St. Patrick's Day!

A valuable lesson I have learned as a mother: NEVER do something on a Holiday that you don't wish to continue every year. St. Patrick's day used to consist of green pancakes or Lucky Charms for breakfast and wearing something green, and of course pinching anyone not wearing green. One fateful year in Michigan I saw a cute "leprechaun trap" in our Family Fun magazine so the kids made it with our friends, the Seedall's, kids. It was fun and the kids all had a great time. The pesky leprechauns didn't get caught in their trap but left some goodies behind. But little did I know what kind of Holiday loving monster Nora would become.

When Brian dropped the kids off at school he called and said Nora left her backpack so he was coming back to get it. Then he called again saying Nora had accidentally wore her tap shoes to school and was coming back home for some regular shoes. I laughed because I'm not so sure it was an accident or if she was trying to be more Irish by being an Irish step dancer or something. It's good we live so close to the school!

Note: green eyeshadow and nail polish

The other three kids were thrilled to have Lucky Charms for breakfast and I had to convince Miles to wear something green. Sophie wore a turquoise shirt and called it good (and Wesley was clueless). But Nora had her hair and outfit planned for a week, spent a few hours on the "trap" and made the leprechauns a pot of gold and a rainbow from her rainbow loom, left them some fools gold and wrote them a note. Luckily those leprechauns did stop by, took Nora's gold and left behind some candy.

Because Nora loves holidays so much I can't bear to break her little heart and not let her do these fun things, even if it gets a bit stressful for me sometimes. Luckily she is usually pleased with whatever we happen to do and most of her big ideas she is happy to do all on her own. Love these kiddos!

Sophie had a strings concert at the High School that night. The 4th - 12th graders played pretty much only Beatles songs and they had some High School boys dressed up like John, Paul, George and Ringo and sang for 3 or 4 songs. It was great! I love the Beatles. And although I could barely see the top of Sophie's ponytail it was still fun. Nora came with me and Brian stayed home with the boys.

My cute 5th grader.

Good times.

Sophie had her last basketball games of the season last Saturday. And though her team didn't win any games, they really learned a lot and had fun (7 out of 10 of the girls had never played before!)

Nora of course is wearing all blue for Sophie's team color and made signs for us all to hold up to cheer the team on. Miles' friend had some fancy technology so I'm sure the boys saw 0% of the last game, but that means that Brian and I saw it all. Win-win situation.

Sophie plays hard and gets red cheeks :)

Nora wants to grow her out her hair like Rapunzel. She's getting pretty close!

It was a balmy 47 degrees here last week which meant no coats on our walk to get the kids from school! And lots of puddles to splash in.

The boys and I played a game of Labyrinth while Brian was out of town to a conference. They love this game, even though we may not play it like it's meant to be played.

Just an every day after school mess of coats, games, homework, etc. I can't wait to put the coats, boots, hats, gloves, and scarves AWAY.

While Brian was gone I painted the office/baby room from yellow to blue-ish. The boys liked helping and did a pretty good job not getting too messy. On a side note, Wesley wants to name baby brother Wesley and Miles wants to name him Root Beer or Miles Jr. :)

 

The day Brian got home from his conference we walked to the library and watched a play. Here Sophie is reading a book on archeology while walking home.

We also used the last of some coupons we got as a Christmas gift (in 2012...) and went out for ice cream to Ella's Deli. Always a great way to end a Saturday!

It's nice to have Brian back, even though he was gone only 3 days we miss him when he's not home with us! We are looking forward to 40 degree weather this week. Hurry Spring!

Boys....

So cute already.

Even though I thought this little baby was a boy, I still found myself a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having 3 boys. And I've wondered why I feel that way because it's not like our two girls have been easier than our two boys. Each child is unique and has their own personality and they each have easy qualities and harder ones, and as they grow they go through easier phases and harder ones - boy or girl.  As I've pondered over it I have finally come to the conclusion that - I am a girl! Haha! Yes, I've always known that of course, but raising girls is less daunting to me because I am one! I want so badly for my three boys to be just like their dad, but I feel unprepared to know how to make that happen. I am well acquainted with "little" boys; the wrestling, the fighting, the racing, the cars, the trains, the superheroes, the potty training, the legos, etc. But how do I teach these three boys to honor their priesthood & womanhood, to have a desire to go on a mission, to put the Lord first in their lives, to live worthily and avoid temptation, etc. After fretting over this a bit I reminded myself that these three boys have an amazing father! Phew! I am not doing this alone. And we're not doing it all at once, or all alone either. We have the Lord and the gospel in our lives to guide us. We just keep dong what we are doing, one day at a time! So now that I've worked this out I can focus on being excited to meet this new little guy. 

(And find the perfect name for him)

Mini-Vacay!

 

 On Monday after school we surprised our kiddos and went to a Hotel/Indoor Waterpark for two nights. They were equal parts shocked and thrilled. Nora couldn't get over that we were missing school and staying in a hotel for fun and not because we had to! The truth is that this winter is getting old, Brian had a super busy February so we didn't see him as much as usual, we found a groupon for a great deal and since we're having a baby this summer we won't be doing anything too grand for a summer vacation. All these things added up to the perfect March getaway! The first night we were there Brian and I wanted to go eat at a nicer place for dinner. Miles was upset because we hadn't gone swimming yet and we had to drive about 10 minutes to get to the restaurant. Wesley was grumpy and hungry and the girls didn't care either way so we suggested Happy Meals at McDonald's instead and they were all really excited about that..... kids! (Nora and I did opt to eat at Subway next door)

 The AMAZING water park:

 SO many fun slides!

 Wesley totally freaked out when I tried to get him to go down a slide :)

 Hotel fun:

 Our groupon came with a $50 hotel credit which we spent wisely on ice cream treats and eating at the hotel restaurant.

Since sleeping in one hotel room isn't really very restful the kids were all up too late and up too early which resulted in Wesley crashing one afternoon. I rested with him but then paid for it later when I was rocking him to sleep at 11:30 pm. Even though he's too big to be rocked to sleep in my arms I enjoyed it, since he won't be the baby for too much longer.

 Arcade Time:

 

Getting a smashed penny as a souvenir:

 

Last hurrah was getting a treat at the gas station! The younger three kids picked a slushy and Sophie picked a Brat, the girl loves her red meat and doesn't get enough of it at home! :)

 

We came home to about 5-6 inches of fresh snow. Blah. But the weather highs are supposed to be out of the teens from here on out,  so that is worth celebrating! 

 Scooter was so happy to have us home, our friends took great care of him while we were away!