It's Fun to Stay at the YMCA!

Ok, maybe if you are 5 and 3!

Tonight was Parents' Night Out (PNO). I don't know what I was thinking! I truly thought I was going to accomplish a lot without kids around and that bedtime would be no problem because everyone will be so tired from playing and staying up late.

HA!

Never again, by myself.

I do need to mention that I got a late start due to soccer practice ending right at 6pm- the start of PNO. And due to I still had to nurse Henry because the little stinker will not, absolutely, no way, no how drink formula or breastmilk from a sippy cup. And don't even *think* of offering him a bottle!

But I did get to Lowe's. Got what I needed. My neighbor helped me WD-40 my garage door. (Bet you didn't know that "WD-40" could be used as a verb.) Emptied the dishwasher and filled it back up. Put away two baskets of laundry that I folded four days ago. And prepositioned all the bedtime ritual and routine items. But, POW- backfire. When I got to the "Y" Henry just fallen asleep. Apparently he had been crying so much that they were getting ready to call me to come get him. Of course he woke up and wailed the whole way home. Nicholas and Stella did so-so. The bedtime routine was all screwy and they were going nuts. I saw Stella running around naked at 10:15 and Nicholas decided not to brush his teeth. It was chaos here screaming jumping bean kids until about 11:00pm. I would have been better off renting a movie and parking them in front of it this evening. (My mom is probably gasping right now, because I NEVER do that. Next time I will.)

I did get to patch up the cracks along our back door since many little bugs have been meandering their way into my kitchen lately. However, I bought the wrong color. (It is that sanded caulk stuff. Easy-peasy.) I could have sworn the grout was grey! It's not. It is beige. Well...it is grey where I stand and cook. Maybe more accurately "dirty-and-stained-beige". Oh well, I will just get some more tomorrow when my babysitter comes and do-over.



I need a PNO do-over.

--Kate

Happy Easter to all...especially to Daddy!

Here's what we did for Easter.

1. Found baskets and Easter treats. Ate plenty of them before breakfast. Snuck a few more mini KitKats past mom and ate them before lunch.

2. Read our new books. (WHICH I was quite shocked...Nicholas can read!! What?! He read pretty much the whole book! I. was. excited-giddy-proud-amazed-and-wishing Shawn was here to see it.)


3. Sat in the front yard and reluctantly let mom take pictures. We pretty much ate candy the whole time...heehee. She fell for it.

4. Nicholas savored his candy.

Stella drank her candy (m&ms).

Henry just wanted to get his mits on candy.

5. Kicked butt in an awesome backyard egg hunt at Eli's house! We were peeking and our moms are NOT good egg-hiders. Found 'em all.

6. Dyed *real* eggs. No pictures. Mom was a bit nervous with all the dye splashing around. Ha!

7. Ate something pink for dinner. (Wait a minute, kids. Not just any dinner, people. For not being a "ham person" I still can't believe the way I devoured that meat! And stole more from the platter while cleaning up.Katie, I didn't know you were talking about sugar encrusted crack ham! I love THAT! Katie, it was a FABULOUS dinner.)

Thanks to you and Dan for having us and for entertaining my crew so I could stuff my face. No bowl of cereal before bed tonight...don't need it!

--Kate

One short

Well, take a good look at that picture because we are going to be one short of fully operational for the next four months. Tomorrow morning at 0'dark-thirty, Shawn is leaving for a four month deployment.

I know it is not nice to leave you hanging for so long then drop this post on you. But we have been a little busy 'round here. In fact I have 15 minutes before I have to have H and S in the car to get N from school. S is napping (what?!) and I am wrestling H on my lap to write this.

So I know already, there is never down time. I mean now, there is none. And now that H is mobile, any hopes that I did have of down time are shot. And you can't stay up late at night because you will be getting up soon with someone! I am always tired. Since H cut teeth he doesn't sleep through the night. And we always have one other kid up at night, too. Sooo tired and tired of being tired.

But I am ready to brave this storm on my own...kind of.

I surrendered before it even started! I have help. Grandma is coming for a week...I hired two babysitters to help...and- here's the kicker- we are "moving" back to my parents for most of the summer. This is all part of OPERATION Keep Mama Sane.

But we, like Shawn, are ready for the adventure! Stay tuned...this might be my only reprieve!



--Kate

First crawl

Well he finally did it! Just a few minutes ago, too. Got up on all fours and did his first real crawl. He's been doing his own version for a coulple of weeks now- you know, that kind that starts with him rocking on all fours but ends up in a scoot-and-drag across the carpet. His motivation to move is almost always a big kid toy. Today it happened to be Spiderman.

Bros

I could not help but "awww" outloud when I saw this.




That's right, Henry. Bros before, well, you know...



(um, sorry, Goldilocks).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Ladies' Man

This happened a couple of weeks ago.

I went to put H down in his crib just to hang out for a few minutes. But quickly found out that S's doll, we'll call her "Goldilocks", was already in there! As soon as I saw her in there, I jumped! It scared me. I wasn't expecting another baby in there. But then I just put H down because I knew it wasn't a real baby. Needless to say, they made friends quickly.

My little Ladies' Man.


(Is he holding her hand?!!)




Goldilocks = tramp.

--Kate

You Color My World, too, Nicholas!

I know it is pretty unfair for me to not post for a long time and then leave you with this. But I am going to do it anyway! At least now you know that I exist and the pictures have now been uploaded from the camera to the computer!

Remember this?

Here is the 2010 version!

First, make the crayons. See here. Last year, I bought new Crayola crayons because I read that was the only kind that worked with this craft. This year, we melted those cheapie crayons that we moms collect from restaurants and other free givings. Not those super cheap waxy ones. The decents-but-still-cheapies. I am happy to report that they work juuuust fine. There was a bit of colorless wax that rises to the top. This ends up to be the back of the crayon. We just rubbed that side down a bit before attaching them to the card. (FREE)


Print or write your message on some notecards. I got two packs of notecards from the dollar bin at Michael's. You can handwrite a message or print one like we did. To print the message, just measure your card and make a document in MS Word (or whatever you use) using those dimensions. I downloaded this free font at fontspace.com to use for Nicholas' name. We will be using this font for Thank You notes and just plain ol print-practicing, too. ($2)

Measure approximately 1/2 inch above the prefolded line and make a new fold.

Now you have more of a 3-D card.


"Sign" the card.

Tape the crayon inside. Tape closed. Done.
If you wanted, you could use the envelopes or write the recipient's name on the back of the notecard. I didn't see the point. The kids can't read and it will make things more complicated. One Valentine for each kid. Done.

--Kate