Easter 2010

What a great way to start the morning! I think I would like to wake up every morning to a little basket filled with candy just for me. Too bad I am not 6. My girls were lucky enough to wake up this morning and find this waiting for them. In there typical fashion they were up at 5:45 am. I could hear them in the baby monitor whispering to each other. So I knew my formal wake-up from them was coming soon.

What the picture tells you:

• We like candy; especially if it says Reese's on it.
• We left strawberries out for the Easter Bunny.
• My kids were thrilled to get The Chipmunks movie and the sing-along DVD with it. Every family with girls needs this. I mean who wouldn't want their daughters going around singing "Single Ladies" all the time?
• Yes, the Easter Bunny left money and a lengthy note.

What the picture doesn't tell you:

• All of the girls slept in the same room last night. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve. Actually they were calling it Easter Eve all day. Whatever. Back to why they were all in the same room... Taylor and Payton are now sharing a room because they have been having a little difficulty getting along. I don't know if having them share a room is the best solution to this problem but I figured it was worth a try. So we now have a "guest" room. Fancy, huh? Hayden didn't want to sleep in her room because she was afraid the Easter Bunny was going to get her. Again, whatever. So she hauled her portable mattress, also known as Beary, to T&P's room and slept on the floor. When they woke up and came down stairs, they were very sure to let me know that none of them woke any of the others up. (They get in trouble for that.)
• We left strawberries out for the Easter Bunny because we didn't have any carrots or celery in the fridge. I didn't even think about it. The kids reminded me that we needed something as they were going to bed. Thankfully I had just been to Wal-mart and spent a small fortune to buy groceries for my ravenous family this month. By the way, don't go to the Tillman's Corner Wal-mart. There is nothing left now.
• The Easter Bunny left money because he is NICE. Right before bed, Hayden and Payton decided to write EB a letter requesting specific things. Hayden asked for a basketball and Payton asked for the next book in the "My Sister the Vampire" series. I tried to explain to them that EB is not like Santa Claus. But they thought he knew how bad they wanted those things so he would bring them. Taylor just opted to draw a picture and leave it for him. The Easter Bunny's note said he didn't have those things in his basket so he left them some money to go buy them later.
• The picture is taken at an akward angle so you can't see the dishes in the sink.

We dyed eggs this afternoon. The kids don't like hard-boiled eggs, egg salad, or deviled eggs. Yet, we still dye eggs every year just for fun. I didn't want to waste a bunch of eggs so I boiled just enough for us to have the experience. I am glad we did it.
We did have to remind Payton that if you stick your fingers in they dye, they will get stained. What the picture doesn't tell you: I let Payton fix her hair all by herself. I was pretty impressed with her and I fought the urge to redo it and add some hairspray and a bow.

You can't see Hayden's jeans, but she has them on. If they are clean, she is wearing them. She loves jeans. I knew we would be taking a few pictures today and I tried helping her pick out a cute outfit. She wanted her jeans though and tried wearing her old soccer jersey. I vetoed that so we agreed on this shirt. I figure since she has to wear a uniform every day to school, it is not worth it for me to be uptight about her clothes all the time.

I am glad that Taylor is still excited about all the Easter fun. I worry that I am going to wake up one day and my little girl will be gone and young woman will have taken her place. I am not ready for that.

Over the past week, several people have asked me if we had any plans for Easter. My answer was usually "Nothing special" or "It is just going to be us." Then I remembered that my family is something special and they are worth my time and effort to make it a memorable Easter. We don't have to have people over for me to make it nice. So, I asked the girls if they wanted Easter dinner or brunch. They all voted for brunch. The menu included: fruit salad, cream puffs, pigs in a blanket, a sausage skillet thing, and breakfast punch. Bryan had chocolate milk, by request and we even had whipped cream for the fruit salad. I busted out my 3-tiered plate stand (a $1 yard sale find) and my newest kitchen accessory. Do you see it....the beverage dispenser? After visiting Lynne at Christmas and seeing hers, I knew I had to have one. Sam's put these out a couple of months ago and I have been eyeing them ever since. This one joined our family yesterday and it will be invited to all parties from now on. Maybe I should name it.

I am considering changing my blog name.

I know this is not earth shattering news or something that anyone cares about. However, I have a good reason. First of all it is 1:09 in the morning and I can't sleep because I have a million things that I need to do circling in my head. One of those things is that I need to post my Easter pics for the family to see. That reminds me that it has been months since I updated my blog. Then I remind myself that I don't update my blog very often because I am a CRAPPY photographer. So the pictures I take never quite measure up to the memory that goes along with them and alot of our life is mundane and may seem even boring at times. But it is a life that I love (most of the time) and want to remember. That brings me to another reason I am changing my blog. I have a terrible memory, to say the least. Pictures don't always tell the whole story. So, my goal is to tell the whole story about our life. The good, the bad, and the stuff I don't have pictures of.

Although our family is still "Four to One," I want our story to be what the pictures aren't showing. A picture isn't always worth a thousand words.

Saturday...

I love Saturdays when we get to spend them together as a family. This was one of those days.

On Friday night, Taylor asked Bryan if she could go with him on the paper route. She was anxious to go when he woke her up. When they got back, she ran into my room to ask me if we could go out to breakfast as a family. I said sure and in my half-asleep state, I agreed to go here:

I have to remember that just because I have permenant veto power, doesn't mean that I always need to use it if I don't like something. So despite my disdain for buffets, we went. It helped that we had coupons. And really, in the world of buffets, Golden Corral is not too bad for breakfast. The girls loved all the choices and the best part to them is getting to have ice cream for breakfast dessert. As we are sitting there eating, we start to remember that Hayden as thrown up at the ol' corral a few times. She decided that she is going to start refering to it as "That Place Where I Throw Up." Thankfully, we made it through with breakfast in tact... or in tummy.

After our fine dining experience, we headed out for some more culture at Wal-mart. Once in a while, we do the once a month grocery haul as a family. I am not sure why. This time it was a matter of convenience. We stuck to the list and made it out with all our kids and no extra Easter candy. That is an accomplishment.

We rushed home to unload the cold stuff and go right back out to this event:

The Downtown Mobile Alliance along with the Exploreum hosted this event. The weather was great and we had alot of fun. The dino egg hunt was held in Beinville Square. After that, everyone paraded down Dauphin Street to Cathedral Square where they had live music, crafts, face painting, storytime, etc. We stayed until it got too hot. It was well worth the drive downtown. As a bonus, we got to hang out with the Kirby-ton clan. As usual, no visit downtown is complete without a stop at the peanut store.

After a quick stop at Best Buy, to window shop, we headed home to recharge. Then it was back out to Sam's for a rousing rendition of "Who Has To Go To The Bathroom Even Though We Just Left The House?" And a quick game of "Let's See How Many Times We Can Act Like Wild Animals Before We Get In Trouble." After that we ran by Target so the girls could get in a round of "Ignore Mom and Dad Calling Us While We Play The Display Wii Even Though We Have one At Home." I will loan my kids out if anyone is interested in learning these games.

St. Patrick's Day, Bake Sale, and few random pics

(This post was actually written on 4/5/10)

Taylor had a field trip on St. Patty's day. I guess it wasn't a real field trip, but we will call it that. The Mobile Singing Children were putting on a performance called "Bach to the Future" so she missed school to participate in that. It was at the Davidson High School Auditorium and a bunch of school groups came to see it for their field trip. It was a little education into the history of music and composers but done on an elementary school level with some really neat arrangements. There is only one other child from her school in MSC and she was not returning to school so I was easily talked into letting Taylor take the rest of the day off.

I decided to take her out to Remco so we could have lunch with Bryan. I let her pick the place. She picked daddy's favorite, Ming's Chinese Buffet. Since that is very close to the top of the list of places I don't want to eat, I stayed behind at the office and worked on a school project. I am glad I did, because I think they enjoyed their little date. After lunch we went to Wal-mart to get Bake Sale supplies and green dinner stuff. We had a really fun time looking for green food and figuring out what we should have. Here is what we decided on:
We had green alfredo, grapes, cucumbers, and green Hawaiian Punch. For dessert, we had green cotton candy and I made green chex mix. When Bryan came home and saw the green alfredo he said the girls weren't going to eat it. But, I guess if it is a holiday, they are up for anything. (Hayden was so excited about green dinner that it was the first thing she told her teacher about the next morning.) Payton made all of us leprechaun place tags. I bought the green paper plates and already had the muffin liners because...

Apparently I make decent looking muffins. I make muffins about once a week for breakfast. If there are leftovers the girls take them for snack. About a month ago, I was in Hayden's class and a little boy asked me if I would make muffins for him on his birthday. I agreed so he put his order in for some blueberry muffins. He was so sweet about it so I definitely was more than happy to. His birthday is March 17th so I picked up St. Patty's Day muffin liners. I sent Hayden off that morning with a batch of blueberry and a batch of cinnamon streusal muffins. They must have been good, because I was in her class again on Friday, and he asked me if I would make him some more muffins.

But there is no rest for the baking weary. The student council hosted a Bake Sale on March 18th and 19th for Shriner's Hospital. All the kids on student council were asked to contribute something. Two kids on student council means double the baked goods. I went with heart shaped and egg shaped brownies (some with white chocolate chips and some with sprinkles) and egg shaped rice krispy treat pops. I am sure there is a better name for those but I can't think of one. At the last minute I whipped up another batch of rice krispy treats because I was worried they wouldn't have enough. Well, the bake sale was a success. They ran out of stuff both days. Even after limiting kids to one item each, they still had to turn kids away. Since Taylor is the historian, she is responsible for taking pictures. When I looked at the pictures, I couldn't believe the line. I think they might do another one before the end of the year. There have already been some requests put in for more rice krispy treat pops.

Now for the random pictures:

We took this picture because Hayden wanted to see her uvula.

And this picture is of Hayden wearing Bryan's pajama bottoms and sweatshirt. It is at a weird angle because her pants had just fallen down and she was hurrying to get them pulled up. You can see Taylor in the background pointing and laughing.

Because of Hayden's historically poor choices in clothing, she has a few guidelines she is supposed to stick to if we are going anywhere:

• It has to fit
• It has to belong to her
• It has to match
• It has to be the right season

We were just hanging out after school, so the rules go out the window. I guess she figures one out of four isn't bad. That night when she got ready for bed, she put her own pajamas on. And put those pajama bottoms on Beary. He is still wearing them.

A few reasons why we are excited for our trip to Utah...

Getting these kids together again for an awesome time:

Baking all kinds of yummy things for them:
Being part of this handsome guy's major accomplishment:

Spending an afternoon with these two kids all by themselves:

Being part of a Utah winter:

Witnessing this, in person:

Nights like these:

Snuggling up with this sassy thing:

Hearing these girls giggle together:

Finally, getting to share it all with this guy!

I laugh everytime I watch this!

I know this is old, but since the Alabama vs. Tennessee game is this weekend, I had to post this. This isn't an actor and there is no script. This is just heartfelt hatred for the Vols.

Camera dump

I am finally getting around to downloading some pictures from my camera. So, I figured I could update the family on what we have been up to.

Most afternoons are spent like this:

Payton is such a good student and usually gets started on her homework right away. She is loving that our school has started the Accelerated Reader program this year and always has her nose in a book. One of her favorite authors right now is Andrew Clements. Her teacher read "Frindle" to the class and Payton was hooked.

When we get home from school, Hayden immediately strips out of her uniform and takes her rubber bands out. Most days she immediately puts her pajamas on. She will sometimes try to hide them behind the couch cushions so she can get right to them when she gets home. On this particular day she actually opted for clothes. Matching her clothes is not a priority for her. Her homework method of choice is to do her entire homework packet for the week on Monday. That way she only has her reading to do on all the other nights. Her reading has just blossomed this year. She did fine last year, but never wanted to read out loud to me. That has all changed. She wants to start reading her book to me as soon as she gets in the car sometimes. I love to hear her read.

Fourth grade has been an adjustment for Taylor. She is having to work harder for her good grades this year. It is not unusual for her to spend 45 minutes on homework each night. On parent night at the beginning of the year, her teacher said the state guidelines suggest that a fourth grader should be spending 45-50 minutes on homework every night. Now that she knows what and how she needs to study and how everything is supposed to be done, the frustrating moments are becoming fewer. They do still happen, though. (as recently as today) She loves her teacher and seems to be just soaking everything up. I love for her to come home and be excited about the inertia experiment they did or want to tell me everything she learned about the role Alabama has played in the space program. She has even been excited to share with me her new way of doing 2 digit multiplication. This is going to be a great school year.

Apparently she got ahold of my camera one day. These made me smile when I discovered them.
Obviously our Saturdays always involve watching the Alabama game. I love this family tradition. I love remembering those Saturdays when Bryan and I were first dating that we would spend at Bryant-Denny Stadium. I love seeing Bryan totally in his element yelling at the TV and losing his voice cheering when the Crimson Tide scores. I love seeing the girls in their Alabama t-shirts and knowing that it is kick-off time because I can hear them yelling ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL TIDE!!!!!!!! I love that when I run errands on Saturday everyone is wearing there crimson and white and also trying to get back home in time for "the game." I love that you can say "the game" to anyone and they know what you are talking about. I love singing the fight song after every touchdown. I love chanting "Rammer Jammer" after a big win and I love remembering chanting it in a stadium full of 90,000+ other fans yelling the same thing after the Iron Bowl. This is Alabama Football!

Our time has also been spent doing a lot of extra-curricular activities at school. Both Taylor and Payton sing in the school choir and are on the Student Council. The SC is only open to 3rd-5th grade. In 3rd grade you can run for class representative and in 4th and 5th grade you can run for an officer position. Taylor was excited to have that opportunity this year so she decided to run for Historian. She chose this office because she "likes to scrapbook and take pictures." When I found out that 10 other kids were running for that office I was a little worried for her. I wanted her to try, but I sure didn't want her to fail. We made her posters as a family and put them up Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, this is what the stairwell looked like:

Taylor was so excited to be part of it all. She kept saying she was OK if she didn't win, she just liked running for office, making posters, and asking people to vote for her. Here she is on Friday with one of her posters. I was surprised the balloons stayed inflated all week.

This was right after she made her speech and you can tell she has the biggest smile. The speech couldn't have gone any better. The speeches were given at an assembly of all the 2nd-5th graders, teachers, and parents. I figured there were at least 600 people there. Taylor had her speech memorized and she delivered it perfectly. Everyone else must have thought so to, because SHE WON!!! They didn't make the announcement until the following Monday morning. I think that was the longest weekend of Taylor's life. I have to admit, I was pretty anxious about it to. We had even talked about what she would do if she didn't hear her name called or if she felt like she might get upset. But, none of that was necessary. The following week, the classes held elections for their representatives. Payton was excited to be able to run for that since she is in 3rd grade. She was even more excited that she also won a position on the Student Council. They have already had their first meeting and their first event. The Student Council made signs and held them up along the route on National Walk to School Day. Payton stood on one of the routes holding her sign and Taylor walked all over taking pictures.


The girls are also running with the cross country team. Here they are after their first 5K of the school year.
The cross country team is not affiliated with the school this year so they don't practice there anymore. The practices have been a little difficult for us to make as often as we would like, but the girls totally love it when they can go.

Between all of these things, Taylor singing with Mobile Singing Children, PTA, PTA, PTA, church callings, Activity Days, etc. we still try to find time to spend time as a family. The girls enjoy playing games together. There recent favorites are Mancala and Farkle.

Last month Payton was selected as the Terrific Tiger for her class. This used to be called All-Star but was renamed Terrific Tiger to coincide with a character education program the counselors are implementing this year. Whatever they call it, this little girl deserves it. She is such a sweet girl to her classmates, is always willing to help out the teacher, and always does her best.

(You know what the out of uniform shirt means----Perfect attendance for the month including no tardies. Yay, me!)

This is a camera dump so here is some more misc. information. I am loving my Silhouette. It is perfect for YW handouts, Student Council posters etc. I especially love it now that I have some vinyl. Thanks, Lynne. You are the best. And thanks, Mom for the gingersnap recipe. You're the best. They were so good but I don't know if I can make them again before you come visit. I don't know if Payton can handle it. The smell of them baking reminded her too much of you. I guess you will know if I made them, because I am sure she will want to call you again.

Maybe I should write a book about that. If you make some gingersnaps, your house will start to smell like Mimi's. If your house smells like Mimi's, it will make Payton sad. ... You get the idea.

While I am on the subject of thanking Lynne. Thank you for the pumpkin bread recipe. I made that Saturday. Thank you for showing me how to make rolls. I made those Sunday. Thank you for teaching me how to make cinnamon rolls. I made those Monday. I'll have to give you a recipe for the crumb cake I made Tuesday. Thank you for telling me about chocolate covered popcorn. I made that Wednesday. Thanks for the chocolate covered cinnamon bears that came in the mail today. I am sure those won't last long. Thanks for showing me how to make these brownies. I will probably make them tomorrow. Now I just need one more thing from you....

.... A New Pair of Pants!

Pumpkin bread and gingersnaps only mean one thing. We had Fall this week. I hope everyone enjoyed it because that is about how long it lasts in Mobile. When we had Fall this week, the girls loved being outside. My driveway has the art gallery to prove it.

Baking isn't the only thing I use to distract myself from the never-ending pile of laundry. I sometimes sew to block out those pesky thoughts. The sound of the sewing machine is louder than the voice in my head telling me to unload the dishwasher or mop the floor. I am still a beginner but I am learning. I love quick, easy projects that are idiot proof. After Lynne taught me how to make aprons this summer, I have tried to branch out. Shawna showed me how to make rag quilts and I have made a couple of those. I made my kids some mini-quilts to make sure I had it down before I tried for a regular sized one. I think I have it figured out, because the two I made for baby gifts seemed to be appreciated. Here is Hayden with her dinosaur quilt. When I decided to make quilts for the girls I took them to Joanne's and let them pick out the fabric. Hayden saw this fabric and knew she had to have it. This picture was taken right before bed a couple of months ago when she had Bronchitis. With her allergies and "touch of asthma" as the doctor called it, she has become quite the pro at using the breathing machine. She doesn't have to use it all the time just for a week or so here and there. In this picture, you can also see right below her eye where she busted her face on kitchen table. This happened the week after she got her boot off from her broken ankle. Nothing a trip to the Immediate Care and some Dermabond can't fix.

Back to the sewing. I have a friend who has a sweet hook up on cute kid fabric remnants. She got me a bag full of pink chenille dot fabric remnants. I have had it for a couple of weeks trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it. Well I used part of it tonight and made Hayden this little outfit.

I have never made pants before but I had read a tutorial online and I just went off what I could remember. They aren't perfect so don't look to close, but she was super excited about them. She said they were the softest thing she had ever felt. You know how she likes her soft things. Always has. We had this cute little t-shirt so I decided to applique a matching "H" on it.

On another random note: At the end of August, the Activity Day girls had a father/daughter luau that Bryan took Taylor and Payton to. That left me and Hayden alone for our own date. We decided the best way to spend it was at the library then getting smoothies. We spent our time picking out dinosaur books and we looked through some of Graeme Base's books. We had to bring some of those home to share, too. Then we headed over to Smoothie King to drink smoothies and read dinosaur books. It was a great way to spend time with my baby who is getting bigger every time I blink. Somebody make it stop.

Some of the things I have not taken pictures because I never remember to charge my camera are:

Taylor's field trip to the Mobile Museum of Art

Hayden's field trip to Seward Farms and the corn field maze

1st grade Honor's Day when Hayden got her A-honor Roll certificate.

A visit from Daylyn, Jilly, Addy, and Ezra

All of the other day to day activites that fill our lives.

Even when I don't have a camera around to document , I always remember I am the luckiest mom in the world!