My for I

The other day I took Alyssa grocery shopping with me. I handed her the list and her job was to tell me what we needed and then check it off. When we got to the meat section she told me we needed some ground beef. She then asked me if it is meat from the ground and if that is why they call it "ground" beef. I paused and the sarcastic side of me wanted to say yes it is dead cow they find on the ground and instead of wasting it they grind it up for us to eat but because I knew that would hurt her feelings I said nothing and was interrupted by a cute old lady that thought what she had said was cute. When we got home she asked me about ground ginger so I had the opportunity to explain what "ground" means. The crazy thing is she is very smart in school and effortlessly gets strait As.

When ever you should say "I" in a sentence Addy says "my". Example "My will!" or "My am" or my favorite "My hungry Mom!"

I wasn't to fond of Addy today when I found her asleep in her bed for a nap holding my new pack of gum with only 2 pieces left and her chewing it. I was irritated because she ate my gum and more irritated that I had to wake her up to get her to spit it out. All she did was swallow it and then wouldn't go back to sleep and was creepy for the next hour. The last thing I needed was gum to get stuck in her non existent hair that we are working so hard to grow.

Sandbox Time

We got a new sandbox for the girls. Why is it that things like that take forever to put together? Elliott started one evening when I went with Kylee to her school orientation. After an hour he had enough. He couldn't understand the pictures (the instructions where picture only) on a certain step and gave up. The next day I got busy and finished it up....it only took 3 hours...with minor breaks like stopping to pick up Kylee from school, then Alyssa from school, snacks for Ryann and Addy, and helping Addy go to the bathroom, and of course answering text messages and phone calls. Sigh......the life of a mother. We are the ultimate mutli-taskers!

The girls love it! It is also finally warm enough to spend the days outside...except for the nasty windy days. The only downside to sandboxes is the sand... it tracks into the house.....sigh again. But if it entertains them, I feel it is worth it.

Middle School

Last week I had the opportunity to take Kylee to her Middle School Orientation. It was a chance for her to see the school and hear all about the electives she will have to choose from. Wow that brought back some memories and it wasn't even the school I went too. For electives they have to choose between orchestra, chorus, band, or art. We rotated and went to each room to hear the teacher and see a demo from some current students. Chorus cracked me up because the 4 boys that were preforming with the girls couldn't have been any more of an awkward group of 4 boys. Super tall or super short....oh and the acne. Ohh my....my heart felt for those boys. SUCH an awkward time period for all. Then off to the band room where the Jazz band played for us....flashbacks of drums, saxophones, and other obnoxious instruments that I was succumb to with brothers in the band.....concerts....oh yes concerts. It just made me laugh to myself.

We got to see the cafeteria, the PE locker room, the 6th grade wing, computer room, etc.

What a fun time for Kylee....me...I don't know if fun would be the word.

More like "scared" but at the same time happy for her.

Making Hair Bows

I recently got all of Addy's summer clothes down. 3T summer clothes is a good size because their are LOTS of cute outfits I bought for Ryann that have naturally passed down to Addison. That is one benefit of having the same sex born the same time of year. You get to reuse those adorable outfits that you loved. It is amazing the memories clothes can have. It is also crazy that Addison is actually wearing 3T clothes. I decided to be ahead of the game this year and make a bunch of cute hair bows to match. Lots of her outfit are Gymboree and I have the matching bows for those outfits. But I wanted all of her clothes to have cute bows. Especially because Addy doesn't have a lot of hair and putting a bow in it is the only option. It took me about a week to finish them all. The larger ones are for Ryann.

Now all we need is some summer weather...

Sick of Sickness

It has been over a week of sick kids.

Not a big fan of sick kids.

Coughing nonstop

in my face.

Could be worse.

Vomit is definitely worse!

Now I have been fighting this weird cold that has taken over my home.

Brightside...the abs are getting a great workout from the coughing.

My favorite is trying to give a stubborn two year-old her antibiotics....she's notty.

Even our computer got sick with an ever-so-lovely-virus.

NOT FUN!

Life goes on...

Elephants

Elliott goes to see Addy this morning. Addy says, "Look Dad, st-ick-y." while pointing to the snot coming out of her nose.

While I was fixing Alyssa's hair this morning she told me the three things she is scared of and never want to do:

Driving a car

Fixing her hair

Cooking

Looks like she will live with us forever!

(I am surprised that picking out her outfit isn't on there, yes I still do that too)

She said she is afraid she will blow the house up if she cooks.

Kid-Talk

On the way to taking Alyssa to school yesterday she became very annoyed because Addy was coughing her way. Kylee has also been sick coughing. Alyssa has always been very "germ-aware" or afraid of germs (okay that would be putting it lightly). She then tells Addy to cough the other way and cover her mouth, followed by, "I am surrounded in grossness!"

Later that day:

Kylee wanted to get on the computer. Ryann was sitting in the chair for the computer. Ryann was NOT thrilled about having to get out of this chair. They started to fight until I told Ryann to get out. Then out of anger Ryann told Kylee, "Fine, when I grow up I am going to steal your husband!"

Where would a four-year-old come up with this?

That is going to make for comfortable family gatherings.

EGG-Hunting

A month ago we got a postcard in the mail advertising an egg-hunt at a park. A helicopter would drop thousands of eggs. It was to be on Alyssa's birthday and she really wanted to go. I am not a big fan of public egg hunts but it was her birthday.

SO Saturday, March 27th went like this:

9 am we went to our church for a breakfast party. We ended up leaving early because we FROZE! The wind here can really, I mean REALLY be obnoxious! I know wind because I lived in WY for 4 years. Have I mentioned I HATE wind!! Elliott and I really have no tolerance for the wind or the cold after living in it for the last 9 years. It really needs to warm up! Went home and grabbed COATS!

We headed off to the park for the Egg-Drop. We lucked out and found a great parking spot. THOUSANDS of people were there, no joke. Around 10,ooo to be exact. Depending upon the age of your child they got a different color wrist band to coordinate with the area to gather eggs. These areas were marked off with ribbon and had eggs laying all over the grass. All 4 girls were in different groups so we split up. I took Ryann, Elliott took Addy, and the big girls were on their own. We had to wait what felt like forever for the helicopter to come and drop the eggs. Then it took no more than 10 seconds for the eggs to be all gone. I was in the second row and was holding Ryann to run into the middle. Yeah, no eggs. The parents grabbed them all. She of course was crying and I managed to find one. Elliott had the same problem but someone gave Addy 2. Parents really shouldn't be allowed to pick up the eggs. Might I add the eggs are empty. You exchange them for candy. It doesn't matter if you have one or twenty you get the same amount of candy. This is why they tell you not to get more than 7 that parents didn't care to listen too.

Ryann's age group just started to line up.

Addy's Age group lining up.

Trying to entertain Ryann for 30 minutes


Finally it came. All I could think of was it hitting those poles, crashing to the ground, and killing thousands of people

While waiting for Kylee and Alyssa I was talking to a mother and had my back turned to the stroller that had Ryann and Addy's baskets stacked on top of each other with the whole 2 eggs on top. When I turned around Addy's basket had 8 more eggs inside of it. I was very surprised that someone secretly placed more eggs in their basket. Finally, Kylee and Alyssa joined us and we got to hear how Alyssa got pushed down, trampled on, kids landing on her, only to get up and not be able to find one egg......she was very sad. Kylee managed to fight her way through the animal-like children to get some. Once she realized everyone got the same amount of candy Alyssa was fine.....poor birthday girl.

Lunch was her choice and we went to subway to get sandwiches and then headed to another park for a picnic that she wanted. We lucked out because the park we decided on had a festival going on. They had live music, free food, popcorn, and cotton candy, all sorts of booths to see, and lots of jumpy houses and blow-up slides with not near the amount of people. The wind had calmed down by now and it was much more pleasant outside. We played around for 2 1/2 hours before heading home. Minus the weird egg-hunt it and freezing breakfast, it turned out to be a nice day with the family.

Easter Dresses

This past week I was lucky enough to have my Mom come for a short visit. She decided to take two weeks to make the rounds to visit. She started by coming here for 4 days and then went to my brothers and finally to spend time with her sisters and parents. Her Dad turned 94 on April Fools. You never know how long we have to live but when you are 94 the minutes and days are really counting down. This year she decided to make some Easter dresses for my girls. She had most of them made. She wanted to do a fitting before she finished them up. All of the dresses were too tight....so sad with all the work she had put into them. I had a great idea! Kylee's green dress became Alyssa's, Alyssa's purple dress became Ryann's, Ryann's pink dress became Addy's and Addy's blue dress will now become Briley's (my brother's daughter). She then took the leftover fabric from the green, purple, and pink dresses to make Kylee a skirt. Problem solved! I can be so brilliant at times. I am so lucky to have such a talented mother.

Now the hard part.....taking pictures!!! Addison was SO NOT in the mood! I just gave up because it was not worth it.

This was the only picture that shows all three colors on Kylee's skirt

Addy's expression is very clear on how she was feeling that morning...grumpy!