Surprise Date

One of my favorite things to do is spend one on one time when the children away from the house. The away-from-the-house part is key, because it's so easy for me to sucked into projects and house work. The best way for me to accomplish this has been monthly dates. It has been one of my favorite parenting goals thus far. I love surprising them and listening to everything they have on their minds. I get to hear uninterrupted jokes, and all that's going on at school. I get to show them that they are number 1 in my world, and that they are the most important thing to me. 

May has been a very busy month, but I got my dates with Olivia and Kai in weeks ago. Ethan kept reminding me over and over that he hadn't had a date in yet May. I knew that today would be the only day that would work and planned to take him to the pool. The weather decided not to be pool weather which left me to think up something at the last minute. I finally decided on picking him up early from school with a surprise scavenger hunt date. 

 He was all smiles as we walked out of the school to car. Seriously, how handsome is this kid?!

 The first clue sent us to the used book store to pick up some books for our summer of classic reading we are planning on doing. They didn't have all the books we wanted, but we settled on Treasure Island and David Copperfield. I can't wait to get reading!

 The second clue sent us to Wal-Mart to get the stuff we needed to make his teachers end of the year gift. I didn't get any pictures of us there!

Lastly we were off to DQ. He got a banana spilt, I got a Blizzard, and

 Luke our little tag a long got a dipped cone!

 We had a great time together. I sure love this boy who is getting ready to turn 9 in just a few short weeks. Life sometimes gets so busy with all the children and their activities, church callings, and the everyday chores, but these dates force me to slow down and enjoy these sweet babies. I am so grateful for them and the joy they bring to our lives. 

Blue & Gold Banquet

Today was the first day in I don't know how long that we didn't have to be somewhere by 5:30, and we took advantage of the down time. Ollie and Luke crashed out on the couch, Ethan and Kai played outside and watched a kid show, Brian planted some new flowers, and Finn and I sat out front visiting with him. I CANNOT wait for summer!

 Tonight was the Blue and Gold Banquet and we were so excited for Ethan to earn some things he had been working hard on. Luke was so excited for Ethan!

 Kai wearing his "spy glasses"

 Ethan getting an arrow point, and a certificate for his involvement in our ward activity Swing into Spring. 

Early Morning Appointments

This morning was a rough one. Kai came in at 6:45 (after my alarm went off and I didn't even bother with snooze and went straight to off) and asked me if I wanted him to wake Ethan and Olivia up. I quickly said NO and told him to lay down.

A few minutes later I realized that yes today was a school day. The trick of a 4 day weekend was not only over, but was followed by 3 more weeks of school.

Then after I shuffled Ethan and Olivia out the door I remembered that I had scheduled a Dr.'s appointment for 9:15 AM. I know better then to schedule any appointments before 10 AM.

I ended up having to wake Luke up for the day, which ranks in my top 10 things I hate to do most.

They were troopers and sat quietly the whole time. All 6.3 minutes the doctor was actually in the room. It was the first time Kai has come to an appointment and I loved seeing his HUGE smile when we got to hear the babies heart beat. He is so excited for the baby to come, probably the most outwardly excited of all the children. He hugs the baby goodbye everyday, and he loves to talk to her.

Now if we just had a name for her....

Friday Night Baseball

Tonight was our first night game of the year. About halfway through the game the lights came on, and you can just imagine the excitement of the 6 year olds who were now playing under the lights! They were ecstatic, and their status quickly changed from amateur to professional.

  Everything about the evening was perfect! Kai playing ball in front of us,

Ollie sitting next to us,

and Ethan and Luke playing behind us.

After we got home I watched the video's I took of Kai at bat, and my favorite thing was hearing Olivia cheering for him in the background! Today everyone was home from school and there was a little bit of bickering going on. I was at my wits end with them before we left for the game, but something in the mood changed. It was so nice to see Ethan playing nicely with Luke, and Olivia watching Kai play. They do love each other after all!

In other news I am 25 weeks today

From Lazy to Pantry

Luke has been dealing with Allergies this week and has required a lot of extra snuggling. That extra snuggling just so happens to interrupt my very rigid (HA) cleaning schedule. Since I am such a neat freak it physically pained me to pass up my chores for laying on the couch reading, BUT it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for my poor sick Lukie! Today was day 3 of the "great sacrifice"and Luke fell asleep next to me on the couch.

For the last 2 months I have been working diligently on removing ALL clutter from this house. Each week I have at least 2-4 bags of stuff ready to take to goodwill. I feel good about my progress, but still I feel weighed down by all that is left. Right in that moment I decided to take on the kitchen, and the pantry was the worst offender. 

I have realized through all this de cluttering that I could get rid of nearly everything we have, but if the remaining stuff didn't have its own designated spot it would all be for not. The age old saying "a place for everything and everything in it's place" has never been more true in my life!

An hour later everything I didn't feel belonged in the pantry was out and plans to remove the wire shelves and put in wood shelves were in full swing. 

I learned something about myself today that I had never before realized. Messes DO bother me (which is contrary to what I have been claiming for years) in fact they bother me to the point of paralysis. They overwhelm me to the point of exhaustion.

I also learned that I don't love learning things about myself because it almost always means I have work to do! HA

AGAIN

Kai lost his second tooth! This is the picture he took to send to Brian. 

Symphony Orchestra

For weeks Olivia has been CRAZY excited for her upcoming field trip to the symphony orchestra. Her constant reminders of when it was, that she would need home lunch (which she takes everyday anyways), and that she would need to dress up were heard around the clock. So yesterday when I picked them up at the bus stop to take them to piano I wasn't surprised when I got the run down for the umpteenth time.

This time after she finished her regular lecture she added, "when I wear my skirt I will have this stupid hair on my legs!"

I wanted to say "What hair? The same hair everyone can see right now since you are wearing SHORTS!"But it didn't seem appropriate, so instead I heard her out and then nicely explained to her that although I heard and understood what she was saying she would go to the orchestra with hair on her legs like EVERY OTHER 2ND GRADER.

She quickly understood that I was firm in my position and so she focused her efforts on other things she wanted to do before the big day. So we agreed instead of shaving her legs I would paint her fingers and toes, and we would wake up early to blow dry her hair straight.

Sounds like a great compromise to me!

Doesn't she look cute, hairy legs and all!

As it turns out she wasn't all that impressed with the Symphony Orchestra after all!

Movie Night

We have officially entered the world of "older" kids. You know the world where the kids want to be with friends all the time, and go places like sporting events, movies, and arcades with them. It has been interesting navigating this new stage in our parenting. The hardest part however, hasn't been the older kid who is getting to do all these things, no way that part is easy. The hard part has been the three not-quite-as-big-kids left at home heartbroken on all they are missing out on. Somehow our greatest explanations of age starting with "He didn't get to do that when he was 6" have time and time again fallen on deaf ears.

This Friday night was no different. Ethan got a call from his friend Adam wanting him to go to the Drive-In to see The Avengers.

Right then the tug-of-war of parenting began.

On one hand, how fun would that be for Ethan. UM, SUPER FUN! But the double edged sword quickly came out when I thought of Olivia and Kai. Olivia would be crushed but wouldn't say anything and would pretend like she wasn't. Kai would throw a fit of monumental proportions. He would cry hysterically and make a great argument (that only a mini lawyer could) as to why we should NOT allow Ethan to go. Then as a result of Kai's drama Luke would start crying and hugging Ethan as if he would never see him again.

Brian wasn't home from work yet and I wasn't wanting to deal with all that insanity fun on my own so I told Ethan he could go, but to keep it quite for a little while.

As I predicted all that I thought would happen did, but since I had a little time I had come up with an alternative for my "younger" children.

A Movie Night! Complete with Red Box, Ice Cream, and lots of snuggling.

It was easy to convince Olivia of the awesomeness of my plan, but Kai was a little more work. Well a lot more work.

But for a few short hours (before Kai had to go to bed while Ethan was still gone) all was right with the world, and the 5 of us left enjoyed Happy Feet Two!

Sunday

Night at the Museum

Tonight the 3rd graders put on a "Night at the Museum" for friends and family. For over a month they have been studying an assigned person throughout history to portray tonight. This assignment was right up Ethan's ally. He loves reading about historical figures (and then quizzing me) and sharing what he has learned. Ethan was assigned Mario Lemieux who, incase you don't know, is one of hockey's all time greatest players.  

Each 3rd grader had a sign with who they were on it along with a button that said "push" which made them come to life. They would tell you all about themselves and then go back to the frozen position to wait for their button to get pushed again.

After Mario told us all about himself and his accomplishments we got his autograph and picture.

 In the next room we found sweet Olivia who was Julia Child. She did a wonderful job on her speech and looked just as cute as can be! 

We learned a lot and Kai had a great time running around pushing as many buttons as he could. His favorite were people wearing wigs! HA Note to self when he is in 3rd grade doing this, make sure he wears a wig!

After it was all over we headed to Simply Yogurt and finished our evening off there. It was such a great night!