Teacher Appreciation Week

I know this post is a little late, but I guess better late than never, right?

This year, the kids were asked to bring a little something for their teachers each day for Teacher Appreciation Week. In years past, I've made myself CRAZY trying to figure out something to do, staying up way too late making things for the next day, etc. This year I got smart and made everything at once. It was great to just tuck little things into the kids' backpacks each morning.

I used PSE and Melissa Renfro's Inspired Child Collection from Scrap Girls for all the tags.

On Monday, the kids were supposed to bring flowers. I had seen these really cute pencil vases on Pinterest, but I didn't really follow a tutorial. I just laid a strip of masking tape, sticky side up, on the table. I laid out pencils side by side on the masking tape (I used 36 pencils). I wrapped the masking tape/pencils around an empty soup can, overlapping the masking tape to hold it all in place. Then I covered the masking tape up with a piece of ribbon. Easy-peasy, and the teacher can take it apart and use the pencils later. The tag says "I think you are just WRITE."

On Tuesday, the kids were bringing a sweet treat. I knew Jared's teacher liked skittles, so that's what we went with. The tag says "You are better than any treasure found at the end of the rainbow."

On Wednesday, it was office supplies. I bought a couple of packs of sticky notes for each teacher and put them in cellophane bags. The tag says "Stuck like glue on you!"

On Thursday, they brought a salty treat. We chose boxes of microwave popcorn. "It's no Secret that I think you're great!"

On Friday, the kids were supposed to bring a note for their teacher. I had them each make a card and I added a note at the end. We slipped the notes inside these journals.

The kids also wanted to do something fun for their Specials teachers (Art, Music, and PE), so we made bags of Hersey's Nuggets for each of them and the tags say "I think you are as good as gold!"

Megan's Fairy Garden

And as the seasons come and go, 

here's something you might like to know.  

There are fairies everywhere:  

under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, 

singing through their busy day.  

So listen, touch, and look around - in the air and on the ground.  

And if you watch all nature's things, 

you might just see a fairy's wing.  

~Author Unknown

 

 Megan's been planting a Fairy Garden. It's not quite done yet but she is having a lot of fun creating it. We got the little house at Hobby Lobby, and Megan painted it. She chose the flowers and I taught her how to transplant them. We've been looking for a ground cover. She wanted moss, but the flowers all need full sunlight, and the solar lamp needs direct sunlight, and moss likes shade. So we'll keep looking. She'll probably plant another one with shade loving plants and moss. She and her friends love to play in the pots with little toys.

Hurricane Kate turned 2

Kate's birthday fell on Memorial Day this year, so we got to spend the whole day celebrating.

We opened presents in the morning. (Well, Megan and Jared opened presents. Kate really wasn't very interested.)

Later that day we had friends over for a BBQ and to play in the water. I was a bad parent and didn't get pictures of any of the mayhem, but it was really fun. Thanks to the Thomas, Christensen, and Breinholt families for coming over and getting wet! (Sorry about the fire ants! Ouch!)

We had been practicing with Kate so she'd know how to blow out the candles on her birthday cake and she was getting really good at it. Unfortunately, blowing out a candle with just the family around and blowing out two candles after a room full of crazy-loud people sing at you are to very different things. She got a little case of stage fright. (It's always good to make your kid cry on their birthday. Give's'em something to talk about in therapy later, right?....)

Eventually she did calm down and blow out her candles.

And got to enjoy her ice cream in peace.

Happy birthday Kate! We are so glad you are part of our family!

Jared's 7th Birthday

Jared turned 7 on Thursday. We only do big friend parties on the years that the kids turn an even number, so we just had some family stuff planned. On Wednesday night, he started throwing up, so we had to shift our plans around a bit.

Since he was "sick" (he felt fine), he stayed home from school. Originally I was planning to make him wait until Travis got home from work before opening presents, but since he was bored silly, I let him open them in the morning. He spent the rest of the day watching a new Harry Potter movie (the second one), playing Harry Potter on the Wii, and rearranging his room. For his birthday, he had asked to get rid of Starwars theme and redecorate with Harry Potter, so we hung curtains and put out new bedding and moved all his furniture.

We finally had his "birthday dinner" (chicken legs and baked potatoes) for dinner on Friday. We ate in the living room while watching Harry Potter again (are you sensing a theme here? He's a little mad for Harry Potter right now). And then tonight after dinner, instead of having cake and ice cream, he requested we go to Ritters as a family. He wanted a candle stuck in his ice cream cone instead of cake. (Who am I to complain? That's some awesome parenting right there. I'm such a good roll model!) We had a great night.

Happy birthday dude! It's been fun to celebrate all week long!

William's Blessing Day

So, I know I am hopelessly behind, but I thought I'd post some pictures from William's Baby Blessing (sort of like the Mormon version of a christening) today. Someday I'll catch up on everything I haven't posted about. Someday. Someday....

We were so glad to have Grandpa Mark and Grandma Suzanne and the Ellingson family come for this special day. And we are grateful for our wonderful ward family here in Texas too. We love you all!

My "Things I've Done Today" List

This morning I had an epiphany. I've been feeling unproductive and overwhelmed and all the things that a mom of four littles regularly feels. I've tried making great To-Do lists so that I can mark things off as I get them done. I'm a compulsive list maker, and usually to-do lists are my best tool for productivity, but lately they just aren't working. So this morning, I was getting the big kids out the door and looking longingly at the blanket waiting for me on the couch, thinking about turning on Disney Junior and dozing for an hour. Knowing I'd wake up feeling grumpy and guilty about not being productive, and then scrambling to get a couple things done from my list for today, knowing I'd feel guilty about all the things left on the list when I went to bed, knowing I would transfer most of those things onto tomorrow's list, only to repeat the cycle again.

Instead, I threw out my list. And I got a new sheet of paper out and started a "Things I've Done Today" list. I know I do things every day. I fall into bed completely exhausted at the end of the day, so I know I do things, I just had no idea what, exactly.

Here's my list:

• Fixed and fed 5 people breakfast and lunch and dinner (Travis is on his own).
• Helped the kids unload the dishwasher. Loaded the breakfast dishes.
• Snuggled a cute baby.

• Washed 1 load of laundry.
• Put away 4 loads of folded laundry from yesterday.
• Fed the baby. (This doesn't sound like much, but it takes up a HUGE chunk of my day. William eats every 2 1/2 to 4 hours. He eats 6 - 12 oz at a time. It takes him 30 to 90 minutes each time, by the time you burp and change him. So, to do a little math, if  he eats every 3 hours on average, and it takes him an hour each time, that is about 8 hours a day. That is a full time job right there. Fortunately, when the big kids are home, they want to feed him, so that frees me up a little, but if you are a mother of an infant and don't have big kids or you are nursing, give yourself a pass on everything else - you are amazing if you can find the time to brush your teeth every day!)
• Dealt with 3 wardrobe meltdowns - one fashion-conscious preteen, one leaky diaper, and one grumpy toddler who insisted on picking her own clothes.
• Made 3 beds (usually only make my own, but I washed the sheets).
• Got showered, dressed, brushed my teeth.
• Attended a tea party.

• Cleaned my bedroom.
• Filed papers.
• Watched Micky Mouse and snuggled on the couch.
•  Negotiated several short-lived peace treaties between Megan and Jared.
•  Talked on the phone to my sisters and friends.
•  Wrote a blog post.

 At the end of the day, there are still cobwebs where the ceiling meets the wall in Every. Single. Room. There is a mystery stain in the carpet in the livingroom. The toaster oven still needs to be cleaned out. And the dry cleaning is still on the front seat of my car, waiting to be dropped off (it's been there for about 3 weeks now). My bathroom is still dirty. But I know I had a productive day. And I feel good about my list.

I'm not saying I won't make a to-do list tomorrow, because I probably will - I can't seem to help myself. But I won't feel so bad when I don't get through half the items on it.

Spring Break 2013

During Spring Break this year we kept things pretty low key, but we did go on a couple of outings.

We went hiking and had a picnic at Steven F. Austin campground. (The Thomas family was camping, but we just joined them for part of a day. Not brave enough to camp with a newborn.)

And then we went to the beach in Galveston with Auntie Eleanor and her kids and our friends the Milletts. It was COLD! And WINDY! Nobody played in the water much, but they all had fun flying kites and building sandcastles on the beach.

We had a picnic at the Water Wall with Travis and the our friends the Haynes.

And of course, we went to Ritters.