Magic Mom and her Krazy Kids

Trip to the apple orchard

2009-10-17T03:34:00.000-05:00

Our Sharp Arrows group went to the apple orchard in September.

We got to try out lots of different varieties of apples.

Will carefully considered which ones he liked best.

They even let us pick a bushel of apples as a group.

Twist and pull. Nothing to it!

These apples didn't fall far from the tree and were smashed.

Plumb tuckered out

2009-10-17T03:28:00.000-05:00

You know your baby is tired when he falls asleep in his tracks.

Too cute!

Some results from the garden

2009-10-16T03:21:00.001-05:00

I tried to grow some onions. They started out about as big as the tip of my pinkie finger and a couple grew this big. They came in handy when I made my Jack Daniel's sauce.

I took forever for the broccoli to grow. Here's a picture of it still on the plant:

And here it is off the plant:

If you let broccoli keep growing, and don't pick it, the little green part that you eat turns into a bouquet of yellow flowers. Who knew?

Here is one of the few strawberries that made it away from the garden. We didn't have very many this year, mostly thanks to Brighton who would lean over and eat them straight off the plant. They tasted delicious! As I was cleaning out my garden last week, I found, well it was actually Brighton who found, several more strawberries that are growing now. I had forgotten that I had planted plants that grow twice a year. Now there are strawberry runners all over the place. Time to replant for next year.

Did you know the if you let your lettuce keep growing it will look like this:

Wonderful, but not edible, lettuce trees!

Here is a picture of one of the two carrots that grew. (Yes, only two grew even though I planted several. But two is better than none!)

The peas grew and were eaten by the kids before I could cook them.

We had green beans several times for supper.

My tomatoes have done pretty well. I don't have pictures of the finished product, but they are still growing which has surprised me.

We had cucumbers growing out of our ears, even though I only planted two plants.

We still have green bell peppers. I only planted one bell pepper plant and we have had 10 or so peppers with 7 more still growing.

The corn grew, but not that well. Or maybe I should say that we just picked it too late. I was waiting for the right time to cook it and by the time the right time came, the corn was all sticky and nasty when we ate it. The two ears that we picked way too early, or so we thought, turned out great. Now we know to pick earlier next year.

It was a great experience having the garden this year and I can't wait to try it out again next year!

Lucy...and all her many phrases

2009-10-16T02:53:00.000-05:00

Lucy is at a really cute stage right now. Well, at least sometimes she's cute. Sometimes she's not. But this is all about her cuteness and if I ever blog again, maybe I'll talk about her non-cuteness. (And for those who think she is always cute, call me sometime so you can listen to her scream in the background.)

One night we came home from Walmart and we were bring in the groceries. Brad had put something in the fridge and reminded me that we needed to get the chicken put up before it went bad. I wasn't really paying any attention to Lucy, but she had opened up the fridge and then asked me, "Mommy, where is the chicken?" Because I wasn't paying attention I just casually muttered, "Huh?" and walked out the door to bring in more bags from the car. When I came back in, Lucy was just shutting the fridge and asked again about the chicken. I was paying a little more attention this time and said something like, "Huh? The chicken? It's in the fridge." and I walked back out the door. As I came back in I saw Lucy standing in the kitchen with the refrigerator door open and I told her to shut the door. She did, which is amazing, and asked, "Mommy, where is the chicken? I looked in the frigerator and it's not in there." "Yes it is, Lucy." and I walked out the door again. As I walk back in she is looking back in the fridge, again, really looking this time and says, "Mommy, I can't find the chicken." As she throws her hands down at her sides and sticks out her lower lip to pout. That's when it hits me, she is looking for a chicken in the fridge. Not the chicken, but A chicken. It took a little while to explain that there wasn't a clucking chicken in the fridge.

Another fun thing Lucy talks about right now is where things "live" at. She asked where to put her jacket one day and I told her to hang it up on the coat rack by the door. She asked, "You mean where my sweater lives?" Which also tells you we don't do a lot of cleaning because sweaters aren't supposed to "live" on coat racks, but in closets. She asked for a spoon one day. I told her to go and get one out. She asked where they were. I said, "Lucy, you know where they are, just go and get one." She said, "Oh, is it where the forks live?"

The other day she said she needed her hands wiped because she was all done with her toaster noodle. (AKA: toaster strudel)

She's just too cute. Sometimes.

Our Garden

2009-05-02T15:33:00.000-05:00

We decided to plant a garden this year. We are trying out the "square foot garden" which claims you can grow anything in 6 inches of soil. These pics are a few weeks old. I'll post some new ones when I can.

Welcome to our garden!

Brad worked with the kids to build our boxes. Then we all spent a few hours mixing our soil. We started planting and transplanting several different things. He is a pick of the broccoli, cauliflower, and onions:

Here our the first peas that we planted. They were planted from a seed by Will. He's been the big farmer who whats to plant everything. It's fun to see him get excited when they start to come up.

We planted some bean seeds and one is starting to peek through:

This is a pick of one of our strawberry plants. It's got a flower!

We also transplanted some lettuce:

We have 4 4x4 gardens and on 4x8 that we are planting corn in. We plan on mulching in between the boxes, but until we do, the kids get to plan in the puddles from the rain. Lucy is outside in a dress that isn't supposed to be outside. Guess I'm to busy taking pictures to watch my children.

Isn't she cute? Notice the big girl underwear!

Will came in while I was typing and looked at all the picks. He said, "Those peas are really little. Now they look like vines." He also said he just looked at our corn and that there are little green things all over the place and that I just HAVE to come see. So I'll go check that out and hopefully be back soon with more on our garden!

Brighton's trip to the hospital

2009-04-30T08:25:00.000-05:00

Today we took Brighton to the hospital to have surgery done on his man parts. That's what I like to call them. We had to be there bright and early at 5:30, which means we had to leave the house at 4:45. I looked at the clock at least every hour last night because I was sure something would happen and the alarm wouldn't go off and then we'd have to pick a new day to do this all over again. Brighton woke up in a great mood. He was excited to get in the car and go. We go to Women and Children's and they took us on back to the Pediatric pre-op area. Brighton got his own little yellow gown to wear and had a great time being looked in his cage.

We played in the playroom for a bit, and then it was time to take him back. The nurse just held out her arms, he went right to her and sat with her on her hip while she finished talking to us. (That never happens with Brighton. He's the "drop off and hide" kind of baby.) So finally she took him away and we went out to the waiting room to wait.

The surgery was successful and I got to go back when they were just waking him up. He never cried. He talked a bit, drank some juice, threw it up, and dozed for a bit. After we had been in recovery, for a good long time, we got to go home.

He sat in his seat like a big boy, threw up all over everything again, and then fell asleep.

He moaned and slept off and on for about 7 hours and then decided he was all better. Since then he's been up walking, scooting, and acting pretty much like normal. It must be great to be a kid!

Never any time to write

2009-03-15T17:48:00.001-05:00

Well, I haven't had a chance to write much in the past few months. I guess with five kids there is always something to do. Brad is on spring break right now, but we aren't going anywhere. Which is just fine with me. He's going to spend all of his time doing college work and I'm going to spend all of my time doing everything I do every other week. Things seem to work better when our routine is the same.

Since I last wrote, Elijah has started playing violin. He really seems to like it and is improving each week. Will took some art lessons and is looking forward to taking more. Briley is just Briley. Lucy is wearing her pull-ups just because. At least she is telling me after she goes to the bathroom that she is pee pee. Brighton is up several times a night, but that should be over in a few weeks. And that's about it.

So, many I'll write again sooner rather than later.

Big Girl Lucy

2009-01-17T08:11:00.000-06:00

My baby girl is a big girl now. No, she is not potty trained yet, but she is sleeping in a big girl bed now with her sister. About 7-8 times a night Lucy will get up, run in our room, and yell, "

Briley's bothering me!" I wonder who is really doing the bothering? Although Briley does do her fair share I'm sure.Her is Lucy's pretty crib. (I am so glad I found this picture because I took down the crib, moved it into the boys room, and replaced all the purple and pink bumper pads for reds and blues. Then I realized I didn't have a picture of Lucy's crib.

These pictures remind me of a high school friend who use to go around an say, "You're so pretty when you sleep." I think he got it from a movie. But just look at them.

Don't they just look so pretty? And calm? And quiet? Let me stress the last part. Quiet!

Little Angels!

And here are all of the animals that sleep in the bed where ever they will fit!

Playing at Pride Rock

2009-01-17T08:03:00.000-06:00

My boys love to build sets. They like to leave them out for days and have very elaborate stories that go along with them. Here is one of the latest animal sets that they have come up with:

The big stuffed lion is actually Pride Rock (after The Lion King movie) where all the animals live. The animals are all group according to their kinds.

Notice the line of elephants.

And the group of hippos.

Don't forget to check out the primates and giraffes

(which apparently won't stand up of carpet.)

Here we have the pride of lions. They are enjoying their kill.

Did you notice the Zebra's foot in the lion's mouth?

Even the cubs are eating.

This is apparently a carcass that was tossed aside because the lions decide to go after the whole heard of zebras. This is the hyena that is eating his supper.

And here is a poor little leopard that got trampled in the chase.

What are we teaching out kids?

Freckle Face Pancakes and Noodle Necklaces

2009-01-17T08:01:00.000-06:00

I am one cool mom! Will had been asking about the pancakes that we had a long time ago with the smiley faces. So I bought the whipped cream and made them again.

Everybody loves these and I only have to cook one for each kid because they are so filling. (Each kid usually eats about 4-5 pancakes whenever we have them. Seriously!)

Notice Will's noodle necklace. He made it in Co-op. He has to wear a necklace everyday. He went shopping with his Paw Paw this summer and got to pick out several pirate necklaces. They eventually all broke. His Paw Paw just sent him some new ones in the mail. He now is always wearing one of them, along with a bead necklace that we can't take off without cutting and he does NOT want it cut off.

It's funny that he doesn't like his long hair because he thinks it makes him look like a girl, but yet he will wear this noodle necklace and thinks it makes him look like a boy!

Brighton

2009-01-17T07:58:00.000-06:00

Brighton is at that really fun age where I can set him down and he is happy to crawl and explore for hours. He has also found our corner cabinet that holds all the kids plastic dishes. He loves to pull EVERYTHING out.

I'm always yelling out, "Where's Brighton?!" if he's not under my feet. Trying to keep the house baby proof with four older siblings is a challenge.

He has also started trying to fly. Here he is right before take off:

Life is fun and games all the time-almost!

Will's Experiments

2009-01-17T07:55:00.000-06:00

For several weeks now I have opened up my freezer to find hundreds and millions of cups blocking the way to get anything out. Will has decided to perform experiments by freezing water in cups. He is so proud of his ice!

Here is a close-up of his frozen water:

And here is another one, only he stole Brighton's Cheerios

to see what would happen when they were put in the water.

Oh to be a kid again and have your only worry to be if the water would actually freeze or not!

Our Trip to the Science Center

2009-01-17T07:46:00.000-06:00

All it did was rain a few weeks before Christmas. We had to get out of the house so we went to a Science museum in Tullahoma. The kids had a wonderful time. We stayed for 3 1/2 hours before I finally pulled them away.

This was a great place for the little kids. They have a whole area of little kids toys.

I could sit in this area and watch Brighton while the other kids ran around and had a great time.

We were the only ones there for the most part.

They all loved the little kitchen area.

I don't know what it is about kitchens that seems to draw kids in.

Brighton loved driving the little boat!

Here is our big expense for the day.

They had an old Dino ride that cost 25 cents.

They got to ride it twice. (I'm cheap!)

Overall it was GREAT!

not another elf post

2008-12-23T17:05:00.001-06:00

I know it has been forever since I've posted anything other than elf dances. I'll admit that I got a little carried away with the elves, but I loved to hear Lucy laugh and at her daddy dancing and want me to play it again. Now it's Christmas and I'll be to busy to do much of anything, but...

I'll be back!

Political Christmas Greetings

2008-12-16T16:58:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Cadence, Lucia, and Lucy

2008-12-16T16:32:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

elf man and pirate

2008-12-13T13:42:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

elf girls

2008-12-13T13:39:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf 1

2008-12-13T13:36:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

How the cowboy's talk...

2008-12-02T14:39:00.000-06:00

Over Thanksgiving break, Hot Hubby took the three oldest kids back in the woods to look at the salt lick they had put up for the deer. On the way back home he pointed out a deer track to all the kids. Briley and Will looked at it and ran on ahead to the house while Elijah stood there contemplating it.

"That's a darn good deer track." he said, only he didn't say darn. He said the other word.

"What did you say?" asked a my Hot Hubby.

"I said, 'that's a darn good deer track." (again, not really using darn.)

Hot Hubby just kind of chuckled and said, "Elijah, that is not a word that we use."

Elijah just shrugged.

Hot Hubby then asked, "Where did you hear that word? Your mom and I don't talk like that?"

He replied, "That's how the cowboy's talk, and I'm a cowboy."

A few months ago Elijah also used THAT word while Hot Hubby was putting him to bed. When asked where he had learned that word he told us that Gran Jan, Hot Hubby's mom, had told it to him. He said that she was telling him bad words that we shouldn't say and "she wouldn't say them to me, only spell them. She tried to trick me a spell it wrong, but I figured it out."

Now take a minute and think about the spelling and how a child might think it was spelled wrong and then LAUGH!

Our little cowboy... what are we going to do with him?

Can't you just hear the song...

"Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys!"

Will's Christmas List

2008-11-30T19:11:00.000-06:00

Our 5 year old, Will told me AGAIN last night what he wanted for Christmas. He came up to me, after we had put him in bed, and the conversation went like this:

"Will, you are supposed to be in bed."

"But mom, I wanted to tell you what I wanted for Christmas."

I just looked at him and sort of rolled my eyes like any mom of 5 kids who has been waiting for this moment of peace when they are all in bed would do. He continued...

"I know you and dad will only get me one present, but I wanted to tell you what else I wanted so you can tell other people to get it for me."

"Ok, Will, what do you want, but I think most people have already bought your presents."

"I want Indiana Jones Legos because Elijah keeps taking the Lego man I play with and says I can't use him for Indiana Jones and I really need one that is mine."

"OK, and what else?"

"I need that skull set from Playmobil because it's pirates and has a skeleton and we use to have a skeleton, but remember when part of it got broken or something. So I really need that skull set."

"And..."

"Hmm, and I probably need a calendar."

"A calendar?"

"Yeah."

We wait for about 30 seconds and he adds

"Except what exactly is a calendar?"

I chuckle and say, "It helps you to see what day of the month it is."

He says, "Yeah. I need one of those."

I just thought that was cute and worth sharing!

The leftovers from Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-11-28T19:15:00.000-06:00

Well, Thanksgiving is over. I've cooked. I'm done cooking. Forever.

OK, I'm back. We went out for pizza so I feel like I can cook again. Here are some pictures of what I made to take to my in-laws for our big family lunch. Of coarse I didn't think to take the pictures before we ate, so you get to see the leftovers.

First up, the scrumptious green beans cooked the southern way.

(Which means lots of sugar, salt, and time on the burner!)

Then I tried my hand for the first time on the Whiskey Glazed Carrots that The Pioneer Woman makes. The picture looks bad because they've been in the fridge and the glaze has thickened up. I hear they tasted very good. (I wouldn't know because I don't eat carrots unless they are in a soup or pot pie where you can't taste them.) In order to make this I had to go and buy some Jack Daniels. Here I am with my baby, in the liquor store, total lost. The nice lady helped me out and called me hon. I felt better.

Here is the mac and cheese. Homemade. From scratch. The best ever, next to my mom's. One of our family favorites. Try it and you won't go back to the box!

Then the big hit-Strawberry Pretzel Salad!

The kids went wild. You can here them cheering from your house right now, can't ya?

This chunk was taken away by the kids at the family lunch and this last half, finished off by my kids that night.

Here is a view of all the creamy layers. Actually one fruity, one creamy, and one sweet, sour, and crunchy.

Everybody likes strawberries!

All we have left is a teeny, tiny, bit of the carrots. It was hard work, but well worth it. Can't wait until next year!

Indiana Jones

2008-11-28T06:43:00.000-06:00

We bought our nutcracker from Target the other day. It was the Indiana Jones one. As we were driving through town, Lucy saw a billboard advertisement for the Nutcracker Ballet. She pointed the picture of the nutcracker and started yelling, "Look, Indiana Jones! Indiana Jones!" It took me a while to realize that there wasn't a picture on Indiana Jones, but that all nutcrackers are not nutcrackers, but are called Indiana Jones' to her. Isn't that cute?

What Lucy thinks I look like

2008-11-28T06:25:00.000-06:00

Lucy has started playing now where she picks a doll and says it's her and then the other dolls are her sister or me, etc. She has also started doing it with books. Anytime we read a princess story she'll point to the princess and say, "That's me mommy. That's Lucy."

Brad was reading her Beauty and the Beast the other night and she immediately said that this was her:

Lucy

Then she picked this one out to be Brad. (Not the one in the mirror. I'll get to that later.)

Brad

This one is Paw Paw:

Paw Paw

Now here is the one I'd have to disagree with. I don't know why on earth she would pick this character for me. Is this how I really look and act to her? Come on!

Mommy

Do you think this is fair? I don't.

The Other Kids' Tacos

2008-11-28T06:20:00.000-06:00

My last post talked about how my son ate his taco. Once I brought out the camera, all the kids wanted to have their pictures taken eating their tacos. So...I thought I better make a post about them so that when they get bigger and read this blog they won't feel like I only care about their brother. Sound familiar?

So here is Will eating the cheese out of his taco.

Actually I think it is the cheese straight out of the bowl.

And yes, this is the way he wanted his picture taken.

Here is Briley biting into a meatless taco. (The meat is to spicy for her and I usually take a little bit out before I season it, but I forgot this time.)

Here is Lucy hiding behind her cheese triangle.

I think she ate about five or six of these. She loves cheese!

Here is Sweet Potato Mouth! He isn't eating tacos, just crackers. And sweet potatoes. And oatmeal with apricots and mixed fruit. And cheerios. Anything to keep him happy!

That wraps up the eating taco posts!

Elijah's taco

2008-11-27T11:17:00.000-06:00

We had tacos for dinner the other night and I noticed Elijah munching kind of funny on edge of his taco. I asked him what he was doing and he said he had to make it even with the other side. He's a little OCD, just like his mom.

Here's the finished project. Do you call that even?

Charlie Brown and warm chocolate

2008-11-27T11:15:00.000-06:00

We started a semi-new tradition this year. During the holidays, Charlie Brown always comes on. We watch it every year and it's so much fun to see how the kids look forward to it. They laugh the whole way through the show. This year we've added warm chocolate to our tradition of watching Charlie Brown. (We can't have "hot" chocolate so we have "warm" instead.)

So far we've watched the Halloween and Thanksgiving shows. The Christmas one comes on next week. I'm sure we'll watch that one too.

The Nutcracker

2008-11-27T11:13:00.000-06:00

We started a new Christmas tradition four years ago. Each year we buy a different nutcracker.

This year we bought the Indiana Jones nutcracker.

It comes with his whip and satchel.

Here he is talking. "Snakes! Why does it have to be snakes?!"

I'll put up pictures of our other nutcrackers once I get the Christmas stuff out, but don't expect any pics until at least December 20Th. I've got a million other things to do, believe it or not.

Books we are reading

2008-11-27T11:10:00.000-06:00

Hot Hubby is reading a book to Briley and Will at night. They are reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Maybe Hot Hubby is reading, or maybe he is sleeping. (Sorry about the picture, Hot Hubby!)

While they read their book, I take the other kids upstairs and read to them. I am reading The Coral Island with Elijah. Lucy brings me any book she can find. We love reading!

The Tooth Fairy

2008-11-27T11:07:00.000-06:00

Elijah lost another tooth the other day. It was one of his "fangs." He thought he would try and see if the Tooth Fairy was real so he didn't tell anyone that he had lost his tooth.

Well, sure enough, she came! When he got up in the morning there was a book about dinosaurs under his pillow. Now all the kids are working on trying to loosen up their teeth.

Thanksgiving Party!

2008-11-23T06:52:00.000-06:00

We had the Thanksgiving party. Elijah dressed himself as a pilgrim. He didn't want to be an Indian. Thank goodness. It was hard enough making Will's Indian costume.

He put on Will's Jack Sparrow costume, Briley's tights, and yellow buckles on his church shoes. It worked! Here he is in the hat he made at the party.

Briley made a girl pilgrim hat. So now she's an Indian pilgrim. She lost her eagle before we even got to the party.

Lucy got to eat cookies, (that's what she's holding up,) so she forgot she was in an Indian dress that she didn't like.

Will made a pilgrim hat and forgot all about his pants. (Except for the 50+ times he came to me and asked me to pull up his pants for him.) By the way, the picture on the Indian pattern showed a little pouch with an eagle on it. I had saved enough material to make a pouch, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Will left the room that I was sewing in and came back with his own pouch. He had taken my extra piece, cut it, fringed it, and wanted me to tie it on him. So instead of a pouch he had a cloth. It worked.

We had lots of fun at the party. We made hats, colored pictures, make thankful leaves, decorated cookies, had a thanksgiving feast, (I peeled and mashed 28 potatoes that morning,) make a Thanksgiving necklace, made a thankful snack, and we made our own butter! It was a great day.

Indians!

2008-11-23T06:46:00.000-06:00

We had a Thanksgiving party with our homeschool group last week. We were allowed to dress up if we wanted to, so I decided to get out the sewing machine and see what I could come up with.

Will's costume looks pretty good for someone who's never REALLY sewed before. At least I think so. Will thought it was great the day before this picture, but the day of the party he realized that he was right when he said, "Grandma is a better sew-er then you, mommy." The crotch of hid pants hangs down really, really low. I tried to explain that if you just pulled the pants up to your shoulders then the pants would look all right and your belly would stay warm. He didn't really like my idea. Oh well, I tried.

Lucy's dress turned out way to big, but when I cut a good chunk of the sleeves off, I think it looked really cute. She would disagree with me. She was NOT happy about wearing her dress. But I made it and she had to. (There goes mean mommy again.)

Now Briley really liked her dress. At least she appreciates her mom's hard work.

And I'm telling you what. My thumb and index fingers are still sore from stringing the beads on the fringe and tying those knots. Ouch!

Elijah's Soccer Party

2008-11-23T06:44:00.000-06:00

Elijah finally had his soccer party. There wasn't much to it. It was a Shoney's. Elijah got the buffet and had all the boys on his team grossed out because he was eating frog legs. Frog Legs! He is not my child. He can't be!

Here he is getting his trophy.

Chris has been his coach for three years now

and I can't say enough good things about him.

He is a great coach.

Here is the team all together.

So soccer is now official over for this year. Can't wait until next year.

(Well, may I can wait just a bit!)

Brighton's First Cracker

2008-11-23T06:35:00.000-06:00

Brighton got a bite of his first cracker today. It's so nice when they can actually pick up things and put it in their own mouth all on their own. (Unless it is a Lego, penny, hair barrette, or some other no-no.)

Brighton picked it right up and took a bite.

"Hmm...what's this, mommy?"

"Are you sure about this? Do you realize I'm eating something?"

"Let me look it over really good.

You're not tricking me to get me to eat something healthy, are you?"

"Look what mom gave me Lucy! I bet you wish you had one!

If only my cousin Patrick could see me. Who's the big boy now?!"

"Oh yeah! That's hitting the spot!"

"I wonder how many pieces I can fit in my mouth at once?"

"Yummy. I love my mommy! She gives me crackers!"

Tutu

2008-11-23T06:29:00.000-06:00

Briley's birthday is coming up and she wants to have a ballet party. I was trying to come up with things to do and came across a way to make tutus. I decided to try one out on Lucy to make sure I knew what I was doing. I think it turned out great. She loves it!

Twice Baked Potatoes

2008-11-22T16:19:00.000-06:00

A few nights ago I made twice baked potatoes. All four children made their way into the kitchen at some point and asked, "What is that?" Once I explained that they were twice baked potatoes the oldest three asked, "You're putting potatoes in potatoes?!" Yes!

Here's a few pictures to tempt you.

Some with cheese on the top...

And some plain.

Hungry yet? I made the plain ones for me and thought most of the kids would want plain too. I was wrong. Everyone wanted the ones with cheese. We had twelve total and guess how many we had for leftovers? None. Zero. All gone.

Will loved them. He picked his last one up, ate the mashed part out, bit a hole in it, and looked through it. We don't normally let the kids play with their food, but we had to recreate the scene so I could get a picture!

Briley's Soccer Party

2008-11-22T16:12:00.000-06:00

Briley had her end of the year soccer party at McDonalds

Her team was called the Shooting Stars. Her two uncles coached the team and two of her cousins were on the team with her. They had a decent season. They won some, tied some, and lost some. Briley scored a few goals and helped out on many. There were several games where she played all four quarters. Her uncle said she could run circles around all the other girls and still not get tired. (I already knew this. I deal with her energy day in and day out!)

Lucy was happy. Her cousin gave her a piece of cake. I was jealous that she got the corner piece. I love the icing. So did Lucy. That's all she liked. She ate the icing and left the rest.

Here is her before picture:

Here is her after picture:

I know you can't really tell by the picture, but she had chocolate lipstick. It was cute.

Field Trip to the Hospital

2008-11-22T16:05:00.000-06:00

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to the hospital. They had a puppet that they performed a check up on. The lady on the left reminded me a little of Tina Fey, but you can't really tell from the picture. The lady on the right reminded me a little bit of the puppet. I think it must have been the mouth. Anyway...

Not to put to many words in Elijah's mouth, but I think he was thinking "Why am I even here?", "Are they really going to listen to that puppet's heartbeat?", "Don't these kids know it's a puppet?", "I think it's a puppet. Hmmmmmmmm."

Briley was playing with her tongue. Maybe she was wondering if the puppet had a tongue.
Lucy was just wondering why I was standing away from her and taking pictures instead of sitting by her to protect her from the crazy pink girl with the wild yellow hair who talked in a high pitched squeaky voice.

Will was just thinking, "Maybe if my hair wasn't so long I could see the pink girl. At least my hair isn't as messed up as hers."

Briley and her friend are looking out the tram window. Clearly we need to work on reading!

The kids are chillin' out in the pediatric ER. (Elijah would have liked to hop up and sit down.) I think they would have a whole lot of fun there. They have video games! We've been fortunate enough to never have visited the ER, but we know all about it now.

Hot Hubby's acts of kindness

2008-11-22T16:01:00.000-06:00

Here is a little surprise that Hot Hubby brought home to me!

He's a keeper!

Dressing up

2008-11-21T16:18:00.001-06:00

I know it's almost a whole month late, but here are some pics of the kids on Halloween:

Here is Briley who decided to be a ballerina. Imagine that! She's yelling something. It appears to be something happy so we won't worry about that.

Here is her sweet little face. Isn't she just beautiful?

Will decided to be an Indian after many, many, many other ideas. He wanted everything painted. We stuck to the face and hands. He was Little Bear from The Indian In The Cupboard.

He's a savage. Fierce. Ferocious. Scary. Watch out, he might scalp you!

Little Lucy wanted to be Cinderella.

Elijah is helping her walk for the cake walk.

She had plenty of make up on, not that she needed it.

Here's our cowboy. He's got his six-shooter, wild caveman hunting bag, and his pirate sword. That Indian better watch out!

Growin' hair a little young, don't you think?

And finally our Little Pumpkin.

He had a great time hanging on to mommy. (Or in this picture, daddy.)

Thankful Thursday

2008-11-20T15:13:00.000-06:00

Well, Thankful Thursday is here again!

Today I am thankful that I am a mom and I get to feed my kids lunch and then take them to McD's and let them play while I eat chicken and fries!

Will wanted cookies and I asked if he was going to pay for them and he brought me a dollar.
So the kids had fun and so did I!

2008-11-07T14:36:00.000-06:00

Well, I missed Thankful Thursday.

Today is Fun Friday and I brought out the s'mores maker and let the kids make s'mores!

I also let them watch Beauty and the Beast.

My fun? I got to hold the fussy two year old, change and wash the sheets on all the beds, make breakfast, clean up breakfast, make lunch, clean up lunch, clean up s'mores, think about supper and get it ready, etc. But I got to eat a couple burnt s'mores, too!

Tragedy strikes

2008-11-07T13:43:00.000-06:00

Tragedy struck at our house last night. Will had his end of the year soccer party last. He was SO excited about it. He has asked me every day, several times a day, when it was time for his party. He wondered if he would get a trophy like his brother and sister did. We've never had a child that was so excited about their party before.

So we went to McDonald's for the party and Will got his happy meal, (with his own drink! That never happens to our kids!) and then it was time to hand out the trophies. His name was one of the last to be called. It was so cute to watch him wait. You could tell that he was wondering if there was one for him. I've always thought that giving kids trophies when they really didn't win anything kind of defeated the purpose, but I could see how much it was going to mean to Will. He already had a medal that the team got at their last game. He wanted to hang it on the wall under the team picture. He keeps asking us for a nail to hammer in the wall.

Anyway...his name was finally called and he got his trophy. He really was so proud. And tired. He came to me after they had their cake and said he had fun but he was hot, sweaty, and tired and wanted to go. So we left.

We got back home and as we unloaded from the van we reminded the kids to take in all their stuff and get their p.j.'s on right away. When we got inside, Will has laying on the floor moaning. He had tripped over something, fell, dropped his trophy, and it had broken. We promised him that we would try to glue it and if that didn't work, we would buy him a new one. Of coarse our bottle of super glue is out and I can't find anymore. He's asked all day to day if I can call his coach to find out where he got the trophies. We will get his trophy fixed. Hopefully before next season!

My Angel

2008-11-04T15:37:00.000-06:00

The other day I went to the store with all the kids. As I got Lucy out of the car I looked at her shirt and said, "You're an angel." She said, "I'm not angel, I'm Lucy." I explained how her shirt said angel and pointed it out to her. Later on we were going through the check out like and the cashier was talking about how cute Lucy was. Lucy piped up, "I'm an Angel!"

And she is...sometimes.

Pumpkins!

2008-10-31T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. We all watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and had our first taste of Hot chocolate for the fall. We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. (Unlike painting the Easter eggs which are still sitting in my fridge waiting to be painted.) I was a good mommy this time.

Here is what the pumpkins looked like when they were lit:

This is Elijah-The Professor-posing by his pumpkin. You can't tell from the picture, but his pajama's are about 5 inches to short.

Here is Briley-The Princess-pretending to run behind her pumpkin. Pay no attention to her outfit. When we were cutting out the mouth of her pumpkin a tooth accidentally popped out. She said, "Hey, now it kind of looks like me!"

This is Will-The Pirate-squatting behind his pumpkin. Yes, he has a huge hole in his pants. (Which he wants to bring to his Grandma's house because, "Grandma's a better sew-er then you, mom.) I told him to get his shoes on and you can see that he ended up with one croc and one flip flop. Nice.

Finally there is Lucy-The Politician. She was scared to death of the pumpkins and didn't want to go anywhere near them. But this is her pumpkin:
So that's our pumpkin story. Now I get asked ALL DAY LONG when we can light the pumpkins. The joys of motherhood.

Krazy Kid 2-The Princess

2008-10-30T15:38:00.000-05:00

Every family that has a little girl has a princess. Our family was blessed with two, but since #2 was the first girl born, she gets the title. (Besides, it's not as fitting for #4. Not that she isn't a princess, it just doesn't work as well. But enough about her-this post is about The Princess.)

The Princess takes on all of the qualities of a second child. She is total opposite from her older brother. She cried ALL THE TIME when she was little and whines all the time now. She has more energy then her whole soccer team together, says her soccer coach. She is taking ballet lessons because a princess has to know how to do ballet for all the balls. The only thing she want to do when she grows up is be a princess. The professor is always quick to point out that you have to be the daughter of a king or queen to be a princess, but that doesn't bother her. She just says, "No you don't and I'm going to be a princess!" (Don't you just love big brothers?)

She is also our most emotional child. Who knew girls were born with mood swings? A few months ago the kids watched the movie, The Prince of Egypt. The Princess came to me crying two different times because she felt bad for the people in the movie and one time she started crying because they finally made it out of Egypt and she was so happy. She's seen the movie several times! What's there to cry about? I am not emotional so I'm not sure where she gets it.

So...that's her. Doesn't she look like a Princess?

Thankful Thursday

2008-10-30T10:16:00.001-05:00

Some blogs have Thursdays as Thankful Thursdays, so I thought I might too.

So what am I thankful for right now, or better yet, yesterday?

BEDTIME!

Hubby was walking out the door to go meet a friend, I was holding the crying baby, pumpkin guts were all over the floor, some of the kids were eating supper, one was looking for a lost math book, and one was yelling that she didn't like her milk.

Hot Hubby looked at me and said, "Are you OK? Are you sure this is all right?"
"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." I said.
"Are you really sure? I mean, I could stay home."
"No, really. It's fine. It's almost bedtime!"

So yesterday I was very thankful for bedtime.

One of the main rules in our house are that all kids are in bed by 7:30. It use to be 8, but then we got smart. We also realized that kids don't understand the time change and when the sun is down at 5, for all they know it's 7 or 8. We use it to our advantage.

We're mean parents!

Baby Wonders- spitting up

2008-10-29T15:26:00.000-05:00

OK. I'm on kid #5 and you would have thought that I had seen it all, but yesterday the baby spit up on his outfit and it changed the color almost like it had been bleached! The blue turned purple and the light blue turned pink. What's up with that?! No wonder kids have problems. What are they putting in their cereal?

Pumpkin Candles, mice, and hiding odors

2008-10-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

A few years ago we moved out into the country. We have several fields around us. Once fall hit we started to notice evidence that we had some mice so we put out some poison to take care of the problem. One day I started to notice a smell coming from somewhere in the kitchen. Hot Hubby wasn't home so I lit a candle. (This was one of the Yanke Pumpkin Spice candles that smell perfect for the fall.) When Hubby got home we couldn't locate were the smell was coming from and I lit the candle the next again because the smell was much worse. This happened for several days until we finally found a dead mouse under the refrigerator.

A few weeks later I lit my favorite candle again to give the house a fall smell. Later that day I smelled another mouse. (I was starting to think that live mice in the house might be a little better then that dead mouse smell.) Same thing happened over and over for several weeks. A few months later I pulled out my pumpkin candle and suddenly I smelled another dead mouse.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT!
It's the candle!

I had used that candle to cover up the smell of the mouse for so many days in a row that I associate that smell with a dead mouse. Now I'm sure it's still a wonderful candle, but I cannot burn it in my house!

The Moral of the story is: Candles are great for covering up all smells except dead mice!

Krazy Kid 1- The Professor

2008-10-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

Our oldest kid shall now be called The Professor. He thinks he knows it all and really, he just about does. He is your normal first born who knows that he is always right, no matter what. He's got his Magic Mom's sarcastic sense of humor and Hot Hubby's ability to talk your ear off. Oh, and he has the strongest will of any kid I've every met, which is a good thing, right? This is a picture of his personality:

Right now he is obsessed with being a cowboy. He has got his future all planned out except he isn't sure where he'll find one of the old carts that horses used to pull. See, he doesn't want to be a cowboy from today, but from the late 1800's. He IS going to go out west and roam the prairie. (This is actually a plus from when he was going to be a superhero. He was determined to find a day job that he could just leave if anyone needed help.) Here is the cowboy Professor:

1 Magic Mom, 5 Krazy Kids and a Hot Hubby

2008-10-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

OK. I finally started a blog. I read certain blogs everyday. I think about starting a blog all the time. But, I always wonder when I'd find the time to write a blog. I guess now is as good a time as any. So here it goes...

For those that don't know me out there in cyber-world, I call myself Magic Mom. AKA bippity boppity becca. My husband got me a Disney Mickey ears hat last year with Magic Mom on the back. (It is illegal to have "Magic" put on a hat in Disney World, but hot hubby pulled some strings and had it done! OK, illegal might by a strong word, but they said they couldn't do it.)

I'd have to say the name suits me well. My kids think I must be able to do magic to turn myself from the sweet fairy godmother willing to grant their every wish into an evil fire-breathing dragon all in a matter of minutes. (seconds.)

I call my kids Krazy because that's what they are. Once I come up with nifty names for them all I'll introduce you to them. I could call them Krazy Kid 1, Krazy Kid 2, etc, all they way to 5, but that could get old. And yes there are 5 of them. All the way from 8 years to 6 months. Maybe I should be called Krazy Mom instead of magic, but ...I like Magic Mom better.