Big Bang Theory

Today, Nathan got frustrated with a video game, ran across the room - not watching where he was going - and ran straight into a door frame. No blood was spilled, luckily, but he did give himself a nice Potter-esque mark on his forehead. (I think he was channeling his inner-uncle Kyle.)

I heard the thud all the way upstairs in my office. I assumed it was the garbage truck outside until Nathan came running into my office screaming bloody-murder about his self-inflicted injury. We were able to quickly soothe it with ice and a cold washcloth, luckily. We then recounted the myriad ways that Nathan has injured his melon over the 8 years of his life. It's always his head, somehow.

Later in the day, at lunch, Nathan banged his water bottle against the table and said, "Whoops - sorry - that was just my water bottle." I said, "That's okay, as long as it wasn't your head."

Jack replied, "There's been a lot of big bangs today. I wonder if a new universe is forming."

He's our witty child for sure, always ready with a quip. But I especially love that it's always a nerdy, science quip. My favorite kind.

Summer Bucket List

June is here, bringing with it all the fun summer activities we love. The best part about working at home (for me) is being able to sleep in while the boys are out of school. I'm big on letting the boys do their own thing and just relax and be kids during the summer. We do a lot of reading and art projects - but we also play a lot of video games. I make no apologies that we are a gamer family. :)

To make sure we leave the paradise of our home at some point, the boys and I wrote up a list of all the fun things we want to do this summer. We did a similar list last year, and it was fun to mark things off the list. So, this year, we made a new list.

I love that the list is written by Jack - a great keepsake of his handwriting. The last 2 lines are my own handwriting, which is oddly similar to his. Crazy.

We've already made a great start on our summer list. We went to the Lincoln Children's Museum...

We went to the pool...

I have tan lines on my feet - a true testament to how much time I'm spending outside.

We've even had a family game night and gone for a few walks in the evenings.

A few things that aren't on the list - baseball, baseball, and more baseball.

And two sport camps...1 for soccer and 1 for baseball:

Going green for Ireland on the last day of camp

We had a great weekend visit from Grandpa and Uncle Kyle...

We're looking forward to another family visit this weekend from Grandma Debbie and Cousin Erik. We're hoping the weather is nice enough for some more swimming. All in all, it's shaping up to be a great summer.

May 2012 Round-up

Something new I'm doing this year is a monthly round-up. Katie Nelson shared her practice of doing monthly round-ups and taught a class at Big Picture Classes outlining the practice. I've been documenting our 2012 in this way. It's been a fun way to keep track of all the things we do each month. As I closed up May, I thought it would be fun to share it here on our blog.

May 2012 was a busy month for us. The boys finished up spring soccer with the Blazers.

Jack battling for the ball

Nathan playing goalie

Awards ceremony for the Blazers

The boys went to 3 birthday parties for their friends and started Salt Dogs baseball. They had a friend over to spend the night on the last day of school and spent the day with us on Friday.

Early in the  month, we traveled back to Kansas City for a Kleiman family reunion.

We got to see our friends, the O'Neills - and we went to a Royals game too.

  

It was another month of unexpected expenses when we had to buy a new fridge. The compressor went out on the one original to our house. We bought a new side-by-side black fridge which we really like. It was another month of unexpected illness too. The boys got strep throat mid-month, a week before school ended. Each missed 2 more days of school.

The boys are really into Pokemon cards this month. It started the last few weeks of school with the kids playing and trading cards before school while they waited in line. Now, the boys have each amassed quite a collection and aren't immune to begging for new card packs every time we go to the store

I went back to work mid-month after my 8-week break. I love my job but sometimes being on my seasonal break is both a good thing and a bad thing. I do enjoy the time off - 8 weeks! But it's not fun to go without a paycheck. We have to save up for this time each year, and it's not easy. But the perk of being able to be home with the boys while I work is worth it though.

At school, the boys finished up 2nd grade on May 24.

They have really learned a lot and grown a lot this year (literally - during 2nd grade, Jack grew more than 1.5 inches and Nathan grew more than 1.25 inches - Nathan is still about an inch taller than Jack). For the last 6 weeks of school, they participated in Tech Club on Mondays after school where they learned about creating art on the computer. On May 21, the boys participated in the Zeman marathon - the 2nd graders all had to run 1 mile. I was really proud of the boys for finishing this race strong.

Nathan was chosen as the Student of the Month for May - we are so proud!

It has been a crazy month for my laptop. I had to call Dell twice to fix it since it was performing super slow. The second time, we had to rebuild the entire laptop, which meant I spent 2 weeks downloading all my online backups. Thank goodness I had that backup in place though. I'm hoping the rebuild shook out whatever was wrong with it and I can move on. We'll see...

We did quite a few projects around the house this month - for a recap, check out Mighty Crafty.

I read 8 books and watched 4 movies this month. I just discovered the show Rehab Addict - a home decorating/renovation show on DIY Network - and I am hooked. I'm trying to watch all 2 seasons as they are in re-runs right now.

We watched 8 movies as a family:

      
      
On Memorial Day, we went to the Lincoln Children's Museum.

We ended the month by celebrating our 15th anniversary! That's quite a long time. We are so happy to have our family together and see all that we've accomplished and gone through together.

That's it for my May 2012 round-up. If you're interested in creating your own, be sure to check out Katie's website for more information. She's the one who started it all! And for completing mine, I'm proud to display my badge.