Shopping & Parties

This week we cleaned out our rental, did the final walk through and collected our security deposit (hip hip hooray!). We still will have to pay rent for the next 2 months if no one takes over our lease but at least we are done taking care of it and at least we now have our security deposit to pay one month of the rent if needed. It's sad to say goodbye to the Milford chapter of our lives but it also feels good to be done and unto our new adventure.

Also this week I painted the guest room just in time for grandma to come and stay in it. The color originally looked gray with a hint of purple but after it was all done, it now looks more of a light blue. It's a nice calming color and grandma approves so I am not going to be changing it.

We were happy to have Grandma here! She got to miss out on all the not fun parts of moving and was here just in time to help me shop for things to organize the house with. We have done lots of shopping and I finally have all the things I need to organize the front room, now we just need to do some building of shelves and some hanging of hooks. I also was happy to have Grandma's expert opinion as I decorated the bookshelves. We are only putting about half the books on our bookshelves that we did before so that way they can be a little bit more decorative and fun. When we finish building and hanging, I'll have to take some pictures to share.

Penny was a real trooper through all our shopping adventures, on Friday we went to at least 5 stores and she did pretty good considering. She was rewarded with some juice, a hot dog and fruit snacks at the food court. 

Friday night we had our Ward Halloween Party. Steven's friend Max came with and everyone had a good time. It was raining so there was no trunk or treating but they still passed out candy in the halls. The kids had fun playing different games, junking out and getting faces painted. Steven was Harry Potter, Penny was Dobby the house elf, Lucy was a mermaid, Ben was a blue ninja, I was Professor McGonagall as a cat (really I was just a cat, ha ha!) and Tyler was Chewbacca.

Saturday we went to our neighborhood's Halloween party. It was outside at our beach and it was COLD. I am impressed that I lasted as long as I did there. There weren't a lot of people there and there were definitely some odd balls but I did exchange numbers with one nice lady in the neighborhood who also has 4 kids. She and her husband both had 2 from previous marriages so now, together they have a 5,6,7, and 8 year old- all girls. Hopefully we can meet up sometime.

Saturday afternoon Lucy had a birthday party for a friend at school at Safari Playground. The place was loud and crazy but Lucy seemed to have fun and I got to meet a few parents. Unfortunately I think the fact that Lucy won't be at Country Oaks next year turned off a lot of people from wanting to plan future play dates. I get it though, you don't want you kid to become too attached to someone who isn't going to be at the same school next year. 

And Saturday night, we stayed in and watched some episodes of the second season of "Stranger Things" which is as addicting as the first season. It was nice to have a calm night in and after so much partying this weekend- too many social situations where I had to meet new people, not my favorite thing!

Moving

This week we moved into our new home in Commerce. It was a super busy week full of cleaning, boxing, heavy lifting, trying to use my mad Tetris skills to pack my car, unpacking and also painting. The painting is what I am most proud of. I am pretty sure I haven't painted since I was a teenager and I am pretty sure that the reason for that is because I am a terrible painter and though my lines are a mess and there are some drips on the floor- I did it! I painted a whole entire room (mostly) by myself. I had help from Tyler on our first night of the project (some friends were nice enough to watch our kids) but after that he was super busy with other stuff so I was on my own.

So below is a picture of the unicorn sticker that was on the wall in the boy's room. In the next picture you can see the messy result of taking it off. And in the last picture you can see all my hard work. Painting wainscoting is AWFUL and I never want to do it again but seeing how we have it in our kitchen and our bathroom odds are I might have to. I also painted the boy's ceiling and that was just as AWFUL. I had such a crick in my neck when I was all done but I am super happy with the colors and how everything looks so much brighter!

So hard things about this house... Dog hair is the worst, I never want a dog. Long black hair everywhere (even in the fridge). Our coat closet isn't actually deep enough to fit a whole hanger, unless you put it in diagonally. Our well water smells like sulfur, it's pretty awful. Our dryer has the wrong cord/wiring. BUT thankfully the dog hair will eventually disappear right, I have a storage solution for our coats, I read that the well water smell can be fixed and Tyler can fix the cord/wiring.  

Good things about this house...I have a front living room that just has a couch, a piano and a fireplace and I love it! It's a spot just for me! We were worried our long couch wouldn't fit correctly in our back living room, but it does! We have a green grassy yard and my kids don't trail in dirt every time they come back in! We have a guest room! Come visit! We also have a functioning dish washer! No more hand washing dishes all the time! 

We had our first night in the house Friday night. Below are some pics from the first night. Steven petting Luna, the previous owners fed this cat so at first she was here often. Now that we don't feed her she comes WAY less frequently. Tyler surveying our green grassy yard. And all the kids sharing a room since the boys room was still being painted Friday night (it took a VERY long time for them to go to sleep which was major motivation to finish that painting)

Also this week, I had the boys' Parent Teacher Conferences. Steven's teacher informed me that he has a hard time paying attention and she has to say his name several times or give him directions several times. He likes to play with things in his desk. None of this information surprised me. I think I was more surprised that she was the first teacher to complain about it. Despite his struggle with paying attention, he is above average in pretty much everything. I guess the fact that he is doing well in everything makes me less worried about his ADDness. 

Ben's teacher said that he's good in math but he needs to work on his reading fluency. Pretty much already knew that. He also has an issue with talking when he's not supposed to, due mostly to the fact that she has him seated next to his BF, Andrea. 

And 2 funny things:

1) I was in the room cleaning up from painting and asked Lucy to get me the paper towels. She came back with one piece that she had ripped off from the paper towels. Not quite enough for the big job I had ahead of me but she was super proud of herself.

2) Saturday we were pooped so we went to Wendy's to celebrate being finished with moving everything. After the kids ate all their food we got them Frosty's. Penny didn't have a spoon so I told her to get one. She came back with a straw, stuck it in her Frosty and was immediately disappointed when she couldn't get any Frosty out of the straw.

Zoo, Fire Dept, Star Wars

This week mostly involved me trying to finish up packing and Penny being pretty consistently fussy and needy. I think she heard me bragging about how good she had been the last few weeks so she decided to prove me wrong (as per usual). I still managed to get everything we can pack packed (I think!), I just had to take frequent breaks to try to make her happy. On Tuesday the weather was really nice so after a productive morning, we took a spontaneous trip to the zoo. It was such an excellent decision because it was serious beautiful day and we saw all sorts of fun animals- the gorillas were lounging about, the chimpanzees were pooping (gross!), the lion was pacing her quarters...It was so fun to go with just Penny and so much easier than it usually is. We also loved seeing all the fun pumpkin displays they had there.

Pic Notes- She was pretty nervous to be so close to the crocodile- they are usually not up against the glass. They had also put a bunch of spooky decorations up at the Reptile house that further made for a nervous Penelope!

This week the Hatch home has been full of contention so I tried to do some dates to give the kids some positive attention. I took Steven to the library Wednesday night. He was still kind of a stink and I ended up still being cranky with him on the way back from our date. 9 year old attitudes are SUPER tough. I feel bad because that date did not really serve it's purpose. Thursday night I made another attempt but this time with Lucy and Ben. We went to McDonald's for some ice cream and play time. That went really well until it was time to go home and then I had some whiny kids *sigh* Momhood is so hard but I really am trying!

Saturday morning I wanted to get out of the house so despite the rain we went to the Fire Dept's Open House. Thankfully the rain stopped for a bit and we were able to have some fun getting in the fire trucks and spraying water at a red ball. They also got popcorn, balloons, and their faces painted (Ben & Lucy did, Penny got her hands painted and Steven didn't want either). About the time we finished with things it started raining and so we headed on out.

Our next stop that morning was to the library where they were doing some fun Star Wars crafts to celebrate the new movie coming out. The kids seemed to enjoy making stuff (and sneaking lots of Star Wars themed treats). They also took some fun pictures with Stars Wars masks:

Some other fun moments this week...Monday night there was this amazing sunset that reminded me so much of AZ. Me and the boy took a bike ride and then I sat on the porch and watched the kids pretending to mix a witch's brew and it seriously felt magical. It *sort of* made up for all the hard mom moments that happened this week.

Also, I came in to check on Penny one night and found her with her Fireman's hat on, it was too funny so I had to document it. (Can you believe how bright my phone's flash is!?)

Busy

Last Sunday was General Conference and we took advantage of a morning with no church meetings and no need to get dressed up and went on a nature walk at Kensington (General Conference doesn't start until noon here because of the time difference). Lucy started off the walk being fussy, saying she was too tired to walk so I told her there was a dragon in the forest that ate whiny kids. I am such a good mom, ha ha! But it worked! We also ran away from the trolls that they kept waking up that lived under the bridges. It ended up being a pretty fun family outing in some beautiful Fall weather and scenery. 

General Conference really made for a relaxing, spiritual uplifting weekend. It felt harder than normal to get back to life Monday but get back we did. I spent Monday doing my normal cleaning, going to a Primary meeting and taking the boys to their annual check up. They are both average height but didn't even make it into the 10th percentile in weight. They are skinnier than I realized! We also found out that our FAVORITE doctor is leaving the practice. She is going to another one but is not allowed to tell us where. I will have to do some googling to try and find her because I'm really not a fan of any of the other doctor's at that practice.

On Tuesday I went and completed a check up for me by getting my blood drawn. It really hurt which made me feel bad about how much I have been lacking in sympathy when my kids get shots. After that we ran around to a few stores looking for a new light weight jacket for Steven. In the process Penny made friends with a mannequin. She was playing with it while I was looking at jackets and when I came back over to her she informed me "He's my friend." I asked her if she wanted pics with her new friend and she was more than willing to oblige.

I thought I was done getting things ready for the move but for much of the rest of the week I managed to find more things that I needed to get packed or organized before we move. I swear every time I think I am done I find more work for myself. I've already made a nice long list of things that I need to do this week. We have pretty much moved the whole basement into the garage, along with everything else I've packed though. I really think this will make the move a lot easier since we'll hopefully have mostly everything consolidated there.

I did take a break from packing to sub Thursday afternoon. It was a super rough afternoon. The class had quite a few kids with behavior problems and I felt like it was a miracle that I survived the day. My patience was definitely all spent by the time I got home though and I am seriously reconsidering this subbing thing. If only the money wasn't so helpful for all the extra needs of our family.

Also Thursday afternoon, Lucy had her school's Color Run. I was subbing so I didn't make it but Peter's mom did and she took a picture of them both. Lucy said she loved it when they sprayed pink on her so I am pretty sure that meant the run was a hit! 

Feeling guilty about not being very attentive to Penny this week with all the packing I was doing, I sat down and played some games with Penny Friday morning. Playing Life with her was pretty funny. It involved her spinning the spinner, moving her piece to some random spot on the board (no counting involved) and when she felt like it she would declare me (or her) a winner and dish out a card. I also bought her, her pillowcase for her Dobby costume and cut out some holes in it. She is going to look super awesome, ha ha!

Friday afternoon the kids all had half days and it was a rough afternoon. Steven had a friend over and got super cranky when I told them to turn off the games and do something else. It is really hard to be a parent in this age of technology. Setting limits it equivalent to pulling out hair. I went to FB for some advice and outside of the annoying people who brag about their wonderful kids who don't ever play video games, I got some good advice to save screen time for last and set expectations ahead of time. I am hoping this helps for the next time Steven has a friend over. This 9 year old boy stuff is hard.

Saturday Lucy went to Wesley's birthday party. It was a firefighter party and Wesley's dad put on some streamers and pretended to be a fire and the kids got to all squirt him with water guns "to put him out"- it was so funny! After that we all went for an outing to the Outlet Mall (someone was coming to look at our rental again). We were in need of a few coats and we had some success. The kids behaved really well through all the shopping- mostly because they were promised candy. We also let them play at the play place there when were done and we got some Panda Express. I haven't had it in ages and it was oh so good!

And lastly, here are some cute pics of sprinkle faced Penny and cutie pie Lucy ready for school: