Hibernation complete. Spring is here, and I can blog without whining now. :)
Do you see this sweet, innocent little Sadie Kate?
Dude, don't mess with her Jell-O!
(In her defense, she was pretty proud that she learned how to make it herself. Just remember, it's "not you!")
Basketball season is upon us, and all three of my ladies are playing this year. Ryan is also coaching Ava's team. First games were last weekend, and everybody had lots of fun.
Here we have Sadie scarfing some cold pizza for lunch after her game was over.
I tried to get a good picture in the gym, but this was the best I could do -- Delaney taking a warm-up shot.
The kids have great coaches again and we've been very happy with their experiences at the Y. Apparently spring soccer sign-ups are just around the corner, Josh can't wait for that!
I bet you've been wondering what we've been up to. Downloaded this picture from my new "easy/quick" camera (#5, my favorite easy/quick camera appears to finally be dying) and thought it covered enough topics to be useful.
1. Kids' Christmas tree -- still up. We spent most of the holiday busy with other major household projects (declutter/install upstairs wall unit/new lighting/storage unit clean-out/garage overhaul) that I didn't quite get to that yet. I did at least get my Momma tree taken down.
2. Ryan got the upstairs wall unit/entertainment center finished and assembled. He's pretty proud of it, since he designed it and built it himself. It is impressive. We still have to add crown moulding and paint and all, but for now it's functional.
3. The girls got some new "dress up" make-up. It included a charcoal eyeshadow. Delaney thinks it's interesting to look like a zombie.
4. Laundry. Thank goodness for my front loader! I would like to take a moment to note that all of my kids are in a PE class that swims each time (bathing suits, towels, work-out clothes), 3 are in dance classes (leotards, tights, shorts) and 3 are in Y basketball (more work-out clothes + jerseys). Factor in that girls seem to need to wear at least 2 different outfits a day, item #3 above which requires smearing of makeup onto towels and wash cloths, and my kids seem to prefer hand towels to paper towels for their constant kitchen messes ====> lots of laundry. Whew.
I need a break so here ya go.
Josh showing off his latest art project:
Ava putting some finishing touches on the upstairs "kid tree":
The battle over creativity vs. cleanliness -- some kind of wooden block habitat for their Little Pets that took over my downstairs for a few days:
A good chunk of our fall has been spent doing soccer at the Y. All four kids were originally signed up to play but Sadie had to bow out due to the heel injury. Luckily for me, Josh & Delaney are close enough in age to be on the same team, so that helped the schedule a bit. Still, between practice and games it feels like I did earn the title "soccer mom."
I figured out early on that the trick is to bring and pack the wagon for all of the schlepping around field to field, especially since Ryan was only there about half of the time to help out. This seemed to amuse the other parents when Her Royal Highness arrived for her games, but it's either that or listen to whining and take forever to get where we gotta go!
I guess I would really like soccer too if I had snacks and Barbie time inbetween plays.
Both of the kids' teams had awesome coaches. Love it when someone else gets to do the yelling besides me!
Tuesday nights have been fun. The little girls and I hang out during big kids' soccer practice, then we head straight over to the church for youth night. We usually made a camp behind the van for shade and ate dinner and played Frogs on the iPad. Good times!
Another practice night. Ava suddenly looks 16 to me now instead of barely 5.
Watching big kids' game and waiting (not patiently) for her game afterwards.
The season is winding down now (thank goodness cuz Momma doesn't like watchin soccer in the cold windy rain), but we're lookin forward to doing it again in the spring! Here are a few more pictures Don took when they were here for Halloween weekend:
I keep waiting for my kids to get tired of Silly Bands, but it hasn't happened yet. The official trades, the arguing over whether tradebacks are allowed, deciding to be generous/deciding to be stingy, hunting down specific types of Silly Bands (only to discover that Lesley has discovered a new kind and now my kids REALLY NEED SOME OF THOSE). Reminds me of those stupid plastic charm necklaces from when I was in middle school.
I think I want some.
My kids love their YMCA teacher so much that we had to make him a cake for his birthday. This picture cracked me up because it captures so much of our reality: Josh really needs a haircut and can't seem to be bothered to do much with his hair in the meantime, and Ava thinks she is a one-woman comedy show wherever she goes!
I had intended to post more here on the blog once we got back into the school routine, but these first few weeks have still been busy getting everyone back on a schedule and figuring out how all of the activities fit in around that, and how to be in two or three places at one time. ;-)
I can also blame the productivity boost/crush of acquiring an iPhone and an iPad a couple of weeks ago. I've had lots of fun figuring those out. I love love love that iPad, more than the phone even. I've found lots of fun apps that are also educational and there is always a line for Momma's iPad. Last night when Ryan was gone I discovered that there is a Catan app, so watch out!
Adding a fourth official student to the homeschooling has been an adjustment. Sadie's foot is actually feeling worse instead of better, and Ava gets to have a tooth filled/capped/something $$$ next week. Ya know, the usual. This week has been particularly "fun" because the transmission on my van (a.k.a. Bessie, I have no idea why the girls picked that name) finally died after hangin on for the last 2 years. It is being rebuilt and so I have not had a car since Sunday night. That has meant that all of the driving around I usually do to get kids everywhere is further complicated by getting my husband to work and the fact that his car only holds 4 people. I can't wait for Bessie to come back home!
At least we can keep a sense of humor about the craziness that is our life!
In case you were left in suspense, Sadie did earn her book club prize -- a Barbie pool that is used to train her swimming puppies, woo hooo!
In other news, that kid has been having all sorts of tests run for various health problems, all of which have thankfully come back with good results. Over the last month or so she's had mystery abdominal pain, mystery rashes, and mystery heel pain. At least we have determined that her kidneys are behaving themselves! Everything has subsided except for the heel pain. She has been officially diagnosed with Sever's disease and so is undergoing physical therapy treatments for that. Luckily at this point she doesn't have to deal with restricted physical activity, so she's free to continue with the YMCA classes. She also started dance again this week and will be starting soccer next month. In the meantime, though, she has timed exercises that we have to do three times a day, and her growth plate in her heel has to be iced daily. Cuz I was bored around here, ya know. Ha!
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