Ethan's Last Day of School

For the last 5 months, every Monday Ethan has been going to a speech development playgroup (aka "school"). He LOVES it and every week races in to see his friends and his teachers (who he calls his "ladies" in his deep, husky voice- his teacher Mikey is in the left-hand photo). Today Ethan "graduated" from school. We exchanged phone numbers with his friend Alex whom he speaks of often. Hopefully, we'll get the two together for some playdates this summer.

My Other LIfe.....

I love being a Landscape Architect because every Client and every job is truly unique. This Spring I had the pleasure of working on the planting design for some ornamental planters for a garden wedding which is something I've never had the opportunity to do before. The mother of the bride was a lot of fun to work with. I've always thought that if I could do anything else for a living,it would be a wedding planner. This was a fun mix of the two.

On a "small world" note, a few days before the wedding I was waiting to get my hair done and starting talking with someone else who was waiting. It turns out she was the bride..... It's a small world indeed.

Food, Glorious Food

Some pictures of Emma enjoying her first Spaghetti & Meatball dinner.......

Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, Happy (& Hungry?)

Today I was only a few dwarfs away from being Snow White. I think we had moments of all but Bashful and Doc.

The kids woke up GRUMPY and were arguing over "Scene It" DVD's that they got with their kid meals last night at Wendy's. Mind you they all had a disc of their own but couldn't seem to handle each not having all 3 at one time..... After the third loud outbreak (JP handled the first 2), I rolled out of bed and took all the DVD's away.

Then the mad dash began. It was 7:30 by the time we got downstairs and we had to leave for swimming lessons by 8:45. The kids were dressed in bathing suits only (and poor Kaitlyn's was too small) because I usually put a swim diaper on them and get them dressed before we get in the car. So, at 8:15 I was running around getting towels and packing the diaper bag with clothes for after swimming (because we were going Strawberry picking with the MOMs club right after swimming). When I got back downstairs I saw that my sweet and thoughtful husband had put all the kids in the car already (without swim diapers or clothes- just in their bathing suits- and with Kaitlyn's butt hanging out). I honestly didn't know what to do because my usual system was messed up- so yes I was the DOPEY today.... I think I was walking in circles trying to figure out if we should get the kids out of the car and dress them or leave them as is.....while still trying to pull everything else together.....I was a mess. JP finally had to get away from me, and went out to the car and put on everyone's swim diapers for me but still didn't change Kaitlyn's suit or get anyone dressed. Oh well. We went as is, and survived just fine. Fortunately, Kaitlyn has a cute butt 'cause it was hangin' out all class...


Swim class itself was a challenge today. The kids were hyper and just chatted non-stop and kept creeping down the pool walls when their instructor was telling them to stay in one place. At one point, I took Kaitlyn out for a time-out because she wouldn't stop goofing off. Otherwise, they did a great job and swam on their own for a while although their instructor kept threateningto take their bubbles off and let them sink because they were being way too cawky about swimming on their own and again not listening when he told them to stay at the wall....





After class we raced to the locker room to get changed and dressed and then we were off to strawberry picking.







Ethan, Kaitlyn & Kylie had a great time picking berries- regardless of the berry's size, color or chipmunk tooth marks, everything went in their baskets. I thought I did a good job sorting through them at the field but apparently not because I threw half of the strawberries away when I went through them at home. Oh well. I just wish it took us longer to pick because after 20 minutes their baskets were full already and they were still HAPPY. Emma was getting a bit antzy in the Baby Bjorn because she was SLEEPY so we headed out.







We then drove over to one of my Client's houses so I could photograph some planters we had put together for her daughter's wedding tomorrow. I took pictures but their landscaper's were still cleaning up the yard so the backdrop wasn't too nice looking. I may try to sneak back tomorrow morning before the wedding and take a few more.

We then raced back home in anticipation of having to get Emma ready for her 9 month photo shoot after lunch but that ended up being postponed until Monday so I got a bit of a breather.

Kaitlyn spent part of the day sniffling and being SNEEZY - not too sure what was up with that but by the end of the day and after a nice long nap, she seemed just fine. While the kids were napping (or in Ethan & Kylie's case- were playing quietly in their rooms), I managed to get outside and do some much needed weeding in preparation of spreading mulch this weekend.

All in all - a crazy and exhausting day. That should explain why this post is so rambling- I'm just plain tired..... At least there wasn't any need for a DOC today. And letr's face it, the kids are anything but BASHFUL. I just consider the fact that we have 4 beautiful kids safe and sound sleeping upstairs a success.

I'll post pictures tomorrow from this crazy day including some cute ones of Emma enjoying her first spaghetti & meatball dinner. The way she inhaled her food, she could have easily filled the role of an 8th dwarf named HUNGRY.

Good night.....

Knowing one's limits.....

Last Thursday, the kids asked me on the way home from their babysitter's house who was going to watch them next week (because Meme Bean is away for a couple weeks). I jokingly said that Kaitlyn was going to watch everyone. She seemed on board with the idea and thought she could handle feeding everyone, giving the babies their bottles and changing the babies' diapers....

Last night before bed, Kaitlyn came up to me with a worried look on her face and asked me where we going tomorrow. When I said Meme Bean's, she had the saddest look on her face and said "and I'm going to be by myself to watch everyone?". I felt so bad that she took me so seriously and that 4 days later she remembered what I had joked about. I told her that of course she didn't have to watch everyone, someone else would be there and she could just have fun being her normal 3- year old self. She immediately burst into a smile and gave me a hug and kiss.

So my question is this- why do kids take you seriously when you are being sarcastic but yet ignore you when you really mean what you say- like "stop hitting your brother"..????.. One of life's many little mysteries.......

WHY?!?!?!

It's hard to understand what goes through the mind of one 3 year old- let alone 3 of them. Today after a morning of bickering and whining and arguing, I decided we needed a change of pace so I surprised the kids by setting up their indoor blow-up playhouse that they got from Uncle Steve for Christmas. They LOVE this house so I hoped that they would play happily together. Well, they did something together and they obviously had fun doing it but I just don't get it......





It took them about 5 minutes to stockpile these toys into their house- and it took me another 20 minutes during their nap this afternoon to put it all away. But you know what? Those 5 minutes without any bickering or whining or complaining made it all worthwhile :)

Food, Glorious Food......

Emma has just started taking an interest in table food over the last couple weeks. She inhales her Gerber puffs, does ok with Cheerios and loves mashed potatoes. Every time I've tried to give her meat however, she has spit it out. Today she decided that she no longer wanted to be a vegetarian and thoroughly enjoyed some ham for lunch. She couldn't eat it fast enough..... Then later this afternoon, JP climbed into Emma's play area to eat his lunch and Emma raced over to get some more ham from him.