The Boys and their Firetrucks!

On Saturday, Dave took Matt to his first wet down of the season. I really think Dave wants to go and has Matt come as a decoy but trust me Matt has no objections about going. He loves the fire trucks, etc. They had a great time. Usually you can run in the water that they spray at the truck but the weather wasn't that warm to do so. Dave knows of two more wet downs this summer....so the boys plan on attending them all. The next one is actually on May 30th. Dave has definitely passed on his love of firetrucks to his son. Emily and I stayed home for this outing. We figured the boys would have more fun than we would. We will probably all attend one together this year.

Happy Mother's Day.......we're back

I know, I know where have I/we been. Well, here where we always are but very busy and sidetracked by many things. But I'm back and have made a new commitment to getting back into blogging at least once a week, hopefully once a day.

So, today is Mother's Day and I get to share my special day with Dave as today is his 38th birthday (he is such a youngster). We have been sharing our celebratory moments of the day. Emily woke us up a little before 6 this morning....not a great present. After a short time up in our room, Dave took her downstairs and I got to sleep for another hour (Matt was still asleep too - he is our sleeper child). The plan was for Emily and I to make pancakes for breakfast but I slept too long so she decided to have cereal. Once Matt was up, we opened Dave's cards and kids gifts and then I got my Mother's day turn of cards and gifts. Dave went and got us breakfast and coffee (yes, Dunkin). We went to church....both kids got themselves dressed without help..YEAH another milestone reached - Matt has joined the ranks of those who can dress themselves. Lunch was at Friday's and yes we had the serving staff sing happy birthday to Dave....the kids loved it. Emily was smiling and laughing the whole time and Matt was covering his ears because "they clap too loud". When we got home, Dave took the kids to the park to ride bikes giving me some "mommy quiet time". Last night Dave and I went out on a date and celebrated his birthday with dinner at a nice restaurant...it was yummy! These are flowers the kids bought for me while I was at the gym yesterday morning. Emily knows my favorite flower is the tulip and Matt wanted to get his own flower so he chose the rose. I love being my kids mom and Dave's wife. It is a great day in the Wessel house today.

Art 101

While visiting Nana and Papa Joe in Tennessee, Emily and I spent some time one afternoon coloring pictures. I made a fruit bowl and a vase of flowers. Emily loves doing what mommy does, so she made a fruit bowl and a vase holding mommy's favorite flower, a tulip. Her knowledge of fruit has expanded since her first fruit bowl. This one contains from left to right: cherries, lime slice, apple, pineapple, pear, orange, banana, lemon and grapes. This girl loves to draw....I have no idea what I will do with all of the pictures she has made.....I cherish each ones, especially those made specifically for me.

Everybody in the Water

Three weeks ago Emily and Matt went back to taking swimming lessons after a winter hiatus. The first lesson back went okay - both had to relearn the things they already knew. Lessons use to be on Wednesday after school, but now with Emily's homework and other responsibilities weekdays are too hard to fit the lessons in, so we now go on Saturday morning (mommy and daddy rotate taking them). Emily's lesson is first and then Matt's. The last two weeks Emily has shown real improvement while Matt is another story. He prefers being outside of the pool and playing in the water "puddles". I took these pictures of him dancing by the pool our second week back. He is a riot. I'm sure he'll get into the gist of swimming soon but for now I am just glad both are going and happy that Emily has made progress.

So long, Japanese maple tree

On Friday, we had a company come do soil remediation which was required because of the small leak discovered in the oil tank we had removed in January. Although our neighbor was open to us using his property, mainly the driveway, for the equipment being used, we decided after talking to the guy in charge and finding that the possibility of property damage was really high, to only involve our property. Unfortunately, the tank was located in front of the house and a Japanese maple tree was planted in front of the tank area. So, we had to remove the tree in order to get the equipment on our property. It was very sad...yes, it was just a tree but this is where we took fall photos of the kids and this past Christmas was the first time we hung ornaments from it. Oh well, we are looking at it in the aspect that the kids have a larger yard to play in. Of course, we have to get some grass down....although, Matt would be all for a mud/dirt pit to play in. We aren't able to do anything at this point because the remediation showed that the oil went down to the bedrock. We are waiting to hear the next step, one possibly being that they put in a well to monitor the oil spill when the water table rises - this would be checked monthly. This oil tank issue feels like it is never going to end and we had to sacrifice a 32 year old tree for it. Thankfully, Dave was able to be home for the day and deal with all of this craziness. Matt was also off of school and loved watching the backhoe and dump trucks. He even got to go into the backhoe - no picture at this time, I was out and Dave couldn't find the camera. Our neighbor was kind enough to take one but I have to get it from him.