Last night was Shawn's senior prom. It sounded this morning like he had a great time. He's made some really good friends this year and a bunch of them went together. Here are some pics I took before.

Here's my little boy. He sure cleans up nice.

Shawn and his date Ellie. They were together, now their not. But they're still friends and they already had tickets for the prom. They are part of the same group of friends.

Shawn and Ellie

Shawn and (not his girlfriend) Alex. They have been best friends since sophomore year. She a great girl. And she calls me "Aunt Sheri" which I think is cute.

Alex and her date Ray

This is Shawn's best guy friend Jonathan. He's cool too. His date Hilda was one of Shawn's first crushes. But Jacob was better at talking to girls than Shawn back then and held her attention more than Shawn. But, that's another story.

Here are "the guys" looking pretty sharp.

Here are some of the girls, some were not there yet. I really liked this picture because they look like they were having fun. There was excitement in the air. And everyone was taking pictures at the same time.

Me and my (not so) little guy. Isn't he handsome?

Some of my handy work. Last year I realized, when I went to get Brandi's corsage, that they are quite expensive. So I decided to try my hand at making a corsage and it turned out like this. This year I tried again, and got this. Apparently, carnations are Ellie's favorite flower, so it was a hit.
I think I'm safe from proms for a few years now. Although, Joshua did ask me yesterday if I do wedding flowers. We shall see...

Happy Easter my friends! I hope you all have had a good day with your loved ones, however it is you chose to spend this day. If you were around last year, you may remember that the Easter Bunny dropped the ball. This year she did much better (and spent less money). These buckets were intentionally low on candy, but had some other fun stuff in them, stuff we can use at the pool and the beach. Great thinking Easter bunny.

Gotta love the silly posing children.
OK, take the picture already. (Boy, these guys need haircuts!)

We had an Easter egg hunt at church this morning. This was the starting line. I think this same picture is on last year's post, with a lot of the safe kids a year younger.

The first egg that Nate spotted was up in a tree. Do you think that stopped him? Not my monkey boy.

I think he found a "bunny" nest in the bushes.

Jacob is less aggressive in his egg hunting. At one point, Brian asked me where Jacob was. I said, "I don't know. Look for Audrey." Just a moment later they came walking down the sidewalk together. I wish I had taken a picture of them. She is his best friend from church.

Checking Nate's eggs for prize tickets.

It is our Easter tradition to have a picnic lunch at the park after church. This year, Grandma, Uncle Ronnie, Stephen and Raymond joined us. They didn't play on the playground though. So, I didn't get any pictures of them.

Nate's hair has an amazing ability to build up static on the slides. I have several pictures similar to this. Check out this one from Easter 2 years ago. It's one of my favorites.

I asked the boys this morning if they were OK with me dressing them alike on Easter. They both said yes. Yay! I always worry that each year will be the last. But, they are good sports. Easter is still my one day of the year for girl envy, with all the cute dresses. But, I happen to think my boys are pretty darn cute too!

Hi, my name is Sheri and I am addicted to overalls.

Seriously. I am a boy mom. And is there anything cuter than a little boy in overalls? I buy overalls for every baby shower. Boy or girl. Because, I love overalls.

So tonight, Jacob wanted to look at his scrapbook (which is WAY out of date, but that is not the point). I had him sit on the couch with me and we looked to together. I started out pointing out how cute he looked in overalls.

At ONE month old

THREE months old
FOUR months old

FIVE months

SIX months

No overalls in this one, but I love it because it has Joshua and Shawn (when they were both still shorter than me).

First Birthday

Second Christmas (this page is not done, just photos in the sleeve)

Second BirthdaySecond Birthday

No overalls here either, but I love this one too

Jacob's Third Birthday. Look, he and Nate are both in overalls!

These are only the "occasion" photos. His scrapbook is full of overalls! So, OK. Maybe I am a little obsessed. Then along came Nate who, "no like oberalls." Broke mommy's heart.

I know, everyone is looking for healthy recipes. Everyone wants something good for you that tastes good too. Today, I found it. the perfect, healthy, balanced meal. That even my kids will eat!
Let's start with ice cream. Everyone loves ice cream. And you know what? It's good for you. Really. It's made from milk. It has calcium and protein. So there. It's healthy.
Of course. You can add other healthy things and make it even better for you. We decided on strawberries and bananas. They are fruits. Therefore they are good for you. Two food groups down. Remember, we are going to a balance meal here.

Protein; AKA the meat and legume group. Legumes are beans. Chocolate comes from cocoa beans. Therefore, I declare that chocolate belongs in the meat group. Three food groups. And doesn't this look yummy!

What? We are missing one? The grain group; bread and cereal. Never fear. You see, we also got ice cream cones. And ice cream cones are make from flour, which was once a grain. So there. All four food groups. A healthy meal that even me kids will eat.

I survived my "unplugged weekend." We went out of town for the weekend, without my laptop or my cell phone! The only electronic item was my camera! About 11am yesterday, after printing off some letterboxing clues, we hit the road. (If you are not familiar with letterboxing check out atlasquest.com) First, we drove north to Fremont to pick up Joshua from school. It's about a three hour drive, so we planned some letterboxing to "stretch our legs."

Our first stop was Mission San Jose, which ironically is NOT in San Jose. One of the great things about letterboxing is that you get to see places you might not have otherwise, and sometimes you learn things. Jacob is studying California history this year and the missions are part of that. I think this one is less popular than some of the others. Maybe, we can model this one for his spring project. Anyway, there was (note past tense) a box in the mission park.

I love the architecture of the missions.

The next stop was a small park in Fremont, with a very cool train that you can climb on, and a letterbox. Don't worry Aimee, I'm not giving anything away, they aren't even close in this photo, lol.
This is Nater Tater's first letterbox, well his first with his own personal stamp, carved for him by Aimee when we were in Seattle this summer. He loved it. I think we may have to do more of this now that he is into it.

Jacob has had his own stamp and book for a couple of years now. He had fun, but doesn't seem to be as into it as Nate.

I love it when letter box planters are creative in their clues. Our next box led us to another park, the clue included a list (i.e. Locust, Locust, Dr Suess, Dangerous, Locust, Redwood, etc) Joshua realized that it seemed to fit a row of trees.

Dr. Suess, can you see it?

Dangerous, would you want to climb this tree?

Our last box of the evening. It was getting to dark to read the clues, much less find what you we were looking for. I love this photo, just wish Joshua were in it too, but he was behind the camera.

Then we drove to Monterey. There always seems to be a pillow fight when we stay in a hotel. Tradition? Maybe, it's because there are SO many pillows, lol. Always makes me smile!

We almost got rained out today. But, a little rain can't keep my beach bum out of the sand.

Same goes for me. I am drawn to the ocean.

And what's more fun than puddle jumping in the parking lot?

It was wonderful weekend. It's nice to be connected again. But, I would totally do it again, no phone calls, texts emails. And I didn't miss anything earth shattering! Hope you all had a good weekend.

Wow, have I really not blogged all summer? It has been a great, although busy, summer. We've done some traveling. And I have been working at a job that I love. Oh, and I've been Facebook-ing. If you are not my friend on Facebook, you should be. There are some great photos over there from our summer vacation. Hopefully, I will get some up here, with some fun stories, now that the routine of school is back.

Speaking of which, today is day 3 of school. But here are the first day of school photos, because the boys are getting so big and I don't want to miss sharing this moment. This year they are in 4th and 2nd grades, and still at different schools.

Nate is all set for the first day of 2nd grade. He is so excited that his friend Joseph is in his class this year. Here, he's ready to go, with an apple for the teacher, a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory apple to be precise. It's a tradition.

Nate and Miss Basmajian

Jacob is ready to go to 4th grade. I'm not sure how he got so big so fast. He excited to build a model of a mission this year. 4th grade focuses on California history. They will be learning about the gold rush too. I think this will be a fun year for him.

Jacob and Miss Bailey. She wastes no time. At back to school night last week, Jacob was given homework! This is his assignment, due Friday. But, since he will be riding the bus, and I took him the first day, he decided to bring it.

I think this is going to be a great year for both of them. I get a good feeling from both teachers. Maybe next year we can have them both at the same school though. That would make life a bit easier. For now, we will just go with the flow.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories from our summer road trip! It was a blast. Just like I remember with kids fighting in the backseat, wanting to know, "are we there yet?" Can't wait to do it again!