One day a year...

 

My little sister & I have nine kids between us.

 

and

 

One day a year,

May 17th,

on this little girl's birthday...

our kids are all different ages...

 

 

 

 until tomorrow,

when this lil' guy turns 2.

We think it's pretty cool

& take a picture every May 17.

 

Little joys, love 'em.

 

We love her...

Miss Hannigan...

 

she's a big part of our lives here.

 

We sing her songs,

we quote her,

we love her.

 

Having a kid named Annie you see that play a lot.

(We are kinda lucky :)

 

My little sister's daughter has seen it too.

Zadie

 

When they have clean up time at their house she actually says,

"Mom...say 'Get to work you rotten orphans!'

&

"Say 'You're gonna work until this dump shines like the top of the Chrystler building!'"

&

"Mom, don't help us...just walk around & yell at us!"

 

So...she calls them rotten orphans & makes them clean :)

 

& they love it!

 

At our house we like the line,

"We're not having hot mush for breakfast,

we're having cold mush!"

 

The kids groan but they actually love cold mush!

 

 

I get lots of requests for "morning mush" from the kids & today Annie brought her teacher a jar of it.

 

 

It was good practice for Annie writing

a recipe to pass along with the jar.

 

 

I love how she spelled Vanilla:

 

 

Morning Mush

 

                                         1/2 C Oats

                                         1T Peanut Butter

                                         1 container vanilla Greek yogurt

                                         Ground flaxseed

                                         Fresh or frozen berries

     

                                         Mix & Eat

 

We like the Dannon 2x protein vanilla greek yogurt

Frozen berries are actually fab in here!

 

Hope you get a chance to try a little morning mush.

Miss Hannigan would be proud :)

 

Miss Hannigan image

sodahead

Just can't wait...

We are so tired of being cooped up from the long winter that even the rain doesn't scoot us inside.

A day like today was perfect for catching raindrops,

(Oh lil Roo:)

 

 

 

And rainy days are perfect for projects!

 

This summer we are headed on a trip to the Gulf of Mexico & we are sooooooo excited!

 

So...today we made a chain to count down the days until we leave.

 

 

Annie & I had fun looking through my old scrapbook stuff

 

Then we just slapped them on our ocean chain.

 

 

I must admit this is my favorite link:

 

 

The kids are already fighting over who gets

to tear off the shark link but I don't care...

 

 

I Just want to enjoy every minute of anticipation

before we start our 24 hour ride south to heaven.

 

I think the anticipation is just as fun as the travels.

You going anywhere?

She is dangerous...

We live on the tip of a curve...we also have LOTS of teenagers in the neighborhood, so cars coming flying around the curve & I worry like crazy about my kids.  Many times I have seen the teens texting while driving on top of that!  So when my kids ride their bikes I am usually out in the street by them.  And I must have warned the kids a million times of the dangers because the other day Rocco was riding his bike down the road singing a song he made up.  It went like this, "I'm not dying, I'm not dead, I'm riding my bike & I'm not even dying." 

 

He sang it for a good 15 minutes.

 

Then he rode by me, "Mom aren't you proud of me I am riding my bike & I'm not even dying!  Aren't I such a big boy Mom?"

 

Oh Brother!

 

I don't know how many of you remember the

VERY INTERESTING TRIALS

of teaching Annie how to ride a bike.

 

She rides almost everyday now.

Even in the snow.

 

After school she gets out of the car

& rides her bike no matter what.

So one would think she would be an expert right?

 

Well...just last week while I was standing

in the street holding Kit...

& she hit me!

 

Smacked right into us!

 

I actually had to make a rule:

If you hit me with your bike I will take away your bike for 2 days.

 

Then the very next day

~I am not even joking~

look what I caught her doing:

 

 

Yes folks...she is texting while biking!

 

She borrowed my phone to call a friend

& I totally forgot until I turned around

& saw her riding down the road like that.

 

 

 

I was so glad I had the camera close.

(I had just taken the other biking pics in the post)

 

Just when I think I have seen it all...

 

Don't worry I took it away before she took out any parked cars.

Don't think she wouldn't!

 

Oh & if you missed the post of Annie learning to ride,

You really might want to read it.

I just reread it myself & I have tears running down my face from laughing so hard...It was painful..very painful.

Just Click HERE.

 

Poor Kit!

 

Kit just lays there.

So innocent so sweet,

he doesn't do anything to deserve baby torture.

 

But, in the last two weeks alone. 

I have caught the boys doing odd things to poor Kit.

Rocco was trying to nurse him.

 

 

 

Roo was trying to get him to stop crying,

by fixing him up with Band-aids.

 

 

 

And Bo...

well, I found Kit covered in pepperoni...

(which he actually seemed to really like)

but it had Bo written all over it. 

 

 

Poor Kit.

I can't even imagine what this babes life will be like.

At least it'll be interesting

AND

he'll always have friends.

 

 

 

 

Make it Count

 

We are getting a BIG SNOW right now as I type.

And when you think of us Minnesotans you might be thinking,

"It's suppose to snow!  You live in Minnesota!"

But by now we are usually wearing shorts to school,

even if our legs are cold.

 

Most people like to hunker down when it starts piling up,

but not my husband, so when I suggested

we go grab a treat he was in. 

 

We got our jammies on to go out. 

We piled in the car & headed down the road.

Three hours ago it had been green

& we had hope that Spring might come.

 

 

Kelly was just happy to get the chance to

spin the tires while I grab onto the dash board going, "Kelly!" 

His eyes always twinkle when I furrow my brows at him.

(& I wonder why my boys are rascals)

 

But he always manages to get us where we need to go safely,

and tonight we needed to get here:

 

 

Then like magic,

just stepping through this door turns a frosty night...

 

 

...into a cozy one.

 

 

I'm not gonna lie...

there was a little ruckus with Roo

& some flying chocolate for Kit,

 

 

And I went home with my jeans looking like this:

 

(Yes, that IS practically my whole leg)

 

I even took Roo for a cold timeout in the snow

because I don't let him carry on in restaurants.

 

But there was a also a bit of this:

 

and a bit of that:

 

 

Oh & some of this too!

 

 

and by the time we left I knew

it was a night we had made count.

 

 

And now it's here, captured.

 

In twenty years when people are still talking about

"the snowiest April back in 2013"

 and Kit doesn't remember a thing about it,

I'll show him how I put his car seat

out in the snow for him to enjoy a few flakes.

I also am a little magical,

 just turned his blankie over & Poof!...clean!

Not so much with my jeans.

:)

 

Here's hoping for a snow day! 

 

 

It forgot to come...

 

Today, everyone is in their

 

 

and we have our

 

 

 

ready to go.

 

But Spring forgot to come.

 

Not stopping us though.

We are just pretending it came.

Today we were "jumping in puddles" & "catching butterflies."

 

 

Spring really is too much fun to let it slip by.

 

So even if it is 34 degrees & snowy,

we are gonna do Spring anyway.

 

I really shouldn't have...

 

 

my phone.

 

A little more than a person should.

 

Roo is as attached to my phone as I am.

You know how most kids like a blankie?

 

When Roo gets tired...he asks for my phone.

I have about a dozen pictures of him sleeping like this:

 

Because he always does.
 

Even right at this very moment he is up in his crib

with Annie's toy cell phone.

My favorite thing about my phone is the camera.

I am capturing our life with that little baby gadget!

 

Yesterday I set it on the hood of the car to help one of the kids with his shoe.  I looked at it & thought,
"I really shouldn't put it there."

& I shouldn't have.

 

My husband pulled in at that very moment

& instead of grabbing it...I walked out of the garage to greet him.

(His fault for being so cute.)

 

Then we all jumped in the car to go pick up Annie.

When we got home,

"Where is my phone?"

I knew.

My stomach dropped

because I knew.

 

We used

app to locate it about 2 miles away,

in a ditch.

 

But then it looked like this:

 

& I felt my heart sink, really sink, more than it should have.

 

I told my hubby I'd just wait for July until my contract was up.

I meant it, but inside I didn't like it too much.

 

An hour a later he had a new screen put on it by the

Gadget Guru.

 

He really takes good care of me :)

 

The camera doesn't work

& I will miss Instagram.

 

BUT

July will be here fast

& Roo is happy again.

(Me too.)

 

Between this & the green M&M

 I have had lots of expensive lessons recently.

 

Just don't do it girls...

don't do it.

:)

 

Finally made it...

Annie has been asking me for weeks

to make her a checklist with things to do each day. 
 

I had her write me a list of things
she wanted to do everyday & I typed it out.

 

She said, "I didn't put homework on the list."

I said, "No, but I did."  

Any good mom would right? :)

I also added in the do something nice part hoping
I might benefit once or twice.

She said, "I have to do something nice everyday?!!!"

 

Just for fun we made the checklists into a tablet.

 

Have you ever made one?

You just need these.

The jars are just weights.
 

Cut the papers & make sure they are exactly the same size.

I stacked all the tops halves together

& all the bottom halves together. 

(That helps the writing line up better.  Makes the tablet neater.)

Line the pages up as perfectly as you can and

paint the edge with Elmer's school glue.

 

Then just smash it between a cutting board

& a pan with weights. (cutting board just keeps your table clean)

Apply a few coats of glue as it dries &

Waa laa!

Tablet!

 

I also made each kids their own pad with their name on it.

 

It is really easy to do them all at once. 

 

Just stack every one's tablet paper together in one big pile

& then glue them all together. 

 

Then when they dry you can just tear them off in chunks.

One thick pad becomes 4 little pads.

Breakfast had some busy,

 

happy,

 

productive,

 

little people.

 

Just the way I like them.

 

After school Annie is going to make one for her teacher.

They would make great teacher gifts OR birthday party favors!  Slap on any pic to suit your theme!

 

They would  be cheap gifts for teachers to make with their students for gifts for parents too.

 

Hope you have fun with them!