7QTs - Donuts, Soccer, Baby Teeth

Since these are turning into biweekly recaps... 

--- 1 ---

Turned 6 and lost two more teeth : ( 

I have told her on more than one occasion I miss her little teeth and I really do. I didn't miss the losing them part though. The first top one came out at here birthday celebration when M knocked her in the mouth and the tooth got pretty bloody. Then 36 hours later, before church I couldn't stand looking at her tooth that was a little cock-eyed and I convinced her to start wiggling it. I finished it off and didn't even get blood on her dress!

Pro-tip - have your kid hold on to a counter or table or something when pulling their teeth so they cannot grab your hand because they are SUPER nervous/skiddish. 

---2---

Grammy took E to the ballet for her birthday so that means R got to rule the roost... 

It is so funny how much the dynamics can change when one sibling is missing. Plus I got 3 kids bathed and put in bed in record time because 3 is a breeze when you are used to 4!

Also helped in the mowing department

---3---

A is cute and crazy all wrapped into one...

He's an aggressive eater but still has lots to learn in the hand-eye-coordination game before he can really stuff his face 

Still no teeth to speak of and still getting up every so often in the night but I like him so it is very tolerable : ) 

---4---

Soccer season wrapped up... 

E has a great season. Still needs the occasional attitude adjustment but really is starting to 'get it'. R has made leaps and bounds even though this pic isn't really evidence of her progress. I forget that she is a 'young' 4 with these kids so she still has tons of time to be that big kid who is out there scoring goals. She WANTS to score but hasn't quite made the connection between running around and being aggressive and netting a goal. 

Speaking of attitudes... at our second to last game E got so mad that we were getting scored on she was in tears (and had to be subbed out) and then R got hit in the head by a throw in and the ref blew the final whistle and E started up again about how she was angry the game was over - all in the span of 12 seconds. At 8:05 in the evening. We'd NEVER survive a season of tee ball and the evening games which are the norm. 

---5---

Donuts after church:

Lee is now officially 'attached' (if you will) to our local Roman Catholic Church. It has been 6 months in the making to get him recognized and approved by this bishop and diocese. Paperwork and meetings. Blah. Blah. Blah.

So he went to and preached at all the Masses for the weekend. So the girls and boy and I went to Mass at 8. It was actually kind of weird not loading up at 6:45 and eating breakfast in the hall and getting home at noon. I mean we left at 7:35 (yes I still needed my timer to beep at me to get out the door) and got back home before 10. Quite novel in this house

Breakfast of Champions

Anyhow, I told them no donuts if there wasn't good behavior. Pews are excellent ways to contain kids during church (we don't have them at our church). E sat two ahead of us because she wanted to and I trust her (her eye caught one of the boys in her class and it was the cutest thing). R did fairly well. She liked sitting on the kneelers but was generally better than her 'normal'. I tried to convince M to whisper because everything is amplified that church so chatty 2 yr olds can be... well, loud. A stayed in his carseat for a good part of Mass and wasn't a challenge once he got out. 

So Dunkin Donuts all around after a good jaunt on the playground of course!

---6---

A has got some great big sisters who love to hold him

Even though he likes to squirm and worm around and not sit still they all try and wrangle him for a good 'hold' now and then. I think he is so big for them to handle so that whenever he starts moving and crying they are done trying

---7---

Random outdoor pics:

M wanting peanuts

A showing off his new blanket

The girls playing in the 'elephant tree' - I think we need one for our yard

M harassing Stella with a Cheeee-TOE

Five Favs - Odyssey vs Town and Country

Back a few months ago after the wreck, our rental van was a Town and Country that we drove for nearly 3 weeks. Coming from an Odyssey there were some differences that I liked and didn't like so here goes for anyone who might be in the minivan market. Before buying a car again I would definitely try and rent a model or test-drive the car for more than 20 minutes just to really test the functionality of the car. You learn more about what you like and don't like the more you drive it. Example - I bought a Scion xA (back in the day) and I didn't realize it didn't have cruise control until after signing the papers and driving it off the lot! HA!

Anyways, here goes:

Do you know how stinking hard it is to get a minivan rental in a smaller market? Tough. 

Five Features of Town Country that we liked: 

1. Middle front console - This was a neat feature because to slid instead of popping open. If you know anything about me - I like to pack things in the van and not having the move everything to access the console was great. 

2. Unlocking doors when the van is turned off - This seems like not a big deal until it is. The Odyssey's come programed to keep the doors locked when the car is turned off. I cannot tell you how many times Lee and I have pressed the sliding door buttons only to get a BEEP-BEEP-BEEP from the van because the doors are locked. After 80,000 I finally got the people at Honda to reprogram our van but I drove a loaner Odyssey last week (hello, 3rd cylinder misfire and new timing belt) and that loaner had the same CRAZY feature of keeping the doors locked. SO DUMB!

3. Interior lighting - The lighting in the Town and Country is way nicer than the Odyssey. There are several more push lights as well as that blue middle tract lighting. (Again even in the 2016 loaner Odyssey they hadn't stepped up the lighting game)

4. 3rd row windows open - I'm not sure why the Odyssey 3rd row windows don't open but it seems weird to me. Not that we ride with windows down but just airing out the car is nice sometimes.

5. Digital speedometer - I just like having the speed digitally as well as on the little stick speedometer thingy. 

Five Features of Odyssey that we liked: 

1. Accelerating  - The Town and Country accelerating very loud and almost truck like. The Odyssey acceleration seemed much more smooth and seamless. 

2. Height - The height of the Odyssey is just a tad bit lower than the the Town and Country which makes it easier for smaller kids to get in and out. M has a little bit of a challenge throwing her leg up into the T&C - not a huge deal but just a noticeable difference. 

3. LATCH clips in third row - The Odyssey has at least 2 if not 3 sets of LATCH clips in the third row. I was surprised the Town and Country only has one set. Now that we have Britax CLICK TIGHT carseats - which I highly recommend - we don't need the LATCH but still curious why the T&C only has one. 

4. Longer - The Odyssey was just a bit longer than the Town and Country. I probably wouldn't have noticed had I not been parking in the garage and had a point of spacial comparison. Everything fit in the T&C perfectly fine. 

5. Center dash - I liked my maps and other screen in the Odyssey much better than the Town and Country. Maybe it is just because I was used to the Honda version but the Honda screen/maps/thing seemed a bit bigger and a little more intuitive. 

So that's all I have. Obviously price was not a factor here nor do I have an idea about what either of these vans costs. I have always heard Honda's have good resale values but I've never tried selling one so who knows. If I had to pick a new van today I'd still go with the Odyssey.

7QTs - Celebrations, Projects, Derbies

Recapping the past 2 or so weeks....

--- 1 ---

Let's see the last place I left off was here...

Soapbox Derby for American Heritage Girls

E had fun during her two races

R and M enjoyed the donuts and watching some. It was mighty cold for April 30th which was a bummer and even more of a bummer was the church was locked and so there were no bathrooms : ( 

Other thoughts on the Soapbox Derby:

1. There is very little strategy involved

2. There is lots of teamwork in moving the car back into position once a driver has run the (short) course. 

3. I think I still prefer the Pinewood derby cars and races like Uncle Kev used to do in Cub Scouts. It was way more hands on and a lot more fun to watch and there was a clear winner in the group. 

---2---

After the derby we had an intensive Saturday laundry day... As usual

Now that the big girls are upstairs there is a but more work involved in the transportation of their clothes and they've been read the riot act on putting the clothes neatly in the right drawers. 

M on the other hand just ends up with balled-up clothes in her drawers but is the most eager to 'be a helpa' so wrinkly pajamas it is. 

---3---

These two...

M loves A so so so very much but when he sits in her lap, he practically knocks her over.

They were did not participate in our family activity that I need to post on but they were excellent observers. More on that later?

---4---

Then the week was mostly a blur of the normal - AHG, soccer, work, school - normal-ish, boring-ish stuff.

Then the weekend brought Mother's Day:

Saturday Lee cooked a crowd favorite (and my favorite too) Pine Nut Chicken 

And he got me flowers : )

Sunday we have a massive joint Mothers Day celebration with Jibbe and Grammy and cousins in Raleigh. I think it was a success and a fun time for everyone.

I opened a number of beautifully decorated cards and some sweet projects from school. E was so funny about all the stuff she made for me. She got this MASSIVE Christmas bag and put all my things in it so I couldn't see them. It was precious. 

---5---

And then my thoughtful one turned a whole six years old a few days after that!

Breakfast of Champions

I put out an ISO on FB for Star Wars sets with Leia in it that don't cost 1.5 millions dollars.... Death Star, cough, cough. Well my cousin who shares the same name as E came to the rescue and mailed not only Leia but R2D2. The packaged came the day before and I let E open it before breakfast and she was super surprised and way happy.

Also, she wanted Lucky Charms for her birthday breakfast instead of waffles or pancakes - probably because I've messed up pancakes too many times before BUT she insisted on Lucky Charms. Which kind of annoyed me but hey it wasn't my birthday. We finished the box yesterday and she declared she wanted waffles next birthday. We will see if that holds true.

Finally on her birthday, she got to go on a field trip - so zero seat work on her birthday. WooHoo! I, unfortunately, couldn't go because you know - work, younger siblings, the hour long drive, all day - I don't like missing field trips but so it goes. From the pictures, I know she had a blast.

We sang happy birthday with just our family that night before rushing off the AHG but I have a story to tell about her present so maybe next time.

---6---

E came home with a bug project and this is about how it went down...

Make a model of a bug. She wanted to do a butterfly so she looked at pictures of butterflies and decided on the Orange Barred Sulphur (which lives in South and Central America but can be found as far north as New York - who knew!)

The model had to be 3-D so I was searching for some creative outlets for the girl who loves crafts. Seriously I decided I made a serious error in judgement and promptly had Papa exchange it. 

E made a couples casts of the butterfly with pipe cleaners but abandoned those because the Model Magic was sticking to them. 

After she played with it for awhile, she got down to business

The finished model

Now it just had to dry for 2-3 days!?!?!?! before it could be painted.  We were hoping it would dry in the shape it was sitting but I think that is where the modeling clay would have been better

The yellow waterbased paint wasn't cutting it for E so we dug up some ancient paint of mine

Sometimes I'm legit worried about catching something on fire or breathing in the fumes. 

Chia for the black parts of the butterfly? Chia on my floor for a few days!

Almost done.

No you may not bring your model to school like this. Please find something else it can 'fly' in 

E is so literal that answering the question - what do you and your bug like to do and where did you find your bug - were comical. Look at flowers and on the Internet? 

The butterflies : ) 

---7---

On the day of all the painting this is what the kitchen looked like at 5:30:

Project stuff, dinner stuff, breakfast and lunch dishes, mothers day stuff, the Lego topper for the birthday cake later in the week, a dishwasher that needed to be unloaded. The works. 

Stinky Soccer Clothes

A few weeks back I had a rough time at soccer practice. Well actually that would be more accurately described as my children made me want to bury my head in a pile of stinky soccer clothes. 

Oh my goodness it was rough. I think both R and E were tired -but they did have full bellies because I know we need fuel to make it through. I don't even really remember the circumstances surrounding the drama. I can tell you that with six 4 and 5 year old girls there's lots of drama. Drama over ball color, drama over whose hand is on top when we do our cheer, drama over who is partnered with who. DRA-MA. Totally normal. I get it and can usually deal with it. 

Lee was at the swings with M and A. Then something happens with E. Like meltdown mania over something silly. Tears. Screams. The works. I think she is going to power through to finish what we were doing but then she can't. She just can't. SO off to Papa and the entire park can hear her howling the whole way. 

Sigh. Scream a little louder kid, will you? 

Then it was R's turn to meltdown. Now R is still just 4. A young 4. She still doesn't like the ball being taken away from her and she moves and shakes at her own pace (on and off the field) - okay I get it but this season she's been doing a lot better with things. But not tonight. Who knows what exactly set her off but something did and the tears began flowing and she is the type who cannot be reasoned with when she is emotional. 

Can we just all go home, now? 

All the while there are 4 other girls who I'm trying to run practice for as this background drama of my own children is taking place. I'm torn between having to parent my children and coaching my team. I expect my children to behave/participate/whatever for the duration of practice - as I hope they would if I was not their coach. But my children do not have the benefit of me sitting on the sidelines during practice watching them monitoring what they are doing and being able to pull them aside and IMMEDIATELY correct behavior if needed. 

In fact, on this particular night I think all but one of the six players needed a little extra parenting. Full moon, maybe? I don't know what it was. But that doesn't give my kids a free pass. 

After a talk with Papa, eventually they pulled it together - barely - and we scraped through practice. Then. Then. Then. E and R asked if they could play on the playground. 

Ha.

Haha.

Yeah, no. 

Not after that performance. I pretty much read them the riot act in the van home. If you EVER, EVER behave like that again I'm not coaching next season. It is embarrassing. It is not fair to the other players on the team. Need I continue? Would you EVER do that for your teachers at school? Then why would you behave like that for me? You all ought to try to "let it go" like Elsa and not sweat the details. And you guessed right, no dessert. 

I laid it on the line. But my mom ego was totally deflated. I mean if my kids are going to meltdown I prefer they do it at home and not on display for 100 people. However, I know the other parents on the team (and in the park) knew exactly how I was feeling because their kids have their moments too. Parenting is hard. You never know the moment you kid is going to throw you a curveball. Sure it is easy to talk about the great things they do, and their successes and the good times - because there are lots of them but it is the trying times that really cause me to reflect on how I can parent better and how I potentially avoid situations like this again. 

Well the next day the girls redeemed themselves at our game. Their behavior and effort and attitude was more than good. So I'll dig myself out from underneath the pile of stinky soccer jerseys and hold my head high knowing/hoping/praying that I'm doing the right thing in the parenting ball game. 

Strawberry Daze 2016

The girls and boy and I packed up and headed more than a few miles down the road to pick strawberries today. 

The farm we went to has organic you-pick strawberries - which is awesome.

But last week the weather was wacky and the plants were pelted with hail thanks to a thunderstorm. This week it has rained like crazy so the plants are SUPER water logged. There is some part of the plant or fruit or something that is going to succumb to some sort of fungus sooner rather than later (probably because of all the water) and there is nothing that can be sprayed on the strawberries that is certified organic (or at least that's how I understand it). SOOOOO... we went out to support our local farmer and get some super cheap organic strawberries. 

A was a good sport for most of the time 

M was surprisingly helpful and played along for at least half the time. I think she took off the bottoms of several strawberries and threw them in her bucket so we found those at home. 

Watermelon dress with strawberry stains

Just taste testing one

R kept saying she was hungry so I told her all there was were strawberries. She was happy but then tried to make me believe her finger was bleeding but it was just strawberries - problem solved. E is a self-proclaimed strawberry hater - except in smoothies; same with tomatoes but yes to ketchup and no to spaghetti sauce

The loot. 6 buckets full for $30! I knew some were bad and other needed trimming because of my help but I wouldn't have been able to do it without them. They were awesome little worker bees! And despite it being well past lunch time didn't complain about a late lunch when we rolled home at 2.

This is my favorite pic of the day!

The swings were too big for the bigs so they settled for this... 

I think we need a few for our yard

M had a grande time on the swing as she always does!

Strawberry Picking 2016. I let E and R go play for 'one last time' while A and M and I headed to the van. A nice dad and his son offered to pull the wagon while I herded M and toted A. We found some space in the van for the 4 flats of berries - no small task, you know. Then I called for E and R, which was followed by - "oh, you have more?". 

Oh indeed. They are the reason we collected so many strawberries!

Papa washed, processed and froze our loot. Strawberry smoothies are in our future and we won't be paying an arm and a leg for them for awhile.