It's Late...

And I really should be sleeping. But I'm not, so here goes the story I shall call "Monday Madness: The Mom who was on Fire"

This is was one of my kitchen rags. Sad little burned thing it is. Bailey needed it to wipe his hands off during his science experiment data collecting this afternoon. His science experiment is on our BBQ. Now, many science experiments sadly end in explosions. However, the prevented grass fire had nothing to do with his experiment but more my inability to multi task.

It all started as a lovely day. A little boot camp in the morning, some laundry in the afternoon. But there is this point in the day I like to call the witching hour. It is from 4-5 p.m. This is the point when the natives get restless. They are hungry, tired and usually pretty annoyed at one another for breathing. I usually have a handle on this hour as I am not a newbie.  But today, I decided I could get multiple things done at once to try to save time. And why not throw caution to the wind and just do it at the peak of craziness? So, I was making dinner (well, enough food to use in three dinners this week), baking cookies that needed to be dropped off that evening, directing nightly clean up, convincing Emma that her life is not doomed to boredom, Nathan that he doesn't need his best friend with us 24/7, Kate that she couldn't wear all of my high heels at once, Addison that we don't draw on the walls and Bailey that designing a project for school takes longer than 30 seconds.

Let's pause for a breath....

 

 

All of a sudden, I smell smoke. I remembered I was heating up the BBQ, but quickly dismissed there being a real problem. I just assumed it was dirty and needed to be scrubbed a bit. But, the smoke was pretty strong so I thought I should take a look. I walked out and saw nasty smoke coming from the BBQ on the side, only to discover that it was not the BBQ but the rag sitting next to it. I picked it up and it about burst into flames. To my left was our half dead back yard, full of lovely fire starters, to my right a large pile of wood. I tried to quickly blow on it, wave it around, but apparently that only causes flames. So I threw it on the ground, ready to stomp on it when I remembered I was barefoot...

It was a nice surprise to see a burning piece of paper on the other side of the BBQ also on fire. This was all right next to poor Bailey's science experiment of three glasses (one filled with water, one with rotting milk and one with vinegar--and some chicken bones). I grabbed the paper on the tiniest piece left that was not burning and threw it down with the rag. By now, all the children had gathered at the doorway, so I had to practically push them out of the way to get in the house while the flames grew.

I grabbed the baking soda canister and booked it back outside in time to dump it on the flames (that were dancing in the slight breeze). The End.

It all seemed much more dramatic in the moment. All is well and we even survived the Witching Hour. And I realized it is now officially Tuesday, which means I have survived Monday. Good night.

So this post will be filled in with some of my favorite Pinterest comedy/motherhood finds. I volunteered at the kid's school today and ran into one of the teachers who told me how much she enjoys reading my facebook statuses. Immediately I thought that she must not get out much but really she enjoys them because her six children are all grown. She gets a good chuckle (even if it is a haha that isn't me anymore). I told her about my blog and that I have it printed regularly so the kids (and I) can enjoy reading about the craziness of our lives. I realized that I have been having the blog printed for three years now! 

Also, today facebook is filled with the whole political drama over the woman saying stay at home moms don't work, etc...and then the responses. Comments like that don't really make me mad. I just kind of laugh because obviously the person has no idea what they are talking about.

I LOVE this find above. It's so true. My kids (well the three younger ones) have this thing where they yell "Moooooooommmmmm, Come he-eeeeeerrrrrrr!!" Now, this can mean many things depending on what room of the house the phrase comes from. It can mean "I pooped, come wipe me," or "My blanket fell off while I was watching t.v. and I have no idea how to bend and pick it up and cover myself exactly the way I like," or it can even mean "_________(fill in the blank with sibling name here) is biting, kicking, screaming, bleeding, dying...."  I can usually decipher which meaning is intended but I admit sometimes they do throw some curve balls.

 

 

 

I think I understand why every mother complains about this. If you really think about it, from the time you start potty training an audience of sorts is always present for their time on the toilet. As a mom, you must be there to make sure that they position correctly, wipe completely, etc... So why wouldn't they think it is perfectly OK to follow you to the bathroom? I mean, maybe you need help reaching the toilet seat or something?! :)

So lately, we have had BIG problems with the twins cleaning up their room. Two nights in a row and two nights with early bedtime because they won't do it. Time to start coming up with a new game plan because this one isn't working. Maybe there is an app for that...

Haha.... so true :)

Last Day of Spring Break

The kids are back in school as of today. Yesterday we went to the park to get some wiggles (and fighting tendencies) out. I made them pose for some random pictures while there because the park was seriously beautiful.

 She looks double jointed in this picture with those skinny little arms. But I like the rest of it.

Addison was not too happy about pictures at first...

  But it didn't last long

I love this one

Bailey being cool

It was windy!

This didn't work for capturing them all smiling or even looking halfway normal, but it shows the beautiful park!

Insert Egg Joke Title Here

So, for the last ten years we have never dyed eggs for Easter. Well, I think we might have done it once when Bailey was little. There have been many years where I have actually bought the kit and everything...and then it just doesn't happen. It never happens for many reasons: 1. We aren't big hard boiled egg eaters and I hate to waste eggs. 2. We aren't big hard boiled egg eaters and I am always unsure about cooking them correctly 3. Some things just don't happen...

This year, we were determined to finally do it. Well, I probably could have cared less but Ben was a little more insistent. It's hard to give up omitting something from a holiday because there is no turning back. Thankfully, Pinterest provided me with an excellent and easy way to cook the eggs. We only cooked 12 to cut down on wasting eggs. I also was given a Pinterest tip on how to dye them without much mess.

Getting the dye ready!

Then we did had them line up by age and everyone rotated through doing two eggs and then putting stickers on them.

Even Bailey did not feel too old to do this. The kids were so excited and had the greatest time. They kept asking if we could do this again next year? Darnit... It's in stone now:)

The finished products

The next morning the kids woke up to small Easter baskets (another thing that is very sporadic in our house each year). It was as if it were Christmas:)

 Kate was not so happy about being woken up. I was surprised the candy didn't help.

We hid the eggs they had made around the house. And when I say "we" I mean Ben who did it while I was still sleeping.

Kate eventually decided to be happy.

Our talk after candy digging and egg hunting led to the Resurrection and what Easter really means. Emma asked what our bodies will look like when we are resurrected. One of the examples we gave her is that Ben's hair will all be there and he will not be bald. Bailey's response: Well, then you will probably just shave it off, right?
Emma answering the question what Easter candy has to do with the Resurrection: Because candy is sweet and so is Jesus! (um, no...real answer is nothing. But who doesn't love candy?)

 We even all matched for Easter. Hopefully not another tradition as it was random I already had ties for the boys. But the kids had a ton of fun and it really wasn't that bad to do Easter activities...so...Here's to next year!

A Season of Six Flags

The kids are already on Spring Break, so I convinced my brother to use one of our free tickets that come with season passes to come with us. It wasn't hard to convince him:)

This was the first ride we went on. We thought how fun it would be to go on the spinning balloon ride...except these spin a little too fast for Kate and Addison's taste. Once they got going, they both freaked out. Kate kept crying "I want to go home!" 

This was Kate before the ride started. I didn't get an after picture because she was glued to me in fear.

 We then decided to go on the carousel to hopefully help the twins get over their fear of rides that had now set in. They wouldn't ride on the animals, but we did sit on the bench.

 What was nice about six flags is that within close proximity there are things for all the kids to do. When the older ones wanted to do something the little ones (mostly the twins) didn't, it was easy to still stay all together.

I'm glad we have season passes because there is still a lot of things we didn't get to do. There was also a lot of things they wanted to do multiple times but we didn't. It wasn't crowded at all and we walked on almost everything.

Touching the sting rays

Waiting for the sea lion show. Bailey didn't like my arm around him:)

Nathan still loves me:)

Emma was picked to be in the show and touch one of the sea lions.

These were the only kids who would pose with the characters.

Nathan loves any ride that goes high.

Addison decided to conquer her fear and go on this ride. Emma was the awesome big sister who went with her to keep her from getting scared:)

At the end of the day, Bailey, Emma and Nathan wanted to do the monsoon raft ride. I told them they could do it right before we left because they would be too cold to stay after that. As you can see from the picture not only was it not busy that day but no one else wanted to get wet on a ride in April when it was 5 p.m. in the evening. Nathan insisted on sitting in the front!

Soaked kids but they said it was so fun!