March on, March forth, March OUT

I don't even know what to say about March... but luckily I have forty-three (not really!) pictures to help me in the endeavor, which I have helpfully shlepped together in groupings for a little bit of organization.

A. OUTDOOR goodness: 

One of the best things about March was the lovely warm-ish weather! We happily opened windows and cleaned out the garage and brought out the bikes and spent lots and lots of time outside.

One of our Chuck's ongoing projects is to get Clyde to focus enough to ride his bike without training wheels. Bless his little Jedi heart, he just gets so caught up imagining things or pretending he's on a pod racer dodging... lasers?... that he forgets to keep his balance. Soooo we'll see what happens there.

 

 Clyde's enthusiasm for basketball hasn't waned in the post-season, but thanks to a ball from Grandpa Braden and a big white bucket (the poor boy's hoop) he's keeping his skills sharp.

 

 Jack's had a good time discovering the great outdoors... of the front yard. And also stealing other people's water bottles. But mostly just being cute!

 

 More fun. Clyde is finally old enough to be allowed to walk across the street to fetch errant balls, and sometimes Will gets to go with him provided they hold hands, haha.

 

 One day Jack just randomly pulled up his shirt, rubbed his belly and then pulled it down again. I just honestly can't get enough of how cute this kid is. Except in the middle of the night, then I can and do get enough of it....

 B. Kick-A babysitters:

I'm not entirely sure how my mom will feel about that label, but it makes me laugh sooo we'll go with it :). As I've referenced a couple of times now, March brought some difficult situations within our ward and a lot of opportunities for service. Chuck and I were grateful to be able to help out and a lot of that was due to my mom's and Cody's willingness to watch our kids several different days. 

This day I came home from attending a funeral and then helping at the luncheon to find my mom and the boys completely engrossed in the movie UP, which somehow Grandma Pam had never seen. Jackers was just happily wandering around the house, haha.

 Cody came over a few different Tuesdays and Thursdays so Chuck and/or I could help at an on-going service project and also help in Clyde's classroom. Cody took care of Will and Jack, got Will ready for preschool and on the bus, and even texted me cute pictures!!

One day the boys spent the afternoon at my mom's house and the ever-indulgent Grandma Pam helped them have a Teddy Bear Picnic - complete with ALL FIFTY BEARS that they could find in her house. She even had the actual book and record (!!) that they listened to as they gathered. 

 

 Okay, this wasn't a babysitting adventure, just a fun meet-up with Uncle Cody while we happened to be in Boise one day. Jack was pretty determined to climb up into the play structure, but very happily for me and my claustrophobia, he was unable to get past the first entryway.

 C. SCHOOL fun:

We had a meeting at Will's preschool early in the month to go over his IEP goals and progress and discuss his transition to kindergarten. We are so, so happy with how well he's done this year and we're so grateful for the preschool staff and especially his teacher and aide Ms. Brittany and Ms. Kim.

 This is Ms. Brittany's first year teaching and she's sooo wonderful. She's been so enthusiastic and fun while at the same time encouraging Will and pushing him to work through some of his issues. We love her!

 

 Clyde's school had a Literacy Night that we had fun attending, so we got a quick picture with Mrs. Blume. Clyde has done so well having two teachers this year; Mrs. Blume does the first half of the week. She's really kept Clyde on top of things with his reading and AR progress; he met his goal a while back and tried to use that as an excuse to slack off a bit (definitely my child!) so she challenged him to a new goal to get him motivated again :).

 

 Mrs. Holman was also there - in costume as Miss Viola Swamp from the Miss Nelson books. Awesome right?? Mrs. Holman teaches the second half of each week, and since Chuck and I go in on Thursdays or Fridays, I've gotten to know her well and it's been really fun. Clyde especially loves when it's her turn to be the playground duty during recess because she plays football with the kids.

 D. St. Patrick's DAY!:

 Okay, well the pictures on the left were actually from a date night the day before St. Patrick's Day but we managed to accidentally (well, on Chuck's part; I did it purposefully) coordinate with each other AND the holiday so it works. Our buddy Jared was in his high school's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was INCREDIBLE. So glad we went.

And the other pictures are from St. Patrick's Day of course. I may have been called a leprechaun at church a few times, which is most definitely what I was going for :).

E. the REST:

The boys did a little Saturday morning class at the Rec Center to bridge the gap between basketball and soccer. It was cute and the boys had loads of fun, but keeping Jack contained and entertained for an hour those mornings was pretty dreadful.

 We borrowed some McCall kids... okay, all five McCall kids... one day during Spring Break. All eight kids stayed very busy and happy - Star Wars battles, Avengers battles, coloring, swinging, play doh, video games, and a LONG walk followed by Otter Pops :).

Clyde's only request for Spring Break was to play RISK with Chuck, and it finally happened on Friday afternoon.

 I don't know who won... I think Chuck? Buuuut the point is they had a blast, which isn't a big surprise. That morning I asked Clyde what he would respond at school on Monday if someone asked what his favorite part of spring break was and he said, "RISK with Daddy." Before they'd actually played, mind you.

 And now, your reward for making it through that looooong recap of miscellaneous March moments is THIS:

 AHHH, sooo cute! You're welcome.