Monday, February 25, 2013

Snacks & Naps

Jilly has decided that she wants to combine her snacking and napping into one event to keep things interesting (and to keep us entertained).  I don't know what it is about little kids falling asleep sitting up, but I find it hilarious and it cracks me up.  I especially love how she falls apart at the suggestion of a nap, though she's in the middle of one anyway.  Oh, how I wish I could fall asleep while eating...



Thursday, February 21, 2013

It's Snow Fun!

For ONCE our predictions of snow have actually come through!  In fact, we have actually gotten more than the initial forecasts predicted.  After an exceptionally dry year, we'll take it.  Our kids have actually never really experienced more than an inch or two at a time and even then, flurries have been few and far between.

We woke up yesterday morning with promises of snow, but as X-man and Gokey dashed to the front window upon rising, there was nothing but clouds and expanses of dry, brown thirsty yards laying in view.  It was right around 8 a.m. while plodding through the house trying to get all of the kids dressed, fed and wrestled into shoes and socks, pleading for beds to be made and teeth to be brushed that Gokey yelled out with sheer delight, "IT'S SNOWING!"  Sure enough, the snow had started!  We piled into the van and headed to the zoo to drop X-man at pre-school and in the short 10 minute drive amongst bewildered Kansas drivers who were already appearing to be very overwhelmed, I had made the decision to not trek all the way back home after our drop-off.  We deposited X-man at school, piled back into the van and then stopped for a quick snack along the way and then killed some time at Hobby Lobby (great place for killin' time).  We arrived back at the zoo in time for dismissal, had one of the other dear parents heading in to pick up their preschooler offer to snag X-man as well (to which we were much obliged), the snow-covered little boy piled into the van and into his seat and we were on our way.  The 10 minute trip turned into a 25 minute trip, but we made it safely and there was already a good few inches on the ground at this point.

X-man had no idea riding bikes in the snow may be difficult!

Somehow I was able to convince the kids we should wait until Daddy was on his way home from work to go out and play in the fluff and play we did!  The big boys and Jilly got their first lesson in Snowman Construction 101 while Squeaky D snoozed the fun away and Daddy arrived just in time to shovel the driveway! :)










Mr. Cool...cold edition

Our evening went along uneventfully and we nestled into our warm beds for the night.  It was about 5 a.m. that I woke up in the guest bed, having migrated there in the middle of the night to feed Declan and then never being able to rouse myself enough to migrate back again.  I was snuggled up with him and he was nursing...again...and as I closed my eyes there was a piercing flash of light.  Initially, I thought I must have imagined it or was on the edge of dreaming it, but then there was a window-rattling boom and rumble that chased it.  Thundersnow!  Very odd, but apparently, according to J, I had been sleeping through it since about 3 a.m.  We both were obviously done sleeping at that point so we got up and around while the kidlins snoozed (Gokey had sought protection from the thundersnow in my place in our bed shortly before I awoke to it).  J headed out the door for work, only to reappear moments later.  Another 5 inches in the driveway on top of the 5 we cleared the evening before and no evidence of any clearing of streets convinced him he should take a snow day.  Instead of work, he began shoveling...off to a relaxing start.  X-man was up at 6 a.m. and immediately begging to help his dad with the shoveling, to which I bundled him up and sent him out.  He was in a while later, sat down for some breakfast, Gokey joined him and then they both bundled up and headed out and Jilly was right behind them.  By 8:30, J was FINALLY done shoveling the driveway (yes it took him 2 hours...lots of snow and a big driveway) and we ALL went out to check out the snow fort he constructed for the boys.  Around 10, they all decided they needed to put their print on the pristine snow in the backyard.  Lunch, then naps then back out into the back around 2 pm and again for a final time in the front (so mom could shovel...again) at 4:30.  SIX times coats, hats, mittens, dry pants and socks were put on each kid and SIX times coats, hats, mittens, wet pants and socks were taken off and thrown into the dryer to be prepped for the next trip out.



















Supervising from behind the glass door (he was
laughing at Stella)



I can't neglect to mention that despite the fact that J dutifully spent 2 hours shoveling the driveway this morning, he then spent the rest of the day tiling one of our upstairs bathrooms and all that's left to be done there is the grout work.  How did I manage to snag such a catch?

All in all...a great day, and hopefully we will all sleep peacefully tonight...just to turn around and do it all again tomorrow!  School has already been cancelled, so more fun in store.  Too bad J will have to make it in to work tomorrow...I'm sure I could find some more tiling to be done (love you, honey). :)

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Hearts Full of Love

Just a quick post today...I'm gonna TRY to be better about making more frequent (probably much smaller) posts.  Our (not so) little troop has been horribly sick the last week and a half.  It started with Gokey a week ago Monday.  He suddenly, over the span of an hour, developed pink eye symptoms.  I called our doctor and they had us in within 30 mins.  It was confirmed that lots of goopy eyes were in our future...big sigh.  We started antibiotics right away hoping to have it cleared up before Gokey's Valentine's Day party at school on Thursday.  A mere 24 hours later, he was looking perfect and everyone else's eyes were bright and clear.  Wednesday morning X-man woke up, ate breakfast and brought his plate into me with 1/2 a bagel still on it saying he didn't feel good.  This is typically the routine when he doesn't want to finish food on his plate, but usually bagels are not one of those foods.  I told him that was fine and 30 seconds later he was pleading with me to help him up to the sink to throw up.  I quickly pulled out the trash can, he did his thing and then ran downstairs to play before I could even ask him what was going on.  After an hour of completely normal behavior and his insistence that he felt completely fine, I chalked it up to a rough night of sleep (which he'd had) and his momma's sensitive stomach (which he's inherited).  I took him to school for his Valentine's Day party and he came home excited about the day's activities only to toss his cookies (most literally) as soon as we walked in the door.  Ugh.  Gokey started with it in the middle of that night and missed his party the next day.  To make up for it, I did some quick internet searches for some V-day crafts and pukey, or not, we had a blast. :)

We started the morning with some pink chocolate chip pancakes...the boys weren't too keen on the idea of eating, but Jilly-Bean thought they were great!  After the sun was up and everyone was feeling a little better we went to work.  I spread out long pieces of waxed paper for each boy and let them pick an assortment of crayons to munch into shavings with a couple of pencil sharpeners.  Gokey went with brighter primary colors and X-man decided to use Valentine's pinks, reds and purples. We spread the shavings out on the waxed paper, folded it over length wise and then ironed it (with an old cloth between the paper and iron) to melt and swirl the colors together.  Once it cooled and dried we traced out hearts on each with a dry erase pen and then punched holes on each side.  The boys decided to combine and alternate their hearts on a long piece of twine to make a sweet, festive Valentine's Day banner in front of our glass door.  We had so much fun with this project we almost forgot we were sickly. :)



Gokey very proud of his masterpiece
X-man taking a break to be sickly :(


















X-man took control of the camera to get mom in action 


X-man erasing the outlines


Our finished product!  I can't make myself take it down 5 days later!


Next, the boys wanted to make some cards for Daddy.  Gokey had seen a picture during our internet search that morning of two foot prints, overlapping at the heels to make a heart and was sold on it...pretty sure it was the thought of mom willing to LET him make a mess with some paint.  I didn't get any pictures of the process because we were in a hurry to get his little feet stamped before naptime, but the end product was great!  X-man asked me to cut out a heart after seeing Gokey's card and drew some portholes on the outside of the folded heart (because it's a boat...DUH!) and because he heard my use of "feet" on Gokey's card and there was just a teeny bit of disconnect there in the play on words, he asked me to write the message seen on his card.  Love that kid! :)


X-man's boat
"I think you're Sea Captain" :)








Good thing Stella is a good sport!



Jilly Bean mostly supervised the whole process and kept the dog in line and Squeaky D gabbed our ears off the whole time while he perfected his "all fours" stance.  He's so close to taking off, but our slick hardwood floors aren't making it easy.








 
 Well...would you look at that...not so short after all.  Who would've guessed???