Farmer's Market

We finally made it to the farmer's market on Saturday. I've been wanting to go all summer but it never works out. We went to the one at the Freight House in Davenport (as recommended by my friend, Penny). It was so neat and fun. Lots of yummy produce but people were selling food to eat right then and there although we didn't buy anything I saw lots of stuff I wanted to eat. Lots of cool handmade merchandise . . . some lady made birdbaths and garden statues out of cement that were decorated with marble like stones, she had a giant lizard that was so neat. I saw a birdhouse made out of a real cowboy boot too. The kids got balloon hats and animals and dog watching was a hit for Ethan and Reese, millions of dogs of all shapes and sizes. I bought some tomatoes and banana peppers and a melon. I really wanted to buy homemade flavored pasta mainly because I saw the people all clustered around that booth, I waited for a while but the kids are not patient so next time I will get some. The kids played at the artsy park but that was busy and we got to climb on a real fire truck made in our home town (of course, where else?) The kids complained about going but I think in the end they liked it and Aaron seemed to really like it too, next time we'll eat there too.

Another Family Member??????

So here's the official news: we have a new member of our family.


Snoopy is her name. Yep, she's officially living in the house and sleeping in my bed as if 5 or 6 people in a queen sized bed isn't enough, let's add a crazy kitten. She is sweet and very tolerable of the kids.

Addison cannot play with her enough. I'm worried about her welfare because the girls carry her lots, Reese sometimes totes her around by her neck.

Reese also sits on her. I try to watch but I don't catch everything right away. She's hardly scratched anyone yet and I don't think she's bitten anyone yet but give her time, she'll learn to protect herself.
We have been pet-free for about 6 months, when our almost 19 year old cat, Bunny, disappeared, and I mean she disappeared. I think one of the kids accidentally let her go outside one warm afternoon in March. She didn't do much so we didn't notice her gone until the next day, we looked for her but never found her. Our outside cat, Gary, disappeared this winter too. I was kind of enjoying the petless life, just one more thing to deal with and tend to. Aaron said "no more pets ever!" It was his idea to keep the Snoopy.

Ethan named her and the kids try to change her name all the time but I think Snoopy is going to stick. Last night I was worried that she was sick. All afternoon and evening she did nothing but lay around and sleep and just seemed uninterested in playing. I need to get her to the vet but I wasn't planning on it until next week. So I looked up the phone number last night ready to call first thing this morning and as soon as all the kids went to bed, Snoopy perked up and was playing and running and being her kitten self. So I guess she was faking it so the kids would leave her alone. She's probably exhausted from them, I know how that is.

She is cute!

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . .

I know I stole my title from that Staples or Office Max commercial but that's how I feel. Geesh, most blogs I read where the kids returned to school (especially if they are young kids), the moms are feeling a bit misty eyed about the whole return to school, not me . . . I need the break!

They were excited even Ethan the morning of, he was ready to go. It's a bit different for them this year: they are all in the same classroom. There were cutbacks and now there's only one full time class for 4 year olds. So we'll see how that goes, hopefully no fighting and I don't want to hear a bunch of tattling when they get home about each other but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Their teacher is the same one Ethan had last year but she just had a baby so she's out for a few weeks and the aid is the same one Ethan had last year too. Ethan didn't want to go and sit on his name in the circle when we got in the classroom.

He tried to sit in the "play" chairs and do a few other things, it was annoying me so I decided to leave. When he realized that, he came back out to kiss me and tell me good-bye and sat down on somebody else's name (who was crying) so I left.

Reesey and I are enjoying are time, I feel like I done so much this week and she likes to play alone and with me and she finally started getting interested in videos like Baby Eisenstein and Elmo so she can watch them when she wants instead of having to wait until another show is over. She's napping in the afternoon for 2 or 3 hours so I get time alone . . . it's heaven.
They are all adjusting well, even though Caden tried to pretend to be sick yesterday and I had to drag Ethan into school this morning. They are getting tired so the weekend will be a welcome break. But by morning I will be quite happy for their return when I drop them off and I'll probably skip by to the van, singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year".

Now I'm tired

I really haven't felt any different having my 2 nephews over the past 3 days but tonight I'm tired, really tired. We had a busy day with a lot of outside activity (for once it didn't rain).

Reese and Jeff started out good this morning after some sleep. I love how he wears his blanket like a turban on his head, once Reese saw that she wore it for a while too.
We walked to the post office and the school playground too.

We had some fun.

Jeff is getting braver, I think he finally has conquered my stairs and even went up the BIG slide but once he got up there he had second thoughts.

It's scarier climbing back down the slide so Ethan caught him and he went down.

Once we got to the playground Caden announced he had to go the bathroom so our trip was cut short. I thought going on the track was a shortcut but I had to pull a wagon with three heavy people in it and carry a trike that's probably what has wiped me out . . . at least Caden made it home to the bathroom.

We had lunch outside "muffin tin" style and dressing up was mandatory. Quite the scene.

It was a free for all when I set the food down. I almost lost a finger . . . almost.
Then a surprise visitor, a kitten.

Must have been starving for food and attention. It ate the stale tortilla chips I threw out for the birds and having 6 kids petting it didn't scare it away. I made the mistake of showing them how to drag a stick in the grass to play with the kitty, then 6 sticks and limbs were shoved in its face.

They played with the kitty forever. Ethan thought it would play catch like a dog.

Jackson and Addison named it Lashes and at 11pm it's still here hanging out on the porch.

Aaron keeps saying how cute it is . . . he's the one who's so against pets.
The kitty definitely kept them busy for a long time.

Our across the street neighbors had their 5 year old twin grandsons and one year old granddaughter spending the night and they invited us over for an ice cream cone. 9 kids. Wild. They all had fun.
It was a wild

and crazy day

we played hard

and had lots of fun

Could these 6 people make you tired after 3 days?

Add a cat in the mix and I say yes

Today . . .

*we ate breakfast and were dressed by 9:30, pretty good in my opinion

*we played outside only an hour then it started to rain

*I figured out how to make a monster truck ramp which they thought was fun


Look for the flying trucks in the photos


*there may or may not be loose poop somewhere in this house, kind of a problem

*jeffrey sits at the top of stairs and cries for me to carry him down even though he's crawled down backwards by himself more than once, I keep make him crawl back down with lots of encouragement

*the kids watched james and the giant peach during jeff and reese's nap while enjoying popcorn.

*i actually had a little time to update my POTD blog (just a few posts though) still a long ways to go to get caught up

*i'm pretty much letting them run wild, up and down the stairs a million times and lots of loud screaming and laughing

*they are playing a lot of imaginative games like house, every time I hear "mom" I think they are talking to me -- they're not

*reese is terrorizing jeffrey, the more he cries the more she keeps bugging him she's sat in timeout more than once today

*ethan wrote the letter "E" today only once though


*jackson wanted to make his mom a picture of a monster, I even broke out some glitter for him

*jackson keeps calling Aaron, Uncle John usually he calls him Uncle George


* we did some kitchen dancing to the Michael Jackson CD my sis sent


*the trampoline has gotten a workout today


*my nephews can drink their weight in chocolate milk, addison and aaron are the only ones who likes it here and it's usually just an occasionally treat when we earn a free gallon. we've almost gone through a whole gallon in 36 hours

*jackson had to sit in timeout tonight and jeffrey decided he needed moral support and he sat by him it was so sweet

*my neighbors asked me if I was crazy when they found out I volunteered to watch 2 more kids and we all know the answer to that then she said, "do you plan on getting anything done while they are here?" we all know the obvious answer to that too but then again I feel like I never get anything done with the 58 kids I already have

it was a fun day!

What's 2 more?

Okay, I'm over the negative mom thing and was annoyed thinking about my last blog post and since I doubt I will have much time to update in the next few days I'd better get something up. So after I complaining about my 58 kids (or so it seems) I offered to watch my 2 nephews for 3+ days. They are 4 and 2 so they fit right in. Actually they are really good and I don't notice an extra work load because what's 2 more when you 58 kids, right? My sister, Keely, is working at a scrapbooking expo near Chicago and her hubby has to work so I offered. She's watched my kids a thousand times including for 5 days when Reesey was born. I owe her big time and since she's my scrapbook dealer, much like a drug dealer as she likes keeping my addiction going of owning thousands of scrapbooking products when I'm lucky to spend a few seconds thinking about scrapbooking never mind that I hardly have time to actually do any. But I'd do it anyway, even if she wasn't my scrapbook dealer. I have to admit I am a tad bit jealous even though she's working she got a long truck ride with adult conversation and to sleep in a hotel room for a few night kidless and even though it's work, she's surrounded by scrapbooking products -- lucky her! But we're having fun here. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can play outside and I can tire them out with the slip and slide and trips to the park and maybe another tea party. Tomorrow night we are having homemade pizza and salsa. Coincidentally my husband plans to work during the day on Saturday and made plans to leave Saturday night, but he swears I told him Keely was coming on Saturday not Sunday . . . it's probably all for the better. It just took a little over 2 hours to get them to go to sleep and there's strict instructions if you wake up and others are sleeping do not wake any of the other 5 people up -- yep I have all 6 in one room. I will have to really wear them down tomorrow and Saturday! And I'm hoping they all sleep through the night and sleep late in the morning -- that's not asking much from 58 + 2 kids, is it?

My cup (and my shoe basket) and everything runneth over

Being a mom is hard! I just did a post like that last week that I never published because it was super negative and just down right depressing. But I think I'll rehash the whole subject again anyway. My day was fine, busy but fine then I get the call that my husband will be working late! Never mind that he is gone at least 11 hours everyday, Monday through Friday, and even though he is gone that long he's lucky if he gets paid for 6 of those 11 hours. So when he's going to be any later than that I feel stress, well more so than usual. And the kids start whining about when is Daddy coming home. And I can't decide if I should start cooking supper or if it just a waste since Aaron and I are the only ones who really eat anything anyway. I wasn't even in that bad of a mood when he rolled in at 6:30 only 30 minutes later than normal. But what puts me over the edge is as soon as dinner is finished, he NEEDS to mow. I hate it when he has to mow, our yard is small but with a push mower it takes over an hour. An hour is a long time here with 4 tired kids and a grouchy mom. An hour is like the blink of an eye if I am home alone, no kidding. He was only going to mow the back yard, okay I can handle that. I even gave all 4 kids baths which I do not feel is my "area". Then the crying started and I announced "bedtime" immediately and realized not one sheet was on their beds because I washed them all today. Putting sheets and mattress covers on is not an easy task on bunk beds. Reese cried downstairs for 15 minutes because she couldn't find her pillow, I think. Ethan was crying because he had pink Petshop sheets on his bed, we rotated beds today and I only have one "boy" sheet set. Addison cried because she wanted a SpongeBob pillow case on her mattress as the sheet, need a magic wand for that one. All the while I'm trying to put on all the sheets, I am tripping over the one million toys and books from their beds on the floor. After about 15 minutes of that and me saying more than once "my brain is going to explode" which is something I say when I am about ready to snap, I decided mowing in the dark is dumb and yell out the door to the father of my children who is not mowing but sweeping sidewalks (don't get me started on what I think of that at this moment). How is he supposed to know that I need help getting 4 kids to bed, how should he know that it's bedtime and that they are crazy, how should he know I need help putting sheets on beds even though I mentioned it at dinner. Fast forward to downstairs a little later, I am told things need to be done like mowing, and something about we shouldn't have had kids if I can't handle it! I need a pay raise or leave of absence or more patience or school to start, or maybe my husband to realize that 5 minutes of peace and quiet would be nice! So he goes back outside to sweep his ever so important sidewalks and I pick up the thousands of toys we own, swearing that tomorrow the kids will be helping do this and thinking about the millions of things that needs to be done but somehow never do because we have 4 kids who I love and that's just the way it is right now and someday I'll have a moment to myself to do stuff again. And that there's no sense in taking it out on the father of my four kids because I'm tired and sometimes jealous that he gets to be alone 11 hours a day and drive in the truck by myself and listen to whatever he wants on the radio. As I throw shoes in our shoe basket, add clean out the shoe basket to my list of things I never do, (how can 4 kids have this many shoes?) and I pour myself an adult beverage because I need to relax and be grateful for a lot of things like our health, our family, my husband's job (even if it's 11 stupid hours a day), and the fact that I only have a drink once a month instead of every time I think about it. Being a mom is good even when it's bad.

whatever

*why does it rain every other day???? do you know how crazy my children are cooped up inside all day?

*the older three kids went to another one day bible school here in town. they had fun and i enjoyed time with just Reese. kind of a preview to the school year.

*we all slept in until 8:30 this morning. this is the first summer they have started to sleep in. i haven't slept in for almost 5 years.

*we are still working on potty training Ethan, he's getting better but still a long ways to go. today i made him dress himself with a little help. he is so uninterested in being independent unlike his triplet siblings and one year old sister.



*we spent the beginning of the week at Keely's house playing with Jackson and Jeffrey. it was a nice little get-away. we haven't been there forever. lots of playing, scrapbooking, just hanging out.

*Keely went to yard sales last weekend, now I'm dying to go. she found some awesome stuff. i haven't been to any. Aaron hates them. our town sales are tomorrow but Aaron has plans to work at a friend's house, i'm going to try to get him to leave later so I can prowl around a little to see if there are any bargains.

*i'm also dying to go to a farmer's market. i need fresh tomatoes. my friend, Penny, just blogged her experience of going there and we have to get there soon.

*we also haven't camped in our tent yet.

*i really want to plant a garden next summer -- why is my yard so shaded??????

*last weekend we spent some time driving around the quad cities looking at houses for sale. conclusion: we will not be to afford a house there even in the surrounding smaller towns. the very bottom prices for houses there is the top of the top around here. people would fall over dead if they knew what we paid for our home. i love our house except that it is not big enough. i love this town, the school district is good and the fact that i taught with many of the teachers is a bonus (i think). we need to get our rears in gear get this house in selling order so if the "perfect" house is up for sale we can make a move. there's lots to be done.

*our vacation plans are in full swing. i booked a couple hotel rooms with kitchens so little eating out. we are going to a hotel with a water park, lake geneva, and milwaukee zoo. i started the list, figuring out how to fit it all in our van will be the next problem.

*i think 90% of our toys need new batteries. what a pain.

*swimming lessons are over and Caden couldn't be happier. he didn't like the diving board but they didn't make any of my kids jump, they lowered them in and handed them off to the lifeguard in the water. he cried all the way to the ymca the last two times. next year we may try a public pool for lessons, i really don't think they learned too much in the two sessions they took.

*there's no diet mountain dew in this house today. do i load up the kids in the rain and drive to get more or suffer? tough question. might be nice to get them out of the house for a little while.

Time for Tea

Last week, Addison rediscovered her tea set and was dying to have a tea party . . . really what she wanted was water in the teapot to pour into cups but it was raining outside so I knew I'd have water everywhere so I promised we'd have a luncheon tea party on the next nice day we were home.

I told them they had to dress up. Reese ripped off her ladybug costume as soon as I put it on. Caden didn't want to but I insisted so a Spiderman baseball hat was the compromise. We really needed to go to the grocery store so I was scrounging for easy things to go in bowls not the most nutritious lunch but they loved this. I think they sat at the table for at least 30 minutes if not more.

I made a pitcher of lemonade for the "tea" and I lost count of how many times I had to fill that little teapot.


Reesey enjoyed drinking out of the teacups instead of her usual sippy cups.


After all was said and done, I told Addison she had to clean up which entailed washing the dishes (I thought they would melt in the dishwasher) and she did it and a pretty good job!

I can't wait to scrapbook this fun tea party!