Beach Party

I am the absolute worst mom in the world. I live 15 minutes from the beach, yet my children have only been once. Well, now twice.

My dad's side of the family threw together a beach party and the kids had SO much fun playing with their cousins Mason and Kendra. They got to cook hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire and said that "it was the coolest thing ever" They got to see the waves and get splashed and run around being open and free! Mom got to sit by the fire and just watch and relax a bit too even. The only thing missing was my husband and a bottle of wine.

* to reiterate how I'm the worst mom ever... I also live 1½ hrs from the snow and we have NEVER been... my kids resort to making sand angels instead of snow angels. *

A visit to urgent care

I decided that I couldn't wait any longer to see if Jack had an ear infection. I chalked up his moods, lack of eating, extreme tempers and oversleeping to either being 3 or the heat. After 3 weeks of this however, I decided that I might as well rule out an ear infection. I'm 8 out of 10 times correct and he always has no symptoms.... so I always torture the poor child for the weeks it takes me to take him in.

Well.. Robert wasn't home and I couldn't wait, so I decided that I would take all 3 kids to urgent care ( even though Jack was FREAKING out about it, ever since his hospital stay )

Thankfully the lobby of the after hours care was essentially empty, because I was absolutely one of those moms that people either a) stare at and think: 'can't she control her kids?' or b) 'wow, I feel SORRY for her.'

These pictures may give a clearer picture of how out of control they were. I didn't bring anything for them to do because it was a bit spontaneous ( long story ) so I handed over my camera. I left out the pictures of the empty chairs, magazines, TV's and brochures....... ( there was nothing wrong btw and I cried the whole way home )

Just a quick side note and vent: When Robert is working so much he tends to forget how the kids can get out of control quickly and figures that I just can't handle them sometimes.... well thankfully last night he got a FULL dose of how quickly they can turn on you all at once. *sigh*

Please say hi....

( I know this feeds to facebook.... I've had the blog for nearly 2 years before I fed it through facebook... so if you are reading this in my notes, sorry! )

A little birdie recently told me about someone I least expected following my blog... but was hesitant to because of the live feed and didn't want me to think she was intruding.

I have the live feed because I want to know who is reading it... I would LOVE to know, and very little people say anything.

I wouldn't blog if I thought it was an invasion of privacy, and part of why I do this, is because I don't think enough people are honest about life and day to day occurances. We tend to answer: "fine" when asked "how are you doing?"

Well, "fine" is really rarely accurate. Life is full of up's and down's for everyone. While fine may mean nothing is wrong, it definitely doesn't describe day to day life. Life is a journey and sharing my journey, good, bad or boring is my therapy.

So please, just this one time.... no need to comment on all of my posts if you don't want, just say hi, so I know who you are. Thanks!!!! XOXO

( I saw a feed from Cairo, Egypt on the live feed, that has me very intrigued and excited! )

Rock Stars and Game Inventors....

My kids change their mind daily about 'what they want to be when they grow up'

My boys always lean towards very boy-type of things ranging from astronauts to football players, but yesterday all 3 of them decided on being a rock group. They LOVE those commercials where the kids sing the real songs from the radios... but clearly there are kids singing the songs. That's what they wanted to do.

Kyla arranged the set up, she was the singer and guitar player, Kade was also on guitar and Jack played the drums.... they set up their spots with towels and made me turn on the radio.... I have NO idea why I didn't video this - but pictures will have to do.

Look at the concentration! Tongue is out and everything!

A couple of random things:

Kyla said she was afraid of the dark the other day ( she's not )
Kade walked up to her and said: "Kyla I will never let anything get you, I'll always protect you." My heart melted. 5 minutes later, he kicked her and called her a fart head. *sigh*

Jack has been riding Kade's bike without training wheels! I can let go for about 8 feet. ( this makes Robert VERY nervous ) Kade made us take the training wheels off, but wont ride it, and refuses to back track by putting them back on. I'm hoping that psychologically it will bug him to see Jack ride first, but he could care less - he cheered him on and said "GO JACK!"

If there is one thing about Kade, he is his own person, not easily influenced at all and does what he's comfortable with. Coercing, good or bad, has very little affect on him.

Kyla is a creator, that's for sure. She draws, comes up with pretend things to do all the time, makes books, writes letters, etc.. etc.. Yesterday though, she blew me away.

Apparently, she created a whole 'board game'

Kyla made the rough draft, and Sydney drew it on a big paper for Kyla to color.
Kyla even dictated the rules to Sydney, who wrote them out for Kyla to trace later.
She came up with game pieces, and even made a spinner.

Well..... come to find out this wasn't her first game?! This is like her 3rd one! She says she likes this one the best though.

Last night too - she asked me if I would read her a book before bed, and once I started she said: "Never mind, I'll do it" and proceeded to read me the book!

I'm sorry, I probably talk about this A LOT. I'm just soooooooooo proud of her and her abilities, but most proud that she really really enjoys doing these things, they bring her happiness and a lot of smiles.

She named it: "Sandy Days"

Complete with sand dollars and action spaces

The Rules

The spinner and the game pieces

This is a book that her and Sydney have created for "lessons"

This is either her 1st or 2nd game creation... it's a balloon and money game...

The spinner and game pieces for that one

The money pieces to buy the balloons ( which cost $.8 btw )

A play date, a movie date, hot weather and a water slide.

Our friends Jack and Ben came over to play with us on Saturday morning ( they brought their mommy Nicole too ) and after about an hour of playing in the house - we broke out the slip-n-slide.... ( it's SOOOOO hot - I feel horrible for the pregnant mommies especially! )

After getting them all lotioned and suited up - they were good to go. None of the kids quite got the hang of exactly how to do the slide, but they made it work and enjoyed every minute of it....

There aren't many faces in the pictures - but hey - they are action shots right???

( ignore my horrible back yard - it's our fall project! lol )

Before our guests left for the day, we cooled off in the a/c and did a little break-dancing (o:

Seriously, how cute is this picture??? I'm so impressed!

After our friends left, we went swimming for a big in meme & papa's pool.... ( I couldn't cool off for some reason! )

Naps were great that day!!

Later in the evening Kyla and I had a date. We went out for pizza, to the chocoloate store, and to see Ice Age in 3D. I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of her in her 3D glasses.... she kept sticking her hand out to try to catch the "flying" objects! We did lots of cuddling in the movie theater and I got a great good night kiss later in the evening. An absolute perfect date.

On our date

>Picture taking while waiting for Daddy to get home.... I thought this was so creative of them! ( Jack and Kyla )

Sunday was Taylor's 3rd birthday - she had a princess party with lots of princess dresses and a beautiful princess cake.

Strangely Kyla didn't want to go even though I told her about the jumbo water slide and Kade never wants to do anything, so when they both asked if they could stay at meme's house... I jumped on the thought of only having 1 child at a birthday party!!! Perfect right? Nope.

Jack wouldn't go down the slide, and he wouldn't leave my side. I figured he would have had the most fun out of all 3 kids - but without his brother and sister there, he was so clingy and didn't want to do anything. ( side note, he's been off for a couple of weeks now, not eating, sleeping too much, a few other things... I'm going to take him in to get checked )

I left to try to switch kids - but it wasn't going to happen. There was no switching possible at that point, it was all or nothing and I just wasn't up for "all"

Lastly, I would like to end this entry with how much better Robert is at telling stories than I am. I went to tuck Kyla in and she asked:
"can you tell me a story mom? "
Me: "sure!"
Kyla: "just don't make it one of your short boring stories, make it a good one like dad does."

Me trying to be funny made an attempt and when that didn't work, I grumbled:
" Go see daddy "
Robert says: "yah mom, we tell good stories about chickens, and gummy bears, and pickles and flying dragons and stuff."

Well, I swallowed my pride, hit mute on the TV, and listened in. The giggles that came from my princess were hilarious - she couldn't stop laughing and this was making Robert laugh so hard he could barely finish his story and he had tears rolling down his cheeks. Those are the moments that we as parents live for.