May Madness

Two things I may give up on:  cleaning the window on the front door and brushing Kate's hair.  

If I told you either have been done in the morning, you would not believe me come afternoon.

Jon (and the kids?) tried flying a kite one afternoon.  Jon (and the kids?) had fun!

Natalie and I went garage sale-ing one Saturday.  We came home with $1 guitar and a $3 drum set.  There are times when a good deal is NOT really a good deal.  "Basement Only Toy!"

 Kate got to spend one morning with her cousins and loved every minute of it!  

We got creative with homework during those last few weeks.  Scott asked if he could write his spelling words in the bathtub.  Whatever works!

 Love this picture of Kate!  Must be dreaming of our upcoming trip to Holiday World!

I had LASIK done in the middle of May and am LOVING it!  So when a child wakes up vomiting at 3:00 a.m., I can clearly see the alarm clock without putting on my glasses.  How delightful!  The light sensitivity during the first few days after the procedure was terrible, but after I got past that, it's been great!!  I would recommend it.  When I went for my follow-up appointment last week, the doctor told me that I was healing nicely and to just to stay out of the sun for the next six months.   WHAT?!!  SIX MONTHS?  Does he know that summer is upon us?!  He said that if I must go outside, to make sure I have on dark sunglasses and a hat.  I'm trying to comply...

And the kids are helping to remind me.  :)

Memories...

I haven't given up on blogging.  In fact, I'm determined to catch up over the next couple of weeks.  For now though, I will share our "LAST DAY OF SCHOOL" pictures.  We think Scott may have experienced food poisoning on Monday.  He has spent much of this week in bed, and unfortunately had to miss the fun, final few days of first grade.  :(

Officially a second grader...

Officially a first grader...

Officially REALLY wishing she could go to school...

Kate played with Natalie's kindergarten friends on the playground on the last day.  When we walked away, three year old Kate said, "I want to be five."  (I keep telling her she can go to school when she is five.)  All in due time, my dear, all in due time...

SPRING BREAK! (IS OVER!)

 I find joy in both.  Spring Break was nice!  Having the cherubs return to school for a bit will be nice, too!:)  

We were hoping to hit a state park or two over break, but the weather didn't cooperate.   Instead, we just enjoyed extra family time as Jon was able to take some time off work.  The strong winds provided lots of manly "cutting up limbs from fallen trees" time, as well as other outside maintenance.  Scott cannot get enough of this and loves a project!  

Unfortunately, Scott caught a nasty bug that had him completely wiped out for a couple of days.  That wasn't in the spring break plans either!  It was great when Scott finally emerged from his room one morning and said that he was feeling better.  Natalie lit up and said, "Scott's feeling better?!  Can we hug him and touch him again?!"  Scott just kind of rolled his eyes.  :)

The kids played well together over break and came up with some new games.  (Library, Ticket Takers, Crazy Hair Salon, Etc.)  The silly glasses were a must for many of their playtime scenarios. 

 Undercover police car:)  

Kate visited the dentist for the first time last week.  The morning of the appointment, I overheard Natalie giving Kate the play by play downstairs, "THEN THEY ARE GONNA PULL YOUR TEETH OUT!"  Coming from No-Front-Teeth Natalie, the story was pretty convincing.  (If you recall, this was exactly what happened to Natalie this past fall.)

After a motherly reassuring pep talk, Kate ended up loving her first dental experience.  She can't wait to go back again.  Six months seems like such a long time to wait.  The joys of a 3 year old!:)

I introduced the kiddos to the art of pot holder making.  Friends and family- beware.  A gifted pot-holder may be in your future.  (Although the first two Scott made started out as intended gifts for others.  Once he saw how "cool" they turned out, he decided to keep them for himself!:)  After their first few, the kids talked me into making cookies in order to try them out.  I obliged.  Lo and behold, they work!  I wonder how they would hold up on cake...hmm....

 Easter Egg Hunt with the cute cousins

 The End:)

Kid Stories (Happy Easter Version)

Kate (out of the blue last evening):  Guess what?
Me:  What?
Kate:  The tomb was empty because Jesus is risen!

Amen, Kate!

 Natalie recently had the chance to be "Mary" in her school Easter play.  Such a sweet presentation put on by the kindergartners!

The kids saw an ad for a humongous inflatable water slide/pool thing for the backyard.  They were talking about pooling their money to buy it and then realized that even then, they would not come close to affording it.  Kate came up to me and asked, "Can we have lots and lots of money?"  I told her to ask her dad.  She found Jon downstairs and very seriously asked him the same question.  :)  I have a feeling this won't be the only time in our lives we are asked for "lots of money" from this little girl. 

 What talent!  Perhaps playing his songs upside down will come in useful someday. 

 Sleeping like daddy

 Natalie:  (in reference to Kate) Why don't you ever consequence her?

Natalie handed me yet another card.  I opened it and read it aloud, "I love you, Mommy!"  Natalie said, "That's really the only thing that I know how to spell that's sweet."    :)

Kate was eating a piece of chocolate from her Easter Egg Hunt.  
Me:  One more, but then NO MORE CHOCOLATE for the rest of the day!
Kate: Then can I just have ganilla?  (vanilla) 

The kids took it upon themselves to "clean"/organize the food on the shelves one night.  It might have been a scheme to stay up late.  It worked. 

Kate to Scott:  We've got to find Natalie and punch her in the face!  (Could my sweet 3 year old say such a thing??!)

Let's Make a Deal

The older two kids recently brought me their money jars and said that they wanted to buy a new "sleep friend."  Scott quickly selected a stuffed John Deere tractor.  Natalie searched for quite some time, but couldn't find something she could afford on Amazon.  She said, "I keep having enough cents, but not enough dollars."  :)  Finally, she found a Shopkins plush toy that she wanted to buy.

Kate saw what was going on and asked to buy something too.  I told her to bring me her money container.  She brought it in, but it only had two pennies left inside.  After thorough investigation, I come to find out that Big Brother and Big Sister had something to do with this.  They had been selling their old, discarded toys to Kate in exchange for her money!  She was a pleasant customer to do business with evidently and never turned down an offer.  Moreover, I learned that Natalie had also been charging Kate coins whenever she got out of bed after being tucked in at night.  Kate, who frequently gets up to tell me "one more thing" was being fined for this behavior by Big Sister.  Natalie took it upon herself to do this and was pocketing the profit!    

Opportunist #1

Opportunist #2

Sucker #3- "Poor" Kate

(The kids were all playing well together one day- John Deere tractor giving rides to Lalaloopsy Dolls and Shopkins.)

Train Up A Child...

Scott made these brownies ALL BY HIMSELF.  I sat in the other room and listened to him talk through all of the steps with Kate.

*For those (Grandmas) who may be concerned, I did help Scott put the brownies into the oven. 

They were quite tasty.  I tried to think the best of his egg cracking abilities.  Hopefully there won't be any crunchy bites in future snacking.  So far, so good!

Jon asked Scott how he learned to do such a thing.  Scott said, "I read the directions on the back of the box."  (Duh! implied but not spoken)

If this isn't college resume material, than I don't know what is!:)