First week of Summer!

It's been our first week since school got out and summer is in full swing! We've gone to ISU's dairy farm, had water fights, eaten ice cream (even the youngest who mostly just destroyed Tonys cone) and made sculptures out of dad's old Mnt. Dew containers. If that doesn't say summer I don't know what does!

Happy 9th Birthday, Liam!!

Really. I have a nine year old. Can you believe it? We threw Liam a "late night" birthday party. It's like a sleepover except without the whole sleeping over thing. We had guests come from 7-9:30 pm. It was fun and crazy and loud and...crazy. And I'm super glad it wasn't a sleepover because I'm pretty sure no one would have slept. Liam wanted to invite his school friends which was a first for me. I'm use to having church friends, where I know the parents, ect, but I'm super glad we did it this way. It was fun to see Liam with his school friends and for me to realize that he's such a great kid and that he always chooses amazing friends. Although they were all a bit crazy, they were polite, friendly, kind, happy, and just over all good and I loved interacting with them. 

We had pizza and treats (including a 'smores cake that didn't even get cut because everyone got so full on the other stuff!) while we watched a movie and then the kids got glow sticks and went out to play night games. They have yet to learn the excellent skill of night games like me and my friends had growing up ;), but it was a fun and silly night.

Every picture of Liam and his friends is blurry. Mostly because they never held still. Like I said it was crazy! But we are grateful Lyra, Luke, Amari, Joey and Kual could come celebrate with us!

Happy birthday Liam! Just like your shirt says, you are growing into one of the best people I know! I'm so happy you're mine. Forever my baby boy. :)

Last Day of School!

Wednesday (June 4th, ugh) was Liam's last day of 3rd grade and Emma's last day of 1st grade! When did my kids get so old! I'm going to have a 4th grader next year. I remember significantly more about my 4th grade than I do any time before then. How do I have a soon-to-be fourth grader of my own? 

They were excited for school to be done for a while. Okay, that's a lie. Liam was excited for school to be done for a while. Emma told me she wanted ten days off of school and then to go back to school. What a goof.

We made some yummy treats for their teachers the night before. Then later that day Liam had a poetry program that Tony, Fox, Ander and I all got to go and watch. 

Looking like they are super intelligent on their last day of school ;)

Seriously, the cutest 3rd grader I know

They loved their teachers!! We will miss them. But we are excited for summer. I may be more excited than the kids are...

Blessed

You know how sometimes, as a mom, you're like "these kids are driving me crazy!!" and sometimes you're not? This week I'm not. This week, more than once, I have felt overwhelmingly blessed. I've had a couple of those moments where time has slowed down just long enough for me to look around and realize just how awesome my life is.

I have an amazing husband, who, weirdly enough, I can get enough of. I love to hear what he thinks, his advice and how things are going for him. I'm not going to lie, he's a pretty fantastic guy.

I have these four crazy, beautiful, amazing kids who fight and love and laugh and conspire and sneak and play and cry and giggle and enjoy. I would so be lying if I said I loved every moment of it, because I don't, but lately I've loved more of it. Even the naughtiness.

I am incredibly blessed. 

Couple of silly stories to end with-

I was just telling someone this one and thought I should write it in here.

 A few months ago (Winter break maybe?) Tony was home during the day and decided to go grocery shopping with me, Fox and Ander. As we meandered through the store Fox found a package of banana split Oreos. He picked them up and asked if he could have them. Tony told him that he didn't think that they wouldn't be good and he wouldn't like them.

 Fox looked at the package for a minute and then replied, "Dad, do you like bananas?"
"Yes."
"Do you like strawberries?"
"Yes."
"Do you like chocolate cookies?"
"Yes."
"Then you will like these cookies."

Tony said he couldn't fight with that logic. He bought them.

They were disgusting.


A few days ago we were driving around doing errands with the whole family. Tony really wanted ice cream. Earlier that day we had seen a lady with a gianormous ice cream cone from Dairy Queen. On the way home from our errands we passed Dairy Queen and Tony spontaneously turned in. The kids started excitedly asking "Are we going here? Are we getting ice cream!?" I said, "We are getting ice cream? We haven't eaten yet." Tony had forgotten that, so we drove around the Dairy Queen store and back out onto the road, crushing our kids' hopes and dreams.

Now that I write it down it sounds horribly cruel. But at the time Tony and I thought it was quite funny and laughed all the way home. Because we are cool like that.

And great parents.

Don't worry, after dinner Tony went to the store and bought ice cream and cones. We aren't totally heartless. They just weren't from Dairy Queen. Which is just a little bit heartless.

The Weather

Let me say something. The weather in Iowa is CRAZY!! One minute it'll be cold, the next super hot and humid, then the next its pouring rain and golfball sized hail. Just like yesterday. 

It makes for some full rivers and cool pictures though.

I wouldn't mind the crazy weather as much if it didn't bring tornados with it. A few days ago (Mother's Day maybe? 11:00pm-ish) Tony was at work, the kids were in bed, and I was watching a show on tv, when all of a sudden a huge thunder crash shook the house and rain started pouring. Then the tornado siren went off,  and Tony called and told me to head downstairs all with in a matter of minutes. I woke the older kids, grabbed Ander from his crib and we all headed downstairs into the storage room that has no windows. Luckily nothing happened and we were able to get them back into bed a half an hour or so later. But the warm weather storms sure make me a little nervous.

Mothers Day

You know what the problem with camera phones is? Its that I have way too many pictures of stuff. I guess that's a good thing too, but sometimes it overwhelms me. So I've decided to just start consolidating pictures and stuff, so this post is a Mothers day weekend post. Because I'm too lazy to do a post for everything that's happened. 

Friday before Mothers day Fox had his last day of preschool (aka letter group: aka a group of kids from church that get together and the moms take turns  trying to teach the alaphabet while the kids run around ;)). It just so happen that the last letter they learned was Z so we had a trip to the zoo!  It was cold and fun! 

One of the monkeys escaped!!

Mother's day was awesome! But I'm very grateful for a woman in church who was asked to give her thoughts on mothers day, and said, "I talked to my daughter and could hear the kids running around screaming in the background and told her, 'you know, honey, mothers day is fun in the morning when the kids give you gifts and are excited about it, but then it goes back to just being an ordinary day.'" She's absolutely right.

I loved mothers day. That morning the kids scavenged through their treasure boxes and trinkets and gave me the best of the best (aka batman, mileage club necklaces, and old valentines candy), Fox even gave me his prized helmet and monkey to "share...not to keep...but you can use them!" Then we went to church, came home, where Tony passed out on the couch (he had worked the night before), I made lunch, cleaned up lunch, made cookies, then shipped Tony to work again. But because of that comment made in church I didn't expect anything else. And the day turned out pretty fantastic.

The next day Tony surprised me by taking me to lunch for Mothers day! Which made it even more fantastic. And Ander gave me another awesome gift of sitting up in the highchair and the grocery cart. Another milestone! I think I may survive this kid!!

That night Emma brought home some things she had worked on in school but couldn't give me before then because she had been sick the Thursday and Friday before. I LOVE them! Especially the "her best friend____Me!" Love it! She knows me better than I realized.

And finally yesterday we went on a walk down by Tony's school where we talked about the fact that we only have a year left here. He surprised me by saying he was going to miss it here. I can see why, the school is absolutely gorgeous, but I guess a lot of what I hear are the stresses that come with school work and not the joy of the experience.

On the way home he stole these flowers off of some random persons lilac bush. He knows I love them. AND he's just romantic like that.

Sigh, what a man.

Spring!

I walked Liam to school today (Emma is home sick), and do you know what this morning felt like? It felt like spring. The kind of feeling that make you want to jump up and down and almost gives you chills! I'm so excited. Actually, the last couple of days have been fantastic and sunny and its been great! Our t.v. has been turned off. The heater no longer runs 24/7. I don't get begged to play electronics all day because my kids are all outside when they are home. It's fantastic! 

I came out one afternoon and found them surrounding this giant pile of worms that they'd dug up. After they had their fun with the worms they put them in our "garden" (a little square of ground that the church behind our house is letting us use this year for a little garden!! Yippee!). Unfortunately, not all the worms survived. But, don't worry, Fox cleaned out the dead ones. He told me. 

A few days ago Fox ran in from being outside asking for Emma. I told him she was in the bathroom, but she would be out in a minute. He showed me a small white flower he had picked for her and then whispered, "I'm gonna hide it." He tucked it behind his back then waited for Emma to come. She kind of smiled when he gave it to him, but didn't make a big deal out of it, but he didn't care, he did what he had come to do, so he smiled and ran back out the door. Things like that melt my heart! The fact that he found a flower and thought of Emma makes me very happy. A few minutes later he ran in and handed me another flower he picked. Being a mom's the best. 

 Yesterday the kids did a lemonade stand. It was stinking hot (like 85), so even though the lemonade seemed a little pricey to me, it still sold like hotcakes. I don't know what the kids are going to do when we move away from our prime lemonade/whatever-else stand real estate. Seriously, we have so many college students walking to school, and enough traffic to keep cars coming by, but still seem like a quiet street, they made $24 in 2 1/2 hours. That's a lot. I remember doing lemonade stands and making like 75 cents. Even on the super busy road that I grew up on. It's going to be a rude awakening when we move. (I love Emma's sign, btw. It makes me happy)

And heres a few pictures of this darling boy just for good measure. Life is good right now.