April 2019

April was a fun month! Warm weather (finally!) seems to be here to stay and we had lots of family adventures.

Silly face!

Max and I had a "Mommy and Max" morning one Saturday (when baseball was cancelled due to rain.... again!), and we went to a workshop at Home Depot to build a birdhouse. Lots of fun!

We got free tickets to a Gwinnett Stripers baseball game (it's either a AA or AAA team). The kids got to play catch in the outfield before the game, and run the bases after the game. Fun!

You can't totally make it out in this photo, but Ben got on the big screen when he and Max were playing catch. Famous!!

Max's one request was to get a popsicle and he even brought his own money!

"Hey Mom, want a sticky kiss?"

Headed to the field to run the bases after the game! (Max is toward the middle in a red shirt and gray shorts.)

 I found this paper crumpled in the pocket of Max's school shorts one day. The top says "Max and Evelyn's Decktiv Code" and at the bottom they included a website. Haha!

Max has been on fire with his hitting the last few games! He's made a hit on the first pitch every time.

Max's coach told the kids to "take a knee" and it quickly became evident that they didn't know that phrase so the coach had to explain. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny at the time when the kids were looking around and feeling a bit confused.

Apparently Max stole my phone and took a selfie one day because I found this photo! Haha

Max's friend Yajur invited us to his neighborhood Easter egg hunt and festivities. The boys had a blast playing together!

One of their friends from school, Issac, lives in Yajur's neighborhood and the three boys had fun running around, getting balloon swords, and being generally silly!

Max and Yajur always tell me a Soumya (Yajur's mom) that they are "brothers."  :-)

There was a DJ who was trying to get a dance party started. At first it was only Max and one or two other kids, then Max started doing "the floss" (a popular dance move with the 12 and under crowd) and then the DJ announced there was going to be a flossing contest and all of a sudden a bunch of people joined in! What a little trendsetter. ;-)

Our neighborhood egg hunt was later the same day, and while I was plenty worn out (this was going to be our third or fourth activity of the day) Max wanted to keep going so we headed to the ball field.

Max enjoyed waving a palm with the other kids on Palm Sunday!

Max's class had a Gardening Day and I was able to stop by for a little while. We planted a marigold together. When I asked Max if he wanted me to take his picture with our planting, he said "Yes" and then did a martial arts pose. :-)

Dying Easter eggs!

We have hit such a great age with self control, motor skills, ability to follow directions, etc. I think this was the first time we've dyed eggs together when it was not a stressful, super messy (majorly stained hands, etc.) experience! It was a lot of fun and Max is already making big plans for doing it again next year.

Max got to attend a really cool birthday party for his friend, Abigail! The kids got to do an obstacle course and it was really neat to see their confidence grow. They kept saying to each other, "This is SO easy!!" Haha

These four kiddos were best friends at Montessori school for two years. They've all gone different directions for kindergarten so it was a lot of fun to see them play together again. (Left to right -- Abigail, Ahaan, Max, and Pravara)

Easter morning! Max was excited to find the Easter Bunny's foot prints leading from his room to his Easter basket.

Of note, Max already told us that he knows I (Laura) am the Easter Bunny. I told him he could believe whatever he wants to believe, and that I thought it was pretty fun to believe in the Easter Bunny. He agreed and whole-heartedly embraced his (not genuine!) belief in the Easter Bunny! Fun for all of us. :-)

Snapped a super quick (blurry!) photo before Max dug in!

The Easter Bunny left a note for Max. She hid 20 eggs filled with Lego pieces and if he found all the eggs he'd be able to assemble the kit in his Easter basket. It was a hit and Max was SO proud about finding all the eggs.

Cheering for a chocolate bunny. :-)

Playing catch at the ballfield!

Ben and I went for a walk and found a tiny turtle! We took him home to show Max and do some research (turns out it was a yellow bellied pond slider), and then walked him back to the pond. Max named him Buddy. :-)

We put a little water in a tupperware container so Buddy could cool off. Max also wanted to add some lettuce, but Buddy wasn't interested in eating.

Grammie came to visit on Easter and brought Max some goodies, too!

Yet another beautiful picture that Max painted in art class!

Most likely inspired by Max's desire to do anything Ben does, Max has gotten really "in to" helping rolling down and bringing up the garbage and recycling bins! It's pretty impressive since we live on a hill and the containers are much bigger (and heavier!) than him. Max can't really see over the top so sometimes he needs help steering, but otherwise he does it all on his own!

Thanks to Grammie for snapping a few family photos for us while we were all dressed up on Easter!

March 2019

Best buddies!

Celebrating Laura's birthday with friends!

Steve happened to snap a photo right as Ben and I were laughing. We all thought it turned out so funny because it looks sort of cheesy and fake... but that's real "throw your head back" laughter! :-)

Lisa came over to hang out with Max on a day off from school (Ben and I had work), and this is what he looked like waiting for her to arrive. :-)

We went to see a high school performance of "James and the Giant Peach" and Max asked for us to take his photo with the school mascot!

Laser tag at Monty's birthday party!

Baseball season is upon us! Max is on the Dodgers again this season. Another coach, but there are a few kids on his team whom he has played with before. Unfortunately we've had an incredibly rainy start to the season and many games and practices have been cancelled. Fingers are crossed that we have sunny Monday's (practice day) and sunny Saturday's (game day) from here on out!

Max is #9

Batter up!

Some of Max's recent artwork from school! A pair of cardinals and a self-portrait (he drew himself as a scientist). The kids have a wonderful art teacher.

A few more party pictures!

Laser tag!

We watched the movie "Happy Feet" which includes a tap dancing penguin. Max loved the tap dancing, so I showed him a few videos of famous tap dancers. Ever since he'll randomly breakout in a tap routine! Here's a little video of a "performance" he did right after coming down for breakfast one morning. :-)

February 2019

February was a short but fun month!

Max and the other kindergarteners went on a field trip to the Georgia Aquarium! Funny story -- I had meetings for work near Atlanta that day, and as I was driving back toward home I passed their school bus on the highway! The windows on the bus are tinted (and we were all driving highway speeds) so we couldn't see each other, but it was still fun. (And it made me feel really good that the bus driver was going a nice, reasonable speed and staying the course in one lane. Haha)

How fun that a penguin jumped in the water while the kids were in the tube!

We had the Krueger's and Winiarski's over to celebrate Walter's birthday. Max and Saskia had finished their lunch and went to play. All of a sudden they ran in the dining room with masks and light sabers! It was so funny.

Of course, little Natalia wanted in on the action, too. We only have two light sabers so she is improvising with a hair light saber. :-)

Celebrated Saskia's 6th birthday at a gymnastics party! I didn't get many good pictures inside the party, but we snapped one in the parking lot before we left. (The party was on Super Bowl Sunday - the day before her actual birthday - and Max just happened to put on a New England Patriots shirt when he got up that day! He has no idea what the Super Bowl is, so it was a pretty funny coincidence.)

First time bowling! The bowling alley near us has 99 cent games and shoe rentals on Sunday mornings until noon. We went to church and then headed over to bowl! Max enjoyed it.

Celebrating Yajur's birthday!  The thing the kids are sitting in spins around really fast and they loved it.

I'm not totally sure what Max is pretending to do / be in this photo, but it's a good one!

Valentine's Day exchange at school! Each student was assigned a classmate to make a Valentine for (instead of everyone giving Valentine's to the whole class). Max and his best friend Riaan got paired up! It's hard to make out their hats, but there are little antenna's on the sides so the kids are "love bugs." :-)

We have had an insane amount of rain this winter so when the sun came out long enough to somewhat dry out the playground, we headed outdoors!

Reading snuggles after dinner!

January 2019

It seems we didn't take many photos in January! I guess we were photo-ed out after the holidays. :-) 

Max had a few days home with us (while we were working) before school started back, and he said, "I might be an artist one day, so I should probably practice sketching." :-)  (If you're wondering, he drew a mailbox and an electrical box.)

Max received a solar robot kit for Christmas that he built with Ben and it worked!

Tooth #4 bit the dust!

"Hey, Mom! Take a picture of me looking crazy!"

Grandpa had to come to Atlanta for a work conference and had the opportunity to visit for a day! He and Max built a pirate ship and we visited the library.

Max has been "in to" gymnastics for a while (mostly doing cartwheels with his friends on the playground) so we signed him up for an all-boys gymnastics class (there are four kids, including Max). We're only a couple weeks in, but so far he is really enjoying it! I think there's been a bit of a surprise that you don't get to start doing flips immediately. ;-)

(I was filming through dirty plexi glass in an upstairs waiting room - complete with people eating noisy snacks and moms chatting! - so please excuse the not so great footage. Max is wearing red shorts and a black shirt if that helps you spot him in the videos.)