Easter 2013 ~

We did Easter a bit different this year. 

Hubby and I talked to the Easter Bunny and asked for something a bit different~

Baskets! 

 

Normally, there is a chocolate bunny and jelly beans on the table for each kiddo..

 

The Easter Bunny always comes while we are at church.

 

Starting when we had just one wee one,

Easter Bunny would always leave spring/summer fun behind

instead of candy.

Sidewalk chalk

Bubbles

Water balloons

Pool toys

 

He decided to fill baskets/buckets for the kids.

He respected my desire for just a "little" candy.

 

Each bucket had favorite snacks...

Cheez-its,
Pringles,
personal favorite sweets
Oreos,

the required Chocolate Bunny,
a couple of the kiddos received sidewalk chalk tattoos,

and they all received
Water Balloons!


 

Now I know only 4 children are pictured. 

 And if you are a very observant aunt, this might bother you...

Hockey Player was not left out.

He was working at the church nursery this Sunday while we were at home getting ready

for the big day with Hubby's family. 

We picked him up and joined the family celebration and protected his bucket till we could

present it to him.

 

Part 2 of Early Easter Fun ~ Dying the Eggs

Two days after blowing the eggs, I needed some peace and quiet.  I had the kids prep the table with newspaper.  I looked online how to dye Easter eggs, the "old-fashioned" way.  Old-fashioned in that I remembered doing it with food coloring and vinegar when I was a kid.  I don't ever remember using a kit.  I wing a lot of things, but I wanted some peace and quiet and needed to make sure it would work. 
So we made up the colors and I set them to work. 
Who knew that my younger 3 would entertain themselves for over an hour? How many eggs did they dye??  TWO EACH! 
They knew they needed 2 for each of the 2 older sibs not there at the moment.  I never know when a project will elicit the response, "But I want to do it..."  They are just at that age.  They loved blowing the egg goo out of the shelves.  They did oblige the youngers and offer their eggs up to their younger sibs to explore more creativity. 
Even though I enjoyed the quiet very much, I had to snap a couple of pictures to capture the moment. 

Dad's Bud ~ New things all the time

Dad's Bud and Daddy O are in Cub Scouts together.  His latest project was to build this plane. 

 

His aunts need to see pictures of his latest project.  He did such an awesome job.  I am so proud of his efforts to try new things and persevere through new challenges.  

Shopping with Grandmama!

Counting the joy still....
I love this photo from January.... Mom's eyes are smiling.  She has her Pepsi.  And she is in a store all at the same time.  Anyone who knows her, knows she hates to shop or go to the mall.  So standing in the mall with this beautiful smile and look of joy is the only indication of her memory slipping! 

1061.

 

1062.  Discovering the trick to shopping with Dad's Bud. Provide him with 3 way mirrors and he is entertained !  LOVE IT! 

 



1063.  Playing dress up and modeling for Grandmama..a  fun favorite!  Beautiful!

Birthday dinner Dad's Bud style

Dad's Bud is nine! He chose Red Lobster for his dinner. We went for lunch.

 

Dad's Bud is our adventurous eater. If he is interested by it, he will try it. So a couple if years ago he saw an ad for Red Lobster and declared he wanted to give it a try.  Saw the poster for snow crab legs and said, "Hey let's try those." He has no concept of money, when someone else is buying. He tried them, he liked them.

So this birthday we are back and he asks to order a pound of snow crab legs! My eyes jumped out of my head. Dad said sure, it is his birthday! He is thrilled.

 

While Dad's Bud was enjoying his lunch, Little Princess was trying to getting past the fishiness of the restaurant.  Even her chicken chicken alfredo was tasting fishy.

 

And when she looked up and across the table all she saw was her brother in heaven, making crunching sounds she just couldn't stomache.

I tried to trade places with her.

She sat next to her brother, but she didn't have to look at him.

 

Alas, that didn't work.  She could still hear the crunching. 

She left her plate for the to go box and we went to the car.

Fresh air for her, and less noise for me. 
My head was hurting.

 

 

Happy Birthday to Dads' Bud!

Unfortuantely, that is all the pictures I have of his Birthday Day pictures.
Hoping for some family birthday pictures this weekend. 
I was so worn out, I slept the rest of the afternoon.

Alternatives to stubborness!

Monday was my first day back in the saddle.  Suprisingly, I met the morning without any dread.  I asked hubby for last week off from normal duties.  Often times I do that and then push through and do stuff anyways.  Last week, that wasn't happening God and my body pretty much made me rest.  I didn't get much done other than what was on the calendar appointment wise.  There are big decisions coming, but first the discussing needs to happen and the prayer.  For now, I just put one foot in front of the other...after my prayer filled shower.  I don't know why it is, but my prayer closet is the shower.  The only time these days I pretty much can't be disturbed.  Alone in the warm shower, I am able to be quiet and seek the Lord about my day, my thoughts are sorted and I have direction.  And Lord Help Us, if my shower gets delayed!  Today, was one of those days, but it worked.  It worked for the best because I had a chance to meet the disagreeables and argumentatives first and I knew what the battle was before me for the day...and because I wasn't going to argue, I assigned a chore or two and headed to the shower before I became grumpy. 

The battle:  Whether learning how to make a map was important?  Whether maps were important at all?  Why should I have to do it again, when I already did it and I did the best I could the first time?
AIY!  Somewhere in there I heard a voice speak about technology and SIRI and GPS and I honestly don't know if it was the sarcastic inner me talking or it was one of the kids.   But AIY!   First I addressed redoing the assignment issue....We do our best and sometimes we learn our error and retry because we know our best is now not the best we can do, because we can easily redo and fix our mistake.  In otherwords practice and practice may not make perfect, but it makes better and leading to our best.  SO NOT THE ANSWER someone wanted! 

And to the shower I go.... and since the morning was almost gone, I exit the shower with a plan and instructions for all children to be ready to go in 10 minutes.  Yep, I am so able to pull that off these days. 

My plan: The children will navigate me to Big Sis's job where we will drop her off.  Then they will navigate me to McDonald's and then to the Zoo.  Fun Girl freaks!  Convinced we will be late.  And the extra 15 minutes of drive time I have allotted will not be enough.  Silly girl.  The did great and we arrived with minutes to spare. 

THE MAN begged for a turn, and so it was granted.  He had to direct me to the nearest McDonald's.  He is 7.  Not one sibling had an ounce of faith that he could do it.  But I had listened to him in the car and he was amazing.  He has an awesome sense of direction.  To everyone's delight we arrived in good time and there was food to quiet the natives.  Not the best of food, but food nonetheless...I was doing this on zero prep time, but on totally on God's clock!

The next task...navigate me to the zoo!  THE MAN jumps on this one and quickly starts telling me which way to turn.  None of the others dared to try.  He was awesome, directing me the whole way with affirmation from Hockey Player! 

At the Zoo:  Child 4 picks an animal to visit..Child 5 navigates the way using the map.  Then Child 3 picks an animal and Child 4 navigates the way but including a bathroom stop along the way.  Child 2 and 3 the next and so forth.  We had to modify the plan along the way as I started to fatigue near the end.  The point, to learn to read a map and appreciate a legend and compass rose.

 

Success!
As the momma was getting droopy she saw the lying lions and wanted to join them.

 

Shortly after getting home and trying to work on seat work
these cubs were down for the count!

and this one found a sunny spot.

 



Remembering...

I love this kid! 

I love his smile!

A Giving Heart

Commander in Chief hard at work.

I suggested he work on some school.

He countered with "activities"

I have never seen him color this much before.

Every one who visits him in the room seems to get a picture.

Some even get to pick one out for themselves before hand.

I suggested he just keep coloring, instead of using his red phone to summon

the receipents when their picture was done. 

For now, he is content and busy

Much to be grateful for.

Thank you Aunt Sharon for all the colors and books.

 

 

Bragging rights!

Dad's Bud "enjoyed" the privelege of riding in an ambulance again.

This time he did not net the teddy bears.

That seemed to be okay.

But he did get photos to show Dad.
Race car seatbelts to boot!

Amazing how much he perked up with some Oxygen

 

 

 

TIRED BOY!

 

Way to Go Aunt Tracy and Uncle Charlie!

See this smile.

You put it on Dad's Bud face!

 

 

Paint with Water by Melissa and Doug

 

This is the coolest thing ever.

Water Color pages with paint included on the page.

This isn't the dip your water in brush and paint with water and watch the color appear.

Each individual page has a water color strip to use. 

Trim off the top of the page.

Cup of water with the paint brush included.

Paint away.

So perfect here in the hospital.

No mixing the paint colors and ruining the box.  When done, toss the strip.

I can see myself getting more for:

 athletic trips to keep the youngers occuppied while they wait

gifts for younger cousins

and just to have at home,

cause I so don't like cleaning up the water color boxes!

 

 

 

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Bestest Ever Compliment I Ever Received

The scene:  Reading to Dad's Bud an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland.
The conflict:  Dad's Bud is fed up done with school and really doesn't want to listen.
He is trying, but finding it ever so difficult and is fidgeting up a storm trying to stay and obey.
We get to the conversation with the Caterpillar and I am doing the voices.
Dad's Bud smiles and interrupts.
"You sound just like Grandmama when she reads her stories!"
HUGE smile and a giggly thank you from this Momma.
A long lasting wish fulfilled.  My children would enjoy hearing me tell stories as much as we enjoy listening to Grandmama's and Papa's stories. 

Jane, she is a favorite part of my week!

I first met Jane 8 or 9 years ago. 

Fun Girl wanted to learn to play violin.

A friend recommended Jane. 

She even took me to her kiddos lessons. 

Still wasn't too sure about entering the world of music lessons.

I knew in theory, I knew music instruction was invaluable.

But private lessons and the cost of the instrument had me concerned....
well invaluable, means there is a value.

A big commitment.

As always, God has provided. 

Since that day, all but our youngest have gone to Jane for lessons.

Fun Girl started with violin.

Then she added piano as Hockey Player started to play.

Fun Girl has moved on in her interests but to Jane's we go every week.

Hockey Player

Little Princess

Dad's Bud

and maybe one day The Man

Jane's home is one the children adore.

Her yard is something out of the Secret Garden.

Lots to discover,

a tire swing for waiting siblings

daffodils in the spring

cats and kittens lounging in the sun....

in her home...

piles and piles of music...

and she knows where each piece is located.

I believe every she has kept every gift every student has given her.

A testament of the love and respect given to her by all who enter her life.

 

 

Before every recital piece is played, the performer

must stand, tell his name, age, grade and something about him/herself

and the piece to be played.

Meanwhile, siblings are encouraged to get comfortable

and pet the audience.

 

 

garlands of glitter and pizzazz

sparkles and memories

 

 

momentos of a life time of teaching

 

 

When I look around, I can't help but smile.

Pumpkin Patch at home

My children!

Each one is unique.

Each one has their mother's heart.

Each demostrate their individuality in all they do

even when picking their pumpkins. 

Naming is courtesy of my girls!

Left to Right

The Mutant,  The Character, The Alien, Cinderella

HOckey Player,       Fun Girl,       The Man,     Little Princess

 

Boo

Dad's Bud

Pumpkin Patch #3...Last but not least

Favorite glimpses of Autumn.

Taking time to Pause and Enjoy

the Now and Here

It was a beautiful day!

 

 

Another snack break :)