i can see God!

the boys and i spent saturday afternoon and evening at my parent's house. i always like going down there because it's out in the country, quiet, and like i told my mom, i feel like i am "off duty" when i am down there. it's nice to have 2 extra sets of eyes watching my 2 hooligans! my parents now live in my deceased grandparent's home which my grandparents bought back in 1975. it is the only house they lived in during my entire life and i have such fond memories (remember, i am a sentimentalist!). it is super sweet to me to see my 2 boys playing outside there, just like i did as a child.

okay, back to the present.

so we went down there for my mom to help sew on capes to the back of the batman shirts i've made for burrito's birthday party. well, to be honest, she didn't help me, she did them for me! we were there till dark and as we left, with the boys chattering in the backseat, i was reminded of a time many years before being married, of a conversation i had with the Lord.

i was driving home from church in my montero feeling the weight of loneliness upon my shoulders. i was of marrying-age but no prospects in sight and i longed for companionship. i remember talking to the Lord about it as i drove and thinking, "Lord, i may never marry but could you please just give me a baby." now please understand, i was not wanting to do anything outside of God's word, i was just thinking if the Lord could just leave me a baby on the doorstep, i would be happy. to have companionship, someone to talk to as i drove home that night.

now fast forward to saturday night. driving home in my pilot, with 2 loud and boisterous boys in the backseat, a smile spread across my face. the Lord is so good. He did not stop with just one child, but two and a great husband! He is so faithful. it did not happen when i thought it should or when i wanted it to, but the Lord did satisfy my desires.

and so when i heard this conversation, it made me smile even more:

noodle: mommy look, i have my sunglasses on! (remember, it is dark outside!)

me: oh, noodle, that is funny. i bet everything looks funny with those glasses on!

noodle: burrito, put your glasses on! (burrito complies) look, i can even see the trees!

me: really? i bet everything is super dark with those glasses on!

noodle: i can see the trees. i can even see God!

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and here are some random pictures of my two crazy boys lately:

burrito thought it would be really funny to spray the rest of the pretend shaving cream our friend chrystal gave them for Christmas into the bath water. and it was funny. and it turned the water a nice minty green. and noodle's reaction...he was scared to death of the floating shaving cream and screamed and cried until it all dissolved. oh dear.

the boys and i ate at one of my fave fast food places, long john silver's. or as noodle calls it, "john john silver's." do you remember these pirate hats? i used to get them as a kid and of course, the cool factor of this place goes way up with my boys because of these hats!

bats and birthdays

burrito's birthday is coming up and the planning is in full swing.

i have these great memories of birthdays that my mom did for us. i think they are memories primarily from looking at pictures of the events and not actual memories though. nevertheless, i remember great birthdays full of friends and families, in the backyard, with lots of sweet homemade games and cakes.

and if you have spent any sort of time with me, you would know that i am quite sentimental. maybe extremely sentimental. so when i began to think about burrito's first birthday, i knew i wanted to have a sweet backyard birthday party for him too. and we have. we did do a mcdonald's party for him one year (his 3rd) but all of the others have been at home.

now if you are a mom (or a dad for that matter!) you will know that there are definite pros and cons of having a party at home. it is definitely more economical, but the price comes more in the form of preparation and clean up.

and this year i spent some serious time considering having his party somewhere other than our home. he has had several friends have parties at local, fun places and so i think he just expected we would do the same. and honestly, i struggled a bit with the pressure of "keeping up with the joneses." but really, deep inside, i like the planning and prep that goes into throwing a party of your own. maybe not so much the cleanup, but definitely the planning!

so when i asked burrito this year what kind of birthday party he wanted he replied, without much hesitation, "a batman party!" this caught me by surprise because, as far as i know, the child has never even seen an episode (new or old) of batman. but i learned a long time ago, the boy knows what he wants and there's no reasoning with him! :)

so a batman party it is! i started doing some research searching the web for some batman party ideas. don't you just love the internet! what did people do without it!?!?! i found such great ideas, i thought i would post them here. all this planning has made me really excited about the party and i think the boys are going to love it!

so here's a picture of the invitations i made. here's the front:

and then for the inside, i pasted this picture of burrito and then below the bat date, bat place, bat time and rsvp.

see the shirt that he is wearing in this picture? i am making one for each child that comes to the party and my mom and i are sewing on some bat capes to the back of them. this will be their party favor to take home, along with a bat mask and craft they will do. don't you think this is way better than the junkie toys that the stores sell as party favors?!?! and i did this for so cheap!
so here's the plan for the party:
as the kids arrive (all boys, mainly from burrito's class at school), we will have the batman theme song playing. while we are waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids can do a bat craft. i'll have black foam paper precut into a bat shape, and the boys can glue on google eyes and then glue it to a popsicle stick. the craft can dry during the party.
once all the boys are there, i will explain to the kids that the riddler has stolen the birthday cake. it is their job to complete several activities in order to earn their bat cape and mask, so that they can catch the riddler and find the missing cake.
first game is pin the bat on batman (like pin the tail on the donkey). second we will play batman, batman, riddler (like duck, duck, goose). third is stomp out the bad guys. i will have balloons blown up and filled with candy with pictures of the different batman villains taped on. the boys have to "stomp out" the villains and then get the candy that is inside the balloons. finally, they will have to complete batman training academy with an obstacle course. this will be set up in the backyard and once they complete this, they officially earn their bat capes and bat masks.
the boys will put on their bat shirts/capes over their clothes and their masks. at this point, john will slip inside the house and put on a riddler shirt i've made for him. i will tell the boys it is now time for them to catch the riddler. john will run out into the backyard acting all crazy (this comes so naturally to him!) and the boys will have to chase him, catch him and set him down in a chair. i will give each boy a roll of toilet paper for them to wrap the riddler up in the chair. i just think a group of 5 year old boys will totally love this! i'm going to take a picture of all the boys around john (the riddler) all wrapped up in toilet paper and send a copy of this picture with the thank you notes we will send out later. after the picture, john will tell the boys where the cake is hidden and we will eat!
i am making burrito's birthday cake (which i love doing!). it will be a yellow cake with chocolate frosting on the side and then the batman logo on top with black and yellow icing. we will also have "joker juice" and "mr. freeze ice cream."
doesn't that sound fun??? i am so excited about it. i plan on taking lots of pictures of everything we do. we are just hoping for good weather next weekend so that we can enjoy all of those activities outdoors!

humbleness and baseball

when i pick burrito up from school i always like to ask him about his day. his typical response is "we played outside all day long." typical boy....zero details. not to mention, totally not true! well, today when i asked him this question he excitedly told me about the fun he had at recess today:

burrito: mom, today at recess christian's dad was there and he played basketball with us.

me: hmmm, basketball....did you have recess in the gym?

burrito: no, we played outside.

me: i don't remember seeing a basketball goal outside. did christian's dad bring a basketball goal?

burrito: no. he held out his arms like this (he demonstrated in the backseat) and we tried to throw the ball through his arms.

me: oh, that sounds like so much fun. do you remember that christian's dad is a baseball player?

burrito: yes, i remember that. he came to my class and gave me his baseball card.

me: that's right, burrito. we'll have to watch him play baseball this summer on t.v.

burrito: t.v.!!!!! he's on t.v!!!! why is he on t.v?????

it cracked me up that burrito was more excited and impressed that christian's dad is on t.v. more than the fact that he is a major league baseball player.

and this is what i love about our school and the people there. christian's dad, who shall remain nameless, is in fact a major league baseball player. in fact, he made $3.6 million dollars last season, so i would say he must be a pretty good major league baseball player (and he is, having won several golden gloves). and this same guy is out on the playground doing recess duty and playing basketball with the kids. i just love that humbleness. i think he is out with an injured hamstring and maybe that explains his presence on the playground instead of the playing field today, but isn't that great? i have thought about this since burrito told me the story and i just appreciate it more and more.

and then i think about Christ and how the King of the Universe humbly washed His disciples feet. feet that were dirty and likely smelly and He washed them as a servant. He could have acted like the very important person that He was, but instead chose to hang out with his friends and wash their feet.

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Lord make me humble, make me wise.

spring break

wow. i think we found out just how many things you can possibly pack into one week's time. spring break was great but we are beat! while we did do a lot of work, we spent a lot of quality time together and that has made me even more thankful for my family....really a gift from the Lord. He put us all together as a family and did a great job. i would not want to spend all my days with anyone else!

as i was trying to recollect everything that took place over our break last night, i realized that we did so much, i don't even remember some of it. so here's the breakdown, for posterity sake. maybe this can serve as a reminder for us next year to not work so hard!

our spring break really started last friday, as burrito was off from school and john just had a half day of inservice and then a teacher appreciation lunch.

friday:

burrito, noodle and i met mrs. brandi, the preschool teacher i taught with last year, along with her son, p, and daughter, a. we had a great time at happy hopperz, an indoor bounce house place that we love to visit. they had added a new zip line and an air hockey table since our last visit and they were a huge hit with the boys. we had lots of fun and had lunch at the mcdonald's right behind there. poor p hurt his ankle though so we were sad about that. sorry p! just as we pulled into the drive, john pulled in too and so began our official break.

saturday:

we set out in the morning to check out a couple of new resale shops and then lunch at subway. we were supposed to have dinner that night with the wilks. however, their kids were sick so we canceled with hopes to reschedule. we were all really disappointed to not be able to go so we tried to think of something fun instead that we could do. where do the rutherfords like to go for fun???? ikea!!!! so we grabbed some dinner (yeah for cfa and panda!) and headed out to the ikea. we had a good time looking around and then ate some of their yummy cinnamon rolls for a special treat. it was a decent substitute for missing out on fun with our friends.

sunday:

church and then lunch at braum's complete with chocolate milk shakes. except for noodle of course, who took one look at the shake and proclaimed it to be yucky! i am not sure where he came from! how could a chocolate, sweet lover like me give birth to a child that refuses to eat cake and ice cream??? burrito, on the other hand, clearly inherited my genes, can you tell???

monday:

john needed to make a trip to the library so the boys and i went grocery shopping. that afternoon, we bought items necessary to accomplish our home projects. the weather was beautiful so we played outside a lot and grilled for dinner. and the biggest news of the day....my sister and brother in law called to say they were pregnant! yeah for a cousin! we are so excited!

tuesday:

we met friends for lunch. they have 3 month old twins and our boys totally fell in love. noodle kept saying that the girl was his baby and the boy was burrito's baby. we had cfa for lunch and visited with sweet friends. that night, john had grad school and the boys and i headed out to a friend's house for dinner. it was so nice to not sit at home missing john while he was in class. there were 7 kids at dinner and they all played so well together. i did not see my two boys hardly at all the whole night! we had so much fun....thanks Gibsons!

wednesday:

my mom and sister came over and the girls went out to shop and eat lunch. john took the boys to a park and they had a picnic lunch together. it was so nice to be able to shop without a child asking you 101 questions and begging to go look at toys. thanks mom and stace for a fun girls only excursion! john also tackled our first chore of the week, resealing our shower. it was not a hard job, just an inconvenient one, as we could not use our shower for 3 days. and if you have seen our shower, you would know the sacrifice! john also surprised me by digging up this huge yucca that was taking over the front of our house while i was out shopping. i noticed immediately upon our arrival that the yucca was gone and the bird bath had taken its place. it looks so much better! john had grad class that night too but the boys and i were so tired, bedtime came early!

thursday:

we went to pick up the power washer that was needed to wash down our swingset so that we could restain it. picking up the power washer was not too bad, as john and 2 other guys were there to lift it into the back of our Pilot. the hard part, and quite comical i might add, was when we returned home and tried to figure out how we were going to get it out. it took some creativity, but we were able to get it out of the pilot without causing harm to it or ourselves. i think john enjoyed power washing and then spraying on a deck cleaner to prepare the swingset for staining. the boys and i ran some errands while john stayed back to work. i was thinking a power washer and our two boys would not be a good combination!

friday:

power washer went back to the rental place and staining began on the swingset. it was a long, tedious and messy job! the boys did great though playing in the backyard while we worked. they were just ready for the evening to come because they were going to mimi's for a sleepover. this was the first time for noodle to sleep away from home and the first time since being a baby for burrito. john and i were able to drop them off and then head out for dinner and time at the bookstore. i was a little skeptical about things going smoothly for my mom, especially when it came time to go to sleep. however, i was pleasantly surprised to hear that the boys did great and were ready to do it again! in fact, burrito kept telling me all day that we could just pull up at mimi's house and he could get out and ring the doorbell! he was definitely ready to get rid of us!

saturday:

john and i slept in a little and it was so weird to not have the boys around...the house was so quiet! we had borrowed my dad's truck when we dropped the boys off because we were going to buy some st. augustine sod for our yard and he wanted some too. so saturday morning involved a lot of dirt, grass and sweat. that's a tough job! we removed a few bushes to eliminate a flower bed and then laid sod there in its place. we headed back to my parents for lunch and to pick up the boys. after we all took a nap, john and i finished up the staining job and the boys played outside. we were so thankful for good weather all week! here's a before and after shot of the swingset:

before:

after:

sunday:

church and then back home for lunch outside on our patio. i cleaned out our closets while the boys napped and then back outside for yard work. we planted some new plants, watered the new sod and played with the boys. it was a great end to a much needed spring break.

i wish i would have taken some pictures of our adventures but i was trying to just live in the moment and not drive everyone crazy with the camera. it was a great time for some family fun and makes me so ready for summer!

60 more days.....

the interview

My friend Emily had this on her blog and I thought it was hysterical so I thought I would do this with my boys too. It is always interesting to hear their point of view!

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Burrito: Not do it
Noodle: Don't touch anything


2. What makes mom happy?
Burrito: Laughing
Noodle: Burrito staying home from school


3. What makes mom sad?
Burrito: When I do something bad
Noodle: Burrito going to school

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Burrito: Tickle me
Noodle: Making funny faces

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Burrito: Little
Noodle: Little

6. How old is your mom?
Burrito: 3100
Noodle: 33

7. How tall is your mom?
Burrito: 30 pounds
Noodle: Taller than me

8. What is Mom's favorite thing to do?
Burrito: Play with us
Noodle: Play toys

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Burrito: Lay around
Noodle: Cleaning

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Burrito: Games
Noodle: Help me

11. What is your mom really good at?
Burrito: Games
Noodle: Helping me

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Burrito: Tag and hide and seek
Noodle: bugs (killing them)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Burrito: Take care of me
Noodle: clean

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Burrito: Chicken
Noodle: Candy

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Burrito: Helping me
Noodle: Take care of me

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Burrito: Kailan
Noodle: Dora

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Burrito: Play cars
Noodle: Play toys

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Burrito: We both like cars
Noodle: Eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?
Burrito: You're taller
Noodle: You're bigger

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Burrito: Because you give kisses to me
Noodle: Kisses

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Burrito: Mardels
Noodle: WalMart (so not true! but we do go there a lot!)

My most favorite person...

Who is this cute couple?!?!?

And the better question is, why are we so dressed up?

This is definitely not a normal occurence for us. In fact, we even had to google "cocktail attire" so that we would know what that means exactly before attending this event. And just so you know, it means a suit with tie for men and the equivalent of the "little black dress" for the ladies.

Where did we go all dressed up, you ask?

To the annual fundraising auction held by John's school. The monies raised at this event help support the operating budget of the school and a portion also goes to a local charity.

This event takes so much organizing and planning, I can't even imagine the hours that go into making something like this happen and run smoothly. You might remember my earlier post about the auction class basket I helped put together for Burrito's class.

Well, the boy trunk went for over $400 and the girl trunk went for over $300 the last check I made before bidding ended. Crazy!

And John and I even won a few silent auction items too! Burrito's teacher offered an afternoon of baking cookies and playing games at her house for 1-2 kids so we went in with his best friend's mom and split the bid and won! Burrito and his little friend were so excited! And John and I were excited to bid and win some really practical things too....a weekend rental of a power washer, a wheel alignment and brake inspection for the cars. All of these things were purchases that we were going to have to make anyway, and now it helps the school....hooray!

Dinner was fantastic and did not come cheap. Though John and I have made a new resolution this year in that we are doing things to invest in our marriage, and if that means spending a little money on something that we wouldn't normally feel comfortable doing, then it's a good investment, right???

The live auction was the most entertaining. I think the two highest netting items were a puppy and scrapbooking services. Who would have guessed, especially when there were things like trips to Hawaii, Australia, baseball once-in-a-lifetime experiences, Dallas Cowboys tickets, etc.

It felt good to go out on a fancy date with my husband. This doesn't happen very often on our teacher/stay at home mom income, but it was a good investment.