Noah rejects my plan

It wears me out to push Zach, Kate, and Noah on the swings at the same time, so I came up with a plan to push Zach while Kate pushed Noah and then Zach would push Noah while I pushed Kate. It was a great plan and Zach and Kate were all for it. I started to push Zach and Kate started to push Noah. Noah immediately responded, "Mommy, help! Mommy, help!" So much for my great plan.

Side note: Zach is learning how to swing by himself, but he prefers to have me push him, so he can go higher.

Clutter

I've been thinking a lot lately about all the stuff that gets brought into our home after we are out and about. Even when I don't plan on bringing anything home, it happens. We came home from church and dinner at my parents' house last Sunday and brought in a garbage bag full of clothes, leftovers from dinner, a book of FHE ideas, and church papers. I do appreciate the things that our friends and family give to our family, it just amazes me how much stuff gets brought into our home each day. I brought the kids to school this morning and then brought in a few stuffed animals that were in the shed. I need to stop leaving the house! Sometimes I feel guilty for getting rid of stuff that the kids made or own, but can you imagine what our home would look like if I didn't? I am in a major decluttering mood, so quite a bit of stuff has disappeared the past few weeks. Emily says we look poor now because we have less stuff. I think our home looks so much better with less stuff, and that makes me feel better, too.

Softball

Zoe made me feel good Friday afternoon when she excitedly realized that we had softball practice that evening. She said she loves softball practice; Softball practice rocks! :-)

I have 2 moms that are helping me out this season. They are awesome! We were focusing on the outfielders at the end of our practice on Friday, so we were pitching to each other to get the ball into the outfield. One of us would run around the bases after a hit and the girls had to try to get us out. As I was running to 3rd base, I heard Emily's friend, Tessa (whose mother is my assistant coach) say to Emily, "I think our moms are having more fun than we are!" It was true.

Win or lose, we are going to have a great softball season. :-)

What did you do on Earth Day?

We went to the Children's Museum!

Watching a beaver video in the beaver lodge.

Making paper.




Eleanor next to her Charlotte's Web drawing.

Zach wrote his name pretty much all by himself!



Would you like a lobster, mom? Of course!


The kids served a lot of yummy food. Too bad it wasn't real!

It's rare to see Zoe with her hair down, so I had to snap a picture. So beautiful!


Kate is giving "her" duck a shower.

We spent some time learning about worms.

We even brought some worms home!

A day at the Children's museum is always fun!

Now for a recap of our Wednesday. Noah wasn't feeling well, but we forged ahead with our plans anyway. Here is Noah while the kids were getting in the car. Zoe was in charge of him for a bit, so she tried to cheer him up with her sunglasses.

He just laid on the floor and let her have her fun. I gave him some medicine before we left, which perked him up for most of our outing.

We went to storytime and then we stopped at the field, so Zoe could practice pitching. It was so sunny and warm while we were there. Just perfect. Zoe didn't get much practicing in, though because the younger kids insisted on being near us. They did spend a little bit of time rolling down a hill and eating some snacks.

We went to the park, but it became cloudy and a bit cooler and Noah's medicine began to wear off. He wanted to be held after I pushed him on the swing. It was sad to see him so lifeless at the park!

The best part of Wednesday was getting our dryer fixed! Yay! I was so happy to be able to do laundry again! I still am. :-)

Zoe, Emily, and I went to softball practice Wednesday night. It started to rain as we were practicing, but the girls didn't complain. The rain was light enough that we were able to get all of our practice in. We have a great group of girls on our team this year!

I'll end with another cute saying from Kate that she said this morning.
Me: "All of the girls have a strike!" (There has been a lot of fighting going on this morning.)
Zach: "Do I have a strike?"
Me: "No."
Kate: "Do I have a strike?"
Me: "No."
Kate: "But I'm a girl, too!"

More garden fun

Zoe went out early yesterday morning to work some more in the garden. Zach and Kate went out to help her.

I wanted to get a picture of Kate raking the dirt in her pink skort, pink boots, and her pink princess coat, but I missed the opportunity. She looked so cute!

I caught for Zoe yesterday while she pitched. There were many interruptions, but she was patient and understanding. We had a rain shower while we were outside. It stressed me out because I had Noah's bedding drying outside. His bedding was dry at bedtime, so I brought it in. I didn't find any spiders, but I did find a little bug. I need to call the dryer guy today since he didn't call me back like he said he would.

I took a step in the hall yesterday and felt a sharp prick...
Me: "Ow!"
Kate: "What?"
Me: "A needle"
Kate: "A needle?" Then as she was walking away from me she muttered, "Stupid needle!"

Zoe and Emily had Activty Days last night. The girls are starting a book club and their first book to read is "The Two Princesses of Bamarre". Each of the girls will receive their own copy of the book to keep, but the books hadn't arrived yet, so last night the girls talked about different books that they have read and books that they would like to read. They also talked about different things to look for while reading their book club books like good verses evil, happy verses sad, honesty verses dishonesty, and so on. Zoe and Emily love to read, so I hope they enjoy the different books that they will read and discuss with Morgan, Kayla, and their leaders.

Family Time

We spent most of the day yesterday together as a family, which was nice. We all went outside to work on the garden, which at first didn't sound like much fun and we heard some grumbling, but once we were all out there, we all had a great time. Looking for worms was a highlight. We collected 85 of them. Kate especially enjoyed putting the worms in the worm tray. She would happily shout "WORM!" whenever we pointed one out to her. Stomping on "death eaters" (plant eaters) was another highlight. We pulled weeds, turned over the dirt, and raked the dirt. Zoe and Emily were the last to leave the garden because they wanted it to look perfect and they were having so much fun. :-)

We then sat down to watch "Hotel for Dogs" together. It was a cute movie.

We had Family Home Evening, which started out a bit crazy and with some contention, but we ended on a happy note.

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I forgot to mention in my last post Noah's cute "Yee Haw" shout that he learned at Kids in Motion. He punches his hand in the air, like the kids did in their dance, and shouts "Yee Haw". It is so cute.

All vacations come to an end

The kids and I went for a walk along the waterfront with Donna, Doug, my Dad, Barb, Bryan, and Victoria on Wednesday afternoon.



We treated ourselves to ice cream before leaving. Yum!




Kate got her first ice cream cone ever. She enjoyed it!


Eleanor had her Kids in Motion performance Wednesday evening.

Just like Emily, she sang the opening and closing songs with all of the students performing that night.

Eleanor danced to "Old Dan Tucker" instead of the "Virginia Reel". Eleanor's back was to us, so we couldn't see her face, but we could tell she was having a fun time as she danced. :-) Matt did get a picture of Eleanor as she turned to look at us.

Here is Emily super happy that her performance is over!

My mom, Donna, Andi, Barb, and Victoria came to the performance with us.
Noah was content to watch the show at first,

but, the joy of sitting wore off, so he tried watching by himself.

That worked for awhile, but he was having too much fun playing on the bleachers, so he had to sit on my lap again.

The restlessness began


We did make it to the end of the performance. You did a great job, Eleanor!

Here is a picture of Eleanor's artwork that is hanging on the wall in the hall at school.


I had a softball meeting after Kids in Motion, so I finally know who is on my team. :-) We have a few weeks of practicing on Wednesday and Friday evenings and then our games start in May. I received our equipment and left the meeting excited to start practicing, but also more nervous than ever before!

I went over to my parents' house after the meeting for Girls' Night with my mom, Donna, Barb, Victoria, and Andi. The gals had ordered Chinese food and they ate while I was at my meeting, so I ate when I got there while we watched "Carolina". The movie was good, but it's not a movie I would watch again.

Our dryer isn't working like it should, so we had someone come look at it on Thursday. The guy thought he had solved the problem, but when he tested the temperature when the dryer was running, the numbers were going down still instead of up. He looked at the dryer again and found another part that needs to be replaced, but he had to order the part, so our dryer is still not working. I've been able to do a few loads of laundry at my parents' house. I could wash our clothes and hang them outside, but I've never had good luck hanging clothes outside. I always find spiders in the clothes when I am taking them off the line. I don't like finding spiders in my clothes.

We also had our Yukon worked on Thursday afternoon. It feels great to be legal again! Matt got pulled over on Easter Sunday when we were all heading over to my parents' house to watch General Conference because our inspection was way overdue. Oops! The cop was super nice (cops are like that when they know the lawyer driver )and he just let us know about the inspection and then went on his way. The Yukon failed 2 inspections, so I have been driving around with a very old, slashed inspection sticker, which is why it feels so great to be legal again. It also feels great to be driving a safe vehicle again.

Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor had a half day of school on Friday and then their April vacation began! April vacation is my favorite vacation because it is nice enough to get out and do things. It's also exciting because after this vacation, the next vacation is summer! I'm looking forward to not having to bring the girls to school and pick them up this week.

We had our first softball practice Friday night and it went well. We had 7 out of 12 girls there, which I thought was a great turn out considering I had called the night before about the practice and it was the start of vacation.

After practice, Zoe, Emily, and I went bowling with my dad, Donna, Doug, Barb, Bryan, and Victoria. Zoe and Emily LOVED the darkened bowling alley with the disco balls flashing. We all had a fun time!

How many pins did you knock down, dad?




Victoria with her shorter hair. Donna, Barb, and Victoria got their hair cut that morning and Victoria donated her hair to Locks of Love.

Barb and Bryan.

Donna and Doug.


Everyone, except Matt, went to the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race Saturday morning. It was a cold day, but we had fun watching canoes and kayaks go through 6 Mile Falls.

Kate begging me to pick her up.

Here is a pirate that went down the falls standing up saying "Aaarrgghh". It's fun when the racers get creative and entertain the people watching.

Zoe wants to enter the race with Matt next year. Matt has never wanted to do the 16.5 mile race with several tricky falls to get through, and I think Zoe would think twice if she realized how much paddling she would be doing.

We said goodbye to Donna, Doug, Andi, Barb, and Bryan when we left the race. :-( They flew back to North Carolina Saturday evening from Portland. We look forward to their visit next year!

Zoe wants to be a pitcher this year, so we went to the field after the race to practice. Noah and Kate slept in the car, Eleanor and Zach played in the field and ate snacks, and Emily got some batting practice in. Zoe pitched a lot of strikes, and Emily's hitting improved quite a bit during our short visit to the field. Eleanor and Zach got to hit a few balls, too. Zoe wants to practice pitching every day. It's fun to see her so excited about pitching. :-) I am recovering from being her catcher. I am so sore!

My mom took Victoria, Zoe, and Emily to see "How to Train your Dragon" Saturday evening at the Alamo. After the movie, the girls spent the night at my parents house. Zoe and Emily enjoyed the movie. I was going to take Eleanor to see it when it comes to the $1 theater, but the girls said it was too scary for her, so we'll have to see.

My mom stayed home from church yesterday with the beginnings of a cold, so Zach stayed with her while the rest of us went to church. Zach's ear was hurting and he had a runny nose. They both slept and relaxed during the day.

Matt is home today for Patriots' Day. He is out fishing in the rain with Jason right now. We have plans to weed the garden and get it ready for planting and then watch a movie. It's definitely a movie day.

Zach seems to be feeling better this morning.

Family and The Wild Wild West

My sister, Donna, and her husband, Doug, and Doug's daughter, Barb, and Barb's boyfriend, Bryan, and Donna and Doug's granddaughter, Andi are visiting this week. They are staying with my parents. They arrived Saturday evening and they are here for the week. The kids and I have been able to spend some time with them here and there and will spend more time with them throughout the week. Here is a picture of Zach, Kate, Noah, and Andi.

Andi is so cute! Kate refers to Andi as "Noah's friend". The younger kids and I spent a few hours this morning with everyone and when we first arrived at my parents' house, Andi hugged each of the kids. It was so sweet!

Emily had Kids in Motion this evening at her school. The theme of the performance was The Wild Wild West.

The kids made paper hats at school for the performance.

All of the students sang "Welcome to the West" and then each class performed a dance. Emily's class did the "Virginia Reel". Emily's partner was her good friend, Daisy, so that was fun for Emily. At the end of the performance, all of the students sang "Cowboys Are Ok" and "Goodnight Tonight Goodnight".

The school puts on Kids in Motion every other year, so this was Emily's last year participating. When I mentioned to Emily that it was her last year doing it, she was very happy and replied, "Yay!". She doesn't like performing in front of a lot of people, but she did a great job tonight!