Not EVEN Cool.

Yesterday I went to pick Calvin up after I got back from the Como Zoo field trip with Ellery.

We were sitting around chatting and Hannahs says, oh hey I forgot I picked up a little something for Calvin at the Dollar Tree, a little b-day present he can have now (yes his b-day was on Thursday, but the party is on Sunday). So she hands him this night light, with Jack Sparrow/Pirates of the Caribbean on it. He has really been into those movies lately... any way his response to the gift:

'So not cool'

WE were lauging so hard.

THEN we tried to explain to him, that sometimes you might not like what you get for a gift, but you still need to smile and say thank you.

Crossing my fingers he can remember that on Sunday.

Happy Birthday My Boy.

Today you turn FIVE!

I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning and you came running in ... Before I could even say Happy Birthday to you, you were already telling me it was your birthday. So I wished you a very Happy Birthday and then you asked if you were going to Kindergarten today. I am so happy that you are so excited about going to Kindergarten, but slow down, I don't want the next five years to go as fast as the first five.

You keep me on my toes..ALL.DAY.LONG.

A few fun things to remember what you are doing/enjoying at this point in your life:

- taking the hose and filling up the sandbox until it is over flowing with water, you think it is the coolest and continue to do it when we are not looking, even though you have been asked not to do it
- you love going to the ball field on Tuesday night, you and the other boys go behind the fields to catch home runs
- currently you have one pair of jeans that DO NOT have a hole in the ..I think it's the left knee. EVERY SINGLE PAIR of jean/army pants you own have been patched compliments of Grandma Shirley. (the one pair of jeans that don't have a hole in them, I just purchased for 'good' events we may need to go to, you wore them to Sunday School the other day and we went outside that day to play...huge grass stain in them immediately, but I didn't expect anything less)
- you have been 'hiding' stuff in your room, the other day I just had to go up and peek and I found one of ellery's old purses under your bed filled with dollar bills, change, bakugan cards, plastic spiders and other miscellaneous things that are 'important' to you these days
- legos. i have built more ships, cars, and boats in the last few months than I ever thought I would.

I love you my 'little' boy.

The circus came to our backyard.

Saturday night the kids put on a circus for me. They did this all on their own and even had costume changes. It was hilarious. Then G-ma Shirley came by later on in the evening and they did a second act, complete with a program and popcorn. I video tapped the second act. It was worth video tapping! Here are a few snapshots from the first act (as the sign reads, BE READY FOR IT ALL):




'the Clown'

'the Acrobat'

'Lion and Lion tamer'

'Shark swimming'

'Elephant'

THATS ALL FOLKS!

Best Friends...Don't mess with them.

This is Calvin and his best friend Breck. Just ask him, he'll tell ya!

Today Hannah called me. She says I am sitting in your driveway, do you want to watch Breck while I run some errands? She is so sure that I will say yes, that she just pulls in the driveway and then calls. She knows me too well. I will NEVER say no to watching that sweet boy.

So she and Ellery head off to run those errands and Cal and I are sitting in the living room playing cars and Breck is in his car seat. He is getting a bit fidgety, so I try to pop his pacifier in, but he is craning his head around so I can't really get him to take it.

Cal says 'Well don't shove it in his mouth like that.'

I say, 'I'm not, I just trying to get him to take the pacifier.' (Did I just defend myself to a four year old...yep I did)

To which he says 'Well that is not how Hannah does it.'

I glare at him.

Then I start to rock his carseat back and forth.

And he says 'Don't rock the carseat like that'.

I ask him 'why not?'

He says 'Because that is not how Hannah does it.'

I say 'Well Hannah isn't here, so this is how it is getting done.'

To which he matter of factly says, 'Well Hannah is very good at taking care of him and you are not.'

SUPER.

I had no response.

What I was thinking was: you are almost 5 and you have survived..so far.

Geez he was all over my case. I best be on my best behavior when watching Breck, he is sure to report back to Aunt Hannah.

Check out Brecks cute double chin. YUM.

These sweet 'helicopters' are littering my back patio. I sweep them up only to have it full again the next day. I have had it. Unfortunately the tree is not ours, or I would have cut it down long ago.

Brian comes home last night and asks what needed to be done around the house as he is going to be gone for a few days. The first thing out of my mouth: 'go ask the neighbor lady if we can cut down her tree and plant a new one.' So off he trots to the neighbor ladies house. I can see them in the back yard, looking at the tree and pointing at random spots in her yard. All the while I am crossing my fingers she will say YES, cut that nasty tree down.

She said...YES.

It was that easy....for me anyway. For Brian, this entails cutting the tree down, getting rid of the tree & planting a new one!

That sucker is GONE! Yipee. No more 'helicopters'

Found this in my inbox this morning. Cute or not cute? I can't decide. But I might have to go pick a box up for Breck, just to make sure he doesn't miss out on the latest trend!

Don't Forget To Dot Your I.

This came home from preschool today.

He was so proud that he can spell his last name by himself. Yes the J is backwards and the N looks like it took some extra work, but he is super pumped! He keeps spelling it for us.

My favorite is the I, I love the big HUGE dot over the top of it!

Learning to write your name is alot of work!

Then I asked him what he had for lunch at preschool today. I picked him up at 12:15, lunch is at 11:30. He couldn't remember. He never can remember. It's just not that important to him. Ask him what he played and who he played with and he could go on and on and on.

Bedtime Snack.

At least once a week Calvin eats one bit out of his dinner and claims he is soooo full. He can't eat one more bit. Same deal last night. (we had a later dinner around 7, bedtime is at 8) He ate one bite of his brat, a bite of potato and a few strawberries. FULL. He does the full dramatics, with his arm over his stomach, rolling his eyes back in his head. SO FULL. Dinner is finished around 7:20, they play for 20 more minutes and we head in to shower. 8:00 he asks if he can have a bedtime snack. Uhm no. Full blown, throw yourself on the floor tantrum, he is soooooo hungry. I told him he could get up for a big breakfast or eat supper next time. It's a hard lesson to learn, but I think he will catch on one of these days.

Boys. Little sticky, smell like wet dog, boys.

Redo.

I want my weekend back. Fun and Relaxing was the name of the game.

Friday we walked up to central park and watch the Litchfield outdoor band concert! What a perfect night for it! Then we walked home and had a bonfire and SMORE's!

Saturday, Brian had to work on a rental so the kids and I, along with Hannah and Breck decided to head to the park. Only to get to the park and 5 minutes later Calvin had to go to the bathroom, so we run out to my mom and dad's to use the bathroom (he said he had to go #2, I know too much info, but if it was #1, we would have found a tree). So we head out to another park, we get all situated with snacks and the kids are playing nicely. THEN, Cal comes over and says he has to go to the bathroom again. WHAT??? AND he says he has to go #2, but wait I say, I thought you already did that. Picture a sly grin on his face, nope he says, he didn't. UGHHHHHHH. So we pack it all up again and head back to my mom and dad's place. We didn't make it back to the park that day, we did go on a boat ride with my Uncle Dan tho.

Then the kids and I met the Estrada's out at the Forest City Park. We lounged around for awhile and then played a mean game of Kick Ball! It was me, Danny, Winkie & Asjha against Becky, Jerrod, Calvin & Ellery. MY TEAM WON! Whoop! Well Becky thinks her team was supposed to be up one last time, but I think she was just being a sore loser =) Plus she took out Calvin while trying to make an out! Hilarious. After that we headed to the Forest City Bar and had pizza. The kids all ransacked the candy/pop isle to start off as an appetizer! Then we headed home and went to bed. That kick ball really did us in.

Sunday, we went to our last day of Sunday School. We went home, changed our clothes, grabbed Subway and took the Miss Elle out for her first official launch! It was a perfect day to be out on the lake. The kids fished the ENTIRE time we were out there. I just laid in the front of the boat and soaked up the sun.

I want every weekend to be just as relaxing..except next time we will use the bathroom before we head out!

Confusion

(this is an old photo taken years ago)


Story retold to me via Brian:

Brian was backing the trailer out of the driveway the other night and when he looked in his side mirror, he noticed Ellery was waving him back and then holding her hand up for to 'stop'. He was like 'oh cute she wants to help me back up'. So he follows her lead, with the waving - he backs up, with the hand in the stop position - he stops. He said he looked up and by the time he looked back in the mirror she was gone, so he looks out the window and spots her over in the garage. He thinks, well that was short lived, and proceeds to finish backing up the trailer.

So he asks her why she didn't finish helping him back up. Apparently she must have given him a puzzled face and said, what do you mean? I don't know how the conversation went, but come to find out she thought that people just wave their arms around when people back up, she didn't know it was to actually guide someone when they were backing up.

Hilarious. She was just back there flapping her arms around and he thought she was helping. Think of the disaster this could have caused if she had stuck around and he had followed her lead!

I did it.

I have been wanting this camera for well over a year. Actually I wanted the XSi, but I am glad I waited because this one, the T2i also had HD video. Today I did it. I bought it. I am having a serious case of buyers remorse. I even called Hannah for support and she talked me through hitting the send button and ordering it. See it will benenfit her too, she can't wait to get some shots of Mr. Breck.

I have a feeling once I get it an use it, I will be super pissed at myself for not getting it sooner. That is how I operate. It's not pretty, but it's that way it is. Brian is a lucky lucky guy!

I work 37hours a week and NEED (I have that same disease my dad has, just a much less severe case) to have a clean house. I have a husband who is useless, I mean super busy and doesn't help clean the house. So we compromised and have had a cleaning lady come in every other week to do some of the necessary tasks around the house that I just don't have time for, like cleaning the floors, bathrooms and dusting. I would give up my husband before I would give up the cleaning lady.

There is nothing better than coming home from a day of work to a clean house. I always make sure to tell the kids to hang up there coats and put there shoes away and just in general try to keep the house clean for as long as possible. Today I got to enjoy the clean house for 30 seconds. Yep I took it all in for a whopping 30 seconds and then they spilled a chocolate shake all over the CLEAN kitchen floors. I almost cried. But instead I wigged out(you know where you rant and rave, not necessarily at the kids but to yourself) and cleaned it up.

She will be back in 2 weeks and on that day I am going to make the kids stay outside (by this I mean lock them out) while I come in and enjoy it for ...well more than 30 seconds.

Mothers Day.

My children (with the help of thier dad) made me breakfast this morning.

Where to start. The toast was cold with butter heaping on top not melted. Brian explained that they had started the toast right away so it had sat in the toaster while they made the omlettes, hence the unmelted butter. The omlette (for those of you that don't know, I am not a big fan of eggs). I don't mind them in egg bakes, but not scramled nor as an omlette, I like them even less when they couldn't find the ham and used HOT DOGS for the meat. Yes HOT DOGS. Yougurt rounded out my fine meal, served on a blue plastic divided plate and my utensil was a spoon. Oh and a milk. They were so excited and ate most of for me..which was just fine by me. So we snuggled in bed and they told me all about making breakfast for me.

All in all a pretty perfect way to start my day, I hope the rest of it is just as wonderful ....I just don't want hot dogs for supper.

The weather.

(Grandma Eleanor & baby Kora)

I can't believe I am going to blog about the weather.

I am either blogging about the weather because:

A) I have nothing else to blog about
B) I think my grandma might be reading my blog
C) I'm super pissed that it is going to be 42 degrees with a chance of snow
D) All of the above

Did you know that I was told back in the college days that if you didn't know that answer to a multiple choice question to always pick 'C'. I don't know who told me this but it was either:

A) A professor
B) A fellow student
C) My grandma
D) All of the above
E) I drank too much one night and made it up myself

I really don't have a clue/answer but I still believe it today.

The answer to my first question as chance would have it is 'C'.

Seriously 45 degrees on May 7th...with a chance of SNOW. That BLOWS.

HI Mom.

Hope you are reading this. I love this hat. I think it is crocheted. Is that how you spell crocheted? Anyway. I think we need to find this pattern, Ellery would look adorable in it. Maizy too. I thought maybe you could pack up knitting mittens for a few months and work on some of these cuties. Call me.

Family & Roller Skating

What a weekend. The whole FAM was home to see new baby Breck. We hung out on Saturday and had dinner. Sunday Ellery had her play a church both services. Brian and I went to the first service and it was such a neat program. Ellery had a solo and she did a wonderful job. We are so proud of her...we always are! Then Grandma and Grandpa went to the second service. So Brian and I headed out to their house to hang out with Zach, Patty, Maizy, Tyler, Zarie & Calvin. Mmmmmh what to do. Zach says lets go see what is above the garage. Up there you will find a collection of 'things' that have accumulated over the years..things that their children should come and collect and take with them...we promised the next time we were all together we clean that place out. You know things like a Darth Vadar mask, old movies, yarn, shoes, Transformers, and yes my old roller skates.

I hadn't worn those babies in over 20 years. But with a little prompting from my siblings, I slipped those babies right on. Okay not exactly slipped more like wedged my feet into them. So I get the first one on, but the second one is only partially laced up and the ends were frayed so I went to look for tape to put around the ends to finish lacing them up. Being the smart ass I am, (I am in the house at this point)I decided to 'glide' across the marble floors with just the one skate on. I made it about 2 inches and you know how you see those scences in movies where the persons feet fly out from under them and they land flat on there back. It happened to me, except I didn't have a stunt double or a padded landing, I landed on the marble floor and the other skate went flying and hit the pantry door. My brother Zach comes running and he's like OMG are you okay. Ty, Zarie and Patty just kept blinking and staring at me like oh shit. Zach came over to help me up and asked if I was okay. Uhm yes, I'm fine, but my EGO has just been crucified. Once I was upright and not bleeding we all busted out laughing and we laughed and we laughed some more. And you know what I put that other damn skate on and skated around the garage for them, hell, it couldn't have gotten any worse.

Then Patty texted me later that night to see how I was....and I am FINE and I won't ever roller skate again. THE END.

Small Miracles DO Happen.

I huhhhmmmm (me clearing my throat), finished all my laundry today. It it not something that happens on a regular basis around my house. Okay fine, truth be told, yes all the laundry is DONE, but not put away. One small miracle at a time.

Other small miracles I pray for on occasion:

Calvin eating a meal with clean hands.
Brian hanging his coat up at the back door instead of throwing it over the back of the couch.
Ellery changing her clothes 14 times a day and then throwing the clean clothes she had on into the dirty laundry pile....mmmh this may be why I never get caught up on laundry.
Calvin waiting til the very very very, did I mention 'very' last minute to go to the bathroom, only to 'miss' a little and then me have to clean it up.
Brian finishing 3/4 of any project he starts and then moving onto the next one.

You can see I am not mentioned on the above list, that is because this is MY blog and I don't have to spill the dirt on myself.

And yes I feel better getting that all off my chest.