Peanut, Peanut Butter and JELLY!

Mary Kate and Simon were wrestling around tonight before dinner when Andrew made an observation...

Andrew: "the two of them are like peanut butter and jelly"
Me: "what do you mean?"
Andrew: "don't you understand food comparison's mom? they are always stuck together like peanut butter and jelly. They are always with each other and playing together."
Me: "oh, gotcha"
Andrew: "yeah and you know when Simon is in jail, Mary Kate will be the one to bail him out"

I would have been ok with the analogy up until the bailing out of jail part. Note to self, work on Andrew's expectations of Simon's future.

You're Welcome Riley

On the way home from guitar lessons tonight...
Ri: "mom thanks for letting me be born"

I'll take it as a compliment

Ri: "mommy you look just lovely"
Me: "thanks Ri"
Ri: "even when you were mad, you looked just lovely"

Back to school appreciation

This morning went surprisingly well. I must admit, I was expecting a very slow morning with a lot of "hurry-ups", "don't be pokey" and all the other "have you ......'s?" that go along with a typical morning. To my delight, things moved smoothly. I even got the back-to-school picture with all 5 kids! Never any easy task especially with Simon's dislike for group shots.

Supplies were labeled last night and backpacks filled. This morning lunches were made and children fed and not once did anyone (that's me) lose their cool. Woo Hoo!

The kids walk to school, so although it was drizzling a bit we were out the door (without umbrellas, they are on my to-buy list) by 7:55. Only had to step over 2 piles of dog poop on the sidewalks (seriously people, clean up after your dogs) and 1 pile of puke (poor little kid must have been really nervous).

Simon, Mary Kate and I came into a quiet house (well with the exception of a barking dog) and sat down for some breakfast. I checked my email and had a wonderful note from hubby that made me cry.

Just wanted to tell you that you are a Very Very Good Mother and Wife! Our kids are very blessed to have you as their Mom. Getting our elem school aged children out the door fully prepared, while offering to help the teachers, while entertaining the youngest, while getting them to after school sports, while responding to calls and emails from friends, while making my lunch and coffee, no complaints....etc.We are all blessed to have you and you should get a big dagum gold star. I love you. BP

I had been holding things together so well watching Andrew lead the pack as a 5th grader and Riley venture into a new building as a 3rd grader and then little Nolan, how did he become a first grader? The kids are all growing up so quickly and it was this morning that I wish I could make time stand still. Can't I hold them close a little bit longer? Do they really need to grow up? Thankfully, all the boys still seek out a big hug and kiss from me and like to be tucked in at night and snuggle on the couch for a good movie or sit at the table for a competitive game of cards. I pray the days never come to an end. OK fine, someday they'll have to snuggle on their couch with their own kids, but I hope to be held in their heart as they do these things with my grandchildren (gulp!).

Now as I sat at the kitchen table typing, Simon and Mary Kate have been sitting across from me with paper, crayons and scissors quietly playing together. All of a sudden, I felt this very strong tap on my shoulder and I looked up to find Simon cutting Mary Kate's hair!!! Now I believe this tap was Mary Kate's guardian angel. I said a "no" that had to have been 5 syllables long to Simon. He got the point and put the scissors down a little shocked that I would stop his hair cutting. Fortunately, not much was cut and it really isn't noticeable at all, but enough to warrant me taking a picture of the clump I collected.

Here's to a continued good day with creativity on paper rather than hair :)

Warning for Riley's future girlfriends...

Riley: "mom I'm never going to marry a girl that burps, pukes, toots and gets sick a lot"

Whew, glad we got that covered. Hopefully, he'll be a bit more forgiving when his wife has morning sickness....

Mary Kate may have a future in Mary Kay

After dinner tonight we were all sitting in the family room watching The Flintstones movie. Mary Kate was sitting very quietly on my lap (well actually it was more like lying alongside my hip). It wasn't until I looked over at her that I saw what was keeping her quiet.
It was most definitely a picture moment. Thankfully, the camera was charged and hubby was able to find it.

Biden's job description according to Riley

Riley: Mom I know what a Vice President does
Me: What's that Riley?
Riley: Well if Obama is sick then the Vice President fills in. Kinda like a princess filling in for a queen.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy taking Ri to do errands on the weekends. You just never know what he's going to say :)

Add "shoe sales" to my job description

This Summer the kids have been earning quarters for doing different chores and as a way for us to recognize respectful behavior towards their siblings and (more importantly) me. It has been working pretty well. There are times when they have to pay me (yeah), if the warnings have been given and the negative behavior continues. When they start paying Mom miracles begin to take place, their behaviors improve dramatically.

So we've been chugging along giving and taking quarters for a few weeks now and all the while I've been tripping over shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. Not sure of what the change has been, but all of a sudden the kids have stopped putting their shoes away. It really isn't a difficult task. We pull the van into the garage and right there in front of us is a shoe rack on the door as we enter the house. Pretty straight forward - shoes off, hang them up, close door, done!

So now the new rule is if Mom (that's me) or Dad find the shoes, we will take them away and in order for them to get them back they have to buy them from us. Yesterday, we were getting ready to leave for an afternoon at some friends house when I noticed Andrew walking around frantically looking for his shoes. Cha-Ching! Pay up buddy. A quarter a shoe and momma just made 50 cents!

Do ya think this is a taxable income?

Would someone please tell my daughter she's a girl

I knew it would be tough raising a little girl to be girlie when she has 4 older brothers, but some days I wish I could go back to the times when she would let me put the frilly dress of my choosing on her. The day usually begins with her removing her pj's and putting on whatever pj's of her brothers that she finds laying around...

Then once the boys are off at school or camp, she likes to raid their rooms for a little change of clothes. Most recently that entailed going into Andrew's baseball basket and putting on his baseball socks to have with her morning cup of yogurt....

At least I got her past the stage of wearing Andrew's football cup all the time (can't find the picture of that one) and of putting Simon's pull-up over her clothes...

There are many a day that I'm just thankful she's wearing something, because she'd certainly prefer to live in her birthday suit. Why be restrained by clothes?

I think the picture that most accurately captures my little girlie-girl is when she was outside swinging Easter morning with her dress flying in the air as she was grabbing her gun....

Love note from the Hubster

On Thursday mornings, the hubster is out of the house at 2:40 am to go to a Holy Hour Eucharistic Adoration, back home around 4:25 and heads straight downstairs to workout. He showers and then is off to catch an early train all before we wake up. Surprisingly, he is able to do this without waking up the house. When I woke up Thursday morning, I found a sweet thank you note on the table for him since I had made his lunch the night before. When I sat down with my laptop to have my morning coffee and catch up on emails, I was greeted by an email from my hubster with the subject line that read "Don't be freaked out but...." Oh sure, I won't freak out. What the heck, what in the world happened?? Here is the text of the email from him...

There is something living in the workout room. I was riding the bike and looked up and saw a black figure scurry across the door toward the furnace. Real nice that when in the middle of my Rosary I yell "Holy S__t!" I went to check when I was done with my workout and didn't see anything. So we should keep an eye out. I think it is probably a mouse like we have / had in the garage (might be the same one).I am catching the 5:56 train this morning.BP

Note to self, exercise isn't really THAT important! I'll be sticking to walking outdoors.

Coloring Nolan's world

Nolan loves to color. That is actually an understatement. Nolan colors every day, numerous times a day and will color anything. As you can imagine, we have a lot of crayons and with 2 younger siblings that like to break crayons we have more broken crayons than whole. The quantity of broken crayons is a problem with Nolan because he will dig through our tub-o-crayons until he finds a full size crayon in the color he needs. Nolan's addiction to crayons is actually comical. He tends to hoard crayons. He has been known to hide a box of crayons up in his top bunk away from the crayon-breakers. Hmmm, maybe I should seek out a "CHA" group for him (that's Crayon Hoarding Anonymous to you and I). Anyway, so when the pencil boxes from school were brought home and the number of broken crayons greatly increased, Nolan and I sat down to a little crafty fix to this problem. We made crayons! Not rocket science, but fun nonetheless.

We started by separating out all the broken crayons. Then we started peeling all the paper off of the broken crayons. This is somewhat tedious and great fine motor work.

Did I happen to mention that we have A LOT of crayons?

Once we had everything separated, I took an old mini-muffin pan and sprayed it lightly with Pam. If I had paper muffin cups I would have used them in addition to the pan.

We broke the crayons into smaller pieces and mixed up some of the colors. Put them in a preheated 250 degree oven. The melting time will vary. You will see there is a big difference between Crayola crayons and the cheap ones that you get from restaurants. Yes, we are "those" people that take all the crayons with us that they hand out to keep kids happy before the meal arrives.

Voila! Here is the final product. The mixing of the colors makes it fun. It would be neat to try different shapes/molds. There a few crayons that all but a small area melted, so there is still a crayon stick in the circle (as can be seen by the yellow one on the bottom left). This is because of the varying melting times. The yellow crayon must have been a Crayola!

Note, the above picture is not Nolan's normal coloring! He was just trying out all the colors and scribbling. Below is a sample of Nolan's coloring....

MK's chicken is my kitchen.

Me: "Good job getting undressed Mary Kate. Where does your pullup go?"
MK: - walks into boys room and throws it on the floor -
Me: "No Mary Kate, it goes in the trash"
MK: - surprised look - "Oh da twashhh"
Me: "Yes in the trash in the kitchen"
MK: - questioning - "In da chicken?"
Me: "In the kitchen, the trash can in the kitchen"
MK - "Oh, ok. In da chicken"

She continued to mumble "in da chicken" the whole way down the stairs.

Spaced out on Spaceballs

While the kids were eating their not-so-nutritious-artery-clogging meal from Mickey-D's, I searched the tv for something for the kids to watch. I'm looking for a somewhat peaceful night before they head off to bed. Wishful thinking, I KNOW! A woman can dream though....

Me: Ok guys, I have a hilarious movie you can watch. It's called Spaceballs.
Ri: No.... is it cartoon?
Me: No
Ri: I don't want to watch it (with a lot of WHINE)
Me: Fine, I'm going to turn it on and if you don't laugh in the next 30 minutes then I'll turn it off.

5 minutes later....

Ri: Mom are you recording this?
Me: Yes
Ri: Good!

So I won, however now that I am hearing it, I'm really beginning to rethink who won? Too many words that they kids don't need to hear ;( Why did it seem ok 20 years ago and now not so much? It's amazing how much kids change things for you...

Nolan seeking bride. Must be Amish.

Nolan - Mom, when I get married, I know where I'm going on my honeymoan (yes that's the way he said it!)
Me - Yeah, where?
Nolan - Dutch Wonderland
Andrew - Don't you think you should take her somewhere more relaxing?
Nolan - Like where?
Andrew - The beach would work.

Submerged

Saturday was a very big day for Riley. We went to a neighbors house for the afternoon to be a part of their yearly Memorial Day weekend gathering and to open the swimming season. My kids LOVE the water. Riley is probably the one that has always loved water the most, but what has always been interesting is that he has never gone all the way in the water. Ri doesn't think a hotel is worth anything unless it has a pool. Doesn't matter if it is 5x5 in size. Doesn't matter if it's indoor our outdoor. Just as long as there is a pool.


With all the love he has for pools there are somethings that he has never liked about them. Being splashed and putting his head under the water top the list. Big splash or a sprinkle of water, if he's not doing it to himself, he's not interested in it. Putting his head under the water is a NEVER! Even in the bathtub, he refused to go under the water. Showers are new within in the past few years and truth be told only because he wants to be just like Andrew. There have been many times that I've had to re-rinse his hair because he didn't like standing under the shower.


Well Saturday was a new day! The neighbors pool was packed and it was impossible to avoid the splashing, although he tried as best he could. I was at the baby pool with Mary Kate when I looked over and Riley was IN the pool up to his neck in water. WOW! I made a big deal about it, well as much as he'd allow me to without crossing the line of embarrassing him. A bit later, the hot tub was packed with a bunch of little bodies (because where else would you be on an 85 degree day, but in a 102 degree hot tub!). Riley was beginning to get a bit more daring in the hot tub and before we knew it he was completely under the water with goggles on and plugging his ears.

He was so proud of himself. When he came above water he immediately started telling me who I needed to email the picture too and then started calling people over to see him do it again and again and.... well you get the picture!

It is days like Saturday, that remind me of just how far Riley has come. His sensory processing disorder has kept him from so many things, but when he is able to learn to work through them the possibilities are endless!

Don't mess with his Mary...

...no matter how much she stinks! I took Simon and Mary Kate on some errands this afternoon and then rewarded them with a stop at a McDonald's with a play-land. There was another little group of boys around the same age that were playing there. Simon and Mary Kate were happily chasing each other throughout the play-land. About 10 minutes passed when I heard the other little boys laughing and pointing.

Simon: "HEY STOP TALKING ABOUT MY MARY!!!!"

The boys continued to laugh and point. Mary Kate was oblivious to their teasing and went on about her business of flirting with another little boy that had just shown up.

Simon: "I SAID LEAVE MY MARY ALONE, YOU ARE BULLIES!!"

OK now I figure I should see what's going on.

Me: "Simon what's wrong?"
Simon: "Mom those boys are calling Mary Kate stinky monster"
Me: "hmmm, do you think she pooped her diaper?"
Simon: "ummmm, yeah"
Me: "well I'm thinking it's time to go 'cause she is a little stinker, but those boys should have not been teasing her like that and we shouldn't make fun of people."

Now this is where I am REALLY proud of myself because when I looked up, I saw one of the younger boys in the group wearing his sisters princess shoes and I didn't say "hey Simon look at the little girly-boy". Now THAT would have been setting bad example wouldn't it?

OxyMORON

I was driving all over the Northern Virginia area today and while on my way home was stuck behind a car with the license plate that said "Vick 7". OK apparently he's a Michael Vick fan. No big deal. We are a house of Hokies and although we don't condone what he did, at a time we were fans. Maybe this drivers' license plates hadn't been up for renewal while #7 has been behind bars. Then while waiting for the light to change I realized that the below "Vick 7" was "I am animal friendly" with a little cat and dog on the side of it. Really? Must be a starving comedian.

Ummm, No Thank You Ri

Riley: "mom can I put fertilizer on you?"
Me: "no"
Few seconds later...
Me: "Ri, why do you want to put fertilizer on me?"
Riley: "so you can turn into a chicken egg and I can heat you"

Obviously, Ri is learning about the life cycle of the chicken at school. Clearly, we need teach the difference between a person and a chicken.

Simon's idea of a fun hike

Simon was getting ready to head out to preschool when I told him after school we'd be going on a hike. He got all wide-eyed (if you know Simon, you know the look well).
Me: "we can look for butterflies and flowers"
Simon: "but I want to look for snakes and lions"

I of course will be taking my camera along. I'm hoping to not come home with pictures of snakes and lions.

Ri needs to work on his photography skills

I was passing out the kids dinner tonight when Riley said he wanted to take a picture of me in his brain. He held up a an imaginary camera and gave a big "click".

Ri: "Ok, lets see you are wearing a Hokie shirt, glasses, sneakers and a little bit of pants..."
Andrew: "Ri she has her pants on, you can't just a wear a little bit of pants"

I will say that Andrew was just as shocked by Ri's photographic memory and even turned around to make sure that I was in fact wearing pants.

For the record, I was wearing a pair of capri pants.