Five for Friday

1.  3 of my closest friends from Memphis are in town for the entire weekend!!!  They flew in late last night so the boys and I are going to meet up with them this morning.  They better be ready for a weekend full of fun!  Can't wait to see them and show them my city!

Emilee and Mari Elliot are in the middle on the couch (they were both pregnant in this picture so they may kill me for posting it) and Bryn is in the back row, second from right.  


2.  My hip is still hurting!  Such a bummer.  I am dying to go for a run but it hurts too badly.  Hoping for some healing and relief soon.


3.  About to take my friends to my favorite breakfast place and I am drooling just thinking about those caramel banana french toast.


4.  Have I told you that its difficult to find a home from 1300 miles away?!?  It's hard and super stressful.  Trusting that the Lord has something perfect for us.

5.  For the 5th thing on Five for Fridays I am going to post something I am going to really miss about Boston.  I am really going to miss the Charles River and the beauty that surrounds it.  Something about being near water just calms me...I am a water girl for sure.  Too bad the Mississippi River in Memphis isn't the same.

When looking for a picture of the Charles River I came across this pic...how can my boys look so little here?!?  Didn't we just take this picture?


Happy weekend friends...do something this weekend you love!  I'm off to explore the city with my friends.

Funny videos and funny sayings

Just some funny videos of life lately at the Spence Household:

Miller trying guacamola for the first time and really liking it.
This is what they do to get out energy on cold days.
They also put on puppet shows on cold days. Austin came up with everything on his own...the couch set-up, the scenery, the socks for puppets. Its from one of his favorite books, If You Give a Moose a Muffin.


And some funny sayings Austin has come up with:

Talking to Austin about strangers:
Mommy: Austin, if a stranger comes up to you what do you do?
Austin: I throw them away. (meaning to him, he would hit and yell)
Mommy: what if they offer you candy?
Austin: I take it and say thank you
Mommy: no buddy, you say no and run away. You never take candy from strangers.
Austin: But I did at Halloween.

Miller is looking at a photo album and turns to Forrest and makes a noise.
Austin: that's Forrest, Miller. He died on the cross.
I think we are a little confused on our theology

Miller is waking up from a nap so Austin and I go in to get him.
Austin: Hi Miller. Daddy's not here, he's in California but it's ok, I'm going to take care of you.
(David when leaving that morning had told Austin to take care of his brother and mommy, he obviously took his job very seriously).

Before bedtime for the boys later that same night.
Austin while hugging my neck: I'm sorry mommy that you have to sleep alone. Are you going to be ok?

 From the mouth of babes!

Day in Cambridge

First off, we have had 2 good days with Austin...woo hoo...Hallelujah!  I needed these 2 days to remember that he can be sweet and loving.  Thanks for the prayers.

On Saturday we spent the morning in Cambridge.  What a great city...full of so much history and culture. Harvard was founded in 1636 so almost 376 years ago.  That is amazing to me.  We started our morning at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.  We only had to pay for Austin because Miller is so young and David's affiliation with Harvard allowed him and I to get in free.  It was a great museum and had something for all of us.  We didn't last an extremely long time so I know David would like to go back and explore a little longer on his own but I was proud of the boys for lasting as long as they did.

We spent some time studying the bugs and sea life.
This is about the only part of this exhibit I liked...I hate bugs.  Seriously gross me out.

Austin really enjoyed the bones exhibit...maybe he will be a bone doctor like his daddy.
We then spent time being Paleontologists and digging for bones.
We then made our way to the animals exhibit.
Always teaching the boys new things.

Miller then needed a snack break in the middle of the animal exhibit.

 After the museum we walked through Harvard campus. It is truly a beautiful campus. I think I would have a hard time if I was a student and there were constantly tourists walking around gawking at your campus.  

We then headed to Harvard Square to walk around and eat lunch.  We came across Austin's favorite store...The Curious George Store...it's the only one in the World and it only opened 4 days before.
He saw it as we were driving to the Museum and wanted to go because it had fish on the windows.  He didn't realize until we got there that it was a Curious George store.  He kept asking to go to the yellow store with fish.

He was in Heaven...he walked in and immediately found a TV that was playing George and just sat down to watch it.  Miller on the other hand found a new monkey and tackled it.
We let them pick out a new book that they could buy.  We have read Curious George The Donut Delivery I think 15 times since Saturday.

After the Curious George store we walked around the Square a little more and then found the restaurant our friend Christine had recommended, Border Cafe.  It was Mexican, good prices, great guacamole dip, kid friendly, and good food.  We will be going back...very soon.  Good Mexican is very hard to come by in Boston so this was a real treat.  We also found out that Miller loves guacamole dip...who knew.  He ate a ton of it!

We are hoping to explore Cambridge 1 or 2 more times.  There is still a lot to see that we haven't explored yet.

Fenway Open House and playground fun

Last Thursday Fenway celebrated their 100 year Anniversary by opening the stadium and letting everyone from the community take part.  The boys and I headed over after naps to enjoy a little time in our favorite baseball teams stadium.

Miller wanted his face painted and Austin didn't want anything to do with it. Once again, totally different personalities.


After David finished work he met us at the stadium. The boys wanted to "drive" the baseball golf cart.

After the Open House we walked to Chiptotle for dinner and ran into one of our favorite girls, Poppy.  Miller decided to give her a little kiss.  Possible future spouses!

On Friday we met our friends the Byler's at one of our favorite playgrounds.  It was a picture perfect day so we made sure to live it up outside.  I have found that my boys are in much better spirits if I can get them out of the house as much as possible.  Most of our temper tantrums and whining happen when we are stuck in the house.

We spent a lot of time in the sandbox playing with our $1 buckets and shovels from Target.  Got to love Target's $1 bin!

Austin pretending to be spiderman.
I caught a sweet moment between brothers.
Super sad the weather has turned cold, rainy, and dreary again.  Spring, spring...where are you?

Boston Marathon and the beach

First off, I did get to see the Hunger Games this weekend...it was incredible!!!  The book is better but books are always better but I thought they did such a great job staying true to the book.  It was so good!

Second off, Austin is still acting TERRIBLE!!!  I am about to pull my hair out.  Please say a prayer for him and I.

Ok, on to the post....

Last Monday was Patriots Day which is a holiday in Massachusetts...it's also known as Marathon Monday.  David was off work and had been in California for 4 days so we were ready to make the most of our one day with him.  We woke up that Monday, packed a bag for the whole day and made our way to the Meduri's house.  Audra and I had already scouted out an area we wanted to set up a picnic and wait on the runners to come by.  It was the perfect place...on Commonwealth Avenue about a mile from the finish line.  We sat at the top of a hill so we were able to encourage the runners as they made it up their final hill.
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The boys loved just being together.  We packed trucks, balls, lunches, etc. to keep them entertained while we watched the runners.

Aaron, one of the blind athletes that works with my brothers non-profit ran the Boston Marathon so we stayed until we saw him run by.  Talk about inspiring.  He ran the marathon in 2.56...and he's blind!!!  Truly phenomenal.

I know we are holding a sign for him that he can't obviously see but his guide could see it and told him there were people holding signs for him.  

After we saw Aaron run by we started making the commute back to the Meduri's place to get our cars.  We walked along the route for a while and cheered on the runners as we passed them.

This is the view as we made the turn towards the Fenway Stadium.  The city was truly booming.  There were runners and spectators everywhere plus an 11:00 Red Sox game.

Our sweet husbands pushing the SUV's (double Bobs) back to the house.

We then packed back up in the car and drove to a nearby beach.  The temperature was in the mid to upper 80's so it was a perfect day for the beach.  The boys LOVED it!  They couldn't get enough of the sand, water, and sunshine.  It was truly perfect.

The water was freezing but that did not deter my little ones (or other ones) from getting in.  It sure did deter me though.

All three boys had looks of pure joy on their faces.  They loved it.

After the beach we drove to a nearby Pizza Joint to have dinner with the Meduri's.  It was an experience to say the least.  No one had a nap that day so we were on melt down, making a mess of everything, having accidents in our pants that then leaked to the seat...it was chaos but so fun to experience it with a precious family that completely understands that life with kids is often chaotic!  
It was a fun way to end a great holiday.  We are going to miss Patriots Day next year!