Jinx

The start to a promising soccer season:Look at Carter getting in on the action!

Apparently since I was so blasted excited and braggity-bragging about the fabulous weather-- We recieved the swift dose of spring rainshowers. Thankfully, it held off for the most part to squeeze in soccer practice and the playdate for yesterday. Do to the thunderstorms and no good "plan" Ella, Carter and Scott went to the movie theater to see the Disneynature movie on the planet. They loved it! It was 90 minutes of animal fun! They came home and ALL THREE of them were talking, dancing, and re-enacting the funny things the animals were doing. Scott was just as entralled. I had to keep stopping him and saying"let the kids tell me, FIRST!" Glad they go to have a fun time together. Christian and I caught up on somethings around the house. He is still not back to his normal chipper self. It was fantastic that he sat on the kitchen floor and played with a spoon, pan, and top for 30 minutes! He was tickled pink and would occasionally come over and put the spoon in my mouth saying "nummm, numm!"

Today the kiddos and Scott are napping. If all are rested and happy, maybe I will take the big kids to the pool for some swimming fun. This week will be over in a flash.

Tuesday: Swimming lessons and school "jog" for Elle

Wednesday: Grad class begins for Mom! -yuck

Thursday: Carter's sports class

Friday: V.I.P day for Elle at school..
HOpe my camera (and I) can keep up with all these fun happenings. Maybe I should go grab a snooze...or do I hear a little someone stirring?? Bummer! So close! Off to snuggle my littlest guy in peace and quiet...if just for a little while!

It's BLOOMin hot!

It was so hot on Friday that we had to celebrate with an icecream cone! The kids wanted to run around in their swimsuits. Typically, I wouldn't have a problem with it since it was 85, however, the bugs were also bloomin' We used some bug spray and enjoyed the afternoon in shorts.

Christian might need his own chair since climbing in and out of the kids entertained him for a good chunk of the afternoon.

The Weaping Cherry tree is in full bloom. We've been enjoying observing

the massive, fuzzy bumblebees.

Getting our fruits, veggies, and herbs off to a good start! Thanks to Grandma for giving us all the important gardening tools: shovels, gloves, watering cans, etc...

Carter and Elle are so dedicated (and innocently opptomistic) about their plants. Each night they both pray for them. The hot weather has been a good thing since they LOVE watering them. We have to keep close dibbs on these plants since we bring them in each night. Gus has discovered he likes chewing on plant leaves! Ahhhh!

Our very own gardeners

"Look mom, I can get my own snack!"

Ohhhhh NOoooooo! Mommy can't even go to the bathroom by.her.self! Because when she does....so little munchkin of mine makes a mess! This time it just so happened to be a cute and fairly easy to clean mess! "Cheeze Its are crunchy mom!"

Fun at the park(s)

Well it certainly has been acting like summer around here. Last weekend we headed out for a beautiful day at the park. The kids had so much fun running and playing in their shorts.

The kids are REALLY into flying their kites and surprisingly, the are both good at it. Ella was tickled to have this much space withOUT trees (we've had a couple of run ins with some branches) so she let the ladybug go "all the way up!"

We stopped at a park with some good flat trails for practicing riding bike. As you can see we were highly distracted by the Thornapple River. We spent more time throwing rocks than anything else. I am so thankful that we live in an area with some many options....

some little guy picked wild flowers for us. Here are Scott and Elle showing theirs off. They had strict instructions to tuck them behind their ears!

Today-by the numbers

Ahhhh! Haven't been blogging very faithfully lately. The weather is just too nice! Also, Christian had a ruptured ear drum Tuesday and he just isn't himself---what a little toughie though! Briefly here is a run down of today by the numbers:

85 degrees and sunny! (whoa!)
4 pairs of shorts-for the kids and I
3 new plants purchased for our ever growing container garden
3 (yes count them 1-2-3) bloody noses for Carter
1 goose egg on Christian as Carter threw a rock and SOMEhow it hit him smack dab in the head while the whole family was in the itty bitty sandbox
2 batches of laundry hung OUTside
3 sets of bare tooties running in the backyard
1 wet t-shirt contest for mom-wait no that was just Carter spraying me with the hose
1 kite stuck in a tree
3 1/2 ice cream cones consumed mid afternoon
2 walks
10 or so sand castles made and quickly destroyed by the boys
5 rocks found in Carters shorts when I put them in the dirty clothes
1 pitcher of pink lemonade vanished
4 delicious burgers, cottage cheese, and fresh fruits for dinner
100s of giggles heard from our yard from 3 kids and myself
1 glass of wine.....and I am headed to the comfy chair to enjoy my InStyle magazine that I haven't glanced at yet.

Agenda for Saturday:
8:30 soccer practice
10ish Carter is having a few friends over...mass chaos (praying for sun and warm temps to put them outside on playset)
11 lunch for 5 kids
Plan to plant: this huge box of wildflower seeds, all the fruit,herbs, and veggies we accumulated this week....lots of watering I'm sure!
More ice cream cones to celebrate the sun and fun
Hopeful naps for all?????
Family walk/bike ride
2 boys who need hair cuts
20 some items that NEED my ironing?!@!
Building a gate on the back deck to prevent anymore gray hairs from popping up on my head. Between the boys.....I will consider us blessed NOT to have one of them fall down. YIKES!
Finish cleaning out my landscaping beds...tis neverending!
Oh, yea....some house work and planning for the week ahead. Only 28 more "get ups" left to the school year. Geeeeeesh.....MUCH to do!

Lots of fun to be had along the way! Look for pictures soon.

The Cars Birthday

Let me just first begin by saying, "thank you God!" I am in a stage with my kids that I just want to push the pause button on life and soak up all this goodness. The kids are all at such fun, wonderful, and hilarious stages and quite frankly there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to fit all the fun in. It helps that the weather around here has been more summer than spring like. It may be partially due to the fact that I am coming off the Spring Break high. It could be that I didn't work on Friday since I played with my kids all day. It could be that all my kids are rested, healthy, and extremely funny and happy! I feel like we are in a new wonderful chapter of life (which is part of the reason I have been so delinquent in keeping up with my blogging). We celebrated Carter's birthday on his actual birth day and then waited for this weekend for the party. We couldn't have planned it better if we'd been trying. It was absolutely fabulous outside. I had planned the party for a Friday night bc Elle was supposed to start soccer practice today but they ended up moving it back a week (so look for a soccer post next weekend) and we were also supposed to have small group today but that too was moved to Sunday. So we had two gifts this weekend Friday= Carter's party and Saturday was this beautiful wide open summerish day.
We also did not have daycare this week, thankfully, mom and dad came to help out a couple of days, Scott took off 2 mornings and I was BLESSED to take off Friday.

Friday was fun. We all packed into the van in the morning, ran Ella to school and then I got a chance to hang with the boys. We had so much fun. Carter was ecstatic to be the big kid with Ella gone and Christian was.....well.....Christian (aka sweet and laid back...mostly.) One thing I LOVE about Carter is that he is so thrilled and over joyed by ANYthing you do just for him. As I decorated the house, he kept saying, "thanks mom for doing my Cars party. This is the best." While Elle was at school, I took him into Kohl's on the off chance that we would find him an actual Cars shirt for his party. He was so cute. As we entered the children's section a salesperson greeted us and asked if there was something we were looking for. I said, as a matter of fact...then handed the conversation over to Carter. This is what ensued: Carter: " I need a W-ightening McTween shirt for my Tars Par-TEE today. I am free...years old." The saleswoman was more than tickled to take us to our destination. Shocked there was only one shirt left with "mcTween" on it (in a 5/6) but we took it. As she checked us out, she whispered to me, "he is so adorable, if I could give this shirt away, I would in a heart beat." Ahh he was so cute, so proud, and so ready to wear that shirt! It was big, but you will notice he wore it proudly to his "par-TEE!"
I must have been bitten by the bug...the go-back-and-relive-your-childhood bug. I threw my "Party to do list" out the window and had an absolutely wonderful and fun day with my kids. Since the week had been a bit on the unusual side, I had left far too many things to be done at the last minute (assuming I would have tons of time for merrymaking since I wasn't working on Friday) but I got caught up in all the fun and not having to work and the breathtaking weather so this was our day:
Drop Ella off at school. Sing Carter's favorite songs all the way to the library, take the boys to the mall, do a little shopping (not nearly as productive as when with Elle) ride the carousel, pick Ella up at school, throw caution and to-do list out the window, went to best park in the world for way too long with kids, had picnic lunch in van since we had too much fun at park and time got away from us, took the kids to Sam's to pick up party necessities (Carter almost came out of his skin when he saw the lady making his "cars cake") then couldn't resist but we ran Scott's errands and went to Meijer to pick up balloons and ice cream then headed home where I reinforced a strict nap time for all but myself and then miraculously we pulled off a SUPEr fun party! Whew, I fell asleep in the chair reading a magazine at the end of the evening. Scott scooped me up and put me in bed as if I were the three year old! Here are some shots from his party. It was so fun. If you weren't able to make it, I hope you can get a feel of the level of fun HE had.
A perfect night to play outside. Scott gets so much joy just seeing the kids enjoy the playset he put together.

Grandpa and Grandma Blackmer enjoying the kids outdoors! Hefty work, I say!

The party guy enjoying his pizza dinner on his Cars towel in the backyard.

Christian was less than thrilled with the hat! "Show me cake, people!"

One of Carter's best buddies from small group and daycare (I think he is more like a partner in crime) but we will call it best buds for now

Elle and Brooke loving the balloons
Carter and one of his favorite guys...Uncle Evan!

The thrill of gift opening!

More chaos!

The box of presents from Grandma & Grandpa Moorlag

"WOW!!!!"

my very own LEAPSTERand wheelbarrow

Christian had had enough of the life size poster so he

went into destroyer mode.

A few presents were too big to be wrapped so we did those out front.

A table for his Cars and trains from Grandma & Grandpa Blackmer and Evan and HEather

So awesome!

And.....his very own bike from Mom and Dad! (no more princess bike of Ella's for this big guy!)

Could we put a helmet on the kid?? Look at all those bruises already???

And the beloved Cake......

Christian LOVEs cake, grandpa's lucky he shares.

Weren't these guys just turning 3 not-so-long ago???Now they are sheer silliness!

Joy....and sugar fuel this smile

After the crowd leaves, we get on pjs and have a little wind down time. Which toy does he pick to 'chillax' with?? The new Leapster. Check out his focus...all the way to his toes. :)

Showing Grandpa a picture he made "just for you!"

Look at the two with their Leapsters and matching pjs....ahhh Heavenly bliss even if for just a short time!