January 21st-27th

(1/21) Work day for Dad & me, and Kathy had the kids.  I bagged all the twins' old clothes and got together a SUV load to go to the Goodwill.  I packed that sucker to the tippy top!  The twins had a late nap at Kathy's, so they played while I was gathering stuff, and ended up going to bed late.

D yells "GET DOWN!" as they crawl along the bleachers.
I'm good with it.  They mostly stop where they should and have a blast.

(1/22) Work day for Dad & I had the day off.  I volunteered in C's classroom and Nanan came to stay with the littles.  She ended up not feeling well, so I came straight home after working in his classroom. After Nanan left, I did some furniture juggling.  I broke the bunk down that was in the twins' room and put it in C's, and moved the twins' dresser into their closet. They got a really late and short nap, and I had to wake them to go get C from school.

(1/23) Work day for me and Dad had the kids.  After I got home and had dinner, I put up their chalkboard paper on their closet and they had a lot of fun testing it out.  I didn't get much else done tonight, but I have the weekend.

The Moose loves his boys ~ he can leave if he wants.
The gate is childproof, not Moose proof. 

(1/24)  Work day for Dad & me, and Kathy had the kids.  Work had leftover bagels and that's what the big one demanded for dinner.  So I did up some fruit salad and voila, dinner. Bedtime came all too soon, and we were done for the evening.

(1/25) Hockey practice for C this morning and thankfully the sun was out and everyone was in a super mood. Practice went well, and we stopped at the store to grab a picnic lunch for the park.  Well... Chinese isn't much of a picnic food, but whatevs, we made it work.  During nap, I broke down C's bed.  He's super excited to move into the big bedroom.  I'm glad that he's excited.. but wonder what it will be like when the novelty wears off.   The boys played and played and played while I dragged furniture around and fixed up their new digs.  I'm really pleased with the outcome. Bedtime was interesting after all that.  The boys were all awake until almost 10pm shouting "LIE DOWN!" at each other.  Finally I told C he just has to ignore them to get them to go to sleep...  Everybody simmered down after that, and I didn't hear them at all during the night.

(1/26) Dad made us a yummy breakfast this morning.  C and Dad headed out shortly after for a hockey game (C got 1 goal + 1 assist today!). The littles and I headed upstairs to finish sorting clothes and getting C's old room cleaned out.  The boy room looks absolutely great, and I found lots of clothes from when C was the twins' age.  I have the next couple of sizes ready to go too.  After the littles went down for a nap, I ran up to my brother's house to grab the extra bed and C went to a birthday party.  I returned at dinnertime, and sat down to dinner with Dad and the littles before running out to grab C and snacks for game night tonight.  We broke earlyish because most of us have to wake up early.  Man, we're getting old.


(1/27) Long day ahead.  Dad & I will be taking the PRIDE training course today.  27 hours of lectures on deck this week.  Kids are with Kathy all week, and there is no school Monday.... uhm, good luck!


We are getting certified as foster parents to hopefully welcome a school-aged girl into our home.  It's about time this house had more estrogen!   (Hence the movin' and shakin' going on in the house this week)

Running the hall at hockey practice.

January 14th-20th

(1/14) Work day for me and Dad was home today recovering from the flu.  Thankfully he was feeling well enough to hang with the kiddos, and didn't look as much like death warmed over as he did last night.  I hope this is the end of the crud at our house!


(1/15) I volunteered in C's classroom this morning while Dad watched the littles.  It was lunchtime when I got home, followed by nap time.  After we picked up C from school, I loaded up all the bikes and we went to the park to catch some sunshine.  I took the twins' trikes and J screamed when I moved his bike, tried to put him on it, etc.  So much so that a friendly gal asked if I needed any help. LOL!  J later discovered C's bike and was all about that.  He just didn't want anything to do with his own.  D figured it out, and that also made J mad.  Somebody didn't get enough nap, I don't think.  After we finished playing at the park, we made a run to the library.  The boys ran around shouting out the letters on the carpet... So much for being quiet.  I would have taken more pictures, but of course my phone was dead by then.  Home for dinner and bedtime. It was a fun day.


(1/16) Work day for me, and Dad had the kiddos.  We had pizza tonight, and as soon as I walked in, D was chirping for more "PT!"   I finally gave in to the beggars at my feet and gave them some more.


(1/17) Work day for Dad & me and Kathy had the kiddos today.  Kathy said the twins managed the walk to and from school with no problem!  They are good little walkers!  C lost his screen time this afternoon so was in an incredibly foul mood.  Everything was boring and horrible and I was again the meanest mom ever.  (I do my job well!)   The littles had a good day from the sounds of things, and I made up ravioli to make the big one shoosh about what a horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day he had.  He still complained, but ate a lot.


(1/18) No ice today, so we took advantage of the time to go to the park again. Only it was foggy, cold and everything was wet.  The littles had a grand time pushing their cars through the puddles and getting soaking wet, until they got cold. Once at least half the kids broke down, we decided to call it and reconvened at Sarah's house for more playtime and lunch.  We brought Jor home with us at nap time to play and the boys made camp on the landing, tobogganed down the stairs on cardboard boxes and had a blast when they were not "bored" because MeanMom™ struck again and wouldn't let them turn on the TV.  We had Jor until dinnertime, and I never did go out to get Dad a b-day cake... Sorry, Dad. Happy b-day though.  We love you and will celebrate tomorrow!


(1/19) I spent a nice day with the family.  Dad ran out to do some shopping, I escaped briefly to catch a class at the gym, and then Nanan came after nap to watch the kiddos so I could take Dad out for his birthday.  We went to the Japanese Steakhouse and had the place to ourselves because of the Hawks game (that we weren't watching).  We were going to go to a scotch tasting before dinner, but I'm kind of glad they were closed because omg so.much.food!  Back at home, we had some TV to catch up on and a movie for later.  I'll file this under date night success.  Why yes, we are wild and crazy.

(1/20) Yay!  Off today for the holiday! I have some decluttering on the docket today, and am creating a Lego/art place for C. I plan to do some rearranging of furniture today during nap.  More excitement.  Wee!

January 7th-13th

Crap.  He found the fruit.

Grandma & J

(1/7) Work day for Dad & me and Kathy had the kids.  C was so excited to find that the Legos set we had ordered had arrived.  No kidding, I put water on to boil to make up some ravioli for dinner and he had completed the set.  I asked him if it was worth the $13 he spent, and he said "No Mom, it was worth $14, remember?"   Sigh.

(1/8) Work day for Dad and I got to volunteer in C's classroom today.  It's really nice to be back to routine - I'm not sure C is feeling the same way, but I am glad!   Came home, fed the littles lunch, we all crashed and then went to go get C from school.  C has been working on a Lego tanker, so he kept himself busy and I rearranged some stuff in the twin's room.  I am thinking about putting up the bunk beds and making things fit better in their room. 

(1/9) Work day for me and Dad had the kiddos.  Looong day for me, but I love coming home to the sillies.  They played and played and were a whirlwind of activity until bedtime.  Everyone went down, and I caught up on some TV and went to sleep myself.

High-five!

(1/10) Work day for Dad & me and Kathy had the kids.  D took a four-hour nap and kept saying "night-night" on the way home and Kathy forewarned me that J didn't have a fill line, so I decided on waffles for dinner.  It took 4 waffles on top of 3 bowls of granola and yogurt.  Somebody's growing, methinks!  I was so exhausted today that I ended up falling asleep on the couch before just going to bed.

D is saying "No, DOWN" to Moose

J in Mom's hat

(1/11) Score!! I got to drop the twins off to make cookies with Grandma this morning while I took C to hockey!  It was so pleasant to just sit and listen to my book and watch him play.  The twins had a blast decorating cookies with Grandma and working on their letters. So glad they could watch them!  C has decided he is not going to argue about hockey anymore because he likes it now ~ he "just had to get used to it."  Only took 3 years.  But whatever!  We had a nice day, and came home from Grandma's loaded with goodies.  I worked on our yearly picture collage while the twins took an epic nap.  I finished when they woke around 5pm, made dinner, bath and then we played for a bit.  I assembled one of their bunks (while they ran around like maniacs) and they had the best time testing out their new bedding.  They are so funny!

(1/12) I woke up early to go for a run with Granddad and Grandma, but it was gross out, so we ended up chatting in front of the fire for a few hours. Dad told me the twins had totally stripped out of their footie pajamas during the night.  I suspect this will be the last time we use the UW jammies.  Sigh.  The twins and I bummed around in our pajamas while C went to his hockey game.  4 goals and 2 assists today!  Wow!!  After the big boys got home, we all took a nap and then woke up for dinner and game night.  Fun time with friends ~ I'm so glad we've started this again!

(1/13) Work day for me and Dad has the kiddos.

Grandma & J

D in the spice cabinet ~ a fav

New bed!

Watching Cars

December 31st-January 6th

(12/31) New Year's Eve ~ Short work day for both Dad and me today.  I worked 7-noon and Dad worked noon-4pm.  He dropped the kiddos with me on the way in and I took them home for mac & cheese.  Nanan came to watch the twinsies this evening while we went to celebrate Rob's birthday with the Silvertips.  We rented a suite, dressed up, because it was classy hockey night, and had a ball!  C went with us, eventually got bored, and was sucked into a game of Bad Piggies.  The Tips lost, and a few of us moseyed back to our house, but we were home for the 9pm ball drop in New York.  I tried to stay awake for midnight and failed, so Dad had to wake both C & me for fireworks on the Needle.  Then it was back to bed again promptly.

Blintzes!

(1/1) I was off from work today and Dad cooked us up some blintzes that Oma and Opa had dropped off.  The twins downed four bowls of Cheerios and yogurt to (hopefully) slow them down since we didn't have many blintzes to split between the five of us.  They were delicious!  Dad had to work this evening, and the rest of us spent the day in our pajamas. C said it was the best day ever! 

D & his Moose

(1/2) Work day for me and the kiddos were home with Dad. The boys were disasters today.  C nailed himself on the corner of the wall and gave himself a big ol' goose egg, and Cass got overly excited to see me this evening and scratched D on the face with a paw.  There's a pretty gnarly cut going through his right eye now.  It's just a surface scratch and doesn't seem to have gotten his eye.  Or at least D isn't complaining about it. 

He stands on the pup, who chews on the Moose,
who listens to one boy read, and the other one yells out BATTERIES!

(1/3) Work day for Dad & me, and Kathy had the kiddos.  I got cut loose early though, and had just enough time to run some errands before the littles woke up and I had to go pick everyone up.  C has been on a reading bender, and finished his third book in three days.  And he says he doesn't like to read. 

(1/4) Sarah very graciously offered to watch the twins while I took C to hockey.  I offered up Mexican food after, and that was a good bribe to get C on the ice and behave himself.  The twins were so excited to go to "Maymie's house!" and I didn't even get their coats off before they were back in her play room.  C had a pretty decent practice, and I got to sit and listen to my book while I watched him play.  So nice!  After a yummy lunch at Sarah's, I took the littles home and put them to bed.  C busied himself working on various Lego inventions and I got some work done around the house. 

(1/5) Today was so fun!  We bummed around this morning until C had to leave for his first hockey game of the season.  He scored a hat trick (three goals) and did awesome in goal!  Way to go!  I asked if he wanted us all to come, but he said he didn't like so many people around him when he comes off the ice... humble much?  Goofus!  And anyway, it's nice that he has that time with his dad.  Hockey two days in a row for me is too much, and I'm very glad to share.  After hockey, the boys came home and I put the littles down, and then took off for a walking tour of Everett with Sarah & her mom.  I returned 2.5 hours later, and then had to run to Home Depot because our dining room light died. We hadn't yet replaced the fixture, and it was one of those that required those expensive, circular bulbs. Dad swapped it out in time for gaming night.  I don't think we've had the gang over since we moved downstairs when the boys were ten months old? Yikes. Way too long!  C was really in to playing games, and the twins perched like birds on the back of my chair trying to grab the treats at the table.  They're almost as bad as the dogs! We stayed up too late, but it was worth it to see everyone.  Looking forward to the next one!

Burrito night

Happy hat trick boy!

(1/6) Back to routine for all of us.  Work for me, school for C, and Dad has the littles.  Well, for part of the day anyway.  Lucky littles get to go bake cookies with Grandma this morning!  D yells "A-mama's house!  COOKIE!" whenever we drive in their direction.  He has Grandma wrapped around his little finger!  I know they will have a good time.

Yum!!