The Ordinary

I didn't write about last week, which is a shame, because this week I am feeling completely drained both physically and mentally. Maybe it's the five vials of blood they took from me at the doctor today. Maybe it's the two hour daily swimming lesson ordeal that is taking place every day right now. But anyway, I started noticing that I haven't been taking pictures of the kids much lately. Granted, two of them hate pictures right now, which doesn't send me the most encouraging vibe. But I decided I should do better to document the regular things they do around here. Like making a fort with the living room pillows and every last shoe from the mud room. It's nice to see things like this when you first walk in the door, I always say. I let them keep it there for about three days and let them sleep in it once.This picture also showcases the fact that I did indeed hang some pictures in the house. And it also illustrates the fact that my kids don't always hide from the camera.

And then there's this one...The moment I got the camera out Alex and Marissa hid their faces. Luckily we will always know what their arms looked like at this age. Another reason for this picture is because of the can of pears. My kids have been on a pear kick for a while. They beg for pears at most meals and snack times. Erin eats them every day in her lunch. Sometimes they try to get me to give them their own can each, which is, in my opinion, excessive. Like 3 1/2 full pears worth. Maybe we'll have to plant a pear tree (and then harvest them in 20 years or so). In the background of this shot is the newly sewn curtains which I am loving. Now I want to paint that wall so that they don't blend in with the cream color. Still going back and forth about the color though--oh, and the no energy this week. Might be a while for that wall.

One of my children that still allows photographs made a poster of 100 beads for the 100th day of school. I thought it was pretty creative, and a good way to use up all those extra beads from two Christmases ago.This was also one of the days Jared was gone to his racquetball tournament, therefore dinner was served on the counter and most likely consisted of equal amounts of tortillas, cheese and ketchup. Speaking of Jared's tournament, he won first place in his doubles division! The kids immediately wanted to know if he got any money for winning, which he didn't. He did get a medal though.

Erin also worked hard one day to finish her robot (note: that is made of garbage) that she started at the last house and insisted that I pack and move to this house. You can also see that Connor got a hold of some of my eye liner and drew on his forehead. I think this was day two of it being on there. That stuff wouldn't come off with just soap and water. And, no surprise, he is holding a ball. Connor was also busy putting on hats last week.

Like this one (yes, that is a booger coming out of his nose if you look closely)...
...and this one (messy face)......and this one (he's going to hate me for ever posting this, but he insisted that I put this outfit on him).Then there was this one. We went to a train show on Saturday where we saw tons of old, nerdy men searching for the right piece for their train set. We did see some really amazing model trains too. It almost makes me want to get a set someday. They all got hats actually.I believe the words that go with this next picture are, "Mommy, I hate pictures! They're too boring!"The kids also got to ride on Thomas the Train, which made the whole trip worth it. Why is it that every time we see a train they tell me they have never gotten to ride on one? They have ridden on all sorts of trains (like at the airport--which doesn't count for some reason). I let them ride on it to prove that their dreams of riding a train actually did come to pass. See, here's the proof (although I'm sure they will come up with some reason why this one won't count either--like the fact that it only went around one time or that it wasn't a real train).
And, these weren't from last week, but it did actually snow here, at some point in January. I think maybe twice since we moved in. We've had such a mild winter, which is simply fantastic. Blame me when we have a drought this summer if you want, but I for one am enjoying it. The kids liked their one snow day of the year.You can see how little snow there actually is and how much mud is underneath. I much preferred the snow day to the mud day they had yesterday. They literally made balls of mud and did who knows what with them. We had the cousins over too so there were multiple pairs of muddy shoes and hands. It was everywhere. Grass will be nice, indeed.

And I almost forgot, last week they were especially helpful (unlike a certain other night that ended with me shutting them in their rooms at night crying. I'm not proud of it, but maybe next time they will do their jobs). Anyway, back to when things were running amazingly well. I asked them to clean the bathrooms and they excitedly got right on it.Evidently, you have to wear your swimsuit and goggles when you clean the toilet. You never know what could potentially get wet. Did Alex really have to wear his swim shirt? I bought it so he wouldn't get sunburned and now he insists that it's part of the outfit. Anyway, do you see how blue that toilet is? The whole house smelled of bathroom cleaning products. This is how cleaning my shower ended up. I'm sure Marissa was a lot of help, but I wouldn't actually know, seeing as it was all unsupervised. And last, but not least, my kids picked up a recipe at story time last week which the lady always calls their "homework" (note to reader about what a good mom I am for taking my kids to story time at the library). I think they really thought they had to make the recipe. They kept begging me to make it and I kept putting them off because #1, I was reading a book and #2, I hate cooking (this pretty much cancels the good mom part). The poor kids took matters into their own hands and made the cookies all by themselves. I wasn't even in the room with them. They mashed bananas, measured oatmeal and splattered at least four times as much cinnamon as it called for all over the place, but they did it on their own. A 7, 5 and 3 year old. The only thing I did was work the oven. Too bad they didn't like them that much. I thought they were delish! I just might have a good thing going after all.