I met Rachel and her 3 sweet, beautiful daughters back in September on my first field trip with my home school group to the Jr. Museum. Her husband is also military, and of course having 3 girls gave us a lot in common right away. When I noticed her girls sporting Disney Princess garb and accessories, I knew our girls would get along great. We've done a few things together and this past Monday, we went on a field trip to a local grocery store, then to a pizza place where the kids all got to make their own pizzas. I love watching the 6 girls play together. They are all so sweet and get along well and there is always a lot of giggling and hugging.
1st of many goodies passed out to the kids.
In the produce dept. getting samples of pineapple. They were tasty, even Juliet's piece that fell on the floor!
Monkeying around in front of the store.
Ava, Leah and Kylie.
Oohh, what's going on in there?
Kylie and Leah shared a pizza.
A little pizza trivia...the most expensive topping out there is cheese!
Ava and Keri making their pizza.
Time for the oven!
Us mommies partnered with our babies. Clearly Juliet and A'lyn like their piles of cheese in the middle.
We had a fun filled day of popcorn, pineapple, pizza, lemonade, brownies and cookies. After we ate, we went back to the store and picked up some fruit!
The next evening we met at the fairgrounds in town and went to the, drum roll please, balloon zoo. All proceeds went to wounded vets, it was a short drive from our home, and the girls enjoyed it (again, I think they liked being there with their friends).
There were, I think, 145,000 balloons and it took 9 people a week to make all the exhibits. Cheesy, but pretty cool.
Juliet, Ava, Keri, A'lyn, Leah and Kylie in front of the "Stars & Striped"/"Old Glory" (we had just learned about the flag that morning in school).
I don't know if I'll attend another balloon zoo in my lifetime. It was impressive, and about what I should have expected from the town we live in.
Oh money, how I hate you! Well, not exactly, but teaching "how many coins" versus "how much money" has probably been the hardest thing yet. I'm sure I'll look back some day and wish it was still this easy, but until then, thanks for the frustration. Kylie and I appreciate it!
One of our memory verses for the girls is Colossians 3:23-"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." I got this video today from my friend Angie. I love what the speaker says about "it is the cure for the disease of self-centeredness, it is the antidote to my own pride".
I've been doing addition with Ava for a while now, but I've yet to have her add above 10 simply because she uses her fingers to add. Some moms don't let their kids add using their fingers, but she's 4, and Kylie used to do it but she's since moved on to adding in her mind so I'm not too worried. So anyway, I printed a worksheet for Ava today and all the answers were bigger than 10. She has been using manipulatives (pom poms) to make 2 piles of the numbers then add them up.
For one of the problems (6+6), I could see the wheels spinning. I kept quiet. She didn't grab the pom poms, rather put up 6 fingers, put them down, put up another 6 and counted off "7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12". Of course I screamed and she was so proud of herself. This was actually going to be her last problem because using the pom poms was taking a long time for each problem, but she went ahead and did a bunch more because of her new, fast way to add.
Way to go Ava. These are the little pay offs of schooling the girls myself that I LOVE!!
Tonight Ava went on her first date with daddy. It works out well for both Jonathan and I because I get to spend time with just her by taking her shopping for new clothes and accessories, and then just the 2 of them get to go out and spend time together. She picked out everything she wore, and today I did her hair, painted her finger nails and toe nails and even let her wear a touch of makeup and perfume. Jonathan took her to see a movie, out to dinner, then to Starbucks for dessert and their last leg of the trip to a book store got interrupted by her bowels. Jonathan doesn't take the girls to the bathroom in public (I won't let him and he'd rather not take her into a nasty men's room) so they came home. They were gone for 4 hours! The weather was icky today so her curls didn't last very long, but I don't think she cared one bit. She had been talking about her date all day and had a fabulous time with her daddy.
Here they are at the theater. Ava had a coke (yowzas!), popcorn and gummy bears.
Can you tell she's excited??
Mmmmm, Bonefish!
Ava had one Bang Bang shrimp and that was all she could stand. She did however enjoy her chicken with goat cheese and spinach, broccoli and garlic mashed potatoes.
I have to wonder if Starbucks was more her idea or Jonathan's.
She didn't know how to drink her hot chocolate out of the lid on the first try. Her dress will be seeing some Spray & Wash when I do laundry this week.
The other 2 girls certainly weren't left out. Kylie was very excited for Ava to go and helped her put on her jewelry and gave her a big hug before she left. Juliet kept saying "Ava Daddy date" over and over. She's in the repetition phase of talking right now. The girls and I made cookies and home made pizzas and watch a movie. It was a fun night all around! Jonathan knows he's got it good in that he gets to take out 4 girls over the next however many years of life...that is until we pick their perfect husbands for them. :)
On that note, Kylie did tell Jonathan last week that she wanted to marry him. He had to tell her "no honey, I'm married to mommy". He did tell her she could, however, marry someone just like him. I wholeheartedly agree! I can only hope and pray that will be the case. Until then, he'll continue to show them how boys treat girls, and these dates are just one of the ways he does that. I love my husband and I love my little girls!
Today Jonathan told me at breakfast he wanted to teach Ava to ride a bike. I gave him the "she's going to get hurt and cry" over protective mom face, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Its about the same time Kylie learned to ride a bike...just shy of 4 1/2...and Ava did AWESOME! She only fell once and got the hang of it very quickly.
Jonathan did a lot of running this morning pacing Ava as she went up and down our street.
Here are a few pictures of some of our favorite friends!
The O'Brien family is in town for a week and we got to meet new baby Caitlin. The girls LOVE babies and as you can tell, I get the best smiles out of them when they get to hold one.
We venture to base a lot to hang out with Candace and her crew. 7 kids makes for nothing but FUN! Normally Candace will cook up gourmet meals when we eat there, but this night it was Sam's Club pepperoni pizza...and it was pretty good for only $6. I'll be picking some up for our family.
Friday nights when our husband are at "roll call", we like to have our own version of "girl call".
We went to Emily's 2nd birthday party today and the kids got to frost their own cupcakes. As you can see here, Liam doesn't mess around and he wasn't going to let one piece of cupcake go to waste.
Here are Kylie and Jackson braving the heights.
The girls like to order things according to how " we came out of mommy's tummy" (like going down the slide or brushing their teeth). They'll be sad to see themselves out of order here as they sing Happy Birthday to Emily.
The older kids helped Emily open her presents, probably more than was necessary, but Kelly being as sweet as she is would never tell the girls to back off so her princess can have her special moment.
I got this email from a friend today. All us moms...we know this stuff. I will say the last paragraph is one I need to work on, especially when my Prince Charming is working late and I have to take care of my 3 princesses by myself. ___________________________________________________________________________________ How do you do it? How do you stay so calm with four young children?"
I need to work on things so I too can answer like this....
Part of it is just how God made me, I think. I am pretty calm with my children. And, honestly, often I stay calm even in the midst of chaos because, frankly, it's better than the alternative. A shrieking, freaking out mama is not going to make an already stressful situation any better. So, for the most part, I stay calm and try to be in the moment with my children. But how do I do it? There is one little bit of inspiration that literally descended upon me almost two years ago, while I was holding Nuggey in the bathroom, that has completely revolutionized my parenting. When I keep this truth in mind, I find it as easy as apple pie to stay calm in the midst of toddler chaos. I remember that I'm gonna miss this. This is my life on most days, and every day when Prince Charming is TDY...
It was dark, during the end of bath time, and Prince Charming was gone. I was doing dinner, baths and bedtime myself those days, as my husband worked late. It had been, undoubtedly, a long day with the kids. Big Mac was three, Nuggey was one and a half and Small Fry was a baby. It is as clear as day still, this memory. I was sitting on the toilet, drying MckNugget off after his bath. Small Fry, unable to roll, was sprawled on the floor of the bathroom on some towels, wearing nothing but a diaper and a grimace. Big Mac was still in the tub. He was squawking to get out and Small Fry was bellyaching for attention. But I slowly wrapped Nuggey up in his towel, determined to stay calm, and cuddled him in terrycloth. I slowly rocked him back and forth in my arms and sang Rock-a-bye Baby to my second born. As I wrapped up the song, I prepared to sit Nuggey up and attend to the chaos that was the other children. After all, there were baths to finish, teeth to brush, diapers to put on, jammies to find and beds to tuck children into. But as he sensed me about to right him, Nuggey tossed his wet head back in my arms and looked up at me. "Uh-gain!" So I sang Rock-a-bye Baby one more time, but I told him it would be the last. Yet when I finished, he begged again for more. Here's where I can relate the most....
I didn't want to do more. I didn't want to sing to him one more time. I was tired. Tired of children, tired of singing, tired of the day. I just wanted it to be over.
But then suddenly, as if fairy dust was sprinkled from the heavens right onto my tired head, the entire reality of my future set in. I'm gonna miss this. I looked down at little Nuggey, his damp eyelashes long and dark batting at me, his tiny bottom cradled in my hand, his soft, chubby legs thrown over my arm, his body entirely dependent on mine as I held him in my lap, and I could see the future. Nuggey, a grown boy, sporting a football jersey and facial hair, walked out of the bathroom. It was going to happen, and soon. And while I knew there would be joys with that time in my life, when our young children are teenagers and beyond, it struck me like a ton of bricks. When that time comes, I'm gonna miss this. When Nuggey comes home from college, barely speaks a word to me and hibernates in his bedroom all summer, I'm gonna miss this. As my mind fast forwarded to the future, I knew that at that moment, I would give anything for 20 year old Nuggey to be a toddler again, just for one more hour, so I could rock him and sing while I stroked his wet head.
Wake up self! And here, years earlier, I was being given my wish. I was able to rock Nuggey, a nearly helpless babe in arms, one more time. Given a new perspective from which to see, I sang Rock-a-bye Baby as many times as Nuggey would let me that night. Eventually Small Fry found her hands and started admiring them, and Big Mac grabbed a new tub toy. And I relished that time with my son in my arms, knowing that soon enough he would be all grown, and my arms would ache to hold him like a baby again. I'm gonna miss this. My mind cannot help but wander to those parents who have lost children. What on earth would they not give to hold their children again, even for a moment. I bet they would not complain about having to sing Rock-a-bye Baby one more time. Rather, they would probably give their right arm to sing it ten million times until their voice was hoarse and their eyelids closed in slumber. And women with empty wombs who long and pray and ache for children? What honor am I doing them if I take for granted the fact that I have children, young children who are begging me to cuddle them, sing to them. I will love those women who long for a baby by loving my babies and not taking them for granted. And here is what I need to think more about each and every day!
So, I determined right there and then in the bathroom to try to be ever thankful for the moments I do have with my children. I will not wish away their young years, always hoping to get more laundry done or other children dried off. I will relish each kiss, hug and song. I will leave their childhood behind with no regrets, no "I love you" unsaid, no cheek unkissed, no request to "Cuddle wif' me!" turned down. Even as the macaroni flies and the Sharpie stains my table, even when there are midnight wailers and globs of Desitin under my fingernails, I know.
The girls were fortunate enough to all get spots in my home school group's co-op. What that means basically is the moms all come together with their different talents (teaching) and teach each others kids. We meet every Friday at a church in town that has graciously opened up their buildings to facilitate a school-like setting for a bunch of school aged kids. There are classes of all sorts and its neat to see all these moms come together to give their knowledge to other children. Kylie and Ava are in a class together with one other girl and I think 10 other boys ("but I don't like boys"-Kylie) and Juliet is in a class with other 2 year olds and she actually gets to learn things, not just be in day care for 2 hours we are there. She is one of 2 girls in addition to 4 boys in her class. I help out in her class the first hour and the second hour I change classes and help with the babies. Last week was kinda chaotic as it was the first day back at school, but the girls enjoyed themselves and I probably annoyed other moms with my never ending questions about their home school experiences.
I hate to admit it, but I was totally shocked at the number of boys in the co-op. I just assumed most moms would send their boys to public school and home school their daughters (I don't mean siblings, I mean families of just one sex of child/ren...I don't think it is overly common for parents to home school some of their kids and send others to public/private school). I've heard over and over boys tend to "need socialization" or "they just won't listen to me" so I figured that was what most moms thought. And since girls "tend to sit still and are smarter and listen better than boys", moms would have an easier time home schooling their daughters. My friend Candace said I totally stereotyped boys and girls, and she was right. I was! These are just a few of the myths I've been hearing and chose to believe. I will say though, it was mostly the little girls sitting quietly in chairs waiting for the day to start while the boys were running and shouting and jumping and goofing off prior to school starting.
Here are the girls on our first day getting ready to head out.
Here is Juliet stacking Legos in her class. She can point out colors correctly when I ask her, but she can't name them correctly as often.
The girls did ask if they were going to a school that last all day and has a bell. I had to tell them no and that we were meeting in a church. They were disappointed at first, but they enjoyed their first day and are looking forward to going again tomorrow.
When I attempt to let the girls do something new, I usually have 3 little voices all shouting "I WANT TO DO IT TOO", so rarely I let them do anything new if their sisters are around. Of course this doesn't apply much to Juliet because usually she isn't doing something her sisters haven't already done, but more for Kylie and Ava.
My friend Candace convinced me to let the girls try to make their own PB&J sandwiches. Again, its not that I don't like them doing those things, it just ends up being more work for me and then all the girls want to do it, so something that takes me 30 seconds takes them 20 minutes.
They were so stinkin' proud of themselves. There were some shouts of joy as well as some jumping up and down...all over a sandwich!
We have a couple of firsts in the shoe department. Both Kylie and Juliet were in need of new tennis shoes so after not having much luck in town, I took them to the BX on Wednesday.
Here is Kylie sporting her first shoes with laces. She likes tying them all by herself.
And here is Juliet sporting her first character shoes. They have on them "Rella", "Booty" and "Belle".
This actually a first for our family. I'm not a big fan of character clothes. PJs are fine, and a souvenir T shirt from Disneyland is okay too, but I don't like putting them in those clothes otherwise to wear out of the house, so we never buy them.
This story is out of order since it happened before I started my blogging adventure, but I just had to share.
So basically, we hate TDYs around here. Who doesn't, right? I mean we manage. We get into our groove and get things done, but usually at night when I've hit my limit and the kids are wound up, or starving, or need baths, or my house is totally trashed, that is usually when the "we miss daddy" comes out their darling little mouths. Sometimes I'm sweet and say "me too", or sometimes I'm not so sweet and I say to them "tell me about it!". When the girls were babies, it wasn't awful because usually I was the only one bummed out because they didn't quite get it. Not so much anymore.
We took Jonathan to the airport Monday and as we were saying goodbye at the van, Kylie proceeded to unbuckle and jump out of the door and had a death grip around his neck with her arms and his waist with her legs. He was trying to pry her off of him and there were some giggles exchanged, but I could tell she was being serious as she laughed. She didn't want him to go! She knew he was to be gone for 11 days and after a few minutes of him trying to pull her off of him, she said "you will NOT disobey me and you will be gone for only 1 night". When we were able to finally drive off, I asked her if she was upset and she said "yeah". Talk about a tear jerker.
Before he left town, we recently acquired a bunch of boxes that housed some of our new living room furniture. Jonathan turned these boxes into a castle that now takes priority over my van in the garage. Its a great distraction while I'm out on the treadmill and it gives the girls something to play with. They used to play with the lawnmower and old cans of paint, but now they have something safer to entertain them.
Isn't it a beauty?
The other day Kylie took some colored pom poms I use for school lessons and she poured them out on our coffee table. She proceeded to ask Juliet to hand her certain colors. I admit, I don't work with Juliet too often on her ABCs, numbers or colors. I'm too busy trying to teach kindergarten and preschool to her sisters. Well Kylie said "okay Juliet, hand me a purple one"...and she did it. I was quiet. Then Kylie said, okay Juliet, hand me a pink one"...and she did it! My eyes got really wide, but I was still quiet. Kylie asked her for one more color and she got it again! This time I shrieked and clapped and got very excited. After that, blue and green and yellow kinda got mixed up, but I didn't think she knew any of them so I was so happy with what I go. Kylie and Ava got excited for her too. So maybe the once a week I work with her really does stick, or maybe because pink and purple are girl colors she naturally just knows them. Regardless, yay Juliet for knowing some of her colors!
I got this!
Here is the "married girl" doing her math workbook.
Yes it is well after Christmas but they still play out the manger scene.
Yesterday I took the girls to the library and we picked up Charlotte's Web ("with real people" as the girls say) and we had a picnic dinner in the living room. As usual, Kylie watched the whole thing, Ava said "when is this moving going to be over" (if its not Barbie or Disney Princess, she loses interest) and Juliet was in and out of my lap the whole time. It was a great way to beat-the-not-heat 30 some odd degrees outside. Brr!
I'm turning over a new leaf this year...or this decade really. As Jonathan is TDY in Vegas and I am up late yet again thinking irrationally, I've decided to quit doing my totsite to document our life across the internet for all to see and I'm jumping on the blogger bandwagon. I like how the totsite emails my latest journal updates to family and friends, but I feel like I can put more on a blog and not focus it entirely on the girls. And if you really want to know what is going on with us, I figure you can add our blog to the list of the other blogs and websites you check on a regular basis. Maybe I can email out updates...I'll look into that after I finish typing this. I always feel weird and guilty when I talk about things that don't solely have to do with the girls on the totsite, but those 3 little princesses do have a king and queen at home that have interesting lives too, at least I think we do, every now and then. I'm trying to figure out how this works (I already typed this up once and am on my second attempt) and I've asked a friend to tell me how she prints her blog since I've also forgone printing 4x6 photos for photo albums (because no one but the girls want to look through them, and they are collecting dust in a closet on a shelf) and it'll be nice when 2010 comes to a close in which I don't have to upload pictures again to an online photo storage site and make a photo book when I've worked all year on a blog.
The only picture I have so far of 2010 is a few minutes after midnight on New Years Eve of Jonathan and I. This is our 12th New Years Eve together.
1st of many goodies passed out to the kids.
In the produce dept. getting samples of pineapple. They were tasty, even Juliet's piece that fell on the floor!
Monkeying around in front of the store.
Ava, Leah and Kylie.
Oohh, what's going on in there?
Kylie and Leah shared a pizza.
A little pizza trivia...the most expensive topping out there is cheese!
Time for the oven!
Us mommies partnered with our babies. Clearly Juliet and A'lyn like their piles of cheese in the middle.
We had a fun filled day of popcorn, pineapple, pizza, lemonade, brownies and cookies. After we ate, we went back to the store and picked up some fruit!
There were, I think, 145,000 balloons and it took 9 people a week to make all the exhibits. Cheesy, but pretty cool.
