TTT: Season 4, Episode 6

1. Well, one thing is for sure: I've gotten quite lax with pulling off the Three Thought Thursday on Thursday. Yeesh. I used to be such a stickler...staying up late just to make it happen. Working on it throughout the week instead of just on Thursday night. Now it's more like Oh heck, it's Friday. I never did a blog post yesterday! Maybe one of the changes I should have proposed for the blog for 2013 is exchanging Three Thought Thursday for My Weekly Blog Post on Whichever Day of the Week I Finally Post It. Y'all know I have the best of intentions. I guess I've just finally gotten around to easing up on my perfectionistic ways and allowing myself a little leniency from time to time. And I do have a good excuse right now. Mark went on a men's retreat so I'm flying solo with the crew for the weekend. Hey, most hubbies are off on golf excursions, hunting trips, or other man-trips...if Mark decides to go on a pre-Lenten retreat to pray our little nut house (and more, of course) I certainly won't discourage it! And it gives me cause to do plenty of fun things with the boys "since Dada is gone and it's just us." Yep. I skipped making the bed today. Didn't cook dinner and went out instead. And of course, fudged a little on our healthier eating. We miss Dada, but we're having fun in the process!

2. One of my favorite, favorite weekly happenings that we've been doing lately is our Friday trips to the library and the waterway. Our local library is on the same grounds as The Pavilion (an outdoor amphitheater where big name concerts are held) and backs up to The Woodlands Waterway. With the weather as wonderful as it has been lately, we've created a good routine of loading up our bikes, scooters, and stroller on Fridays, heading to the library to check-out our weekly reads, and then cruising the waterway for some sunshine and exercise. When my Dad is in town he likes to join us too. The boys love it and look forward to it every. single. week. Today was no exception. We loaded up our lunches and a big picnic blanket and just enjoyed our time together. I know it won't always be this way. Schedules will get busy. School will occupy the Friday morning time slot. And heck, even when those two don't interfere, the Houston summer heat will definitely stop our routine a few months from now whether we like it or not! I told Kolbe we'd have to have a breakfast picnic instead. He argued that there's no way we could bring cereal and yogurt and milk out on a picnic blanket. I contested that we'd just have to get donuts instead. Disagreement over.

3. Tantrums, Treasures, and Tidbits
- I won't bore you with more videos of the boys riding their bikes. But I'll just say that they've been riding for two weeks as of today and Kolbe rode down the staircase beside the skate bowl at the park yesterday. I'm pretty sure when I started riding a bike, I was lucky to make it down the street smoothly at week two. Twenty-some-odd years later and I'm still not riding down a staircase.
- At this time four yeas ago, I was writing a blog post about Kolbe's last days as an only child. My little Rudy's fourth birthday is on Sunday! It is oh, so hard to believe. But one of the beauties of blogging is being able to head back to a certain time and re-live each day, moment, and feeling. I love being a mom.
- Anyone want to throw me a secret remedy for splinters? Grant has one on each of his palms that we cannot get out! Let's just say that he's not a cooperative patient. But I know they're bother him. We've tried a myriad of things, but he's always quick to stop the process and we end up giving up or risk total baby breakdown. I'd rather not torture him but we've got to get them out!

I finally remembered to take my camera to our Friday morning Waterway trip today so I'll leave you this week with pics from our adventures:

It's time to ride!

Or roll...

Cross bridges...

Climb walls...

Check out the scenery...

Just hang and be brothers...

Exercise with the lunch-breakers...

Grab a drink from the water fountains...

Show off our riding skills...

Watch the trolly roll by...

And, of course, enjoy lunch!

While someone hogs all of the grapes.

And because he's the birthday boy this weekend and is the most irresistible three-almost-four-year-old ever, here's my favorites of my Rudy from today:

Swoon.