Firty

I didn’t post earlier today because I was too busy turning 30.  When I tucked Adelaide in tonight, she asked “you twenty-nine, Mama?”  And I said no… then she said “you got cakes and now you’re firty??”  It just struck my funny bone and I died laughing.  (I love age 3.)

My mom made us cheesy eggs for breakfast, and we all sat out on the screened porch and there were even presents!  My kids sang to me (Adelaide has sung to me several times today, all different versions of ‘Happy Birthday’), and then a little later Andy and I went outlet shopping.  (Speaking my love language.)  We also grabbed lunch at a little cafe.  It was gooooood.  Pesto!

The afternoon was spent here with a teary Arianna, while my mom took the other three back to the beach, “buggie” boards in tow.  I took a nap.

Andy and I hit up another localish restaurant for dinner and it was… an experience.  Won’t say that we’ll ever go back!  But it was good for a story or two, and the food wasn’t, um, horrible.  (Ha.)  We thought about going out to a movie after cake (carrot) but we were both a little too tired and opted instead for snuggle time on the couch with the kids and The Sound of Music.  It was a great day.

Yesterday and today we’ve had perfect weather and no clouds.  (Sorry to bore you with more beach pictures.)

Her own personal baby pool:

Proof that I got in the water:

We just can’t get over how clear the water is!

Oh, and Madeline found another crab.

I stepped on a crab

Last night we took the kids to walk the beach after dark. We had flashlights and Drew wore Andy’s hat with his green head-lamp-thingy attached to the front. (So funny.)

Andy and the kids ran up ahead and I was walking with my mom (with my baby in the sling) and stepped on something. Turned around to see a crab skitter off and tried not to freak. (I was very glad it hadn’t chomped my foot.) The kids got to see another one, only it was about half the size of the one I stepped on. (Still shuddering.)

My favorite shots of the day:

(And if you think that was a lot, each one probably represents 5-10 others. Sheesh.)

Sand, sand everywhere

Today they just ran around like crazy people.

Such is my life

Getting to church on Easter Sunday turned out to be a comedy of errors, starting with Andy ditching me leaving for choir at 7:30 a.m.  Which means I had to get 5 people fed and ready, by myself.

We were 45 minutes late.

(Partly due to Arianna’s oozing diaper, discovered just as I was buckling her into the seat.)

(That sort of thing always happens to me.)

And then, since we were so tardy, I ushered the kids right up to the [top row of the] balcony, but no sooner had we sat down than Madeline whispers urgently, “I have to go potty!“  Well, OF COURSE YOU DO!  BECAUSE THIS IS MY LIFE AND IT WOULD BE TOO EASY TO ALL HAVE GONE BEFORE WE GOT UP HERE!

So, back down we went.  I made them all go that time.

A little later Adelaide starting acting up, so I walked back down and deposited her in the nursery, even though she’s too old.  The choir was to stay up front the entire service — it was a special extended service with no Sunday School — and I just decided I needed one less kid to have to deal with while flying solo.  I mean, Arianna was risk enough.

(She ended up doing fine; slept most of the time.)

(Shout out to Lisa, who sat with Drew & Madeline while I was gone.  As we were passing back to our respective seats, she said something to the effect of “man, you’re brave!”  OR JUST CRAZY, WHICHEVER.)

(At least I’m mostly beyond embarrassment at this point, right?)

We got home, my sister Carrissa came over, and we ate our Easter feast.  It turned out way better than I expected.  (I think it’s because the ham wasn’t pre-cooked.  I’ll never buy a pre-cooked ham again.  I even guessed on the sauce recipe since it was nowhere to be found.)

Our table wasn’t anything special; I only had Saturday to prepare because we were suddenly down to one car again last week and I couldn’t work errands out with Andy’s work schedule.  So, I only had Saturday to get everything bought and ready.  And half that errand time was spent getting a flat tire replaced.  (A nail.  We had road hazard coverage.  Yay.)

So, being late and pretty table aside, we had a wonderful Easter holiday.  Hope you did, too.  Here are some of my favorite photos (the rest are on FB):

(If you’re wondering why Andy’s not wearing his Easter shirt & tie, it’s because he wore his choir robe during the entire service and the choir loft is HOT. I didn’t make him change for pictures because I’m nice like that.)

Notice Adelaide:

We took about 10 of those and she’s picking candy out of her teeth in about 8 of them. Still makes me laugh.

Happy Easter!

Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!
Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Hail, the Lord of earth and Heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail, the resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

(Charles Wesley, 1739)

He is risen, indeed!

Cupcake, dollhouse

We had a little family brunch for Adelaide on Saturday morning. Several of my favorite shots:

We gave her a Fisher Price dollhouse (consignment sale find for $8, yeah!) and my mom gave her a few rooms’ worth of furniture (buy-one-get-one at Toys ‘R Us – yeah!):

Milk and Tea

Our Valentine’s weekend started out with a BANG: Adelaide spilled an entire carton of milk all over our couch and carpet. Yeah. Lakes of milk. (And I hadn’t had my coffee yet.)

Madeline had gotten it out to put a little in her oatmeal and I’m not sure how it happened, but probably Adelaide just bumped it. Anyway, I was very glad it was almond milk and not cow’s. Our living room now smells a little vanilla-y.

(And yes, I do allow them to eat at the coffee table. Bringing a whole carton of milk in there? Not so much.)

I must admit it wasn’t my proudest moment discovering my living room doused in milk. Drew and Madeline were crying but Adelaide (this is SO Adelaide) huffed and goes, “why you not bein’ my best friend?!” I bust out laughing. Leave it to her to provide the comic relief.

I was also very glad Andy was willing to finish cleaning it up. We were trying to get ready to make it to a tea party.

Which was very fun and very girl-y.

Handmade Valentine Fiasco 2010

When we were little my mom used to cut hearts out of red construction paper and then she’d glue white heart-shaped paper doilies on them.  On top she’d diagonally glue a stick of white Wrigley’s spearmint gum – because it has an arrow on it – and wala! handmade valentines.  We made those almost every year.

(Until I was old enough to want the store-bought version that all my friends had.  Handmade wasn’t so, um, appreciated back then.)

You know where this is going, right?

I had this brilliant idea to make my kids’ valentines for their classes this year.  Madeline’s party is today so yesterday I finished gathering the supplies.  Well, turns out Wrigley’s doesn’t sell the 5 packs of gum anymore with the individual papers on them.  I searched high and low.  (Which means I checked Walmart, two different Walgreens, and a CVS.)  The only spearmint gum I could find were the 15 packs that have foil-wrapped pieces.

I finally settled for doublemint because it was the only one with an arrow on it that I could find in the little 5-pack.  BUT IT’S GREEN.  This isn’t St. Patrick’s Day!  Argh. 

Okay, letting go of my perfectionism…

After we got home from church last night and the kids were in bed, I started gluing doilies to the red SQUARES I had cut out earlier.  (I would have taken the time to cut out hearts but I figured these are preschoolers – they wouldn’t notice either way – and saved myself the trouble.)

Note to self: glue stick is incompatible with fragile paper doilies.  And also?  The glue pushes through all the holes.  Messy and no good.

Finally I used my scrapbooking glue roller tool thingy and very gently and carefully got those doilies on the paper.

Next up, gum.  I ripped open the first pack and sat and stared at it for a sec, processing…  THEY WERE NOT INDIVIDUALLY PAPERED!!!  ONLY FOIL!!!  I did all that store-searching for nothing.  They (meaning Wrigley’s) didn’t even have the decency to put an arrow on the foil.  Only an etched picture of a man and a trash can.  (What’s that all about?)

At this point I wanted to hurl the whole project across the room.  I settled for drawing an arrow on each FOIL-WRAPPED PIECE OF GUM with a Sharpie.  (Which had to be done very carefully, I might add, since Sharpie tends to rip foil-plated paper.)

All that to say, next year we’ll probably be buying Valentines.

This post is sure to wow you with all the [un]glamour

If there was a contest for having the most unglamourous New Year’s Eve, I’m sure I would win. (That’s what happens with four very small children and a husband who’s in the hospitality industry and therefore has to work). But since this is a blog primarily about our lives, I’m going to talk about our evening anyway, in all it’s insignificance.

First of all, I picked up our laundry from my neighbor because our dryer is broken again. (And speaking of broken appliances, our vacuum is also dead.  We took down our REAL Christmas tree today. Pine needles + no big powerful vacuum = a mess.)

My kids don’t really *get* the whole New Year’s Eve thing yet so it was just another day for them. (And I conveniently left the part about staying up until midnight OUT.)  But I happened to have several things on hand to make FUN PARTY FOOD:

We also had a cookie mix in the pantry…

Yes I know hearts are a little premature. But it was the only non-Christmas cookie cutter I could find. We iced them blue.

You know, for winter?

The kids also did a lot of this during the day:

And at bedtime…

So I think it’s safe to say they, at least, had a fun (if oblivious) New Year’s Eve.

(And okay, mine wasn’t so bad, either.)

Oops. Sort of.

So I um, sort of (Mom, don’t freak) choppedMadeline’shairoff.

{exhales}

She wanted a haircut.  I wanted to cut it too, just because it was too long and the tangles painful.  The problem was she kept moving and I had to keep cutting it shorter to even out the sides.  It’s still not perfect.

She likes it… and even though I would have left it a few inches longer, her hair grows like a weed and will be back down her back in a wink.

(And yes, she’s wearing a size 3T dress I got down from the attic for Adelaide to wear. Silly girl.)

Here’s a before photo, just for kicks (also one of my favorite photos from Christmas):

Merry Christmas!

DPP Day 24: Christmas Eve

Making candy necklaces (thanks, Mom!):

You may or may not know these people, but they’re some of our favorites:

Improvising:

DPP Day 17: Last Batch

Farewell, Operation Christmas Card. Until next year, then.

DPP Day 15: The ones I was talking about

Except I only ate three.

Still posting with the December Photo Project.

DPP Day 7: Oh, baby

What’s your holiday indulgence?

Posted in conjunction with the December Photo Project.  And yes, that is my freezer.

Thanksgiving In Pictures

Our hosts, my brother and his wife:

The kid table:

The back-up turkey (which I brined, thankyouverymuch):

My dad and sisters:

Mom & Dad:

Adelaide being a ham (as usual):

Micah had raked up a huge pile of leaves for the kids to swing/jump into:

They also had a bonfire and some outdoor games but I was too cold to stand out there with my camera any longer and opted for apple cider and pie instead.

It was such a great holiday!

Four Weeks!

And Happy Thanksgiving!!!

SUGAR.

Currently swimming in candy. The kids could not be more pleased.