Halloween FlashBacks

Hello blog readers!  It's been about two months and life is just too crazy to blog right now.  But, in the spirit of the month of OCTOBER I thought I would share these flashbacks from the past six years.  Somewhere along the way I am missing some shots from a two years ago.  It might have been because that was the year that I had Brody and it was CHAOS but the rest of the years are here and they are so stinkin' cute!!!  We are getting costumes together here this weekend and they are going to be fantastic!  Have a great October!  Halloween will be here before we know it!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winding Down

Is it really over?  Summer, that is.  And the answer is YES, as far as school goes, it's over.  School starts in our neck of the woods on THURSDAY and I can honestly say we are all hanging by a thread.  We are desperate for some routine and structure.  Summer was great, but frankly, I'm over it.  We do well with a reason to get up.  We do even better with a reason to go to bed.  On time. 


And so here are a few random photos to document the "winding down" process.  Of course there is the ever imposing problem of growth.  For some reason the kids just insist on growing.  I managed a quick trip to town on my own and came back stoked because not only did I find cute shoes for both kids, they were cheap.  And I struck out big time.  Tucker's feet have grown two sizes in three months.  Camerons grew a size and a half.  And so both of these pairs were a big fat fail.  And I was forced to take them to the store with me for a shoe fitting and a trip to the return counter.  And just so you know, three kids school shoe shopping is just a window into the seventh level of hell, but that's a whole other blog post. 

Interesting photo of the day for sure.  I came into the bathroom and found that Matt had taken my scrunchy apart and tied all of my bathing products together.  If this isn't love, I don't know what is.  Oh, and just so you know, it was suspended from the window above the shower unit.  You can imagine what that looked like trying to untie in the shower..... 

Another proof of love in our house.  Cameron turned seven a few weeks ago and wanted to change her room color from baby green to big girl pink.  And so we bought the hottest pink we could find and we started painting.  It is so incredibly pink that your skin actually glows while in the room.  Pink light radiates out the front window of the house when she is in there with the light on after dark.  But, as shockingly pink as it is, it's super cute now that it's all put together.  Her bedspread is black and white and it really contrasts nicely with the pink walls. 
Back to school night was last night.  We took our copy paper, our hand sanitizer, our lysol wipes and all the normal pencils, scissors, etc. and headed off to see our classrooms and teachers.  Thursday is coming up soon and we are all looking forward to being back to routine. 
Especially now that I have taken on this new position with the district as a K-8 virtual teacher.  As of now I only have five students so it will be very part time.  We are hoping to grow.  It is a way I can still "teach" and be home with the kiddos and that is fantastic for me.  Waiting right now for more online training to start here in an hour.  Welcome to the new world of teaching!

Dancing Queen

I hate to brag but I really do have some awesome kids.  And so this post is just dedicated to Cameron and her awesomeness when it comes to ballet and other dancing.  This year as her fourth year dancing.  She started when she was three with baby ballerinas, moved on to tutu toddlers, then took a year off from ballet to try tap and jazz, and now just finished Ballet I.  She also took clogging this year so she is pretty much my dancing queen and she loves it.

This year's recital theme was Charlotte's Web.  When I first heard that they were dancing to this theme and she was going to be a yellow duck I was a little confused.  But when she brought home her yellow sparkly tuto, I was in love.  I love the classic puffy tutus and they looked adorable!  You probably notice the very large spider on the hay bale beside her.  Yep, I believe that's supposed to be Charlotte.
 

 

And lucky girl that she is, she got to dance with her Aunt Mimi who also takes ballet.  She was Templeton the Rat and danced a kick ass solo to "Welcome to the Junkyard" which was actually the song "Welcome to the Jungle".  Amazing!
 

 

 

And like always, she's surrounded in boys.  The only girl out of eight cousins on the Brown side, she's used to being doted on and running the show.  A few of her cousins and brothers patiently sitting through yet another dance recital. Bradly looks proud as can be (left in the orange shirt). 


We are being lazy this morning.  I am getting ready to fix some Sunday breakfast and then on to yet another family bash.  This time for my youngest neice, Kimber.  Happy first birthday!  And then onto our round of birthdays which starts next Sunday with Tucker turning five.

Vacation Bible School 2012

My big project for the year was finally executed a couple of weeks ago.  Each year I put in hours planning the curriculum and logistics of 15+ hours of kids grades PreK-6th at the Catholic church here in town.  It is an absolutely fantastic and rewarding experience.  One that I look forward to every single year.

This year's theme was SKY.  Which basically focused on being "Up with God" and trusting God.  It was a fantastic theme and I thank Group Publishing for their fantastic Totally Catholic version of the program.
One of our projects were Holy water fonts.  The kids had a fantastic time making them and having Father Oscar come in and bless the water with "God's hands". 

Raise your voice for Justice.  Or just yelling to make noise.

Confusion while painting the fonts.  The kids love to paint anything!

Perfect weather always helps make it easier with that many kiddos.

Plotting something.....

Thank goodness for our teenagers.  If I had to get up there and perform, I gurantee it wouldn't be a good thing.

Our preschoolers.  24 in one room.  Lots of potty breaks.  A few tears.  Lots of fun.

Some of our characters for the week.

Imagination Station was a huge hit.  The kids loved the games and science experiements.

I told you so

So I really am on a roll with this blog catch up now!  Here is yet another post of catching up.  I'm finding that with boys I am constantly telling them "I told you so!"  In this particular photo, I came out to check on the boys and found this operation going on.
They had found a freshly built robin's nest and were convinced that they needed to check for eggs.  I told them to get off the whiskey barrel before someone fell and got hurt.  About five minutes later here they come.  One with a scratched side, from hip bone to arm pit.  The other with a shirt that was missing an entire sleeve.  And Brody following behind. 
 

And remember a few posts back when I told you how cute the kids were going to be in my 3-d pig masks that I made?  Well here is the proof.  Cameron was the mother pig and so she got a special outfit (I told you how cute she was going to be ) and the rest of the pigs all wore the hats that I made.  This was a great show! 

 

Awwwww.  I had to share this one.  This was Brody's first time in the "sick nest".  For some reason, when the kids are even feeling slightly under the weather, they want me to make them this nest on the couch.  We prop pillows and fluff them and then cover the entire area of the couch in layers of blankets and towels.  The kids feel extra special.  I am just trying to ensure that no flying vomit hits my micro suede.  I have learned that layers are key with the flu.  If they puke, just lift up a layer and lay them back down.  Depending on the flu, layer accordingly.  Much easier than cleaning couches and beds all night long.  You may also notice the brown towel laying right beside Brody.  Keep one handy to clean up the kid and you're golden!  I should seriously write a book.

Soccer star Tucker.  I love watching him play.  I hate soccer.  Don't tell him I said that.
If the damn sun would come out, maybe I wouldn't be so grouchy during soccer season.  Atleast after soccer comes t-ball and usually by then the sun is out and I am a much nicer fan in the stands.  I figure with a girl and two boys I am going to spend a good majority of the next 18 years sitting in a chair on the side lines.  I do not have advice for this.  I am seeking advice on this subject.  If you have any suggestions on how to have dinner at home while spending your life on the sidelines of the soccer fields, I would love to hear about it!  Thanks!
 

Frog Catching

For those of you who anxiously await my next post.  I apologize.  You know when you get to a point in your life of complete and utter overload?  This has been me for the past couple of months.  I literally didn't know if I was going to sit down on the couch until 10:30 at night ever again.  It seems like there are not enough hours in my day to acomplish all that I want to achieve.  But, finally, after an EXTREMELY busy May and June.  I am caught up. 
I promised myself I wouldn't blog or download photos until my shower was clean.  And guess how I celebrated Independence Day?  Yep, scrubbing away a good couple of months of grime.  Not the best choice of activities, but Matt took the two older kids fishing in the boat and as soon as they left I put Brody to sleep.  I was on a mission.  The first part of the mission was to finally sit down and finish reading the final book in the 50 Shades of Grey Trilogy.  I have been reading those for the past couple of weeks and can never quite stay awake very long to get through them.  Me and Mr. Grey needed to wrap it up and get on with life.  And finally we are done and on to something a little more brain nurturing.  Good books but a little over kill with the "scenes", if you know what I mean.
The second part of my mission was to buckle down and get the shower clean.  It sucked.  And luckily, I'm not crazy enough to take before and after shots...mostly because you may still have a hard time telling which is which, but it's finished.  Which means I have finally caught up with myself from a few months of sports, end of the school year stuff, Cherry Festival (a post of it's own), Pageant (coming soon), and the big one, Vacation Bible School.

Vacation Bible School is my annual "giving back" to the church community.  My ministry if you will.  I don't volunteer a lot.  I don't like to take on more than I can manage and just simply getting my kids to sit still in the pew for an hour is enough of a commitment at this point.  But, I do love VBS.  I started four years ago "helping" which led to teaching preschool for two years while "helping".  Then I started Co-directing.  And this year, I pretty much took it and ran with it.  And let me tell you, it is a lot of work to put together something exciting for 70 kids for a week.  Yep, 15 hours of God and kids and crafts and chaos.  And it's fantastic.  It's also a lot like childbirth.  You work on this darn thing for atleast nine months.  Planning and obsessing and loosing sleep over it.  It doesn't seem like it's ever going to come together and then lo and behold, it does.  And just like childbirth, I leave there swearing that I will never EVER ever EVER direct again.  And then I forget.  And I just caught myself googling
"VBS themes for 2013".  Crap.

And in between directing and running kids and cleaning showers, we are hot and heavy into frogs and toads and all things boy around here.
 

Tucker is not afraid of anything slimy or wiggly and at most any given time he is usually housing a few bugs or frogs.  We have containers with holes, we have a butterfly house in the garage.  We have a fish tank in front of the house.  And you never know what you might find. 
Here is Tucker doing the catching while Brody watches and Cameron directs.  Atleast they all know their roles in the family.

And somehow the frog ended up in the gas tank on the lawn mower.  A last attempt at hiding from prying and proding hands.

 

 Success!  I think this was actually made it back to the garden.  Some of the others have not been so lucky.  We are having a hard time learning that all animals need oxygen.  All animals need water. And most if not all need to eat.  But, these are the life lessons of little boys.  And as long as they are out in the garage, he is welcome to catch all the critters he wants to catch.  I am even considering an actual frog house for the up and coming fifth birthday.  Love this boy!

The little things in life

So we have a mouse problem.  Thank the LORD they are not in our house, but they have completely taken over our garage.  Matt tore out our old cupboards and found the bottom of the shelves completely packed with chewed up plastic, and of course, an entire nest of baby mice.  Sammy (the dog) took care of the mom and ate her.  The kids decided they were going to raise these darling little things and keep them as pets.  Ha!  So they all got dixie cups and each neighbor kid had a "pet".  Now look closely and you'll notice that they are brand new, hairless, babies.  There was not a chance in hell that these little guys were going to make it.  But the kids gave it a shot and we had some deep and meaningful discussions about why we couldnt' keep them alive.  And then we proceeded to watch them die a slow, but unpainful death, and we buried them.  In the neighbors flower bed.  And then we checked them a few times (just to make sure they didn't come back to life) and then we pretty much forgot about them.
 

And then we went on to celebrate Daddy's birthday later that day.  Happy #33 Matt!  How lucky are you to have these three cuties to show for yourself?  And one hot wife, or so I hear........

 

And here is Cameron skyping with her bestie that moved away in January.  She was so excited to see Ainsley all the way in North Dakota.  And while we don't have the right connection, and there was a lot of freezing on the screen, I think they all enjoyed "visiting" skype style.  Really, who would have thought when we were seven that this would have ever been this easy to do?  The girl is six and she uses "Skype" as a verb.  Part of her regular vocabulary. Can we all say The Jetsons?  Back in the day if a friend moved away, you'd better hope you could write out an address.  On and envelope.  With a pencil.  And that your Mom would give you a stamp.  Which was worth like $.23.  And you heard from them a few times.  And that was it.  Skype.  Who woulda thought.

  

 

Oh, and guess what else?  After almost nine years of being the primary and almost sole provider of dinner and everything in between, Matt swoops in, buys a smoker and starts smoking everything insight, and is apparantly the cook of the century.  Seriously, Matt could smoke a dog turn and the kids would eat it.  Just strictly because Mom didn't cook it. 

Atleast Brody still likes my food.  Wait, maybe Matt smoked that spagetti when I wasn't looking.  We did actually smoke some macaroni and cheese, which is white trash as all get out, but I'm not too proud to say that it.  was.  AWESOME. 
 

Reason #1534 for why I drink wine.  I had to say that I would make 24 pig hats for Cameron's school play. Of course I said yes.  I'm Martha Freakin Room Mom of the year.  I always say yes.  Besides, how hard could a few pig hats be?  Well these little jewels had 3-d eye lids, and a 3-d snout.  2 hours of cutting, a few hours of assembly snouts and eyelids, i was ready to start gluing.  Luckily, they came together pretty quickly once all the small parts were done.  And once the small parts were finished, I was confident I could drink wine while hot gluing and they turned out beautiful!  And such a cute play!  Who would have thought....3 little pigs Opera style!  Yay for good teachers who do this kind of thing!

And so, Matt has widowed me again for the evening, which is why I have time to blog.  Bass widow=chick flick, wine, and catching up on facebook and blogging.  I just finished two glasses of wine and The Vow, which I was pretty dissappointed in.  I read the book, it was intense and amazing.  Watched the movie and I just wonder what Hollywood is thinking sometimes.  Seriously, can we just tell a story like it was?

I am now watching Jimmy Fallon, who used to irritate me, but I have developed a sort of late night attachment (crush) on.  He is so funny!

And tomorrow will be a round of Saturday chores, (Yes, the kids are finally old enough to start pulling their weight around here)  a quick trip to run some errands and then Cameron has her clogging recital. 

Looking forward to one more day of school for Tucker, four more days for Cameron, and ready for some mega summer fun! 

Thanking God tonight for good teachers for both kids next year.  I pray about teachers so much and I am so happy for the ones that my kids got.  Now three months of "bonding" time.......

It's that time again

Lord almighty, didn't I just get rid of the diaper genie?  And here we are again.  Potty Training.  I really aughta write a book.