The Gough Gang

So it's been a while since our Flamingo shenanigans so it was time to do something...Beach Balls it is.

We just love our friends the Yeates so much, we wanted to show them! Of course this kind of thing happens in the middle of the night in PJ's after we've spent the evening getting slap happy from laughing so much. The people at Walmart probably thought we were above average crazy for that store!

I love helping the boys through scouts. It was so fun watching Tyler go through cub scouts and work so hard and it's been just as fun the second time around. Jake earned his Wolf award tonight, so my mom necklace is getting heavier!

I had a thought the other day as I was standing in line at Walmart. I find that this can be a great time for introspection because it's a nicer practice than grumbling about being in line. On this particular day my thoughts weren't 100% peaceful given that it was Saturday night and I was accompanied by Two 11-year old boys and a 9-year old boy. The voices inside my head sounded something like this:

Supermom: "I really should calm those kids down, people will get annoyed at how loud they are"

Reality Mom: "Oh stop it, they are fine, they are 11 and this is what they do, look at how cute they are"

Supermom: "Look at Tyler's hair, I've got to make him cut it. That man behind us is wishing me and my kids would just get out of the store already and that mom two lines over is probably thinking of how my kids will grow up to be menaces to society"

Reality Mom: "Actually that man behind us is smiling at the kids in a 'I totally get how you feel right now' way. And that mom, she almost looks a little wistful doesn't she? Maybe she misses when her kids were little."

Supermom: "I shouldn't be letting them get 3 different flavors of ice cream and toppings, they are going to grow up to be...." at this point the conversation gets really redundant but the important part of it is who won the argument and it was won by one simple sentence that we don't say in our house:

Reality mom: "Shut up, seriously, you are no fun"

The truth of it is reality mom usually wins in my family. The reality is, kids don't look perfect, they don't act perfect, especially in Walmart where all kids go to get out every tantrum they've had the decency to hold in all day long. You are only 11 on a Saturday night for a short time, where it's still cool to hang with your friend and your little brother and your mom at the same time. The messier a project is, the more fun you have while doing it.

My kids won't remember anything about the cleanliness of my house but they will remember that sometimes at dinner our family laughs so hard it becomes a choking hazard. They will remember that when they came home from school mom was ready to hang out with them instead of worrying about cleaning something or organizing something just in case someone shows up at our door to inspect our house with white gloves.

To all my lovely friends with little tiny children, please stop apologizing when your littles come to my house and knock stuff over. If I cared, I would have moved the stuff. To my amazing friends who are the mothers of my son's friends, please don't bother to apologize for a messy kitchen or a messy living room. I know what you're going through, these boys are like golden retriever puppies. They are full of energy and don't seem to know how big their paws are. I feel like Tyler knocks over more stuff now than he did when he was a toddler!

I can't help that supermom still creeps out in my head, but the least I can do for humanity is tell her to shut up. Because no one needs another person trying to be perfect in all the wrong areas. I would rather try to be a perfect mom and to me that looks like a mom who loves her kids unconditionally. A mom who cares more about their feelings and what they are learning from life than what other people think of them. A perfect mom realizes that there are no perfect answers, no perfect kids, no perfect house but an abundance of perfect ideas. And maybe those ideas will inspire little moments of reality-supermom, where I can be supportive, fun, and the house is clean and dinner is made and that's awesome! But of all the things I've learned on this mom journey, the ability to let it go was my best idea ever!

Perfect way to cool off!

 We took a day away from the books to check out a new park for a picnic and to see which animals were hanging around. Of course I can't resist a chance to take photos!

I just love spending time with these guys! We had a great time checking out baby ducks, baby turtles, and pulling garbage out of the pond.

11 Years old is a lot louder than 10. I know this because I had the glorious opportunity to haul 3 11 year old boys to Lenexa (35 minutes away) for Tyler's 11th birthday party. You wouldn't think 3 kids could really make that much noise but they can rival the old-fashioned steam engines for ear splitting-sound-barrier-breaking experiences.

Tyler wanted to go to Lifetime and rock climb with his buddies and we decided it would be fun to go to Spin Pizza before hand for dinner, cake, and gelato. It was really fun hanging out with these kids and it was a chance to get to know his friends a little more. They are a great group of kids, we feel so lucky that Ty has found friends that he likes and we like so much.

Rock climbing was fun, I would like to bring them back sometime when the outdoor pool is open so we can get more of the energy out before the drive home ;)

To say I'm a proud mama would be a grand understatement. Tyler has finished his final and highest award of Cub scouting, the Arrow of Light. I have no idea how many hours have gone into this and it would be hard to try and figure it out, especially since I'm really crummy at math. We'll just say it was a big focus of our lives over the last year.

What this also means is that he is finished with Cubs, and has moved into the Boy Scout uniform. He's also moved up to 11-year-old scouting. Now we begin the work towards his Eagle. Gulp.

Fred is Tyler's pet Leopard Gecko. I have to admit, if someone had told me that someday I would own a reptile, I would have laughed. Fred was  one of those moments when in an effort at cutting down on saying "no" I found myself backed into a corner within 4 months.

Tyler asked one day if he could have a Leopard Gecko. I told him, do a research project, see what it takes to own one. In my mind I was pretty sure that Tyler would no longer want to mess with it if it meant research. Oh how wrong I was. Tyler got to work, building a multimedia report on everything Gecko related. He learned what they need to survive, how to tell if they are sick or thriving. What they eat, what nutrients they need, how warm they like to be, and so on, and so on...

I said "ok, now you need to earn 50% of the ENTIRE cost of the Gecko." The total cost of said Gecko for all the equipment and food would be $275. I figured that would now be the final straw and the end of it.

I will say this about my Tyler, when he sets his mind on something, he will get it done in prompt timing.

Meet Fred: