April 23rd, 2009

Today was a fairly quiet day. We played, I cleaned up the sun room, washed, dried and packed up all the winter coats and snowpants and mittens and boots (YAY!) I LOVE LOVE LOVE winter and am SO sad to see it go but I HATE HATE HATE the mess of the snowclothes. They each have two snowsuit sets…one for backyard play, and one for school. So times 3 kids thats 12 pieces of winter clothing hanging around wet and messy. Add to this the many many mittens and hats and scarves and we have a messy cluttered porch. There are never enough hooks to hang them on and everything is constantly laying around on the floor to trip over. So for this reason, and this reason ONLY, I am happy the snow is gone.

I also took the three little ones for a walk this afternoon. Theres this little bridge near our house that goes over the train yard and they love to go and watch the trains below. And just on the other side of the bridge there is a little convenience store that they call “the treat store” because we only ever go there when we go for a walk and they get to have ice cream or slushies. Here are a couple pics…

Riley trying to grab the slushy

Watching the trains

Kenzie

Riley falling asleep

Watching the trains

Lochlann and the Barbies

Lochy has actually been doing this thing for awhile now…He takes all Kenzies Barbie dolls…strips them naked, stuffs them all into his batmobile or spiderman car and then crashes them into the wall. Why does he think this is so hilarious? And more importantly why the heck do the barbies need to be NAKED for this game of his? He will do it over and over and to be honest its a total pain…Kenzie makes me sit with her for HOURS dressing the dolls and fixing their hair and then Lochy rips all the clothes off and plays crash up barbie with them and messes up their hair…then I have to spend hours AGAIN to fix them all over again for her. You can only brush and french braid barbie hair for so long before you go a little insane. I will never get boys. I have two of them…but I will never completely understand why they feel the need to do these things.

Playgroup Monday ~ April 20th, 2009

I have been trying to get the girls out to playgroup on Monday’s when the boys are in school. They like getting out and its very stress free…the kids can play in a completely kid proofed place, and the mommies can relax and watch them play. So today we went to the one near our house that has a Monday afternoon one. Kenzie loves it, Riley just laid on the mat and played, and they both had some snacks. It was actually seeming like a perfect afternoon …UNTIL…we look and here is a HUGE freaking cockroach running full tilt right across the middle of the room…in broad daylight, with people everywhere!!! I almost cried. 10 minutes earlier Riley was on that floor playing. And then if that wasn’t bad enough, then I go to the bathoom and I move something on the counter and out run some tiny BABY cockroaches!!!! OMFG. The playgroup is in an elementary school…where hundreds of children go every single day. If we are seeing cockroaches out in the open in the light like that can you imagine how many are in HIDING?? Needless to say I wont be taking the kids back THERE again. YUCK YUCK YUCK!

Riley and Ben playing

Wow look at that glare she is giving him!

Kenzie in the play kitchen

Story time

Kenzie is REALLY into the story here

Riley’s Kisses ~ April 19th, 2009

Riley gives kisses now! I was kissing her on the cheek and then she leaned over and put her lips to MY cheek and made the kissing sound. First I wasnt sure if she was really doing it or if it was a coincidence so I kept kissing her and every time she would lean over and kiss my cheek. I cant seem to get her to do it in front of Jamie, but she did do it to Lincoln several times so at least SOMEONE believes me. Its SO cute. When she first did it I almost cried from all the cuteness. Even after 4 kids all these tiny things still amaze me and make me completely melt.

Emma’s Birthday ~ April 17th, 2009

Today Kenzie and I went to Emma’s (my friend Carina’s daugter) birthday party. The kids had hot dogs and pizza, played a LONGGGGG game of bowling, ran around, and had some great cake.

I had decided to only bring Kenzie to this one.  Kenzie and Lochy have been doing everything together, everything the same, basically since Kenzie was born. They are so close in age that it just worked out that way. When Lochlann started school I think it was a little bit hard on Kenzie because suddenly Lochlann had this seperate life, doing fun things that she was not a part of and that was hard for her because shes always done everything with him. Then last month Lochlann went to 2 birthday parties for school friends and even though she was disappointed she was a super good sport about it…no tantrums, no crying. So when this party came up I thought it was time for Kenzie to get to do something just for her. We are a family and we love spending time AS a family but Im pretty big on them each having equal one on one time. A few hours where they get to go somewhere with us by themselves, without all their siblings. With 4 kids sometimes you dont always get heard at the second you want to and you dont always get attention exactly when you want it, but when we take them out alone, even if its for an hour or two a month, it reminds THEM that they are special and it reminds US that they have their own personalities and identities. They become Lochlann, Lincoln, MacKenzie, and Riley instead of just “the kids”

Anyway, back to the point…Kenzie had a ton of fun and I had fun hanging out with just her

The kiddies eating

Kenzie eating

More eating

The kids spent 90% of the day running around the pool table

Lots of running

Present time

Kenzie bowling

More Kenzie

Pampered Chef ~ April 17th, 2009

I went to a Pampered Chef party again tonight at my friend Jen’s. As usual I wasn’t feeling up to going out but once I forced myself out there it was awesome. Lincoln came with me so he could hang out with Jen’s son Aidan. I only ended up buying some measuring spoons, but it was nice seeing everyone and having some good chats. After mostly everyone left a few stayed behind to play Scrabble. I LOVE scrabble. And I am normally pretty good but Mark and Jen both kicked my ass! We left around 1am, and Link was pretty tired, and I still had to get home to wrap presents for the birthday party I am taking Kenzie to tomorrow, and tidy up a bit. Its almost 4:30 am so I had better get my butt to bed. I have to be up at 9:30 to get ready.

April 16th, 2009

I havent updated in a few days, so here goes. The boys were back to school on Tuesday after the long long Easter weekend. The house is getting back to normal, Jamie is still working late most nights. Lincoln is still going strong with his paper route.

OH that reminds me(scatterbrained today). Lincoln’s friend called on Monday and asked if he was allowed to go to the mall with him (and his older sister to supervise) but the MALL….thats teenage fun. My 11 year old BABY is not a teenager. Shouldn’t he still be playing with toys and video games? THE MALL?? So of course I had to let him. I can’t say no for the sole reason that his mommy can’t let go and let him grow up.

So he went, bank card in hand, to the mall. He earns his own money and we kinda have a little agreement that he should only spend half of his allowance and half of his pay from the paper route and save the other half. It’s not a RULE….we just want him to get in the habit of saving.  But he gets to spend the other half on whatever he wants…waste it on candy, video games, food, toys, whatever. Its his money. So he comes home a few hours later and can you guess what he bought? I would never have guessed. He bought clothes. CLOTHES! Something practical. He didnt waste it as he had every right to do. He bought clothes. SOOO cute. Im so proud of him. He is such an awesome kid to have.

Last night I had some girls over for coffee and chatting. About 7 showed up. It lasted until the wee hours. I think the last one got her butt out of here after 3 am sometime.

Today we are just hanging out…playing, building blocks, watching cartoons. Tonight I have to do groceries and go to WalMart to look for a birthday present for a friend of Kenzie’s. Thats about it for today. See you all back here tomorrow

Easter ~ April 12th, 2009

Last night we painted eggs together. (Yes…I know we are late getting around to it but Jamie has been working lots and our house is a little hectic most days and well better late than never right??) The kids made far too much paint mess, and had to have another bath but they loved it.  Then after they were in bed Jamie hid the eggs for the egg hunt and I put together their easter baskets. Riley crawled around digging out the eggs Jamie had just finished hiding, pulling them out to chew on them..lol. We had decided against getting them giant chocolates this year and instead we got them some stuffed toys, a book,  a colouring book, and some smaller chocolate treats.

This morning they slept in until 10 and then they woke up and got us out of bed to find eggs.  They get SO into it. They were giggling and pointing out eggs. We hid some eggs up high and in harder spots for Link, and some lower more obvious places for the little ones. Riley just sat on the floor playing with eggs. Then they got their baskets and ate far too much chocolate. Only at Easter is it somehow acceptable to let your kids eat chocolate for breakfast. They of course were not hungry for any REAL breakfast. I’ll just make sure to fill them with tons of veggies for the rest of the day to make up for it. Jamie is home all day today so I think it’s about time for Mommy to take a nap

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Two Teeth and Good Friday ~ Friday, April 10th, 2009

Riley has too front teeth! She just got her first one last week I think and already the second one has popped through! I can’t believe she has 2 teeth…and I can’t believe she is 8 months old, and can feed herself and crawl. It is so exciting, yet moving a little too fast at the same time.

We decided to have our “Easter Dinner” today instead of on Sunday. No real reason why…we just felt like eating roast beef..lol. So we had all the fixin’s…Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, turnip, carrots, and country apple pie. Everything turned out awesome. We are SO full. On Sunday we will still be doing our egg hunt with the kids.

Playland ~ Thursday, April 8th, 2009

I have been feeling lately that we haven’t been taking the kids out enough. I mean they get OUT but mostly to do shopping or run errands or go to school. Not a lot of things JUST for them. It’s far too muddy to go to the park, so today I took them to the McDonald’s Playland. Lochy and Kenzie played for over an hour, Riley sat and watched with me. They were glad to get out and they really had fun.

Rare moment when they are acting like they love each other :)

Had to take another of the “loving each other” pic since it doesnt happen much

Riley looking all cute in the high chair

Lochy all sweaty from running around playing

Kenz and Loch in the playland

Lochy and Kenzie again