Not Quite As I Planned

So, I thought I'd be able to be a great mom, fantastic wife, A+ student, volunteer extraordinaire, an everyday blogger, and a few other daily/weekly task master however it just doesn't look like all that is going to be possible...DUH!  I'm just a bit crazy sometimes :)  I thought I'd jump on here and let you know how the first week of classes has gone for me--fantastic!  I'm excited for my classes this semester--Public Speaking and Personal and Community Wellness.  I'm getting in shape this semester! Last week I completed 5 days of working out and I've already tackled today's workout.  Public Speaking, well, that's a bit challenging but I appreciate the importance of it and how I can definitely benefit from the course.
Enough about me.  The kids completed their first full week of school last week too.  Penelope did her 2 days, one of which was all day.  She has asked daily to go to school despite being told she only goes 2 days a week.  The boys have some great teachers and are off to another wonderful year.  Alexander has already done some research and completed a report on the subject of himself.  John Paul has brought home some papers covering various reviews of last year's work.  I love his handwriting and listening to him read.  The boys are having fun competitions each evening as we review math facts. And, Stella is crawling! Eight months old and crawling! No teeth, no rolling over, CRAWLING!
Check a few of these out
Get some quick extra nutrients in your diet at Green Thickies
Was so excited for her baby announcement.
I'm excited to check out this site with the kids.  Did you know PBS Kids and Whole Foods have teamed up to create Fantastic Organic?
Have a beautiful week! :)

80th Anniversary of Lego

It's the 80th anniversary of Lego!  What have you created lately? Over the weekend, Alexander created a board game using his bricks and guys.  We've enjoyed playing it a couple of times.  John Paul watched a tow truck load up a car on Friday and then recreated the tow truck using his Legos.  Legos truly are endless possibilities for imaginative play and creation.  Here's a short video about the history of Lego.

Curiosity

Exploring Curiosity

After watching a video of Curiosity, Alexander went and built his own out of Legos :)

7 Quick Takes

{1} This crazy heat is sapping all my energy and desire to do anything.  I've taken the kids to the pool a handful of times this week.  I'm thankful for my air conditioning.  I'm praying for the people fighting the Colorado fires and for all those affected by the fires.
{2} Despite my lack of energy and desire, I had fun taking my kiddos to our church's Little Angel program several mornings this week.  Little Angels is like VBS for the younger ages.  My friend who organized and led it this year did a FABULOUS job!  And, I got to meet some new moms and make some new friends :)
{3} I also got outside to water the garden a couple of times.  My efforts in the heat have been rewarded!  I harvested some lovely tomatoes :)  This is the first lemon cherry tomato we picked a week or so ago.

{4} So pretty!

{5}  The best breakfast (when making a smoothie will wake everyone up) when it's hotter than Hades

Toast with avocado smashed on top and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Also, tomato slices on top makes it yummy too.
{6} Another fun baseball season has come to an end...thankful we don't have any games in this crazy heat!

{7} Watching this relationship grow has beautiful and frustrating at the same time.  He loves her to the moon and back...which means he wants to play with her ALL THE TIME (that means he likes to wake her up!), he wants to carry her around, he wants her to wrestle with him.

NINE Years old

Oh My Goodness!!! I have a NINE year old now! :)  Alexander is 9 today :)

Happy birthday big buddy!

Building Challenge

How did the building go this past week?  My kiddos had a blast brainstorming ideas of things to build for Hello Summer...pools, beaches, beach ball, sun, playground, ice cream truck, and more!  Alexander settled on creating a "surfer dude surfing."

John Paul created a fantastic beach scene complete with swimmers and sunbathers.

Penelope decided on a beach ball and the decided to create cards for people instead of building. And that's okay :)

Later she built a quick boat.

Now for this week's challenge: Zoo!
Get creative and create :)

Jets Catcher

Baseball season is going well this year.  Alexander has been thoroughly enjoying it and is getting so in to the game.  Currently his favorite position is catcher. 

Here he is in the dugout getting all the gear on.  I honestly don't know how they manage to catch and throw the ball with all that stuff on, let alone see the ball coming.  Heck, I don't know how they catch the ball with the glove on.  I hate wearing a glove.  I guess that's one reason why I never played softball :) 

Here he is warming up with the pitcher.
I love watching them play and cheering them on! 
GO JETS!

Just thinking

I took Penelope to the park yesterday afternoon for a little play time before picking the boys up from school.  While I pushed her on the swing, I listened to an elderly couple chat as they pushed their twin probably about 2 year old grandsons on the swings too.  It made me think about how Jaime and I will be as grandparents.  I hope we are close to our grandkids, that we'll get to take them to the park and hang out.  It just made me happy listening and watching them interact.  Happy to be able to have this time with my kids.  Happy to be able to take them to a park, to push them on the swings, to watch them climb and slide.  This week I've been acutely thankful for the gift of the sense of hearing.  I get to hear their laughter, their prayers, their arguments, their ideas, their crying and whining. Some days I find myself wondering what life will be like when my kiddos are in their teens.  Alexander will be in high school when Stella starts kindergarten, she'll be his age now when he goes to college.  Exciting and sad to think about.  In other news, John Paul came home with lines to memorize for his Kindergarten play in a couple of weeks...just 2 days before the end of school...SUMMER STARTS IN A COUPLE WEEKS!!! :)

Stella at 4 months

Just days before she turned 4 months old, Stella decided to roll from her back to her tummy.  I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be mobile!  I remember when Alexander was a baby being so excited and couldn't wait for each movement milestone.  Now, though, sometimes I long for the stillness of a small baby.

So along with a little rolling action the other 4 month news is that she's drooling...drooling a river...sucks her fingers, fists, and blankets...can blow bubbles with the river of drool..."talks" as if she's really participating in our conversations.  We often wonder what our kiddos at this age are saying because their babbles can be so very expressive. 

Alexander+Baseball=Fun Times

Baseball season is in full swing.  So far Alexander loves playing the catcher position.  I love watching the boys play. Some of the boys are so in to the game while others, well, as we had a talk with Alexander, they (and he sometimes) need to get their heads in the game.  This past weekend the Jets participated in a tournament.  The first game was ugly--ugly weather, ugly playing.  The second game however was impressive!  The boys seemed to have settled in and were more focused. The weather was MUCH better.  The Jets played so well, they were in the lead, but sadly lost at the end. I'm excited for several more fantastic games this season.

at bat

on deck

Happy Easter

Because it's still the Easter season I don't feel any guilt about getter this Easter picture up here 2+ weeks after Easter.
And, because trying to get a really good picture of all 4 at the same time is near impossible, I'm sharing just a fun one :)

Well, I suppose I should put a "serious" one on too

Happy Easter!

Homeschooling???

I've had all four kiddos home for two+ days this week (it's Wednesday right now).  The girls are usually home and the boys usually at school.  However the boys are fighting a nasty cold and John Paul has had a very low grade fever.  They are pretty energetic and really not suffering too much.  (A friend pointed out that I'm pretty lucky and should be thankful. So true!)  Anyway, since they aren't too bad, but can't be at school due to that pesky low grade evening fever, I decided we'd do school at home.  We've been busy doing math and reading as well as some art and science too.  I took the girls to story time at the library this morning and took the opportunity to check out a handful of art books.  They are currently recreating masterpieces :)  For science, I cheated and let them watch a science video I picked up.  Math this morning was doing some graphing with Legos--pictographs and bar graphs--and math facts.  I studied to be a teacher, I taught for a few years before having kids, I've occasionally thought about homeschooling, I've decided that I'll keep sending them to school :)

On My Plate

Okay, I said I hopped to get on more this week, but I've failed to follow through, because, well, I've got a lot on my plate. Ha, don't we all! :)  So, here's a super fast run down of what I'm juggling: 4 kids, refinancing the house (Jaime's really done most of the work on this one), cleaning the house, teacher conferences, laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, Downton Abbey, 4 kids, researching schools to go back to school, reading too many books at one time, cooking, 4 kids, cleaning house.  Did I mention 4 kids and house cleaning? :) 
Some of the above reasons are perfectly important and take priority over blogging.  One that doesn't, did you catch it in the list? Downton Abbey.  I'm hopelessly hooked!  I stayed up until almost midnight last night watching 3 episodes in a row!  You can watch full episodes on Netflix and PBS. 
Check out this little girl, our Stella Lulu!  She's getting so big so fast, 8 weeks today.

And, I must be doing something right...check out this little mama! :)  She's even got the sway down!

Penelope has pretty much given up her daily naps, but a couple times a week I can catch her having some down time. 

Alexander having an after school snack of popcorn.
Things are good and crazy...love it!

How Pinteresting!

Today I had Alexander home from school. He was slightly sick...okay, he probably could have and should have gone to school, but every now and then a sick day is okay.  He sure was helpful while we ran errands.  It was great having an extra set of hands to help :)  I thought I'd get in some fun learning for him so I turned to Pinterest for some ideas.  I've been collecting various Preschool activity ideas to do with Penelope, so I thought I'd look for some specific things for Alexander.  I've realized that if you are looking for something, pretty much anything, it'll be on Pinterest.  It's like Google with pictures and comments that you can sort and save!  I'm a Pinaholic, I admit it :)  So anyway, along with looking for things for Alexander I also thought I'd look up busy bags since a friend had inquired about them on Facebook.  I've made a few for Penelope and thought I'd do a specific search on Pinterest for the busy bags.  Oh my, there are some FANTASTIC ideas out there.
Take this one for example:

Toddler Busy Bags

This mom set up an exchange of busy bags with other people.  What a cool idea and way to get a variety of bags for little ones.
Here's another one that so simple, yet so much can be done with it.

Clothes Line Busy Bag

With the clothes line bag, patterning and sorting could be done, fine and gross motor skills are practiced, place the tops and bottoms on a piece of paper and then draw heads, arms, legs and shoes.  So much fun in one bag!
And here's another one that has many fun ideas, but that are all in the same theme with more focus on learning. (This blog has so many things that I like, I've been getting her emails for quite a while now.)

Themed Busy Bags

So many fun ideas out there!  I love these busy bags because I already have so many of the items around the house.  Now I need to come up with some that would work for the boys!

Siblings

Going from 3 kiddos to 4 has been pretty easy (granted I'm just shy of 4 weeks in to this!).  It's been pretty easy for a variety of reasons--number one being that Stella SLEEPS! (granted she's just shy of 4 weeks old)  None of the other 3 slept nearly as well as this little girl.  The next thing that has made it easy for me is the help I get in caring for Stella.  Alexander, John Paul, and Penelope (well, and my husband too) practically fight over who gets to hold her.  Penelope is the feistiest fighter and is happy to hold Stella whether she's crying or asleep.  Penelope seriously loves to bring me clean diapers, clothes, take dirty diapers to the laundry or trash, help bathe her, etc. etc. you get the idea.
Tonight, both Jaime and I were making dinner (a post to come about that soon).  Alexander stepped in to help out with a sleeping-but-wanting-to-be-held Stella and he got some reading done at the same time.

Little Photo Shoot

Last week I took advantage of some nice weather and the boys being out of school.  I took them to a park and got a few pictures :)