11 years

 Like pretty much every thing this spring, our anniversary did not go as expected. But that just goes along with life and marriage, things turn out differently than expected and you just love each other through it all. So basically the day was filled with take out food and hiding from our children. Ha!

Max got up in the morning and went to pick up some breakfast from a cafe we kept hearing wonderful things about (Portland is a huge place for foodies and we have lived here our whole lives and have explored so little of the food) Anyway, Charlie was awake and didn't know that Max was picking up breakfast so he made me breakfast with an "egg muffin" and greek yogurt with honey. He knows those are both things I love.

Max came home with some fancy chicken and waffles and we all chowed down so fast that there is no photo evidence. But they were real!

We had a slow morning/afternoon, then Max needed to work a bit. I was just grateful he gets to work from home these days! Later we realized we should have some sort of photo documentation of what we look like on this 11 year anniversary.
We didn't get to spend a weekend at the beach (Already had my mom lined up for babysitting) so we took some photos with our bamboo. Thanks Miles for your photography skills. Haha! We have yet to learn to take a respectable picture.

Edwin's face is my favorite, hopefully it distracts from the groping happening in this photo. 

Charlie had to be convinced to join in on these photos. ha. Hopefully it was just a one time thing. 

Anyway, for dinner we had take out again. This time yummy Thai food! Again, no photo evidence but delicious. I think we just made our kids mac & cheese so we didn't have to share Thai food that they would complain about.

Then we put them in bed and decided to make some candles. We've recently wanted to try making a couple different kinds of candles so we decided it was as good a time as ever to go at it. we made some little tea light candles and a tree candle. Fun experience and we'll do some more with the boys. We also have some supplies to make beeswax candles so we're excited about that.

If only I knew how to rotate a photo on blogger, but I don't.

Once we knew the children were officially asleep, we enjoyed a pampering evening.

Even though the anniversary was far from anything we expected, it still ended up being perfect. We do have a lot of fun together with pretty much anything we do, especially when we slow down from life and take the time to focus on each other. Life is not always easy and we've been thrown some surprises but it has been so much more fulfilling and joyful than I could have imagined. I am constantly impressed with Max's patience and diligence when it comes to me and his boys. He is always kind to me and doesn't raise his voice. (we both raise our voices at the kids from time to time, let's be real) Also, being pregnant (spoiler alert) always makes me feel like I should be doing more to contribute to the household but feel too exhausted and queasy and I have to let my body rest. I often start to feel guilty that I can't keep up with the housework or that sometimes we eat fast food and sometimes the kids fend for themselves for lunch. Max never ever implies that I should be doing more and always encourages me to rest, all the while he works his tail off all hours of the day, trying to balance all his responsibilities. Point is, I got it good and even though we are both imperfect people, we do always try to be better for ourselves and each other and we have both grown individually and together over these 11 years. I'm so grateful to be with such a loving husband for all of eternity!

And here are some throwbacks to that special May 2nd 2009. Thanks Anna for the photos...and that you are probably the only one reading this, True Friend!

You'll crack your head open, or possibly your nose!

May 1st started out with a bang. It was such a silly thing to happen, yet it did. Shortly after breakfast the 2 older boys were fighting upstairs, I was standing at the bottom of the stairs, listening, about to mutter (perhaps yell) something to them to remind them to behave. But then I realized Max was up there so I listened to Max handle it, probably with a lot more finesse than I would have. Anyway, in the meantime of me being enthralled with the conversation upstairs, Edwin wandered down the stairs and was standing two stairs away from me and decided to fling his little body at me with full trust that I would catch him. Well, once I realized what he was doing, it was too late and his body bounced right off of me and onto the floor. I feel like my grasps may have slowed his fall, but it all happened so fast that it's hard to say. His head hit a corner of the wall and started bleeding. There was quite a bit of blood so Max decided he needed to take him into the hospital. 

Weirdly enough, Max was about to leave with Edwin when he checked his phone and realized a doctor, (one of his coworkers) was going to be stopping by our house within 1 minute to pick up some of our eggs she buys from us. Max decided to hold off and have her check it out first. The cut wasn't super deep but it was long and pretty bloody. She checked it out then let us know it would probably be best to take him in and they would likely glue it. So that's what they did. 

Also, Max wasn't sure how to travel to the hospital with Edwin without his head rubbing the carseat, I suggested the workout band holding a gauze or paper towel and Edwin was so excited that I found a blue one (his favorite color) It worked out perfectly and the nurses and doctors commented on it being a great idea as well....just in case anyone finds themselves in the same situation.

He was such a champ! They did end up cleaning and super gluing it closed.

He was completely normal when he got home and he kept reassuring me that it didn't hurt anymore. We had some chats about making sure mommy or daddy know when he is going to jump into their arms.

He liked it when I took pictures of his head so he could see how it was doing.

Anyway, we had some exciting plans for the evening of May 1st since it was the night before our anniversary and also the anniversary of when Max broke his nose (the night before our wedding) We planned on having a campfire, roasting hot dogs and s'mores and having Max relay the story of how his nose became broken. The boys know this story well but always enjoy hearing it.

Also, I"m realizing that there was a lot of dress-up happening this day!
And I'm realizing May 1st may be an unlucky day for our family as far as face and head injuries go.

Moving on...

the neighbor gave them a big box to play in while we prepped the fire, then we may have burned that box shortly after...

Listening to the tales of Daddy's broken nose.

 And here is the video of the re-telling for anyone that doesn't know the story. This just may be a new May 1st tradition. Also, I'm hoping we make it a tradition to avoid all injuries and hospital visits.

Also, I just went through the last several years in my google photos to see if we've had any other injuries on May 1st and it looks like it doesn't happen too often, so that's good I guess!

April review

And then there was April! I'm finding that it's helpful to do these monthly reviews on the blog, mostly to see what we are actually doing for homeschool. At the beginning of the month, it was still pretty much directed by the children. They thought of things they wanted to do, and I supported them however I could, or directed them toward some sort of educational goal! Anyway, they wanted to make volcanoes and Marco polo'ed their cousin Everett to get a refresher tutorial!

 They set up their laboratory on the deck and were even able to blow up some balloons!

He was pretty proud of his purple self-manicure.

That's just how you eat breakfast, right?

This was actually Miles' birthday. He got a dinosaur excavation kit and kindly shared a bunch of his eggs with his brothers. 

Our cousins gave Miles another awesome gift, these marble tracks. The boys have been having hours of fun, especially on all the rainy days we've had!

This is always a fun option when you're not sure what to do with the children.

Our baby chicks explored the great outdoors for the first time! They're pretty much full grown now!

We finally had enough sunshine to set up the hammock. It has become the favorite spot for reading books. In fact, anytime Edwin sees me sit down on the hammock he exclaims "I'll go get a book!" and runs inside quickly just to come back with a handful of books.

We thought it would be funny for this chicken to attack this tiny town, however, Chuck did not like standing on the plastic and kept running away!

 Poor Oregon boys, not used to so much sunshine.

 Miles got to do some fun scavenger hunts for his homework.

Eggs...and for some reason our chickens have not been laying so many eggs recently, we think they are stressed out from the little chickens moving into the coop and from losing 2 sisters.

We got to have a quick visit with cousins. The stopped by to pick something up  and we had been doing a whole lot of social distancing, and it was so exciting to see some familiar faces! We still washed our hands a bunch and tried to keep some distance! I know my boys sure love their cousins!

We tried for six feet apart, and boy do we have a lot of kids!

And we had a whole lot of fun with chickens.

Everett held all the baby chickens!

And so did I, I just wanted to be the bird lady from Mary Poppins!

He has some serious business to attend to.

Egg gathering

Many of Charlie's experiments involve ropes and trees, and occasionally trying to hoist his brothers into the air.

 Miles was too heavy so when they tried lifting Edwin, they could do it if both older boys were pulling on the rope. But as soon as Edwin started lifting off the ground, he panicked and climbed out. Haha! I was there the whole time to make sure they were all safe.

Watching the caterpillars!

Another self directed science experiment....slugs and salt...they must have learned that from their dad.

I actually didn't know they were doing this until it had been a bit too quiet and I went to check on them,

We were playing an animal game...this is the penguin round.

Another kindergarten assignment was to make a nature face. Of course Edwin wanted in on the action. I love the faces they came up with.

Miles was proud of his "Magnolia tongue" and i was obsessed with his lilac hair.

 More rope science with Charlie.

Sunday home church, the boys were taking turns teaching words of King Benjamin.

More fun Kindergarten homework. All the boys always want to do the kindergarten homework.

A fun 2nd grade assignment about pollination.

This may have something to do with us missing the majority of my kids' class zoom calls. 

Baby yoga is adorable....but it's especially cute when he puts his underwear on backwards.

 I had a church zoom meeting and when I was done, I noticed that house was quieter than usual and found Max out reading with all the boys in the hammock.

2nd grade assignment making boats out of different materials. (they all get really involved with each others assignments.)

Max went a little crazy buying girl scout cookies so we made the boys do some math before they could get a cookie. They documented and graphed everyones favorites. Thin Mints win. Always!

It was a pretty exciting day then our butterflies started emerging.

Number line math homework for active boys. (Back before I power washed the deck, yuck!)

Which turned into chalk art.

I keep finding him in trees.

Little chickens moved into their corner of the coop.
 

Feeding the chickens while they prep the garden.

And that was our April. Some sunshine and lots of outside time.