Spring Cleaning & Bird Update

Unintentionally,

I am teaching T how to help with laundry...

one article at a time...

that was the longest washer to dryer transfer

I have ever witnessed in my life - 

but he enjoyed it!

(and NO my laundry area does not

ALWAYS look THAT bad!!)

Then mommy actually let him push the buttons to start it!!!

We start 'em young around here!

Speaking of laundry...

Saturday, when we were getting ready for

our last baseball and soccer games...

my dear sweet husband commented on the 

amount of stains on our oldest boys

white baseball pants.

I smiled and said:

"Well, when I tried to get them super clean

back at the beginning of the season,

YOU told me not to.

Because you said it made it look like

he rode the bench and didn't actually play

enough to get dirty"

Oh you should have seen the smirk on that man's face!

His reply - grinning ear to ear...

"Ha, well that sounds like something I would say

but I don't remember saying that".

Well ya did dear, and I did as you asked...

I sent my son to games with stained baseball 

britches cause you wanted to make sure people 

knew he PLAYED!

Hahahaha!!!

Here are our little sports stars with 

their medals.

Unfortunately, I was helping pass out trophies for

R's team and I forgot to get a picture of him

and his medal 

(and dirty pants)

Last week, R has discovered my blog 

- so he spent quite 

a bit of time over a 2 day period catching up

with what was going on in his life!  

Gotta make sure I continue to keep it R friendly!

(haha!)

And finally -

 a bird update:

They have all outgrown the nest.

But they continue to come home almost every night to sleep.

The babies perch on the rim of the nest,

while mommy and daddy hang out on the porch ledge.

Then one of the kids accidentally picked out

the perfect book for us to read after lunch last week:

It is about how Clifford finds a robin egg

and he and Emily Elizabeth take care of it til it hatches

and then release it back into the wild.

Super cute story to wrap up our baby bird watching!

Man those things grow QUICK!!!

Like I said yesterday - 

we spent our time two weeks ago

getting ready for our visitors.

I am not sure if I have mentioned it before

but paperwork

and

clothes are my 

nemesis!!!

(ask my husband, he will agree!)

I 

FINALLY

got around to 

going through all the 

clothes

in the two youngest's drawers

and dressers...

they were on top,

in

and beside their dressers. 

I had no idea what was in each drawer that actually fit!

Discovered that each of them

had no less than FIVE

different sizes of clothes in their drawers.

My daughter had bottoms as small as

6-9 mo.

Why you ask?

Because they FIT!

She is a skinny mini - 

but they were way to short.

So in the give away box they went.

The baby had the same problem,

but,

he gets mainly hand-me-downs.

As mentioned a few months ago,

I kept almost every stitch of clothing

from my oldest,

then my second boy wore it,

now the baby.

Before we knew our 4th was a boy,

I kept all of my daughter's clothes too.

You should have seen my attic!

It was neat, just full of boxes.

How was it so neat?

Cause 5 1/2 years ago,

when we moved into our house,

my husband spent quite a bit of time,

much to my displeasure,

in the attic

building shelves.

I was NOT a happy camper cause 

there were WAY more important 

things DOWNSTAIRS

that needed doing.

(in my opinion)

HOWEVER,

every time my husband ventured into the attic

over the next 5 1/2 years, 

he would 

proudly boast how happy he was

that he had taken the time to build those 

shelves.

Yes, they were beneficial,

yes, they were well done,

yes, yes, yes...

(but don't tell my husband)

Luckily I had labeled and sorted all the clothes

prior to storing.

But upon making the move,

my dear sweet husband informed me that he was

NOT

shipping 20 boxes of clothes half way across

 the country!

So, with the help of family and friends,

I painstakingly went through each box

and widdled them down to

6 keepers.

So, the baby gets most of his clothes from those boxes.

Poor thing may never get "new" clothes.

But they are all in good shape,

so its not like he is walking around 

in holey items.

We did our normal co-op classes

and A made a monkey.

It was cute!

So I had to share!!

Here are all of our monkeys in our co-op class.

Over the last few months,

we have watched a very diligent mommy bird

build her nest in one of the corners of our patio 

overhang.

I have periodically been climbing on a stool 

and raising my camera above my head to take 

pictures to see if there was anything in there...

we finally found something!!

This was taken on April 20th.

This was taken on April 21st:

When our guests arrived!

Think they have missed their Nana??

Random Picture:

I couldn't help but snap this hairdo after taking the 

baby out of the bath a few weeks ago.   ;)

The Latest & Greatest

This has been a busy week 

and I have lots to share - 

so bare with me!!

First,

fresh from my sister's blog...

I am going to be an AUNT!!!!

I am so excited and most of the people who read

this know already.

But I am super excited and 

so happy I can finally share!

School is going well.  

We are starting to research next year's curriculum.

But otherwise, seem to be doing pretty well at this

homeschooling thing.  

The meal planning and shopping two weeks

at a time is going well.

I am still getting used to the sticker shock of

grocery shopping for 6 people

every two weeks.

OUCH!!

But the good news is

I manage to feed each 

person in this house for

about $4/day.

Yes, this is breakfast,lunch & dinner

for everyone - including daddy!

Not bad.

It is really nice to stay 

on top of this meal planning thing.

Feels good!

We also had to implement a new

energy saving plan 

around this house.

The boys were getting

REALLY bad at

leaving lights on or

TVs on and leaving the room.

So they are now charged $0.10

everytime I find a light or TV left on.

We are putting it into a jar and will

figure out what to do with the funds 

once we break the cycle.

But so far...it is adding up QUICK!

On another note - 

We have finally found a church!

We have been hunting and going back and forth

to different churches for the past few months.

Today, we finally decided on one.

I mixed up start times.  

We thought we were doing good, got to mass

and walked in.

Then started to realize that they were 

further along in the service than they should have been.

Come to find out - I was 30 min off with the start time!

So, with this in mind, we figured we needed to 

select one and stick with it.

We are joining the scout group 

at this church.

BOTH boys get to join.

Daddy will be J's den leader

I guess I will be den mom.  :)

I am relieved and happy!

We are already finding ways to get involved.

I know it is going to take some time,

but both of us are ready to get a little settled

and this is a HUGE step toward that direction.

Here is the past 10 days in pictures:

Here is a picture of a frog that A made at Co-op.

It was in honor of Leap Day.

Daddy went on an overnight fishing trip 

(this one didn't end with a bunch of stories about

the one that got away...)

So the kids and I grabbed dinner

and then they climbed in my bed

to watch a movie while I cleaned up a little.

We found some Skylander activities at 

1+1+1=1

J really enjoyed using these 

(once I got them printed and laminated)

A replenished her candy stash with some

Valentine candy we found in her bookbag from Co-op.

A is working HARD on her first big kid puzzle.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!

She did it with MINIMAL 

help from mommy!!

T LOVES being outside...

I thought this was a cute picture.

We did an art project. 

T really wanted to help...

and I am very proud of how well the kids

did and how they turned out!

We splurged one night and went out to dinner.

We introduced T to sushi, chopsticks and tofu...

A like the tofu too.

T literally drinking the tofu out of the bowl.

Daddy told J to be quiet...

haha!

We decided to tell them that we were celebrating a birthday.

We figured they would just bring out a little bowl of sherbet

or ice cream and sing a quick song...

oh no.  They brought out a HUGE desert

and charged us $7.00 for it!

But the kids enjoyed it.

T wasn't so sure about the fried plantain

but loved the tofu??

The next day, we cleaned up and reorganized a little

and let A decorate a mirror that one of her aunts

sent her for Christmas.

Then I caught her sharing chocolate chips with her brother.

At least she was sharing...

sneaky girl!!

And R cooked lunch for us Saturday!

Then J had to vacuum cause he made a mess.  

And apparently he liked it - 

cause I caught him doing it again today!

T was hungry and decided to help himself to the

first part of dinner that was put on the table.

A is "helping".

Got one cooking, one cleaning...

and one babysitting!

Time for another one!

(JUST KIDDING!!!!)

What's New??

So what's new in this household??

Not a lot...

we are getting into somewhat of a routine.

I haven't totally developed a schedule yet.

The kids & I are enjoying 

Homeschooling.

It affords us the opportunity to do 

different things throughout the week.

We attend a weekly PE class.

We go to the children's museum for "science"

about once every other week.

We go to the library about once a week.

We are planning a trip to the zoo next week.

I am still researching and figuring this thing out as we go...

Its amazing how little time is really needed for this though.

Most of the time spent in schools on these subjects

 is teaching to 24 students

making sure everyone understands.

When you only have 1 student...

the lessons are

a LOT

quicker!

Between researching homeschooling stuff.

Doing homeschooling.

Attempting to organize

the house

and our finances...

(just got Quicken and I have to manually enter 

8 months worth of financial information! - UGH!!)

Keeping up with my household chores

(including blowing up a vacuum!!)

yes - you read that right...

we have had the same vacuum for close

to 10 years 

and it has been fine...

no complaints really

that is until yesterday...

I started vacuuming...

got one good swipe in

and then it made a funny noise

then came to a complete

STOP 

and started 

SMOKING!!

Smoke literally started billowing 

out of my vacuum!

And stinking up the house...

not exactly sure what happened.

But needless to say - 

I will be looking for a new one

during Black Friday!

(among other things)