25 March 2011

1. Saturday night I headed to River Falls for our annual girls outing.  Every time we go I am reminded why college was so much fun...and these girls are just as fun now as they were then.

We did get told my a bartender that we know that we are "officially old now, you know..."  Whatever Pat.  You're only as old as you feel, right??  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight???

2.  Sunday Avery had dance pictures.  She finally got to put on that costume she has been drooling over and begging to wear for the past two months.  As I've said before, she does not sit well for me, so I had Rachel do her hair and make-up because she thinks its FUN.  Seriously...we could do the EXACT same things to her and if I did it she would whine and scream, but for Rae she will sit and smile and giggle.

Ahhh...those lashes.  She didn't get those from me.  

Then she posed for me while we waited in line for pictures at the studio...

Of course we had to get one of her and her Brielle together.  They had to wear mascara and Avery was amazed at how different Brielle's eyelashes that are normally so light look so dark and beautiful!  They can't wait for their recital in June when they can wear their outfits again.

3.  Beckett got strep for the second time in a month on Monday.  Since the last throat culture was so fresh in his mind I told him that if he made it through it without too much crying I would get him a treat when we went to CVS to pick up his prescription.  Since the Easter candy is out he immediately shouted PEEEEPS!  when he saw them in the store.

Can you see him saying it?  "PEEEEEEEEEPS!!"  He missed school on Tuesday, but with spring break coming up we didn't want to run the risk of him getting anyone else sick and ruining any trips for any of our ECFE friends.

4.  Its no secret that Beckett is obsessed with electronics just like his daddy.  He always has at least one of our old and out of service phones in his pocket and is constantly taking our ipods whenever he finds them.  I walked in to find him singing Katy Perry in the living room...

I love how a confident strong willed guy like him can pull off a hot pink ipod and sing Katy Perry without batting an eye!

5.  Tuesday afternoon Tate had his Music Performance.  Each class has their performance during the school day so they can have their own concert and you can see them up close.  We loved it! He had given us specific instructions for weeks that we had to get there early so we could be  in the front row, so he was ecstatic when he saw we were the first ones in line.   I had to help him re-tuck his shirt right before showtime.  I've never seen this kid so concerned with his outfit!

Tate had practiced his lines and knew them by heart, although he ended up reading from the script (as did the other kids even though I know a lot of them had theirs memorized, too!) which made them a bit less smooth than they sounded when he practiced, but overall he didn't let his nervousness get to him.  We were so proud!

He was so into it we could hardly stand it.  They were so cuuuute!  There were many funny happenings, some that were planned and many that were not, but that made it even better.  Here are our favorite parts...his two lines and the song where they all did the robot!

When it was over they told us we could take our performers with us, so we headed to Dairy Queen to celebrate. Love you, Kiddo!

18 March 2011

1.  After last week's post, Rae protested that while she loved that her kids had so much fun, she was wondering why I only posted "ugly" pictures of Finley.  For one, she is not ugly, nor were the pictures.  Secondly, I had five kids to take care of, so she should be glad her kid was clean regardless of whether I got her hair done or not...LOL!  (Rach...stop reading that as me trying to make you look rude.  IT.  IS.  FUNNY.)   But because Finley IS quite adorable, I thought it would only be fair to post this adorable pic from yesterday...

See?  She is ADORABLE and it turns out since the trip she prefers me to her own mother.  WINNING!

2.  Last Friday I took the kids to get the boys haircut...it was long overdue.  Avery is excited to be growing out her hair, but she loves getting it cut, too, so sometimes she gets antsy at the salon when the boys are getting theirs cut.

The salon that we go to has a case with bright colored hair extensions that Avery always drools over.  The last time we were there she asked if she could get one.  I told her that she had to start taking care of her own hair.  Frankly, I was sick of her screaming while I brushed it, and she doesn't cry when she brushes it herself.  So Friday when we were there I had forgotten all about it, but she didn't.  She said "Mom, I have been brushing my own hair every day!"  I couldn't argue, because she has...but I was thinking the extension might look good in the summer when there was no school.

A deal is a deal.  I guess a $5 neon pink extension is a cheap trade for less stressful mornings, even if it is March.  Our hair dresser Hannah told me AFTER it was in that they last for 3 months.  GULP.

3.  Over the weekend both Kara and Kasey stayed in Shakopee as part of their spring breaks from college.  We took advantage of a sister day by going shopping with just the four of us.  When we have no kids to worry about, the shennanigans begin...especially with this girl along...

4.  Can I get whoop whoop for the weather this week?!  Sidewalk chalk, scooters, bikes, walks, no jackets...we are READY for spring!

5.  Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. 

We have always had this rule in our house that our cereal has to be skin colored...you know, Chex, Kix, Mini Wheats, Cheerios, Life.  You get my drift. I'm trying to save my kiddos teeth here, people.   About a year ago E bought a box of Lucky Charms.  I said "What about the cereal rule?"  He told me that the cereal was actually skin colored.  I told him  no tattoos in our skin colored cereal.

Then last week I saw this post on one of the gazillion blogs I follow and thought maybe a special treat was in order.  Everyone needs a little unexpected pot of gold at the end of their rainbow, right?

Its amazing how a little green milk, powdered donuts, and lucky charms can raise your spirits in the morning!  It may be a new tradition on St. Patty's day around here.  I am not sure we will adopt the leprechaun trap that E and Tate spent so much time on for his assignment for school, but we'll have to see!

11 March 2011

1.  For five days this past week, we were parents of five.  Rae & B went on an anniversary vacation to California, so Jackson and Finley spent the week at our house.  The kids had SO. MUCH. FUN.  I surely wish I had taken more pictures, or at least BETTER pictures, but I was sort of...well...busy!

Fin is 15 months old and is at that age where she needs almost constant attention and/or supervision.   She is hilarious and is starting to say lots of words.  She has got the puppy noise down pretty well and when she wasn't at my feet saying "Up!  Up!" or on my hip helping me cook she was following Wrigley around most of the week.  Apparently in one of their early conversations Wriggs must have told her that his food was really good, because any time I wasn't watching I would find her like this...

She would run away if I tried to get her to spit it out.  When I finally caught her she would smirk and gladly spit it right into my hand.

2.  Jacks and Beckett were stuck like glue all week to each other.  This, as we have seen in the past, can be the best of times and the worst of times.  They go from love to fight and back again before you can even fix the problem.

Don't they just look like trouble?!

Finley, on the other hand, had her own little babysitter in Avery.  Avery rode with Fin in the car and couldn't stop laughing as Finley echoed her "Uh-oh!" about 1,000,000,000 times.  They laughed just as hard in the tub.  Whenever Finley needed a diaper change, Avery was right there to entertain her so she would sit still. This is the closest Aves will ever have to having a sister, so we're glad she likes her so much!

3.  On Friday night my parents came and rented a hotel in Shako so the four older kids could stay overnight with them and swim.  Kara also came to swim with us on Friday night.  We forgot our kids life jackets and we were so glad to have 5 adults for 5 kids!

Saturday morning was much easier to manage when all the kids had their life jackets.  I am not sure why there are only pics of E coming down the slide with the kids...all of us took turns going down including Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa even took Finny down the big slide!  He would hold her out of the water when he hit the pool.  She didn't even get wet and twice she yawned when they got down!  We laughed so hard.

4.  Saturday afternoon we took a few walks.  E took Tate, Aves, and Finley on a walk with Wrigley while Beckett and Jack napped.   Then Grandpa decided to take the kids' hair for a ride with the pony...

Fin's hair definitely worked the best!

5.  Overall, it was a great week.  They were all great kids.  I am so glad that they are such good friends and always make each other laugh...

4 March 2011

1.  Last Friday night we took the kids to the carnival at my school.  I had to work at it for a while anyway.  They had so much fun and although we only planned on going for an hour the kids stayed for 2 1/2!

This is the only picture I took before my camera battery went dead.  Are you surprised?  Remember that Friday was really the end of the Really!?! week, so you shouldn't be.  =)  It was so fun to watch the kids' confidence as they played all the games themselves.  E and I just stood back and watched!  Tate especially loved the games.  Beckett and Aves decided to wait in line 45 minutes to get their faces painted...it was SO hot in there but it was well worth the wait!  Once we got home and charged the battery a bit they posed for a picture.

2.  We decided to escape to the lake for the weekend to wash a load of clothes and just relax.  We got in a few games of Pass the Pigs and the kids helped Grandpa blow snow.  I can't imagine how much we will love that place during the summer...the winter has already been so fun!

3.  I have gotten to read in both Tate and Avery's classrooms in the past week.   I was the Mystery Reader in T's classroom and had to give three clues about myself for the class.  Tate had NO IDEA it was me, which just cracks me up.  My clues were 1. I am a teacher  (he thought it was a teacher from his school), 2.  I have a child with the same birthday as me (he thought that meant the mom and kid were the same age...ummm....what?!  We may have explaining to do about how old you have to be before you can HAVE a baby!)  and 3.  I grew up on a dairy farm and can milk a cow (he says he had no idea that we had cows).  His biggest reason he said he didn't think it was me is because he said he thought for SURE I would let him in on the secret!  Thank you to photographer Avery for snapping the picture below!

Then I read for Dr. Seuss's birthday on Wednesday in Avery's class.  She knew I was coming so there was no surprise, but she was equally pleased.   Beckett was our photographer except I couldn't find the little camera that day, so he could barely hold the big camera up to his eye! A little off center, but we'll take it!

Mrs. Monson grabbed the camera and snapped while I was reading.  I asked Beckett to sit by Avery, but he was too busy playing cars with Mrs. Mornson.  They are definitely going to be buddies next year!

4.  On the way home from reading to Avery's class, Beckett said "Let's go to Dairy Queen for chocolate ice cream!"  I told him it wasn't open at 9:30 in the morning.  It did, however, open at 10:30 so we went for an early lunch.  It was the most fun hour in my entire week.  This kid is REALLY FUNNY.  And messy.  FUNNY and MESSY.

5.  Remember when I talked about Tate's serial killer ground hog and the influence of first grade boys??  The other day T brought home an example of exactly what I was talking about.  His class writes each other letters during writing time and Tate received this doozy...

It reads:

Tate, 

How is your day?  I can't finish this.  Evan T loves Jamie.  Yes.  poop pee.

It was signed by a first grade friend, but we won't name any names.  This is exactly the first grade boys' thinking I was speaking of.  Unexplainable, yet mildly entertaining.