All the Fun! Part II

When I sorted through my pictures for Part I of this post, I must have been interrupted, because I was missing a few pictures that I knew I wanted to post.  When I went back through the folder, I found many pictures that I wanted to post.  So, since the previous post is all wrapped up and finished, I'm adding a second part that is separate, for no other reason than that I found more pictures I want to remember. = )

Alice's ID, well, all her pictures actually, had a typographical error.  I found it super funny, personally.  Honestly, I was tempted to leave it and just let her be Alice Crockov for the rest of her school days.  Ultimately, we got it corrected, but I still find it humorus. 

I always think that it's my last year with MOPS, but I think since it is my primary social time, I just need to accept that I'm going to be in it a long while.  Technically I'm in MOPS next, for the official record, since all of my children are older than Kindergarten.  I love the theme this year!  It's "We go together" and it is all about kindling friendships and maintaining old ones.  So far, I've loved all the media they've produced.

I had 15 minutes to run into Aldi and then go collect someone from somewhere.  This is what a trip for one single item looks like in rush. lol.

Speaking of Aldi, they had these laundry baskets, for about half of what I'd priced them out for, and so I did it.  I completed step of one improving my sanity.  Now, I just lay the clothes in the basket for each child as they come out of the dryer, and if they need something, they know where to get it.  If the basket gets full before they hang up their clothes, I start getting rid of things.  

Eventually I would like to have a rack put in, like the inspiration I saw many years ago, but I will need to find a new home for the coats and ski pants. So, it may be a few years.

I bought the ingredients to make baclava to bring to Steve & Natalie's housewarming party, but simply ran out of time.  So, I made it earlier this week and brought her some to try.

For spirit week, leading up to homecoming, Emily planned out each of her outfits.  We found a huge flannel at a yard sale, but were able to borrow a smaller one from Natalie, which looked much cuter.  She also picked out some cute boots to wear with the ensemble.  Alice decided on Tuesday to join in on the fun, by requesting a 'country' hairstyle.  I was very happy that she wanted to participate!

The next day was college day.  I have a pile of Texas Tech shirts that my mom has collected for me over the years, just for spirit weeks, but Alice ended up wearing one of the ones from my regular rotation (every week is spirit week for me!)  Emily found a cute flannel when we went back to the thrift store for a piece of her Halloween costume.  She was so excited about it, she didn't want to wait an entire year to wear it, so she wore it over her tech shirt the next day.

Autumn is in full swing.  While the days were fairly mild, we took care of many outdoor chores, including the first round of leaf raking!  

They are looking for sign-ups for Trunk or Treat at the little ones' school.  Now that my crew is older, I feel like I can finally be on the giving end!  

I searched the internet to see what cool things they had to pass out (instead of just candy.) While they have some nifty and interesting things, I can't help but think about how much junk is being put into the environment for the sake of novelty.   I wanted an alternative, and thought of something to bounce off of my children.

I asked the craftier of my children if they would help me paint "dead rocks" to pass out.  When they heartily agreed, we swung by our favorite landscaping place, and bought an entire bucket for $2.

We washed all of the rocks, then started to paint.

Grace worked really hard, but eventually started getting sillier and more creative.   So, we have several rocks that stray from the "dead rock" collection, but I think they'll find good homes just the same.

Even with 4 of us working (mostly) industriously, we did not finish decorating the pile.  So, on day 2 of painting, we managed to finish them all off.  Juliet and the rock were both dead by the end.

A few of the rocks that received extra paint:

Grace helped me take out my dead garden vines earlier in the week, so this will be my final garden update for the year.  My porch doesn't look quite as 'orange' as my imagination suggested, but I love my 3 pumpkins that grew!!!

Now I feel like all of our events have been covered.  We have many things coming up on the calendar, hopefully I can get them in the blog a little bit faster.

later days

February 2nd, Painting at Dimes

Today the expected high was almost 50F!  And it was sunny!  And the groundhog predicted an early spring.  I don't trust February though.  I think winter is still coming. = (

Plus, it was a super palindrome date: 02/02/2020!

Today, after church we picked up Burger King to go, but had to venture inside for a missing sandwich (and some fries.) = (

We weren't home long, before I was out the door to do some decorative painting!  A couple of ladies from the busy mom's group met up at the brewery to paint gnomes. = )  They were so cute!

Once we were all finished (I won a door prize too!) I gave away my rather large, little guy, (and my won snowman) since I don't really decorate for Valentine's and I'd just gone to be social. = )

Not too much later, our house rooted for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 54th Superbowl.  I picked them as my team in 8th grade. Nothing much came of their season that year, but I've since had an affinity for them.  And, a former Red Raider is their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.  And they were wearing their red jerseys, so it wasn't much of a leap to root wholeheartedly for them.

I put the kids to bed at half time, and then watched them secure the win in the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter.  The game was over by 10:30, so I wasn't up much past my bedtime, thankfully. = )

Between a great message at church, the sun, social time and a happy sports team victory, it was a pretty great second day of February.

later days

January 24th

Today's expected high was 38F and it rained all day this meant that it melted some of the snow, but not all of it.  Also, it is now really slick on the roads.

I worked in William's classroom today with one of his classmates.  I'm pretty worn out.  Also, I'm tired because I stayed up late finishing the book I bought on Tuesday.  It was totally worth it.  And a friend sent a bag of clothes & shoes to pick through for my kids, so we did that before we headed out.

My children do not like to leave the school.  Here's a picture of some of them "rolling" down the hall slowly when it was time to leave.

Emily has decided that she wants to learn Fuer Elise, and she has spent at least 2 hours in the past day practicing the new music!

Billy is helping her too, since he sight read it in no time (and totally acts like it's nothing.)  But she's making great strides!

I listened to and cried while listening to Songs About Texas, by Pat Green, because sometimes I just miss home so incredibly much.  And, him being a Tech alum, he totally gets it.

Now it's time for bed.

later days

What an April!

Aside from celebrating our girls, April has brought some warmer temperatures.  So we've been outside a little more.

This was after pajama day at school, so they did not wear these to bed, for those concerned. = )

Emily and I spent a very cold Thursday, during spring break, cleaning out leaves & sticks and burning all the things!

The weekend following was so lovely that Billy grilled out Sunday afternoon, and I was actually able to read barefoot on the deck!  A sure sign of spring right?

Billy and I went to a fundraising Gala.  We sat at the best table!  It was a fun evening with very good food. = )

For April Fool's day, I flipped the kids' monitor displays.  It didn't seem to phase William.  He's a problem solver!  For dinner we had BBQ sandwiches, and I grated up some apple and doused it with BBQ sauce.  Billy thought it was just 'cold' so he heated it up, and it was still grated apple.  Poor Billy.

My mom found me a replacement 4 top waffle maker!  Going from a 4 count to a 2 count when my old one broke made the process painfully long.  So, I'm happy to be back in the homemade waffle making business again. ; )

The Red Raider basketball team had an amazing season!  They went all the way to the final championship (we lost in overtime = ( ) and beat both Michigan teams along the way!  The MSU Spartans are the local team and we faced off with them in the final 4.  It was a very scary (lol) time to be a Tech fan in Michigan, but William and I ere determined to support our raiders no matter what!

At the beginning of spring break, my mom convinced me to go to the "kids go free" movie day.  We saw "Little Foot" on the very front row.  It was a fun time, the kids did really well, but I was still recovering from my bought of flu (an entire week later!) and it tuckered me out.

Speaking of the flu, Billy was the one who brought me and Emily in.  When he came home from work he took my temperature and it read high (as the thermometer always does.)  I was surprised when the urgent care doctor's office corroborated the temperature closing in on 104F and diagnosed me with Flu A, despite having received the flu vaccine in October. = (  Emily was not diagnosed, but we were both given a regimen of Tamiflu.  Billy went in the next day to get a prescription as well, so that he didn't have to endure what we did.

Emily missed 3/4 days of school the week before break, and my mom stepped in as me for the week, getting them ready for school, taking them and picking them up so that I could rest.  I can't remember the last time I was that ill.

A couple of days before the twins turned 5, Emily lost another tooth!  She wanted to hide her smile for some reason.  Juliet cannot wait to start loosing her teeth.  I'm okay with it taking a while longer.

The twins received a Doc Mcstuffins' dress up outfit and fancy medical kit from the Stepp family for their birthday, and we have all been getting frequent checkups!

Their birthday celebration continued all the way through yesterday afternoon, when they opened their new fancy headphones from the Helterbrands!

After our trip to the zoo, we went up to the school to watch William in his debut Musical performance. He was so excited to have Avia and the twins in attendance (as well as me, I think.) = )

And this morning, April 11th, it snowed again.  Ew.

I am so ready for summer & consistently warm temperatures. I'm tired of coats and snow and layers and the cold!!!!!!!!!!

later days