spring break

Today is the first day of spring break for Cali, and it's snowing outside.

At least my daffodils still believe it should be spring.

ours is not to reason why

Learning to go solo at getting everyone ready for church on Sunday mornings has been a bit of work.

As long as we start getting ready as soon as we get up and work steadily until it's time to go we make it to church.

At 1:00 p.m.

Next year we switch to 9:00 am. Ugh.

So when someone ties herself to the furniture, with a bunch of knots that she must have learned from a sailor, it throws a snag in things.

I asked her why she did it.

She didn't know.

One of these days I will learn to stop asking.

groundbreaking

Today we broke ground on our newest project: the garden.

Kimi was asking me lots of questions about it and you could tell she was only half-believing my answers. I explained I actually went to college and learned gardening.

She remains doubtful.

I can always trust her to give me moral support.

But before I forget, we started working outside on Wednesday with some power raking. No need to rent a machine when you have all these power-rakers to put to work.




After we started digging up the ground for the garden today we found a new love for Ian. He collected a whole family of worms and put them in a pile so they could talk to and tickle each other.
After he put one on my leg while I was trying to take his picture.

Thank you, Cali, for removing it.
Natalie found a new love also. We couldn't keep her out of the dirt. I think she gets it from me. It really is lovely stuff.

It's small, but it's a start. I'll keep you posted on how things progress.
Oh, and by the way, Natalie started walking everywhere instead of crawling this week. Just in time for heading outside. Which she LOVES.

top o' the mornin to ya

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

The kids got to eat a traditional Irish breakfast of Lucky Charms and green muffins. I'm sure that Lucky Charms are a staple food in the Irish diet.

The corned beef and cabbage are simmering away and the soda bread is next up, but I made a minor oversight.

I forgot to make sure they had something green to wear. After going through all of Cali's clothes we found some green on one shirt and some green ribbons for her hair. I will really need to make sure I take care of this next year with two girls in school because elementary school can be nothing but a giant pinch-fest on St. Patrick's Day.

Enjoy the day!

flashback friday: duets

Scott and I recently moved the piano from the addition to the living room, thinking it would see more use in there. We were right.

Ian and Natalie have discovered a grand new toy.
Natalie gets her baby up there to play along if Ian's not interested.
It reminded me of when we first got the piano and Cali and Kimi would play duets.
Kimi found the solution for when four hands on the piano are just not enough.

by the dawn's early light

That is my little Cali who used to crash wherever she was in the afternoons. Yes, even with a sucker in her mouth. The sugar couldn't even help her stay awake. She was tired because she always got up way too early.

The rest of the kids have followed her lead. That is one reason I waited so long to take Ian's crib down. I liked the fact that he would sleep-in because he was penned-in. Now he gets up stumbling around and bleary eyed like the older two.

Natalie who is still running for "favorite child" sleeps. (I am knocking on wood as I type that.)

I only comment on this today because of my morning. I drag my self out of bed to exercise before they all wake up and need anything from me. I creep around in the dark so as not to disturb them and then go work-out in the addition. I like to have at least forty minutes of me-time which translates to "no interruptions."

The problem is that the dawn's early light is getting earlier.

This morning went like this:

10 minutes into the workout- Cali comes to remind me I need to sign up for parent teacher conferences.

15 minutes - Kimi comes to tell me that Cali has taken her favorite stuffed animal. I vow not to stop and tell her to have Cali come talk to me.

20 minutes- I try to give Cali a lecture on kindness while trying to remember to keep breathing.

30 minutes- Cali comes to tell me that Ian has poop all over his hand.

I hit pause.

31 minutes- Back trying to get my heart rate back up.

38 minutes- Listen to yelling and crying coming from the basement. Ignore.

45 minutes- Done. Time to go assemble the troops and be the mom again.

My fear is that I am going to have to start getting up an hour earlier.

Or I could tie them down to their beds.

overheard

Cali just left with Grandma C. to go out for her birthday lunch.

I overheard Kimi and Ian having this conversation. She was trying to make him feel better about not going. It went something like this:

Kimi: Ian, when you have birthdays you can go. When you turn five, and six, and seven, but not eight because then you'll be too old for stuff like that. When you're five you'll be big like me!

Ian: I have a big head! I have a HUGE head!

Kimi: Yeah, and then you'll be old and get married.

Ian: Then I will kiss you!

Kimi: No! You marry your friend not your sister!

to each her own

I was making toast for breakfast and gave the kids options of jelly, cinnamon sugar, or honey.

Kimi picked garlic salt.

It seemed a little odd early in the morning, but was just as easy so I shrugged my shoulders and gave it to her. Froot Loops and garlic toast. Yummy.

She was excited and ate it all.

Here's something else that might turn your stomach. (I am usually the last to see popular you-tube clips so if you have all seen this, I'm sorry.)

It's not the solid potato salad song that is weird, though that is a little weird on it's own. Wait until you see what they do next. Kimi and I couldn't take our eyes off it.

Family Home Evening talent shows at their house would have been awesome.

one year older and wiser too

I just got an email that told me, "Congratulations, you have made it to the lovable-sevens, one of the most rewarding times in parenthood." Cali is already filling her role as a loveable-seven.

I gave her the option of a birthday party at home she could invite everybody at school to, or she could invite the two girls her age from our neighborhood and go to Chuck-E-Cheese's.

To her, the choice was very simple and we ended up at that child wonderland, Chuck-E-Cheese's. Only one of her primary friends could make it, and Ian was dying to come along so those were the four lucky partiers.

Cali wanted to show you a smile with extra cheese.

Ian was jumping up and down everywhere we went.

I'm glad Cali isn't entering driver's ed any time soon.

The highlight of our trip. Meeting Chuck E. Cheese himself.

I should have asked for an autograph. (or tylenol)

After our party there, we dropped off Cali's friend and got ready for the next birthday party of the day. Great-Grandma Alice turned 90 on Sunday! I seriously hope to be as active and with-it as she is when I turn 90. She is amazing.

A picture of the two birthday girls together.

Grandma Alice performed a piano piece for everyone.

If I start working now I might get one ready for my 90th birthday party.

Then Natalie decided to steal the show and walk across the gym. There she goes.

When we told people these were her first real steps, lots of other people whipped out their cameras. It was good to know that if my pictures didn't turn out I could find someone with a good picture.
Then it was back home to a birthday dinner of the requested macaroni and cheese, sausages, and jello. Followed by her chocolate cake with cherry pie filling and whipped cream on top.

Make a wish!

It was definitely a fun day for everyone!

flashback friday: our first first

It's been a while since I did a flashback friday post, but I had this day on my mind because of Natalie's birthday last week and Cali's birthday tomorrow. Natalie reminds me so much of Cali. It's like having her over again, except, look at that hair!

She already had her pigtails by then?

Cali celebrated with a few of her friends before the other guests arrived.

Do you ever wish you could go back and visit certain days in your life? This is one of those days for me.

Maybe because I look at the next picture and wish I was back sitting in that room with all those same people again;

even for just a few more minutes.

drinking problem

Since Natalie has become weaned we have a teensy-problem.

She no longer gets anything to drink.

Not that she doesn't try, or that I don't try.

We just haven't been able to convince her to get anything liquid into her mouth and swallow it.

And she does have fun trying.
And since I grew up being able to relate just about everything back to Star Trek, this is the "Data to Guinan"-ish conversation that Natalie and I would have if we were able to actually carry on conversation.

(For those of you who were underprivileged children and have no idea what I'm talking about, watch Star Trek: Generations)

Me: Natalie, would you like to try something new called "milk?"

Natalie lets some dribble into her mouth, shudders, winces, spits it out.

Natalie: Ohhh yess! I hate this! It is revolting!

Me: More?

Natalie: Please!

a one-derful birthday

Natalie just turned one! And if her happiness was any indication, she had a great day.

Her siblings really wanted her to open up those presents, but she was more interested in something on the other side of the room.
Kimi tried to convince her to stop playing with the old toys and open the presents, but finally they just opened them for her.
We made little heart cakes for our little sweetheart.
This was the first time she was just handed a bowl full of food and and a spoon was let loose. I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures that I hadn't given her a baby spoon. The bigger spoon probably helped her shovel it in better though.
Once the spoon had gotten everything it could reach she went to this method. Yum.

This is what birthday cake usually leads to. Happy Birthday to my littlest sweetie!

are you trying to tell me something?

Kimi handed me a marker and a post-it today and asked me to write these words, "fish, a, want, I." She showed me how "fish" was supposed to be on the bottom and she had already started it with the letter "f."

I dutifully wrote out her message, wondering where it would go. She took it, stuck it on her shirt, and wore her, "I want a fish" note for the rest of the day.

oh, canada!

As someone who doesn't care much about the sporting world, it doesn't make much sense, but I love the olympics!

I can watch whatever event comes on all day.

We started the tradition of having a dinner from the host country on the night of opening ceremonies. Since I am one-quarter Canadian myself, ( sort of. Grandpa did become a U.S. citizen, but he was Canadian.) I was looking forward to this one.

Turns out Canadians eat what we eat. Go figure.

This is the most regional meal that I could come up with, and believe me the kids liked it a whole lot better than the Chinese food from the last olympics.

We decided to have Canadian bacon, and waffles with Maple syrup. I thought about getting real syrup that actually came from Canada, but I decided my kid's taste buds weren't really discerning enough to notice the ten-dollar difference.

(Sorry this picture is so dark, you know I've cursed the lighting in my kitchen before.

See how that waffle sort-of looks like a maple leaf? Now that's Canadian.)

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day to all those I love. I wish I could see each one of you today and give you a cookie. I did post the recipe though, so you can make your own cookies and pretend they are from me. Nothing says love like a load of sugar.

Speaking of:
Having Valentine's Day on Sunday has been great because it has stretched it out into the whole weekend. Cali came home from school with her bag full of loot. We inspected her haul right away to look for peanuts, (she had really bad peanut encounter earlier in the week) and to to glory in the spoils

The art of conversation hearts really seems to have died. I miss those little guys that you had to carefully pass out making sure not to give the stray "kiss me" to the boy you didn't like.

Cali is happy because her well of Halloween candy had just run dry, and this will see her through until Easter.

I've got to go now because I hear Ian calling me to come get him up. We took his crib down yesterday, and he slept for the first time in a bed last night. I'm am relieved that hasn't realized this means he can just get up. I hope this lasts for a least a week.