Everything changed. I’ll never forget that crazy day! My OB told us to go have a drink after that appointment. Both of us. Seriously. Only in New Orleans.

 

Yesterday was the boys’ last day of preschool. Next year they’ll be in kindergarten. I’m not as emotional about it as I probably should be, because truthfully, for them, preschool has been so much like “real school” that the only difference next year will be no nap. Which is fine by me. Less stuff to wash and keep track of.

But I also love to reminisce, and love to compare pictures and see how they’ve grown, etc, etc, etc. (As I was rushing around school yesterday morning trying to get photos of the boys with each of their teachers and assistant teachers, another mom was watching me and we were laughing at the thought of me doing this is twelve years. But you know me. I surely will be.

So here are the boys outside the school, right before we went in. (I kind of wish they were wearing their uniforms here, just for consistency, but oh well.)

And in October…

Walking in…

And in August…

And with their teachers…
Miles

Oliver

Linus

After school, I took the boys to Sucre, a local dessert place, for cupcakes and/or ice cream. The resulting mess has me predicting we are now banned from the premises. And then we went to a playdate at a local park with Linus’s classmates. So fun, the boys didn’t want to leave!

I haven’t really blogged in a while, so I need to break this down into manageable chunks. This is gonna be all over the place.

1. We went to a birthday party at the Cool Zoo (the splash park at the Audubon Zoo) on Saturday morning. Last time I took the boys, they were kind of timid about it. (Shocking, I know.) I think that was two summers ago. This year, they (metaphorically) dove right in and had a blast. And therefore, so did I! So glad I wore my bathing suit. They even went down a couple of water slides! Color me shocked. I may actually shell out the dough to take them back later this summer.

At the bottom of the alligator slide.

On the way out, being all cute ‘n’ stuff in their towels.

2. My mom and I took them for haircuts Saturday afternoon, and due to Linus’s two crazy cowlicks (the other two only have one each), he got the bowl cut. Which looks so dorky it comes right back around to adorable. At least to his mommy.

Here he is with the fish he caught with Larry.

3. My high school reunion was over a week ago, and I haven’t written much about it. I really want to write a whole post about it so I don’t forget how great it was. Sigh…

4. This weekend, I’m going out of town with some girlfriends to a lake house. Okay, that makes it sound grander than it probably is, but I like to sound fancy. But there’s a hot tub that I’m going to park myself in for approximately 48 hours. I cannot wait.

5. School ends tomorrow. I’m glad (no more hour long commute!) but also sad. Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange some playdates with their friends over the summer. But camp starts Wednesday, and the boys are excited about that. I am too, except for the parts where I have to pack their lunch and wash bathing suits and towels constantly. But I’ll be able to go to the gym a little later in the morning (5:30 instead of 5) and I’ll actually get to work on time! I’m sure my boss is excited about that part too.

6. My friend Terry and her family moved away yesterday. I’m very sad about it. Her husband is in the Coast Guard, but they were hoping to get assigned to New Orleans again. Alas, they are going back to their hometown, which is good for them. I can only hope that in three years, they’ll be back again.

Terry and I have been friends since about 2002, I guess. She and Rob, her husband, lived across the street from the pub, so we saw them a lot. I have so many good memories with her, and it doesn’t take me long to compile a long list of reasons she’s such a great friend.

– When the boys were tiny and she and her family would come visit (they were stationed in Texas from 2006-2010 or so, I can’t remember exactly) she would always come help with them. I can remember sitting up late with her, feeding tiny babies in the wee hours of the night.
– She would take me shopping on the Navy base by our house. Or we’d go to the gym there. Or take the kids swimming.
– When I wanted to do something fun for my birthday, but everyone else on earth was watching some LSU football game, she came with me to the movies. Bonus: She taught me how good hot sauce on popcorn is.
– When her mom would come visit at Christmas, she’d always bring me a bag of homemade tamales. Except this year, they didn’t make them. I’m still bitter.
– She came over to help potty train the boys. Granted, we failed, but jeez, she gave up a Saturday to get peed on by three little boys!

Basically, she has always been there for me. And while writing this, I’ve started to realize how much better a friend she is to me than I have been to her. I could write a list a mile long, but I’ll just leave it at that.

Adios, ho!

For the last four days of school, the kids don’t have to wear uniforms. The boys jumped out of bed this morning, excited to pick out their clothes. (Linus has already informed me he wants to wear his shirt every day. I hope other parents are reading this so they’ll know I’m planning to wash it every night. I swear.)

But Millie wins with the best outfit. Sparkly headband? Check. Rainbow shirt? Check. Lace skirt over studded leggings with gladiator sandals? Check, check, and check.

This weekend was my 20th high school reunion, and it was so much fun. Thanks to my mad Photoshop skillz (don’t look too closely), I was able to get a picture with a bunch of us in it. Ain’t technology wonderful?

A much longer post is coming soon about the weekend…

The boys had their end of school picnic on Monday, and man was it cute. Lemme show you.

First, all the kids in their grade sang together. There’s Miles!

Oliver and one of his buddies held hands as they walked off. His mom and I were standing next to each other, dying over it.

And then Linus’s class performed. His teacher went all out for this. They were in costume, either Lions or Birds, and each group did a dance. It was pretty intricate, and I’m kicking myself for not having a video of it. (I chose to take photos instead. If only I could have done both.)

Here they were getting ready. Linus loved his wings. Who wouldn’t?

(I mean, really. The kid is just so freaking happy.)

Oliver loved his brother’s costume as well.

The performance:

He could never not watch me.

Taking a bow

After the performance, the boys and Millie sort of posed for a picture…

And Oliver got his face painted. That’s Spiderman. Kind of an abstract representation, you know.

Can’t believe another year is almost over!

Parents of girls (especially only girls), answer me this….do girls play-fight like this, or is it a boy thing? (I know my sister and I fought like this growing up, but it wasn’t pretend like here!)

While I have you here, do you mind clicking on the Top Mommy Blogs button on the right? I’m at #32 right now, which is pretty pathetic. Only takes a second!

I’m still amazed that I have blue eyed children. Yesterday, after t-ball practice, Oliver’s eyes were looking particularly blue, due to his pupils being tiny.

Note to self: time for haircuts.

Just a few from the past few days…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a big brother. His name is Evan. He’s a landscape architect in Los Angeles. Well, that’s his profession. But his “hobby” is making films. Short films, mostly. He’s been making films as long as I can remember. When I was younger, he always had his Super-8 camera with him, and he and his friends John and Bryan and Darren would be running around mixing up fresh batches of fake blood, or building dummies, or generally creeping out the neighborhood as they made movies.

Here’s a particularly memorable example:

Twin Terror from Evan Mather on Vimeo.

About 15 years ago, he started making animated movies. The first were stop-action Lego Star Wars recreations/spoofs/parodies/homages. We were all so excited when he was mentioned on CNN for this gem:

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars from Evan Mather on Vimeo.

My favorite of his movies came along in 2000.

Fansom the Lizard

Fansom the Lizard from Evan Mather on Vimeo.

Anyway, I could go on and on. He’s had films shown at film festivals all over the world. SXSW, Sundance, Japan, The Netherlands, you name it. His videography is staggeringly long. But until now, he’s only made short films. And now he’s starting work on his first feature-length film. And he’s looking for backers. Have you heard of Kickstarter? It’s really cool. You can pledge any amount of money, and if he gets enough pledges, then he will get the money, and that movie will be made. At certain price points, you can get incentives. Your name mentioned in the credits. A postcard. A DVD of the movie. A producer credit.

He has raised most of the money he needs to make this film, but he’s still a little short. Won’t you visit his Kickstarter page and pledge a few dollars? Think about how cool it would be to say “I helped fund that” when he’s on stage at the Oscars, accepting his “Best Documentary Feature” award…

Update: Well, my blog went down for several hours today, and in the meantime, his project got fully funded! But you can still back it and make it even better!

And I mean that in a good way.

On Saturday, we went to a crawfish boil at my boss’s house. Even though the forecast was for rain, rain, and more rain, we were very lucky that it held off the entire time. It was gray, but not rainy. Whew. George couldn’t come because he was still sick, but the boys and I (except Oliver) ate our weight in crawfish. Yum.

Before:

After:

Deeelish!

Unfortunately, I neglected to bring any bathing suits with us because this was set up in the front yard. (Granted, I know the boys wouldn’t have gone on it, but I would have!)

And yesterday was, of course, Mother’s Day. Best one yet, except that my Mom was in Los Angeles so I didn’t get to see her. I got to sleep in while George fed the boys breakfast. And then we went to lunch with his parents, where I got a dozen pink roses and a bottle of pink champagne.

Afterwards, we had dessert.

I dropped the boys off at home (including the eldest) and went shopping with my friend Terry. Found a couple of dresses for my 20th reunion coming up, and then we went to see the Great Gatsby. I came home after the boys were in bed, so it really was a day of no responsibility. Nice.

I also got cards, including these homemade ones, which are, of course, the best.

Now George has set a new standard for Mother’s Day. I won’t complain if every Mother’s Day from here on out is like this one.