First Annual Table for 5 Scavenger Hunt

               OUR FIRST ANNUAL TABLE FOR 5 SCAVENGER HUNT!!

 I promise, we didn't tag this ourselves!





Most families take to the roads this long weekend.  They spend their time together hiking, camping, barbecuing or something along those lines.  I hate camping on these long weekends.  Everyone seems to be out on the roads, campgrounds are loud and crowded. Honestly it doesn't do anything but put me in a crabby mood. Camping with a toddler who can't sleep due to someone partying it up at the next campsite over isn't my kind of fun!

The hubs is going to be heading out of town today for 5 days so we wanted to spend some quality family time before he left.  I have always loved scavenger hunts.  Really!  It's also been a great way to occupy the time of my older kids when I just need a break.  Each of my kids has a camera so we do picture scavenger hunts.  I have sent them out in the snow to walk around the block to take pictures of various things and actions that I have quickly jotted down on paper.  

Today, since it's a holiday.  Memorial Day weekend to be exact.  I felt it was a time to put some of our hometown things on film.  We will be moving away sometime soon, (we don't really know when) so we went on a photo scavenger hunt so the kids will have pictures of places that they have been to or that have been a part of their lives the past 6 years.

The hubby and I took a lot of their pictures because one of my requirements is that they be in the photos.  Although there is the occasional, ok often, picture of the random car or grass but I'm not going to post those!  So here goes.  Enjoy our Scavenger Hunt.  It took us 3 hours, one lunch break, one trip to a museum and a whole lot of pictures!  

First stop.  Our front door!

Someone is so excited!

Second stop.  Where the kids have their sports and sledding hill!

Where they both learned how to ride their bikes.  Around and around the track.

Ok, so we throw in a simple find too.  They needed to find some flowers.  Lilacs!

Next clue was to find the steam plant.  The kids were stumped until they caught a glimpse of the tower.  Do you see it?  Peanut took this pic.

Along the way.  Ok, I asked them to hug each other, but at least they are still smiling!

Not to be left out.

They found it!

Whoo Hoo!  They all took turns standing on this guard rail.

Even Sweet T

Next stop.  The Hall on campus that Peanut had her dance recital.

1 of 2 sculptures they had to find.

 Historic Arch.  Did you know it's only a replica and not the original?  It's only 3/4 the size of the original.  I guess I was expecting the original.  Still really cool though.

 Not the historic arch.  But fun to climb through!

2nd sculpture they had to find

Next on our hunt was the Conner Museum.  Pretty cool!

Next clue was: Through something you can see the sky.  Looking in to the skylight.  I love that I can see my little photographer in this pic.

Martin Stadium.  Another stop.

Last destination.  The Cougar.  Yay!



And another picture of another sculpture.  Why not?


We had a lot of fun and arrived back home tired but had a great time.  No fighting and lots of smiles!

Here are a couple more pics of our adventure.

To My Sweet T

Things that I want to remember and I know that I will forget.  The things that make up who she is right now.  The funny sayings and quirky sense of humor she has. 

 All of these things I have sworn with each of my kids, that I will NEVER forget.  Then time passes and I have found it interesting to hear my husbands stories of each child.  I sometimes wonder if I was even there because some of the stories sound so foreign or like they are someone else's life.  The very things that I promised I wouldn't forget are lost somewhere in the recesses of my brain.  Maybe due to sleep deprivation or just the simple fact that,  as much as I want to cling to everything that makes them unique and absolutely endearing, it's just not possible.  

Sweet T has made our family complete.  The missing link in our family.  The fine line between the yin and yang that makes the differences in her older siblings meet.  She is a true blend of all of us in the family.  She is sugar AND spice.

I want to remember how smart she is at almost 2.  How aware she is of what is going on around her. When the rest of us would be scrambling all over the house looking for the lost object and then she would inevitably bring it to us or point it out to us.  How did this 1 year old know?  Is it because we still think of her as our baby?  Yes, OUR baby.  All 4 of us has laid claim to this little girl.  

My son adores her and makes her laugh, but it's what she does for him that   makes me admire what  this 2 year old can do.  Unlike her older sister, she can get her brother to willingly ask her to play with her dollhouse with him.  WHAT?  Yes, my son, my  Lego building boy has uttered this sentence a time or two. "Want to play with your doll house with me?"  Ah the power of a 2 year old.  Her face lights up and I'm convinced that is all that it takes to bend him to her will.  I've never seen it before.  He is not a child that I have EVER been able to make to do something, but our two year old can.  

My 6 year old daughter loves having a playmate to play dolls with and dress up.  She is teaching our Sweet T the fine art of pretend.  The rules of the game.  To just "pretend" to eat the fake food.  Don't really eat it.  Playing house and zoo.  This is a game that I love to watch.  My Peanut is fantastic at it and she has quite the imagination.  We have a lion costume that I picked up after Halloween a few years ago.  One day I hear Peanut yell, "Oh no!"  I had to wait for the rest of it,  I was concerned until I heard, " The lions have gotten out at the zoo!  They are running around everywhere!"  To my surprise, my 2 year old was running through the kitchen and dining room growling and roaring.  I laughed so hard!  Oh my!  When did this toddler get to be a kid?  Where did my baby go?  

I wish I could give you a view into what I get to see everyday.  My kids are amazing, funny and creative.  Here is what I want you to know about Sweet T.  The things that I don't want to forget.

Sweet T

1.  When you are looking for someone, you cup your hands around your mouth and holler. Yes holler, "Are you?" It's so cute.  As in, "Where are you?"

2.  If someone is crying, particularly one of your sibs, you rush over to them to kiss their owie.

3. You are seriously funny!  We laugh all of the time because of your humor.

4. When we ask you how old you are, you hold up 2 fingers and say, "9"

5.  You are outgoing and say, "hi" to everyone.  

6.  You give smooches.  Lip smacking smooches.  It's really cute.  

7.  You love LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba!

8.  You have a big stubborn streak and have been throwing tantrums since you were 14 months old.  

9. You are also easily distracted so when you are throwing a tantrum I can usually get you interested in something else.

10.  Your vocabulary is unending.  You will try any word. Play and Pray are the same sounding word and we have been known to tell you no, to Praying at bedtime because we thought you were asking to play.  PAY.  

Freshly bathed and in matching outfits Nana made.  Look at these 3!  Ah, I love them!

I don't know what to say about this one!

We had a yogurt bar at her birthday party.  Birthday Parfait and some juice.

So excited that she now has her own dollhouse!

Legos from Gramma and Grampa.  They Skyped in on the party.

Yay!  A dump truck!

A little unsure of the candles.  But can't wait to eat the cake!

Yummmm!

Still eating.  Still Yummy.  Coconut cake with mandarin filling.  SO good!

Finally, on this day, April 14, 2012, I want you to know that you are loved.  You have Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents and a cousin,  Monkey and Peanut and Mama and Daddy that love you SOOOOO much!

We love you, Sweet T!  Here's looking forward to this coming year!  Don't grow up too fast.

Easter Stickiness

One week until Easter.  I have to say that all of the Easter prep is always a lot of work for me.  Maybe it's because it usually falls close enough to several birthdays that it's about all I can do to buy the ham and get the girls their dresses.  I must confess that it's been a few years since we have colored eggs.  *gasp*  I know!  What kind of memories are my kids making?  So in an effort to make some sort of moment and also to find another activity for them to do on Spring break, I tried making fondant.

Getting our hands very messy and greasy with Crisco and powdered sugar!

I love the look on Monkey's face!  He hates to get his hands messy.  He even hates the feel of lotion!

This may seem bizarre.  I hate to bake.  I do it when my husband drops enough hints that he would really like some warm chocolate chip cookies, but he usually makes them himself.  Sometimes I think about it, but I really don't like to bake.  I bake the kids their cakes or cupcakes for their birthdays and those I do willingly and I find that I like doing that for them, but really that is it.  So, I will NEVER be the one that offers to bring a dozen cookies to the bake sale.  Ever!

Look at how much fun they are having!

So back to the fondant.  My Sweet T is going to be turning 2 in 2 weeks and I have been thinking about what do bake.  It's something that I start thinking about months in advance so I can gear myself up to it.  I have been on Pinterest so much  lately looking at these amazing fondant cakes and cupcakes (www.pinterest.com) and they look so fun.  I thought that maybe the big kids would like to help me make it.  So this week was the test run.  Kind of fun.  A little like play-doh.

As the cupcakes were cooling off, I rolled out the fondant.  We, (the kids) had decided to try a light orange or peach color for the fondant.  I had thought I was using my round cake pans for the cakes but then realized that they were in storage. (When staging your house for a move you eliminate all but the necessary!) So the cake became cupcakes.
I decided that it might be cute to make the cupcakes into individual eggs and the kids could decorate their own "eggs".  Kill 2 birds with one stone!  Wahoo!

So here is the collection of our creations.  The older two kids and me and then the hubby had to make his own.  Don't mind the cupcake that is an eyeball, the other two are truly Easter related!

So with 5 days left until Easter, I have started on the decorating track.  Now, something for tomorrow that helps the kids remember what the meaning of Easter really is.  Not the Easter bunny.  Oh, I saw this picture on pinterest.

Next year I am so going to do this.  I think it's a pretty center piece.  What do you do for Easter?

Dad's Away the Kids will Play...Maybe

This is the first day of what starts the kids Spring Break.  Some people may groan when they think of a week where their children are home all day, every day 24/7.  I love it!  I love lazy mornings and an agenda that is all our own.

Tonight we started it with me saying, "yes".  Monkey asked if he could play his DS. I said, "yes".  Peanut asked if she could have a piece of her candy, I said, "yes."  Sweet T asked for milk, I said, "yes". When he came down asking if they could play the Wii, I said, "yes."  See the pattern?  I was being the cool mom that wasn't in a hurry to get dinner on the table.  No game or dance to hurry to.  Bedtime was a way off so it just didn't matter.  Cool right?  I thought that this evening would be so great!

The Wii may have been a bad choice on my part.  The next sounds I heard were not happy ones.  Bummer.
What do you do when you have a meltdown and two of three kids wanting to lay into the other one?  Well there are actually a few options here.  Laughing isn't really very effective when dealing with them in this stage.  Sometimes a glass of wine and letting them figure it out on their own, but not tonight.  I also realized that they were starting to get hungry so, I grabbed the kids and got things out for them.  They were so intrigued by this change of events that the fighting and tears stopped.  I gave them each two eggs and bowls.  I told them to crack their own eggs.  Who knew that the smiles I would get from these two would come from cracking their own eggs and making their own dinner?? I let them make it and cook it.  Sweet T wanted in on the action and so she was in there making her dinner too!  No complaints at dinner.  None!

Wahoo!  Mom-1 Kids-0  Love my kids!  Love how I can redirect them and have a good evening. They were so proud of their dinners and were actually kind to one another at the table.  They deserved a movie night with popcorn and lots of butter.  Yep that's how we roll when dad is out of town!

See how cute they are?  All 3 of them in on the dinner action!  Love these kids!

Live. Laugh. Play

Somedays I have to laugh at the absurdity of life.  I think all moms can relate to this.  You go around and pick up the house and fold laundry, do dishes and you feel really good about your clean house (ok, semi clean) .  Then you realize some little person, in this case my soon-to-be 2 year old, has gone behind you and undone everything.  Ok.  She didn't undo the dishes but she does pull out all of her clean sippy cups and fill them with dog water from time to time.  Her favorite thing to do with the laundry pile is to jump in it.  Let me also say that this doesn't matter if it's waiting to be folded or just been folded.  She also sneaks up to her brothers bedroom and finds his stash of markers and draws purple all over her lips and cheeks. (It's blush and chapstick don'tcha know).  Talk about defeated.  You just want to throw in the towel and start drawing on the walls too!

Days like this, I grab my roll of butcher paper and let her think she is drawing on the floor.  I let her play in goop.  Cornstarch and water.  If you haven't let your kids play in this, it's totally worth it!  But I definitely have to hide the lotion and chapstick.  This little girl is addicted to the stuff.  She loves to put it on but eats the chapstick and paints the carpet and the cat with the lotion.

This little girl is the biggest little joy for both of my older kids.  I am so thankful that we decided to have one more child, if for no other reason than to see the relationships develop between the siblings and her.  Her older brother makes my heart melt when I listen to him make her laugh.  When her older sister plays house with her it's just sweet. 

The other night when tucking T in to bed she was not wanting to go.  I told her that she needed to get to sleep so we could play after she woke up.  That worked and she went to sleep.  That little munchkin woke up the next morning at 5:30 and the first words out of her mouth were, "Pay, Pay." "Out, Pay."

Guess what.  She woke up wanting to play outside.  Seriously?  Ugh!  I was able to hold her off for a while but soon bundled her up and went outside.  The kids have all played on the bouncy horse that was all of my siblings and probably doesn't meet any safety guidelines.  It's still fun and it's now an outside toy.

My kids motto seems to be, "Live, Laugh and Play!"  Not a bad one to follow, on most days.

Maybe I need to try it more!

Thought the bathtub would be a good place to play.

The Spring time

This week we have had some incredible Spring like weather.  It's hard not to scowl when I see snow in the forecast.  I mean, it's Spring, right?  Oh, right, a couple more weeks and THEN it will be Spring.  Well for today I am looking at it as Spring.

It was 55 degrees and sunny today.  My yard had robins and magpies in it.  The crocuses were popping up and just this past weekend and we planted primroses in my flower boxes.  It felt like Spring!  What does Spring feel like to you?
I
 was in deep thought and contemplation as I drove to pick up my older two from school.  Sunny days can make me do that.  Or maybe it's just that it's a change and change can make people retrospective.

A forsythia tree!

 Back home we would see calves and foals in the spring.  I love seeing the forsythia trees in bloom because it means that Spring is here.  Spring is a time for regeneration, new beginnings and life.  In winter the world seems darker and a little browner.  Ok, let's just say it, dead.  Spring feels like a breath of fresh air.  Maybe it's because I am actually allowing fresh air to blow through my windows instead of having the heated air being pumped through my house.  Or maybe it's because scientifically you can breathe easier due to more green and all of that.  (Nope, not a scientist so don't challenge me on that theory. Please?)  Whatever the reason, Spring makes me happy.  If you were to ask me what my favorite season is, I would tell you Autumn then Summer THEN Spring and finally Winter.  So Spring comes with rain (not my favorite) and let's just face it, Spring is often like a hormonal teenager.  It can't make up it's mind and tries to throw every kind of weather at you.

But back to my retrospection.  I was thinking today that I feel like we have been in a Winter season in our lives for a very long time.  Reminds me of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter.  Ok, not at all how my life is really.  But the long part is that we have been looking for over a year and a half for a job for my sweet hubs.  He was still in school up until Dec. but knowing that it would take a while to find one,we started looking early.  I say "we"  because it really has been a team effort.  I do the internet perusing and send him the jobs, he looks at them to see if he is qualified and then spends the 6 hours it takes to fill out one application.  YES!  Can you believe it!  6 hours to fill out an application!  He has his PhD and is applying for positions that take a PhD which require essay questions as well as the regular stuff.   I have NEVER had to go through this before in my life!  I have gotten every job I have wanted except maybe one and then there was another one waiting for me so really, not a problem.  I may have been a bit naive about the job process in this job market when starting out, but now, with my eyes WIDE open still nothing to see.  I could go on about the various reasons the jobs are scarce and so on but really who wants to hear ALL of that?
Anyway, our long winter has got to be coming to an end.  I am confident that our Spring is coming.  We need that breath of fresh air.  The excitement of the unknown is there.  God has big plans for us.  HUGE, I'm sure of it.
I guess what I am saying is that I am ready for SPRING!  In every way possible!  Looking outside at the reminders that Spring is coming tells me our Spring is coming.  For now, I will enjoy our winter.  Our lives are snug and we know how to do winter.  If you see me around town and I look like I am suffering from cabin fever, please forgive me!  I know Spring is coming and I can not wait!

For now, I try to rest in His promise.  I try to recite it daily.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Amen to that.  That verse is my forsythia tree.  It is my sign of Spring.