Kylie got through her first real rough day...school all day immediately followed by a long gymnastics practice. So after we got home, ate dinner, and got baths, the kids played cars on the kitchen floor. My heart was melting watching all of them play something together*!
*This is how loud our house is all the time...I don't know why they feel the need to talk so loudly...I think it's because they are always trying to talk over each other
It’s amazing how my little man (and that’s what I call him all the time now) can emphatically tell me he’s a big boy, not a baby, when he can only say 2 words.
My little Ry-Ry is done with bottles and nursing (unless it’s the middle of the night, which unfortunately, we are still dealing with). He gave up on both about 2 weeks ago, although he has been slowly disliking both for a while now. He will scream if you try to give him a bottle…but give him a sippy cup (with a straw only right now) he will smile and drink. Try to nurse him? He will do it for about 2 minutes and then he’s trying to sit himself up and watch TV, or play, or talk.
I’m sad, but I’m also happy. I’m sad because I’m the one that is supposed to be the one to decide when we’re done…not him! I’m happy because I’m really not a fan of pumping and nursing all the time (that’s an understatement), and I don’t have to worry about the weaning process…he’s done and he’s not looking back. The only hard part will be getting him to sleep through the night now.
He’s also getting a little closer to crawling forwards…he’ll move one hand or knee, but then he either goes backwards or collapses or just pushes back to his butt and sits. But I do now have to watch where I put him and make sure I watch him since he could potentially get down the stairs.
He says “dadda” a ton, and sometimes says “momma” (in their correct context). Other than those words, it’s all just babble – but there’s a ton of it! He is constantly “talking.”
He waves on cue now (he’s waved for a few months now) – whenever he hears “bye-bye” he waves, when he hears a door close, he waves, and sometimes he waves for no apparent reason (I ask him if he sees dead people).
He understands so much of what we say – if I say “take out paci” he’ll take it out, if I say “rub your bald head” he rubs it, if we say “what’s a fan do?” he’ll look up, point his finger, move it in a circular motion and make a whoowhoo sound. He knows what “cheerios” means, and he knows what a “book” is.
I can’t believe he’ll be 1 soon…I feel like I just had him! But he is so much fun now…he is happy all the time and he eats so much real food now, which makes taking him places so easy. He is such a good and easy baby! I absolutely melt every time he smiles at me :)
Today is Kylie’s first day of 1st grade. Seriously? Didn’t I just register her for Kindergarten? Or better than that, I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital!
She’s adorable and super grown-up. We went shoe shopping last night, and after about 10 stores, we finally found 2 pairs of shoes for her (she’s SUPER picky about her shoes)…and you know what? They gave her blisters on the walk over to school and Jen had to take her tennis shoes over for her to change into. But I digress…
She went to bed fairly early last night after a long day of playing at the park and then gymnastics and no nap. John and I both went into work late today so that we could take her to school this morning. All the kids came into our bathroom as we were finishing getting ready. Kylie showered and I did her hair and I just couldn’t believe how grown-up she looked!
She eats lunch at 10:45 AM, and with school starting at 9:05, there’s no point in her eating breakfast (she hates breakfast anyway). So we packed her a huge lunch, and then took a ton of pictures!
Jen got there (Ryan had gone back to bed for a while, so she stayed back when him while we took Kylie), and then our neighbors behind us came over…Tony was starting Kindergarten today! So we all walked over to the school together. It was so nice to see even more walkers this year (with the school in our neighborhood there are tons of kids that walk). We took Kylie all the way into her classroom and got her settled. I LOVE her teacher! She was so nice to everyone (and even gave us a bunch of band-aids in hope of fixing Kylie’s shoe problem) and we found out she actually lives in our neighborhood. I kissed Kylie good-bye and we headed out. That’s when the tears started for Joshie. The whole walk home he just kept saying “sissy…I miss my sissy. I love you sissy.” It was cute and endearing at first, but as we got closer to home it was just annoying! We pointed out that Jen can now spend all day playing with him, and Tony only goes a couple of days a week, so he will be home some days, and Ryan is still there!
I can’t wait to get home today and find out how Kylie’s first day was. I can’t wait to hear about her new friends, and what she learned today and how gym was. I just can’t believe she’s so big…
What a weekend…and I’m not exactly sure how I mean that :)
John left to go down to Bristol, TN with some friends for the NASCAR race, and I stayed home with the kids. I’m so glad that he got to go because I go scrapbooking twice a year and he hasn’t gone anywhere fun by himself in a while.
So Friday I got home a little early and my dad was there. The kids went down for nap and I cleaned up. Then we all headed over to Fazolli’s for dinner and then went to the train store. Joshie is back into trains and I think my dad is ecstatic about that! That night Joshie went over to my dad’s to sleep, and Kylie stayed with me. She was coloring a huge picture for John, so she worked on that while I finished laundry and picked up and cleaned up the kitchen. She and I finally went up to bed around 11:30. She slept in my bed with me and I was a nice treat to be able to snuggle with her.
Saturday morning we woke up and made pancakes and sausage. After that we headed outside where it was really overcast and kind of chilly. As we were out with the neighbors (her husband had been out of town as well), it got so chilly that I had to put pants on and the kids all got jackets. Then it started drizzling. The kids didn’t mind playing in it, but I was mad because it’s August, and it was not supposed to be this cold!
Kylie had a friend come over to spend the night, so when she got there we all went inside (the rain had started coming down harder). They went off to play and Joshie and Ryan took a nap. I made some really good cookies :) We had pizza for dinner, and then I set up the tent in the playroom so the kids could lay in it and watch a movie. Joshie went back over to my dad’s to sleep and the girls finally fell asleep around 10:30.
Sunday we went to church and then came home, ate lunch and the kids all went down for a nap. Unfortunately, Ryan fell asleep in the car, so within ½ hour of Kylie and Josh going down for a nap, he was up and ready to eat and play.
That evening we went over to my uncle’s house because my aunt from NY was in town. We had a great dinner, and John was able to meet us over there. I had two very full glasses of wine :) My uncle said I looked like I desperately needed them :)
At first I was feeling really bad all weekend because I was so exhausted. But then I realized it was not the kids tiring me out…it was the fact that I was taking care of the kids, including heavy Ryan, and doing all the chores that are normally split between John and I. I realized I was doing the dishes and mopping the floor (which John always does) along with laundry and cooking (which I normally do). The kids were great all weekend, so my exhaustion is in no way because of them.
I also had a revelation that wasn’t too pretty…I hate to hear my kids yelled at or talked sternly to by anyone but us…it really bothers me. And as I was getting angry at them one time, I stopped and realized that each time I yelled or got upset, God heard me, and these are His kids. He must hate it when we get angry and yell when it’s not necessary…I would if I heard it! Unfortunately this thought did not stop the yelling or frustration at times, but when I did remember it, it made me take a step back and take a breath, which I needed.
Yesterday was a big day in our school district. It was the day that you could logon and see who your teacher for this upcoming year was (as in, whose class you will be in next Wednesday…there’s nothing like leaving it to the last minute here people). I forgot to bring our login information with me to work, and then last evening completely forgot about it. Around 8:30 Kylie gets a call from one of her friends. I jump up and find her stuff and login (which was interesting since I had never done this before).
Kylie was going crazy…she just kept saying “please let me be in Mrs. So and so’s class, please!” I couldn’t believe my first grader was like this…I didn’t think it would happen until like 3rd grade. As soon as I got into the website I screamed and said “Kylie, you’re in Isabella’s class!” So then she had to call Isabella back and tell her, and then she had to call her friend Jordyn and she found out that Jordyn is in her class too! And then she found out that a few more of her friends are in her class too!
I was so happy that she was in class with her friends. Last year she was in Jordyn’s class but not Isabella’s (who she met at recess since both classes had recess together). But I wasn’t super worried because I knew that she would meet friends…heck, all the kids from the MW Kindergarten class would be there with her now, and she had never met any of these kids! But I’m glad that the first day she will have friends to talk to, and have lunch with, and play with at recess (on the big playground now!).
I’m so excited about this year…two of our neighbors/good friends have boys that Kylie plays with going into Kindergarten, so she’ll see them in school sometimes. And Kylie is so excited about starting school! I hope first grade is everything she hopes it will be!
Last night I saw a glimpse of what our nights might look like in the upcoming year. We had a quick dinner, and played outside for about 20 minutes. Then it started raining, so we headed inside. Kylie has a reading calendar and “brain games” that have to be completed over the summer in order to win prizes when she goes back to school. So we pulled them out and started working on them (she has been working on them the whole summer, we just haven’t been pushing her to finish them).
And when Josh saw Kylie working on homework, he had to go and get his workbook too. That kid amazes me! So many people assume that since he’s a boy, and has a late June birthday that we’ll be holding him back next year. No way! He can write all his letters and knows all of their sounds. I even pulled out Kylie’s Kindergarten workbook and did a page with him. He was doing great! And Kylie was flying through her pages (which included drawing clock faces based on what time it said, addition problems, patterns (or as the kindergarteners call them “patterens”), and coloring.
After that the kids got ready for bed and we sat down to watch Letter Factory. This video is by Leap Frog, and I attribute Josh’s knowledge of letters to it (with a little help from me). During my maternity leave we watched this video together so many times! And surprisingly, Kylie likes it too. So if you need a great way for kids to learn the sounds of the letters, I really suggest this video (and really anything by Leap Frog, because they really know how to teach kids).
After that it was bed time. Even though I LOVE summer and playing outside, it was nice to have a break last night…it seemed calmer and more relaxed.
A couple of years ago we decided to start Kylie in gymnastics. And not at just any gym, but at Buckeye Gymnastics, which has a great program and trains everyone from preschoolers to boys to competitive trampoline to girls in the super high levels. Being a former gymnast myself, I was so excited!
And I was super happy when she loved it. She was doing cartwheels and handstands all over the place, and at gymnastics she was flying through the classes. In the preschool gym the classes are set up by age. So when our little 3 year old was too good for the classes for her age, they moved her up with the 5 year olds. And then when she was too good for that, they made the decision to move her over to the “big gym” where the beginning class started at age 7. Only she wasn’t in the beginning class…she skipped over two classes.
She was nervous at first, but she had Ms. Laura, who held her hand on the beam for an entire 8 week session because Kylie had never been on a high beam before. She made friends…there was a girl in her class that was in second grade at her school, so they were fast friends. Kylie was doing great. After a while we decided to put her in two classes a week, because she loved it so much! Then, last year, the pulled her out and had her join a special class called “mini stars,” which were kids that they were getting ready to join team. They worked a little harder on form and actually did a little bit of conditioning and flexibility.
Then in July we got the letter stating that she was being asked to join team. Competitive team. She would start at level 2 and probably move up to level 3 by Christmas. I was so excited for her! However, the downsides starting pouring in…she has to practice at the other gym, which is 20 – 25 minutes away instead of 5 like we were used to; it was more expensive; the practices were 1 ½ hours 2 days per week. When she moved up to level 3 it would be 2 hours 2 days per week.
It’s like we hit a brick wall. All of a sudden we were faced with wondering if this was the wise thing for us to do for her. She would be giving up 2 weeknights to gymnastics. She’s in first grade this year…there will probably be some homework. And school is now all day everyday…that in itself will be a huge adjustment for her. Will she be pushed too hard? She is only 6…
But…gymnastics is a sport that is much, much easier the younger and smaller you are. So would we be doing her a disservice if we didn’t do this right away? Would she resent us holding off if she does continue the sport because she would know that she could have been so much better? There’s no doubt that she will get much better training and coaching on team because of the intensity and length of the practices. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Buckeye does have a recreational team…not as high stress, only for fun, don’t work on techniques and form quite as hard…but again, if she wants to do competitive gymnastics in the future, this would not help her.
We went and looked at another gym that is closer to our house…she really liked the girls and the coaches, but John and I didn’t feel that they were as adequate as Buckeye. And if we’re going to be paying the same amount of money, we want the best coaches. This other gym actually even practices longer than Buckeye, so in the end, I think it would be harder on her.
It’s so hard. I’ve said it over and over again…physically taking care of kids (changing diapers, sleep deprivation, potty training, etc.) is not hard. But worrying about their direction in life, making sure they are on the right path, worrying about childcare and school…those are the things that make being a parent so difficult! I just wish someone would come and tell me what to do. Kylie’s not old enough to understand what she would be giving up if she joins team. All she knows is that she loves gymnastics, and she really doesn’t understand why this is such a hard decision.
As of now, I think we’re going to start her on team at Buckeye, and then keep a close eye on her and if it’s too much, pull her out. But that plan may change tomorrow :)
What a weekend! It felt like one of the longest weekends we’ve had in a long time!
Friday night we played with the kids (new Wii game – Birthday Bash or something like that – they loved it!) and then after they were in bed, we sat out by the fire with our neighbors. Around 11:00 PM my sister finally made it in…she started driving Friday morning from Iowa and made a stop in Chicago and then hit some bad traffic, so it was a long day for her! We stayed up talking until about 1:00 AM – it was good to catch up with her…I hadn’t seen her in 7 weeks.
Saturday morning we got up and went on a bike ride. It was an adventure to say the least! The problem was we went on some of the bike paths, but our city hasn’t finished them all, so we were crossing streets, getting hit by sprinkler systems, and falling off our bikes (poor Kylie!). The cute thing was Ryan fell asleep on Joshie’s shoulder in the carrier-thing.
After that us girls (my sister, Kylie and me) headed over to my other sister’s apartment and spent the day by the pool. Kylie learned to swim! I’ve always been so worried about her because she did not know how to swim, but my sister worked with her, and now she is able to swim from one side of the pool to the other without putting her feet down! This weekend was so extremely hot and it felt so good to be in the water.
After swimming we headed home and got ready for the Clippers game. We had 4 tickets already from John’s sister, so we needed to buy 4 more. The problem was they only had standing room only left. However, we were lucky, and found a table up on the Rooster’s floor of the AEP tower. So at the start of the game, my mom, sisters, Kylie and Ryan and I hung out up there and ate dinner. A few innings into the game we all headed down by John, Josh and my dad because there were so many empty seats down there. When the sun went down it was gorgeous! We stayed through the 6th inning, which was around 9:30 – Ryan did so much better than I thought he would…I thought I would be leaving at 8:00!
Sunday was my sister Suzie’s birthday! We all went to church and then headed to the Morgan House for lunch. It is a local restaurant that also has this incredible shop that is huge! Any kind of cute little gift you could want, they have. It’s definitely a girly restaurant, but even little Joshie found something for Aunt Cindy to buy him (some Ohio State paper). Kylie got another Webkinz (a cute little green dinosaur), I believe she now has 15 webkinz. Lunch was wonderful, and again, Ryan really did great considering he normally has a morning nap and didn’t get one. It really helps now that he’s eating real food along with his baby food.
After lunch we headed back to our house and got out the baby pool. We were a funny site – we all had our chairs around it and had our feet in it…the temperature was over 90 degrees and humid! It was such a relaxing afternoon.
We then did my sister’s present, and had cake and ice cream. Then it was time for both of my sisters and my dad to go home :( The kids kept playing outside, and our neighbors came out and played in the pool with the kids. The kids didn’t play in it too much earlier, with their bathing suits on, but around 6:30, after they had taken their bathing suits off, they asked if they could put their feet in the pool. Then they just put everything in the pool! What is it about getting your clothes wet? They had a ball running and jumping into the pool though!
The only downside to the weekend was around 7:30 Kylie all of a sudden had a cold strike her. She wouldn’t stop sneezing and was absolutely miserable! She sat on the couch the rest of the night with a box of Kleenex close by her side. She was still not feeling well this morning when I left :(
It was a great weekend! It felt so nice having my whole family together again and hanging out. I’m excited because we’re all going to a cabin together over Labor Day weekend, so we’ll get to do it again!
It has been forever since I have taken pictures of Kylie at gymnastics. And with this potentially being her last practice at this gym (she may be joining team, more on that another day), I decided I should get some pictures. She has come so far! She has a gorgeous back hip circle with a big cast, she is so close to her mill circle, she can do her backbend kickover from the floor, she has gorgeous roundoffs, and she has finally figured out how to run and jump on the springboard! She will probably never have Ms. Laura again, and she was really sad about that last night. Ms. Laura was her first teacher in the big gym and held Kylie's hand on the high beam for so long until Kylie was finally brave enough to do everything up there herself!
Ryan has finally started to show some interest in moving! He crawls (but more often pushes himself) backwards! He still won't go forward yet, but watch out! He's now mobile!
The bad thing that happened last night was Joshie smashed his finger in the door from the house to the garage. He was getting a juice box, and when he came out all of a sudden he started crying really loud (but not screaming, so it wasn't super bad). The top of his nail is purple, and his nail will probably fall off, but John has him convinced that would be cool if it happened (another instance I'm so glad that I have John around, but I couldn't be that calm about a nail falling off and would never utter the word "cool" about it). After about an hour he was fine, and this morning before I left he was doing really well...I swear having boys is going to give me a heart attack some day!
John and I have always had a very honest, real relationship. Because of that, and because we are both very stubborn, hard-headed people, we have always had a lot of arguments…starting way back in the beginning. Most of the time they were over stupid things, but sometimes there are important things that need to be argued over*.
Anyway, back in college (I think it may have been our freshman year, so we had been dating less than a year), I remember being in some type of an argument with him (over I have no idea what), and sitting in his old red Chevy S10 in the parking lot by Morton Hall. It was cold out, so the windows were fogging up with our heated discussion. I remember him pausing and drawing the infinity symbol on his window. That had always been “our” sign…we knew we’d be together forever. He then told me that there was a song that he thought should be our song. It was a country song, so I had never heard it because I didn’t listen to country music at that time. He said one of the lines in the song was “There’s no way I could ever let you go, even if I wanted to…” He told me that was exactly how he felt about our relationship. No matter how hard things might get or how frustrated he was, there was no way he could live without me. Those are some powerful words from an 18 year-old!
Today John and I have been married 9 years. I feel like the time has passed by so quickly, and yet when I look back at everything we have accomplished together in those nine years, it seems like a lifetime has passed. I was talking to John the other day about how crazy it was that we made such a life changing decision at the young age of 21. Of course we would never change anything, and we knew that we were the ones for each other, but to think about what a big choice was made at such a naïve time in our lives is humbling. We both know that God gave us to each other, and we are so blessed to have each other and to have such a happy life together.
Happy anniversary Johnny! We’re down to 21 years left with each other**, and I hope the next 9 are as happy as the past nine have been :)
Now please go listen to our song…it describes us perfectly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPwH6Fkd-90 *Amazingly, we argue much less now than we did a couple of years ago. Proof that working on your marriage, even when it’s not “broken” is worth it!
**See blog post here for details on our 30 year contract
What a weekend! Friday I got out of work at lunch time and met Jen and the kids over at California Pizza Kitchen and had a great lunch out on the patio. After lunch we headed to the shoe store and got Kylie and Josh new shoes. After that we headed over to the fountains. The kids played a little bit, but they were more interested in the huge train display they have there, so they watched the trains more than they played in the water. Ryan on the other hand, loved the water!
Friday night we went to a new Japanese restaurant that opened right by our house. We all had a lot of fun and the food was really good.
Saturday we went grocery shopping for 3 1/2 hours! We had so much to get...we got Kylie's school supplies, and we went to another store to get a baby gift for our neighbors that just had a little boy. We grabbed some lunch and everyone ate in the car, and then we ended up at the actual grocery store. The kids got to play in the play area at Giant Eagle, so all we had to do was keep a very tired Ry-Ry occupied for a while :) I gave that job to John while I got the groceries. 2 carts later we headed home and the kids headed outside to play.
I made a meal for our neighbor that just had her baby boy and took it over to her, and then we all sat down to eat our dinner (my mom and dad were there too). After dinner my parents took the kids and John and I went on a bike ride. We rode up to the center of town to Rita's, which has awesome Italian Ice. We sat outside on the step and enjoyed eating our dessert and people watching.
Sunday was church and then spending the entire day outside. It was super hot, so we got the baby pool out and the kids played in that as well as back on the swings and trampoline. Our neighbors came out (their kids were at their grandparents) and sat in the driveway with us for a few hours. Ryan took a super long nap so when he woke up he was ready to play! I put him in the pool for a while, which he loved. Then I soaked John with some of the pool water and he tried to pick me up and throw me in the pool. The kids (all three of them) went ballistic! I have never heard them scream so loud! You would have thought that I was going to be hurt or something. So John had to sit them down and explain that we were just playing, and that it was OK because I was playing too. Poor little Ry-Ry though...his little lip was out and he was not happy since the other ones were not happy!
The weekend ended with us actually eating dinner at dinner time (we usually eat so late on Sundays) and actually come in early and getting to bed at a decent time. The only bad thing was Ryan decided it was play time between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM. He was giggling and laughing at us while we were trying to sleep.
Today I have a 1/2 day at work, and then I'm heading over to the local shopping place for lunch with the kids, shoe shopping for the kids (but not Ryan, 'cause he's no where near walking, but I'll get to that later), and then to play in the fountains. So I thought this would be a good time for a quick update on the kids.
Ryan:
-My little man (who is definitely not so little). He still shows no interest in moving. I was trying to work on crawling with him the other day, and he was kind of on all fours (but his butt was still touching the ground...lazy kid!), and he picked up his hand like he was going to move it, and then collapsed. He loves to sit. He is perfectly content sitting there playing with his toys. All he has to do is whine a little and someone gets him a toy that he has pushed away, or a new one if he's bored. He will stand if I hold his hands, but he will not hold on to something else and stand.
-He is a smart one though. He says "dada" and sometimes "momma." When he's in a super good mood he will try to immitate any word I try to get him to say. When he's playing with his toys and I ask him where his book is, he picks it up and holds it up to me.
-When I ask him where the fan is, he will look up, put his arm straight up in the air, poin his pointer finger, and swirl his arm around and say "woowoowoo."
-He gets super excited any time he sees John or Kylie or Josh. He loves them so much!
-He's so fat! I love it, but my arms do not (refer to point above about not wanting to move)
-He screams to communicate. I'm sure it's because he wants to be heard over Kylie and Josh, but often he will just let loose a super loud scream followed by some baby babble. I can only imagine he's saying something like "hey you people! Why on earth does no one listen to me! Ungrateful parents...I work hard at being so cute and you just stick me in this high chair/car seat/stroller all the time." Again, maybe if he understood the first point about not wanting to move he might be a little happier :)
Kylie:
-What a big girl she is now! I swear, every time I look at her she ages even more. She loves to wear her hair however I'm wearing mine, and she loves to have it flat ironed.
-For the second year in a row, she told me that she doesn't want a "kids backpack" i.e. a character one. My baby is gone.
-She's still have stomach issues that we're working through. Nothing super serious, but enough to annoy her.
-She loves to scrapbook with me. And she loves making paper dolls with my Cricut.
-She is an awesome reader. She can read pretty much anything I give her. My dad mailed her a letter the other day and she read the whole thing by herself.
-She's also fantastic at adding and subtracting. I heard her at gymnastics the other day asking another little girl "do you know what 40 plus 40 is? 80. Do you know what 100 plus 100 is? 200" all while jumping on the trampoline. Crazy girl!
-She is an awesome help with both of her brothers. She helps Joshie in the shower - telling him if he still has soap in his hair, etc. And she helps feed Ryan and helps entertain him. It's very obvious she truly loves them both.
Joshie:
-Baseball anyone? That's all this kid wants to play...every night. I'm so glad that we have a school in our front yard, because he loves going to the baseball fields that are literally 300 feet from our front yard.
-He loves Ryan...more and more as Ryan interacts more with him.
-He made the most honest comment the other day when Kylie was at the doctor's office for her stomach (mind you, this is just after we had our floors repaired and the workers were all hispanic): Josh: Is Kylie getting her stomach cut open right now? Jen: Oh no, she's just getting it looked at. Josh: Oh good, because if they cut her stomach open, they might have to use dark skin to cover it up, and then I wouldn't be able to understand her.
Also, along those lines, Jen had been talking to the men doing our floors, and afterwards, Josh came running up to her and said "I could understand some of what they said! I can speak Spanish," and then Jen had to tell him that they were in fact, speaking English :)
-He has the biggest brown puppy dog eyes that just melt my heart!
-He can write any letter, and he can read a few words. He loves to color and make things...he's always making us tickets for his hockey games, and I have so many pictures from him at work! He also loves painting!
-He has taken a much bigger interest in riding his bike this year. I think we're even going to try without the training wheels before the summer is over.
-He wears his bike helmet all the time. He does it so he doesn't have to keep putting it on when he wants to ride his bike/scooter/skateboard. But he looks a little funn when he's swinging with it on :)
-He can pump on the swing! Not as high as he would like to go, but he came in last night so excited and telling me all about how now he can do it!
I think that's about it. I will have a fantastic recap of the weekend on Monday...hopefully with lots of pictures from the fountains!
Last night was a good night! While we were making dinner (grilled mini-cheeseburgers, hasbrowns, grilled peppers from the garden and fresh grape tomatoes from the garden) we sat outside and watched the kids play.
Kylie helped me open the box that my order from papertreyink.com came in, and we ooohhed and aaaahhhed over everything that came (I got some paper, ink pads, a stamp set and some ribbon). This made Kylie want to scrapbook, so I told her after dinner we could go and do that!
We ate outside, and then the kids went off to play while I fed Ryan and John and I just hung out. After a while I noticed how late it was, and I told Kylie that if she wanted to scrapbook, we had to go in and do it now. So she shockingly left her friends, I put Ryan on a blanket in the front yard with some toys so that he could watch the baseball game that was getting ready to start in the court, and Kylie and I headed inside.
Kylie and I started right in. She wanted to make a princess paper doll with my Cricut, and I started cleaning up my stuff, which still hadn't been put away from the crop I went to a few weeks ago. Luckily, my scraproom faces the front, so I opened the window so that I could hear if Ryan got too fussy. I peeked out and saw the little neighbor girl, who just turned 2, trading pacies with Ryan. Those two are so cute together and how happy would I be if they got married :) Anyway, the little girl's mom walked over towards them, and the little girl pointed her finger to her and said "I be good mom." And Ryan was loving it!
I also noticed that more boys had accumulated in the court for baseball...I had no idea who they were, but everyone seemed to be having fun! Kylie looked out and then looked at me and said "is it alright if we go out and play?" She didn't need to ask me twice!
So the kids played, and after a while we had to drag them all in for baths and bed. It was a fun night...I'm dreading the end of summer because of how much I love nights like that!
Did you know that last night was "National Night Out Against Crime?" Neither did we...until our kids told us that there was something going on in town and they wanted to go to it.
Just by luck, my in-laws picked up Kylie and Josh and took them to the park and the splash pad. The splash pad is by the police station, so Kylie took them in and introduced them to Miss Patti, who is the super nice police dispatcher that gives Kylie and Josh candy. She told them that there were going to be activities that night in honor of National Night Out. So after Kylie's gymnastics, we headed over to the city building.
There was a fire truck out so the kids could look at it and touch things, two fireman ready to answer questions, two police cars out for the kids to play in (those are nothing special to our kids since the police seem to live at our house and let the kids play in the cars all the time), and a couple of tents set up with freebies. Josh got a new bike helmet (Kylie didn't want one), they got coloring books, story books, stickers, badges and poker chips, and they also had a band playing. We also got free Ritas Italian Ice (for those of you not local it's awesome ice cream-like yumminess!).
The funny thing about the whole thing was that it was not advertised at all, and the staff to guest ratio was about 3:1. But the kids had fun. I, however, was not enjoying the fact that we did not have a stroller for Ryan, and have I mentioned lately how fat and heavy he is?
It was a fun thing to do on an overcast, somewhat chilly August evening!
Since we filed our 10-Q on Friday, my boss let me have the rest of the day off, which was a great birthday surprise! So I went and had lunch with my great friend Sarah at a local hot dog joint that I love. She gave me a set of really nice margarita glasses and a bucket of margarita mix. I loved them!
Then I went home and found my house beautifully decorated by my kids! Jen had helped them hang streamers all over and they had made me a wonderful sign that said "Happy Birthday" and had each of their handprints, including Ryan's, as well as the date. It's such a special momento!
They had also hidden a ton of birthday notes! I still haven't found all of them. But Kylie has them all logged in a notebook, so if we forget about any of them, she can look them up :)
Friday night we headed over to Chick-Fil-A and had a fun dinner with friends. It was a different experience though because had linens (i.e. table cloth) and it was sit-down style with servers! I was very impressed! After dinner we headed over to our old neighborhood (because the party was in the city we used to live in) and got to visit with one of our former neighbors and good friend. It was so good to see her!
Saturday we got up and headed outside, and then out to pick up my cake and some miscellaneous items. I then went and got my hair done (actually got 2 inches cut off!) and then headed home ready for my party!
We ordered Chinese take-out. Taking the kids out to eat just isn't relaxing for me. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome and I can take them anywhere, but they are still kids, and especially Ryan, need to be kept occupied. So we got our food, and also made a run to the liquor store to pick up some tequila to go with my new margarita glasses and mix.
The food was fantastic...we sat outside in the driveway and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. After dinner the kids were able to go and play with the little boy that lives behind us, and I was able to sit and relax! I then opened my presents, which were:
-a new awesome shower head (from John and the kids)
-the plate that goes under my gravy boat in my china set (thanks to my parents)
-an awesome GHD flat iron that I have been wanting for forever! (thanks to John's parents)
-my gift certificate to Papertreyink.com (from John's sister)
-a family getaway in a cabin in the hills over Labor Day weekend with my whole family and either dinner out with john or zipline canopy tour (from my parents and my sisters)
After presents we had cake. I picked up a cake I've been dying to try. It's a strawberry cream cake from a local Asian bakery and it was so very good! And it was so nice because my sister cleaned up everything after dinner and got out the cake and cut it for everyone and cleaned it all up...she was a huge help!
After that we just hung around and relaxed until it was time to go to bed (I thought Aunt Cindy might be staying with us because the kids conned her into laying with them while they fell asleep!).
Sunday we went to church and then came home and I made a really good breakfast pizza. After that we went outside and didn't come back in! We played with the kids, and then our neighbors came over and hung out with us the rest of the afternoon (their kids play with our kids a lot, so we get some nice time to relax). We all ordered pizza and ate dinner out on the driveway. We finally dragged the kids in around 9:00 and got them bathed and into bed.
It really was a great birthday weekend! Then last night was Front Porch Monday, which I have changed to "Margarita Monday," and below is a picture of our wonderful drinks and the bowl of cake and ice cream I was having. And then there was this little boy that did not want to go to sleep, so he joined us for a little bit :)
Hi! I am a 36 year-old wife and mom and I am the luckiest person in the world! I'm married to a wonderful husband and father, and I have 4 awesome kids...Kylie is 12, Josh is `0, Ryan is 7 and Colton is 4. We live in Columbus, OH and absolutely love our crazy, hectic lives :)
