April!

April is flying by! We enjoyed a beautiful General Conference weekend and went for a drive Saturday morning and listened to the first session whilst picnicking. It was lovely.

 

The kids have begun biking to school fairly often and loving it. Nora has chess club on Wednesdays and I went to pick her up and forgot she had her bike. So we "raced" home.

Wesley and I went to eat lunch with Miles one day and Wesley was very excited to pack his own lunch. We got to lunchroom and he pulled out a big chunk of cheddar cheese and some graham crackers. Just for the record, I did put a sandwich in the fridge and ask him to put it in his lunch!

Wesley loves ninjas lately and he showed me this and said, "This is what a ninja does"

We drove to Chicago for a temple day! It's about 2 1/2 hours away so we leave about 8 and either Brian or I do the 11:00 session while the other parent takes the kids to a free Nature center that is within walking distance and then at 1:00 we eat a packed lunch on the temple grounds and then the other person does the 2:00 session while the other parent takes the kids to a nearby park. We usually get Wendy's on the way home for dinner and get home about 7:00. The kids love temple days and I love that they get to be part of it (although yes, it would be nice for Brian and I to go together occasionally!) We do feel blessed to have a temple close by.

The kids fed the geese a package of Ritz crackers and had a great time. I watched Nora sit on a rock and watch the geese for about 20 minutes and although I couldn't hear her I could see her mouth moving . My little goose girl.

The park was really big and lots of fun things for all the kids. Although I was sitting there watching my boys climb up and go down a slide over and over again and another little boy joined them (there were 3 slides so they each had one and they weren't very long slides) and this boys dad wouldn't let him climb up the slide and he kept telling him how "that's not what slides are made for" and "we use the slide the right way", etc. etc. Haha! I really didn't care. Now, I usually don't let my kids climb up slides either if it is busy with other kids wanting to go down. But my boys were the only two on this 3 person slide until this little boy came and I it was really cracking me up because this dad knew I was sitting there watching my boys go up and down and I wasn't going to stop them. I really wanted to tell him to lighten up, but I just sat there and smiled.

Spring Break: Part 2

On Thursday of Spring Break the kids and I went up to Brian's work for a quick visit! His campus is right downtown and I do not like driving downtown (although I know it isn't as bad here compared to a lot of cities!) Still. I went the wrong way down a one-way street and couldn't find a parking spot. Luckily Brian came out to meet us and showed me where to park! Phew.

 Brian giving the kids a college course lecture on disabilities.... or something like that.

 I'm sure his real students aren't this cute too look at, or show him their ninja moves :)

 Daddy's office

 There's a mini door with a lock on it that the kids are always so curious as to where it leads!

 Looking at where the delicious ice cream gets made. Yum!

 We ordered the smallest cone size and the lady gave each of the kids 3 scoops and told me how sweet and polite all the kids were. They were pretty happy about the size of their ice cream, although Nora and Wesley both didn't finish theirs, luckily I was there to assist.

 We got to dog sit Scooter's very best friend, Henry. They are good buddies and played a lot. At bedtime we had to put Scooter in with the girls and shut their door and let Henry sleep on Brian and I's bed. He did great and slept right at the bottom all night.

 Nora used some of her money to buy some balloons and spent a few hours doing this. She can be so patient when she's teaching herself something new and exciting. She now has plans for a balloon animal/lemonade stand this summer. One morning a sound woke me up at 6:30 and I wasn't sure what it was. I went upstairs thinking it was Scooter in the girls room, but it was Nora! She was sitting in her bed with her lamp on making balloon animals at 6:30am. Funny girl!

 Reading Calvin & Hobbes is pretty much a daily thing.

 After bedtime Brian and I were playing a game and Scooter had some bad gas.... Brian thought it was pretty terrible and was making such a big deal about it that I was laughing so hard I was crying.

 Nora loves to bundle Scooter up on the couch like this. He's pretty patient with her shenanigans.

 Nora sewed a skirt over the break, with some help from me. It is the skirt of many pockets.

 I took the kids to the thrift store to find something, I can't remember what now, but I know we didn't find it. Miles had earned $3.00 for the month of March and used it to buy this dinosaur.

Some sibling bonding over technology... and yes, we put the crib up over Spring Break. I am debating about painting it white so I wanted to put it up to see just how badly I want to paint it. With this probably being the caboose I'm not sure I will, but sometimes I'll get a project in my head and HAVE to do it, so if that happens then I definitely will paint it white. :)

Spring Break was great and it really was bittersweet to send the kids to school today, it was pretty quiet with just Wesley and I around. It got me even more excited for summer break!

Spring Break: Part 1

The first weekend of Spring Break I took my girls to the General Conference Women's broadcast. It was exciting to be there and so neat that now all girls age 8 and older are invited! It was wonderful and I loved sitting there with my two sweet girls and listening to the spiritual and uplifting messages. The next day I taught the kids how to play Uno (hello, why have we not played this together before?) and we had fun playing together.

Wesley is very in to Ninja's these days and was out in the driveway practicing his moves. I was watching him through the door and windows and laughing so hard. He could see his reflection in the glass of the door but couldn't see in and he was watching his cool moves. So cute!

Our first trip to the park! Hooray! We were so very excited to be back outside again. Nora wore this fancy outfit to the park and it made me smile. I love how she is her own person and does what she wants without a care as to what people will think of her! She is comfortable in her own skin and I hope she never loses that.

These two pester and play just as much as the boys sometimes!

We are working on clearing out the baby room so we moved my sewing area downstairs and Brian installed another shelf in our craft area. It is getting a bit crowded in the basement but the baby room looks great! We even put the crib up..... I am trying to capitalize on all this 2nd trimester energy!

Playing outside for Spring Break.

We had a few very cold days for spring break so on one of those days the kids built a fort and played in it like they were camping. The older 3 watched a movie in it that night and slept there as well.

We met some friends at our awesome zoo and had a great time. The orangutan's were hilarious! We watched them for at least 20 minutes. And the lion kept pawing at Miles and Wesley when they got close to the glass. We left for the zoo at 10 and didn't get home until 2, such a fun day!

Waiting for Spring.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Spring here. We've had a few nice days with 40 degree weather and even one day when it was 54! The next few days are in the high 20's, possibly up to 30, but after that we've got 40's and 50's supposedly coming our way. Hooray! Even though winters here can be brutal I don't think anyone can fully appreciate the arrival of Spring unless you've lived somewhere similar. It will be a beautiful thing.

Here is the progress of baby boys room. Next project is to move my sewing area downstairs. I just got that cozy chair and I love it. Next up: curtains.

The boys found it completely hilarious when I told them their baby brother was naked inside my tummy. Miles also asked how the baby was getting out but I managed to avoid going in to too much detail :)

Nora really wanted to ride her bike around the block and normally I insist she and Sophie go together, but Sophie had taken a spill at the playground earlier and had the breath knocked out of her and hit her head so she didn't want to go. I let Nora go alone for the first time and after a few minutes I went to the front window to watch for her. As she was biking down the road I could see she was sobbing and I ran out to her, she'd hit some ice and crashed her bike, she was even wearing long pants and still got this scrape. Poor girl.

My girls went out and shoveled our huge snow banks out in to the street so it would melt faster. I usually do this every year but my sciatic nerve has been acting up with this pregnancy so luckily I have my girls to do it!

On Saturday we went to a nearby garden place that has a big greenhouse. It was great to be nice and warm for an hour! The kids were having fun picking up little centipedes and playing with them.

And a belly picture at 24 weeks. I am so excited to meet this baby boy. But I'm trying to enjoy every second of this pregnancy and every move he makes, since it may be the last time!

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.