Sigh...

Elizabeth decided to help herself to the jar of peanut butter:



And did I mention last week she fingerpainted with caramel dip on the living room carpet?

Brownies wee no more...

Does anyone else remember that song "Brownies Wee, gay and free, just as happy as can be..." I know Chandra, Toddie and Mom do. Tonight was Alexandria's bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts (she bridged from brownie to junior.) She got a lot of patches and we had a great dinner. But it must be said: Me alone with 4 kids + buffet dinner= :( But all in all we had fun though and Alexandria was excited about all the badges she earned.





Annika was particularly touched by the candle lighting ceremony and had to wipe away her faux tears. Silly girl.

I walked in the living room yesterday and discovered Ian playing with a ball of my yarn. When he saw me he startled, threw the yarn down and said quickly "I was just making a sweater!"

So unfair...

Life has been unfair for Annika. Her friend Kira invited her over to spend the night. The mother and I never spoke about it, it was just the two seven year olds arranging this over the phone. Annika told me that Kira would either be at the skating rink or Chuck E. Cheese, so could we please just drive to both and look for her? That got a big no. This did not make Annika happy. Finally a few hours later Kira called and wanted to know where Annika was. I talked with her mom and cleared that it was okay and took Annika over there. When I picked Annika up today she was mad. Why? Because Alexandria told her we went to the park while she was gone. How dare we go somewhere without her!

The family that blogs together...

Alexandria had decided she needs her own blog. I set it to private so if you would like to see it just send me your email and I'll add you. (I can't get to my email to get my contacts for some reason.)

More about Easter

We had such a nice Easter! Church was really good. Alexandria and Annika sang a song.I got to see my brothers (Ethan and Malcolm) playing in the band together which is always fun. The church had an Easter egg hunt that the kids enjoyed even though it was a little cold. Then we went over to Ethan and Tricia's for a cookout. I ate way too much. Then we went to my Dad and Claudia's house and I ate way too much again. The day was really nice and the kids had so much fun. So thanks family for having us over!

The kids showing off their eggs:


The girls singing (Annika is front far left in purple, Alexandria back in plaid):


Elizabeth and Nana, color-coordinated for their photo op:


My niece Leandra and our Toddie:


My way too pretty niece Leandra, my way too funny brother Malcolm (Heeeeeey little brother!), Zabe the Babe and my newest niece Ella:

More pictures

Fun in the garden

See what we did today? Barry was nice enough to come over and make us a little garden area. The kids were so excited to plant their seeds. We planted corn, lettuce, carrots and green beans. We are growing tomatoes inside that we will put out there once it is a little warmer.

Why I can't get a picture of Elizabeth

It has become impossible to get a picture of Elizabeth. She either refuses to look at the camera or gives the cheesiest look ever. Here is an example:

Me: Elizabeth! Look here. Look at Mommy!
Elizabeth's response:


Me: Elizabeth, look here!
Elizabeth's response:


Me: Come on Elizabeth, look at Mommy! Smile!
Elizabeth(thinking fine you want me to smile, here you go!):

Easter Pictures

Easter Pictures- Elizabeth

Elizabeth does not like getting her picture taken at all.

Annika is cute

I am so happy that the kids are all loving church so much. Last week Annika actually gave her own dollar for the offering without any prompting. And this week at school she made an Easter card and this is what it said:

don't eat to much candy or y'll have a stumik egg (with a drawing of an egg.)

But the other side of the card had a drawing of a cross and said:

God is inportant! He helps you! God is speshle. He has Good reasons on bing good!


How cute is that? And that was at school, not at Sunday school so she totally came up with that on her own. I wish I could scan it but the scanner and I are not getting along. It says it is out of ink so it can't scan. Color me confused because I didn't know scanning required any ink? Anyway...I am off to play Littlest Pet Shop. I don't think playing a board game with a volatile four year old is going to do a thing for my pounding headache but oh well.

Oh my goodness, is this week over YET???

I have not been blogging as much because this has been the most tiring and frustrating week. As you know, Karl has been working a lot of hours so I have been holding down the fort at home. Most of the time it goes okay, but this week has been horrible. I won't go into it all, but I have been repeatedly praying for the patience and energy to deal with it. On top of that I have spent the last two weeks throwing down handfuls of medicine for the headache that won't go away. Yuck. I do have a cute post about Annika that I need to write. So I will get to that after the kids are in bed.

Cheesy baby, Take 2

For Welcome

Pictures

Birthday Planning

Ian and I had an impromptu birthday planning meeting tonight at 10 pm. He had to get up out of bed to come talk to me about birthday plans, because you know, his birthday is in February (time's a wasting!) He would like to go to Shucky Cheese. Also, for his gift, he would like a giant Mickey Mouse doll that says "Welcome to the Clubhouse!" and then sings the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song and then sings the "Hotdog song." Then (and this is the really cool part) you push a button and he turns your room into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. What to do? I am pretty sure you can't buy that just anywhere and I only have 10 1/2 months left to shop.

Putting the smart in smart-mouth

Today I was getting the boys a snack and Ian was complaining because he wanted juice instead of milk. When Brodie heard the word juice he brought up a new word- diarrhea. Neither boy knew what it meant but they (well mostly Ian) thought it was amusing to use it over and over again while they were having their snack. About the sixth time Ian said it I had had enough. I asked him to please stop saying that word. He told me, "Mommy this is a private conversation." I was surprised and asked if he even knew what 'private conversation' meant. "Yes," he answered, "That is when the two of us are talking and the other person (that would be Mommy) shouldn't be trying to talk to us."

Oh my goodness, how hard is it to leave things alone that DON'T BELONG TO YOU??? If it is not yours, you have no business touching it. The end.

Why will Ian not stop messing with things? He is not deterred by locks, baby gates or punishments. So far this week he has:

Dumped every single game we own out of their boxes and scattered them all around upstairs. Twice. Monopoly money, Sorry cards, Connect Four pieces, Clue Weapons, puzzle pieces...

He turned on the cordless phone and took it upstairs and "lost it." This means I could not push the page button on the receiver to locate it because it was 'in use' already. Also this means that I could not make nor receive any phone calls.

He took Karl's PDA/PalmPilot/Gadgety thing up to his room which is a big no-no.

Yesterday he and the little boy I babysit cut each other's shirt cuffs with a pair of scissors. Imagine the fun I had explaining to B.'s mom why his clothes were cut to shreds.

Seriously. Should I tether the child to me? He is four years old! When will this end?

We now have locks on Elizabeth's room, Alexandria and Annika's room (only when they are not in there) as well as the upstairs bathroom. We have two gates stacked on top of each other in front of the dreaded game closet (one gate doesn't work, he can easily scale it.) It is getting ridiculous.

Yay for peace and quiet!

Ian has fallen asleep earlier and slept through the entire night both nights since we moved him downstairs. There is no fighting and screaming. It is wonderful. We are trying to figure out how to do the bedroom shuffle so that he can have a real room downstairs. I think it will take a little remodeling (ie installing a door in the family room.) Neither Karl nor I have what you would call an inclination toward such things so we will see how it goes. Or doesn't go.