Exhausted

Maddie was so excited for her SECOND day of school that she got up at the crack of dawn, got COMPLETELY ready and then in her exhaustion before leaving for the bus totally zonked out on the couch.  I worked that night and came home to this scene.  Looking at this picture feels me with so much love, because this is totally Maddie in her element.

Miss M gets so excited for new adventures {such as 2nd grade}, she loves to be prepared for things {such as packing her lunch, setting out clothes, making her bed EVERY morning, combing her hair and even making and eating her breakfast}, she is super organized and keeps her bedroom spotless, and she will literally wake up at 5am with this exuberance only to fall asleep in exhaustion several hours later.

I LOVE HER, SHE IS DEFINITELY A KEEPER :)

First Day of School: Take 1

I cannot believe that school is once again in session for my children.  This year is kind of an interesting year, because all of a sudden we have FOUR people in our family going to school.  I have to admit I feel a bit left out being the only one NOT going (but not enough to actually do something about it).  And New Hampshire seems to want to make it a little more fun by having separate send off pictures for each child.  Maddie started today, Robby's first day is next Friday and then Eli is the following Monday (along with Jesse).  So here goes the annual first day of school pics for Miss M---and a compare and contrast photo from previous years as well :)

First Day of Kindergarten 2010:

First Day of 1st grade 2011:

First day of 2nd grade 2012:

Flash Back Friday....okay, really Saturday

I was dying tonight as I looked through a forgotten folder of photos on our computer.  I cannot believe how much bigger my brood has grown over the past two years.  But alas, no matter how many times I tell them to stop growing, they just won't do it :(

So, to jump start me blogging again, here are my favorite "new" pictures of my kids a few years ago:

March 2010:

 Robby was pretty attached to his pacifier and little blankie in "three's" and would routinely try to sneak them into his every day life.  After his comfort items were taken away time after time during the day, he got smarter and would try to "hide" these items from us.

This picture brings tears to my eyes as I remember just how much Eli has grown over the past 2+ years.  I am still clinging to him as the little baby he used to be even though he is quickly growing into a little boy right before my eyes.

April 2010:

 I remember these lazy April evenings where we headed across the street into Power Ranch with fishing poles in hand to try to catch some fish.  Did I mention the fact that we actually never caught anything at that man-made lake/pond?  That's okay, my boys loved going anyways and Maddie would fall into the water at some point and get muddy and entertain us with all of her tumbling tricks. I guess not much has changed these days.  The boys still LOVE fishing and Maddie loves getting dirty and doing gymnastics. Whew, I am glad to know there are a few things that haven't changed all that much.

 When Maddie was in the 3-4 year old age range she was in love with anything fancy or princess-like.  She would spend hours dressing up in her princess costumes and wear fancy dress up high heels.   She also loved when I would do her hair all curly.  These days she still continues to like make up and dressing up, but now wants to look "grown up".  Sadly she hasn't worn a single princess dress up outfit in over a year and most of the time will hardly let me touch her hair. 

I think these pictures have to be some of the sweetest ones I own.  I love the look of pure joy on Mr E's face as he rides with Papa on the ride-on lawn mower.  I have countless memories of these precious rides that Papa would give my children on many Sunday evenings after dinner.  One of the things we miss most about moving from Arizona has been all the special grandparent/extended family time that we used to have. I sure hope my children will always remember all the fun things they have experienced with each of their grandparents and maintain close relationships with each of them.

May 2010:

 I am sure someday Mr E will want to kill me for posting this, but I think it was absolutely hilarious how long his hair got before Jesse finally took control and forced me to allow him to buzz off E's hair.  Maddie standing in the background of the picture also makes me smile because I distinctly remember that swimsuit she was wearing. I remember how excited she was to pick it out because she loved anything with frills on it.  She thought she looked just like a ballerina when she wore that suit and consequently would wear it nearly every time it was clean in her drawer.

June 2010:

I have never seen this picture before today.  It was one that Jesse took while driving in the car one day.  It makes my heart happy when I see my children demonstrating love to one another.  Sure there is plenty of disagreements in our home, but there is also a lot of love between siblings as well.  I also cannot believe that Eli is now currently the same age as Robby was in this photo.

July 2010:

 Two years ago, I found this amazing deal on a huge above-ground pool at Kmart.  I was so excited to have a fun place for the kids to play in our very own backyard that was large enough for them to enjoy themselves, but also small enough that I could sit on the patio and watch them play.  In reality the pool ended up being a BIG pain to set up and the kids loved to lean over the edges which would cause the water to go spilling out on the grass and create large muddy spots.  It also took tons of time and water to fill this thing.  But, the children loved playing in it and it sort of forced Jesse to put grass in the backyard.  Nevertheless, when we got ready to move the pool was one of the first items I listed and sold on Craigslist.  Someday we will have another pool, but definitely not one like this.

 I have told this story to many people of the day a roadrunner came into our house, but I had forgotten that Jesse actually took a few pictures of the bird. One morning we were woken up to Maddie running into our room screaming "there's a bird in our house". I am still not sure how the slider door to our backyard was open (either left open overnight or opened in the morning by Miss M).  We came downstairs and sure enough our friend the roadrunner was standing on our kitchen table.  Now this same bird basically lived on our street and we had seen it countless times on our fence, in our frontyard and in our yard and our next door neighbors yard.  But it was definitely the first time it had come into our house.  Jesse tried to scare it away but it flew straight into our downstairs bathroom and first hid behind the toilet before flying up into the window above the bathtub.  In the old fashioned cartoons with the Coyote and the Roadrunner you think of this cute little harmless bird that runs really fast and says "Meep Meep".  In reality these birds have HUGE sharp talons that you wouldn't want to mess with.  After snapping a few pictures and letting the bird hang out for a bit in our bathroom, Jesse finally managed to prod the bird out of our house while the children and I waited safely upstairs.  Needless to say we will never forget this experience.

July 2010:

Jesse took Robby several times to these special classes at the Home Depot for children.  They were free and each child received a free work apron as well as some kind of cool toy that they made.  Robby loved using a hammer and other "big boy" tools at the class as well as having his best bud Luke there with his dad also.

 I am seriously DYING as I look at this rosy cheeked picture of my youngest from 2010.  Out of all my kids he has definitely changed the most in the past two years.  Thank heavens he still considers himself a "baby big boy" these days otherwise I might really lose it :)

 These two pictures make me laugh sooo hard.  They definitely fall in the some day "black mail" category but I couldn't help posting them.  The kids were supposed to be getting ready for bed in pajamas.  I started laughing so much I had tears rolling down my cheeks when Robby showed us what he was wearing.  He even tried to do a "ta-da" like Maddie learned at gymnastics. 

That's all for now, but I have some funny ones that I found from last summer as well that I may have to post on another "Flash back Friday....okay, really Saturday" day

Fishing with Daddy

Robby was quite pleased when Jesse announced that he was taking him fishing for the day.  I was also quite pleased because every little boy craves bonding time with their father.  The best part of all was that there were fish everywhere and Robby was able to catch a whole bunch and then throw them back in the water. 

Hurray for Father-Son fishing trips that way Mommy doesn't have to fish :)

Today

Today was a good day. 

A busy day. 

A day all about my kids.....and even a little me.

I love days like that.

We started out our morning the pretty typical 8:30/9am ish start.

{we are quite lazy in the summer about bedtimes and thus we have late starts in the morning}

We watched a few cartoons, ate breakfast and then headed out of the house.  That was the only television that we watched also, which is an additional bonus for us, because like I said before, we tend to be pretty lazy in the summer time.

Our first stop was to the blueberry patch where we picked several buckets of large, juicy, sweet berries. YUMMY.  Maddie was scouting out the best berries on the bushes and would excitedly announce to me where they were.  I love how "into it" she gets on these little adventures. 

We stopped at McDonald's afterwards for some lunch, which is always a hit with my kids.  I have to admit that a nice cold Dr Pepper was a winner for me as well.

Maddie has been pestering me for the past few weeks about having another lemonade/cookie stand.  She thrives on coming up with ways to earn money.  In fact a few days ago we caught her walking around the front of our house with a paper taped to our wagon that said "Rides for children 5 and under, 2 quarters". We had a good chuckle and then quickly made her take down the sign and put the wagon away. 
Today was the day when we actually made a food stand for her.  She pulled out the little kid table near the parking lot, and made a sign with a large construction board that I bought.  She proudly braved the warm weather and tried to convince the few people that drove or walked by that they needed lukewarm lemonade and chocolate chip cookies.  Even though the sales weren't too great {it was the middle of the day}, she still had a good time outside and Eli also enjoyed being her assistant.

Several hours later we decided to make a little trip over to our favorite museum in Vermont: the "Montshire Museum".  They have this really cool outside water area with a little streambed, pipe water play and a larger wading pond area.  I have loved having an annual pass to the museum and we have been there numerous times in the past, but we especially love the summers there.  The children had a wonderful time splashing around in the water and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.  We stayed until 5pm, which is closing time.

When we returned home, Jesse had just gotten home from his all-day biking at Kingdom Trails with a buddy.  That gave me the perfect opportunity to go on a run.  The best part of all was that Maddie came with me.  She was so proud of herself, dressed in running clothes and sneakers with her Ipod shuffle in place.  I couldn't help but grin as I watched her run.  I was pleasantly surprised that she lasted a good 1.5 miles.  I then dropped her off and initially intended to just run another mile or two.  Instead I ran another four miles and felt fantastic.  I have been slacking in the workout department this month and this definitely jump started my excitement to get back into running/work out mode.

Dinner and bedtime was late {again}, but it didn't matter.  I felt great and my kids all had a great day as well.