Caught -- Glow Handed

The night before last, I went into the kids' room to check on everyone. I noticed in Ty's hand, a partially lit glow stick. As I looked more closely, I saw a trail of glow across his sheets near his hand. Then I looked at Ty. He was like a vampire that had indulged in glow stick. The area around his lips was glowing, glow had dripped down his face onto his pajama shirt, showing a bright glow. Did I wake him? Probably should have. A nice, first-time mom would have panicked. She would have woken him up, and showered him with one hand on Ty, one hand on the phone calling poison control. Nope, not me. That's sad...I just figured that if he woke up later in the night throwing up or something, at least I'd know what he ate. Really, all that garbage HAS to be non-toxic, right? Our society is so litigious, my kid can't be the first one to gnaw through a glow stick. They would HAVE to be safe or they wouldn't be gnawable. Right?

You're Never Alone!

Today, I was walking out of church lamenting with a friend about HOW HARD it is when your husband is gone ALL DAY Sunday and how long it feels to do Sunday alone. (Jake thought it would be fun to go to a conference in Orlando alone). And today, my friends, was a doozy. We crazy Mormons believe in 3 hours of church. At exactly 48 minutes into it today, I was ready to go home. I wish I could tell you that my intent to stay was good. I think the only reason I stayed in the end was that sacrament meeting, the meeting where all of the members meet together and I have to manage four kids on my own, was almost over. After that, the three bigger kids go to their own classes for two hours...it was worth enduring a few more minutes of managing them alone to get to have them out of my hair. Did I really say that?
Anyways, on the way out, I was whining about being "alone" today. When we got back to the car, Brooklyn said, "Mom, you were just kidding about being alone, huh, cuz you're not alone. You have four kids!" Oh, the relief, I'm not alone!

Foundations of a Great Education

This morning, both of my kids were very proud that they have learned The Chicken Dance in school. They had actually even learned a way to remember which action to do with each part of the song. Really. It was obvious they had been taught from the same source (we have an excellent, "award winning" educator in PE at our school) This is a very foundational, important skill here in the great state of Wisconsin. I remember when I rented chocolate fountains, they did the polka at every wedding. At one wedding in particular, I mentioned to someone how amazed I was that everyone knew how to dance the polka. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "but didn't you learn how to do the polka in gym?". Uhhhh, no. I guess I went to a second-rate school. In gym we learned dodge ball, kickball, softball...I must have missed polka day.

Invasion of Privacy

Brooklyn is now email savvy, her spelling and wording is adorable. She wrote this to a loved one this week:

how is hoie ar you too haveg fun in howie
(How is Hawaii? Are you two having fun in Hawaii?)

on oktobr 14 2010 the kindrgonrs had opn hos Wach is
oen a gronaps came To sckoL At 600 We Sho tame
same of the thegs wev bin Doweg in misis butins class misis Brutrin
is or Tehcr. aftr the opin hos me and Mommy and jaKsin want
To the book Far tan we want To mc donols and than to Good wil and than togrit tan
home i love You so so so so so so so so s o mach
love Brooklyn
(On October 14, 2010, the kindergarteners had an open house which is when a grownups came to school. At 6:00 we showed them some of the things we've been doing in Mrs. Butryn's class. Mrs. Butryn is our teacher. After the open house me and Mommy and Jackson went to the book fair then we went to McDonalds and then to Goodwill and then to Target then home. I love you so so....much)

First Day of School

First day of school.  No tears.  Third day of school, I cried because I missed my babies…(Sadie is not in school yet, but we have to play along with her so she won’t feel left out).  Brooklyn goes to all-day kindergarten; Ty is in half-day kindergarten.

Yeah, despite the previous picture and silly faces, he can be quite studious.

Lake Swimming…Again

Man, we ended up spending A LOT of time at the beach this summer.  As I remember, this trip was actually pure pleasure. I left my wetsuit, swim cap, and googles (and bike) behind.  We were just catching rays.

So trashy.  Yeah, in addition to not bringing my triathlon stuff, I also didn’t bring sand toys.  Our kids ended up using empty chip bags.  So, so white trash.  Sadie thought it was HILARIOUS to dump water on my toes.  I was willing to squeal in surprise to listen to her giggles.

Go Pack Go

On a whim, a few friends invited us to go up to Green Bay to see the Packers practice.  Being a Green Bay fan is not really an option in Wisconsin.  Even if you’re not a fan, you better fake it.  However, going to Lambeau Field was one of those experiences that I just had to have, but my kids didn’t particularly appreciate.  Having kids at Packer practice was like walking into church with a herd of elephants.  The people who were watching the practice were mostly serious, adult fans.  The tone was seriously somber, more quiet and reverent than most (dare I say it?) Mormon church meetings.  I don’t think the people around us were amused by my kids….we scooted out of there pretty quickly.

Swimming

Miss Skinny Mini loves the slide

Awesome action shot

I LOVE this pool because off to one side it has this.  A huge sand play area with water spouts and sand toys.  Kids can play to their hearts content and make an insane mess.  At the exit, showers.  All the sand fun, without all of the sand everywhere.

Despite the red, puffy sad eyes; he managed a smile for the camera.  Poor baby…he gets dragged all over when he’d prefer to just be home napping.

Dog Days of Summer

Baby toes.  I love ‘em.  This kid still isn’t really wearing shoes on a daily basis.  He is 8 months old and it’s October.  Sometimes socks.  I love baby toes, and I love how Jackson would stick his toes out the back of the stroller so that I have this view while pushing him.

The park has a nearby “splash pad”, so many a summer days we spent cooling off at the splash pad, then warming up again on the playground equipment.

Cute kiddos.  A day doesn’t pass that I have these kids out and about that someone doesn’t do a double take and say something to the effect of: “well, you can tell THEY’RE all siblings….”

Current Pictures

I am pretty stuck to posting pictures in chronological order; however, I have fallen hopelessly behind and we have some cute pictures. On Saturday, we went to the pumpkin patch. We ate apple cider donuts, fed sheep, went on a hayride, tried pulled pork sandwiches and apple pie in a bag, cried, ate apples, and of course...picked pumpkins. It was a beautiful, gorgeous, unseasonably warm fall day (bordering on HOT as we were mostly dressed for fall). My baby is getting SO BIG! (Do you like the girl next to us in that last picture? Caught in the act! I was going to crop it, but I thought it added flair and contributed to the farmsy feeling!)

Baby Jackson

Fair Food

We went to the fair, and I swear, we did something else other than eat.  I took the kids to see the “Pier Pups” (dogs jumping off of a pier into water) and we saw our favorite pig races.  I think we hit most of the animal barns and the kids had fun riding mini-tractors.  And then, there was the FOOD.

Never too young for fair food.  Jack got a taste of his first funnel cake.  Yeah, we live in Wisconsin.

A corn dog dipped in nacho cheese.  Can’t go wrong there.  That’s fine dining when you’re five.

Hmmm…still deciding what I think about this…

Apparently, I let him walk around the entire fair wearing a T-shirt and a clip-on tie.  Man, I don’t even remember that being an issue.  I think maybe I should pick more battles.  He seems to be enjoying the roasted corn.

When You Weren’t Looking, Again

I guess my kids were running wild this day.  This is the kind of thing that kids come up with when mom gets tired of entertaining them.  They had found a snow sled in the garage and were working on pulling Sadie up the slide.

When You Weren’t Looking

Boys will Be Boys

We spent a warm summer day on the shores of Lake Michigan.  I was too lazy to pack swim gear for my kids.  They ended up pretty much swimming in their clothes.  So much for my laziness, it was a much more work to clean up wet clothes covered in sand and scum.  Ty, in particular, was enthralled with the sand, rocks, and water.  Sadly, I have this weird dislike of sand/beaches.  I love the water.  I love to swim, I love the sun, I love watersports…I love the IDEA of the sand between my toes, but living with sand EVERYWHERE with kids is truly almost a phobia for me.