Kalamazoo Michigan Day 1

After eating lunch Friday we headed to Kalamazoo for a little weekend getaway. When we got to Kalamazoo we were to early to check in to our hotel so we made a stop at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. This place was amazing for the kids and it was even more awesome because it was FREE. 

When we first got there Benny hit his chin on a lever and bit his lip, making for a bloody mess. They even called a security guard to come check on him, it was a little awkward and weird. But after we got that unpleasantness out of the way we got to work having fun:

They had a room just for little ones and it was Penny's favorite place in the Museum hands down, especially the bus that she got to "drive":

Steven thought the new station weather center was the coolest. He loved reading the news and making up forecasts:

Benny and Lucy loved the pretend restaurant, they served me up hot dogs, hamburgers and ice cream with mustard on top:

After serving up some pretend food we headed to Steak N Shake for some real food:

One of the worker's at Steak N Shake came to talk to Penny about the owie on her head and he kept telling her that daddy did it and when she finally graced him with a smile, he decided she must get 2 scoops of ice cream and then he came back with exactly that. So she got 2 scoops of ice cream before her dinner was even served. Lucky for me she decided to eat her food first because apparently vanilla ice cream did not strike her fancy.

After dinner we went to the hotel and took a swim in the indoor pool. The kids had s blast but I was a bum and still found the pool too cold and stayed in the Jacuzzi. At least Benny felt similar and spent most of the time with me:

Easter Egg Monsters

Thursday night, to celebrate the start of Spring Break, we dyed some Easter eggs and then turned them into monsters. I bought fake dyeable eggs and they are great since we don't actually eat boiled eggs but they are not so great because they float when placed in vinegar...The kids worked hard to keep them under and in doing such hard work, they pretty much splashed the colored vinegar all over our dining room table. I figured I could wipe the colors right off but I was oh so wrong. I got some out with turpentine but we still have some lovely pink and green areas on our dining room table.

 Tyler even graced us with his presence for a bit and colored an egg too, with Penny's help of course:

After the eggs finished drying (which is an apparently hard thing to wait for) the kids got to work adding eyeballs, mouths, hair, and other monster like things. They especially loved the orange fluffy hair:

The results:

Stitches

All was well last Sunday until I decided to get off my lazy bum and make some dinner. I went to pull out a casserole dish from a top cupboard and in doing so cause a lid from another dish to fall. Miss Penny happened to be right below me and so instead of the lid shattering on the tile floor, it was cushioned by her head. It was truly horrible to look down and see her poor head and it seriously made me a little woozy. Thank heavens Tyler was home and had his senses about him. He quickly put a paper towel on her head and we went on a Sunday outing to Urgent Care.

When we finally got called back, I went back while Tyler stayed in the waiting room with the kids. The first step, after doing all the "traumatizing" weighing and measuring, was to clean out the wound. This was equally traumatizing for Penny. It took some pictures and videos on my phone to calm the little miss down.  

The the doctor came in and gave her 2 stitches. I don't know what was worse for Penny, the shots to numb the area or the actual stitches. It was not fun holding my baby down but she actually did pretty good, she was less of a fighter than when we were measuring her surprisingly. And afterwards, with the help of some apple juice she totally calmed down.

5 days later the stitches came out (I made Tyler take her for that one). Let's hope we don't have to go through this again!

Our Week

Last Saturday the weather was perfection! And since we live in a place where the weather changes day to day we took advantage of the warmth and went to the farm in Kensington. It was a nice family outing and there were some fun newborn animals to see but the kids were apparently more excited to see a duck that we affectionately call Poppy Duck for it's wild hair. They also enjoyed rolling in the grass:

On Sunday the kids were driving us nuts, as usual, so Tyler decided to duct tape them all together. It was all fun and games until they realized they couldn't get unstuck, bwahaha! Penny didn't want to be left out of the fun so Tyler duct taped her too. Except once she was duct taped I think she realized it wasn't as fun as it seemed and she pretty much stumbled around for a bit looking sad so we quickly took the tape off her (but not until after we snapped a few pictures).

Tuesday I got to be the Mystery Reader in Ben's class. It's always fun volunteering in his class and as an added bonus, I got to experience my first ever tornado drill. We all got to crowd in a hallway that wasn't exposed to any windows or outside walls. I hate the idea of a real tornado happening and my kids not even having a basement to go to. I really just hate the idea of a real tornado happening here ever. 

 Also on Tuesday we celebrated a belated Pi Day by eating some Oreo Cookie Pie. I had all intentions of making the pie on the acutal Pi Day but forgot an ingredient when I went to the store that day so it was a happy belated Pi Day to us!

For some reason the kids were in the mood to pose for a picture Tuesday night so I got some cute pictures of my favorite trouble makers:

The rest of my weekdays were spent socializing. I had a visiting teaching visit, went to a friend's house, had a primary meeting and met up with some friends at an indoor play place. It is always nice to talk to grown ups but obviously I was not super productive this week. 

Also this week we had St.Patrick's Day and I didn't get too into the holiday fun. Our extent of celebrating was to eat Lucky Charms for breakfast, wear green and have mint ice cream for dessert that night. Go us!

And this picture is just too funny not to post, squish face!  

Penny has been a bit of a stinker since we've been cutting back her time with the bottle. She only gets for a half hour before nap time and bed time. She does not love this new arrangement and she still refuses to drink out of a sippy cup. I have tried all kinds of cups and I have tried giving her juice and chocolate milk out of a sippy but she just doesn't want anything to do with them. Such a turkey lips!

Friday night was the Mother Sun Winter Fun night. The boys insisted on walking in the 39 degree weather there. My toes and face were numb by the time we got there. I was so grateful my neighbor was nice enough to drive us home. The event itself was pretty fun! The boys got to make and paint wooden firetrucks, they got to do a little picture frame craft, they got plenty of junk food and hot chocolate and they got to dance to extremely loud music while hitting each other with balloons. Pure boy bliss right? Benny insisted on wearing his church shirt and tie, such a dapper boy. Steven insisted on wearing anything but church clothes. These 2 are clearly not the same but I love them both to pieces:

Last but not least, this Satuday I took the kids by myself to an Easter Egg Hunt at a park (I was hoping Tyler would fix his truck while we were away so we can finally stop sharing one car but instead he ended up doing work for GM, grrr!). The weather was still in the 30's and we were all properly freezing, Penny was especially unhappy with the cold and fussed most of the time. But everything actually went well all things considered until the very end. Steven cried because he felt he didn't get enough eggs, Penny had had enough and was just crying, and Lucy had to pee but was terrified of sitting on the porta potty. There was a horrendous amount of crying and I felt terribly overwhelmed but somehow we got to the car and home. So much for a fun outing...

Hair Cuts & Things

This week I feel like we're finally back in the swing of things. Tyler is home, we are all feeling better and we have no big events in our near future. The only problem we have is that we are short one vehicle since Tyler's truck is still out of commission and he can no longer borrow his work vehicle. But thankfully he works in town so the drive is short and it is not a huge deal. So really now I feel like I can finally relax a bit so I decided to have some Sharpie fun and make some wooden peg dolls for the girls:

The two pictured above were the first I made and I think they turned out pretty fun. However, the next two I made turned out pretty creepy, I guess you can't always be successful. 

The boys had off of school Tuesday for voting day. I don't understand why their school district does that, that makes it so hard for me to get out and vote with all the kids home. But the weather was fantastic so it was nice to have them off and able to enjoy it. We spent lots of time outside playing:

Poor Lucy tripped and got herself a little owie though:

This week we chopped Lucy's hair off, below is the before and after shots, I think it turned out cute:

I also got a little trim, I'm kind of hating the side swept bangs because she didn't have the right part when she trimmed them and she trimmed them really short but at least they'll eventually grow out:

The boys had their Math Pentathlon tournament Friday night. My sweet friend took them to the tournament since she had to officiate and she was nice enough to send me some pics. It looks like they had a good time:

And ending with a funny story: As I went to unbuckle Lucy from her car seat one morning, she complained that the buckle was hurting her penis. Ha, I think she has been spending too much time with her brothers!

Rough Week

This picture of Ben pretty much sums up our week:

We had to drop Grams off at the airport to go back to AZ Tuesday morning and seriously, how could we not all be sad and cranky!? She was the glue keeping us all together and sane! On the bright side, the drive to the airport was completely non stressful- no bad traffic, no bad weather. And the night before we had a nice last dinner with Grams at Culver's where I discovered the tastiness that is Twix ice cream. 

Since Grams left we have all been passing around some sort of virus- fever, chills, headache, drowsiness- super fun stuff. I got it the worse on Thursday and that was a really hard day. On the bright side I have a sweet friend who brought my family dinner that night and another sweet friend who offered to help with some things that I needed to get done for the baby shower I was co-hosting Saturday. And on yet another bright side, it meant we were home and available for someone to come fix our dryer so it no longer rumbles and shakes the whole house and I was also home for someone else to come and fix our sink so it now drains water instead of holding unto it FOREVER. So see, good things happened despite the bad things.

On Friday Penny was tired of being cooped up indoors with all us sick ones so we sat on the porch and got some fresh air:

Saturday was the the day of the baby shower I was co-hosting for my friend Laci. I still wasn't feeling great but I could not miss the shower that I had put so much effort into so I went (and probably shared my germs with all my friends, I am such a terrible friend). But it turned out super great. The decorations that my co-host was in charge of were super cute. I was in charge of the food and it all turned out yummy (thanks to excellent people who helped me out) and we all drew pages for an alphabet book for Laci's baby girl and that was a total hit (even though my late night diaper notes were not so much). Seriously a fun time and now I feel so relieved that it is all done. Steven's birthday, his baptism, this baby shower...finished! Now maybe I can just relax and get over being sick!

Snowy Days

On Sunday I made the grave mistake of giving a nude Penny a dry erase marker and not supervising her (or her brothers who were also in the room). When I came back into the room Penny had colored her whole body and her helpful brothers had colored her face. They gave her a Rudolph nose and angry eye brows. It was pretty silly! 

On Monday I totally goofed and missed my dentist appointment. I was out grocery shopping when I got the call. For some reason I had got it in my head that my appointment was on Tuesday even though the reminders and even my calendar all said Monday. Ugh, I am suffering from some major mommy brain, but thankfully it all worked out in my favor because they ended up rescheduling me for Tuesday :) 

So on Tuesday I suffered through 3 cavity fillings, and had a fun overly numb face for several hours. I will never like the dentist. 

That night Steven went to his first scout meeting (not counting the couple of months he went to our local scout troop). He was super cranky about going because he wouldn't be able to play Minecraft that night but he ended up having a blast. He got to make paper airplanes and other such things, perfect fun for him. He has a great scout leader and I am sure lots more fun is to come!

Steven also got a late birthday gift from his Aunt Tara this week, a super awesome Lego set:

Wednesday Penny had her 18 month check up. She now weighs 22 pounds and is 32.25 inches tall. At this appointment she was more traumatized by getting weighed and measured then by getting her blood taken. We also found out she had an ear infection. I was a little peeved because when we took her in to a different doctor a couple weeks ago he said her ears were fine. I am pretty sure they weren't because now that she is on medicine for them she is FINALLY sleeping good at night and she is so much less cranky!

After the appointment we decided to grab a bite to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. It was snowing and we figured that might deter people from coming. We were so right! There was no wait and the service was fast. Best most tastiest decision ever!

That afternoon the snow just kept on coming and when it was time to pick up the boys from school the roads were awful. It was stressful getting to the school and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to make it back home. I said lots of prayers and thankfully my prayers were answered. At least 3 cars got stuck in the snow trying to leave the pick up circle but thankfully I had no problems. I made it home easily and safely!

When the snowstorm finally ended, we had at least 12 inches of snow on the ground. That meant that school was cancelled Thursday. Grams and I spent that morning shoveling snow, it was quite the work out. Then we joined Laci, Wesley and our next door neighbors for some sledding. We went to a snow hill at the boy's school and the boys had a blast! The girls, on the other hand, did not. Lucy was just in a cranky mood and Penny did not enjoy it when the snow touched her face.

They ended up cancelling school Friday as well. I'm not sure why since we weren't getting anymore snow and the roads were all clear. All I know is it mucked up our plans to go shopping with the girls. We decided to go anyways since there was a fun play place there to offer as incentive to the boys. Unfortunately we only made it through 2 stores with the 4 kids when we were ready to call it quits. Double unfortunate, the play place was under construction. There were lots of tears and frustration and it was a long drive home. We did end up going to McDonald's which made things somewhat better.

That afternoon the kids played out in the snow. Steven found making a fort to be too much work and gave up after making only 6 bricks. Benny, however, did not balk at the task of making a snowman and he ended up making a pretty cool snow wolf:

Saturday the weather warmed and the snow was melting so we took a walk to the bakery. The kids all shared cookies and me and Grams had yummy muffins. That evening Grams and I went out to the Olive Garden. It was crazy busy but with no kids, the wait was totally doable. We stuffed ourselves silly and then walked it all off at Target. We scored some awesome things on clearance there, the best deal was by far the $3 jacket I got for Benny!