Anniversary Date...

I'm getting ready to leave the kiddos with the mother in law for the night as me and the hubs finally head out to celebrate our anniversary. We're having a fantastic dinner (courtesy in part to my parents for their fabulous gift card and our friend for a leftover gift certificate to the particular restaurant), which will be followed by a late night movie.

I'm sure the kiddos will have a blast with grandma. They always do. I know we're going to enjoy our night out, chatting and eating, and relaxing together to celebrate six fantastic years.

The New Babysitter...

I know for some kids, the TV can easily become a babysitter. However, for Monkey, it holds no appeal. Her babysitter is...the bathtub. So wonderful, so wet.

The other day, Monkey was being high maintenance and when the hubs came home that night, mentioned something about putting her in the bathtub to ease up on the stress load. So tonight I tried it. He was gone helping his brother and I had the kiddos. Moose is an easy fix. We watched a movie together, which is always super special. But since Monkey has no desire for media yet (which I'm totally okay with, by the way. Moose didn't watch any tv, movies until he was 2.) I had to entertain her. She was getting tired, I was getting worn out, and that's when I remembered the new babysitter.

So Miss Monkey took a bath (a straight shot from my spot in the living room, bathroom door open, of course, water super low - for those worried about safety) while me and Moose enjoyed a bit of our movie together. Then the hubs came home, which ended her bath and the chaos began again. But that's okay. At least now I'm more familiar with my new ally, the new babysitter.

Raising a Reader...

So we made a real effort with Moose to expose him to books early and often. As a result of this, we read books every day, and he's a big fan. We remember when we was younger, and we'd read books before bed. We finally realized the only way to keep him from throwing a fit for more books was by letting him pick 5 books. That was his magic number.

Monkey is only 16 months old, but she is quite the book fanatic as well. We have a few sets, one with Winnie the Pooh and an exercising theme, and two sets of Sandra Boynton books (which I adore) that she would literally have me read to her all day long.

The last few days have been this way. I'm so happy that she has this early love for reading, and I'm doing my best to encourage her love of books (since she's obviously not reading, but looking and listening) but I must admit that it is really exhausting. In that "this is really boring, must I read this again" sorta way.

But don't get me wrong. I want my kids to learn to love books. I'll just be glad when one of them knows how to read.

Yay for home...

So today ended up being a day at home after all. While I slept in with Miss Monkey, the hubs took Moose to the store and did the grocery shopping. (Love you hubs!) It was a wonderful day of recovery, completely at home, never once considering going anywhere. It was great.

Maybe now that we're finally recovered, I'll brace myself to take the kids to the library as it's been quite a long time. Perhaps.

I'm currently looking forward to celebrating our anniversary this Friday night. Or Thursday night. Dinner and a late night movie (the movie theater is a once a year occurrence for the most part, and is a pretty big deal for me. I'm quite excited about it.) while the kiddos spend the night with the grandparents. I just hope there's something good to watch in the theaters. We always try to pick something that's a real "theater" movie and is worth paying the high cost, versus something that's equally good at home. (For example, the last thing we saw in the theater was "Avatar".) Any recommendations?

Back to life...

The reunion and all business included with it is over, and it feels like we might be back to the way things were. At least for a week or so. Last night we were home late after a dinner, games and talent show. I played a duet with my niece and the kids sang along. It was an exerpt from "A Spoonful of Sugar". Moose actually sang the words. I was pleased enough. It was a really fun time, but I am completely finished with my kids going to bed at 9:30 and being non-stop all the time. I actually look forward to a complete day of going nowhere. Perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps. Probably not. I think we need to go to the store. Oh well. Perhaps Tuesday then...

The hubs and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday. Yay us. We'll actually be celebrating this coming weekend with dinner out and maybe a late night movie. The kiddos will likely spend the night with grandma and grandpa. Then the week after, I'm afraid, will be a slight return to chaos. The hubs' brother is getting married the 21st. (Yay!!!) Moose is going to be the ring-bearer. (Awww.) I'm excited for the entire event. I don't think it will bring nearly the amount of chaos that the reunion did. Just a few missed naps and one or two late nights. It will most certainly be worth it. Weddings are always such warm and happy occasions. I just love them!

Mr. Ring Bearer is going to be wearing a bow-tie and suspenders. I finished his bow-tie. (Yes, I made it.) I'll be working on the suspenders this week, now that the reunion business is finished. I just need one more supply and I can whip them out. I think he's going to look super cute in the combo. And the kid sweats bullets so easily, that a suit coat and the whole get-up would probably have him soaked through his shirt before he made it down the aisle, I'm afraid.

Anyway, one week of slightly not much to do and then another week of somewhat business, and then the school year starts and the hubs is back to his high school schedule.

The summer has gone WAY too fast.

Family Reunion Fun...

So last night was such a late night, and the computer wasn't turned on, that my nightly post got the boot. But tonight the computer was on, so I'm whipping it out. Yesterday was full of family reunion fun. We had the "opening ceremonies" so to speak. Everyone wore name tags, we talked and mingled, had some killer food (s'mores too!) and sang some campfire songs. (Most of which we didn't know, but that added to the fun.)

Tonight was even better. We had a light dinner and got to the game playing.  The hubs was involved in an egg toss. At one point, he was up on a rock, right infront of me and Monkey, having the egg tossed at him, at pretty high speeds, since they were already pretty far apart. I openly screamed about twice, for fear of being splattered with raw egg. Then they finally found another distance to throw from. After that we enjoyed badmitton, horseshoes, water balloon volleyball and more. It was tons of fun. Then came the magic show, which we previewed a few weeks ago. It was wonderful, once again, and there were still a few that I completely couldn't figure out. Moose remembered bits and pieces and would get excited occasionally.

We had a late night again (although our morning was completely empty, which was nice) but I'd say it was worth it. It was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we're in for even more. Pot luck, family photos, talent show, and 50's sock hop. Oh goodness! It should be great. For now, it's a night of recovery.

And ooh, I got a ringer playing horseshoes. We won. I was pretty proud. :)

Family Reunion...

So today was the unofficial beginning of a family reunion on the hub's side of the family. It technically starts tomorrow, but since his brother and 3 kiddos are already in town, we spent most of the day together. We went to a local ranch that's free and has horses, goats, pigs, bunnies, a huge turkey, and more. The kids got to ride a horse and had an awesome time.

After late naps (but naps nonetheless) we had dinner at the "big house". This is the house which is the biggest in the area belonging to family, for which we use for all family gatherings, for the most part. Everyone was there. Great Grandma, the in-laws, two brother in laws, their wives, and 6 kids, plus our bunch of 4. Pure madness. If their house wasn't so large (and yard) I'm sure I would've gone mad. But it was tons of fun. By the end, Monkey was running around shaking her head (which makes her ridiculously wobbly and dizzy) and crashing into anyone who would catch her. It was a blast.

Tomorrow the official reunion begins. It's 4 or 5 generations. I'm not sure how to count them. Although the oldest generation no longer has any living members. But a huge group, to say the least. So the next 3 days are going to include super late bedtimes, possibly ruined naps (maybe not) but hopefully a ton of fun. Here's to a fun reunion! (My first on the hubs side, outside of just him and his brothers. This should be interesting!)

Productive Day...

This morning I didn't have many plans and didn't really feel up for much, not having slept well the night before. However, I undertook a project early this morning since Monkey was sleeping in (thanks to her not sleeping well last night either.) I put together Moose's rather large Thomas the Train Track System that has been undone for weeks. It's also been caked in dust from a wind storm a while back. So I swept, and cleaned pieces and put it back together. Yay for me!

I was feeling pretty good, like I had done my motherly duty for the day. Until Moose received his final birthday present in the mail today. A Black and Decker Toolbench. So during naptime, I took it upon myself to put together the entire thing, even installing a few sets of batteries. Lo and behold, I had outdone even myself.

It felt pretty good to go above and beyond my expectations for the day. I, only slightly, regret to say that the rest of the day didn't prove to be very productive in any way. Outside of feeding my children healthy meals. But I felt good about it. Moose loves having his train track restored and adores his new toolbench and tools. We even stayed late at grandma's house visiting with his cousins who just got in town, until 9 o'clock. As we left the house, I said something along the lines of, "You should be saying thank you for us letting you stay up so late so you could stay up and play with your cousins." To which I didn't actually expect a response. But Moose promptly replied, "Thank you Mama."

I think my day is officially done. :)

Dinnertime Diapers...

For those of a weak constitution, tonight was not a night for you. It started out innocently enough. As we were enjoying our fantastic stir fry at the dinner table, Monkey felt the need (as kids often do) to announce that she was pooping. So when she was done eating, the hubs was prepared to take her straight to the changing table and handle business. However, upon taking her from her chair, he realized she had "stuff" up her back and out one leg hole.

Ew.

Needless to say, we haven't had anything like this happen in ages. However, for the last while, Monkey has been plagued with what we like to call "pebble poo". You can imagine why we term it that. So I'm guessing she hasn't been getting quite enough of something in her diet lately and her body decided to do a little regulating.

Having been such a long time since we've handled something like this, the whole affair was pretty silly, while still being stinky. We more or less put her straight in the bathtub. I'll spare you some of the icky details. (For which I know you're glad because I've already shared enough, right?) But when you're parenting kids of this age, this sorta thing just becomes part and partial. "The whole genie gig. Phenomenal cosmic power. Itty bitty living space."

I don't know about any phenomenal cosmic powers (except for eyes in the back of my head), but he definitely had it right when he said itty bitty living space. Kids spread out and take over everything, ultimately leaving you with very little of your own living space. But it's worth it. Even when it's stinky.

Silliness...

I spent the last few minutes before the kids went to bed laying on the couch watching Monkey. She was taking an adult sized t-shirt, putting it over her head (so she could not see) and then trepidly walking around the living room giggling. It was absolutely hilarious. And when the shirt would fall off, or she'd decide to take it off, or she'd actually bump into something, she'd look up with a huge grin on her face, just knowing how cute and funny she was being.

She really is becoming quite the character.