Too cute to leave out

I uploaded some photos today and also was looking through old iMessages on our laptop and came across some pictures and memories too sweet to have been left out.  I then looked back through the blog and realized I went from snow storm to Boo's birthday which meant that I had not included this:

Boo, his friend C, LO, and his friend E rock climbing and throwing things in the river/waterfall on a hike in April

That's Boo on the far left.  No he isn't cold, just had too much sun and his mean mama made him put on that hoodie.

Good buddies and fellow explorers

And if those don't scream "little boys on a mountain" maybe these will...

I am so grateful for this sink in the laundry room. How would I have little boys without it?

I seriously think this boy is the reason play clothes are made.  LO has started calling them "dirty clothes" because I have told him they are ok to get dirty (not because they are already dirty.) I'm trying to get him to call them "play clothes" since he has been wearing them to school.  I really don't want him telling his teachers he's "wearing dirty clothes" to school.  Truly, as long as they wear them when they are going to get this dirty, I don't care what they call them. 

We also had some impromptu water play in fountains we didn't expect to be on at the park during on of our first (sort of) warm spring day. We didn't have towels or a change of clothes, but the beauty of having boys is they can play commando in the water, then strip and ride home in just their undies.  After three big loops around the park on their bikes, they earned some water play in the chilly fountains.  They were thrilled!

So when I found those pictures, I knew I had to post them.  We have also recently been sent these pictures of LO's best school buddy (W) and LO at the local playground. 

Then there's this rare picture of DH and me.  We're all gussied up for a Derby party we attended last weekend.  It was our first ever Derby party and DH was kind enough to indulge both my hat buying and by matching my outfit.  In exchange, I didn't ask him to wear seersucker, a bow tie or a hat.  I think it was a fair trade. 

Yes, those are feathers in my hat

And lastly, I asked Boo to paint with watercolors this week so we could use his picture to make teacher's day cards.  He was so excited to use them, literally squealing with excitement and, at times, flapping his hands at the beauty of the colors or the designs he made.  He talked in detail about how one great patch was a dinosaur with a long tail, and another yellow-green circle was a face and he was giving it eyes and a tongue.  To my surprise I could actually see the dinosaur.  Over 30 minutes or so we explored colors and how they changed with more or less water and mixing with other colors.  We talked about painting gently rather than ouching down to the paint brush and splaying the bristles.  It was really neat, and I realized that it might have been his first time using water colors.  (I have a water color picture in the laundry room that I cannot recall whether he painted it or LO, so maybe it was his second time.)  It was hard, by the time he was finished, to cut the picture and glue it to card stock to make his teacher's cards, but I decided it was a worthy sacrifice.  I told his teachers they had to keep the cards forever, and they agreed. Here is the photo I took before 

The master at work

See what I'm making mama?

The final work.  See the dark green dinosaur just to the right of center? Boo tends to make a lot of circles when he paints where LO is into arcs right now.  

So those are our "too cute to leave out" pictures and stories that almost were left out.  Glad I saved them. Hope you are too.