Then May came CRASHING in!

Lets see, where do I begin?! I suppose the beginning would be the best place to start, so here we go.

Unexpected Rain: Every Spring we have what are called "Small Group Dinners" with friends from church. We break up into groups of 4 or 5 couples and have dinner then all gather at someones home to have dessert and mingle. Jonathan and I were having a great time catching up and chatting with friends. Our friends that hosted the dessert portion had just finished building an amazingly beautiful home and we got to take a tour of it. It was Beautiful craftsmanship, I was in heaven just taking in all of the decor. The evening was winding down and a few of us were staying to watch the Celtics on their enormous movie screen in the "Home Theatre", a great ending to the night. Little did we know that 5 minutes later we were going to get a call telling us that we needed to get home as soon as possible. Needless to say we ran to the car as fast as we could and drove as close to the speed limit as our nerves would allow. I kept asking Jonathan what was the matter, he wasn't quite sure what had happened, just that Phil (our brother-in-law) had said that we needed to hurry. I began to think that it was just a prank because Phil is quite a joker. As we pulled up to our home all of the lights were on, quite a few cars were parked along the road and a bunch of noise was coming from inside. My first thought was, "They are totally having a rave at our house!" But once I got inside I couldn't believe my eyes. POOP Water was raining down from my ceilings and through the light fixtures in my dinning room and kitchen!!!!! My rugs were drenched in murky brown sewage and I was standing in "Shat". I ran up stairs to find the boys and our baby sitter but instead found three people sopping up water in my bathroom. I ran back down stairs and into the basement, which was flooded and the stench was even worse down there. I ran back up stairs and over to my neighbors house to see if her home was flooding too, thankfully it wasn't. I then called the city to figure out if the main sewer line was backing up into our house. After that I was just too stunned by the overwhelming mess that all I could do was stand there and look at the POOP Water raining down. It was a pretty amazing site, as Phil likes to call it, we were having a "Shat Storm". And what a storm it was too. I was so thankful to all of the guys, that we know from church, who came over and waded through our "Shat" and sucked it up with wet/vacs. I honestly think that they have a place in heaven for doing this amazing service for us. I don't know what I would have done if it weren't for them. It was a long night, we didn't get to bed until after 2 am. We found out that it wasn't the city sewage. Our toilet somehow was clogged, but the odd thing is is that when we turned the water back on to the toilet, it flushed just fine. So no one really knows why the toilet overflowed. I just keep looking at the "Silver Lining", which is that I get a mini home makeover. It would have been nice to remove the "POOP portion from it, but "Shat Happens", right.

Birthday Time: It is that time of year again. The boys get another year older! One year closer to "Isaac's Independence" where I am no longer the "Boss of him" and Owen gets one year closer to becoming a "Big boy, like Daddy", so he can "Marry me". Yes, I know Owen's Birthday is April 1st, but wanted to wait a month so that the weather would be better. I also like to kill two birds with one stone. I always do the boys parties on the same day. Owen's in the morning and Isaac's in the afternoon. This years theme was "Legos"! Owen has become obsessed with the new line of "Power Miners" and Isaac loves the adventures of "Indiana Jones". I had a great time planning their parties, I made 3D lego invitations which turned out so cute, if you ask me! I even downloaded the "LEGO" font for the little nubbies that hold the lego's together. Owen's was orange and Isaac's was brown. Owen's buddies were invited to help the "Power Miners" find all of the "Rock Crystals" before the "Rock Monsters" could find them and regain their POWERS. Isaac's buddies were invited to help "Indiana Jones" find the "Lost Mask of Mederva". I made each of the boys a lego t-shirt to put in their goodie bag. Owen's were orange and Isaac's were brown. I silk screened the lego man head on the front of each shirt and then put "Power Miners" underneath Owen's and "Indiana Jones" underneath Isaac's. They turned out to be a huge hit. If you look closely you can see that Owen and Isaac are wearing their shirts in the pictures. The kids seemed to like the candy that was in the bag as well. For Owen's craft I made ceramic lego blocks for the boys to paint. It was so cute to see them pick their favorite color and go to town slathering it all over the lego trying not to miss any spots. Isaac's craft was painting the mask of Mederva. I purchased these awesome masks from Oriental Trading Company, I would recommend them to everyone. You could do tons of great crafts with them. Isaac's buddies thought that they were pretty cool too. It was fun to watch them carefully design the patterns and colors they wanted each design to be. They all did such a great job. After the craft we had a "Treasure Hunt" I hid little round lego dots in the back yard with clues for them to find. At the end there was a basket full of treats. I love how kids get so excited over little clues. It was awesome to see their faces light up when they realized that they knew the answer. Since they had all expended their engery, I thought it would be best to give them more SUGAR, so we had cake and punch. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and then each of them blew out their candles and made a wish. Then it was present time. The gift of giving is a real treat for me to watch especially when it is children because it is so pure. They get so excited that they can't contain themselves. They give a bit of themselves and I love to see the anticipation as the "givee" opens the gift and is excited to receive it and then comes the big smile from the "giver" with the satisfaction that the gift that they chose for their buddy was something that they liked too. It completely reconfirms the friendship that they share. After the gifts the boys handed out their goodie bags to everyone and then played until mom's and dad's came to pick them up. We had a great time. I personally layed on the hammock for the rest of the afternoon and ordered pizza for dinner. There is a reason I don't have 23 wild and crazy rambunctious boy. But we had a great day.

Color Day: Every year the PTA sponsors "Color Day" at Butler Elementary. The kids love it! It is basically a huge field day where the kids play tons of games and they get to eat fresh fruit, drink lots of water and cool off with yummy Popsicles. Isaac's classes color was blue, so he picked out his "Super Man" t-shirt so he could have super powers and win all of the races. No my child has no competitive spirit in him at all!!! It was cute though because Owen wanted to wear his "Super Man" t-shirt too so he could be just like his Big Brother. Isaac had a great time jumping in the potato sack race, pulling in the tug-a-war, getting wet in the water balloon toss, and a bunch of other games. Owen had a good time cheering him on and sneaking watermelon wedges. I love the picture of the two of them, they are best buddies, well most of the time.

Owen: I feel like Isaac has gotten a lot of air time since he is older and has lots of things going on with school and sports, so I thought I would give a little shout out to my "Little Buddy Owie". I love Owen, he is so full of energy and is always scheming how to tease the next person he sees. Every day he has a bucket full of hugs and kisses for me, because "I am his Princess". I feel very privileged because Owen doesn't like Princesses because "They are girls and like the color pink". Owen loves to play Power Miners, eat sugar, wrestle with Isaac, eat sugar, learn new things, eat sugar, save the planet from utter destruction, snuggle with mommy and eat sugar. Owen is one of "My Best Buddies".