Lucky Me

Sure, just like everyone else, there are days that my kids drive me crazy. But overwhelmingly I love my kids and I enjoy spending time with them. There are days that I can't believe just how lucky I am to be their mom. Most of my very best days are days that I can just focus on being their mom and not worry about work, chores, errands or "to dos". Yesterday was one of those days. The day started of just like any other day. Jason had to respond to the frost alarm in the early morning hours so it was just me and the kids. We were planning on making it to church, but that just didn't work out.

Henry and I got out of bed around 6am and fixed coffee, checked the computer and then plopped ourselves on the floor in the family room. The little kids joined us for cartoons has Henry climbed all over me. Eventually we made breakfast (pancakes since we only had 2 eggs in the house and not much of anything else). Emma Jo was in charge of the bacon. Jason got home as we were finishing breakfast. Then I tried to get Henry to take a nap since he was rubbing his eyes. He filled his belly and drifted off. After snoozing for about 10 minutes his eyes popped open and he was recharged! I handed him off to Jason so that I could shower before he left for the house. After my shower Henry was definitely ready for a nap. I rocked him to sleep once again.

Around 11:30am, it was time to get serious about starting our day. The kids and I decided it was perfect weather for a picnic. We got dressed and headed to the store. The kids were great at the store and in no time our cart was full and we were ready for our picnic.

The little kids got the blanket and spread it in the yard. Emma Jo found the umbrella while I made lunches. It was nothing fancy, but it warmed my heart to see the four of them sitting together, sharing a meal, sharing stories, being kind to each other, and enjoying each other's company.

We had puffy Cheetos. (I can't remember ever buying those before.)

We played hide-and-seek with a napkin.

And in general just enjoyed each other.

Later in the afternoon we baked cupcakes for Emma Jo's Championship party and a cake for dessert after dinner with Grammie and Grampa.

I was tired at bedtime, but happy to have spent a great day appreciating all of the blessings that God has given to our family, namely Emma, Grace, Cooper and Henry.

Great Weekend

After feeling awful on Friday, I was so happy to feel great this weekend. The weather has been perfect and the kids and I have tried to take advantage. Yesterday we played outside in the water and today we had a picnic in the yard.

We took Henry's bathtub outside so he could have a "swim".

Grace and Cooper played with buckets of water.

I told them not to get each other wet. I guess I didn't say they couldn't get themselves wet.

Later, Grace and Jason went to the annual Girl Scouts Father-Daughter Dance. The theme was Flowers and Flip Flops. Jason was pretty happy he could wear a Hawaiian Shit. Grace was thrilled to wear flip flops and her new Easter hat.

While they were at the dance, I stayed home with Emma, Cooper and Henry. We made pizza buns for dinner and had sundaes for dessert!

Cooper was delighted to have whipped cream! It is one of his favorites. Emma Jo liked the chocolate sauce and the black and white ice cream.

Proud Mommy

I sure am a proud mommy.

1st Grace - Grace read me this story last night. When I finally got a chance to see it I was surprised by how well she is writing, both her penmanship and how well she sounds out words and tries to guess how they are spelled. She told me that the requirement was to write 4 sentences, but she "filled the whole page!" I think this is pretty good for a 1st grader.

Next Emma - Emma Jo's 7th Grade Girls Basketball team is currently in the playoffs for their league. They came in to the playoffs ranked 2nd since they lost one game in the season. Last night was the first game of the playoffs and THEY WON! Today is game 2. I'm very proud of how well she is doing, how much she has improved over last year, and the fact that this is her 2nd year on the 7th grade team and she is still only in 6th grade. Just think how good she'll be as a 7th grader!

Then Cooper - Cooper is learning so much at Preschool! He comes home singing new songs, telling me about animals and plants, and examining everything to see what it is made out of. The other day when I asked him what letter he was learning about (they have a letter of the week each week), he couldn't tell me the name, but he could show me the sign!

And Finally Henry - Henry has learned how to crawl! He has been getting by with scooting and reaching lately, but he is now officially a crawler. He has good form and is now working on the speed! Now I need to start baby-proofing!

A Day Off

Sometimes it is the little things.
Little things that add up to be everything.
I have a million little things to do everyday and sometimes it gets to be too much. That is the way I have been feeling this week. I'm sure it is compounded by the fact that Henry has become the baby who DOESN'T sleep. Jason reminded me that Cooper was once the baby who only slept while being rocked, so I'm sure that someday Henry will sleep. Although it doesn't feel that way at 3 in the morning when you are up for the 5th time.
Anyway, I was scheduled to go on a Girlfriend's Retreat with First Baptist Church this weekend. I had been looking forward to it, but in the past few days it felt like just one more thing that needed to be checked off my "to-do list".
Last night I made the decision to say no. No, I'm not doing what I should do, I'm going to do what I want to do. So today, instead of leaving my family and spending the day with the women from church, I decided to go shopping.
Mom, Emma, Grace, Henry and I packed up the Yukon and headed to Emeryville. We were hoping to find a chair for Emma's room at IKEA. It ended up that we didn't really find too much of anything to buy, but I did find a little peace. It felt great to not have anything that had to be done. I did have three kids with me but Henry was a shopping angel and the girls did great, especially after lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.

Leprechaun Cake

Last week I happened upon a blog posting about a Leprechaun cake. I instantly knew that the kids would love it. Even though St. Patrick's Day was on Thursday, I still decided to make the cake on Sunday. Emma Jo was at the house helping Jason get things ready for new flooring, so it was just the little kids and I.

We mixed up the cake batter and separated it into six different bowls. Then Grace and Cooper got to add food coloring to their bowls to make all of the colors of the rainbow (this was accompanied by singing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song about "Red-Orange-Yellow-Blue, don't forget the Purple too!"). Then we carefully layered the colors into our bundt pan. The kids enjoyed squeezing the batter out of the baggies. After it baked it was time to add the marshmallow clouds around the edges and in the middle. Then Grace was in charge of making a leprechaun trap, gold coins, a sign and a ladder.
It didn't turn out as beautiful as the sample blog, but it was pretty darn cute and the kids loved it! Emma Jo was surprised when we slicing into it and there was a rainbow inside.
This was definitely a hit and we've already talked about ways we could adapt the method for birthday and other cakes.

Apple!

Henry thinks he is a big boy and wants to eat whatever the family is eating. Last night I had Henry sitting at the counter and had given him some Cheerios to snack on while I fixed dinner. He was not very happy with the Cheerios and was whining and complaining. I saw the big bowl of apples sitting in front of him and decided to see if he wanted some apple. I cut off a little slice so that he would have some of the flesh available without peel. He instantly grabbed it and started gnawing away.

He happily "ate" it the entire time I was cooking without another complaint (except when he would drop it).

Rock and Worship Road Show

Saturday night I got to take Emma Jo and a few members of her youth group to the Rock and Worship Road Show in Sacramento. I was very excited to get to go to the concert and even more excited to spend the night with Emma. Since Henry was born he had monopolized my time and energy. I feel as if I've given the other kids the short straw, especially Emma Jo. She is so independent and un-demanding that I haven't given her the attention she deserves.
She was gone all of last week at Outdoor Science Camp at Mt. Hermon and I missed her. The concert was probably not the best decision in terms of Emma being tired from camp and then the time change (not to mention a nursing baby who sleeps with mommy), but it was a great decision in terms of a night worshiping Jesus together and a night spending time with Emma.

(I wasn't sure if I could bring my camera into the show, so this is one I got from the RWRS blog.)

It was a long afternoon/night. We left Windsor at 4pm and didn't get home until 2:50 am (3:50am if you count the time change). Thankfully there were only 7 of us from FBC so we were all able to ride together in the Yukon. We stopped for dinner on the road and I got my first taste of Sonic! We finally arrived at the concert at 6:45 and the only seats left once we walked in were behind the stage. It would have been great to see the front the stage, but it was an amazing experience regardless. I definitely hope to go back next year.

I was exhausted yesterday, but it was so worth it!

I had been worried about Jason and Henry, but they survived. Big thanks to Mom and Dad (Grammie and Grampa) who came over and helped with Cooper and Grace. It is nice to know that everyone will survive (and even enjoy themselves) without me. It makes me not feel too bad about planning on attending the FBC women's retreat in a couple of weeks.