Christmas Roundup

Last post of 2013.  Alas I did not post nearly as much as I wanted, but there is always next year!  I hope to post more than once a month in 2014.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind. We squeezed as much into our Christmas season as possible.  We had a play date with our dear friends, the Ketchums.  We went to the girls' daycare open house.  We went to the Nutcracker.  Matt took the girls to see the movie, Frozen, and we visited with family.  In between all of that, Matt and I worked, we shopped, and we wrapped!  Then of course there was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  (A significant portion of Christmas Eve was also spent wrapping, and Matt even did some shopping!)  So here are our stories.

Our friend, Hollie, offered to have a play date with the girls, while we shopped a couple of weeks before Christmas.  It was awesome.  Matt and I were really able to get a lot accomplished that afternoon.  And the girls had a wonderful time!  Hollie being the creative and prepared one that she is had cute, holiday activities planned for the kids.  They made little "stained glass" votive holders, Christmas ornaments, gift bags, and other neat things.  And most all, they got to spend time with their friends.  Hannah just misses Quinn so much.  So she absolutely loves getting together to play with her.

We also went to the girls' open house at daycare.  They always have a lot of fun activities in each class room, and of course, Santa Claus was there.  The highlight was Hannah's class singing Feliz Navidad at the beginning of the evening.  It was awesome!  Then they went into each classroom to make ornaments and decorations and decorate cookies. They even got some reindeer food!  Emma located her favorite teacher, Laura, early in the evening and was attached to her at the hip, literally.  We had to pry her away from Laura when it was time to go the other building to see Santa.   They were very excited to see Santa.  Hannah was quite nervous, but she did good.  Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of it handy; they are on Matt's other camera.

Alan, Jayne, Josh, Chelsea, and Steve came over the Thursday before Christmas.  Jayne brought the girls big stuffed horses, which of course, were a huge hit.  They were galloping around on them.  Even little Emma likes to ride her horse.  She walks around with it between her legs and says, "ga-lop, ga-lop".  We had a nice time visiting with everyone.

Then on Saturday, we took Laura and Hannah to see the Nutcracker.  We took them to a fancy dinner at G. Michael's first, which was a quasi success.  The food was, as usual, awesome!  But the kids would have been just as happy with McDonalds.  They had crab cakes and green beans, and they did OK but really didn't eat that much of it.  They absolutely LOVED the Nutcracker.  Our seats were fourth row from the stage, and when the curtain went up for the first time, their eyes were as wide as they could be.  They were mesmorized the whole time.  Hannah was exhausted and struggling to stay awake by the end.  But she was determined not to miss anything and never fell asleep.  Not surprisingly they have practiced their dancing several times since.

Monday before Christmas we went to Matt's mom's in Logan to visit her, Michael, and Wendy.  We had a nice visit, and the kids made some crafts with clothespins and stickers.  We enjoyed some good food and company.

And just like that, it was Christmas Eve, and we had not wrapped all of the gifts.  Now - we had started Sunday night and made good progress.  And we had planned to be done Monday night, but Emma decided that she is not going to be a good sleeper anymore.  We tried to get her down for 2 hours, and she would not go.  So she slept on top of Matt the whole night!  Hence no wrapping was accomplished.  Christmas Eve was a frenzy.  Matt and I took turns wrapping and tending kids.  He even went out to run errands and shop too.  We had to leave for Mass at 3:00, so we had to start getting ready at 1:00.  By the time we got to church, I was frazzled to say the least.  But we made it, and it was enjoyable the rest of the evening.

Our tree this year.

We went to the children's mass, and Father Bob read Piper's First Christmas to the children at the alter for the homily.  Laura and Hannah went up to the front.  Then as soon as Hannah made to the front, she turned around and came right back.  She was too afraid I guess, or maybe there just weren't any snacks, so she wasn't interested.  I don't know, but she found her way back on her own.  After church, we went to Ellen's house for the evening.  She had cooked us dinner and other treats, and we had a fun evening.

Christmas morning was as awesome as it could possibly be!  Laura and Hannah woke up at 7:45, not too terribly early.  They were so excited.  We came downstairs and opened gifts for awhile.  Matt and I loved watching them open each gift and get excited.  Laura had gotten each of us a gift at her Secret Santa Shop at school.  Matt's was particularly touching.  She told the helpers that her daddy liked to watch Ohio State football games.  So she chose an Ohio State sled Christmas ornament for him.  He loved it.  It was so sweet.  Emma didn't wake up until about 10:00am ish.  I guess she was tired from a late night Christmas Eve and from a late night the previous night when she didn't want to go to sleep.  Either way, when she woke up, we let her open her gifts.  I was surprised how well she did unwrapping gifts.  She loved it.  Then the girls played with their gifts for awhile while Matt put toys together.  We ate breakfast and had to hurry to get ready and head up to Papa and Grammy's.  We had an enjoyable afternoon there, eating, opening presents, and visiting.  It was a perfect day.

As soon as Emma saw Great Grammy sit down with her pie, she toddled over as fast as she could to get some!

This one is actually not Christmas day.  It's a week or so before Christmas, and Hannah was making a crib for baby Jesus (Ernie).  The construction paper was the straw.

In addition to all of the fun activities we did during this season, we also spent plenty of time just watching our favorite shows and reading our favorite books.  The favorite book and movie of this season was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  I bet we watched it at least four times.  And I can't even count the number of times I read the book.  We also watched Santa Claus several times this season, along with Christmas Vacation of course.  It was a great Christmas, and we still have a few get togethers with friends to go.  Even though it was busy, it was worth it.  The years just keep going faster, and I want to make as many memories as possible with my kids and enjoy every holiday to the maximum.

Another year in the books.  Here's to a new year with new memories and good times with those we love!

Christmas Festivities

The Christmas season is in full swing here!  I'm trying to think back over the last couple of weeks, and everything is a blur.  (Of course, I have blocked out the awful football game last weekend.  As far as I'm concerned, the last game of the season was that glorious win over tsun.)  Matt and I have enjoyed shopping, decorating and preparing so far.  Last weekend could not have been more perfect.

It started with a snow day for Laura on Friday.  We got dumped on by mother nature, which made for a fun day for the kids.  They played outside in the snow with the neighbor girl, even little Emma.  Emma really wanted to swing on her swingset, but I couldn't get her boot through the leg hole in her swing!  She did go down the slide a few times though.  She really couldn't run well in the snow, so she couldn't keep up.  And she got frustrated.  When they were worn out, they came in for some cocoa and cookies of course!

Earlier that day, Laura and Hannah iced and decorated cookies from Cheryl's that a friend gave them.  It was a great afternoon activity.  Matt started decorating the house, while the girls and I worked on the icing.  He set up the Christmas village and the mantle.  It started to look festive in our house.

Then on Sunday, we went to church early and met my parents afterwards.  Then we all headed down for our annual trip to Saum's Tree Farm in Amanda.  We have been going there for about five years.  The girls walked around looking for their tree.  Every one that Laura picked, Hannah didn't like and vice versa.  After a while, it was getting cold, so Mom made the final decision!  It turned out good.  Laura told me a couple nights ago, that she wasn't sure about this tree in the beginning, but she likes it now.  We got it home, and it was decorating time!  The girls really enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree this year.  I couldn't believe how fast it went, with them able to hang ornaments!  They each liked to hang the ornaments that they had made in past years and ones that had their names on them.  Emma entertained herself by pulling stockings and garland and other house decorations out of a tub.  Shockingly she really has not tried to take ornaments off the tree of take pieces out of the Christmas village.  She has tried to take Johnny, our Elf a couple of times, but that has been the extent of her destruction.  She must know Santa is watching!  So now, the house is all decorated, and we are getting more and more excited!

This week Laura shopped in Santa's Secret Workshop at school.  She bought some gifts for us and brought them home to put under the tree.  She is so looking forward to giving them to us.  She tried to convince Matt to just let her give them to us now, but he held out and told her to wait til Christmas.  She's growing up so fast.

Last night we went to the Christmas open house at Hannah's and Emma's school.  The kids had a great time.  It started with Hannah's class singing a song, Feliz Navidad, Matt's favorite.  She was so sweet!  Then they got to do all sort of activities in each room, like cookie decorating, ornament making, etc.  And finally, there was a visit from Santa, which was probably the highlight.

Hannah is saying some funny things lately.  She will tell one her jokes, and then she will end it with, "Wa wa Wa Waaa."  It's hilarious.  She has been playing with Emma so well lately too.  She will try to play barbies or babies with her.  But it usually ends with Emma stealing one of her dolls, and then Hannah crying or yelling.  Emma usually just wants to play chase.

Emma is developing verbally by leaps and bounds lately.  She is really starting to say everyone's names.  For awhile it was just mama, dada and rara (Laura).  Now she says ana (Hannah) and onna (Donna, her teacher).  She will even say small phrases.  When I give her fruit snacks (her most favorite thing) or her sippy cup, she will say, "Thsss (thank you) mama."  It's so sweet.  When she doesn't want something, she says, "nananana."  She is still quite physical.  She will hit and scratch and lash out in any way when she's mad.  She doesn't bite as often, but she still does it once in a while.  She got Hannah tonight.  Poor Hannah is usually her victim around here.  She is such a good sister.  She always comes back to her and gives her hug to let her know that she forgives her.

One of the kids favorite activities in the past several weeks is playing Uno at night.  Laura got it for her birthday, which I may have mentioned in a previous post.  But anyway, they love it, and we have to finish each evening with a couple of rounds.

Another favorite thing right now is the sponge rollers.  Laura likes to have me put in the sponge rollers in her hair after her bath at night.  We don't do it every night, since it's kind of time consuming and our time in the evenings is limited.  But we did it one night this week, and of course Hannah wanted  it too.  So I put some rollers in her hair too, even though it's already curly.  Well after I was done with both girls, Emma plopped herself right in front of me.  I said, "Oh, you want curlers too?"  And she nodded her head yes.  So I put a couple of rollers in her hair.  Then she promptly got up and started dancing around the living room.  Let me tell you her dances are hilarious.  She holds her hands up in the air in front of her and moves them like a rapper, and then she has this slow motion up down move with her legs.  It is so funny!  And she loves to dance.  So whenever any music is playing, on the TV, radio, or even in church, she is doing this move.  I will have to catch it on video sometime to preserve it for all posterity, or at least to embarrass her later in life :)


A random picture of all of the girls stuffed in a car cart at Kroger.

Birthdays, Halloween, and Other Fun Stories

We're almost to the holidays, and this family could not be more excited!  Remember - we had our Halloween costumes at the beginning of September.  So of course, we are already listening to Christmas music.  We haven't started to decorate the house, but I can't wait to do it.  The kids are looking through the Sunday ads every week looking at toys.  Matt and I have already started planning Christmas shopping lists for the kids.  As far as we are concerned, LET THE HOLIDAYS BEGIN!

But I digress.  You may be wondering what we've been up to in the last month.  As I mentioned we waited for Halloween for a long time, so of course there were Halloween parties in both Laura and Hannah's classrooms.  Laura's school has a big Halloween parade, and I went to it.  It was a really fun time seeing all the kids dressed in their costumes.  I got some great ideas for next year!  Hannah's favorite project at school this season was making her scarecrow.  She loved scarecrows this fall.  One night the week of Halloween, we carved pumpkins.  Matt let the girls design their own pumpkins.  They turned out really good.  Thankfully none of the bad teenagers got ours.  Unfortunately, many jack-o-lanterns in our neighborhood were victims of the bad teenagers.  Halloween night around here was a wet, nasty night.  You never know what you're going to get in Ohio on Halloween.  But our kids had fun trick or treating anyway.  They were out for about an hour.  I was impressed.  Hannah was a spooky witch, and Laura was a demon this year.  Little Emma didn't trick or treat, but she was a monkey.  She loved her costume the day she wore it to school.  She was doing the monkey sounds.  It was really cute.  

We also went dress shopping and picked out dresses for the girls for Ellen's wedding.  They are very excited to be flower girls.  They want tierras too, but I'm not sure about that!  When Hannah walked out the of the dressing room, she had her head held really high, and she was walking like a princess.  It was adorable!  The girls tried on about four dresses, maybe more.  At one point, Laura said, " I never want to leave this place!"  They were in heaven.

The girls went to a birthday party at Sweet 'N Sassy and loved it!  Laura has been there before about 3 years ago, but she really didn't remember it.  Hannah enjoyed it as much as Laura.  She had wanted her birthday to be at the Bouncy House, but now she wants it at Sweet N' Sassy.  We'll see when it gets a little closer.

Hannah had her very first teeth cleaning at the dentist, which is of course Aunt Ellen.  She did great and loved it.  Laura did good too.  She had another cavity - boo! But she did well getting her filling again.  We'll just keep trying to do better.  Laura also lost a tooth this week!  Her first one.  She got a dollar from the tooth fairy.

And of course, we had Laura's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  Laura has wanted her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese for almost two years, since her friend Julian, had his birthday there.  I think it lived up to her expectations.  She had a blast.  And on top of that, she got to have an improntu friend spend the night.  It was an awesome birthday for her.  I can't believe she's six years old already.  She's growing up so fast.  I know that I am constantly talking about wanting time to slow down, but I REALLY WANT TIME TO SLOW DOWN!!  It feels like just last week we brought her home, and somehow she's six and we have three kids.  Whoa!  Anyway she got one of those rubber band bracelet looms for her birthday from her friend, Maddie.  So far, that has been the favorite.  She has been making bracelets like crazy.  

We went one Friday down to Logan to celebrate Grandma Jane's birthday, and we were going to our nephew, Ian's house.  He has a daughter, Tammra, who is Laura's age.  We were telling Laura about her in the car.  They have played together many times, but we hadn't seen them in a while.  So Laura didn't remember her.  Laura asked us if she was in kindergarten, and we said yes.  Laura said, "Oh good.  We have a connection."  So funny.

I don' know if I've posted this quote before, but Hannah has said it to me more than once.  Whenever we are going to McDonald's, (which I admit that we go there more often than we should), Hannah says, "Mom you like church and I like McDonalds."  She is very matter of fact.

Emma - I haven't talked about her much yet.  What to say....she is wild as wild can be.  The teenage years are going to be rough with this one.  I'm just writing this down so that I remember that I knew it was coming.  Wow is she independent.  Maybe it's that she's the third.  I don't know.  But she climbs on everything!  We have these little stools that go to the girls' art desk, and she drags them around and uses them as her launch pads to climb up on anything she can.  She uses them as her little pedestals to dance on in the middle of the living room.  She is such a comedian and is so funny.  She knows when she's not supposed to do something, and she looks at us, smiles, and continues to do it.  She's also an awesome sleeper.  She doesn't really want much comforting when going to sleep, which is way different  than her sisters.  She has this routine that she kisses everyone goodnight and waves to us, and then Matt takes her in her bedroom and turns her fan on and her light off and she goes to sleep.  She had a rough transition to her new room at daycare.  She bit constantly, at school and at home.  Poor Hannah was the victim several times.  She was so forgiving though.  But I think we are through it finally, and everyone is doing well.

So that about brings us to now, and back to our holiday planning.  We have many activities that we want to do this year - go get the tree, go to the zoo lights, bake, decorate, etc.  Hopefully I will have a second to blog sometime before it's all over!

Transitions and Fall

As expected, Fall has us busy and full steam ahead.  School has added a whole new element to this season as well.  Laura is enjoying Kindergarten to the max, and Hannah is finally adjusted to the Intermediate room (preschool).  Hannah went on her first field trip, to the Pumpkin Patch this past week.  She has only been talking about going to the Pumpkin Patch since last winter or spring.  Emma, on the other hand, has not adjusted to her new Toddler room so well....

Every night when we get home, while I'm getting dinner ready, Laura starts her homework.  She usually can't wait to get home to start it.  It's crazy!  It usually only takes her about 10-15 minutes at the most.  Then she always has to do 10 minutes of iXL (Math) or Lexia Reading every night.  Those are electronic apps that have exercises in the appropriate category.  Well, I usually have to make her stop doing them to go take a shower or go to bed.  She LOVES it.  I can only hope this kind of enthusiasm will last.  For Catholic Schools Week, Matt and I had the opportunity to go have lunch with her.  It was so neat to see her with her class and how she interacted.  She was so confident and comfortable.  Matt and I were so proud of her.

Hannah's class at school is a little rough around the edges.  As I've mentioned it's mostly boys, and a couple of her really good friends that were girls left the school.  So she had a rough transition when she moved that room.  Matt and I considered moving our kids to another school, but we ultimately decided to leave them here for now.  The preschool teacher that Hannah has is amazing.  She is super strict but very good with the kids, and they learn a lot in that room.  Hannah is now thriving in that room despite the whiny kids in it.  I chaperoned her field trip to the Pumpkin Patch last week.  She had so much fun!  I think it was everything she hoped it would be.  They rode on this barrel ride pulled by a tractor, which I think was her favorite. They had a mini bouncy house, and Hannah loves bouncy houses.  She held a bunny and fed the goats.  It was a wonderful day, and I'm really glad I went with her.  On the bus ride back, she just sat next to me with a smile on her face.  She said, "Mommy, I love that ride.  Can we go back to the punkin patch?"

As for Emma, well - Emma is quite aggressive - far more than my other two.  Laura and Hannah both went through biting episodes, but nothing like little Emma.  She will bite randomly, for no apparent reason.  She doesn't seem to care what punishment you give her or how often you talk to her about it.  So we are trying our best and riding out the storm.  The teachers at school have to stay on her like glue, which is very difficult.  Other than the aggression, she seems to like her new room.  She is a little hesitant at drop off, but she seems to do fine otherwise.  She is napping on a cot now!  I still can't believe they don't have to tie her down!  She still sleeps in her crib here.  At home, Emma wants to be with her sisters constantly, doing whatever they are doing.  She doesn't want to play with baby toys; she wants to play with barbies or ponies or babies.  Baby dolls are definitely her favorite.  Often I will come into daycare, and she will be walking around patting her baby or swaddling her baby.  She's napping right now, which is how I am able to pound out this post!

We've been up to many fun things this Fall, namely tailgating!  The girls and I have went down to two tailgates this season.  They had a blast at both.  One game it was about 95 degrees, but their friends, Carmen and Quinn were there.  The other game was a night game, and Charlie was there to play with them.  I'm not sure how they would do without any friends, but they seemed to have enjoyed the two we attended.

They are SUPER excited for Halloween.  They both have had their costumes since September.  Hannah is going to be a spooky witch, and Laura is going to be a demon.  Yes, you read that right - a demon.  She has a super scary mask that has a blood packet with it.  That should be interesting.  

They are also excited for Laura's birthday, which is going to be at Chuck E. Cheese this year.  I'm not overly thrilled, since I consider that place the seventh rung of hell.  But the things you will do for your kids. :)

Well I hear Emma waking up, so until next time...

The hat pic is Matt's birthday.

Kindergarten and Beyond

It's the end of era, the beginning of a whole new world - for Laura and us.  Yes, it's Kindergarten.  As expected, Laura started Kindergarten this week as if she was born to do so.  She was so excited.  She got to wear a new uniform, get a new backpack and lunch bag, and wear new tennis shoes.  Best of all, Laura, the social butterfly that she is, was excited to meet new friends.  So when we walked her up to the gate near the entrance to the long hall way into her new school, St. Brendan's, we kissed her goodbye, and off she went.  She didn't hesitate or look back.  She was ready for her whole new world.

Me, on the other hand, look at it more like the end of an era, for now anyway.  You see, I just brought her home.  I can see that day as plain as it were yesterday.  Matt and I sat at our kitchen table with her asleep in her carrier on the floor and ate our lunch from Steak N' Shake.  We marveled what had just happened.  We actually had another life to take care of without supervision!  We had no idea what we were doing.  But we were so looking forward to all of the fun of the coming years.  Flash forward five and half years.  All the years as a little one and a toddler are gone.  Our lives are now dictated by a new schedule - school.  And that's how it feels - it flashed right by.

Nevertheless, it's here, and we all survived the first week (or half week; she will normally go five days all day).  After the first day, we asked Laura how it went.  She said her favorite part was lunch.  (Although they only have 20 minutes to eat!) She said that they move quickly from thing to thing.  I think she means from subject to subject.  I asked her what she learned.  She said, "I didn't really learn anything.  We learned lots of rules."  I could tell that she was really tired.  Sure enough, she fell asleep in the car on the way home.  She hasn't done that in years.  The next two days were more of the same.  We have a link that we are supposed to check once a day to see what's going on during her days.  So we are able to ask her questions more pointedly about what she is learning.  Next week we will probably get her first homework.  And off we go, into our new world.  It's amazing the little girl that she has become.  She is so aware of personal relationships now.  For example, she implies that if her friend across the street chooses to play with other girls, that she might now care about Laura as much, and it hurts Laura's feelings.  This morning after breakfast, I was sitting at the table with Laura drinking my coffee, and Laura said, "I just want to sit here and talk, Mom."  She's growing up!

I think this first week of Kindergarten was more of an adjustment for us than her.  I have to make sure that she has uniforms ready and clean each morning.  I have to check her folder each night and empty it.  I have to clean out her lunchbox, plan what she will have the next day for lunch and snack.  And we have started to have Laura shower every night.  She used to this every other night.  It's no big deal, except that she takes FOREVER!  We will have to work on the art of a quick shower.  It doesn't sound like much, but it has been a major adjustment to my schedule.  And because I'm old, I adjust more slowly than Laura ;)

Not to be forgotten, little Hannah started pre-school this week too.  She actually adjusted a little more slowly than Laura.  Her transition week was the week before, and we were on stay cation.  So we just dropped her in her new room on Wednesday.  As usual, it was a little chaotic, so Hannah struggled.  She dropped off OK, but she had an accident (wet her pants) once this week, which is unusual.  I think she was just too scared to ask someone to go.  She'll make it.  I think that she loves that she gets dropped off in the big kid classrooms.  And she is still very much looking forward to field trips.  The first one will be to the pumpkin patch in October.

Seasons pass, years will roll....and we will try to embrace each change in our lives and enjoy our years with our babies, our little girls, and some day our young women.

Staycation

We are on staycation!  It has turned out much better than I imagined it would so far.  I thought that I might get caught up in day-to-day chores, but we have done all kinds of awesome things so far.  Staycation was positioned in the last week before Laura starts Kindergarten.  It started Wednesday, the 14th, and Laura starts school on the 21st.  We did Jungle Jack's Landing on Wednesday.  We did this once at the end of last summer, and the kids enjoyed it.  They had more fun this year.  Plus they got to ride the dinosaur boat ride again, which is Hannah's most favorite activity of the summer.  Laura was so sweet to Hannah on each ride; she would help Hannah get buckled and help her on and off the rides.

Thursday we went school shopping.  I needed to get a few more uniforms for Laura, and she enjoyed picking out her classroom supplies.  She gets to meet her teacher on Monday, and she is very excited.  Hannah got to pick out a few things too.  Shoes was the most challenging, as Laura seems to be in an in-between size.  After scouring through Kohls, we finally found some Sketchers at Meijer.  I think Laura liked picking out her backpack the most.  I was on the phone with Matt, and she talked to the store clerk, who assisted her in narrowing down her selections.  She finally chose an urban, camouflage one that is different colors of pink and black and white.  We did movie night that evening.  We watched a cheesy movie from the eighties about some kids that got lost in a mountain, and the wolf, who was really an indian spirit, protected the kids.  Laura loved it!  The other two fell asleep.

Yesterday we went to the Wilds in Zanesville.  We got to see a ton of animals, and I think the older two really like it.  They got to see rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and an assortment of African deer.  Thankfully, there were two short stops along the tour to relieve the restlessness, since it was 2.5 hours long.  Yesterday evening we went to Drive-In Movie night at the Keith's.  The kids really got to burn off some steam running around there and ingest a ton of sugar!  They had old fashioned cartoons, which to my surprise the kids watched intently.  They loved them!  Then they played The Wizard of Oz.  All three watched the whole thing.  Before the movies started, the older two were running around, and Emma was trying her hardest to keep up with them.  When she runs now, she waves her little elbow like a little chicken leg, just like Hannah used to do.  It's so cute!  She's getting pretty good verbally too.  She will answer fairly consistently "yes or no" when you ask her a question. 

Today we are going to catch up a bit and meet some family for lunch later.  Then I think we will hit one of the local pools tomorrow.  Monday, Laura gets to meet her teacher, and we have a meet and greet at her school.  Tuesday, we will probably rest and enjoy our last day with Laura before we enter the world of school!  Can you tell I don't want it to end?  Matt is nervous for her, mostly about her adjusting socially.  I am not at all nervous about those things.  I am mostly sad - sad that it is all over.  I feel like we brought her home last week, and now she's grown up and going to school.  It went way too fast for me. 

I've been talking a lot about Laura, but Hannah is making a big step too this year.  She moves up to pre-school at our daycare.  She is pretty excited about it, mostly about the field trips.  She has been watching Laura go on field trips for two years, and she is very excited to get go on them this year. Unfortunately, her class is not that fun.  It is mostly boys.  She really only had two friends, Quinn and Charlotte.  Sadly, both of the other girls are likely going to other schools this year.  So Hannah will be pretty sad about that when she realizes it.  I still have hope that the one girl will come back,  but we'll see.  Either way, pre-school will be a whole new world for Hannah, and the teacher in that class is excellent.

As summer draws to a close, I'm thankful for another season of happy memories.  And ready or not, off we go into fall!

4th of July and Other July Events

How was everyone's 4th of July?  Our was two weeks long since the Prochaska gathering was the weekend after the 4th.  It's my favorite holiday, so as usual, I enjoyed it to the max.  The first weekend, the actual weekend of the 4th, was a bit of a "bust" weekend for us.  We tried and tried to do fun things throughout the weekend, but everything we tried didn't work out.  Most of the issues revolved around the dagum rain!  It rained and rained and rained and rained and rained!  But....we were determined not to let it ruin our 4th.  Wednesday night we watched Red White and Boom on TV.  This is our second year doing that since the kids are small.  We have went down there several years, but it's not real conducive to small children, especially Emma's age.  With the chance of rain looming, that sealed the deal for us.  We stayed home again.  It turned out fun though.  The baby went down to bed, and the older girls stayed up and watched the fireworks on TV.  The people the next street over always let them off too.  So the girls watched those out the back door windows.  I think they probably enjoyed those more than the professional ones on TV!

On the actual 4th, our plan was to go see the fireworks in one of the burbs.  We looked into Hilliard's, but it seemed a little hard to get in and out of the area, and there were several other distractions (fair rides and games) that I was not interested fending off.  We ended up going to the Marysville fireworks with my parents.  Well,  let me tell you - those were a treat!  They were extremely good for local fireworks.  I suspect that Honda Marysville must sponsor them.  The evening was perfect, and that made my weekend.

So now let me tell you about all of the "busts" leading up to those fireworks and the events afterward.  So of course it was raining all day Thursday, and were looking for something fun to do with the girls.  We thought we had a brilliant idea of taking them swimming at Matt's gym.  It was indoors, and they would get to burn off some their energy.  It was perfect!  We got everyone in their swimwear, and drove up to Dublin.  And sure enough, there was a sign posted on the door, CLOSED for the 4th of July.  Ok.  Bust #1.  So maybe we should have realized that certain places would be closed for the holiday.  Next we called the Hilliard YMCA to see if they were open and had open swim today.  Yes, they were open until 5:00, and they had open swim.  Alas, we headed south back to Hilliard to the YMCA.  When we got there, we saw the pool was outside.  Matt went inside before we unloaded to ensure that there was another pool indoors.  However, he found out that you can't visit the Hilliard Y with a day pass.  When did that happen???  You have to be a member.  And it cost well over $1000.00 for an annual family membership!  That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of!!!  Bust #2.  In desperation, we took a long shot and drove by the Hilliard Aquatics Center on the off chance they were open.  Of course, they weren't.  Bust #3.  The kids were very disappointed, and we were sufficiently frustrated.  We had been in the van for over an hour at this point.  So we headed down to Hilliard Rome to get something to eat and figured that we could go to the McDonalds that had the play equipments, with the hoped of appeasing our sad children.  Would you know we get all the way down there, and the play equipment at the McDonalds was outdoors?!  Bust #4.  Thankfully I remembered seeing indoor play equipment at the Chickfila up the street.  So we went up there and ate an early dinner and the kids finally got to play.  (It was better food than McDonalds for the record too.)  After dinner we headed out to Papa and Grammy's for awhile before the fireworks.  It ended up working out well.  Whew!  It was a long way to get there though.

Saturday it was raining on and off, but Ellen called around noon and said that it wasn't supposed to rain again until 4 or 5 and asked if we wanted to come swim at the Quarry, which is near wear she lives.  So we packed everyone up once and again and headed to the Quarry to attempt to swim again.  (And we wanted to see Ellen at some point on the holiday weekend.)  We weren't in the water, which was freezing, 30 minutes before the rain started again!  And it was thundering, so I wasn't too comfortable letting the kids continue to swim.  Bust #5.  We let the kids eat some snacks with the hope of the rain stopping, but it didn't.  So we left and headed to the grocery store.  That evening Alan and Jayne came over to have dinner with us.  Matt did a superb job on the grill, as usual, and it was delicious!  We had an enjoyable evening visiting, eating ice cream, and letting the kids do sparklers on the back patio.  It's what summer is all about!

The next weekend was the Prochaska 4th of July extravaganza.  It was at my uncle Marty and aunt Dena's house this year.  They live on 100 acres in Ross county, and we had a great time visiting, 4-wheeling, exploring the "farm.," and watching fireworks.  The kids fished in the pond, swam in the pool (finally!), and played with explosives.  (Because what's a 4th of July celebration without children playing with explosives?)  We all had a great time.  We only see these extended relatives about twice a year, so I always treasure these events and memories.

Even though we didn't get home until 1:30am that morning, I had a moment of insanity and wanted to take the kids up to the zoo that afternoon. We went up at about 4:30 with the intention of just doing a few things, one of which would be the dinosaur exhibit. Ever since we saw it back in June, Hannah has been asking to go back and has been watching the video on Matt's phone daily.  It was about 95 degrees and 500% humidity.  Hence we did the bare minimum.  We took the girls on the boat ride twice, the carousel once, and went to the aquarium to cool off.  Then we headed home.  The kids had a blast, so it was worth it.  But we were completely exhausted, and it made Monday a little difficult. 

Last weekend we went to our friend, Maddie's, birthday party, which was a pool party.  And the girls got to swim all afternoon.  They swam til their hearts' content.  They love Maddie and had fun doing the "luau" games.  Even little Emma got to be in the pool this time.  She loved the water and didn't want to get out. 

Here are some quotes from the month:

Laura - describing something she saw, "It's wicked cool!"  Where did she learn that?
Getting frustrated with Hannah, "Patience is a virtue Hannah and I'll be done in one minute!" 
"Mom, do you know why I don't like the store?  It's stopping and walking and stopping and walking!"

Hannah - "You like church and I like restawants."

Emma, I think, might be our orneriest kid yet.  She is entering the tantrum stage, where she throws herself on the floor and screams when she doesn't get what she wants.  She loves to be with the girls and play with them.  When they play "puppy,"  Emma will pretend to be a puppy too.  She will pant and bark and crawl on the ground.  It's so cute. 

So that's pretty much our July.  Only a few more weeks until school starts.  Mommy is not ready for that!  But that will be another blog post.

Let the Good Times Roll

The good times are rollin' at the Adams' household.  We had a fun filled Memorial Day weekend.  Aunt Jayne and Uncle Alan came to visit Friday night, and the girls had a great time.  Aunt Jayne bought them new bug catching tools, which is always a good thing around here!  Sunday we visited Aunt Ellen and Justin, and Justin's brother's family was there too.  His kids are about Hannah's age and Emma's age.  Hannah, who usually never wants to run or exert too much energy, raced Asher about 20 times.  She was so proud each time.  She even got a little aggressive and tried to strong arm him out of the way.  Laura led Knox around on the leash the whole night.  She told me later that she was pretending he was her dog.  :)  Just keep pretending sweetheart.  I thought that Emma would be afraid of the dogs, but not so.  She loved them.  She was after one of them the whole night.  Monday we grilled out up at my parents' house.  Again the kids had a big time!  They hunted bugs, bunnies, and snakes.  They rode on Papa's tractor and visited Dreamer.  They fed Max a bazillion treats and hauled the cat around everywhere.  By the time it was time to leave, they were filthy and tired - sign of a good weekend.

We have made a list of fun things we want to do this summer.  We started with one of them this weekend; we went to Slate Run Metro Park.  They have an 1880's historical farm there.  It was really cool.  The girls got to interact with the animals.  They of course like the draft horses, and there were brand new baby lambs there.  They weren't too interested in the pigs.  Laura said, "they stink."  But they both liked the chickens, roosters, and the cows.  They played with the old-fashioned toys in the house and outside.  It was a pretty interesting place.  Afterwards, we went to Aunt Jayne's and Uncle Alan's to visit their new puppy.  The girls were trying to "walk" him outside on his leash, and Hannah came inside to tell us, "we have a problem.  He won't walk!"  Chewy had had enough.

Well I'm just now getting back to this post....as you have read, it was written about the first weekend in June.  And here we are June 28th.  You ask, what have we been up to?  Oh, just our normal chaotic life! 

It is garage sale weekend in our neighborhood this weekend.  I usually love garage sale weekend, as I have gotten many summer clothes for the girls over the years at them.  Last year, the kids had a blast garage saleing with their own money.  We ended up with a kid's drum set.  You can imaging how much mom and dad love that toy!  This is the first year that I am planning to participate with my own sale.  A couple of weekends ago, we had the great toy clean out!  It went much better than I anticipated.  Matt led it this time, and he did a much better job than I normally do at  getting the kids to put things in the sale pile.  Of course since then, the kids have pulled a few things back out of the sale pile.  But I still consider it progress.  We'll see how my sale goes.

Last weekend the girls got to spend the night up at Papa and Grammy's farm.  They absolutely love it up there.  It is one adventure after another.  They get to hunt for all kinds of creatures like frogs, snakes, baby birds, and bunnies.  They get to play with Papa's dog and cat and sometimes even ride Grammy's horse.  They go on little hikes and do projects with Grammy.  They are never ready to come home from there!

A couple of weekends before that we went to the zoo and saw the dinosaur exhibit.  We did the boat ride, and the kids LOVED it.  Matt took a video the whole time we were on it, and Hannah has watched that video about 50 times since then.  She keeps asking to go back, so we will have to make sure that we get back there again this summer.  We went to the zoo with the Moellers who have two boys that are generally Laura and Hannah's ages.  Their son, Will, took a liking to Laura, and they walked around looking at the dinosaur map together and holding hands.  Daddy was none too pleased about that!

A couple of the funny quotes from the month:

Laura - "Daddy, I've been thinkin' about your burgers."  (The morning after daddy grilled burgers for dinner.)
"Mom, you know what I don't like about taking walks? - Hills."  She is certainly my daughter!

Hannah - "Emma wakes up and turns into a Munster!"  (Morning after they were woken up by Emma yelling at us in the middle of the night.)

Emma has developed quite a personality.  She is a pistol!  When she's mad, you better get out of the way, or you are going to get bit!  Or she yells at the top of her lungs.  Generally she loves to be with her sisters, and she tries to do everything they are doing.  For example, Laura was standing at the sink brushing her teeth one morning, and Emma stood on the stool with her gum cleaner and pretended to brush her teeth.  When Laura spit in the sink, Emma pretended to do the same.  It was so cute watching her mimic her sisters.  She gets into everything!  If I turn my back for one second, she will have climbed up on the girls' art desk or be playing in the toilet.  So to say the least, she is keeping me busy!

We are excited for the 4th of July.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

 

The Weather Breaks

May has started out sad.  We lost a dear friend of ours last week.  Rest in Peace Darlene.  She was an awesome friend and a role model for Matt and me.  We are reminded how little control that we have over our life.  God gives us life, and He decides when we are joining him again.  Events like this make us treasure our lives and those we love even more.  So as usual, I will chronicle some of our memories from last month to now.

Laura and Hannah had their dance recital last weekend.  They were awesome!  Laura did a tap dancing and a ballet dancing routine for us.  And Hannah did a tumbling routine for us.  Matt was certain that Hannah would get nervous up on the stage in front of everyone, but she did great.  She put out her little chest and held her head high.  She was so proud.  We never had any worries about Laura.  She is a little performer.  (She takes after her Daddy!)  They both did a great job, and it was so fun.  Afterwards, Papa came over and the girls did a picnic with him outside.  Laura has been wanting to have a "real" picnic for a while.  She took a blanket outside.  Then she got some of their toy plates and filled them with berries, apples, and carrots.  She, Hannah, and Papa sat out on the blanket eating their snacks.  They played outside until near dark that night.

Little Emma likes to be right with her sisters as often as possible.  She was outside with them for awhile towards the end of their picnic, long enough to have strawberry all over her.  She is walking confidently now.  She topples often, but she can make it all the way across a room.  Of course, that also means she will not sit voluntarily ever!  For example, at church, Matt or I have to be out in the hallways with her while she walks.  She refuses to sit on anyone's laps.  It is only a phase, I know.  But I'll be glad when she has mastered walking enough that she doesn't want to constantly practice! 

Emma also loves music.  Her favorite toys play music.  And anytime music is playing she starts to dance or sway.  Matt and I were watching the first 4 seasons of Parenthood.  Well, the intro song is Bob Dylan's, Forever Young.  Emma LOVES it.  No matter what she was doing, as soon as that song came on, she stopped and watched the TV and started swaying.  And then she clapped and said "Yay!"  One time she was laying on my lap half asleep, and she heard the song.  She sat upright and started swaying and then clapped.  It is so cute!  At least she has good taste.  She will be happy when Season 5 starts.

In addition to playing with her sisters, Emma likes to be in on the wrestling with her sisters too.  If they are wresting, she attacks and rolls right in with them.  She is quite aggressive.  If Laura or Hannah steals a toy or does something Emma doesn't like, Emma fights back with her teeth!  And she is fast!  She's a compassionate kid too.  Emma likes to play with her baby doll.  She will hug her and rock her back and forth.  She hugs us too!  Whenever we pick her up from daycare, she gives us a big hug and kisses us.  She's a lovable baby.

All the girls are happy that the weather if finally breaking.  They love to swing on their swing set and explore outside.  They have new bug boxes, so they have been hunting bugs regularly.  They pick up rocks looking for beetles or rolly polys.  They have caught some big June bugs.  A few weekends ago we went up to my Grandma Prochaska's house.  The girls had so much fun exploring and hunting and playing outside.  They found about 100 ladybugs, a groundhog (which they and Papa buried), many flowers, and many other bugs and things.  Emma crawled around the grass and explored.  We had a great time visiting with my Grandma.  All three girls were filthy and exhausted that night - a sign of a perfect day.

I will end with a Laura quote:

"Mom, I remember lots of things.  I remember when the dinosaurs were here...like 10 years ago."

Crazy Life

Well here I start yet another post with, "Where has time gone?"  I look at my blog only to find that I missed the entire month of March, which was a special month.  We had Easter, and it was Emma's Big First Birthday.  Yes, it has been a whole year already.  I certainly cannot believe it.

So I guess I'll start there.  Her birthday was actually a little uneventful, since it was her first.  Matt bought her a donut with sprinkles from Tim Hortons, and we sang to her the evening of her birthday.  Then she proceeded to eat the entire donut.  And it was huge.  She loved every bite of it.  And that was pretty much it.  I did bake her the traditional teddy bear cake that I have baked the older two girls too.  But we ate it at Easter with the family, so it was not really a big deal.  I gave her some bites of it.  On Emma generally, she is growing like a weed.  She is trying desperately to keep up with her big sisters, and so she is close to walking and coasts along the furniture regularly.  She is also quite the little stinker.  She can argue with me.  I say yes, and she proceeds to say no.  And we go back and forth - already at age one she is arguing with me!  I'm not sure that's a good sign for the future.  She eats all table food, and we are down to one bottle, right before nap time, which will be difficult to end.  But she still nurses in the morning and evening too.  She went to the doctor for her one year appointment, and she weighs 20lbs.  She has moved up to the next Infant Room at daycare.  This is my least favorite room at daycare, and she got bit on the face her very first day in the room.  But other than that, it's actually going fine.  (As fine as daycare can go anyway.)

Moving on to Laura, she is becoming older, that is older acting, with every week.  It is both exciting and frightening for me.  She completed Kindergarten Screening the first week in March, and she got accepted to St. Brendan's late March.  So she will officially start school August 21, 2013.  That will will be a huge change for our family, that I am not at all prepared for emotionally.  But we still have time.  Laura's appetite for learning is insatiable, so I know that she will enjoy school.  She is constantly finding shows on Netflix about nature or some other educational topic.  Don't get me wrong; she likes all the fun shows too.  Her favorite at the moment is Transformers.  She even got a couple of Transformers in her Easter basket.  Laura's favorite activity continues to be drawing.  She is even a little bored with coloring, as she would rather be drawing.  At Sunday school, they always give the kids a picture to color while everyone arrives.  She told Matt last week that she is bored at Sunday school because she wants to draw.  So Matt told her that she could draw on the paper instead.  Laura also likes to set up complex settings for her and Hannah to act out.  For example, yesterday Laura set them up a horse jumping course.  And she and Hannah pretended to ride horses over the jumps.  I took a video of it.  It was awesome.  After the "competition," Hannah was injured when horse didn't make a jump, so Laura proceeded to cast her legs and perform surgery on her.  I enjoyed watching the whole scene immensely.

Hannah's language is progressing by leaps and bounds.  Just a couple of months ago, we sometimes had a hard time understanding her, and now she speaks in multiple sentences.  And it fairly easy to understand her.  She wants to do everything Laura does.  In fact last summer there was a birthday party for one of Laura's friends, to which Hannah couldn't go.  Well, she still remembers that party.  She felt so left out.  It was horrible.  I know it will probably be the first of many times, especially as Laura moves into school.  But Hannah asks every time we have an activity, "do I get to go?"  It's so sad.  She wants to be with Laura constantly.  They play very well together too.  They have their spats, but in general they are very close.  Hannah still loves Rapunzel, but her favorite show on Netflix has been My Little Pony for a while now.  The girls have a boat load of My Little Ponies, so they play ponies fairly often too.

Easter was special, relaxing and fun this year.  I haven't been to Easter Vigil Mass in many years, largely since it is an extra long mass with all of the new Catholics entering the Church on that night.  Well this year was extra special.  Matt entered the Church this year.  My parents watched the kids, and I enjoyed an amazing evening.  The service was beautiful, and it was truly awesome watching Matt take part in his first sacraments and enter "the fold."  The next day we went to my Aunt Lisa's for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  We enjoyed hanging with the family, and the kids hunting eggs.  Laura asked about the Easter bunny hiding eggs at our house.  Matt told her that he left a note for the Easter bunny to go ahead and hide them at Lisa's.  Laura was none too pleased about this.  She scolded Matt several times that day that he should not leave any notes in the future for the Easter bunny.  She wanted to hunt eggs at her house.  Lesson learned.  They did have a blast at Lisa's though.  Thankfully the weather was nice, and the kids had fun climbing on hale bales in the barn, while my dad loaded hay in his truck.  Then Lisa saddled up old Skip, and both girls took rides
around the barn.  They loved it.  It was an awesome weekend.

Well, as I close this post, I am committing to more timely posts.  My goal is to document my memories of our family, and I can't document well when I only post once a month!  To better blogging....