Who Needs Candyland, when you can play Monopoly?

Yesterday afternoon during our wet, cold day, the kids played a game with Daddy. Monopoly, would you believe? Who needs Candyland? Well, just go straight to the hard stuff!

And you'll never guess who won - Miss A! She even beat Daddy!

A Cold, Rainy Sunday

We started out this morning with thunder and some rain. After several days of warm, it's chilly at 62 degrees.

We've been kinda lazing around the house. I worked on downloading pictures from IC's Kindergarten class website early, worked on some school layouts for IC (and he even helped) and then after getting the kids all ready for the day, set the older 2 on drawing some pictures.

Dinner was Pizza Hut, a favorite of most of us, and now the boys are playing Wii. There was plans for fishing, but due to the rain, I don't think that's going to happen today. My biggest goal is to get them away from the Wii after a little while. There's always numerous projects to do around here.

My other job today is going to be cleaning up the old toys that I have pulled from the church's nursery. These toys are Fisher price stuff from the 70's and it's just time for them to go. We hope to sell them on Ebay to collectors for enough money to get a small flat-screen TV for the nursery. The current one in there is from the 80's and needs a huge adaptor in order to work-it looks kinda, well, ridiculous.

This week is 3 days of Bible school and after that, I hope to get to the church several times to finish cleaning up the church nursery and check out the Kindergarten room. I will have to work in between ball games, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Tuesday is the first day of the swimming pool opening in town-I don't know if it will be back to being warm by then or not. IC is now old enough I have to pay for him-I need to figure out if he will need a summer pass or not, they are pretty expensive. If I get one, we are going to have to go to the pool a lot to make it worthwhile.

I should be getting my new glasses around Wednesday-looking forward to being able to read comfortably again. This also means an extra trip to medium city this week.

Possibly, there will be an extra trip cross a few counties next week, as IC and Miss A might go to their aunt's for an overnight. They are looking forward to it.

Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure.

Ah . . . . . Summer fun!

Today was a busy day. This morning, the kids and I ran several errands before dinner. After dinner cleanup and so on, Bouncing B showed in the yard, so I got the kids out to play.

After awhile, the IC wanted to play in the water, so BIL went back to their house and got Bouncing B's swimsuit. By the time she got back, I had the girls all changed and the slip-n-slide set up.

The kids had a blast this afternoon. AFter awhile, the water guns came out, and they were playing with them along with running in the water.

When that got old, then the kids rested for awhile on the front porch.

By 4:30 ish, Bouncing B's mom showed up with her friend who was coming over to play, so they left. I finally got E in the house around 5:30 ish to clean up and the others followed about 10 minutes later.

JJ was even able to come in by 6 ish and we all actually got to have supper together tonight.

That was nice.

My next set of flowers are blooming. My pink rose bush is covered in roses this year and my peonies, both pink and white are blooming nicely. Two of the white peonies are blooming flowers so big that the plants themselves are laying over practically on the ground, the flowers are that big and heavy.

It won't be long until the sour cherries will turn red on the trees, they are growing quite well.

We've been eating green onions and radishes for awhile now, but the rabbits keep eating my peas. Little stinkers.

Now, those baskets of laundry are staring at me-time to fold!

Shocking, yet Not

The kids are at mom's for part of the day today. I dropped them off this am so JJ and I could go to a funeral. It was a nice, big funeral, as far as funerals go.

This afternoon, I've got an hour or 2 just to putter, unfortunately, there's so much I can do without children fighting around me, that I'm almost paralyzed for the unsuredness of where to start.

I found out today that my niece will be going to the school this fall that I went to my whole school life when I was a kid. She's also playing t-ball for that team. My BIL's wife hates our town (although she's currently working in it, cutting hair-how long that will last is anyone's guess).

JJ says it's good that she's going there and not being in the same school as our kids. (You have to know the situation we've been in forever to really understand.)

I feel very little love lost for my former school, although there is still a small loyalty to it. I did go there for 13 years!

So, I feel like my territory is being invaded. Silly, I know. It's hard not to, especially since I a little wondering if she isn't going to drag my name down some more (it's pretty much on the ground there anyway, but she could make it worse).

Chalk it up to shock about hearing this today. I'll be ok in a couple of days (I think). I just wish my BIL's wife was "normal"-not this move around every couple of years, put Bouncing B in different schools, treat my BIL like her puppy dog (and he's pretty good at following her leash, it seems), changing jobs about every 6 mos or so, and pretty much hating me.

I don't hate her, but I gave up on liking her.

I guess I will do what the Bible says and pray for my enemies. Maybe that will help on all fronts.

At the End of the Not-So-Great Day

This is what the beautiful baby did yesterday after I blogged about my not-so-great day.

She decided she no longer needed clothes. If it hadn't been for the fact that there were no hired hands in the yard, the uncle & grandpa had also left, and there was no traffic on the road, I'd have made her put clothes back on.

By 6pm that night, I just didn't care about it anymore, so I let her run around 3/4 naked.

What else is there to do?

A Total Loss

It's been one of THOSE days, today.

IC's been obnoxious ALL DAY, provoking Miss A either into tears or anger.

Consequently, Mommy's been provoked more than once today, also.

I was hoping I could keep a lid on things this afternoon with some activities, but, Miss A didn't want to cooperate and IC was whiny and I just flat gave up for the day.

Yes, there's another reason why I don't want to homeschool full-time.

Any project IC wanted to start involved some sort of preparation that I just wasn't ready for today.

I chalk this day up to a total loss in all ways.

The only thing that I did manage to accomplish was mountains of laundry (that I will have to fold tonight), and making a dinner that was NOT burned.

To top it off, I got a call from Miss A's ragball coach that she's going to have ragball practice on Mondays and Wednesdays instead of Tues/Thurs. I know this will conflict with at least one of IC's games.

I'm still waiting on the schedule of his games as the coach hasn't gotten that to us yet. There will be 2 baseball teams, since there are 21 boys. So, I guess we won't go to all the games, but will definately be playing the first Monday in June, as the opposing team has 15 players and wants to play all his kids, so all of ours will play that day.

Tomorrow night, IC has practice again, as Monday is Memorial Day and many won't be around that day for practice.

Except us, we're always around. We've not taken a Memorial Holiday EVER-why start now?

Friday is a funeral that JJ and I are supposed to go to, barring mom can watch the kids-one of her clients is also on his death bed, so things could get a little messed up by then.

It's been a difficult day-it can only go up from here.

I hope.

Checkin' Out the Eyes

This morning I let the girls sleep in, then put all the kids to work on lessons mid-morning.

Ok, E didn't do that, really, but I did have to come up with a few activities to keep her kinda busy.

The older 2 did some worksheets, then each worked on a drawing book-and they both loved those!

I spent my time going back and forth between all three kids-I am sure I do NOT want to homeschool on a full-time basis!

After dinner, I took IC and E to mom's and Miss A headed to medium city, with a short stop in our town to fix my front tire which had flattened during the night.

We got to the city and I got my oil changed before heading to our Wal-Mart for both of us to get haircuts, do a little shopping, and have eye exams.

Miss A's eyes are ok, they'll be rechecked next year, but the dr. doesn't foresee any problems. Mine changed AGAIN-so it's new glasses AGAIN.

We made a stop at McDonald's for supper before heading to pick up the other 2 hooligans.

At home, there was just enough time for showers, putting away supplies and a little TV before sending the big kids to bed.

Now, if I can convince E to go to bed at a decent time, we'll be doing good!

A Typical Day

I like the beautiful breezes on a warm day . . . .

THIS is not one of those days!

It's ridiculously windy and it was this way yesterday and the day before . . . .

Enough already!

Actually, we are in a storm watch tonight . . . .

Just Lovely. It ought to hit us about midnight.

Sigh.

Today was a day of dealing with children running amok in the grocery store this morning, trying to mow the lawn with piles of dirt and grass blowing in your face and eyes, and watching your child at baseball practice while trying not to blow away.

Just a typical day in our neighborhood!

Sunday Morning

The kids actually get along for awhile this morning, sharing Legos-unfortunately, it didn't last for very long.

E bunny's got a congested nose, Miss A has a runny nose and IC has a barky cough on and off. I think it's all allergies in some form, except E is a little warm today. Hopefully, she's not getting another ear infection.

It's still windy today-it makes me tired just looking at it.

JJ and IC elected to play Wii instead of fish this afternoon-I think they didn't feel like being blown away again.

I hope it's not this windy tomorrow, I have to get back on that mower again.

I was feeling frustrated this am. Our art club is having their annual art display in the local hardware/general store in town that we have every year over Memorial Weekend through 4th of July. I ran off a couple of pictures for it, but I am not happy with them. The colors aren't quite right, but I don't know how to tweak them very well. I went ahead and framed them, as no one will necessarily realize that they aren't what I was seeing at them time. I checked my printer, it was fine, so I don't know what was wrong with them.

I was also frustrated because I don't have any paintings or drawings to put in the window, only photos that I myself am not impressed with. It's been discouraging lately, no time to scrapbook, draw/paint, sew, read or anything. I barely have time for the basics, much less fun.

ok, I'm done having a pity party now.

Free Fishing Day

Yesterday morning, I took E bunny to mom's and after we all got ready, JJ, IC, Miss A and I headed to Swan Lake for their free fishing day. You don't need a fishing license, and the kids have a fishing derby and activities. It's kinda fun. It was warm, but it was ridiculously windy again.

We got there about 9:15, signed in and set up. Almost immediately, Miss A caught a fish! She caught 3 blue gill all together.

IC was whining and fussing because it took almost an hour before he started catching anything. He still did well though. He caught 2 blue gill and 1 large-mouth bass-a 15" that we had to throw back because they only allow you to take 21" bass. But all the fish they caught counted in the derby and they did really well, especially since last year we didn't catch anything!

Fishing went from 9:30-11 am. Then, we had a hot dog and chips for dinner, and went to the ticket drawing where IC got a set of fishing lures and Miss A got a nice tackle box! Then, the kids tried out some archery, IC did the casting contest, and they played a game where they threw huge washers into some holes. They had a good time.

At home, we unloaded the pickup, and JJ cleaned fish while I went to mom's to get E.

Soon after a snack, the kids went out to play. Miss A played a lot with a couple of toads that took up residence under the outside water hyrant-hopefully, she didn't kill them accidentally (she'd be crushed). The kids did a lot of general playing for awhile and later, Bouncing B made a short appearance with her new puppy, which puts Sasha into a frenzy. She's very much protective of us against other dogs.

I didn't do much, I was pretty worn out from the day and nursing a wind/sun burn. Not a bad one, just annoying. I have burned very few times in my life, but have had it occur more in recent years. I have olive skin that doesn't tend to burn much usually and luckily, the girls have it, too.

Despite the whining, it was a good day.

Yesterday's Missed Post

I can't believe I missed a post yesterday-we weren't even gone or that busy!

The kids and I were home all day-and the older 2 fought like they usually do on a Saturday afternoon. It wasn't all that fun yesterday, really.

I did mountains of laundry (amazing how that just piles up when you least expect it) and got ready for today's outing to the free fishing day at Swan Lake, about 45 minutes away.

The weather was beautiful, in the 70's, a slight breeze, and the SUN WAS SHINING!

I got some weeds pulled or trimmed and the bird feeders cleaned out and refilled.

All in all-it was a very average day.

New Phrase

E bunny's new phrase," Who's Dat?"

This is used for people, objects, whatever she's pointing at.

It's just cute.

Last Day of Kindergarten

Today was IC's last day of Kindergarten. He officially finished at 11:10. I asked him if he'd miss his teacher and he said he would, though I think he's fairly excited for 1st grade.

The kids decided to play nicely with each other this afternoon-mainly because Daddy said if they would behave today they would get to play Wii tonight and Mommy said they could have a sleepover in IC's room if they would behave.

It's been a very scary nice quiet afternoon.

But it's not over yet.

Hair Cut

When IC was around E's age, he used a razor he procured from the shower and shaved a bald spot into his head. When IC was around Miss A's age, he got into the scissors and cut a patch in the back of her (Miss A's) hair off.

Yesterday, Miss A was cutting paper and the next thing I knew, there was a patch of hair on the carpet. She decided to cut a patch of E's hair in the back.

I love E's curls and was not happy with Miss A, who is old enough to know better.

I wonder if E will follow the tradition in a couple of years.

Except she'll not have a younger sibling to experiment on.

I'm hoping she picks a doll instead of person to try out her barbering skills on.

Wednesday

I find myself un-inspired for much of anything today. It's rainy and cold AGAIN. I'm sure summer will be upon us one day just BOOM! but still, I'm pretty tired of the dreary stuff.

I DID clean the house today-so it's not a total loss.

Yesterday was move-up day for IC at school. He was thrilled to go to 1st grade for awhile. He got the teacher, Mrs. F, that he'd hoped for and his class has 1/2 of his classmates from this year and 1/2 of the other class' kids. Since they all know each other, it's not really a big deal and between the 1st grades there is a curtain for the divider, so the kids will get to still be together at times.

Today was the school picnic-in which the kids had to eat in their rooms instead of outside due to the weather and the school movie. All the elementary got to go to our local movie theater, was "Stuart Little" and have a little pop and popcorn. An excellent treat for them.

Miss A got in trouble several times this morning, so our morning was not quite so great. Now E is having a later than usual nap today, since she wouldn't go down earlier and will probably be up forever tonight.

Tomorrow is IC's last day of Kindergarten. There will be an assembly and I will be going since the volunteers who helped out this year were invited to be thanked. Then, I'll come back at 11 am and take IC home from school, because if I made him ride the bus, it'd be like 1:30 before he got home and he'd be famished.

After that, we'll just hope the older 2 don't kill each other, as we don't have plans until Saturday morning.

Tuesday's Musings

Today I have an unexpected duty. My mom and dad had dental appointments in the medium city after dinner. Since it's nice, dad postponed his so he could continue to plant beans. Mom's keeping hers, but doesn't drive to the medium city, so I am a chauffer for her today.

The girls will go along and we will visit Walmart while mom's at her appointment and should make it back to town in time to pick IC up from school.

Today is move up day at school. So, IC gets to spend 45 minutes in the 1st grade room he will be in next year. He's been excited to move up to 1st grade for a couple of weeks already.

He also said yesterday that he couldn't wait for school to be out. And I said, "and then what? Fight with your sister's all day?"

He said yah, some, but he's also looking forward to our lesson stuff this summer.

I am so glad he loves to learn.

I am still the same way. I love to learn stuff and John does too, though we learn in different ways. He's an audio learner and I am a visual learner. I am not sure which IC is yet, but it will probably become evident before too long.

Saturday, while the kids and I were sitting in the pickup waiting for JJ to get a Subway for his dinner (we got to eat hot dogs at the boys' pond, but they ran out before JJ could get any) - anyway, IC was trying to read what the seat belt said and did a good job of spelling words he didn't know.

It was eye-opening how much he knows already and how I'm probably not going to be able to make out gift lists for birthdays and Christmas anymore where he can see them!

Today looks to be the nice day we didn't really have yesterday. I did get the grass mowed yesterday even though the grass was kinda wet in places and IC did have baseball practice. He got to bat yesterday some, but he and I need to work more on catching and batting this week. Never did I think that I, Miss Nonathletic to a high degree, would be helping my children with their sports!

What we don't do for our children, right?

What a Way to Start the Week

I had some disturbing news today.

My BIL's wife, who is, by the way, a little unstable (for real, I'm not kidding) and near 3 years ago had moved to the medium city, moved back to the farm yesterday.

This woman has put my BIL through a lot and it's very sad. She has 3 children from a previous marriage and Bouncing B is her and my BIL's child. She only had custody of one of her previous children and that one will graduate next year from school (the other 2 had lived with their father and are both in college.)

I worry for Bouncing B, she may end up with some problems later in life.

As it is, JJ and I are wondering how long she'll stay here before it's time to move out again.

Bouncing B was telling my mother the other day (it was one of those times where mom was babysitting my kids and B showed up in the yard unexpectedly to play) that she was excited to come back to live on the farm so that she could come over to play all the time.

Yea for me. Sigh.

I love my niece, but it's hard to put up w/her being here all the time-between hyper children, she walks away when she wants to and the thought of her mother never taking care of her own kid just gets to me at times.

I have a slight concern that my BIL's wife will suddenly decide she wants to be part of the family.

She probably won't, at least, I hope not.

It will get REALLY worrisome, then.

Saturday is for Fishing

Yesterday morning we went to the boys' pond in town to go for their fishing day. We got there a little late and got a late start and the kids were whiny, except for E.

E was excited to get to go to town and to use her new Princess fishing pole.

I know, we never bought a kiddy pole for the other 2, but we did for E. What can I say, she's the baby of the family.

Actually, she always gets the hand-me-downs from Miss A, so it was nice to get her something new.

Back to the yesterday morning-it took forever and a few set backs with lines and hooks, but we got started fishing.

Miss A got distracted by some friends and the need to eat a hotdog near the end of the morning, so I ended up pulling in her fish on her line-and it was big! We caught a 13 1/2" cat fish and Miss A ended up being the winner of catching the biggest fish! She won a new fishing pole that's way bigger than her but she was thrilled!

We left around noon, as the kids were getting beside themselves with boredom, since the only 2 fish we caught were on Miss A's line.

After rest time in the afternoon, the kids played outside and got to help Daddy clean up some junk around the yard. It was such a nice day.

It's too bad we were only allowed about 2 nice days this week.

Today (Sunday) we are back to gray and chilly. It's a bummer.

At S.S., I had a teacher's meeting, a goodbye coffee and choir's last day for the spring.

To add to that craziness, I had a hefty of a headache today.

And yes, I accomplished nothing this afternoon.

Ah well-there's always tomorrow. (I seem to repeat this daily.)

A Picnic in the Park AND a Track Meet

Trekking to the park.

Playing after eating.

The Long Jump at the track meet.

The Softball Throw.

IC got 3rd and 4th place ribbons in his events.

Miss A got to run in the pre-K 50 m dash.

She was very happy with her participation ribbon.

IC running.

Waiting to run in the final race-the 400m relay.

Yesterday was a BIG day. At 11:30, I dropped the girls off at my MIL's to have dinner and stay for awhile. Then, I headed to school to help out with the Kindergartener's picnic in the park.

First, we walked 38 Kindergarteners to the park, with only a couple instances of misbehavior. IC's class had a substitute all day, so they were a little harder to keep in line. We were supposed to be leaving the school at 11:45, but it was 12 before we were able to actually leave.

After getting to the park, we had lunch, then the kids took off to play in the park. Only a few head bumps occurred, so it was a pretty good day.

It was 2:30 before we got back to school. I ran a couple of errands, then back to school to pick IC up.

Then, I went to my MIL's to pick up the girls.

We then headed to the track meet. IC's first event was the long jump. The K and 1st grade boys were combined and IC got 3rd, jumping 6'.

Next, was the softball throw and IC placed 4th in his division.

Then we waited . . . . . .and waited. . . . . and waited . . . .

for the running events to start.

They got started about 1/2 hr late. We ate the basic hotdog in between events. The girls were already starting to get bored before the running started.

Miss A got to run in the pre-K 50 m dash. She was very excited and all participants got a participation ribbon.

IC ran in the 100 m dash and got a 4th and also in the 200 m dash and got a 3rd.

The final race of the day was the 1 X 400 m relay and IC got to be on a team with bigger boys and their team ran and got a 3rd.

It was 8 pm before we left, so it was a long day, but overall, good. IC did great, much better than I ever did in track.

I am very proud of him.

A New Graduate

IC graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. The kids sang several songs, got their diploma and had a snack of cake and pop & ice cream floats yesterday.

It was a lot of fun.

Whirlwind Days

Today is the start of a few fairly whirlwind-type days.

It all starts with IC's Kindergarten graduation this afternoon at 2:15.

Baseball practice, postponed from Monday is this evening at 5:30, barring the weather shapes up LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO (we will see how accurate the weatherman actually is-after all, it's rained 1 in 70 hundredths so far and that doesn't count the rain shower we had last night!)

Friday will be the Kindergarten picnic in the park (if it dries out and warms up by then), where I will have to take the girls to my MIL's, pick them up in time to go back to school to pick up IC after school and take everyone over to the elementary track meet at the high school.

Saturday is a morning of fishing at the boys' pond in town. I'd like to take E, but yet, I'm worried she'll be bored in 10 minutes and I'll be struggling to keep her from falling in the water!

Sunday I have: a good bye coffee to attend for our main organist, a short S.S. teacher meeting AND choir practice all within an hour's time.

Won't that be fun?!?

I'm sure by Sunday afternoon, I'll be ready to collapse on the couch, needing to recuperate before the last 1/2 week of school.

Ah, the life of a mom of 3-what a place to be!

A Wednesday Morning Muse

Miss A's first day of summer vacation is cold, windy and wet.

She was up after I sent IC to school, had breakfast with Daddy, and was determined to go with Daddy this morning.

So, I dressed her in waterproof, layered clothing to go check pastures with Daddy since he and my FIL moved all the cows and calves to the pasture yesterday.

Next, then, she determined to go with Daddy some more, so I let her. She'd been needing some one-on-one Daddy time. He'll send her in when it's time.

E bunny, on the other hand, decided to sleep in today. Even when Miss A tried to wake her, she rolled over and went back to sleep.

I took that as a sign to let her alone.

This afternoon, I will pick IC up from school AGAIN. I had actually planned to let him ride the bus home, but I need send a cake to school by tomorrow for his Kindergarten graduation party and he didn't want to take it on the bus.

Yesterday, the girls and I worked on cleaning up the church's nursery toy supply before I picked IC up from school, so we might do that again this afternoon if E sleeps all morning (like she did yesterday) and doesn't take an afternoon nap.

I am trying to phase out some of the ancient toys in the nursery and throw out the broken ones still hanging around. The nursery definately needs some sprucing up-I am hoping by the end of the summer, I'll have figured out what I can do to improve it's drab look, not to mention have the cupboards all in order and actually USED for things (not just storing junk).

On another note, I got a call from mom yesterday about my cousin's wife, who is pregnant with twins. She recently had an ultrasound and she's having girls, but the one baby apparently passed away 3-4 weeks ago. So, hopefully, the one baby will make it to full term. They seem to have a lot of faith about the whole thing. This is good news-reminds me that I need to work on my faith!

I am wavering on quitting the job that I just recently got-only because I am finding it impossible to have enough time to write, especially since most of the articles are supposed to be local and their idea of local is not where I'm at.

I am also trying to get some things worked on for keeping the kids occupied for part of the summer. While they will have a lot of unstructured time in between lessons and various activities, if I don't give them some "lessons" to keep them busy part of the time, there may be some injuries occur.

Mostly, I'm just talking doing some things structured for an hour or 2 during 4-5 days a week. IC has a summer workbook that has 5 short worksheets a week to do for 10 weeks, Miss A has a preschool book she can do pages in, plus I am planning some art projects and a couple of bible devotions.

Ambitious? Yes, well, we will see what actually gets worked on over the summer! We won't be doing it all the time, but we need to have a few projects in mind when the boredom gets to us (especially Mommy!)

MY goal for the summer is to work on at LEAST one scrapbook layout a week. Preferably more, if possible. I have one double layout for E's baby book ALMOST done, but it's been sitting on my desk pile for a month now.

And yes, I STILL have that pile on my desk to deal with. It's terrible! I REALLY want to go through it, but never seem to have enough hours, peace time in the day to do it. Amazingly, it has GROWN over the past week instead of getting smaller. Uugghh!

Now, the cake is calling me to ice it, dinner is calling me to make it, the desk is calling me to clear it and E bunny is calling me to change it (her diaper, that is).

Guess it's time to get to work!

Pumpkin Planting

It seems that I can't get away from planting this year.

Miss A brought home a pumpkin plant that she'd grown at preschool. So, yesterday we planted it at the edge of the garden in the mud.

Growing Up

Today is Miss A's last day of preschool for the year. To add to that, she got to be helper today. Very fun.

Yesterday, she brought home a few of her things, including a DVD with music and pictures of the kids doing various things this past year.

This coming fall, she will be in the pre-Kindergarten class. She will most likely have the same teachers but will be going in the afternoon instead of the morning.

It will also be the last year that E bunny is home, as she will start preschool when Miss A starts Kindergarten in fall 2011.

IC amazed me the other day, when we were eating at the buffet on Mother's Day, he OFFERED to help Miss A get a piece of cake. And he did a good job taking her to the line and helping her get her dessert, along with his own.

It's amazing how much the kids have each changed in the past couple of years.

Now, for the record, much of the rest of the time, IC can't stand Miss A and fights with her (when he isn't leading some fight-bad-guy scenario with her).

He brought home a girl's phone number the other day from his class, he wants to have a playdate with her sometime.

E is finally getting better about going to bed, sort of. She's been going to sleep around 10 instead of 11 most nights. And last night, I put her to bed and JJ only had to go up once to put her back into bed. Sometimes, she falls asleep downstairs, but it's doable at this point.

The last several nights, IC's been up for quite awhile before going to bed and Miss A's been falling asleep early. She did, however, have a nap yesterday, so she stayed up later. We could hear her and IC talking and playing for quite awhile upstairs.

Now that she's done with school, she'll probably sleep later and want to go to bed later.

Ah well.

IC still has to go through this week and all the way to Thursday of next week. He actually has a busy week, really. Thursday is graduation and make-up baseball practice. Friday is the Kindergarteners picnic in the park and elementary track meet after school. Saturday is fishing in town at the boys' pond.

I plan for all of us to go fishing on Saturday (yes, even E bunny). The kids and I helped her pick out her own small fishing pole when we went to the medium city last week. Should be interesting, to say the least. :)

These are interesting times, to say the least.

Today, E got up with the older 2 kids, but by 8:30, she was ready to crash again-and did. I guess she's having a morning nap instead of an afternoon nap today.

While she slept, I worked on laundry, dinner, and light cleaning. Since the house didn't seem that dirty, I didn't heavy-clean much, just did the basics. I probably won't have much time to do it the rest of the week, so I got it done today.

It keeps looking like rain, but I am hoping we don't have anymore the rest of the week, so that we can have the outside activities without the misery or without having to postpone them and try to cram them in next week.

Better work on some projects that I want to have the kids do this summer to help keep the boredom and fighting at a lesser level and work some more on that desk-it's calling my name.

Scary.

Rain Day

Yesterday started with grayness and it continued today. The morning actually started with a rain shower and it's been chilly and misty all day.

Until 6 pm, when the skies opened up again and it POURED outside.

Lucky for us, baseball practice had already been changed to Thursday instead of tonight.

I actually tried to get some things cleared off my desk, even setting E up with her "desk" and crayons, paper and colored pencils.

Alas, I STILL have a huge pile of things to go through on my desk.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get something accomplished.

Maybe.

But kinda not likely. :)

Pictures From Yesterday With Bouncing B

B was good about pushing E on the swing and teaching Miss A how to pump her swing.

IC complained that B didn't play with him enough.

Bubbles, anyone?

Happy Mother's Day

These are the Mother's Day gifts the kids made in school for me. Miss A made paper flowers.

IC decorated a candle jar and the wrapping paper and . . . .

wrote a nice little booklet.

Today was a rather busy morning for Mother's Day. Since the kids were singing at church, I took the older 2 to church, stayed a few minutes in my S.S. and then went home to get JJ.

Back at church, Jill and I did our cradle roll roster for 2009 in church, Miss A sang and then IC sang. Both kids got a Dedicated Disciple award for attending S.S. and missing 2 or less days, plus they each got their year pins for S.S. (IC got his 4 yr pin and Miss A got a 2 yr pin).

After church, we headed to medium city. Since mom was on her own for dinner today, as my dad went to see his mom in the big city with my uncle for Mother's Day, we invited her along. We went to the Iron Skillet, which is in the big truck stop, but they have good food and the kids actually eat when we are there.

After that, it was home. Of course, the boys are playing Wii Lego Star Wars AGAIN-they're kinda obsessed and Miss A is watching. E is sleeping for a few minutes, so I get to look at my office mess and ignore it again. :)