Zoe's Birthday

What a fun day we had. After all the hard work, the party was enjoyed by all. We had the two waterslides, a pinata and tons of food. My friends and neighbors Kylie and Jessie were a huge help and so were their husbands. ( good job setting up and taking down the waterslides guys!) I had also hired a few teen helpers, plus Katey and Emily. The girls did a great job making sure it was cleaned up, and I am so proud of them. Even though we missed Nick, I think a good time was had by all. Zoe's actual birthday is thursday, which is the first day of school. Thats why we had her party nearly a week early. Now that party time is over we are getting ready for school. I am anxious becuase I have not recieved the girls bus passes yet, even though I have paid. Zoe has her pre-k orientation Wednesday, and is very excited. We STILL don't know exactly when Nick is coming , but cleaning and getting ready all the same. Shouldn't be too much longer, but we just don't have any details yet. Will definately keep posted on that one! Hope everyone had a fabulous summer, Zoes party was a great end to all the summer fun.

Use your Imagination!

Ok, as summer is drawing to a close I am at a total loss as to how to amuse the kids. Let me give you a little background. I had the MOST creative inventive mom!! I had brothers with big imaginations, as I too had. So.. the problem? well I have exhausted my supply of childhood entertainment. I have done... hula hoop, jump rope ( did I mention that half the neighborhood got in on most of these activities??) volleyball, kick ball, tag, hide n seek, movie days, picinics, beach days, pool days, dessert night, playdoh outside, flashlight tag, Wii nights, puzzle nights, scrap nights, "feasts", walking to store to buy candy, sliding down the stairs on a blanket, playing with.... Build a bear, barbie, etc., U find it night ( kids "find" dinner, jammies, etc) Princess movie night, spa nights( my fave!) , having a fire with smores, puzzle night, snack night, going to the pool and beach, and just general summer fun. I am exhausted, and hopefully kids are too! I am open to suggestions of cheap family fun.... Happy Summer Everyone!!!

Dog Days of Summer

We seem to have come upon some sort of a routine around here. Everyone up by 9:30 ( I am up earlier with little kids), breakfast, pick up rooms/start chores while I go run, then get dressed/lunch. Then the kids either play outside or on Wednesdays we go to the beach. Pool in the evening after dinner, shower and bed! Not too shabby. Of course I didn't factor in whining, tantrums, arguments, complaints and errands. So this week I run around dropping off school forms and next week Katey has to spend two hours re-registering for her crappy school. Emily will have to do the same. I did get some "good" news today. We CAN apply for a five bedroom house ! Bad news? Wait list is very long. I say we go for it and see what happens. You never know! We are counting down days till Nick arrives home, even though we still don't know EXACTLY when that will be. Sometime at the beginning of Sept, but that can and probably will change. Well I have dozens of errands to run, then gonna set the kids up with some kind of water activity in the backyard. The kids went to bed so good after the evening at the pool that I plan on doing it again. Lets hope time flies....

Summertime Blues

In over 15 years as a Marine Corps wife I have met many women who have had spouses deployed at different times of year for different reasons. Can I just say, I would rather my husband not be gone during the summer? When FOUR kids are out of school, and we can go... NOWHERE??
Thanksgiving, ( which is also three b-days), no prob. Christmas, well who handles all of that anyway? Easter, snort. I can't remember the last time he was home for Easter. Twice in fifteen years?? Summer? Thats usually when he comes HOME. Summer break with two bored teens and two younger ones who can't get used to a " non" routine".... aaaaaaaaahhhhh! Someone help me!! I would rather be anywhere than here. First off, there is NOTHING for the older kids to do. Yes, I have exhausted my supply of ideas. Had them playing volleyball and just recently start to get interested in Jump Rope. There is no teen center within walking distance, and the pool is great.... most of the time. BUT then there is .... THOSE kids. They cuss, sass grown ups, hang out at the park being obnoxious. Spray paint, break in ... and it goes on and on. So us moms of the "good" kids are afraid to let our kids go out unsupervised because of the punks. I don't belive in stifiling my older ones freedom. But do NOT want them caught up in whatever the "other " kids are doing, even by remote assocaition. I am hoping a few moms are braver than I am, and take action against the "punks", while my kids are safely grounded indoors. No, I want my girls to be able to run around outside, walk around with their friends and go to the corner store. SO I have turned into spy mom and am keeping an eye on things. Any bordeom busters would be helpful here! Yeah, I would say I definately have a case of the summertime blues!

Weird stuff

Ok, for my Facebook Followers this is old news, but for the rest...
i have been experiencing a bunch of strange happenings. Mostly I think everything electronic or battery operated in my house is rebelling. First, the washer finally loses its battle. It was a slow agonizing death and we have moved on. ( see previous post. I love you my new baby washer!!) Then my cell phone shuts off randomly. NO THE BATTERY IS NOT LOW!! Ok, moving on is the tv/cable shutting off and coming back on at unexpected times and the van locking when I NEVER lock it in the garage! Today the kicthen lost power in the middle of cooking dinner and then suddenly returned. IPODS die in the middle of a workout to work just fine a few minutes later. My radio in the car goes in and out of static. A light in one room will not work but if someone else turns it on, it is fine. I get kicked off Facebook to my ASK (search engine) page randomly. The house phone will not ring and tell me about voice mail, but people SWEAR they left me messages. Two days later, I see the messages. Freaky, huh? My shower will not work. The old washer did its flooding the house thing, just craziness. My cell phone decided i only need to be notified of texts when IT feels like it. I hear doors slam, cupboards in the kitchen are wide open in the morning and NO, this isn't the kids. I feel like well ok. If I am haunted can ya at least point me to some long lost treasure or something?
Ok, all that drama aside, we welcomed Emily back home from her science camp and I am slowly and painfully recovering from a miserable sunburn. Katey did her conformation, and we are on our last week babysitting our little man. ( although he would NEVER forgive me for calling him that. I have a WHOLE new insight on eight year old boys now!)
Ok, the carpet drama. Last week I got some fancy powder carpet cleaner to get rid of some stains on our cheap crap carpet. No such luck. However the rest of the carpet looked rather nice. The NEXT DAY, Zoe pukes ALL OVER the living room. Get out steam cleaner, clean up. Last night I Stupidly scrape, and I mean barely scratch my heel with a toe that was obvioulsly in need of filing. Just as I am ready for bed I see big, bloody footprints ALL OVER the floor! yes, that silly little scrape had bleed silly and my living room looked like a crime scene. I used every cleaning product i had ( see my FB post for that) and got it all cleaned up. Then tonight I was standing in the kitchen with Katey and Emily when one goes..ooooo hahaha YOU didn't clean up that ketchup! HA! The other is like..What? yes I did!! wait.. noo... moommmy. ummmm you need a bandaid! yup that dumb little scratch was bleeding puddles again!! we got it fixed in no time and cleaned the floor. So I am all cleaned up, and headed to bed. I have to say I was proud of Katey and Emily and their calm reaction to the blood ( it was a lot, which I just don't get, this is just a scratch!) and knowlege of clean, pressure, bandage. Like i said before, in our family , you just can't be squeamish!
This is our last week with our special guest, the "man" of the house so we are doing bowling tomorrow and the beach thurs. I am trying to snap and print pics to make a scrapbook for him to take back to Michigan. I am gonna miss him and actually hope we get him next summer! Any ideas for a special send off for an eight year old boy? He has been a special part of our lives this summer and we are gonna miss him.

Confirmation

Confirmation is a ceremony in the Catholic church that is a cross between a second baptisim and the acceptance of a child as an adult in the eyes of the church. I view it is a coming of age type of thing. Its actually a beautiful mass with a lot of reminders of why us parents chose our faith. Katey did a wonderful joband we are so proud of her to be a Child of God. ( NOT adult, sorry Kate, I don't care WHAT the Bishop said!) Don't be alarmed but the next pictures of are our new washer. OOOOH how I love that thing!! It can do a load of towels, denim or bedding. It can sanatize in cold water. It doesn't shake the house when it spins, and drains properly. Clothes look cleaner and newer. LOVE it. the only downside?? I didn't realize that being able to wash stuff again , meant that I also had to FOLD and put AWAY clothes. ugh!! Well I will try to update this blog more than once a month, really!!. Hey, why don't you all just get on Facebook? sooo much eaiser!! Have a fun summer everyone! ( yes deatails on the sunburn, injuries, and weird techno mishaps coming soon!)

What a Party!!

So for all of my stressing, my Fourth of July Party was a sucess!! ( yes, pics are coming soon) I have figured out how to make my husbands famous pulled pork and man did we all eat well. (patting self on back here) The kids had a blast in our tiny bounce house and thank you Emily for filling all those water balloons!!. The kids were all having meltdowns before the fire so we put "little ones" to bed and let the older ones do smore's. Since I was convinced the sprinkelers would come on ( we were in the field behind our house) we moved our fire pit to the patio. ( yes I have video)
After all the kiddos and glow bracelets ( no one bit through one this time!!), were tucked in bed we hung around the fire and chatted. What a great time!! Went to bed waaaaaay to late but I don't think a single one of us regrets it. Next day we dined on leftovers and had a fun movie fest.
So now, I have to catch up on cleaning, catch up on laundry and a few other chores. I hope everyone else had a safe and fun holiday...