Mother's Day

I love my kids and feel truly blessed to have four amazing children!  Yes they make my life hard and messy and busy but they are also so sweet and fun and bring so much joy.  They have changed me in so many ways and I just couldn't be happier to be their mom!

In the morning they made cinnamon rolls and brought me breakfast in bread along with all their cards.

 I could tell they worked really hard on them and Bob even said that he was going to take them to the store to get stuff once they finished but they just kept working they ran out of time.  It is nice to think about them making these for me and how hard they worked.  Scarlett hers is a picture of me when I was a baby.  Penelope lost her picture and was so upset she worked really hard to quickly make me a new one.  Leon couldn't wait until mothers day and he gave it to me with a big smile on Saturday after he finished making it.

 Tucker made me several cards including a few pop ups.  And he wrote me a letter.  It says,

Dear Mom,

you are very special to me.  You tought me how to walk.  You took me to Lago Land.  You read me the belly book,  You comforted me when I was scard.  You showed me how to ride my bike.  Thank you for lating me to go birthday partes.  Thank you for playing with me.  I love you so much.  You are the bast.  you look buootuf when you stad up tall and smill. you are really good mom I love you.

Love tucker

Bob was really sweet too and special ordered me 8 bags of mint m&ms, they usually only make them at Christmas time.  He also took care of the kids and cleaned the house all day giving me a nice break.  

And that was pretty much my day.

May Day

I'm not sure how common it is to celebrate May Day but it is something I enjoyed growing up so now I do it with my kids.  Every year on the first of May we make little May Day baskets and give them to each other and the neighbors.  You can fill them with candy or flowers and then leave them on someone's porch and ring the door bell and run away.  My mom used to tell me that you leave it on the porch of someone you like and if they catch you then you have to kiss them... or something like that.  I didn't tell my kids about that part of it.

We made our baskets this year out of construction paper.  I know we are so fancy ;)

Bob was gone with the flex so I let the kids all pile into the honda while we drove to the neighbors house.  Leon though tit was great to not be in a "seat".

Below you can see Tucker putting one on our door.  My kids really like getting the baskets so they give one to a sibling too making sure everyone gets one.  They ring the door bell and then run around and come in the back door.  It is cute because everyone usually knows what is going on.

This year Penelope was gone while we were making them so Tucker got to actually surprise her with a basket.  She thought it was pretty neat.

When the kids dropped them off at a neighbor I let Tucker and Scarlett go alone.  Usually Bob or I will go with but they are growing up and I thought they could handle it.  It was cute to see because Tucker sent Scarlett to start running and hiding before he rang the bell so she could have enough time.  Then the people actually opened the door while the kids hid behind their car.  They were so quiet and loved it!

Egg Hunt

This year we did two Easter Egg hunts in Puyallup.  There are several churches that put on community hunts in my area, but this year we visited my parents.  I could only find one church that was doing one so we checked it out.  We have done a few before and I've found that they vary from huge crowded ones to almost awkward they are so small.  This one was just perfect, it wasn't crowed but there were enough people I didn't feel like we stood out and they had tons of candy!  Our kids baskets weren't big enough, we had to dump the candy into the white bags but those even broke through.  I think they got more candy then then did on Halloween!  Not that they need that much.  I still like to go to those hunts because the kids love them, and it gives them just another experience and memory.  Plus they had free bouncy houses and donuts!

After that we went to my parents house, watched conference, took naps and did an entirely different kind of hunt.  My family hid eggs in the back yard and the kids got to go out and find their set amount starting youngest to oldest.  I like this kind too because they don't have to worry so much about being fast, and they actually have to look for the eggs because they were hidden instead of just thrown in a grassy field.

My sister brought the biggest plastic eggs I've ever seen.

My parents have a nice backyard with plenty of hiding spots.

Unfortunately something happened to Leon because he woke up from his nap throwing up!  It was so sad.  He threw up several times an was feeling horrible.  He just sat on the couch and didn't even want to pick up any eggs or look or talk to anyone.  At least he had fun at the morning egg hunt.  And I'm saving his stuff for when he feels better.  I  might even hide it around the living room for him.

More about Leon tomorrow.

Kid April Fools Pranks

I love celebrating the holidays with kids and April fools day is no exception.  This year I tried to find pranks to play on the kids that were easy to plan, didn't take a lot of time or effort, and were harmless.  Some of these I've done before but I tried to change them up a bit just to keep the kids on their toes.

The first thing I did was dye the milk yellow.  It looked just like orange juice!  I didn't expect that to happen but most of the kids thought they were getting orange juice instead of milk for breakfast.  Tucker refused it all together and age dry cereal.

The milk was actually the second prank because I did one prank in the middle of the night.  Right before I went to bed I snuck into the girls room and moved them into each other's beds.  Even though I didn't see their reaction when they woke up I'm sure it was funny for them to be in the wrong bed.  By the way, these girls can be heavy when sleeping and it wasn't easy to lift Scarlett to the top bunk.

I thought this shoe prank was going to be so funny.  I shoved toilet paper in the toes of their shoes with the idea that they would put them on and think their feet grew.  I did it to each kids shoes, except for Leon.  And in the morning without the others hearing I one at a time told each of them that their feet looked big and that I think they grew while sleeping.  I have to admit that Penelope put her shoes on first and knew something was in it then pulled it out.  Then all the kids checked their shoes.  So it didn't really work.  But Penelope and Scarlett were talking about how big they are for the whole day.  They didn't really get that I was trying to trick them.

Then for dinner bob made donuts!  Ok, it was meatloaf with mashed potatoe frosting.  When the kids found out some refused to eat even though the really did taste good.

Then I gave them juice/jello for their drink.  It was funny watching them trying to suck it up the straw.  Leon was especially adamant about trying to "drink" the juice.

Before bed we told them they could have some brownies for dessert.  Everyone thought it was funny except for Tucker who was pretty grumpy by this point of the day.  Leon even insisted on taking his brown E to bed.  Most of them weren't even upset that they didn't actually get brownies.

I know that these tricks are silly, but I like to create traditions with the kids.  And I really think that this is the sort of thing that they will remember when they are older.  I'm sure when they are teenagers they will think their mom is so weird but hopefully they will at least remember that we had fun and played together when they were younger.

Happy St Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day to me is just a fun holiday that doesn't really hold much significance.  The kids love it, so we celebrate it.  But the holiday doesn't have any meaning to me... except maybe remember all the fun I had as a kid pinching people.  I don't know maybe I need to research how the day got started.

Anyway, the night before St. Patricks day the kids made Leprechaun traps.  Here is Penelope's the morning after the Leprechaun came.  She didn't catch him, but he did leave her some fake gold for effort.  Actually I forgot about it and woke up five minutes before the kids.  Since I had five extra minutes I turned on the news, that is when I realized it was St. Patricks day.  I quickly jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to get the "gold" then back up to put them in the traps before the kids got up.  They know it was me but no one saw me, so it was a success.

And here is Tucker's trap.  He asked me why the leprechaun didn't leave a  not like last year... he did?  whoops.

We also did a couple crafts.

Tucker and Penelope were careful to wear green to bed so they wouldn't get pinched in the morning, but Scarlett is a little too young to think of that.  So when she came in my room and I pinched her she thought it was pretty funny.  She kept laughing and saying that it didn't even hurt her.  Of course it didn't hurt, how sad would that be if I pinched my 3-year-old daughter hard.  I also pinched and tickled Leon a lot, he had no idea what was going on but thought it was fun to run away.

Watch What I'm Wearing

I accidentally bought this bright pink dress a while back online and haven't worn it much since then.  I meant to get the light blue one not the hot pink.  After I found out that the pink one was on its way to my house I thought, oh well maybe it will come in the mail and not be too crazy.  But it is super bright and kind of crazy so I never really wear it.  If there was any day of the year to pull it off Valentines day would be it.  So I wore it when we went out to eat for V-day.  I even tried to tone it down with dark accessories.

Dress: Jane.com  Shoes: Ross?  Scarf: Kohls  Jacket: JC Penny

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Happy New Years!

On New Year's Eve we went to a friends party.  The same friend who did one last year, I'm starting to think she should do it every year!  We had the kids wear their pajamas and we played lots of games and just hung out.  It was fun.

We did family olympics and the kids had a dance party with glow sticks.

A few minute to win it games.  This oreo thing took me ridiculously long.

Then a few fireworks and these fun lanterns.  We made a wish for the new year as we watched them fly off.  I told Bob that we should do these every year even if our friends don't end up doing the party again.

Leon loved the sparklers this year.  He just swung that thing around like crazy and every time it ran out he got very anxious about getting another one.

Then we brought the kids in for an early "midnight" toast and sent them downstairs to watch a movie.

My kids stayed up then whole time and were crazy.  I think we got home around one.  I ate lots of good food so I wasn't surprised that I wasn't feeling well when we got home.  The bad part was I woke up at 3 and spent the night in the bathroom throwing up.  It was horrible!  I threw up every half hour for a while.  At one point I wondered how many people were in the bathroom throwing up at 4am on New Years Day and I figured probably a lot.

I was sick the whole next day but started feeling better after that.  Then Leon threw up, then on Saturday Penelope got sick and was throwing up.  Next it was Tucker's turn, he threw up on Sunday, meaning he couldn't go to school on Monday (because two weeks off wasn't enough).  Scarlett and Bob are the only ones left....I wonder who will get it next?

Turkey Day

We woke up early Thanksgiving morning and headed over to Spokane.  Well... because the alarm wasn't set we didn't wake up as early as planned but it was still early.  The drive went really well.  The kids did great and it was nice an sunny outside.  Just another of the many things I am thankful for.

While on the drive our car hit 50,000 miles!  We were excited about it.  Sorry the picture is so blurry, but you have to imagine me taking it.  Bob suddenly announced that the car was a fifty thousand miles and I should quick take a picture.  I just got a new camera phone and was fumbling around trying to hurry, reach over Bob while he is driving on the freeway, and take it.  I barely missed it.

My sister Tianna, made a delicious dinner.  Complete with frog eye salad, a family favorite.

Here is my plate.

We had fun hanging out at her house, and the kids especially loved playing with their cousins.  On Friday night we went to this pizza restaurant called The Flying Goat.  The had the thinest and craziest pizza I've ever had.  One of my favorite ones had goat cheese, sliced pears, and ham.

Then the drive home was sooo beautiful.  We only saw small amounts of snow on the side of the raod going to spokane.  But going home there was snow all over the trees.  I love how the mountains look covered in snow.  These pictures really don't do it justice.

It dropped 20 degrees in one day.  We were freezing and lightly got snowed on.  But the roads were clear so I didn't mind.

We got home with just enough time to unpack (halfway) and put the kids to bed.