Life and Times of The Johnston family: A Mother's Day Garden And So Much More!

We've had a lot of fun the past week! The weather has been so nice and warm so we've been going outside a lot. In the mornings we go for a "walk", Elizabeth is on a scooter kick so she's taken that everyday, I push Devin in his fancy trike that he has no desire to learn to pedal...this summer's project. In the afternoon we go out to the backyard to play, and they have endless fun back there! Elizabeth loves swinging and is getting really good and "pumping", Devin loves going down the slides(the big one on my parents' swing set and the little one on our "castle climber") he will even kind of swing on the little swing on our castle climber. They both LOVE the sandbox and the tramp though Elizabeth definitely gets more out of it than Devin who likes to be in there more than actually doing anything...non the less jump while in there. But fun is fun! They also play endless imagination games. Monday evening we did our very much needed grocery shopping, Tuesday evening was dance/tumbling for Elizabeth, Wednesday was playgroup for Devin, and playtime with Mary for Elizabeth. Devin did....OK in playgroup he seems to be getting really touchy and sensitive there but that is what he is there to work on so I guess it's good. Thursday Mary graciously came back down to watch Devin so I could take Elizabeth to the Syracuse Family Fun Center, as she earned all the needed stickers with good behavior. She had such a good fun time!! She had the place mostly to herself a lot of the time so she just went from inflatable to inflatable. After about an hour and a half I got her some lunch there, then she was back to playing. The last hour or so she found a friend to play with, then when she had to go Elizabeth decided she was good to go as well. It was a great reward for great behavior! And Devin reported having lots of fun with Mary. :) Thursday night was scouts which went really well. Friday I finally went through the kids closets, and switched out their winter clothes for their summer ones...which was no easy task! Elizabeth helped me pick up her room which I was pleasantly surprised wasn't that messy! And then for Fun Friday I let the kids have a picnic lunch in the living room while watching the Disney Channel. While they were eating I cleaned up Devin's room which was a huge mess....though most of the mess was shoved under his bed and dresser. He was also hoarding books! I took out probably a dozen that belonged in the living room. During Devin's nap my mom did a Spanish lesson with Elizabeth. She is getting really good, it's so fun see! Saturday was quite the day! Tony and my mom went to Sams Club to get stuff needed for the garden to be planted later that day, then my mom and I went to a fundraiser yard sale for a scout in the ward who is earning his Eagle. I found some nice clothes for the kids(mostly Elizabeth), a fun game, and some books for the kids. It was a success! Then when we got back we had a quick muffin breakfast then went out to work in the garden! Eric and Jen came up to help as well, and in a few hours we got all we needed to done! Then my parents provided pizza for lunch. After lunch my parents watched our cute kiddos for us while we went to Desert Star's Les Miserables....A Lot Less Miserable! It was VERY funny! We really enjoyed our time together. Then we went over to where we were meeting my parents as they had to go into Salt Lake for a concert they were attending. I looked through the dollar store and found some great stuff for school, and some other fun things. Then we got our kids and went to Barnes and Noble so I could get a book I'm reading for our neighborhood book club(it's called The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and so far I have a love hate relationship with it). We of course also looked at the kids books, I've been wanting to get some new summer reads for Elizabeth. So when I found their Step into Reading books and all the fun Step Two books they had I got excited! Elizabeth came over and picked up Bolt(which was a step two book) and read it pretty much completely by herself....apparently she's moved on to step three....I cannot believe how well she reads! So I picked up a couple step two books(for independent reading time) and a couple step three books to work on over the summer, I also found a collection of four Stuart Little stories on the clearance shelf that looked like they may have some learning opportunities in them. She is definitely going to be starting to read chapter books by the fall. Craziness! Then we went to Seagull Book for some Mother's Day shopping and I found 5 Anita Stansfield books on the clearance table. :) The kids each got a fun book as well. And as we were checking out we found an amazing picture of Christ with a little girl and boy on his lap...on clearance! Couldn't pass that up, it was PERFECT!! We then went to Sizzler's for dinner. What a day! Sunday was Mother's Day and Tony let me sleep in(as long as our screaming children would let me) but then he even let me stay in bed and read(The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis....LOVE THAT BOOK!!!) He had Elizabeth bring me a muffin breakfast in bed...it was so sweet! For lunch he cooked crockpot lasagna which we shared with my parents. My mom gave a great lesson in Relief Society, Devin stayed in nursery the whole time....Elizabeth however had a meltdown and Tony had to have some words with her near the end of primary....I talked to her teacher and was glad to hear she handled it just as I would have. We stopped by home changed clothes then headed off to Tony's parents' house for a Mother's Day BBQ which was very yummy! She gave us a very nice gift, a birthstone pen with some fun blank cards and yummy mint chocolates! Both she and my mom liked their little gifts we got them. Elizabeth had a great time playing with her cousins, and Devin had fun playing....amongst himself....as he does best. He has taken quite the liking to his cousin Emily so he played with her a bit! It was a great Mother's Day and a great week as well!

Silly Devin