As we speak, Joshua and Caleb are playing basketball in the driveway while John David and Daniel are rolling around on the trampoline together. Alan is eating supper, and I am updating my blog for the first time in a week. Slacker.

I’ve been working on photo albums through Snapfish lately. Y’all, photo books are 70% off this month (March), so I am making as many photo books as I possibly can. I have about a hundred I could make since the last time I was caught up on photo printing was 2013…

One of my newly created albums came in the mail today, of photos from 2 years ago. One of the boys was a little embarrassed to realize that in this album was an adorable photo of the 4 boys reading together in a chair, and he was in his underwear. Just his underwear. I might have jokingly threatened to share said photo album with future dates. He might have retorted back that the page will definitely be torn out long before that. Sigh. Oh well.

The photo is safe for now, and the picture is so cute. I’d show you, but well, I am at least nicer than that.

I’m trying to hold the boys to just family parties this year. Well, family parties + just 1 or 2 friends.

I took a vote this morning, asking everyone here if they’d rather go hiking today or stay home. Everyone but Daniel voted to stay home, so here we are.

I tried to go walking, but it started raining on me so I cut that short. I passed Joshua on my way inside. Apparently, rain drops don’t phase him. He came in with soaking wet hair.

Y’all don’t want to know how many squabbles I have refereed today. Ugh. This should definitely count as a special skill on my resume. I am extremely experienced at sending everyone to different rooms.

We did have an epic game of driveway birdie tonight, though…wait. No, that’s not what they called it…badminton! I had to ask them what the game was called. Ha! But it was super fun!

Remember that Mother’s Day that they bought me a Badminton set, and so we played that for Mother’s Day? Only now, the boys are actually way better at it than I am!

Joshua, Alan, and I were sitting in the living room today getting quite a show from a new sport taking place on our trampoline. Daniel and John David were out there together, and we watched them take their shirts off and have a shirt war.

Joshua observed, “John David sure is good at whipping Daniel with his shirt!” They had a better view than I did, and they kept saying, “Ohhhh Owww  Whoa! Ho! hahahaha! Is he okay…..yeah.”

For some reason this game made Daniel and JD quite happy, so we didn’t intervene. Perhaps we should all try it…. ha!

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I came home a couple of weeks ago with the complete DVD set of the original Full House. Why? Because I’m the world’s worst person at sticking to any sort of budget…..also because we have already watched Fuller House, so I felt like the boys had to see the first series to understand it better.

Alan took so long at Walmart this afternoon, on a trip to buy Daniel’s birthday present and Tostitos, that we watched 4 episodes of Full House while he was gone. Our family is all about it right now, so don’t be surprised if you hear the boys say “How rude!” or “Have mercy!”

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I heard 2 funny quotes this week that I wanted to share.

1.”Who is I love Lucy? Were they zombies?”

2. A leprechaun visited John David’s school. He left them Skittles and a messy classroom of confetti and such. I asked J.D. who the leprechaun was. He didn’t miss a beat, “Jesus.”

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I came across some encouraging Bible verses in my reading today:

“Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”   John 6: 15

I’ve been thinking lately about how apolitical Jesus was. He was never interested in power or rule or talking politics. He wanted to teach about God, love, and healing people. I feel like as Christians we need to persist in getting our message of love out to the world. Things of this world are temporary, but our souls are eternal. Love is eternal.

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”    John 6: 27-29

Believe. Faith. Hope. Love. Against such things there is no law.

And now on to the rest of Spring Break. 1 day down, 8 days to go. I’m excited. I still have a  great deal of refereeing ahead of me, but it’s worth it because I also have days of Badminton and shirt-whipping.

I’d upload photos for you to have a peek into our adventures, but my computer is so full it won’t let me upload anything new. Issues. I can only give you pictures that I can steal from Facebook. Triple sigh. You know that’s driving me crazy. But don’t worry. I will not rest until I fix this problem!

Okay, one more hilarious quote from tonight:

“Hey, Mom, I am five, and you are thirteen. No! 14. You are 14.”

hehehe Nope. I didn’t correct him. Is that wrong? I say no.

Have a great Spring Break, y’all!

The post Spring Break Day 1: The Shirt War, Full House, Jesus, and The Vote appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We did manage to squeeze in one day of adventure during Spring Break.  My parents were visiting, and there were still a lot of DC spots that they had never seen, so we headed into town.  Believe it or not, my parents, the 4 boys, and I all fit into one minivan.  : )

One of Joshua’s friends came over to play while we were gone, and Alan answered the door.  Alan was under the weather, so he couldn’t go with us.  When Alan told the little buddy that Joshua wasn’t home, he said, “What?  How did they all fit into one car?”

The day went really well.  I was reminded of one great money-saving tourist tip that I’d forgotten:

-Museum cafeterias are outrageously expensive, and who has the space to pack a picnic lunch and lug it around?  Avoid the cafeterias.  Instead, eat outside.  In front of every museum is an outdoor cafe that sells hot dogs and such that cost less than they do inside.

First stop: Carousel

This is a tradition for us.  You just can’t take kids to the National Mall and skip the carousel!

Okay.  I’ll try not to get too nostalgic.  Let’s just say this will be an emotional move for us.  (We’re moving this summer:  far, far away!)

Carousel ride completed, and a good bit poorer, we headed across the Mall to the Smithsonian American History Museum.

the Smithsonian castle: beautiful, but I’ve never found too much to see in there

People were so kind to stop and offer to take family pictures for us.  As I’ve said before, don’t knock “people today.”  There are still plenty of nice ones out there.

I’m so excited that we now have DC photos for JD and Daniel too.  Joshua and Caleb have gotten to do all of this so many times over the years, but the little ones came along, and then Alan and I became a little less adventurous!

We could not have picked a more beautiful day to go touring.  It was PERFECT.  It was warm but breezy, and there were beautiful spring colors everywhere.

I was so excited to see Joshua, actually reading the information!!  He especially enjoyed the political cartoon exhibit, which I didn’t photograph, and everything in the presidential wing of the museum.

Joshua usually complains of boredom at all of these museums, but we couldn’t tear him away from the presidential area.  He was so interested in the presidents that he insisted on sitting and watching the entire History channel video of the history of presidents in the public eye, that they play continuously on the 3rd floor of the museum.  I was rather delighted to see him taking such an interest!

JD mostly just enjoyed this water bottle. : )

I can’t explain why this is so much fun to us….moving on…

Dan got a little bored, so he just laid down in the floor….kind of like Caleb did, in the floor of the Capitol back in ’09, which is one reason we’ve never gone back to the Capitol:

After the museum, we hiked waaaaay over to the World War II Memorial.  I had never been to this memorial before.  I’d seen it from the street, but that does not do it justice.  This is a memorial well worth visiting.  I literally had tears in my eyes, just thinking of all the sacrifices made in World War II.  I highly recommend visiting this one!

As we were walking up to the memorial, Caleb asked, “Wait.  This is a park???!!!??”

“Yeah, it’s a park!” I replied, hoping that would make it more interesting.

“Yes!  So we can play here??”

“Um, uh…yeah.  You can play.”

“Yes!  We’re here!  This is a park.  So I can go now?”

By this point, we were just coming up to the outside of the humongous WWII Memorial area, and I kind of just wanted to see where in the world Caleb was going with these thoughts, so I said, “Yeah, go ahead…..”

“YES!” Caleb said, as he ran over to the wall….

Mom asked, “Do you want me to go keep up with Caleb?”

I was so relieved!  “Yes, definitely!”

It was a good thing too, because when I glanced back over there, I saw Nana ordering Caleb off the wall, where he had almost managed to jump over.  I could just see Caleb and his one leg, headed back down.

Ah, Caleb.  You’re just a fun little boy, and I love you so much.  And thank you to Nana!!!

I can’t tell you how inspiring this memorial is in person.  You really have to see it.

There was a line of these scenes in the wall, progressing from beginning to end of the war.

Even the boys really seemed to enjoy this fountain.  Of course, they were just dying to put their arms into the water, but I’m happy to report that we all left DRY:  an accomplishment in itself.

The memorial goes all the way to the reflecting pool that stretches to the Lincoln Memorial, another favorite of ours.

Then we made the long hike back to our van.  It was so sweet to watch Joshua and Caleb, just talking amongst themselves. Our exhausted preschooler climbed onto Granddaddy’s lap and caught a ride on the scooter.  Dan was passed out hard by the time we loaded him into his car seat.

I enjoyed watching the boys, walking and talking to each other.  I hope they will be best friends for life.

 How we will miss you, DC!!!

Oh, I just have to share this one last story!  My parents left on Easter, but they were still here when Daniel received his Easter basket, so Daniel is convinced that everything he got from the Easter Bunny actually came from Nana.  hehehe  “Look what Nana got me.”  “Nana got me this.”  “Where Nana and Granddaddy go?”

I could’ve corrected him, but eh…why bother.  ; )

The post Our Adventures in DC with Four Little Kids appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.