Happy Birthday L!

L is two. His favorite things include emptying boxes of dry spaghetti noodles on the floor, using the office chair to climb onto the kitchen counter, painting his toy bus slide with shampoo, climbing into the full bath tub fully clothed and pouring a gallon of milk onto the kitchen floor. He prefers to do these things in a span of 15 minutes. All. of. them. But you know what, you gotta love this little guy. He is sweet and cuddly and so, so smart. And very, very busy! And he sleeps sometimes!
We had a great Cars themed birthday party. The kids used paper plate steering wheels to race around the yard for prizes at pit stops. I made a cake with "Cars" figures. L got a dump truck full of presents that he promptly emptied out and took off with. It was classic.

Finally the boys!

When all else fails a book brings great appeal. Opa and Oma read to all the kids several times, even bed time stories. One of the memories I think Opa and Oma liked best was watching J read bedtime stories at night out on the trampoline.

What fun! A visit to Daddy's work and school with even Opa in collegiate wear!

Just the Girls With Opa and Oma

E had a great time playing badminton with Opa. I think it looks like Opa had a pretty good time too!



E and Oma shared a smile over some memories playing on the slide show on the computer. E enjoyed showing Opa and Oma her dance recital video as well as performing a couple of her own choreographed dances! They also got to see her practice at for the local dancing in the festival coming up.
Oh and the star of the show! What a stinker. She had not let her daddy hold for the month previous to the visit and we were very worried that she would not let Opa and Oma hold her either. But this is what she did with both of them the whole time!

More Visit Memories

A Wonderful Visit

We were so honored and thrilled to have a visit from Opa and Oma, all the way from the Netherlands, for two weeks in June! The kids had a great time and aside from us trying to run them ragged, I think Opa and Oma did too! We did some fun day trips to a few places- Wildlife Safari and the coast and we had a little picnic at the cabin for Fathers Day. Mostly we tried to keep it simple and let them see a little of our life here and let them bond with the kids. Which they truly did. E, S, L and even A each spent special time with them. The kids really loved this visit and the day after they left S woke up and said, "When will Opa and Oma get here?". Even after I reiterated that they had gone home to the Netherlands and would not be coming, he asked if they were going to come the next day. Sigh. He is the most reserved of the kids right now but is also very sensitive, if that makes sense, and he had really been enjoying the visit. E got to write a page with Opa in the travel journal that he keeps for every vacation and that has inspired us to have E keep a summer journal. Her first page? "I had fun when Opa and Oma visited".


Picking them up at the airport. This is E and S... and what looks like a small little Dutch child that they apparently brought with them!
And an emotional meeting of A.
The girls proved to be much more cooperative with the picture taking! Consequently the pictures of the boys with Opa and Oma are few and far between! But look at this beautiful picture of A and Oma! Oma had just traveled a day on the airplane and was in a different timezone and still managed to look gorgeous and so stylish. I must have been taking care of looking jet lagged for the both of us!

Star Flowers and Gardens

Each May I take pictures of the kids in front of these cute little bulb flowers. I call them the star flowers, I dont know their real name. They open in the sun and close at night. There are more kids and less flowers in the pictures as the years go by....

I am just doing our small raised bed garden area this year. But I think it will be a good garden... The helpers have put a fence around it with a real little wooden gate. And it seems to have come with its own little garden baby....

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Sisters reading together. Brothers entranced by the TV.
She's looking at me!

Phrases

Things I don't love to hear:

Oh. It's just you. (When I come in the backdoor instead of Daddy)
I'm telling Mommy! (Please don't)
I'm hunnnggrrryyy.... (closely followed by)
I wont eat that.
and my recent favorite:
Be careful when you go in the bathroom....

And some things that I have wished I didn't have to say:

Please don't wash my contact case in the toilet.
Please don't bounce on your brothers head.
Please don't take all the vegetable markers out of the identical varieties of tomatoes.

T-Shirt I bought today: (for $2 at Freddies)

"Lucky Mom"

....'nuf said.....

Faces of Easter

This is what your face might look like when your egg inexplicably slips through your fingers and onto the floor. And that's why they are hard-boiled... :)

And waiting for your turn with the dye...

And in an adorable blue Easter bonnet...

And being somewhat confused by this first ever picking up of eggs throughout the yard.

Catching on!

Desktop Plaque

Blank Project Desktop Plaque

Create custom cards for Valentines Day and Easter at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

It's Tough Being Three

Tonight S and I did our nighttime ritual where he sits in my lap and tells me what he liked about the day and what he didn't like. Often there is nothing he can think of that he didn't like, or, hysterically, he will recount night after night one particular event that happened longer and longer ago on the calendar as if it happened that very day. Tonight my simple question was answered with a very fast little speech:

"It was crazy. There were hundred of people (pluralization intentionally omitted per speaker). I made burritos all day and had to make papers too. (Make papers? Ohhh... write papers). It was crazy busy."

These kids. They are such little imitators. It is truly terrifying. And these kids in particular love nothing more than sporting their daddy's colors...

For the past several weeks S has been telling E, whenever he is frustrated and just done with her- or also I have noticed just kind of randomly when he might want to illicit a reaction from her- to NEVER talk to him. EVER. Not until EASTER. When she protests, sometimes loudly and with tears, that Easter is a LONG time away, he encouragingly reassures her that she can talk to him on Easter. But he does not relent with his statements that she should not talk to him until then. Nor does he follow through and the two of them just keep right on playing. So it was somewhat amusidly that I heard him happily exclaim to his sister on the way to church on Sunday that it was EASTER! She could talk to him! All day!!

His sister drives him to distraction sometimes. I feel I have a fairly good insight into this, having driven my own younger brothers absolutely crazy as well. For this reason, I try and advocate for him as much as possible, but E is quite possibly much more bossy than I was. However, I was still surprised to hear from my husband that S had told him that he was "done living with E". When J tried to convince him that he would miss her, as well as the fact that this was her home where she needed to live, S told him that she could live at the local home improvement store. He went on to describe all the nice little houses that they have outside that he thought would be perfect for her. You know, the garden shed kits they have on display in the parking lot? Who know that this little sweet faced blond boy was secretly scoping out new quarters for E every time we took a trip to the home improvement store? He does like to go there allot....

S is not without some degree of responsibility for moments of uproar, chaos and mischief. Just tonight, while he and L were supposed to be sleeping, he literally FILLED L's crib with board books. The next time I went to check on them I found L sitting up looking through books that were layered three inches thick on his whole mattress. Thanks to big brother. The other day during a "time out" episode S innocently called from his room to me, "When you're done being frustrated can I come out?" I am reminded of a past episode of Apprentice when Piers Morgan told Trump that he didn't think he (Piers) was as bad as he was being made out to be or that his opponent, Trace Adkins, was as good. Trace agreed. I try to keep that in mind. Which isn't too hard when I have conversations with S like this:

(me) "You need to go to the bathroom and go pee pee"
(S) "I don't need to"
(me) "Go try, its nap time and you need to try"
(S) "Im not going to. I am just going to go wandering off"

or the other day when he announced at grace at the dinner table that he wasn't going to pray- saying; "God prays to ME! Someone has to pray to me." Which was almost as bad as his out of the blue assertion while we were reading books tonight that "There is only one God. ALL the Gods belong to me". I wonder if I could be messing this up any more? :)

He does truly love all his siblings, though. Lately L has been coming up to him throughout the day and giving him big bear hugs which he thinks is just great. He really wants to be allowed to reposition A when he is holding her like E gets to. And he and E? Well, most of the time they refer to eachother as, "Ma" and "Pa"... which I have no idea where they got but if you are ever over and hear E calling, "Pa?", she is not looking for J, she is looking for S. It's a strange, strange house we have here sometimes....

Esdr craf s

The other day I taught E how to "Google" something... a recipe we were looking up. I neglected to talk to her at that point about how I need to be involved with any future googling she might do. So, when I sat down at the computer a couple days ago it was with a variety of emotions that I saw in the google search box; "esdr craf s". She is a phonetic speller for sure at this point- for clarification she was searching "Easter Crafts". Remember the sign on her door? Lokd Dr? Vowels are often dispensed with... Anyway, I sat looking at my daughters efforts to find a fun Easter craft on her own and felt not the least bit conflicted. Good for her for taking initiative and using her head to research something she was interested in! Oh, great, now I need to talk to her about safe and appropriate internet usage. How sad is it that this sweet little six year old has to try and figure out her own little holiday craft to do? Shoot. I was hoping the past four years of Easter craft extravaganza was going to hold us through this year. We have made paper mache eggs, plastic eggs transformed with felt bits into little animals, Easter Lily handprint flowers, egg carton paper flower gardens, mini chick egg nests and toilet paper egg cups.... to name a few. Is Easter in two days?
But most of all, what I have been thinking about is this: my kids don't appear to have a corner on the satisfaction market. You know what I am saying? Even as good natured and kind as they mostly tend to be... they are always looking ahead to what is next. Wondering what the options are for more. Craving new and involved activities. And it doesn't matter what we might be currently doing or have just finished doing. Making homemade cookies... Can we watch a movie? Playing outside in a wonderful mud puddle... Can we have a snack? Going to the library... Can we go out to eat? Playing in the mall play area... Can we ride the escalators?.... and on and on. I struggle to verbalize this attitude of being content with the current fun we are having that I hope to teach them. Encouraging them not to always be asking for more. What is the best way to describe this mentality to small people?

Melissa and Boo Boo

E and S have imaginary friends. Melissa and Boo Boo respectively. Melissa has been around for quite a while. Boo Boo just a few months. Melissa and E talk on the phone, go places and recently have started texting. Melissa's mom just had twins. And a couple of days ago Melissa and Boo Boo got married.

(Me) "Melissa and Boo Boo must be quite a bit older than you" (to have just gotten married)
(E) "They are 17!"
(Me) "That's still pretty young to get married"
(E) "Aunt M is 17."
(Me) "And she's not married"

Tonight on the way home from Awana in the car...

(E) "Boo Boo is sooo silly. Melissa has such a silly husband! I haven't had a chance to tell you about the wedding. I got to go to it. I shall tell you about it tomorrow. For one thing, I got to play the game where the people who aren't married get to try to catch the bouquet. I'm not married so I got to play. But the funniest thing happened; S caught the bouquet! So, we decided to get married! But he wont dance with me. Well, he did a couple times but he said he's done."
(Me) "Ummm.... well..... we're home."

This is just such a funny conversation to me. For one thing, it is from a girl whose total Barbie or similar doll collection is zero. The total Disney princess movies she has seen is zero. Her interest in princess paraphernalia is zero. And yet....

Quirky

My morning mommy devotions the other day encouraged us to appreciate the quirkiness in our kids. Quirky? We have no shortage of quirky around here! I wouldn't even know where to begin... would it be the three year old boy that loves his new space themed bedding set, but won't actually sleep in it? Or the six year old that sleeps on top of her top flat sheet but refuses to sleep under it or have it removed? Or the colored sippy cups lids that have to be mis-matched to the cups or the cream cheese that has to be spread with precision accuracy on the bagels or the side-sitting posture on the dining table chairs or the playing cover-my-ears-and-get-food-in-my-hair while we eat? I could list allot more.... most of the time I do appreciate such individual expressions of dictatorship- I mean personality. Sometimes...sometimes I might wish for a little more flexibility. I don't think its in their genes though...

If E had been covering her eyes this would have been similar to a famous picture featuring monkeys. Silly, quirky kids...

....who got the biggest kick out of their little Aprils Fools Day joke on their daddy.
Frozen milk anyone?

Smiling!

Were all the kids this adorable and heart melting with their first smiles? I am sure they were...

Snuggling

Those of you who have known us very long know that we have both loved and bemoaned our "hold the baby as much as possible" parenting technique. Mostly because this has always included sleeping with the tiny people cradled in one arm or the other.... which has extended into literally years of no-sleep as everyone in our house ages 6 and under feels they need to be sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed.
Here are some of my favorite shots over the years....

Actually I really hate this picture- I cringe to think of if he had forgotten she (E) was there and rolled over...

S has a personal favorite of sleeping with daddy on the couch...

This is at a hotel on the coast, that is L.... I am the one levitating over air...

Sometimes someone will end up falling to sleep with their favorite doll over their face....

Sometimes two kiddos will settle for snuggling together....
Well, this time is no different, A still sleeps most soundly and best when tucked into the arm of someone... except now we are smarter and there are more arms.... we have recruited the six year old!
Yes, E's bedtime routine now includes her quiet time and then her requesting the baby to snuggle as they both usually fall asleep faces turned to eachother. It is very sweet. I check on them frequently to make sure blankets aren't over faces and then gather A when she starts to fuss or when I got to bed...

and S and A sometimes end up taking a nap together....