One of the first things we did last year in our new home here in Vermont was go to the Occom Pond party. We had so much fun we made sure to put it on our calender for this year too. But it is amazing how different it was this year! The pond was frozen (luckily...it took a long time for it to freeze and it has had to close several times because of the warm temperatures we've had) but there was no snow! Very different from the 2 1/2 feet we had last year! So no sledding and no sleigh rides. (and also...no camera! I brought my camera but forgot the memory card! oops! So we're stuck with only phone pictures!)
Here is Clara trying to stay warm...she really wasn't a fan of the fleece suit!
penguin bowling ice fishing the castle slide. The kids can be kind of shy about things and Ryan led them up to the slide but then it took a while for them to come down because they kept letting kids go in front of them. Finally Sawyer sat up there and right as he was about to go down he turned around...either to say something to Kate or to look at her for encouragement...and he ended up sliding down backwards! He wasn't a fan and didn't go down again. This year Ryan, Sawyer and Kate all have their own ice skates so we didn't have to stand in the big long line to rent. Which was nice because the ice skating only lasted a few minutes... Sawyer in action They had a place to roast marshmallows but it was basically just a pit of warm coals...who was in charge of this fire? Clara ended up staying warm and taking a snooze What a different winter we have had this year! Its amazing how scared I was to have a full winter here but now I wouldn't mind seeing some snow!
Last Saturday morning we met some friends at the aquatic center to swim. When we first moved here we were coming all the time to swim for fun, but now that Kate is in school we have less free time and most of our time at the aquatic center is doing lessons. Kate and Sawyer were so excited to swim with Clara so I dug out Kate's old swim suit. She was asleep when we first got there so the kids just played with Daddy until she woke up, ate and was ready to go
She didn't mind the water at all. She loves bath time and the pool water is pretty warm. And then 5 minutes later she was done But don't worry, after she got dried off and warmed up she was her happy self again. We're excited to have Clara enjoy swimming with us and I'm sure her brother and sister will teach her how to be a little fish just like they are. Kate actually started swim team again this week. There were no tears, just a big fat smile! It is amazing how much growing she has done this year in Kindergarten. I sure love my swim babies!
Kate started her day by coming down the stairs and finding Valentine's from Mommy and Daddy, a little bag with a notebook, a pencil set and a box of chocolates. We then ate whole wheat, heart shaped pancakes and then packing up her valentine's and heading to school. She has been wearing her super hero cape to school every now and then (I was thinking this would get old after a while, but it hasn't!) and so we decided to make her teacher one too. She gave it to her for Valentine's Day and her teacher loved it and wore it the entire day! Kate loved matching her all day long. She also had a cupcake for her morning snack and passed out her Valentine's to her friends in the afternoon. We made heart pockets by sewing these foam hearts together and then adding a card and a kit kat.
Sawyer's day started the same as Kate's, finding his Valentine from Mommy and Daddy and eating heart shaped pancakes. Then he gathered the valentine's he made for his preschool friends and, after dropping Kate off at school, we headed to preschool. It was at his favorite friend's house and they played, ate cupcakes for snack, did a heart painting and came home with a fun match game. One of his friends gave him a red balloon with his Valentine and that was his favorite. Last night when we were talking about the fun we would have the next day Sawyer said, "I can't wait to see what I got in my stocking for Valentine's Day!" He got his holidays a little confused...but I think he had a great day, even without the stocking! Clara's first Valentine's Day was spent being adorable....and making it hard for mommy to get the sugar cookies iced while the other kids were at school and she was supposed to be napping. But mommy loved her anyway. I sure love my three little Valentine's!
And then there is my one true love who I have yet to see on this Valentine's Day, but we are ready to surprise him with heart shaped pizza for dinner. And I think I'll even do the dishes for him afterward....I love him that much! Its the least I could do, he got me a serger for Valentine's Day! Be still my heart!
She is getting bigger and more fun every day. She talks, coos and spits at us constantly. The spitting is definitely her most unique talent, none of my other kids ever spit. Clara makes bubbles and spitting noises constantly! It is adorable yet messy. She smiles all the time, especially at Daddy. She forgot how to sleep through the night, but her mommy loves her anyway. She continues to be patient as she is carted around to her siblings various activities daily. When I swaddle her up and hold her close, she pushes her head into my chest and wiggles all around until she finds a comfortable spot. At church we had 13 babies all born within a few months of each other. Last night many of us were at a Relief Society activity together and Clara was by far the biggest one there. She is one of the oldest, but she is also just one big girl! And we love her!
With the exception of teething time, neither one of my other kids were big droolers. I had heard of people having to have bibs on their babies constantly to catch the drool but my kids weren't one of them. Clara is completely different. She is as drooly as drooly can be and she can soak the front of her shirt in no time flat. She has also learned a new trick with all this spit!
love you, litle miss slobbery pants!
I was recently feeling sad about the fact that I don't have money for awesome professional portraits or even access to them in my small town. (I don't even have a picture people or other portrait place!) I do have a camera, though, and I like taking pictures so I decided to go to Home Depot and buy some background props. My kids have a lot of photo shoots in their future!
When Ryan and I were talking about New Year's resolutions we, like most people, set goals dealing with our finances and budget. As we were looking at it all (which is definitely not my favorite thing in the world to do) we decided to set a goal to not go out to eat the entire month of January. I love going out to eat. It is a vacation from meal planning, meal cooking and meal cleaning...and it is just yummy! We don't go out a ton but it is definitely something I enjoy on occasion and I take advantage of the opportunity when days get hard or complicated. Throughout January I had both my kids ask me on occasion if we could go out and I explained to them that we were saving money by not going out to eat so that we can save up enough money to go to Disney World someday. And I didn't just say that to ensure they didn't whine, we are actually planning a trip to Disney World....someday. I LOVED Disney World and I can not wait to go back and enjoy it with my kids. And, have you seen the new commercials they play non stop? They make me cry every single time.
especially the part that says, "and only so many days before she finds her own Prince Charming." SOB! So we are saving our money....slowly. Anyway, back to my story. So today it is no longer January and I had a rough day that looked like this:
7:00 - wake up, feed all three kids (one with food I make) and get them ready for the day 8:20 - put all 3 kids in the car and drop off Kate at school 8:25 - come home, put the baby down for a short nap, strip the beds to wash and fold a little laundry and feed the baby again 9:30 - the chicken I had planned to put in the crockpot this morning is *rotting in my fridge so I leave the house without a dinner plan 10:00-2:00 - spend a fun day at the science museum with Sawyer playing very nicely with his preschool friends and chatting with their awesome moms. I was feeding/rocking/holding/entertaining a baby the entire time but she did fairly well. 2:30 - went straight from the museum to pick up Kate at school 2:35 - put my sleeping baby, car seat and all, in the bathroom to continue her nap in peace while I feed the kids snacks and get Kate changed into her leotard and feed myself lunch 3:30 - leave for Kate's gymnastics 4:00-5:00 - watch Kate do gymnastics with Sawyer playing nicely on my phone and Clara sleeping, pooping and then eating. I then text Ryan and tell him he can either meet us after work at Chili's....or he can eat *rotting chicken. 5:45 - Arrive at Chili's for a nice, relaxing, delicious dinner that I did not have to make. happy sigh...
The funny thing about all this was that when I told the kids we were going to Chili's for dinner Sawyer said, "NO!!! What about saving money for Disney World?!?" What a sweet little money conscience boy! It made me smile. And feel a little guilty. But I still think I was justified in a night eating out!
*so now about this rotting chicken. On Saturday I left Ryan home with the kids and I did my big, weekly shopping trip. Ryan is sweet and he cleaned the fridge out for me while I was gone, throwing away uneaten leftovers and wiping everything down. So I get home with my groceries and put them all away in a nice clean fridge. The next day when I opened the fridge I smelled something icky. If you know me well, you know I HATE fridges and leftovers and I definitely hate fridge smells. I held my breath and investigated and decided it might be my brand new cilantro so I threw it out. The next day the smell is still there. After the next day I tell Ryan he needs to investigate and to check out the meat I had bought because it just couldn't be anything else. I had a pork roast and a thing of chicken and he pulled the pork out and left it in the garage to see if that helped. Nope, still smelled. So then I went in to investigate and found....rotting chicken. Yuck. So I bravely threw it out and got to work cooking my not bad pork....and that night my pork turned out yucky. It wasn't related to the rank chicken, I just tried a new recipe that was no good. So that night I decided to become a vegetarian. Okay, not really. But I would like to collect more vegetarian recipes. So if you have a good one please pass it on! Or if you have a good vegetarian cookbook that you like, I would love to hear about it!
Wow, this blog post was kind of all over! But its what my life is like these days so there you go!
Kate had two of her school friends over on Monday and it was a very big day! We had planned it a week and a half in advance so Kate was counting down the days. Even Sawyer was counting down the days! When Kate had gone over to their house they made barrettes to wear in their hair and so Kate wanted to do a project. So I felt like I was planning a little party, cleaning the house, gathering the supplies for a project and making an after school snack. When the time finally came, Kate got kind of shy/silly she was so excited. They came into the house and you could just see it. But they were upstairs in no time, playing and having fun with Sawyer not far behind them! I sat and talked to their mom and little before she left and then we did our project. (We just made chunky crayons out of old, broken crayons we had). It was a hit. The girls were obsessed with Kate's shoes. Not her dress up shoes, which she has lots of, but on the back of her door is where I store her summer and church shoes. They kept coming downstairs in all these funny shoes. Then, when we were doing our project, one of the girls asked me where the shoes were that Kate wore to the Christmas concert. They are sparkly black shoes with a little heel and I thought it was so cute that she remembered them. I told her where they were and she went and found them and put them on. I started cleaning up a little bit and the next thing I know she came downstairs wearing the dress that Kate had worn to the Christmas concert too! Then I heard her asking Kate where her sweater, tights and headband were. I just thought it was so adorable that she had remembered exactly what Kate had worn that day and wanted to wear the same thing! It was a fun afternoon and we all enjoyed having friends over. (Too bad things are so spread out here and they live pretty far away from us!)
On a side note, I am so happy that Kate is loving Kindergarten so much. She loves it! I had a really hard time letting Kate go and the fact that she is so happy makes it so much easier. I loved school growing up but I definitely was a nerd and I was made fun of some. I am lucky that I kind of let things roll off my back and wasn't too scarred from the situations, but it wasn't fun. When I am dropping Kate off from school or picking her up I hear multiple people call out, "Hi Kate!", even from really far away. That makes my heart happy. Kate wanted to wear her superhero cape to school three days in a row one week...and she didn't get made fun of for it. That makes my heart happy. And the mom that brought her kids over was telling me that her daughter was really upset after school one day because another friend wouldn't let her sit next to Kate at lunch. So kids are fighting over sitting next to her! (I talked to Kate about the importance of making everyone feel loved and making sure everyone gets a turn....but it still made my heart a little happy!) I know kids probably aren't as mean in Kindergarten as they are going to be someday....but I hope Kate continues to have good school friends and good school experiences!
