Purple Party

As I mentioned earlier...my little Peanut turned 8 years old last week...

Being the organized mother that I am, I had all my invitations sent out early...

YEP...about 3 days  before the party "early"...

Let's just say, it's a good thing it's May and people are home because noone is going to go on vacation that last month before the end of the school year...especially when you have cool field trips and stuff...right?

yes, well...fortunately, we invited so many people that the handful that were able to come made it a smashing success:)

She wanted a PURPLE PARTY...She comes up with this stuff on her own and I just try to roll with it:)

So, out I went for purple balloons, purple plates, purple cups, purple t-shirts, and even purple pop:)



The day started out with soccer games and lots of pictures...it then led to scrambling home as quickly as possible in order to get everything ready before the little 2nd graders all showed up at our house...Did I mention field trips before?  Because I would be remiss if I didn't "begin" the storytelling of the weekend by mentioning the fact that I spent some considerable amount of time on a bus with a bunch of 2nd graders yelling for me to teach them more camp songs, of which my nearly 40 year old brain brain had trouble conjuring up amidst the bodily function noises and other such "fun" experiences enjoyed by sweet 8-9 year olds on a field trip bus:) 

Anyhoo...

The little girls all came in their purple clothing and we quickly got to the nail polish, face painting and girly hair clips:)

I think Peanut just enjoys seeing other people happy...she doesn't worry so much about being the center of attention, she just wants to soak in the time and make sure that everyone else does the same...oh my, she's so much like her daddy in that way!

She loved her purple/chocolate covered strawberries and purple cake

It wasn't my "best work", but we managed...(let us remember "smelly bus ride" the day before...therefore, a tad of a tired mama)

All in all it was great fun and I'm so unbelievably grateful that God has given me this sweet girl to care for...I pray He lets me do it for a longgggggggggggggg time to come as well....She is well worth it!

p.s. The evening ended with a poison ivy scare and a Mother's Day gift that was completely unexpected:)  stay tuned...

EIGHT YEARS

It's been 8 years since Peanut decided she had had enough time cooking in my belly:)  She was my only early bird...(the other two came late)

I remember the moment the doctor caught her and smiled, "It's a girl"...to which I replied, "Are you sure...you might want to check again."...I couldn't be THAT maternally inept could I?  I thought each and every one of my girls were boys...and I was wrong every time...

and I wouldn't change a thing!

I remember the moment the pediatrician came in to inform me that they discovered a hole in her heart and I remember holding her and telling God that I was NOT as strong as MY mother and I could not go through the whole "heart" thing again...and I remember spending the first 3 weeks or so at Children's Hospital having test upon test done on my little Peanut...and then a little after her 2 year birthday, the doctor said that they couldn't hear it anymore and that it had closed on it's own...(I know that may be typical for some, but after watching my little sister, I was in panic mode for quite awhile)

Right from the start she was different than her sisters...and that still hasn't changed...

She's always been my spunky one...the one that will climb to the top of a tree and scare me to death...the one that will hold onto a soccer ball for dear life and have battle wounds to show for it...

She's my quiet, introvert that is a seriously deep thinker...and yet, when you are fortunate enough to be let in on her thoughts and feelings you are nearly knocked over by the enormity of her ability to feel and empathize and just LOVE.

She's very much like her daddy...(which is probably why we get along so well)  She makes us all laugh...she's insightful and carefree...she has the unique ability to see the bigger picture and not get so caught up in all the details...

Happy Birthday Sweet Peanut!!!

Oh sweet girl...your Momma loves you so much...I am so incredibly thankful that I get to be your Mom and I pray that God gives me many, many, many, many, many more years of growing with you:)

My husband is awesome...and...well, I'm not THAT bad either...

as it relates to gettin' stuff done around here:)

This weekend has been a "work" weekend...and our weekend started on Friday...

which is why I am JUST NOW writing up a post about it all...

Italian Stallion worked his tail off all day Friday...weeding the and trimming down the front flower bed, which is HUGE, let me remind you...and then, after coaching in the humid heat and mud puddled fields, he came home and worked 4 hours straight shoveling the mulch into place...I believe he just downed 4 ibuprofen...

We've got stuff growing all over the place here..it just gets me in the springtime mood and dreaming of summer:)

Not to be outdone, I spent Friday afternoon weeding the rest of the garden beds, taking a trip to the nursery, and coming back and planting the rest of the garden...no waiting until Mother's Day this year...we're just going to pray a "no frost" from here on out...

love my lettuces:)

Potatoes are coming up just fine:)

In case you want to know where everything is planted:)

I even purchased a few annuals this year for the front porch:)

After a fun newborn photo shoot this afternoon, I came home to take pictures of everything and enjoy th evening with the family...I.S. split some wood and we warmed our feet by the fire in anticipation of the Super Moon tonight:)

All in all...besides the fact that the inside of my house looks like it exploded...the outside is amazing and I'm feeling like a very blessed woman:)

Why YES, I AM crazy..thank you:)

Why is it that during the "slow season", the winter down time, the time when all I really need to do is sit with a nice, hot cup of tea and a book and let the hours slip by...why is it, that during THAT time, when I HAVE time, I don't think of many fun projects...

HOWEVER, once soccer season starts...once all we want to do is play outside...once housework seems to pile up due to umpteen changes of clothing during the day and multiple "game" switches take place..

it's at THESE times that my brain can't shut off...

So far, I've started about 4 Shutterfly scrapbooks online...have begun planning my younger two girls' birthday parties...and I'm getting booked up with photography sessions left and right...not to mention multiple fields trips and concerts that are approaching before the month of May is finished.

To top it off...my ubber creative neighbor (whom I'm beginning to think is as crazy as I am) came up with a FUN idea for our little preschool girls...She went out and bought 1 pound of yellow yarn for Little Munchkin and her blond hair and 1 pound of brown yard for her little brown headed girl...along with lots of flowers and ribbons and sparkles...

well...this is what we came up with:)

It ended up being just a tad more time consuming than we had originally thought, but nothing an ice cream cone at 10pm couldn't fix:) 

It was a bit funny though because we both made our "braid wig" in different ways.  I didn't want to do any needle/sewing work, so I have a lot of tying and knots in mine.  She's much more handy with a needle, so hers has a more polished look:)  I'll try to post some pictures of hers later today.

Little Munchkin was ecstatic this morning when she saw it hanging by the door.  It's so long that I put a little loop in it so that she could carry it at one side if she wants to.

Ahhhh...projects:)

Lost in a "nother" world:)

I read to escape mostly...that's really my favorite kind of reading.  I do read nonfiction...I am currently reading  Six Ways to Keep the Little in your Girl, and 8 Great Dates...along with my Bible of course and a few other parenting books...with a few photography "how-to's" thrown in for good measure...

However, if I REALLY want to just relax and just forget my world of laundry, dishes and vacuuming, I try to find a book where I can just get lost in the characters' lives...I will say that I struggle to find books that do that...books that make me laugh or cry or where I can actually imagine that I'm there...

And I'm such a sucker for settings like Pride & Prejudice...I have no idea why...I would have NEVER survived in that time period...they would have cast me out of their village in no time flat. 

This brings me to this quaint book...it's not a suspenseful book, it's actually fairly predictable and very reminiscent of Jane Austen...but, it was sweet...it just made me smile...and so, I thought I'd share it with you, in case you were looking for something to read on some future travels, etc...

It was as I was reading this book (at 1am last week) that I heard a loud thump/bang/crash upstairs.  My mind immediately rushed to Peanut in her loft bed, thinking that it had unhinged and crashed to the floor (my mind has crazy imaginations sometimes)  Anyhoo...this caused me to throw the sweet book and run upstairs yelling her name, along with, "Mommy's coming...I'm coming!!!"

Peanut met me in the hallway rubbing her eyes asking, "Mommy, why are you yelling for me?  I was sleeping?"  I replied, "You're not hurt, your bed is still okay?"  She gave me that blank stare and I recognized that she was still half asleep and that it was my yelling that had infact wakened her...

so, what was the CRASH?  As I turned to check in on Little Munchkin, she was on the floor shaking...still kinda in and out of sleep...The poor baby had fallen out of bed and hit her cheekbone onto her nightstand.  The sound of my voice pulled her out of her stupor of sleep and the crying began...she realized what had happened and started shaking harder...Italian Stallion finally awoke at this point and took her while I went for something cool to put on her eye.

She's fine now, but is getting a bit of a complex about her eye...everytime we go somewhere, someone asks her if she's been in a fight...poor thing...so we face painted a pink ladybug over the purple/yellow bruise and we'll just hope it goes away soon...I'm starting to think people are thinking badly of me too...

Anyhoo...I'm thankful for face paint...and the fact that I live in 2012...it works for me:)

The post in which I split my pants

Do you ever wonder if your exercise program is actually working?  Is the extra cardio and lack of chocolate actually making a difference?

I will be honest...I am hard pressed to believe that it is true after this weekend...

It all began on Saturday morning...this, following an evening of packing and running over to Kohls for 20 minutes only to discover that there were NO bathing suits my size...nada, none, zippo...(this was only the beginning of my "exercise" depression)

Italian Stallion informed me that IF I wanted to be able to exercise on Saturday and still make it on time to hop in the car with everyone to the girls' soccer games, I was going to need to get up at 7am.  This alone is painful in and of itself...especially on a Saturday. 

However, I was am bound and determined to do my daily exercising...and thus, I awoke to the silly birds that sing the same tune out my window every morning and hauled my pajama clad self to the main floor and punched in the Insanity DVD where I would come to curse Shawn T and everything having to do with Pure Cardio...I have another name for "Pure Cardio"...We can call it Pure _____!

And so the began the mountain climbers, the floor sprints, the level 1 drills, etc...in time, the girls came sluggishly down the stairs, with their daddy in tow...ready to begin the traditional waffle making...and so, as Mommy was sweating profusing, they poured their syrup and the wafting aroma of bacon filled the air...

But, I prevailed...I rallied...I marched on...

And about 15 seconds into my squats, something occurred...

Something that would then send my darling daughters and oh-so-supportive husband into fits of laughter and the need to hang onto pieces of furniture so that they didn't hurt themselves...

My pants split...

no joke

The just ripped right down the back...

at this point, it was no use to stop and change...I just kept going...to the snide remarks of "Whew, Mommy, is there a draft in here?" and other such comments...

I pressed on folks...I pressed on...

And then I ripped off those stupid things and threw them in the trash and vowed to eat my fill of ice cream before the weekend ended doggone it!

This was only the beginning of our whirlwind weekend...which in actuality, turned out to be pretty fun, albeit a tad exhausting. 

Peanut had a soccer game at 9:30 in the freezing cold of Midwestern Springs...so with rainboots, winter coats and gloves, we headed out to watch her play.  Once her game finished, we drove to Sweetpea's playing field and dropped off Daddy and daughter #1, while I took the younger 2 home to quickly shower, pack lunches and get back to catch the last half of the game.

Apparantly, while we were gone, hail, sleet, snow and rain rolled in and pelted the players (not to mention the coaches as well)  As I have mentioned before, if I were in charge, if it were ME playing out there, I'd be first to forfeit and call it quits in exchange for a Starbucks Latte...but, that's not how it's done here I suppose...and therefore, it was with soaking clothes and ice cold fingers, my husband piled us into the van (once we WON that game 4-0) and headed off to Indiana to "try" to get to his cousin's wedding on time. 

We made it to the city at about 3:45 (the wedding began at 4pm)  So, we rushed to the hotel, where we shoved 2 family members into the shower and dressed the remaining...blew dry and curled hair, put on makeup, and found dress shoes in record time...we got to the ceremony about 20 minutes late and proceeded to nearly interrupt the vow exchange as we "almost" walked in at the front of the auditorium...

Trying not to laugh at the hilariousness of ourselves, we escorted the girls BACK outside of the church building and tried to locate a back door by which we could enter...We made it in time to see the kiss and bubble them out of the church. 

We then whisked off to the reception...where the girls had endless energy and danced with their Daddy into the evening...We had a great time with the photo booth too!

Well...you can't stay at a hotel without trying out the pool...and so, even after being up early in the morning, playing soccer game in the freezing cold...my girls opted for some pool time at 10pm...how do you say no to that?

We finally fell into bed by 10:30 and woke up with sore muscles and bruised hips due to the incredible "firmness" of the mattresses...which made perfect sense to then "sample" the hottub...

We got back on the road around 11am and headed to Young's Dairy...the quaint little eatery of our college days.  The girls were excited to Mommy & Daddy's old stomping grounds...and I was looking forward to that ice cream I promised myself...

As Italian Stallion and I were conversing along the way on this roadtrip and whirlwind of a weekend adventure...he said something that rang so true..."With parenting, the days are sometimes Longggggggggg...but the years seem to fly by"...

I really am thankful for even these crazy times in life:)...even if it means splitting my pants along the way!

I Wanna Be Like Daddy...

Italian Stallion took the red eye last night and walked in our back door around 8 this morning.  Sweetpea was ecstatic, waiting on the steps...Peanut burst into tears of joy and it took about 10 minutes to get her settled back down...Little Munchkin was giggling and climbing all over him...

He's exhausted, but he always amazes me with his conscious effort to always put everyone else in front of his own needs. 

He allowed me to meet with a very special friend this morning...just us girls...and he took care of Little Munchkin (all the while, let's remember that he has had NO sleep in the past 24 hours)  They marched out to the garden, they ran some errands, he played with her on the swing set and this is what I found when I pulled into the driveway:

She wants to be just like her Daddy someday...

I don't blame her...he inspires ME to be a better person everyday...

I just pray that my girls find guys that are just like him someday as well:)