Spring is in the Air!

Warm weather! Ahhh . . . we love the warm weather! We love to be outside in the sunshine. Because I have been outside more, computer activities have been limited the past few days! But, I thought I would list some of the things we love to do in the spring!

We love:

Taking walks after dinner, riding bikes, going to the zoo, writing messages with sidewalk chalk, playing on the swing-set, going to the park, walking to and from school (which we have not started yet, but we will soon!), blowing bubbles, and many more.

We have enjoyed most of these activities since the kids have very limited attention spans. This limitation allows us to participate in many different activities each day! On Saturday I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo. I just didn't think so many other people would be as brilliant as I am! I got to the zoo and drove around for ten to fifteen minutes just looking for a parking spot! Yikes. I couldn't believe how busy it was! But it was so worth it. The kids enjoyed it. Amber walked around with the zoo map telling us where we should go. Interesting that all she really wanted to see was the black bear!

We took a walk after dinner on Sunday. But didn't get too far as we stopped to talk to a neighbor along the way! Oops. John had been gone. Upon arriving home and finding us still missing he came to find us. It was a good thing we took the same route we usually take, despite pleas from Amber to take a different way!

Amber has loved being outside. She has been so cute with Timothy. She is teaching him to go down the slide. She holds on to him as he goes down so he doesn't fall off the side. She has also fetched him from the street multiple times. Timothy has a fascination with the street! It is a good thing I live in a cul-de-sac where the traffic is very limited! He got mad at me today when I wouldn't let him play in the backyard by himself. He was in heaven when the girls decided they wanted to play on the swing-set! Timothy is happiest when he can just wander. He hasn't quite covered the entire backyard, but he is coming close! Maybe tomorrow!

Sorry no pictures again. I need to get back outside and supervise the activities out there. While I am sure they can take care of themselves, I don't want to leave them out there by themselves for too long! They need to know I am watching them still! Toodle doo for now! Another update sure to come soon.

Amber's Birthday party

You could not have convinced me six years ago that I would feel more pain at my daughter's disappointments than she would. But, six years and one birthday party later, I am utterly convinced! Amber was so adamant about having a birthday party this year with friends. I hesitated, fearing the inevitable. Somehow it seems that when I plan things, everything goes awry, only ending in disappointment. However, I wanted to shield Amber from any and all possible disappointments this time. She has already had her share of mistreatment and disappointment in school. I just didn't want her to be hurt once again.
But, being a mom, I sucked it up and helped her invite five friends to her little party. She then proceeded to plan games and activities for her party! She wanted to plan most of it. So I encouraged her plans and guided her to appropriate activities. Then we sat back to wait. The party started at 11 a.m. One friend came. 10 minutes later I put on a movie for Amber and her friend. The other games Amber planned required more people to play!
11:15, still only one friend. John went to get pizza as planned.
11:20, Amber asks for the 10th time, "Where is everybody else, are they coming?" I didn't know what to say. I told her I thought they were coming, but we would just wait and see. We would just watch a movie until they got here!
11:30, John got home with pizza, still only one friend. Pizza put in oven to keep warm.
Shortly after John got home, one more friend showed up! Amber was in heaven. Finally, two friends! Yay. She didn't have to wonder anymore if her friends really wanted to come to her party.
12:00, an hour after the party started, Amber's last friend came. A total of three friends came.
To me, three friends is a good number for the first time having a birthday party with friends. the hard part for me, as the mom, was watching her and hearing the disappointment in her voice when she wondered if anybody was going to come. How do I help her at that point? I was at such a loss. I wanted to cuddle up with her and tell her it was all okay, but if only one person had come, she would have been forever scarred! She is such a sensitive little girl. No, she is not anything like me! Haha.

Despite the disappointing start to Amber's party, she had a splendid party. Once her friends were here, they all had a lot of fun. We ate pizza, played musical chairs, played animal charades, and decorated gift bags to take goodies home in. We had brownie cake and homemade icecream. Amber and her friends played with barbies, to the dismay of the one boy at her party. But he found other things to play with, and didn't seem too put out that the girls played with barbies! Whew, I was worried for a bit.

Everybody went home, and I still felt bad about the fiasco with no guests for her party! I'm glad Amber is so resilient and bounces back so quickly from disappointment. I surely don't. Next time I'm not sure I will bend when she is so adamant about having a party. I can handle the disappointment much better if it comes from me rather than others. I can control what happens when it comes from me, but not from others. I know I can't shield her forever, but I sure wish I didn't have to let her be hurt!

I have pictures, but blogger is not letting me post my slideshow from picasa, so no pictures today!

It was just about time for Amber's ride to be here and a few minutes before I needed to be heading out the door myself! Timothy comes walking into my bedroom with Emma close behind. With pride in her voice, Emma says, "Mom, look at Timothy!" I looked and just about died. She had put handsoap in his hair. But, it wasn't any ordinary soap. It was my expensive soap from Bath and Body. Yikes. It was no wonder my bedroom instantly smelled liked cotton blossom soap! That's what I get for leaving her in the bathroom by herself to brush her teeth and get herself ready for the day!

 

 

So I got Timothy cleaned up. I think it took about ten minutes to rinse the soap out of his hair. By the time he was done, we had to change his shirt. He was sopping wet! During this time, Amber left for school, John left, and I still needed to take a shower! Ahhh . . . I finally got ready and off to Miriam's house. She was so graciously helping me sew some dresses for my girls. She has these awesome sewing machines. Much easier to use than my little one! Thank goodness Miriam helped me because I would have never finished. We finished three dresses in the amount of time it took me to finish one at home! Yay! I am so excited. It was nice to take my kids somewhere where I didn't feel it was a burden to take them. Miriam was so awesome about the kids being there. At one point Emma had found a stamp with red ink that said "Excellent." Hmmm . . . by the time we found her, she had it stamped all up her arms, all over her face, and all over Timothy! We couldn't help but laugh. It was too funny. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.

At about noon, John came and got the kids so they could have lunch and take naps. Yay! So, I finally got home about 4 p.m. Shortly after I got home, Emma came out of the bathroom as proud as can be. "Look at my hair!" Because we thought Timothy's soapy head was funny, she thought we would find it amusing that she had soap in her hair. Not so funny. I didn't even wash it out right then. By the time we had dinner done, I had forgotten about the soap in her hair. We didn't wash it out until this morning before she got dressed. She screamed the whole time I had her head under the water. I guess she won't be trying that one again (hopefully)!

Timothy, timothy, oh and the girls too!

I just wanted to share these pictures because I have them! I think my kids are so adorable and I think everybody else should think so too! So here I am, inundating you with pictures today! Forgive me for this please. I haven't shared pictures for quite some time! Enjoy the pics and I will write more later when we have done something worth writing about!

 

 

 

 

Oops, I guess pics of the girls didn't transfer. I'll get them on here sometime! I guess the post with the outside pics will suffice for now!

Spring is here? Maybe?

The kids wanted to play outside today. It has been so beautiful today! I thought it was going to be so cold, but for a February day, I was pleasantly surprised. I have no idea what the temperature has been, only that I know it feels warm to me! Despite the troubles getting the bikes down from their winter perch, the girls enjoyed the time outside. This is the first time Emma has been able to ride her bike since getting it for Christmas. She was so excited. She still needs to work on getting the pedaling thing down, but give her a couple of weeks and she'll take off! Amber on the other hand knows how to ride, but she is so unsure of herself on the bike. She refuses to ride the bike if the training wheels are not in place. She has had training wheels for a couple of years but won't move past them! It wasn't until about September of 2008 that she even really wanted to ride her bike! I know what we need to work on with Amber . . . Self confidence!

 

 

 

 

My favorite things!

I just had the opportunity to participate in a swap. This was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know how a swap works, each person gets a partner, then sends five favorite things to the partner. It is a fun way to get to know the other person without ever talking to the person. So I thought about the things I could send to my partner. I thought about all of my favorite things and narrowed it down to the following five things.

1. A note pad-- because I like to make lists, doodle when I'm talking on the phone, and just write random notes. Paper is always a good thing. And I like cute paper so I sent a cute notepad.

2. Sudoku book-- Since John introduced me to Sudoku I have loved it. It is a good stress reliever, unless I make a mistake and can't find that one measly mistake a hundred numbers ago! I can do these for hours if the kids will let me. I found that these are very good books to take on an airplane. I usually can't focus enough to read a novel, but Sudoku? Perfect!

3. Cherry blossom body butter-- (at least I think it was cherry blossom!) There were so many choices. I love body butter! And I love the smelly stuff. It makes me feel so good when I use body butter. I get the chance for a few moments to relax and bask in wonderfulness before I need to return to reality!

4. Puppy book-- This is one of my kid's favorites. All of my kids love books. My girls are always asking for stories over anything else. We love to sit and read stories. Timothy is starting to recognize things and dogs are one thing that he can point out.

5. Princess crayons-- My girls are budding artists. They love crayons, markers, paper, anything that sparks their creativity. We sent the Princess crayons because they love princesses. They dress up and pretend they are princesses. So there is two favorites in one item!

I had so much fun sharing some of my favorite things! I was a little apprehensive at first but thought, why not? I had the chance to share a little of myself and my family with somebody else. I hope I can do this again. Did I mention that it was fun? I would recommend this to everybody. Try it. You just might find a new friend!

Another benefit of the swap: I took Amber to the store with me. We had a mommy/daughter date. She helped me pick the items for the kids favorites. Of course I had final veto power but it was fun. We left her homework on the table and went to the store! Amber needs that time away from everybody else. I think she feels a little lost as the oldest. Sometimes she just needs to be reminded that we enjoy her for her and not for her next accomplishment!

Carpool to the temple?

When John came to me with his plan for ward temple night I thought he was crazy! But I agreed to it because I knew we had people willing to help out! So, his plan was to get two babysitters, Maegen and Kim, who could watch all the kids at my house and we could all carpool together! Okay, not such a bad proposition, but . . . three kids each, well . . . I had my doubts! So last night we left nine kids in the hands of Maegen and Kim and all piled into my vehicle to carpool to the temple! At this point I was thinking, oh my goodness, what did we just do? It wasn't until we were at the temple that it really hit me, we had just left three babies, 15 months, 9 months, and 6 months. I would definitely be overwhelmed. That's why John planned for two babysitters. He has more foresight than I do sometimes.
Now that it is over and done with, it wasn't such a crazy proposition. We are willing to try this again. My house is still standing, the kids are all still alive, and the parents . . . well you'll have to ask them. As for me, I think I am converted to this insane idea of John's!