!  I boots on!"

MOAR CANDY!

There was a piñata at a birthday party we attended on Sunday.  Alex got to take the fateful blow that busted out all the candy.  And he has been asking for a piñata multiple times a day for the last three days.  Well, I couldn't disappoint him on his birthday could I?!

He keeps telling me there isn't enough candy in it because "it's barely even up to the cheese!"  Trust me...there is enough candy.

Awwww Overload

Just gonna leave this here:

Whoa.

I finally bought my first pair of legit yoga pants.  I have always been of the mind that sweat pants are just as good/the same thing.

Ummmmm....No.

What in the name of everything stretchy was I waiting for???  These are NOT the same as sweats.  Holy buckets.

7

It's Alex's 7th birthday today.  I'm sitting here listening to the album that was playing while he was being born, and I can actually feel my heart swelling with love and joy.

Happy birthday sweet boy.  I love you.

Honk if you love me!

Yesterday I was backing out of the garage while talking to Alex, and I was apparently not paying attention, because I caught the driver's side view mirror on the side of the garage.  It bent back, popped the mirror out, and cracked the casing around the mirror.  I stopped myself from using all sorts of colorful language to express how I felt and got out to survey the damage.  As soon as I got out, Alex scampered into the driver's seat to check it out.  The whole time I was trying to get everything put back together, I had to listen to a narrative of how bad this was, and how expensive it was going to be to fix it, and how upset Travis was going to be, and how it was just unbelieveable that I didn't see the garage there.  I finally couldn't take it anymore.  I calmly wiped the sweat from my forehead while informing my darling son that I was very upset about what I had done, and having him continually tell me how bad it was was not helping me feel any better about it.  After a beat of reflection, he apologized but finished off with, "But this is a baaaaaaaaaad day Mom."  Thanks.

Quick aside that I promise ties in:
When we bought our truck last September, Travis left me with the salesman to go through all the settings since I would be the one driving it the most.  Travis happens to have one little pet peeve when it comes to cars:  it completely annoys him if they honk when you lock them with the remote.  So obviously when we got to that setting, I made sure it did just that.  Then when I was in California at the end of May, Travis was driving the truck more than usual and low and behold when I came home, the setting had been changed and the truck no longer honked when you locked it.  I never said anything about it and let it go.  Kinda.

This morning Travis told me he would take the truck because he was going to be over near an auto body shop we have used in the past, and he would stop in to see if they could quick pop everything back into place.  He was going to also drop Sam off at daycare on his way, but his morning routine took a bit longer than planned, so I took Sam instead.  And on the way home, I made sure to pull over and change the setting back to honking upon remote lock.

It'll just be a little reminder that I'm thinking of him and I love him every time he locks the truck throughout the day!

Coffees?

So Sam likes coffee.  Like A LOT.  Like it's a problem.  I cannot have coffee when he is around because all I hear the whole time is "coffees?  coffees?  coffees?  coffees pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!"  And it doesn't stop at just begging.  He tries to wrestle my mug away from me.  Which is super safe given the average temperature of Mama's Go Juice.

The other problem is that this kid could care less when I tell him no.  He will look right at me and do exactly what I tell him not to do.  Many times he will look right at me and do exactly what I tell him not to do while giggling.

Testing boundaries is fun!

My Fair City

Credit to Cassis J. Callender Photography.

These two are quickly becoming best buddies as Sam gets older.

Summer Days

I love having Alex home with me, I really do.  But man, these two hours of quiet when he is at summer school are pret-ty nice.

Naiive Mom

Remember that cute "collage" I posted the other day of the pictures I have up of the boys?  The one I thought was so sweet and funny of my two sweet and funny boys?  This one?

Yeah.  Alex was sitting down in my "office space" and said, "Oh man!  That's when I was freezin' my  nuts off!"


"Yeah!  That's when I went swimming and I was freezin' my nuts off!"
"...ummmm...did you tell Gramma and Grandpa that?!"
"Yep!"
"Awesome."

Womp Womp

Today's work attire is brought to you by Out of Shape and Old?® and Wow I Haven't Played Volleyball in a Long Time!®

Home Office Decor

Now that I'm working from home, I feel more comfortable putting up personal pictures and mementos at my desk.  I realize this is bass ackwards as one would think I would want personal things at my office NOT in my house full of personal things, but it always felt odd to me.  We had plenty of "artwork" from Alex hanging about the office before we moved, but I didn't have any pictures of the boys up or anything from my personal space there.  Well, other than the mutt.  She is very much from, and in, my personal space and she was there all the time.

Anywho, my mom took and printed these for me and up they went.  Not the most artistic display, but each one makes me smile multiple times a day.

Food Art

I grabbed the weekly handful of art from Sam's clip on the wall at daycare last week and these were too cute to toss, so I thought maybe some wall decor for his room:

The sizes might be a bit off relative to each other, but whatever.  It's cute.

Morning Pets

This little moment was accompanied by a cacophony of "Hi Sweeeetie!  Hi Sweeeetie!"

Gah!

I was feeling like he wasn't looking that much older since the first day of 1st grade.  Wrong wrong wrong.
First Day:

Last Day:

First grade will age ya!  (Althougth I think I said that about Kindergarten too.)  Maybe it's just me, but he looks so much older.

Last Day of First Grade

That's it.  No more 1st grade for Mr. Alex T. Julius.  Bring on summer!

Museum

Yesterday, Alex had a field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum.  Since this was the only field trip this year that required chaperones and Alex was all sad that I didn't help out in his classroom this year, I signed up to go.  And so did a lot of other parents.  Like almost all of them.  So, I didn't have to watch anyone else's kid; it was just Alex and me.  Just the way I like it.  He was a bit more excited to get done with the museum tour so we could go visit his Aunt Nicki at her cool office, but I did manage to snap a few pictures:

Never Fails

Each and every time we go to Menard's with the boys, this is where you can find them:

Under a shelf of some display, crawling into the smallest crevices their little bodies can manage, giggling like two goofballs the whole time.  And this is always after they have been chasing bouncy balls all over the store while causing other patrons to feel like they should have worn a helmet to the store in preparation of being in the same store as the Julius boys.

Words to Live By

A quick tip to start your week:  Do not, under any circumstances, go to your local compost site in flip flops.  While rationally you know it's all just grass and plant juice, you will have a hard time remembering that when the liquid squishing between your toes really really looks like cow poo.

Hiya!

I'm back.  Did ya miss me?  I took a little trek to sunny California.  And while it was a good trip, it is hard to get back in the swing of things.  I say that while simultaneously calling myself a big ol' wussy.  People do this all the time with way less support than I have, and they make it work.  Alas, I am a wuss and planning things to be able to leave for 5 days and then getting things all reset after coming back is just a teensy bit overwhelming for me.  No worries, I fly my Wuss Flag high and proud.

Anywho, not shockingly, the boys did just fine while I was gone.  And aside from a seriously disgusting house, all was good upon my return home.

While it was hard to be away from my people, Northern California is stunningly beautiful and that helped take the sting out a little bit.  That and the lack of any real responsibilities for 5 whole days.