3 Down, 1 to Go

I think it's some strange twist of fate that 3 out of our 4 children have birthdays in the same month. And the other child has a birthday only 1 month prior. So it's been birthday central around here lately. Montana recently celebrated her big day.

Here she is letting Little Guy help her open a present. His was the birthday just before hers, so he got a little bent out of shape, thinking it was his day all over again.

They each have a "family party" on their actual birthday with our immediate family. We take them out to dinner where ever they choose to go. Then we come home and have cake and ice cream.

This year they also had a "friends" party as well. After acquiring a 4th child, I think I'll revisit this decision...planning 2 parties for each child seems a bit much. What do YOU do for YOUR kids' birthday? I'm curious.

Princess and the Pauper meets Harley

Little Guy turns 3

It's hard to believe we've had Little Guy for over a year now. He recently celebrated his 3rd birthday. He had been looking forward to it ever since JJ celebrated hers in March. He talked about having a pirate party and wearing party hats and singing the happy birthday song.

He woke up to lots of presents and didn't waste any time opening them all. In fact, at one point I was helping the girls get ready to catch the bus and Little Guy was in there unwrapping presents all by himself. He didn't want to wait for me.

This was his party at DHS with his grandma. She brought cupcakes and all kinds of party favors. He was in heaven. His grandma really wanted it to be a kid party for him, so I pulled my kids out of school and brought them over for it. You can tell Reed is feeling a little uncomfortable. He doesn't like the idea that Little Guy doesn't belong to US. He only stayed for about 15 minutes and then he asked his dad to take him back to school. You know something's up when a teenager asks to go back to school.

This was the pirate ship that my friend Stacie made out of butcher paper. Didn't she do a great job? Little Guy loved it. We kept it up on the wall for a few days.

GO DUCKS

My good friend Tracie came down from Portland yesterday to attend the U of O Women's Football Clinic with me. We had such a fun time. Her son, Brian, is on the team so she was somewhat of a celebrity with the other women. One lady was so excited and asked to have her picture taken with Tracie. We were able to meet all of Brian's coaches, which was kind of cool. Of course, they all told her what a great kid he is.

There was a reception in the beginning, where they served salad, chicken and salman skewers, veggies and drinks. Mike Belotti talked to us and gave us the run down on all the new rules for the upcoming season. (I was able to scoop my husband and teenage son when I got home!) Then we split up into 4 rotations: defense, offense, special teams, and locker room/training room/weight room tours.

I learned the most from the offensive rotation taught by Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator. They taught us about the different positions on the field, went through some plays, and showed us some film. There was also time for Q & A. (I got extra points for asking 2 good questions) In both the defense and special teams rotations we got to get on the field in the Moshofsky center and run through some actual plays. The coaches tried to yell really loud and act like they were mad if we didn't do it right, but they didn't fool us.

As we left, we got a little gift bag with a t-shirt, some wine (gave it away), and a gift card and coupon to the Duck Shop. It was a good time.

Open letter to April

Dear April,
I bet you think you're pretty funny pulling this little weather trick on us. I have to admit it was pretty exciting to wake up to the sound of children's feet running to the windows to check out the new fallen snow. And it looks pretty and all. But could you please spare my newly bloomed flowers and buds? Please?!?

Just when you think it's safe...

I've been pretty good about keeping things out of Little Guy's reach ever since this incident. But he recently had a bad rash and his skin was peeling. And really dry. So after his bath the other night, I lubed him all up with my favorite (expensive!) lotion, Eucerin. Then I forgot to take it out of his room before putting him to bed. BIG OOPS. This is what I found when I went to check on him before going to sleep myself:

Little Stinker!!!

Day at the Coast

Friday the kids didn't have school (what's new?) so we took a day trip to the coast. I had some work to do at the cabin, so we started there. Reed entertained the hooligans at the lake while I did some things inside. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny 70* outside.

They took a canoe ride

I thought that was pretty risky of Reed to take them all at the same time

He did a lot of teaching about how to behave in a canoe

"If you think we're going to tip over...DON'T FREAK OUT... "

Caught some salamanders from the dock

Little Guy wasn't sure what to think--He was intrigued, but a little scared

Reed has an amazing ability to get his sisters to do the dirty work

Not sure what they were doing with that yellow power bait...

Afterwards, we went to the beach where it was sunny, but WINDY

Montana and Little Guy had fun on the rocks and driftwood
(We also played in the surf, but my camera ran out of batteries)

Piano Lesson

I caught Montana giving Little Guy a piano lesson the other day. I just sat and watched them for a while. I thought it was so cute how she was simultaneously teaching him the about the keys and also holding his little hand behind his back, most likely to keep him from using the piano as a roadway for his truck.

Kitchen Help

My children LOVE to help in the kitchen. (with cooking, not cleaning) At dinnertime, they are often right there underfoot, begging for things to do to help get dinner ready. Until recently, however, I haven't actually made a point of TEACHING them to cook. I have simply given them small tasks to do or let them help with whatever I thought they were capable of. Thanks to the book, The Parenting Breakthrough, I have started to take a different approach.

My friend, Meg, turned me on to this author and I definitely recommend this book. I've read a LOT of parenting books, and this one is different. It's a specific plan for training your kids to be truly independent. She gives ideas of things they need to learn, and a timeline by when she thinks they should have each skill mastered. After reading the book, I realized that I haven't given my children enough credit. They are capable of doing much more than they do.

The girls in their cute aprons that I "won" for them at the Relief Society service auction

I'm pretty sure this method of cooking hot dogs was NOT in the book

Phone Parenting

I'm sure every mom out there can relate to the problem of trying to manage children while talking on the phone. You get it. Around our house, the girls have taken to writing me notes while I'm on the phone. I guess they've heard me rant enough about not trying to TALK to me while I'm already TALKING or LISTENING to someone else. So they've decided it works better to WRITE to me. The problem is, I still have to concentrate on TALKING or LISTENING to someone else and it's not easy for me to READ and RESPOND to their notes at the same time I am LISTENING/TALKING. This is an example of a note I got yesterday while in the middle of an important phone call about our foster child, who happens to be sick with pneumonia.

The all-important subject of the interruption? Snacks

"can I bring a snak to soccer becuse Karly awas dos it and every time the coch says we can get a drink she gets a bite"

I don't know what non-verbal cues I gave her or what kind of "Can this please wait until I'm off the phone?" message I gave her, but this was her written response:

"does that mean yes?"

(I tried to scan the notes, but they were written in pencil and didn't show up well)