Memorial Day 2015

(more photos to come...)
I talked to the kids about what Memorial Day is and why we remember the people who have died in war. Dylan's 1st grade teacher went to place flags at every grave where Steven's parents are buried. She and her fiance did it yesterday. I'd like to do that next year. Or even at a local cemetery. I'd love to do more traditions with each holiday. As it is, we like to have nothing scheduled. Our church has a picnic each year and friends are invited. I saw a lot of moms on Facebook ask what there was to do for toddlers or with out of town guests or with their family for the holiday and, if I had been planning on going, it would've been the perfect thing to mention. It was free, a pot luck breakfast w/ plenty of food even if friends go empty handed, and was at the park at the VA. How perfect!
But our day was perfect here. Steven went to Publix WITH Julia this morning. Dylan went too. It may have been the first time Steven volunteered to take her somewhere just because. Yay for her being 1!! She'll grow into a little daddy's girl more and more. I did send her with a little green hair bow, but Steven claims he never saw it. Oh well, with her strawberry dress, she probably didn't get mistaken for a boy. And Steven didn't put her in the primary colors cart cover seat thingy (which is not girly at all.)
Steven got us freezer waffles and orange juice to go along with the cantulope he had previously purchased. He got hot dogs, baked beans, a watermellon, and popsicles for our lunch by the pool. He also got the buns and a veggie tray for our dinner which was chicken patty sandwiches. I made garlic mashed potatoes to go with that. Tyler liked them, but Julia didn't. The other boys didn't complain about them, so perhaps they liked them. We were going to get corn on the cob, but it was sold out. Everybody likes that around here!
We went through Dylan and Isaac's entire closet and both dressers.

We cut their inventory about in half, boxing some 5T things up for Tyler, puting many things into a rags pile, and had a huge pile of give away items that they have never worn nor will ever wear. Steven had been wanting to dive into that project for some time. Dylan has been wanting to rearrange his room for a long time. He really dislikes it when Isaac climbs on his bed to get to his own. Boy am I glad he isn't asking for his own room yet and is happy with his bed being a couple of feet away from his little brother's. Seriously, we can accommodate this request, plus we got to vacuum under everything! Steven started sneezing so much w/ all of the vacuum dust in there. It would be awesome to have a rainbow, if only it self cleaned and was free - ha!
Julia took a nap in her freshly vacuumed room too. (I was busy while they were at Publix, fixing a photo frame and organizing and vacuuming.

When we were in the middle of moving their beds and dressers, Don called to invite us to a movie. Normally the kids would have loved to go, but they wanted to stay home to see their beds really be separated and wanted to go in the pool. Huh. They wanted to stay home too! Well it's a good thing we did. When the room was to their glee and forts were made in the new vacancy under Isaac's bed, we jumped in the pool while the hot dogs were grilling, then went back in for popsicles after lunch.

Let me add here that Julia loves the pile of rocks and basket of pool toys. She used to love to go into the pool, but now is content playing with the toys. She likes the pool okay, but isn't drawn to it as she was a month ago.

Steven, Julia, Tyler and I took an almost long enough nap then Steven took all of the kids to the pet store so he could see Julia's reaction to fish and birds. He said the pictures and videos didn't capture her giggles but that she did love it. I had planned on going for a jog while they were gone, but realized that I should be responsible and make dinner. Plus, it's my dream for Steven to go do something fun with the kids so I can get things done around here and it happened! So I sent an email and made mashed potatoes from scratch with the other half of the bag I had from a crock pot meal. Then I took Julia for a jog after dinner while the boys went for another swim and leafed the pool.
I want to read Hatchet aloud to the kids because I remember my mom reading it aloud to us as a kid. Plus, she just re-gave me the idea and told me that Steven would like it too. So instead of waiting for a chance to go to the library, I spent the $7 and bought the ibook. Now it's on my office iPad and my iPhone. We actually watched a movie that Steven had recorded for the boys, "Genie in a Bikini," and still had time to read Chapter 1 of Hatchet in their "new" bedroom. I read part then Steven read part while Dylan followed along. Tyler and Isaac didn't quite grip onto it yet, mostly because Julia loves Isaac and Tyler's toys so much. Steven and I watched the season premier of some random NBC reality show called "The Island." And that's our day! But now I know why people don't like Mondays. Tomorrow is Tuesday but it'll feel like a Monday b/c I don't have a day where the people go to work/school and I get a day to try to catch up and stay up late before work. I have a couple of photo projects waiting on me... But Barbie has been blogging so she's inspiring me to do the same. Priorities!! I need to be my kids' #1 teacher, so if I don't do it in person, then some day they can read back and see something or learn something or remember something. I love my babies. I still want to do actual traditions, but the non-committal, free-to-do-anything-or-nothing days are a nice bonus too.