A Little of Everything

It's stormy here.  It stormed all night long...which means sleep was minimal because our children don't value it much anyway, but definitely don't like sleeping through a storm.  This is what I'm listening to right now.  It kind of gets me going when my eyes are this heavy and caffeine isn't really helping!  And with this weather also comes the lack of motivation to do anything productive at the moment.  So with that...

What would you do if you walked into your kitchen, tripped over blankets, chairs and stools that were set out to act as a restaurant, kindly told your six year old that she needed to get a handle on the mess she was making so that I could have room to cook dinner, and she (not so kindly) replied, "well, Mommy, that's just what happens when you have creative kids" with that tone of voice that she knows better than to use?  And then what would you do when she asked you to walk her into school and you find her brand spanking new Kindle Fire in her desk...the Kindle Fire you told her repeatedly not to take to school?  Any answers?  I need them, that's for sure.  Blondie has been a firecracker here lately and I'm wondering where my real Towns has gone!  I know she's just testing her limits.  Cate went through that forever ago...she got a jump start obviously.  But this is a new one for me because Towns is usually the child who would sooner die than break a rule.  Praying it's just a phase and that enough tough love will do the trick.  Minus a few little kinks like that to work out, she's as sweet as sugar and I couldn't possibly love her more.  She's recently discovered that she loves history.  Yesterday she got very animated while telling me the life story of Christopher Columbus and then decided she was going to make a globe.  I printed out a map of the world for her to go by. She couldn't quite figure out how to make it round, and she didn't want to stick with the notion that the world is flat.  This is what she came up with...

Love!

I'm also wondering where my ribbon-wearing girl has gone.  She ditched bows a long time ago, so ribbons were our saving grace.  And now it's this...

 

A barrette.  So trivial in the grand scheme of things, but she looks so growny.  Makes me want to press rewind!!

And then there's Cate.  Have I ever mentioned that she desperately asks for God to give us a baby every day of her life?  Towns gave her a dose of reality the other day when she was going on and on about the baby we're theoretically going to have.  She said, "Cate you know that Mommy and Daddy are not having another baby, so you might as well move on to something else."  To which Cate replied, "um, yes Towns, they are because I pray for it every day and God will give us a baby since I've been asking so nicely."  I've had to put out a lot of fires lately in that area.  She's told Sunday school teachers, school teachers, parents of her friends, etc. that we're having a baby, that it's a girl, that's she's very excited about it, and that it will be here in September.  So if you've been on the receiving end of that story, I apologize.  It's not true, but my child would give anything for it to really happen.  Every time we're in Target she begs to go to the baby section so we can buy everything we need for this baby.  She has it all planned out.  The other day we got a Kelly's Kids catalog in the mail.  She pays no attention to the fact that they're selling clothes...she thinks they're selling children.  She asked if I had $48 to buy the baby she had picked out and that she was sure I could just order it online.  Simple as that.  It's time for an intervention!  The only thing that remotely gets her attention off of a baby is talking about this...

That's her cousin Amy's Christmas present, Bennett.  It's the tiniest thing I've ever seen and is just Cate's size.  She says she would do without a baby if we'd get her one.  J is definitely not going for that.  For the most part I'm with him.  But seeing how happy that little ball of fluff made her would almost be worth the feeling of having a newborn again.  Almost. I hear having one that tiny is like having a baby all over again.
Moving right along...

How sweet are these three?

Friday night we went to watch B cheer at the big Decatur/Austin basketball game.  Towns and Cate spent their time staring at their sister in hopes that she'd throw a glance their way.  They felt pretty special when she came to give them a squeeze during halftime.  They'd been working hard on a dance for a couple of months that she'd told me we had to see.  I know I say it all the time, but I so wish I could slip into a cheerleader "unicorn" as Cate calls it and pretend I was in high school for just one night.  It looks like so much fun!
Here's the video.

In other news, Buggy is the proud owner of her very own library card...

She has a new found love of the library and wants to go every day.  I think it's partly because she loves books and partly because she thinks she's hot stuff with her new plastic!

I'll end with this...

Friday afternoon was perfect for a trip to the park by the river.  It was actually warm enough to stay for a couple of hours, thank goodness!  Emma and Towns spent lots of time making up dances and cheers, most of them involving trying to throw Cate up in a basket toss which never had the outcome they desired...

Word on the street is that there's a talent show coming up at Ben Davis.  They've spent months talking it over and planning it out.  Apparently they spend a lot of time at school discussing.  I know this because I got a phone call from one of her friend's mothers asking when practice was.  Then she informed me she heard I was making the costumes?!  And to top it all off, the other day I found an outline in Towns' desk that went over outfit and song choices for their dance.  I had to apologize to Mrs. Propst in advance if she'd seen it because it went something like this:
1. sports bra
2. tan tights
3. booty shorts
And I'll stop there.  I gently guided them in the opposite direction while I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with them at the park.  We'll see how that goes.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Birthdays Galore!

Two hundred and sixty two miles is a lot of miles.  That's the number of 'em that separate me from my mom which is no fun whatsoever.  Whenever we get together, it has to be for a decent amount of time to make such a long drive count.  So the fact that we got to spend a couple of days together after Christmas followed by a few days with everyone at our house was a major treat.  We also helped my mom and my sister celebrate their birthdays while they were here which was icing on the cake.  Pun intended!  J and I took charge and entertained all the kids while Steve took my mom to Simp McGee's for a birthday dinner shortly after they arrived.  Can you say pizza buffet and ice cream?  That's exactly what we did.  And the muchkins couldn't have been happier!  We tucked everyone into bed semi-early because the next day was a big one.  My sister's 13th birthday to be exact.  It's not just any day that you get to celebrate the first day of your teenage years, so we had to do it up right.  We hit the ground running early that morning to make the most of Anna Grace's day.  She chose to start out with a trip to the ice skating rink...

 

Now this is where it gets comical.  Of course, YaYa (my mother) nominated herself as official photographer so she wouldn't have to get on the ice.  That left Steve and myself to make sure no one scored broken bones or stitches.  That's a tall order with our crew!  It was hard to keep our eyes on that many children at one time because they were all over the place.  Anna Grace is an old pro, Max is pretty experienced, Towns is finally good at staying on her feet, and Cate, well, is just Cate.  She wobbled back and forth, side to side, and every other way possible but came home without serious injuries.  Miracle!

As long as she kept her arms out to balance herself, she was ok...

 

But the thing about Buggy is that she only has one speed.  Wide. Open.  So the thought of gliding across the ice didn't appeal to her at all.  She was only happy if she was all but running.  You can sort of tell how her feet are barely touching the ice in those skates...

 

When she finally took a spill, she discovered that ice got all over her gloves which she loved for some reason.  So then she spent the rest of the time trying to make herself fall so she could eat the ice off of her gloves...

 

We had a little conversation about how gross that was. And also about how she was going to be black and blue if she kept falling like that.  With tears in her eyes she asked if she was really going to turn black and blue.  She told me she didn't want to be a different color and promised she'd try to be more careful.

She stayed pretty close to Pappy most of the time since he's the fun one and all...

 

Bethany even cleared her busy schedule to join us for an hour or so.  We felt so special!  She's a girl on the go, you know.  This was our attempt at a group shot...

My mom managed to shoot fast enough to catch us all on our feet, looking the same direction, and actually smiling after that commotion, though...

There were some really good ice skaters there practicing their turns and twirls.  Towns was mesmerized and now thinks she wants to add ice skating lessons to her already long list of activities.  She tried so hard to do what those girls were doing.  But she was cautious and had at least one skate on the ice at all times...

 

Smart girl!

These two chicas were so excited that Anna Grace chose to start her birthday off with skating...

 

They've been begging to go for quite some time.  In turn, I've been holding off for quite some time.  That's something I can't tackle by myself.  And truthfully, the aftermath isn't fun.  I feel like I've fallen off a bucking bronco every time.  How is it possible that it can make you that sore?  Age.  That has to be it.

Before we hit the ice rink, we'd made a stop by Gigi's for birthday cupcakes.  We had an impromptu party after we hung our skates up for the day...

Oh, but the fun didn't end there.  We headed to Bridge Street for a movie and dinner after that!

The fountain outside the the theater provided lots of entertainment for us...

 

I sometimes feel bad that Max is the only boy in the bunch and doesn't have someone to pair up with.  Usually Cate's the one that can hang with him.  But AG wanted a birthday picture with her girls...

Which left Max feeling left out.  I ran and tackled him and told him that I wanted my picture made with him and only him...

Can you believe we're brother and sister?!  Twenty three years apart, but I couldn't love him more!

I love this one...

Can't believe you're 13, sister!  It seems like yesterday that I was at home for Christmas break my freshman year at Auburn, begging and pleading with Mom to let me skip the first week of going back to school if you hadn't come yet.  I couldn't miss the day I officially left the "only child club" and gained a sister!  Thankfully, you made your grand entrance into the world before I had to leave.  I cried all the way back to Auburn because I didn't want to leave you...I came home almost every weekend because I just couldn't stand it!  When I'd start missing you, I'd call and beg y'all to drive to Auburn just so we could go to dinner.  And of course, Mom and Steve would make the trip with no questions asked.  That's some love and devotion!  After I graduated from college and was on my own, I'd whisk you away for the weekend and take you shopping.  Just the two of us.  It's so hard to believe that you're a teenager now.  I love you so much and am so glad we got to spend your 13th birthday together!

What a perfect way to round out our Christmas break!

Christmas in the Country

After Christmas, we made our annual trip to Mississippi to spend a couple of days with my mom's side of the family.  This consists a four hour drive down the Natchez Trace with two little girls who don't love being confined for that long but really love it once we reach our destination.  The have a ball when we get there and turn them loose on four wheelers and horses to let them rip and romp as the please.  This translates into the men staying outdoors with the children while the women sit in the nice, warm house to catch up, eat, laugh, eat, solve each others problems, and eat.  And eat some more.  Did I mention we ate?  Lord help us all.  With my cousin Mary Catherine being the ultimate collegiate now, we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like.  Naturally, we joined together at the hip upon her arrival and didn't part ways until we pulled out of the driveway.  We bonded in the kitchen mostly, as we both have a dip fetish.  We could eat our weight in any kind of dip.  We cooked our little hearts out.  We even tried our hand at buffalo chicken dip which was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Miss you already, MC!

We had a big family lunch when we got to Jane's followed by present opening which the kids always look forward to.  Anna Grace and Towns were ready to tear into their goodies...

 So were Melissa and Mary Cat...
I don't get to see my favorite gal nearly as much as I would love to...
One day soon I think I'll kidnap her and bring her to our house for a while!
Whenever we're at Jane and Charlie's, Cate doesn't let Sweet Pea out of her sight...
And Towns doesn't let Mary Catherine out of hers...
 

Most of the next day was spent improving our equestrian skills.  Let me start over on that.  I shouldn't say "our" because I have no skills in that department.  But most everyone else does...

Who knew my husband was a cowboy?!

On our way home he asked me what I thought about him getting into steer wrestling.  Really?!  His argument is that it is far less dangerous than motocross.

Towns enjoyed riding, but also enjoyed being a spectator...

 

Now that's more my speed!  Actually, this was more my speed...

 

While the cowboys and cowgirls did their thing, Charlie built a fire and crafted genius utensils for marshmellow roasting out of coat hangers, wood and electrical tape...

 

Aunt Melissa helped Towns figure it all out...

Success...

 

After getting a marshmellow mouth, she decided that she'd stick with eating just the Hershey's chocolate bar...

 

  Go figure!

We had such a nice, relaxing couple of days and as usual it was hard going back to reality!  This is when I wish I had a big picture of the whole family to insert here.  I'm definitely making that happen at our next get together!  Our trip to Mississippi was followed by a few days spent with my mom and her bunch here in Decatur.  We got to celebrate her birthday as well as my sister's big 13th birthday while they were here.  Good times and lots of pictures for sure!

Jump Start on Valentine's Day!

I have a confession.  I detest cold weather with every fiber of my being.  I can't accurately describe to you just how much I dislike being cold.  I can handle it through December because Christmas totally takes my mind off of it.  But y'all.  January and February are long, hard months for me.  I usually fill up a lot of that time dreaming about warm weather and every wonderful, heavenly thing that comes along with it.  I'll plan an imaginary beach trip online right up to the point where I have to enter our check card information.  Several times.  A week.  It's only January 3rd and we've already got Valentine's goodies ready for the girls' class treats.  I justify this (very irrationally, I might add) by thinking that if we go ahead and knock it out, February 14th will somehow get here quicker.  Which will in turn mean that there are only two more weeks left in these dreaded winter months.  I realize that it's still chilly here in March, but March always signifies the coming of Spring for me.  And it can't get here fast enough for this girl who would rather be baking in the sun rather than freezing in 20 degree weather!  That said, I came up with a fun little Valentine's project to keep us busy the other day.  You know, because if we get the ball rolling on Valentine's then it will obviously feel like it's just right around the corner.  We kicked it off by peeling the paper off of dozens of crayons...

I should add a disclaimer.  This will ruin your fingernails and is the least fun part of it all.  The girls lasted approximately three minutes before they bailed and left me to do this part on my own!

They reappeared and were ready to join me again when it was time to break all the crayons into little pieces...

FYI, we stuck with trusty Crayolas instead of the off brand.

Then we put them in these cute heart-shaped silicone baking molds that we scored from the dollar aisle at Target... 

I'm sure this is a one-time use sort of thing being that they were only $2.50 each, but it worked like a charm!

After a few minutes of baking at 350 degrees, they came out melted, bubbly, and oh so swirly...

Thirty minutes later we had pretty cool heart-shaped crayons that we'll put in clear bags with a fun label of some sort...

What was really neat was the one Towns made with silver, gold and white crayons.  After seeing how she could customize her crayons for the perfect color combinations, she's decided that she wants to redo them all with a few favorite colors of each of her classmates.  And of course she wants to add some kind of sparkle to them.  We'll see if we can tackle that later on!  Maybe after a week or two of a strict regimen of getting my fingernails back to normal.  Only to do it all over again!

With the girls being out of school and having lots of time to spend together, I've had to pull out my trusty sidekick quite a few times...

If you don't have it, get it.  It'll be the best investment you can make if you have young children.  It's suggested for ages 8-12, but our girls are 6 and 4 and understand most of it perfectly.  We've had lessons in...

And this...

Raise your hand if you're with me.  I love our children dearly and most of the time they are well behaved and all, but I have to keep it real.  The more they're together, the more they fight.  It's an argument over whose hand stand is better, who has more strawberries on their plate at breakfast, who's taller, whose foot is bigger, who loves their mama more...you get the picture.
I've personally wrestled with this one...

And this one...

What can I say? I'm a work in progress.  And I'm glad I have children who keep me in check just as much as I try to keep them in check.  They're the first to tell me to put down the phone so I can give them my full attention.  Even as I type Cate is literally sitting on my shoulders which is her attempt to tell me that she's ready to go to the library like I've been promising all day.  Time to put my money where my mouth is.  Actually, I'll probably be putting my money in the hand of the lady at the library because I'm pretty sure we have overdue fines!  I wonder what the Bible says about that.  In Heaven there will be no overdue books.  I just know it...

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Cruisin' for a bruisin', achin' for a breakin'.  Call it what you want, but that's the way it's been around here for the last couple of days.  Today marks the 8th day since Christmas has come and gone.  That's 8 days of coming up with way to entertain ourselves.  J's been on vacation from work through today which means that entertainment has been anything but boring, safe, and sensible.  Last night he got the idea that it would be fun to play hide-n-seek outside in the trees and tall bushes at the park with flashlights.  It really was fun, and the kids had a ball.  But Towns was complaining that her face was burning.  We all kept telling her to toughen up and that she was fine.  And then we all felt extremely bad when we were back in the car and in the light.  She was just the perfect height to get a face full of branches and limbs when she ran through the bushes and trees.  Bless her little heart, her face was scratched up pretty bad.  You can sort of tell in this picture from last night...

But today, it's even worse and she looks like she's been in a war zone.  Her little arms are even scratched up.  I'm thinking the next round of hide-n-seek should include some some face protection!  And you better believe she hasn't let us forget just how bad her face burns from her battle wounds.  She's been known to milk it a time or two!

The pink electric scooter Santa brought has logged a few hours of good street racing.  I don't think we realized just how fast that thing would go.  J's been letting Towns ride it with only half the battery power so she wouldn't kill herself.  She's taken a few hits going full speed which hasn't been pretty.  This morning he called us all outside for a family race.  It seems that the one on the battery operated scooter vs. the manually operated scooter has the unfair advantage, unless you're as competitive as the crazy man pictured below...

Buggy wasn't happy her daddy left her and tried to catch up on foot!

Bebs makes me laugh...

This one could have ended one of two ways given how fast they were going...

Thankfully, Cate stayed in one piece!

Towns was kind enough to give up her scooter and opted to be the girl at the starting line telling us when to go...

Crazy kids...

This one plays it safe most of the time...

She keeps her hand on the brakes and jumps off when those brakes don't work quit fast enough for her.  Smart girl!

Cate and I raced her, but we got stuck with the slow scooter.  Notice that Towns had time to get back and take her place at the finish line before we ever made it back...

That's when Cate got mad, threw the scooter in the street, and fully intended to leave it there...

We're working on learning how to lose gracefully!

It's hard to believe that Christmas break is almost over.  Where has it gone?!

Hope you've had a great one...we sure have!

And I'll be the first to admit I'm not ready to get back into the swing of things just yet...