We just finished canning a year's worth of food storage.

Last week CJ celebrated his last day of preschool. It was a big event.

It was "Circus Days" and the kids could dress up - supposedly like clowns. But, true to CJ's career dreams, he insisted on being a "garbage man clown" so off we went to Industrial Supply to buy a vest. We already have the Allied Waste hat, gloves and glasses!
His cute little class.
Miss Val was the best teacher - she loved CJ and his little quirks. She indulged him in recycling at school. When I asked him what he should get his teachers for a goodbye gift, he told me to get her lipstick because she always looks so pretty. And why is it that I cry on the last day of school, too? They just grow up too fast.

Thirty pounds and sixteen months later, we have a walker. Go Trey!

Today was a good day for CJ. Reasons being are:

1. He got to clean out the garage. This meant breaking down cardboard boxes for the recycling bin (or in our case bins, plural) and composting dead grass and leaves.

2. He finally found some save the earth shirts in his size. We've been looking everywhere and he's been begging me for one - even if it's a women's XL. He picked out two shirts, one that says, "Recycle, recycle, recycle" and the other one that says, "The earth is my friend."

3. As if he wasn't in complete euphoria then, he glanced over and found a hat WITH A RECYCLE SIGN ON IT. It's brown. It's pure recycle awesomeness and he hasn't taken it off (except for a brief moment to crouch down to the ground in the parking lot where he took it off to get a closer look at a still-burning "smokerette" as he called it).

4. Then at bedtime a few minutes ago we were reading this story out of The Friend and he got very serious and said, "Mom, if I'm ever with my friends and they want to play a video game with like wolves or Sasquatches in it, I will pray to Heavenly Father that you'll come get me and then I'll come home and sit on the big chair and you'll just turn on Franklin or Caillou for me and we'll all be happy."  Oh I love this little boy!

The other morning CJ crawled in bed with me, snuggled up and, after a moment of silence followed by a large sigh said, "I just love boobies."

A lovely new patio set (and outdoor pillows) for Mother's Day until Mac got to it.

When CJ isn't busy recycling or touching the neighbors' trash (Mom, they have shrimp in their garbage can!), his new love is cracking eggs. So we make cookies at least once a week.

Trey found CJ's worm collection and tried to eat it.

Love.

Waiting for warm weather!

CJ waiting for it to be warm enough to run through the sprinkers and not cry that his feet are "frozen off" and he needs me to "take his temperature."

Waiting for yes, another garbage day.

(Look closely and you'll see Lucy waiting for a crumb to fall.)

Yesterday Mac got fixed and when we went to pick him up at the vet a lady came walking out with her dead dog wrapped in a towel and she is just sobbing. SOBBING. The dog had obviously just been put to sleep. She got in her car and then just sat there bawling her eyes out and then I started to cry because I felt so bad,


So I knew that CJ had seen the whole thing and guess what we've obsessed about ALL. AFTER. NOON. AND NIGHT? Not the usual trash obsessions. Not who got a new trash can or who went to Costco 'cause the boxes are in their recycling bins or why I threw away a perfectly good dryer sheet. No, tonight it's been dead animals. And he literally just said,


"Mom, guess what I want to be for Halloween next year? A girl who is sad because her dog died and I can wrap up Lucy in a towel and carry her and she can pretend to be dead."

 

After finding five of the 10 clues the Easter Bunny left for CJ, leading him to his basket, CJ flops down and says, "What did I do to deserve this? Just give me my basket!"
Then it was garbage/recycle day. I was putting clothes away upstairs when I looked out to see CJ helping. Sadly, he has all the truck bins memorized so he knew exactly where to put all the items. If you look close you can see him at the back of the truck. He and the driver are on a first-name basis.

CJ also had his first soccer game and is lucky enough to be on the same team as his best friend Jacob. This was a big day for us - the first ever organized team sport.

We have officially been sick for two weeks straight and we've still got a ways to go before the boys are completely better.