Happy Birthday Gregory!?

Yes it is that time of year again BIRTHDAYS!! We have 3 coming up and at least 2 parties to go with each.  Yesterday we had Gregory's celebration of life at school.  He is annoyed by that name this year.  He says just call it my celebration.  Either way it is his school birthday party.  In the Montessori world it is called the celebration of life and is celebrated a bit differently.



Gregory holds the earth and chooses a friend to be the sun.  He chose his best friend Gavin, the little boy in the red shirt.  As he walks around the sun the children sing "the earth goes round the sun sha la the earth goes round the sun" then they say in 20?? you were ?.  You can see it on the white board behind him.



But at the end of it they still had the traditional singing of happy birthday not forget the cha cha chas.



Smiley loves the cha cha cha part.



Then the children are allowed to have a snack or whatever.  Different parents bring in all sorts of things from pizza to apples to ice cream Gregory wanted cupcakes.  This is where our cupcake incident comes in.  As I was unloading the babies from the car I had the cupcakes on a bag sitting by the trunk.  Smiley got himself out while I was getting Faith buckled in to the stroller.  He wanted to help and picked up the bag of cupcakes only to drop them all over the parking lot!  I could not save any they were all ruined.  I was upset.  And it was 2:15 there is only 30 minutes left of school.  Now I have my son inside waiting for his birthday celebration and no special treat.  I quickly through the babies in the car and speed in NASCAR style diligently drove to walmart which is the closest market.  There I was able to grab a few dozen doughnuts all ready packaged and get out quick.  I was back at the school by 2:30!!  YAY we could still have the party.  The doughnuts were a hit anyways, the kids loved them.  whew.



And the teacher loved how much less of a mess they are than cupcakes.  Well less of a mess for everyone but Faith.



But she is so cute we let her get away with anything.





It is not really Gregory's birthday.  His birthday is not until July, he is our firecracker child.  But since school is ending this week he had his school birthday party now.  I am glad he gets to celebrate with all his friends.  His brother and sister love going to his school.  We will be shortly getting ready to go back today to have a picnic with the boys.  The babies can't wait.  Although Smiley was disappointed when he did not get to ride the van with them this morning.

Happy early birthday Gregory!!!  Happy celebration of life ;) !!!  You are a celebration and will always be.

Memorial Day Memories

We had a great time celebrating memorial day.  It was not a big huge to do just me, the kids and my parents at their house.



The boys have been asking to go down there for a while and this was the perfect time.

My parents live on acres in the wood that back up to a fish and game place so the boys have the best time hunting, building stuff, burning stuff, exploring, being outside, being boy, I love it.  They enjoy being out there and granite there is no wii, no internet, but I still think they would spend more time outside even if there was because it is different.



There are all sorts of cool creatures that live out there too.  This snake was the litlte one and was still bigger than the boys!  The rest of us stay away from them but the boys search for more.

Even with snakes in the grass the weather was too hot not to be in the water.

The boys played in the sprinkler and it was only a matter of minutes before sister wanted to join them.





Then only a matter of a few more minutes before she had them running!



HaHaHa

She loved getting them.  She loved the sprinkler.  She did not even mind them getting her.  It was so much wet fun.



Until they decided to get me with my camera in hand.



Clean and dry sitting for just 1 second on the pouch.



"Look brothers, look what I see!"  I don't know what it was but they do whatever this princess wants.  Like I have been saying from the beginning she has us all so smitten.



Our Smiley we just love him so much.



And Faith taking a break with her Grandpa.



Hi beautiful!

There was lots of food and sweets.  Because sweets are always the best.





Just ask Faith.

The boys spent a lot of time out in the woods.  They took their knifes and took off.  I got the 300 millimeter lens and could usually find them :)







But it was another 90 degree day.   So I retreated inside for a while.





Did not know she had her shoe in her mouth.  But it does not surprise me, gross.






Dog was hot too.  He was not out at all the whole day.



Poor old Mel.

And eventually everyone came inside to play.








I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day.

Simple Things

When going through some items the other day I found an old folder, on a memory card from March 24, 2012 and there were just a handful of pictures.  Since March is not to far away I did not have the look back awe, remember when.... kind of feeling but they were nice to have just to remember what was going on then.



Faith had just turned one year old.  This is still a sight to be seen everyday.  Me trying to get computer stuff done and she crawls in my lap.  She is getting very good about being laid down for a nap now but she still prefers to go to bed with Mama.



Evan and Wyatt.  We started to give away her kittens yesterday.  I can't take it anymore.  They are escaping everything I do and the are making our house smell terrible.  I was worried about how Evan would take the giving away of the kittens and he did better than I thought.  He wanted to go with his dad when they dropped the one of but he he was fine.  Maybe kitten time has run its course on all of us.

Would You Believe

I CUT MY HAIR!!!!!

Yup umugh I did it.I had been thinking about it for a while.  I was tired of having such long hair.  Yes it is very pretty but it is very long.  With it being so long came lots of problems.  It was always it in the way.  I would lean over and could not see because my hair was there.  A MAJOR problem when changing diapers.  That would force me to pull it up and I hate having my hair pulled up.  First not only was it very heavy when I would but it caused bad headaches.  Second I have all these feeling against pulling hair up.  Occasionally sure and it can be done pretty.  But if you are pulling your long hair up all the time why have it?  I also spent to much time picking at split ends.  When I would get out of the car and when the seat belt would roll up my hair would too ouch.  The kids pull it, when I sleep it gets stuck under me, its is hot, and there is really no style it just hangs there.  I love all the braids and other great ting you can do with long hair that are so popular over the web right now but I am so bad at those.

I thought about just getting some of the length cut off.  I like everything about Kate Middleton's style.  I could have very easily done that.  I liked some other cute medium/long length hair cuts too.  They were pretty styled and at that length they could be styled.  At my long length it was hard to style because things just don't hold.  I saw a super cute short hair cut on pinterest, of course, and pinned it.  I thought I love it but would never do it.  Days went by and I thought why not?  It is  just hair.

With the weather forecast in the 90's for this weekend I said I am going to do this.  I decided I wanted to have above the brest below the shoulder length.  That would be a nice point for me.  But I figured my hair could grow to that.  For this hot pregnant summer I wanted it shorter off my shoulders.

I went and got it cut.  With the length being so long I was able to donate over 2 feet to locks of love!  I still had plenty left and now someone else will have some too.  From there she kept cutting.  She cut the ends the middle, all parts and it made it real fluffy.  The way it looked wet I like the best kinda like a long version of the hair cut I pinned.  But She dried it and curled it?  I did not like that.  Oh well curls in my hair fall out.  Not really true now.  It was short enough it held it.  So I brushed it out and it was back to fluffier than I wanted, can't win.  Either way I snapped some pictures.

So here it is my short hair!





It has not been this short in years.  I do enjoy it. I keep whipping my head around just to feel it move.  I am getting good feedback on it from family and friends.  That is nice.  I was so worried about looking older, to soccer mom, and fatter.  My husband told me when I have short hair I look heavier, maybe I should say soon to be ex for that.  But he was surprised when I got home.  I told him I was going to get it cut he just assumed a trim.  However he thinks it looks great.  In fact he has been the one with the most compliments that I do believe are sincere.

A new style was much needed.  Short and fun is perfect for summer.  Plus hair grows.  I love long and I am sure I will grow it out again.  Just not that long again.

Broadway Rhythm

The boys had their Spring Show and it was great!  The show was called Broadway Rhythm: A Musical Review.  It went through many different plays and their hit songs.  The 1st-8 years put on the show and it made me look at my 1st and 2nd year big boys as the cute little guys.  They can seem so small and young sometimes, I love it!It was such a fun show this year.  I did not video tape the whole program just the 4 parts my kids were in.  It is to bad because the middle schoolers had some fantastically funny songs.

Since we were videotaping we did not get to many still pictures.  I wish I had one of all the kids but they are in the video.The first song they sang was Another Op'nin', Another Show, from Kiss me Kate.  It was all the kids singing and of course my two had to be on opposite ends.  Gregory is far left and Evan far right.  Hard to video and hard to snap.



The second was my favorite.  It is a Give My Regards to, George M. Cohan Medley.  It started of with Give my Regards to Broadway, Moved into I'm a Yankee Doodle Boy, and then Your a Grand Old Flag.  It was so patriotic and cute.  They danced, sang and played kazoos.  Such talented kids!  This one was preformed by the  1st-3 years.



I managed to get a few shots of Evan in too.







Third we heard the boys favorite, Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang form Chitty, the Musical.  They have been singing this one around the house for weeks.  So much so that Smiley knows the song too.  We did not take the babies with us to the show, they had a fun time at a birthday party instead, so when they came home Smiley was all to happy to watch and sing to the video over and over.  This song was sung by the 1st -3 year boys.

In the video Gregory is on the left.  The funny thing about the little boy on the right is Jay, my boys dad natural and for all their life, kept mixing those two up.  As we were walking into the school he was hurrying the other little guy and even pulled him by the arm into the school because he was not listening to Jay as he kept saying "come on Gregory."  Both Gregory and I turned around as the little ones dad who was right with him and all of us were looking at Jay.  Gregory and I both said "that's not me/Gregory!"  Jay with one quick close look was embarrassed, let the boy go, and appoligised to his dad.  Everyone was laughing.  But then later Jay was videotaping this song and he started taping the little boy first then he realized again it is not Gregory and panned over one to the far left and focused on Gregory.  Wow.  I sometimes call the boys by the wrong name but never anything this bad.  However, I see where the old man got confused, the are strikingly similar in looks.



The whole school closed the show with Together Wherever We Go from Gypsy.



I have not seen that show but it was a sweet song.  It was just such a nice night.  I can't say how proud we are of all the children.  Events at there school are always fun to look forward too.  Luckily we have 5 next week!

Nothing new nothing big

The other day while procrastinating taking a quick break from studying I went over to my blog where I noticed the abundance of cat pictures.  I thought wow have I become the cat lady?  No, I hope not.  It is just a temporary part of our life right now.  Real temporary because they are back to escaping.  Maybe they will escape and go find a new home.

But I thought I have not put up other pictures or anything in a while, have we been doing nothing?  Nope we are forever busy here.  But just nothing truly exciting.  The kids are still playing sports all the time.





When they are not playing they are practicing for the school play tonight.  With a week of school left and sports slowly warping up I am sure things will be completely different here come June.

The babies are cute as ever I did get a picture of them cuddling and watching Dora.





They have had a little more TV time lately since it was been rain all this week.  Not canceling sports type of rain that would be helpful, but lots of sudden thunderstorms and down pours.  It makes everything to wet and muddy to play on, or go outside.

I have been  busy with school.  Nothing can make you feel more like Patrick Star than being in college.  There is just so much information out there and you truly realize how little of it you know.  I have been enjoying my classes but they are keeping me busy.  I am spending considerable amounts of time on the computer doing projects and papers.  One computer class that I am in, is teaching me so much about how to better use some awesome programs, if I can remember all the millions of steps.  When I am not on the computer I am often on the couch studying.

Source: herblog.com via Karen on Pinterest

I thought that was cute but it is not the case.  I do not at all have an easy time where I am uninterrupted to read continuously in quite.  I read, I change a diaper, make dinner, do laundry, drive someone some where, read in the car, explain to my kids only mommy can color in books they are not allowed to do so (that does not work though).  As I opened up one of my books to a thoughtful reminder that I do have little kids as it was stamped with sponge bob all over the page.  I guess that brings me back to why I feel like Patrick Star :)

I am staying on top of it all but I want to be ahead of it all.  Maybe that is what I will get accomplished this Memorial Day weekend.  But maybe I will spend less time on school and more time with the kids.  Right now we do not have many plans but soccer, baseball, church, hopefully a parade and going to my parents.  I don't have time to do up a big Memorial Day party right now and I will be doing more of that for 4th of July anyways.  It is always the bigger holiday with our family as my oldest is a firecracker kid, born on the 2nd.  It is supposed to be HOT this weekend. We are talking 90's.  So where ever I am and what ever we do I am sure a pool will be near by.

To Cute Not To Share

Two disclaimers before we get started.

• There are A LOT of pictures.  Cute cuddly babies and kittens pictures.  So dear it will make you want one.  If it is a baby you want I can not help but if it is a kitten I have two of the spotted ones left and they can be all yours!

•  No kitties were truly hurt in the taking of these pictures.  Scared probably but they are all fine.

Sunday early morning I was woke up at 4 am to very loud meowing.  Very quick help me somethings wrong meowing.  I walked over to the stairs and Wyatt was just going off meowing.  I looked down 1 more stair and there was a kitten.  Oh no what was wrong?  I thought the kitten must have fell out of the play pen and possibly getting hurt and she brought it up to me to take care of.  I picked up the little one loved it and then returned it to the playpen to stay safe and sound.  Still groggy I went back to bed.  Six the alarm goes off and I was glad to be awoke by it and not a meowing cat.  I went to the basement to go check on the kittens, make sure that little one was still doing good.  Upon opening the door I heard all these meows and the stairs were full of cats.  The kittens had all got out of the playpen and were climbing the stairs.  Ahhh!!!

They have just turned 1 month old.  We were keeping them in a large cardboard box until they started escaping. We got them another cardboard box with higher sides and thought that would be good but they still were escaping.  And we did not want them getting hurt falling off the sides.  At a yard sale we picked up an old  playpen for super cheap.  I thought it would be great for the kittens.  High sides lots of room, fine in the basement, something we could just through away afterwards, container for 1 more month for the kittens.  I was wrong.  It was nice that you could just open the basement door and see them since the sides were just nets.  I never expected that the kittens could climb the nets.

But yes not only could they climb the nets they can now climb the stairs!  I quickly got my son Evan, the natural pet lover.  We collected all the kittens and put them upstairs where I thought they would be contained but was wrong again.  Even though the room was baby gated at two doors the little kittens could fit through the baby gates, and did.  After collecting the kittens AGAIN we put up more and different baby gates in front of the other baby gates and that seemed to work.  But now I had 5 cats climbing around one room with my 4 kids.  Oh my.  We were chasing them through all sots of small spaces.



Good thing my kids are small.  But this was exhausting.  Plus every time we would get them off of something and hold them their razor sharp claws would latch on to our clothing.  The big boys have quite a few scratches on them.  Ugh.  What to do?  Grab a camera and start shooting.  Because even though they are a handful and a half they are so stinking cute!!!



The kids loved the kittens playing with them.



They would sit down and be covered it these little cuties.  That is until Faith climbed on the couch.



A kitty would unknowingly crawl over to her.





She would catch it. And start kissing the poor thing.





lots of love and then here mom I am done.



She would quickly discard the cat.  Or in the cats eyes it would run for its life.





Even though one would run away there were always more victims kittens for her to love.











Oh Faith....

When the kittens would no longer come to her she went to them.





Kittens are so much fun.

I am surprised she did not get hurt by their sharp claws.  I am surprised they did not even try clawing at her. She is still 13 months old and thinks they are just fun play toys.





Playful or not it was time for them to get a break from her.



Eventually the cuddled in a corner and went to sleep.  Very interrupted sleep as none of my kids would leave them truly alone.  What a crazy morning!  It was a church morning too.  That obviously went out the window.  How could I leave when there were kittens all over my home pretty uncontainable and certainly had to be supervised.

I called my husband frantic for help through this he brought me home a bunch more cardboard boxes which we lined the inside of the playpen to double the standard height of it.  He also got me a PINK cat carrier!  It is so pretty.  After this fun morning I am ready to give them away now.  It has been two days since the "kitty emergency" and all has been working out well for now.