Inside, Outside, Upside-Down

 This is the post where I will gush about how AWESOME  a reader my son Trenton is ;)
I'm most proud of his fluency-- he reads with expression, good prosody, and doesn't sound like-a-choppy-little-kid-who-sounds-out-each-word. He reads what he is interested in (above, that's a Johnny Boo graphic novel). He reads for enjoyment. He comprehends. When he gets to a tricky word that he doesn't know, he sounds it out, uses context clues, looks at pictures... usually makes a guess and keeps going... but if I'm there to remind him and guide him, he almost always can get it.
He's reading at a second-grade level, you guys.
His standardized test scores are almost off the charts.
I'm so proud of him.

 Look closely at this guy. See the red cheek? That's what happens when you walk in front of a batter... plastic bat. But still awful looking & hot to the touch. He let me put ice on it for ten minutes, so I'm sure it is better than what it could have looked like. Poor baby.

 And check this out!
I've always wanted a tree swing for the boys. The tree in our old backyard was too short. This one is juuuust right.
I did some finagling... cut up an old baby swing and removed the ropes... to get this to secure to the branch. Both boys are still getting the hang of it. But love it!

Ollie spends most of his time like this ----------------^
Balance!

Planting Trees

 Jim decided to purchase and plant some white pines from the 4-H, for Earth Day. Below, he and Oliver show off some of the baby trees.

 We're hoping that a few of them take... and that they will offer some much-needed shade to that side of the house.

I often wonder how many more days he'll be able to use this space as a hiding spot.
I'll always think of him peeping out of this corner-cabinet, probably for as long as we live in this house :)

Handy Song

This is what happens when we all get a little goofy... tired from doing yard work all day & two beers in...

Hot Birthday

 So. We all know the weather has been incredibly mild this year.
For my 33rd birthday, I was able to go in the pool. It was that hot.
Took this picture as evidence.

 Trenton made me this card.
It reads "Mommy loves burthday kards but... Burthdays are the best! Love, Trenton"
I absolutely love the way he tried to make it sound like a Hallmark card.
(Reading through the cards at the grocery store is one of his favorite past-times).

It was actually Oliver who insisted we have a "Pool Party". He wondered where the pinata was and also was disappointed that there was no cake. But he was cool with me 'inviting' him and his brother to my pool party.
We shared celebratory ice cream that night for dessert ;)

April In Belmar

 Dad came over on Saturday and helped me do a few things around the house... we then took him to Belmar after dinner to attempt to fly kites. It wasn't as windy as we thought it would be.

 We took a nice long walk on the beach, which was at a steep angle and low tide. Talked with quite a few fishermen who were out for stripers and blackfish and such.

 Burying a crab.

 On the rocks with PopPop.

Smile!

 Trenton is playing Tee Ball this season and is on the Royals. Saturday was Opening Day.
Sorry to the folks who bought raffle tix from us-- no winners from our bunch.
But one happy kid to be part of a fun team!

The next few shots of Ollie are all so good, I could not decide which ones to cut. So you get them all.

 

 

 

Jim had been gone for most of the week at a conference in New Orleans... we did a lot of playing together at home, and with friends.

Below, the boys hang out in this fort, which took over our living room for a few days.

Hittin' the Trails

Yet another benefit to afternoon kindergarten:

Hitting the trails for a bit on a nice morning.

I took the kids to Allaire State Park, and we rode for about a mile on the Coast to Capital trail that they have there.

 Trenton rides now like he's in charge... and can go really fast. I had to jog with Ollie most of the time to keep up. However, this red bike is getting too small for him. Time to pass it along to Ollie & get him a new one.

 And then we hit the playground for some further exercise and great photo opportunities ;)

Just chillin'