The 'Boda Clan

We just had our second (unofficially) boys back to school camp out in our back yard.  10 fabulous boys showed up around 5pm for the start of the festivities.  Now, don't go getting some idea in your head that imagines an evening full of planned activities for the kids.  No sirree.  We are on the fly and off the cuff.  Once Tim got home they all walked down to the ball field and played a game of baseball and from there it was (breathe in) sports, (breathe out) sports and (repeat) more sports. 
I don't have a clue what the teams were, though I know they could rattle them off in a heartbeat.  All I know is that they got filthy dirty (most on purpose) and they had a blast!
This is how they all got "cleaned up" for dinner...mass public shower!
If they'd just sit still long enough to capture a clear shot...but naaa, fooling around is more important.

Today our "baby" Micah Joy has turned four years old.  Wow!  The other day, due to an injury from a year ago, she had her front tooth pulled and was drugged.  Today she turned four and I think she is still high on the gas because all of a sudden she is more boisterous and more dynamic and more dramatic and more chatty...did I think any of that was even possible?  No!  But here we are with this kid that doesn't stop.  She has truly been a total joy to us all.  She has been making us laugh since she was around 6 months old and I don't see her stopping any time soon.  We have been so blessed with her and by her and we are excited to see what the future holds with her in our family. Thank you God for placing her in our care.  You couldn't have been more right.  Grin.

Happy Birthday, Micah.  We love you so so so so much!!!

After much anticipation (not as much for us as for Phil and Shelley, for sure) and a whole lotta patience, we now know who Wesley Bob really is.  Flashback:  Shelley gets pregnant.  A little while later they "are pretty sure it's a boy."  A little while later and out of the blue Titus says, "I hope aunt Shelley names the baby Wesley" and Levi chimes in, "yeah, Wesley Bob."  Today at 3pm Massachusetts time, Quinn Gabriel Svoboda was born, weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and measuring 20" long.  We couldn't be happier for the former trio and are ever so eager to see them again and meet our nephew.

 Proud parents Phil and Shelley (with an "e") Svoboda.

You know how sometimes, you get up and you hug the kids good morning and you ask if they slept well...then you make them pancakes because you haven't made them in so long, but you don't have anymore "just add water" mix so you gladly break out the internet to whip up a batch from scratch...everyone sets the table together and then eats breakfast while thanking mommy for making their favorite breakfast and afterwards they put their dishes in the dishwasher as they have been asked to do after every meal since they could walk...you tell them it's time to clean up their rooms because you'd love to take them to the pool on this very warm Summer day and because they want to go swimming so badly, they all say "yes ma'am" and run off to do the 20 minute job...the necklace that has been sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs for a week gets picked up by one of the boys on his way to his room and he kindly drops it off at the girls room, since he's passing by anyways and his pair of shorts and the light saber that have also been stepped over by everyone in the house also gets picked up by someone, even though he didn't play with it and leave it there...the girls don't fight about who's cleaning and who isn't and because of all that you can actually get your own "chores" done with out breaking up fights and checking attitudes and babysitting the kids to make sure they can get over themselves enough to clean up their rooms even when they may not have touched the specific item that needs to be put away...?  Yeah, well, it's not been one of those days.

Now that everyone is up to speed on most of the goings on around here (at least for now until I slip into another blogcoma), I can post an event that just happened.  Not one that is over a month old.  A for-really-real current event.  Shocking.  That's an event of its own, I know, but I digress.  Eden's birthday.  Now, she turned 7 last Tuesday (not completely current) but we celebrated her birthday last night (about as current as it gets anymore).  It's always interesting to me, as a mom, to watch my kids open their gifts and I have come to notice a vast difference between Eden and the boys.  I will have to see about Micah before I call it a girl thing, so for now, it's just Eden.

When the boys are opening their gifts, first of all, there are a whole lot fewer gifts because theirs are always more expensive (Legos are not cheap, plain and simple).  Then, when they are opening gifts, they couldn't care less about a card unless it has money in it, and they never get money, so they don't care about cards.  They are forced to endure going through the formality of opening them first in order to give the proper person thanks, inevitably directed by a "now what do you say?"  Even Elijah, after 10 years of training needs to be reminded to say thanks sometimes.  Seriously.  That drives me nuts!  Once their gift is opened and the mandatory "thanks" has been thrown out there, they are off to the next one as the previous gift is shoved to the side to make room.

Eden is different.  She will get several gifts mostly because her gifts aren't that expensive and she will be antsy excited to open them, but she will calmly sit and wait until the go-ahead is given.  She will sweetly get a gift and make sure to find the card.  If, for some reason she doesn't see one, she will ask everyone who's gift this is to see if she should be looking harder for the card.
Even the kids got hugs for the packs of gum and travel office supply kit they got her!
When Eden is done hugging the generous gift giver, she will even stop to pose for a picture for her mommy.  Here is an outfit she got for her Madame Alexander dolls.  This birthday was all about them.  The three dolls she has got a Red Racer wagon, the outfit you saw above and they each got a twin bed that all bunk on top of each other.
Naturally the dolls would want to sleep comfortably, so I made these three reversible comforters and matching pillows.  Unfortunately the beds won't be here until tomorrow, but how much fun we will have putting it all together "for the dolls."
I think Eden made out like a bandit and I know she loved everything she got.

 We had plenty of space for him to learn to ride, to do turn arounds; the whole nine yards.
I have two kids in particular that can defeat themselves (in their head) in seconds and go crazy but the universe is right when their mindset it right.  There's a life lesson!


Titus really did do such a great job...and I'm guessing that the traditional learning how to ride a two wheeler reward of ice cream helped clear up any attitude deficiency he had!

Ok, so the other night Tim came up to bed and said I had to see what was going on in the hallway.  I did, and let me tell you, it was creepy at first, then funny and then just really cute.  Ready?  Here goes:
At some point after going to bed, Titus got out of bed and eventually fell asleep, like this, outside our door.  That's our Tidyboy!

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, that long-ago birthday.  It was good.   Elijah got to drive down to Indianapolis for an eye checkup for the happy day! (All was deemed well for Elijah and his eyes and he even can go without his glasses for sports if he wants to)  Lucky for Him, he also had a party that night. 
 He is getting so big I can hardly believe it!
We love Legos around here.  This was the birthday gift of choice this year.  This and to go to a White Sox game.  Lucky kids that we have, he got both!  Tim and I decided to take him to a game and it happened to be a night game.  Doubly fun.  He couldn't wait, though secretly he hoped to miss school to go to it!
On White Sox game day, our friend Chris got us front row seats (technically 5th row) that were right behind the White Sox dugout on the third baseline.  We used the dugout as a footrest, perfect spot for a 10year celebration!  The journey getting there was ridiculous for sure!  Let me tell you all about it.

So I look up "Southshore Train Schedule" online and the first option gave me a schedule.  Rather than looking at all that schedule said, I looked for what time I needed to be at the Portage station and called it good.  It's not like I am a train regular, so what would I know about the possibility of there being "weekend" schedules?  I picked up Elijah at school and we moseyed on to Starbucks where he enjoyed his very first iced coffee (and might I add only for his birthday will he get one until he can buy them from money earned from his own job) and we headed for the train station.  We got there with what I thought was plenty of time to spare.  Wrong.  Remember the possibility of a weekend schedule?  Well, of course I was looking at the weekend schedule when I planned my trip and the train had just come and gone, little did we know.  The next one wouldn't come for another hour.  For pete's sake.  Really?!?

I decided I would try to make the train at the Gary station, knowing that the idea was for Tim to pick us up at the station downtown so that we wouldn't be taking 2 cars to park at the stadium.  If I make the Gary station train, we will be just fine.  Here's the trick.  I haven't a clue where it is.  I called Tim and just like Chloe would dictate a route to Jack Bauer, Tim showed me the way.  In some parts of Gary, as one might imagine, there are little to no street signs and because of that, I missed the turn to the train station and had to go around the long way.  I finally get to the other entrance of the train station but couldn't get in...because a train, my train, was stopped on the tracks, picking up passengers.  Dagnabbit.  If the first turn was more than a back alley entrance to a station, I may not have missed the thing.

So now what?  I thought I'd speed my way back to Portage and catch that train, plus then I wouldn't be in the heart of Gary after the game to get my truck.  I headed back and Tim said that I probably wouldn't make it.  I practiced submission you all, let me tell you, because every fiber in me said I could get there in time, no matter how long it took the first time and no matter what Tim said.  Good thing I listened, I suppose.  We had to change where we met Tim, but in the end, we made it to the park with time enough to spare to wait in the long line to use the bathroom.
Because we were so close, every time the Sox ended an inning while fielding, they would run in to the dugout and toss the fans the balls they had.  Twice Alexei Ramirez caught an inning-ending line drive to short and twice he tossed the ball to Elijah on his was in the dugout.  He was excited!  Can you tell?  Yeah, not so much, huh?  I guess he has a little of me in him after all!!! 

It was no picnic for me to get our boy to this game, for sure, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves once we got there and were glad to take our first "double digit" kid out for a special night, just the three of us.  Happy birthday, Elijahboy!  We are so blessed to have you in our family.  You have brought us 10 years of smiles and laughter and we can't wait to see what you have in store for the next 10 years!  We love you!

Spring is springing and apparently that means it is maple syrup time around here.  We spent the day with new neighbors at Deep River Park learning about Maple Syrup and sugar.  Bridget and her daughter, Audrey (Eden's age) spent the day with us while her husband (I forget his name all of a sudden) and their son, Nathan (Levi's age) stayed at home.

The kids got to see a re-enactment of how Maple Syrup was boiled down ("back in the day") to make maple sugar.

They listened rather intently to the men boiling the syrup, then they got to taste some sugar.  It was different, but good!
Levi is showing Eden how he made an arrowhead out of bark, I think it is.  His creativity always captivates me!
This little guy was pretty good the entire time! 
They did well on posing for this picture because I told them they could jump from the ledge after I got a good one, and the ledge was 8 feet off the ground or so.
Posing for this picture almost killed them all...so it seemed!
The girls were getting crabby as evidenced by Eden's face.  Good grief, all I want is a few smiling faces.
This log was Micah's "baby."  Of course.
This guy is a friend of my new neighbor's and Titus was having a pouting moment.  This guy stayed behind to try and console a pouty Titus, which is quite hard to do and most men would run from...especially a strange kid.  It was very sweet.
Somehow he managed to get Titus to stand up and walk toward us.  I wonder what he said.
Ah, but he wasn't out of his funk yet...
And he was absolutely not going to take any part of mommy's photography!!!  I did eventually find out what the problem was, had to apologize to the poor guy and all was right with the universe again...just like that.
Chillin' in the gazebo.  Many weddings are held in this gazebo every summer.  It is a beautiful place by then!