Playground Fun

I had an appointment with Alex's teacher this morning. We woke up this morning, fast breakfast, fast showers (for my kids), fast fastening of seatbelts to get him to school the first time. Then a fast race back to the van, playing fast race cars once we're home, race to see who can put on their shoes the fastest to go back to school half and hour after we got home.
At school the kids looked at books and played with some ABC's cards I'd brought. When my meeting was done we played a game of "nanner nanner nanner, you can't catch me" with the kids chasing me and each other on the playground of Alex's school. We played 45 minutes until the big kids came out to recess.
Right now the kids are just finishing up their robot mural and then we'll be off to pick Alex up. When we get home we're going to pull out all the robots and play until it's time to make lunch and watch baby signing time.
I've got a special treat for the kids after lunch today. My sister brought me some Halloween treats I know they'll enjoy!

Bad blogger award goes to...me

I know I've been a bad blogger lately. When I had Ava my best friend Amber (who has 3 girls) warned me that three kids was much harder than two. She warned me it seemed three kids take up so so much more time than two. At the time I thought to myself, uh-huh oh sure Amber, I can handle three and still have time for everything. The kicker is... it seems in the past year and a half I have not been able to do EVERYTHING like I used to be able to. My dishes pile up faster, my laundry needs to be done more often, it takes longer to get the kids off to bed. What's with that?!? The point of this whole paragraph is that while a year and a half ago I would probably would have been able to blog everyday like clockwork, now and then I forget, I now get busy, I now procrastinate and then realize I haven't blogged in a week.
I am making Alex a quilt for his birthday so the kids and I have been watching a few more movies than normal. If I have a movie on they all come and watch it and I'm not trying to crochet running in between the living room, kitchen, the boys bedroom, and the playroom. I get really sick of the Land Before Times and Toy Story so I've bee picking the shows. I don't let the kids watch PG-13 here so we've been watching some classic movies. I feel like sittig down to watch Jane Austen is different than vegging out in front of Wall-e so let me know if you disagree. In the mean time, we watched The Fiddler on the Roof last week. Kiara was singing "bud, dah, dah, dah, da" to the tune of If I Was A Wealthy Man. Adorable! Kiara is so musical! I Love it!!
We watched Emma last Friday when it was only Kiara and my kiddos. We also went to the golden arches for lunch. They all had fun on the playground.
Today we watched a bit of Becoming Jane wiht Anne Hathaway. I love that show! It's the story of how Jane Austen fell in love and her inspiration for Pride and Prejudice among other novels. LOVE IT! The kids had pretty much no idea what was going on but they talked about the horses and other animals on screen.
Today we also played with some new robots Alex received. He is really turning into a boy. He is no longer a toddler or a baby. He is a boy. I miss my baby when I see him shooting at the other robots.
Bella brought over an awesome toy the past two days she has been here. It is a Frankenstein that sings and dances when you squeeze its hand. They love it! It sings "Late one night I was in the lab, fast asleep on my cold hard slab, the master witched the switch and I began to rise, then suddenly to his surprise I did the mash, I did the monster mash..." Can you tell the kids love it? I have it memorized!
Tomorrow we're going to have an all out robot battle. For our art project we're going to color a back round for the scene. I think the boys will really enjoy it!

New Signing Times

We have started some new Signing Time DVDs and the kids are learning so much! They are learning colors, the different fruits and the different veggies. They are learning many new songs as well. I love to see my kids signing. It's so fun to see them using a whole new language they couldn't speak a few months ago.
Today we spent a lot of time outside. I'm trying to get our yard ready for winter before it gets too cold.
For lunch today we ate sandwiches with the bread cut out in the shape of a hand. We gave our sandwiches high fives and they thought it was silly to eat the fingers. I was making them laugh asking each one, "Does that hurt? You're eating your fingers?!? Ouch! Doesn't that hurt?"
My Alex just came out with a bloody nose so I'll blog again soon!

10-11-10

Happy 10-10-10 day, yesterday.
Today has been a GREAT day! Kiara has been SO HAPPY today! It has been wonderful!
This morning we took Alex to school. We were a little early so we hung out by the building talking about the lights on it. Alex's teacher was running a little late and we joked about him having class with no teacher and being out on the playground all day.
When we got home we made some puppets with string for hair and a mouth. Alex P. made his into Batman, how creative!! My Ava got her crayons taken away when she ate them (typical).
Joshie got some a bowling game for his last birthday which we'd left at my sisters house on accident back in July. I finally remembered to get and we got to play with it today. Tyler was so funny. He threw a pretty good tantrum when anyone else got a turn then immediately was better when he was handed the ball.
The kids dragged all the blankets in the living room and took "naps" on them. Bella giggled as the boys fake snored.
We watched some pretty funny little videos on youtube today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM&NR=1
They liked this one. Especially when the clam bit Grovers nose. They asked to watch it over and over.
I just saw this quote and I love it so I'm going to share it here...
"You are enough. No need to compete with, or feel threatened by another. You are destined for something that only you were made for. Carry on."--Gianna Jessen

This morning so far...

I have been trying to remember to blog every day and if I don't do it in the morning I usually forget. Kiara has been sick and hasn't been here so it's been a good today to have her here. She's been standing in front of me kissing my knee as I type this.
Alex P and Josh have been busily building with the train tracks this morning. They made a track that runs from wall to wall in the playroom. I love to see them create.
Tyler is so busy this morning. He has been playing with the Buzz we got in Disneyland, the dinosaurs and running Thomas along the track the boys built.
Bella is her normal self. Alternating between checking up on what Josh is doing and chattering to me. She helped me with the dishes earlier. She really likes to clean and says "Clean up floor Megan"
We rushed a little this morning to get Alex to school on time but things should be better for the rest of the day. I'm looking forward to the kids making some self portraits for art time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY!

Yesterday we started our day by making some birthday cards for Bella's Daddy. We colored cakes and balloons and presents. I was really proud of Josh who despite what I thought has actually been listening to me. I said to him, "Let's write your name, J..." Then my wonderful son said "O" Yay!! He has been listening and I have a restored confidence that he will not be 35 before he has any interest in learning to write his name.
We talked all about birthdays yesterday. Bella kept telling me "Mommy make cake for Daddy at home" We talked about the special cakes we get. I was watching my friend's son yesterday for part of the day and he talked about the special Toy Story cake his Mom is making him next week for his 4th birthday.
I took out our play kitchen and we made some pretend cakes and "ate" them. Ava liked this. She didn't understand the fake bites at first but once she saw what everyone else was doing she happily joined in.
Later in the day when Tyler and Alex P came Josh was so glad to see them! He'd been trying very hard to get Ava to play with him but once she went down for a nap he was so lonely. I played kitty, trains and Buzz but I'm no 4 year old boy.
When we got the Mister Alex home from school the kids ate lunch and played outside. They found an earwig in the sandbox and all ran screaming from it. It was pretty hysterical. Even when the earwig was gone they wouldn't go back there. The two Alexs made some "soup" to feed to the chickens. They used a bottle from the sandbox to hold various leaves and grasses from the back yard. They "cooked" it on our firepit, added some morning glory and ivy and dumped it in the coop. The chickens love fresh greens. It would be hard to find some more grateful recipients.

A bunch of lunch

The kiddos are busy eating their stick lunch. We're having carrot sticks, sandwiches cut into thin sticks, cheese sticks and for dessert we'll have some orange sticks. I like themes.
Ava has been really cute today. We got back from the cruise and she decided she wanted to learn to walk. For almost a weeks she pushed our walker in circles around the kitchen and living room. Then, this weekend she decided she didn't need it anymore. She's been walking everywhere since Saturday afternoon. SO CUTE! SO SAD! This is my last baby and I don't want her to grow up so fast :( Makes me very sad to see her getting to big. I miss her. She's turning into a toddler.
We were lucky yo miss the rain today when we went to go and get Alex from school so I think I'll keep the kids inside instead of our usual outside time after lunch. I got a list of fun activities to do from Alex's school so I think we'll start doing that. One activity is to add texture to playdough. They suggest sand (from the sandbox perhaps) and pebbles (I have about a million of those in my garden). I'm going to ask the kids what else they want to try in there. Maybe some elbow noodles or glitter? String? We'll see what they seem interested in.