Easter with all of us

We went and saw my parents at my childhood home in Charlotte for Easter.  On the first night, we got home at about 9:30.  The kids were wild and just wanted to get out of the car.  Once we put the car in park, we fell out of the minivan.  As all the cups and trash fell out behind us, we ran towards my mom's back door. The kids wanted to be out of the car.  I wanted to be at my mom's house where she does all the hard work.  

Nana doing all the hard work.

I was not disappointed.  There were cookies and drinks and clean beds waiting for me.   I was home.  I got to stay in my old room.  I dropped my bags (along with my kids bags) and sighed a breath of release.  Time to relax!  I just forgot one thing...it is my old room with my old bed and my old stereo and old dresser, however now I have three kids sleeping on the floor and the baby in the crib. It looks exactly the same, but it feels so different.  No matter what, there is no relaxing with 4 children.

The kids had so much fun playing with their cousin Jaxson and running a muck at Nana's house.  The days started early and ended late.  There were big meals, with dessert for everyone.  It didn't matter if they never ate a bite of broccoli, they still got dessert!  Nana even gave the kids an extra piece of cake after dinner when they asked.  My kids were not shy about asking.  Heck, I was not shy about asking for myself.  I was right there in line with them. 

After church on Sunday, we did manage to snap a few pictures. We were smiling because we were promised cake and potato salad after a few cute pictures.

You call that a craft?

We live in an troubling time; a time of crafting.  Abby loves them to the point of obsession.  I buy them, we make them, and then I have to find another one.  Try as I might to keep up with her desire for new crafts, I can't.  I can be creative and think up a new craft, however I am all out.  I have a craft book, but let's face it, I am not just that crafty.  Because my sassy Abby will not go without (she just won't let go), here is what I have done:

Our recent craft was cutting up my old magazines to create collages.  The collages were strange mixes of dresses and make ads from my Instyle magazines and animals from the Zoo-bles magazine that the kids get.  Here is what the couch looked like after the craft.  The picture does not do the mess justice.  

The next "craft" was a gift from Nana and Pawdad that I passed off as a craft.  The gift included lots of pieces that you can make into strange little figures.  Enjoy the new craft, girls!



The final craft is jello.  Yes, this can be a craft.  Turns out, this one had the added benefit of being edible.  All the mixing and stirring felt very craft like to Abby.  Score!



Next weekend is coming and I am fresh out.  Please send me craft ideas as soon as you can, or I will be left to trying to sell cleaning the windows as a craft. 

Guess who was on the local news?

Me!  I was on the local news!  I dvr-ed it so that I could show it to my kids.  and my husband.  and my neighbors.  My kids were completely not interested, so I am putting it up on my blog for you.

http://wtvr.com/2013/03/15/virginia-this-morning-sports-backers-2/

Still grinning at 8.

We celebrated Will's 8th birthday today.  How is it possible that my little boy is already eight?  He is not smiling in this picture, but he is really enjoying himself. 

Just yesterday he was running around being little. Check out that cute face!  When he was little, he had a grin that was equal parts cute mixed with equal parts devilish.  I always think that he is up to something when he has this cute smile on his face.  He usually is up to something, just like his Dad.   

While his features have changed to show the face of the man he will be, that grin still stays the same. He is just blowing out candles, but look at this face, he is up to something!

William will always be a little boy to me, but he is a big brother to the three girls.  While he may tease Abby and ignore Harper's requests demands, he is very sweet to Cecilia.  He holds her when she is fussy and finds her pacifier.  He grins when  he holds C, but it is not the same.  It is the love of an older brother.  Cc may not have my same memories of little boy William, but she will adore his grin for her her own reasons.  

Little talks

Will asks me all sorts of complicated questions now.  I guess it comes with being almost eight. 

Recently I got:
Why do we have day light savings time? 
This was quickly followed up with:
What time is it really?  He says the question in such a way that it feels like he doubts the time that I am giving him.
That was followed by:
But what time does it feel like?
We worked through this together, with Will only getting slightly belligerent regarding my answer about the real time and the feeling time.

Abby's speech is getting sassy.  It is not all the time, but it is frequent enough to make me nuts.  Lord, grant me peace. 

Harper on the other hand is in a very cute stage regarding words.  She mostly gets all of her words right but the mistakes are so darn cute, I don't even want to correct them.

For example:
Mommy, can I have sprinklers on top of my ice cream?
Mommy, have you seen Pooh, Tigger and E-ork?

If Cece would just say "momma" instead of "dada" first,  I will count this as the golden age of speech.