I can't believe he's...........

My smart guy is 6 and I can hardly believe it. We started his birthday last week because his dad and big brother were going to be out of town for his birthday and with their crazy work and soccer schedules we will be having a week plus of birthday fun. Friday morining last week he had of course donuts and opened his presents and dad ran off to work. That evening we went to the Loon's game and we actually got to see them win for the 3rd time in a row(has our attending the game losing streak ended...we'll see). The fun never ends at a Loon's game..Shaking Looney's hand, his name on the big screen wishing him a Happy Birthday, we all end up there too smiling of course, trips to the playgorund, and ending with fireworks what more can you ask for. Well you see he can he had this list so Loon's game is checked off. He went on a sleepover with grandma and checked several more things off the list- pizza and ice cream at Pizza Sam's, a trip to Target(he actually got 2 trips), Bob Evan's with Granny, and lots of one on one time with Grandma K. Today is his birthday and the list continues and I think it is complete- McDonald's for breakfast and to play, a trip to the school store, to the library to make funny bug hats, to the movies, a quickie to walmart, and then for dinner tacos so I think we covered it all except when Dad and big bro come back we will be having a cake "this tall"-which is above his head(I told him a cake that big will have to wait until he gets married) and a pinata whomping. We have had a fun, full, and wonderful day(with more to come)!

A bit behind

My laid back boy had his 3rd birthday in June which gives me my 3, 4, 5, year old chain of children for one month. We had a fun day starting with donuts and he was the cutest thing with all 3 kinds lined up in front of him with one bite out of each. He watched his favorite "Monkey George"(Curious George) cartoon. Since going to Disney he had been loving Wall-E and it came out on his birthday; we all went to see the cute little robot movie(he fell asleep in the first half and hour) but everyone else enjoyed it. Now all stuffed with donuts and popcorn and whatever junk was provided we were all feeling a bit blah and so we passed on the cake and ice cream bit until a few days later(I made a double layer cake with chocolate frosting-mud with a blue icing water fall down the side coming from a pond that was surrounded in rocks-they were chocolate covered candy that looked just like rocks but tasted like M&M's with Diego in his big truck climbing ove the rocks). We ended the evening with gifts and several swings at a pinata. Happy 3rd little guy!!!!

Who am I talking about now?!?

As many of you have probably noticed I do not use my kids names in my blog. With that being said I do refer to them often. If you look at the pictures to the right each one has a different name, the joker, the brain of the operation, the princess, the laid back one. When I am writing I will use the exact name or something similiar like the funny one or teenager, smart guy, miss pretty in pink, or the relaxed boy or something of the like. I hope this clears up who I am talking about in my blog.
Also for more fun stories about my Little Jewels on occasion they show up in my other blog Jewels of a Kitchen(see link to right).

20 things I learned from my week of camping

1. My tenative child is not so tentatvie when dad is the leader. They crossed trees that had fallen across the creek and I had never envisioned my little brain even attempting it but he did over and over even after he fell in!!!
2. My little brain knows how to use it in a crisis and doesn't even panic(see above).
3. Keep it Simple does apply to have a "vacation" when you are camping.
4. My princess now loves the water and virtually has no fear. She even took on the 3 foot waves in Lake Michigan.
5. Always bring benadryl.
6. Something my hubby learned the second application of sunblock is important.
7. There should be more Drive In Movie places.
8. My joker does make right choices when the pressure is on.
9. It takes 30 minutes to catch 47 fish and all day to clean them and the clothes of your teen smell horrible at the end of that day.
10. My laid back boy is just that.
11. Taking my kids to a insect safari did help them get over their fear and now they have become quite avid bug catchers.
12. I can cook over a open fire for 6 nights in a row and we won't starve.
13. You can camp with 60 other people and have your own time too.
14. My laid back child is very obedient(he was riding his float toy and daddy was pulling him around and we told him to hold the handles tight so he wouldn't fall off. Great advice until he flipped over and wouldn't let go which caused a suction effect so dad had no other choice but to grab the eyes of the floating crab and pull it and the boy straight up out of the water).
15. Walking up and down sand hills pulling a wagon is exhausting.
16. Never underestimate the tenacity of your teenager ( I was able to best him at dunking 11-4 but I was more like the karate kid at the end of the movie I won but I got my butt kicked doing it).
17. Thank goodness for family across the way.
18. When you tell your child to watch for cars before they cross the road you need to also add: bikes, scooters, runners, strollers, rollerbladers, etc...
19. Love your neighbors.
20. Curb your exuberance is a nice way for the park rangers to say be quiet at 1am!

We finally did it!!!

Today my little princess and myself went and each had 10 inches of hair cut off. We are donating it to Locks of Love and are both enjoying our new found short cuts fun and cool for these humid hot days!!! Okay due to mechanical and human error the pictures we took have disappeared which is a bummer but here is the picture I just took of her and her new do!

And the Doctor said.....

One little boy jumping on the couch,

He fell down and bumped his mouth,

Momma went to the doctor,

And the doctor said 4 little stitches and teeth that might be dead.


* sung to the song 5 little monkeys

What was that?!?!!!!

Last night at 2:30am I am awoken by something passing by my window. At first I almost dismiss it but I am sure it was a person and not a thing. Realizing my husband is not in bed I go out to him to say did you hear that outside. There is something outside and I am perty sure it is a someone. He gets a huge smile on my face and said it was me and then goes into explaining that he has set up a scavenger hunt for the kids in the morning and the first clue is by the syrup so I need to make sure I send one of the kids to get the syrup for breakfast. Needless to say the kids didn't find the clue when they were sent for the syrup so it was pointed out to them and they had a great time on there hunt for treasure. Thanks to my husband for starting our day off with fun!

I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!!!

I hear a hysterical scream followed by, "I didn't do anything, she did it!" As my little princess comes into sight with a very red face and a scream like I have never heard from her before and I am sure she has lost a limb but behind that scream there is something almost audible and I think she is saying something about an ant. Sure enough behind those screams of hysterics is the fact there is an ant in her hair and now we are into the scream GET IT OUT!!! I am telling you I have never looked for a needle in a haystack but that would have been easier than what I was doing. I looked in that jumping head of blonde hair with the shrieks of "It is in there get it out!" for over 15 minutes and I finally say I think you gave it a heart attack from all the screaming and he died or jumped ship. However she is insistent it is there and I look some more without any luck and I say again it is gone. My little brain points out that maybe the hairats ate it and of course this doesn't convince her at all and with more screams of the fact there is an ant in her hair I begin my quest again and I do find the smallest little ant that was quite ready to be found and once again we have a happy little princess....later that day we are prepping pea pods to be frozen and my little princess comes across a little green caterpillar and says very endearingly, "look mom it so cute I need to take him outside to live." She picks him up ever so gently and takes him outside to live in our backyard. It amazes me that our little princess can be so hot and cold about the living creatures on this earth and I am ever ready to hear I didn't do anything and it is one of those small creatures frollicking in her hair near a heart attack from all the screaming.

Terminology in Our House

For all to understand the funniness of my next post I have to explain one term I use everyday and that is- hairats. My little princess hated getting her hair brushed and so I started making this a fun game by hunting for and getting rid of the hairats(tangles) out of her hair. I had to make it something she really wouldn't want in her hair and hairats was just the thing and so to this day we get the hairats out of her hair.

FUN FUN FUN

Today after sending our big joker off for his first youth conference (hope he is having fun) we went off to the zoo. Train rides, petting tortoises, spotting hundreds of tadpoles, going through the pond on the rock trail and wobbly bridge, and of course ending all the animal sightings with a ride on the carousel. This is not the end for us though we found a perfect spot to throw a blanket down and had picnic under the shade of apple trees.
What a wonderful day out but is this the end NO WAY. We go to the newest children's museum down the way and spend 3 hours exploring until dad is falling asleep on a bail of hay leaning on a cow(he woke up just before I got the picture). This is a new found treasure for us we absolutely loved the whole thing from pulling teeth the size of little legs, putting skeletons together, exploring the insides of a heart, building and racing cars, milking cows, picking veggies from a garden, figuring out how things work, the art room we won't get into the insanity of that area, changing tires on cars, washing them, driving them, seeing how a motor works, and a water area we could not get the kids away from(I am glad we saved this for the end). I couldn't beleive that after 3 hours the kids still didn't want to leave they truly loved it.
The funniest thing was at dinner we asked them what was their favorite thing they did today and there answers were: watering our garden, playing tag, going down our slide and being pushed on the swing. I am always so surprised that after a day of fun it is the simple things of home the truly love!

Getting your wisdom teeth out is no biggie, this is really OUCHIE!!!

I couldn't figure out why after having my wisdom teeth out that instead of getting better everyday suddenly yesterday evening the pain was getting worse a lot worse. SO back to the dentist I went. Apparently I have an infection in my bone. Here were my options A) rip open my sutures and inject medicine directly into the bone or B)drugs lots of them. We decide on B since I was healing so nicely. The great news is I will be sleeping all night(sorry to those of you with newborns that are reading this) which I haven't done all week! Off to Vicodinland I go!

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

This is all I can say about getting out my wisdom teeth OUCH!!!!!! and how wise are we when we have them anyway? We actually pay someone and willingly lay there with our mouth open and let them give us shots and then pull out our teeth. Quite frankly I think I am much wiser now that they are out!

Amazed

One of my little jewels has been wanting a cell phone and after the last one was lost who knows where we have been hesitant in this request(even though it would make my life much easier). We finally a few months or so ago heard from our joker, "why can't I have one?" We will talk about it was my reply. It was decided that the ball would be sent back into his court and had 24hours to tell us 3 reasons why he should have one, he smiled and said, "I can tell you that right now." as the sentenced continued and 3 reasons why you shouldn't. I didn't realizes jaws could get that close to the floor. Of course in 24 hours we had our reasons but it truly came down to responsibility. We needed him to show us he was responsible and explained examples of how he could show us responsibility. We didn't think this was a huge request but was not accepted well and the subject was there for dropped(little did we know he was listening).
Now we will fast forward to yesterday as we are planning out the details of summer. Plans, expectations, what every one wanted out of summer vacation and then we went ahead and planned as much as was reasonably possible. As we neared the end of our calendering session I am surprised by this request from my joker, "I have been thinking about it and I would like a cell phone so could we make a chart labeled 1-100 and every time I am responsible I get a 1/2 a mark and then if I am not responsible you can take away a 1/2 a mark. Then when I get to 100 then can I have a cell phone?" I can tell you I was simply shocked because he was able to present to us a long term plan and have both needs met over time. We needed a show of responsibility over a long period of time and he would like a cell phone. Both needs met in the simple little plan. I am amazed by my children everyday but some days they leave me speechless at how amazing they are!

What I learned in my 24 hours of darkness...

1. I can cook pancakes over an open flame in the dark and not kill anyone
2. Showering by lantern is not too bad
3. I can count on family to get me out of the dark
4. We need to run preparedness drills
5. People do get irritable in a crisis
6.People do get irritable when they are hot and there is nothing you can do about it(fan, air conditioning)
7. I am glad we have a gas stove and gas water heater and (this is a doozy)
8. Consumer will let you check the status of your power outtage on line...now where are the batteries for the computer.

styrofoam

Okay the funniest thing happened on the way home from Lowes last night. We strapped on 2 pieces of (DOW) Styrofoam installation on top of the van and proceeded to drive home. As we are driving David said you would think with something on the roof of our car this guy would not be tailgating me. I am telling you no sooner did he finish that sentence the rope that was holding down the Styrofoam cut through it all and ended up in dozens of pieces all over the road. I am sure that guy wet himself as all this stuff went flying at him. Lesson to all don't tailgate and apparently don't tie blue Styrofoam to the top of your vehicle.