Party Hats

In celebration of Emilia's birthday last week, the kids made party hats at art lessons:

Ian doesn't go to art lessons but he has been carrying around these bin-"oclears" a lot and happened to be wearing them when I was taking the hat pictures. I am glad he had an accessory to pose with since the girls were posing with their hats. Cute huh?

Emilia Turns 9!!!

Emilia had her 9th birthday on the 29th. My little girl is growing up so fast! The teen years are approaching. What am I gonna do???

We had a "late-over" with a couple of Emilia's friends on Saturday night. They came over and made mini-individual pizzas and hung out in their pajamas, decorated cupcakes and played Em's new Wii game: Wii Play. The party was a lot of fun and Emilia even said it was the best birthday party she has ever had. I am glad she had a fun day.

Happy Birthday Emilia! We love you!

Trouble

I started this post 2 days ago and I hadn't had a chance to finish it. This morning when Adele was giving her teddy bear a swirlie in the toilet and dripping water all over the house with the poor drowned bear I decided that this post couldn't wait any longer. In this instance at least the toilet water was clean (as clean as toilet water is).

Here are just a few pictures of the other trouble my Toilet Girl gets into. None of these were staged photos.

Playing with cutlery

Standing on the kitchen table

Escaped after taking a bath and was running "nekkid" through the house and found the perfect hiding spot

I am not sure if you can see it but there are pencil marks on that wall. She has learned a new trick.

She's doing better at night now and sleeping all the way through the night so I can't complain. She's a sweet girl but man, can you say "constant supervision"?

The Loofahing of the Toilet

One of my toilets has recently been loofahed. I bet YOU have never had YOUR toilets loofahed. (That is a funny word, now that I am typing it.... Loooooooffffah.) The culpret was caught red and wet-handed. There was a copious amount of toilet water on the floor. The loofah was destroyed. (Well, thrown away, but we're trying to be dramatic here.) Here's the proof:

I plead the 5th in regards to whether there was pee in the toilet or not.

I bought a new loofah and took a picture of it because I know you care. This loofah is a flat loofah pad, which I have never tried before. My destroyed loofah was a traditional spongy loofah. I think I might actually prefer the loofah pad. Looooofah.

Birthday Pictures

Here are some super-fabulous pictures of my birthday.

Gotta have the silly "blowin' out the candles" pictures. There are two sets of 3 candles on this brownie cake. So each set stands for a 3. I am 33.

We had brownie sundaes (thanks Kent) and here's some o' the loot I got for my b-day.

And here's a little birthday dancin' fun.

Gettin' Crafty

I usually try to do crafts that are useful as well as cute. Finally, after 9 years of being a mom to girls, I made a hair bow holder. (Thanks Teresa for the easy idea!)

The second thing I finally did was to get individual name hangy things to hang on our FHE board. I was going to do something matchy and get vinyl for the names but it just wasn't happenin' so we had an impromtu FHE activity of going to Roberts and letting each person pick out their own name hanger thing. Then we wrote on it with a Sharpie. Really classy huh?
Hey, don't knock it. It is cute.

And I made a baby bracelet today to show my sister and I was taking pictures of it so I decided to put it up here on the blog too.

Next project: Making a skirt for Adele with the scraps of fabric from my birthday skirt. I have 30 min until Ian gets home from preschool. Let's see how far I get....

Ok, I am back. I had to get Ian and then I finished. I decided to tack it on to the bottom of this post because I was just talking about it and it would be weird to have the skirt before the post that talked about the skirt.

Birthday Firsts

Firstly, I did wear my new skirt to church today and it looked cute, if I do say so myself. Last night when I was about to go to bed I was thinking that maybe I wouldn't be able to wear it because I couldn't find anything to match. I came up with something that worked and I was glad to be able to wear it. I am really excited to make the ones for my girls.

And now on to the firsts I really intended to blog about. It seems like there is an unwritten list of things every parent must go through before their initiation into true parenthood is over. I think this list is about 10 miles long and even when your kids become adults you are not exempt from continuing to prove yourself a true parent. Included on the list of course are the actual pregnancy itself, the birth, living off zero sleep, being puked on, taking care of broken bones and broken hearts, and poking their little fingers with needles to get slivers out. And the list goes on and on.

Today we had our first experience with gum in the hair. I found out about the gum-in-hair when I was lying in my bed attempting to suck a few more minutes out of my birthday rest/nap. Elise came running into my room and told me that she had gum in her hair.

Elise's story: "Emilia was stretching her gum out of her mouth and it fell out and into my hair." Emilia's story: "I was talking and the gum fell out of my mouth and into Elise's hair." Hmm. What could the truth be? At our house gum chewing is taken very seriously and seen as a privilege that is earned with age. When you turn 5 you get the privilege of chewing gum. That privilege will be revoked if you: play with the gum, take the gum out of your mouth when you are not intending to throw it away, or if the gum ends up somewhere other than the garbage can. So, now I am deciding if we need to have a temporary gum-ban at our house.

So, on to the next problem, how to get the gum out of the hair. Elise said, "Well, I was just going to cut that part out, but I couldn't find the scissors. My response: "Never, ever EVER ever EVER ever EVER ever EVER cut your hair. We can use peanut butter to try to get the gum out." The thought of peanut butter in her hair was almost too much for her to bear. She thought it was just way too disgusting and was not budging from her spot on the floor. I finally convinced her to let me use some oil to see if it would loosen the gum and assured her that it would only be put on the gummed up part. The oil lacked substance, obviously so I finally was able to convince her to let me try peanut butter. (Which works by the way. I never knew that it actually DID work to get gum out.) So, now I have been initiated into gum-removal from hair.

The other first we had today involved a very direct question from the Firstborn regarding babies and whether you can have one whenever you want or if they just come. Sorry, no pictures from that one.

Skirt

A local fabric store was having a 30% off sale on all fabric today so I went in looking for something cute for my girls for spring skirts. I bought some fabric for them but I also saw some other cute stuff and decided to make myself a skirt for my birthday. So, happy birthday to me! I get to wear my new skirt to church tomorrow! (Sorry the lighting isn't the greatest in this pic.)



Look, it even matches my blog lol!

The IBV Speaks

Last night I was thinking I needed to get on my blog and post a comment about how another way I knew it was spring was that the evil dog over the fence has begun its spring and summer-long barkfest. My inner blogging voice was composing a post about how it barks day and night. And that every time we eat chicken when the kids suggest that we give the bones to the dog next door Kent and I look at each other with an evil grin and wish we could do just that. I was also thinking about revealing how evil I really am by making the comment that I have the phone number to animal control and I am not afraid to use it. (Again. Yeah, that call last year was me.)

This morning as I was running on the treadmill my inner blogging voice was speaking again (wow, 2 times in 2 days). This time it was about the video montage that is my life. Now maybe the reason my life broke out into a montage was because I was listening to "Eye of the Tiger". (Kent would be ashamed for me to admit that I have never actually SEEN any of the Rocky movies... I am kind of a dork that way. I have missed most of the epic movies of pretty much every era...) But, anyway, isn't there a workout montage to "Eye of the Tiger"? Not that MY life montage was a workout montage. It was just a life montage that involved running on the treadmill, cooking, folding laundry, driving around, and the Teletubbies jingling their tummies when they bump them and honking their bums when they fall. And this was the montage that was going on in my head with an occasional getting-the-kids-out-the-door-to-school sequence and some random playgroups thrown in just for variety. Oh, and the diapers.

Update

Time for an update.

• I am so excited for spring. I love to leave my van out of the garage on spring days. When I get inside to go somewhere it is warm in there. I also love driving with the windows down and not having to wear a jacket everywhere.
  
  
• I think we have turned a corner with Adele. She had some nasty ear infections and it seems that we have gotten them cleared up. We have to squirt medicine up her nose every day to help keep her tubes clear but other than that she's healthy. She has been sleeping through the night for the last few nights and I *think* we might just be getting into a good habit. HALLELUJAH.
  
  
• The kids only have just over 40 days of school left and I can't believe that the year is almost over. Kent and I are trying to get our summer planning done so we can do some fun things this summer. I am looking forward to not having to get up early. It is so much harder to get up in the morning after Daylight Savings. Even a couple of weeks after.
  
  
• Kent and I had a great overnight trip thanks to my best friend Amy. She watched the kids overnight for us. We did some shopping, eatin' , hot tubbin' and enjoyin' some peace and quiet. (Well, except for the snoring guy and the very feisty couple that we were sharing a wall with... Come on guys... 1:00 in the morning???) Thanks Amy for the great early b-day present! I am sad to say that Amy is in the process of moving to Washington state and we are all bawling our eyes out over it. She just got her RN degree and passed her licensure test. I am so SO SO proud of her! GO AMY!!! (But don't GO!)
  
  
• My ischial tuberosities are no longer sore. Very important to note.

Fine Art

My (amazing) friend Kirsten teaches art lessons to my girls. They LOVE it and come home with the most creative and fun projects. I sent a shoe to art with Emilia and here's what she came home with:


It's the 3 Little Pigs at their summer home. (You can't see the 3rd pig because it is behind the tree and the other pig.)

What cute little clay pigs!

Dogs aren't the only ones...

...who drink from the toilet. I don't remember my other kids ever doing it (or I never actually caught them) but I have caught Adele twice in the last week drinking from the toilet. It doesn't help that none of the kids remember to put the lid down, they seldom remember to shut the door to the bathroom and one of them does not even flush on a regular basis.

Episode #1 Adele drank from the toilet (which I am embarrassed to say hadn't been cleaned in at least a week) from the bottom hole of a plastic Care Bear (Share Bear to be exact), that had been used as a bath toy and was probably full of black slime.

Episode #2: I saw Adele drinking from a cup in the bathroom and I was immediately suspicious because nobody was in there with her to get her a drink. Sure enough, the water in the toilet was swirling. And to make it even MORE disgusting it was one of those times when the third born had been the last to use the toilet and left his liquid sunshine in the bowl.

We are now waiting for the diseases to start. And I'm sending in my entry form for the "Mom of the Year" award.

The Queen with her Sunshine crown. Since I didn't get a picture of the toilet-water sampling I had to use the next best thing.

Snow (Evil Evil Snow)

It was crazy to wake up to at least 6 inches of snow this morning. It was snowing hard for awhile and I think we finally ended up with about 9 inches. As I was coming home from the gym I got stuck in our driveway and had to leave my van there. (I had a great time at spinning class btw and I'm not sore anymore.) Kent was the hero of the day and shoveled the van out and the entire driveway. It was really heavy snow and he got a good workout. I am HOPING that this is the LAST big storm of the season. I am ready for SPRING!

The kiddos had fun playing in the snow. Ian outgrew his snow pants so he had to wear some nice hand-me-down hot pink ones that used to belong to his sisters. He didn't seem to mind though, and for once he wasn't constantly getting snow in his boots. I just noticed that Elise is always eating snow in the pictures I take.

Adele watched from inside. She wanted to go out but she hates snow so I kept her in with me.

Spinning

And no, I'm not talking about this:

Or this
No, I am talking about THIS:

Today I tried a spinning class just for fun. And it WAS fun. But I can tell you that only serious, serious people can hack spinning. It KILLS your legs. KILLS them. When I got off my bike I could barely walk. We're talking total Jell-o legs. I CAN'T wait to see how my poor little leggies feel in tomorrow. My ischial tuberosities hurt today and probably will tomorrow too.

Despite the pain, spinning is awesome and I want to become one of the "cool spinners" who can actually turn up the resistance when the instructor tells you too. Maybe I'll even get to the point where I buy the special shoes that clip in to the pedals. Who KNEW that special spinning shoes existed??? I DID make a couple of small purchase for my spinning purposes. My vanity and desire to fit in overcame me as I looked around and noticed that not ONE person in the class besides me had ankle socks. No. They all had the low cut, barely visable socks. S0, I am back in Jr. High worrying about "fitting in" and not being a dork. Oh, and I bought some towels too. Because all the "cool spinners" bring towels so when the sweat drips off your face you can wipe it away. I personally didn't sweat THAT much because, well, I was going SLOW and with minimal resistance. There will come a day though that I will actually need that towel....

Pick-Me-Up

If you are unfamiliar with Flight of the Conchords you must be introduced. They are hilarious. I love this video. If I ever need a pick me up, I can just go to YouTube and watch it. It literally makes me laugh every time I see it.

What did I DO?

Ok, I was messing around in the html codes switching the papers and I must have done something because it took away all my side bars and put them at the bottom. And it made the dates gigantic. I'll have to see if I can fix that. Weird.

Update

Well, it has been awhile since I did any updating. I don't have much today but I have a few things:

• Emilia and Elise both participated in the Reflections competition at the school. Emilia made and excellent picture and Elise did 3D art. They both won awards at the school level and Elise got and honorable mention at the district. They had a fun time doing it and they are great artists! The Reflections theme this year was "Wow".
  
  
  

  Here's Elise's project
  

Here's Emilia's. Each scoop of ice cream was done on a separate paper in watercolors. Then she cut them out and assembled the ice cream cone. It turned out pretty cool.


• Adele has been screaming at night again. I took her to the Dr. and she had another ear infection. This time we are treating it with stronger anti-biotics and if it is back in 2 weeks we might have to take a different approach. The Dr. thinks allergies might have something to do with it. We may end up getting tubes if we can't fix the problem. Since she has been on anti-biotics she has actually slept through the night 2 nights in a row. This is noteworthy. I am glad we finally figured out what the problem was. It does make me feel really bad that she has been having ear pain for so long and we just didn't know. There were no other symptoms.
  
  
• Hmm, what else. It is 55 degrees today and the snow is melting. Spring is coming and I couldn't be happier.
  
  
• I think I finally managed to find babysitting for my kids for our family cruise in July. My dad is taking all his kids and their spouses on a 4 day cruise. Kent and I have never been on a cruise so we are very excited. We were having a dilemma about what to do with our kids, however. With the travelling we'll need somewhere for them to go for 5 days. We have never been gone more than a weekend and really didn't have a lot of options for babysitters. I think we have a plan now (2 of them going one place, 2 going another place) so now we can just relax and think happy cruising thoughts. Oh, and fill out our passport applications. The ship ports in Mexico so we have to have passports.

The Bum

Ian: Mom, you are the BUM!

Me: I thought I was the BOMB!

Ian: You are the BUM and the BOMB.

That one had me laughing for awhile.

Good Day

Ya know when you have a good day and get a lot done it just feels good. I got some cleaning done, I took the kids to the park and today we finally closed on our house re-finance. I started the loan process about 2 months ago and we finally closed on it today. We were able to drop a full percentage point on our loan which will save us over 100 bucks a month on interest. I am just glad that we finally got it done so I can stop worrying about it.

Other things we did today:

I made the kids go outside to get some air and sunshine today even though it was cold. They had fun playing in the snow and Emilia even made a snowcat and snowdog. She wanted me to take a picture of them. They turned out pretty cute huh?

The girls have some "Funny Color Foam" that they like to use in the tub. When I came into the bathroom to get them out of the tub here's what I found:

I also found the foam all over the tiles and shower curtain and the water was completely saturated with the dissolved foam. They really love that stuff.