Love is in the Air

Happy Valentine's Day!  The boys and I have been busy working on our Valentines for our friends at pre-school and I'm happy to report that with only minutes left to spare, we have completed our mission.

 Our pre-school encourages the Valentines to be handmade so it is a good thing that I love working on crafty projects; this isn't exactly Dan's cup of tea:)

I struggled with a good idea for a "boy" Valentine - something crafty and thoughtful; yet masculine and sweet.  I found this idea on another mommy blog that I follow and viola! - we have it!  What better way for a little boy to show he cares about his friends than to say, "I dig you!" with a shovel?  

 

Since the boys are so close in age, we have gotten to the point where I feel like we have twins.   We have double duty.  For everything.  Since Drew and Owen are both in pre-school, we had a whopping 45 Valentines to make.  I ordered a combination of red, white and pink shovels and set about making these creations a few weeks ago.  Little by little this project finally materialized.  

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Here is a completely random photo of Owen and his sweet cousin Greta.  It was taken at Owen's third birthday party last April (almost a year ago), but I came across the photo in my files and realized that I never put this one on my blog.  And I love it.  They are so unbelievably cute and Owie loves her.  We have to remind Owen that Greta is his cousin and no matter how much he loves her, he is not allowed to marry her:)

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We are at the end of a great indoor soccer season.  Both Drew and Owen played soccer through the winter and we're all sad that the season is over.  Indoor soccer was super-fun and was great exercise for the boys during the winter.  It was great exercise for Evan too, who constantly ran up and down the aisles in front of the bleachers at each game (and great exercise for me and Dan who had to chase him:).  We are looking forward to tee-ball and swimming lessons which are right the corner.

 Dan's soccer skills are so amazing that he can hold a baby and still play soccer.  What a Dad!

 And sometimes, rather than take the game seriously, Drew likes to be silly with his buddy Tate and run around with a soccer ball under his shirt!

 For our last game of the season, the boys had quite a fan club.  We had a lot of visitors come to watch!  The boys LOVED this!

 Evan baby Maddy came to watch the soccer game!

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And I will close this post with a message about my first born baby boy - my Drew bear.  Tonight I took Drew to kindergarten screening at what will be our new school come this fall.  My baby is going to kindergarten.

My Drew bear is a smart kid and I'm so unbelievably proud of him.  Drew can be short-tempered, rough with this brothers and sometimes he has the attention span of a nat, but tonight, the magical power of motherhood enthralled me as I watched my baby boy get called on by the kingergarten teacher and respond without hesitation to this stranger calling him to take his first steps towards 'big boy school.'  My love and pride for Drew swelled so great at this moment it nearly made my heart jump out of my chest.  I thought to myself, "I'm so happy to be here."  

And "here" is this privileged world of little ones that need our help reading "The Hungry Caterpillar," lacing up their shoes before soccer games and require assurances as they step out of our space and into their own.  

Drew is very ready for kindergarten.  I recall hearing other moms say this of their children in the past and now I know exactly what they mean.  He is perceptive, inquisitive and interested in all things and is busting at the seams to learn to read and write independently.  For these reasons, I am so excited for him.

I'm excited for us too.  I dreamt of being a mom when I was little.  I played "house" with my friends and pretended to drive kids to soccer practice and to school because, surely, that was the epitome of a dreamy future.  And being here - in this magical world of loving them - it is much more awesome than I could have ever imagined.  This little baby boy is mine.  

And I thank God again and again for picking me to be his mommy.