Away at Camp

Yes, it is camp. Or what 35 year old women call camp. (Okay so I am little bit older than that). This is camp where hundreds of thousands of dollars all sit in one room. Where women stay up all night, all day and then all night again just to put their memories down on stacks of colored paper. It is a little bit of heaven. We eat, sometimes sleep and live to scrapbook our children and loved ones into a book. It is amazing how time just seems to disappear and suddenly two, three, eight hours have gone by and you have no idea how you missed them. You speak in a different language, you talk about famous women who created all these products by first name, as if they are your personal friends. It is a great time as far as I am concerned. I also get to spend the time with my best friend whom I don't always see and so if I don't get as much done as I had hoped to, at least I had a great time visiting with her. So this is where I have been while M is at home with the three kids for four days- bless his heart. He had done school, homework, tball, Kumon, and I am sure little M had him doing plenty of art projects.

Mrs. Meyer's Returns

Right now I am away and missing my babies. They are at home with their dad having a wonderful time. Today they picked up E from kindergarten- on bikes- and rode to In and Out for lunch. E was pretty funny (as the story goes since I was not there to witness it), he ate half a hamburger and some fries and then said that this was junk food and would rather go home and eat something healthy, like a banana. Good for him!! My little M and baby E love In and Out and have no trouble eating something as "unhealthy" as that.

I am out and about in scrapbook land and will post tomorrow about my progress. But one more word. We are staying in a small town set in the mountains. It is absolutely gorgeous, but not my point. What I want to say is that we went to this wonderful grocery store- it has everything yummy in it, fancy cheeses, breads, flowers and the most WONDERFUL selection of Mrs. Meyer's products. I bought up all sorts of delightful smelling bottles to clean my house. I cannot wait to go home and start! I think I should call DeAnna and see if she needs any orders before I leave.

Ahhh... Mrs. Meyer's

Okay. I recently got acquainted with Mrs. Meyer. In fact, our only contact had been in passing. I had observed her once or twice, but never really stopped to say hello and get to know her. Boy, was I missing out. Over the weekend we were visiting some friends and after a very yummy meal, during clean up, Mrs. Meyer came out to greet us. Let me just say that for those of you who have never been around Mrs. Meyer, you need to stop and get yourself acquainted. She is amazing. It took me three days to get her to my house. Today I found her and brought her home. At first I was a bit hesitant about our new relationship. But as I came downstairs I could smell her delicious lemon verbena (who knew, I thought I was the basil type) and I walked around trying to find things to clean. Then tonight as I was cooking dinner her sweet smell filled the air as I was making tacos. Can you imagine a fragrance that can override the smell of taco meat? And I thought, ahhh, Mrs. Meyer's. She fills me with glee. I don't know if it is the lemongrass or the peppermint, clove, geranium or fir needle but the combination really does "pick me up". Thanks, Mrs. Meyer's. I can't wait to meet the toilet cleaner and scrub you have.

It Is ONLY Tuesday

We had a really great weekend and I was actually looking forward to getting back to the routine of the week but now that it is here..hmmm, I could use a nap. The poor kids spent a long time working on their Kumon homework because I let them slide over the weekend. Lesson learned there. That was not fun for anyone. Way too much for them to do.

So now, with every one's work done, I will wait for the little one to go down for a nap and then take the older two into the pool. It looks so inviting and M loves to wear her goggles. (I'll get a picture of that in here soon enough). The photo above is of my baby helping his dad lay new bark in the yard over the weekend. He could pick up maybe two pieces between those big gloves.

Camp Broken Arrow is open

Last night Camp Broken Arrow opened for the season. The kids set up camp, barbecued hot dogs and even roasted marshmallows. They "fished" in the "lake" and listened for the continuous sound of "boats" in the nearby "river". Daddy read them stories by flashlight and they all had a great night of sleep. Although being so close to the ranger station, or the stranger station as M put it, gave everyone a sense of security and easy use of the restrooms if needed.

(Okay, here is how it really went. They set up a tent in the backyard, I made them some hotdogs, they pretended to fish in the pool. We roasted marshmallows over the portable fire pit, they came inside, brushed their teeth and slept in the tent with the sound of passing cars lulling them to sleep. Amazingly they slept through the 4 am emergency run by two fire trucks and an ambulance).

What was so funny was E's intense desire to give a camp explanation to every single thing we encountered. Our dog was the bear and the garage the den. He called me ranger all night long and kept asking me all the whys' and what's a ranger should know. He has quite an imagination. They had a great time but are as tired as can be right now. Soon, dinner, bath and bedtime.

Six Going on Sixteen

Yesterday afternoon I helped work on memory books in E's class. It was a nice time with his teacher and, of course, we got talking... Lately my dear little six year old has been overly concerned about one of his classmates who was out sick with pneumonia. She returned earlier this week and he has talked about her nonstop. How glad he is that she is not sick anymore, what a nice person that she is, and how much fun he has playing with her. I mentioned this to his teacher yesterday and she started to laugh. Then she let me in on a little story. Evidently early that day she caught E and his little friend HOLDING HANDS while they were sitting on the carpet during class. She shook her head at them and let it go. HOLDING HANDS!!!!! He is six! OF COURSE I had a little talk with him- with gentleness and firmness- and let him know it wasn't okay. I saw her mom this morning and shared the story with her. She said it perfectly, you want to laugh because it is funny and you don't want to because it isn't. SIX YEARS OLD. (she is pretty cute though).

The Little Red Hen

Today was E's big kindergarten performance of The Little Red Hen. We started our day just as any normal family would- at 5:50 am- thanks to our early riser who likes to climb in bed and then fall back asleep. Problem is she puts her face smack dab up to mine so that I am breathing in her little three year old breath. Just can't do it.

(This is the farmer and his best friend the pig).

Not a mention of the play was done all morning. You see E's last class performance- A Patriotic Salute- ended (and started) very poorly. A little history here. E sometimes, to most people's surprise, can be incredibly shy. Shy and embarrassed. He hates to have people watching him, unless it is his choosing. At Christmas we had no problems. He went up and sang his songs, did his dance. But at the patriotic sing he clung to me when I took him to his classroom. Cried, no sobbed, as if the world was ending. He came into the cafeteria, crying. Would not go up on stage. And ended up on my lap while the rest of the class sang their hearts out.

Today was fabulous. He reminded us to meet him the cafeteria. Ran to play with his friends. Walked up on the stage and to his spot as "chorus" and sang away. He laughed at the funny parts, waved voraciously (and often) at his baby brother, and bowed at the end. All in all we were quite pleased with the results. The play was adorable. The kids had bread and honey afterwards- that the Little Red Hen had baked. Very cute.

I wish I could help E with his fears. I have never really experienced that. And I do hope that in the future he can work through them. He has told me over and over that he wants to be Fritz from The Swiss Family Robinsons...although I am not sure if he means that as in acting or as...just being Fritz. I'd like to swing from rope vines into a lake too.

Just one more thing... Ev really wants to be a "big kid". Here is where I found him in the classroom while the other kids were enjoying their bread.

In the beginning...

I was motivated to start a blog after talking to a "new" friend who shared with me the fact that I could publish my blog into a book... So since I am years behind in my scrapbooking and since my 19 month old jumped on my back up drive which resulted in the loss of six years of photos ( I guess I don't have much scrapbooking to do anymore), I decided to attempt to keep an updated journal of the lives of three (to be four) lively and energetic children and their parents.

Seeing that we have had the majority of every stress filled event happen to us in the last year, now must be the time to add just one more to do, to my list. That being said, we are blessed beyond means by each of the events that we have encountered and really, who needs sleep when they can sit at their computer and talk about themselves.

After this I will actually be telling about our life, not just throwing out vaguely random facts.