Are we having fun yet?

Mother's Day didn't go as planned, but it was still a good day. My mom ended up sick on Mother's day :-( so we didn't get to her house after church for dinner. I did stop by on our way home to give her a Mother's Day DVD that was given out at church after we all watched it during the last 15 minutes of church, and to pick up some things that I had left behind on Saturday. Then our family went home and Matt made pancakes. We also had leftover pizza. After we ate, Emily put away dishes and Zoe washed the dishes as a Mother's Day present...or maybe it was because they were fighting with each other all the way to church and home again, yeah that was it. On the way to church, Matt asked me to open the glove box and then he asked me if there was a pink envelope in there. There was and it turned out to be my Mother's Day card. Very sweet. I received several cards and pictures from the kids, a couple of necklaces, and a poster. It's always fun to see what they have created.
Zoe made the poster above, Emily made the picture on the left below, Eleanor made the picture on the right, Zach made the blue card with the flower, and Zoe and Emily made the necklaces during their Activity Days activity.

Emily gave me a paper flower with her picture on it and a nice note from her, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I'll try to remember to include it in my next post. I was surprised that Eleanor didn't make anything at school for Mother's Day. She didn't bring anything home anyway.

I believe our kids have 5 weeks of school left. It's weird that Zoe will be moving on to the middle school next year. Is she really going to be in the 5th grade already? We have 4 different schools here. Kindergarteners have their own building, which I think is nice. I like the fact that my Kindergartners don't have to worry about bigger kids. The Miles Lane School, which Zoe and Emily are in now, goes from 1st grade to 4th grade. The Middle School goes from 5th grade to 8th grade. The 5th and 6th graders are on the top floor and the 7th and 8th graders are on the bottom floor. Then the High School goes from 9th to 12th grade. Step-Up day is June 10th, I think, so Eleanor will meet her new teacher at Miles Lane, Emily will meet her new teacher, and Zoe will meet her new teacher at the Middle School. Every year is different, but next year will really be different having Zoe in a school that I've never dealt with before. Zoe said she is going to miss the beach party lunch at Miles Lane. It's coming up on the 29th and her class is making surf boards to help decorate the cafeteria. I asked her what else she is going to miss about Miles Lane, but she got distracted by Emily when she was thinking, so I'll have to ask her again. She has enjoyed having Mrs. LaLonde the past 2 years, but I know she is looking forward to having a new teacher.

Monday was spent doing some laundry and puttering around the house. Zach wanted to make some cookies, so we settled on brownies. I checked the recipe and realized that we didn't have any vanilla, so we headed to the grocery store. I was planning on stopping at the store later on anyway, so it was nice to go early and get it done. We made the brownies, but Zach wasn't too impressed that the mixer was taking over his job of mixing. Zoe and Emily came home on the bus after school and then we went to get Eleanor from cheerleading. We had FHE and discovered uncooked brownies when we had the treat. I have a brownie recipe that calls for unsweetened chocolate, but I usually use cocoa and oil instead of the unsweetened chocolate. The recipe says to cook the brownies for 35 minutes, no longer, so that is what I have always done and they come out perfectly. Well, the last 2 times I have made the brownies, I have used semi-sweet chocolate (this past Monday being one of those times) and the brownies have not cooked through. I cook them the same amount of time as always. I'm wondering if using semi-sweet chocolate instead of unsweetened chocolate is the reason they are not cooking like they should. Isn't the semi-sweet and unsweetened just a matter of taste? I think I'm going to stick with my cocoa and oil in the future.

I did more laundry yesterday and I pushed Zach, Kate, and Noah on the swing in the afternoon. Zach and Kate are pretty good about wearing bug nets outside. We need to get some more bug nets because we don't have enough for everyone. It's that time of year when the black flies just swarm around us when we're outside. They're not as bad in the afternoon when it is sunny, but they are still around.
I fed the kids dinner around 4pm and then Matt left with Emily and Kate to bring Emily to her first Farm League practice and then I left with everyone else to go to Zoe's softball game. I parked where I could watch the game in the car and Noah could stay asleep, but when Eleanor realized that I had no intention of getting out of the car, she threw a fit. She wanted to go outside to play and watch the game. She woke Noah up and finally I told her that if she could be quiet for 5 minutes I would think about getting out of the car. 2 hours of listening to Eleanor cry and whine did not sound fun, but dealing with the black flies didn't sound fun, either. Eleanor finally settled down and we got out of the car. Not long after we got out to watch the game, my mom showed up. We talked and watched the game for a bit. My mom is less tolerant of the black flies than I am, so I told her that if she could convince Eleanor to get back in the car than we could watch the game from there. Two bags of cheetos for Eleanor and Zach was the bribe they needed to get in the car. My mom and I shared a nacho. We didn't have to deal with the black flies anymore, but we had messy fingers and wiggly children to deal with. When the cheetos were gone and Eleanor and Zach were cleaned up, they were anxious to get out of the car again. I let them play around the car in the grass, but they soon tested the limits and would walk near the road of the parking lot, touch the road with their foot, and then run back on the grass. They got back in the car. Zoe didn't play for most of the game. She finally played in right field and got up to bat once. Zoe and I were both proud when she hit a foul ball. She swung and made contact with the ball, yay! Then she walked after the next pitch. The game ended soon after. YAY! It was not a pleasant game for me. Sometime during the game when we were in the car, my car alarm went off. It was just one more thing to stress about! Zoe's team won, so they did their victory lap and then we went home. Zach couldn't find his nintendo when we got home, so he whined about that until Matt found it. The kids were hungry, so they ate pancakes as I rushed them and the older kids had their baths. Matt worked on unplugging the bathroom sink since Eleanor and Zach have discovered the fun of putting toilet paper down the sink. We read scriptures and said our prayers and it was finally time to send the kids to bed and to relax. Well, I relaxed (which means I nursed Noah and read) while Matt washed the dishes, and then he read.

Emily enjoyed her practice. Her friend, Tessa was with her, which is good because there are a lot more boys playing Farm League than girls. I'll get to watch her tomorrow night if it doesn't get rained out.

Tonight was supposed to be a free night while Matt works late, but Zoe found out last night that she has softball practice this evening at 5:30. The Miles Lane school is right near the field we'll be at this evening, so the kids can play on the playground while Zoe practices.

I took Zach, Kate, and Noah to storytime this morning. I was surprised that we were the only ones there since it is a beautiful day, but we were. Another girl came in with us, too. When we are the only ones at storytime, Zach and Kate like to fight over the rocking chair and bounce from chair to chair to chair. It's hard to get them to sit on the floor and listen to the books. We started off good as I insisted on us all sitting on the floor, but they ended up on the chairs after a few stories. Storytime ended when they lost interest in the books. Noah showed off his ability to stand up from a crawling or sitting position now. He is getting very good at it. Now we are taking his hands and walking with him to get him used to walking. I'd really like him to be walking before summer. He followed me up the stairs a little while ago here at my parents' house, so he can officially climb the stairs!