Friends, Family, Festivals and Fiascos

H and I had a very lovely long weekend, which began after I got out of work Wednesday. We were joined by Kathryn, my good friend from NYC. She'd been travelling the far reaches of the world so of cource Grand Rapids was next on her list :) 

 We showed her the sights of GR, including the misting pool at Rosa Parks. H loved it so much he threw his hat into it...

Not much was on the agenda outside of taking it easy. We did a lot of that. But Friday evening we joined my visiting sister Kellie and my mom for the ride up to Alma to experience the one and only Highland Festival! Did you know Alma is Scotland, USA?

Well it is:) We have fond memories of visiting my Abuelita's house in Alma and watching the parade and highland games.

 Complete with bloody marys :)

 We had great seats thanks to my Uncle. HP got a great view of the parade.

 Many different views of the parade :)

Which actually didn't turn out to be a great thing...

It sounds crazy and it was really surreal, but we witnessed a freak accident at that parade. One of the floats carrying several passengers tripped up and literally ran over a woman walking alongside of it. She is okay (as far as I know) but she most definately went under a wheel and was trapped under that float for at least 30 minutes before being carted off in the ambulance.

And then everything went back to normal.

Yeah, crazy.

Speaking of crazy, have you ever seen a caber toss? The different clansmen tried their hands at tossing a giant log (like a telephone pole).

The strong man gets the "pick", then does the caber dance to get his balance before tossing it upwards to make it flip over. Some were successful, some not.

It was a fun-filled, dramatic week :)

A Very Happy Non-Birthday

It was a perfect day to celebrate HP's 2nd birthday! 2 days early makes it a non-birthday day but nontheless.



H invited some pals over to celebrate his achievement (although I truly feel it was mostly my achievement...) and we feasted on an All-Star themed lunch of hot dogs, chips, sodas and sports-themed cupcakes.

These were actually really fun to make. Today I ate both a baseball and a tennis ball.



H chose his favorite, the soccer ball.

He had a great time, ate a lot, opened some really generous gifts and is really looking forward to what being a 2 year old will bring :)

Here's the tentative preview of the big changes coming his way:

1. He's transitioning to a big boy bed. The current thought is to go the cheap Montessori route and have a twin mattress on the ground. The mattress is there now; we've rested, read and bounced on it today. Step 2 is to take part of the crib off to "release" him from the pen at night, and step 3 is to take the crib away and tuck it in the basement. How long will this take? Stay tuned...

2. Potty training. Whoa. I'm not even thinking about this until school is out and I have 6 weeks of trial and error. The current thought is to let the baby run naked in the backyard all summer.....clearly I need to do a little research before we start this one. How long will that one take? Who knows.

Stay tuned for the big things to come!



Mothers Day #2

Happy Mothers Day to me! Today I got to do some of my favorite things with my favorite people. I slept in to 9am, drank a ton of coffee, baked a yummy quiche, shared a delic brunch with my parents, in-laws and of course Jon and H, took a nap, worked in the garden (planted my lettuce), read books on the front lawn, went for a family bike ride and watched a movie. That is my dream day!

This is what happens when I force a picture...

Sitting solo, where is my little frog man?

He's hiding from me!

Sisters and I put together a birthday gift for my Mom!

Idea from pinterest :)

My hair is getting super long!

H wanted to participate too :)

An Update in 3 Parts

Part One: Gardening 
I have been feeling really energetic lately and I actually being productive around here! Today I finally put some seeds into the ground. It has been a really long process with lots of baby steps. In February we had that crazy warm weather for awhile, long enough for me to tear up the yucky flower beds around the gazebo, cut down two dwarf trees and tear up the rotting logs that were acting as borders. March let me pull out those hideously heavy pompous grass clusters and turn over the soil. April was chilly and I steadily finished the back of the house mulching and de-ferning (I really hate those plants), pulled up the raspberry bushes and cut back the two dead grape vines. And this month is the time for planting!

I put in 3 tomato plants (cherry) and cilantro. I planted 1 row of bell peppers, 2 rows of spinach and a row of fennel (which I haven't ever actually used but obviously I'm planning on giving it a try) and 4 mounds of cucumbers. I'll also plant lettuce and butternut squash soon. As of yet we have no sprinkler so I'll have to hire HP to do the watering.

H got an early birthday gift from his Abueliito and Grandma...an electric lawn mower! H has graciously let us use it and I'm so glad! Our house look less and less crazy every month :)

Part Two: School and Such
We are inching toward the end of the year! Almost 20 days left of teaching, whew. This will be the end of my 2nd year here, which makes a total of 5 years teaching (in some capacity anyway). And I remember telling my Social Studies teacher in H.S. that I would never be a teacher...

Soccer is done! We finished yesterday with a loss in overtime. After seeing some truly crazy soccer over the past two months I am happy to say they really have improved. If only they wouldn't let the fact they are middle school girls get in the way of actually having fun... For now, I plan on returning to coaching next year with the boys and girls. They were two distinctly different teams. Boys B was silly, grumpy, show-boaty and didn't win once. Girls were snippy, lazy, ignorant of soccer rules, and didn't win once.

Yes, that paints an ugly picture. But there were bright moments, funny moments and actual learning of the sport. And I would do it again, so I guess that says enough.

Part Three: HP and the Fam
H is turning 2 years old May 21st. Yes, 2. He has been getting taller every day and sillier. He loves pushing Jon and I around the house (quite literally corralling us like cattle), making us all cuddle on the bed together, and holding hands. He's been much more generous with his hugs and kisses, even making me kiss and hug each of his 4 stuffed animals he sleeps with (Maximus the Bear, Bearrison the bear, Monkey, and Mr. Bear- the boy likes his bears).

He has been learning how to share with his buddy Eli and they go on weekly adventures to museums, Playworld or Chuck-E-Cheese. That lucky bum. He's really into watching Shaun the Sheep and Pingu, a Sweedish claymation series. He is still practicing every sport with a ball and would be happy to stay outside all day.

He is still a man of few words. This has caused me some concern but I'm still banking on him picking it up later (as he was a late crawler, walker, etc.). It's a little hard to hear about other little ones yakking about everything, but it will come.

And his birthday party is this Saturday! Yay!