It was beautiful for a day last week, hovering right under 70 degrees! So of course, we spent lots of time outside!

Jadon did some "trimming" of my bushes with my kitchen tongs. He loves pretending he's the "lawn mower man" (the guy that does the landscape maintentance for our neighbor every monday.)

Avery enjoyed doing...well, pretty much anything. This kid LOVES the outdoors!

Jadon had made a "book" earlier in the day, and he brought it outside to "read" to me.

Of course, Avery loves to do everything her big brother does, so she brought a book outside too.

This made big brother very upset. Afterall, it WAS HIS idea! So it led to an all out hissy fit, and he ended up in his room screaming at the top of his lungs and lost his opportunity to go play at the park that evening after dinner... so it was quite unfortunate that such a lovely day turned sour so quickly.

Since we've had such a busy schedule lately, I often forget to slow down and enjoy the kids. In doing so, I've also been forgetting to let Jadon do more big boy things around the house... like get things for himself that he couldnt before, or help me out with things in the kitchen. He is growing up, and I forget that he can do things like this for himself now. So, the other day I thought it would be a good idea to let him try using my Swiffer Sweeper Vac (LOVE this product by the way!) on the entryway floor. Well, he was obviously proud, and he did a good job and had alot of fun doing it, so he has been asking us after every meal if he can vacuum. For the most part, he gets the bulk of the crumbs on the floor, so I can live with the remaining few left on the floor. Besides, this really does help me out!! And i'm glad to give him the opportunity to feel like a big boy and a big helper.

Jadon came home from preschool on thursday with a wrapped mother's day gift for me, and strict orders not to open it until mothers day. Well, the other day he told me "you cant touch the glass, but you can touch the wood."
This morning, first thing, he said "its mothers day, and you can open your present now!" Well, it turned out to be a picture frame with a picture of him in it. It was the cutest thing i've ever seen! Best mothers day gift a mom could get from her kids is the ones that they make! Then he said "I love you mommy." To which I almost started balling, but held it together. ;)