Why is it that when it's the weekend, Chase and Claire wake up at the crack of dawn???

Whenever Aaron is out of town, it takes me forever to fall asleep and then last night Bell Tate woke me up in a panic to go outside. All I wanted to do this morning was sleep... at least until 7. I gave them a not before 7 "pep talk" tonight :) Hopefully, it works!!

So... today we found out our "Transformer personalities". Chase and Claire are both Prowl, I'm Bumble Bee and Henri is Optimus Prime. Chase wanted to be Optimus Prime and Claire wanted to be Bumble Bee. Since Chase is on a Transformers kick-- so much so that he's started his responsibility chart again in an effort to raise $8 to purchase a Transformer toy (it'll take him two weeks because he has to save half of his earnings)-- we decided to go to Barnes and Noble. Before we left, Claire had a MAJOR breakdown. She wanted to wear her flip flops (that she's had since she was 3) that just don't fit her right. She's allowed to wear them around the house, but not out! WHOA... she wasn't happy about that today!! I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that she slept in Chase's room last night AND woke up at the crack of dawn. We had a good time at B&N. We found a Transformers book for Chase, a Disney Princess Storybook for Claire and "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" for Henri. Chase read his book the entire time we were in the car!!

For lunch, we all agreed on Taco Bell (for different reasons). Then, we went to Lewis Farms to pick strawberries. I didn't realize that strawberry season is about over... we were able to get a bucket, but the smell of berries rotting was a little too much to bear. We did see A LOT of ladybug larvae. I tried to snag some for our garden (since they eat aphids), but when we got home... I only had one. After trying our hand at strawberries, we moved over to blueberries and then had ice cream. Chase and I had strawberry cones and Claire and Henri had cups of chocolate. While we were eating our ice cream, I went up to get our water refilled and as I came around the corner, I heard a deathly scream (imagine a horror film!). Claire had ran from our table and was waving her arms screaming... yes, everyone was staring. Turns out she had a spider on her... it was very little... and when she saw it on the ground she said, "Step on it!!!!!". Henri did, and said, "I got it Claire". She was convinced that it bit her, but I couldn't see anything. Ahhh... I've passed on my phobia 10 fold!!

This afternoon, we rented a few movies.... each kid always has to have their own movie. We watched "Over the Hedge"... it was ok. At dinner, we made up silly songs like our version of "Damaged", which is reworked to be "Sandwich" (Instead of "my heart is damaged".....it's "I need a sandwich"). So our new song is Boom Boom Pow, switched from "I've got to get that boom boom boom" to "I've got to get that food food food". Yes, we were eating dinner... so naturally, food was on the brain!! We're working on the complete lyrics :) Tonight, we also watched "Chicken Run", which the kids thought was hilarious!! I'm sure they could only imagine what our own chickens do in the middle of the night!!

Pool Party

This morning, Aaron flew to Vegas to do a seminar. The kids and I got ready for our preschool graduation pool party! We decided to let Chase stay home from school because they were having "Fun Day" (aka Field Day) at school and he didn't want to go. His reason: Too much waiting in line for him. Fine by us... he could be outside all day swimming and have "fun" at home.

The party was from 10:30 to 2. Claire said at about 8am, "I'm going to sit on the steps and watch for my friends." I let her know that she still had a couple of hours. So needless to say, the kids were so pumped when people started arriving. And, of course, they were ready to go swimming from the moment they woke up this morning. Ryan came over to help with the party/kids, so he spent nearly the entire time in the pool playing with the kids... especially Henri. Lifting him up into the air and back into the water, walking with him, watching him ride his bike... Henri had so much fun! Chase and Claire were jumping in the pool and non-stop with playing with Claire's preschool friends (and Ryan, of course).... except when we made them break for lunch. Everyone brought a dish to share, and had a cake with the kids' class picture on it. Chase was so thrilled that Uncle Ryan cut him "Claire"!! Once the kids were done with lunch, they hopped back into the pool.... until they heard the music of the Ice Cream Truck. A mom had asked the Ice Cream Man in her neighborhood to come by today. We had an ice cream truck parked in our driveway!! We got some rain while the kids ate their treats and then back to the pool!! We really had a great day! I'm so thankful that Ryan is back from STL... because there were SO many people here...I just tallied it.... 46 including the kids, Ryan and myself!! Holy Moly!! I knew there were a lot of people here today!! After everyone left, the kids got back in the pool and played for about an hour longer... until I made them get out for dinner. We had a quiet evening... read a couple of stories before bed. The kids crashed fast tonight. Claire and Chase are sleeping together in Chase's bed. We're wiped out!

Did you know?

Every night that I tuck Chase into bed, he says, "Mom, can you do me a favor?"

I always pause (because I know what he wants). He rolls over to his tummy and says,

"Will you scratch my back?"

Hmmm.... ???

I was just thinking that I should make notes of the cute stuff that happens as the day goes on, because as I sit here I'm thinking, "Hmmm... what happened today??" There are so many things that happen and I think to myself, "I'll totally remember that!". But as I sit here... I can't.

This morning, Henri tried to sneak in our bed at 4:40 am. I got him back to his bed and not too long after that (6ish) Claire was up. I told her that if she wanted to go to my dance class that she needed to go back to sleep... thank goodness, she did! Got Chase around for school and my two sleepers slept until after 9!! Once they got up, I tried to get them moving so we could go pick strawberries... didn't happen in time! They were busy playing with blocks and Claire actually cleaned her room!

As we were driving to meet Aaron for lunch, Claire and Henri played "I Spy" clouds... "Rhinoceros!!". After lunch at Sahara and just as we were getting in the car, it started raining. The rain was coming down so hard and Chase still had about an hour left of school. So, instead of running home, we went and picked up Chase early from school. I ran in (Claire and Henri waited in the car). Chase was very excited to see us! He said, "Why'd you check me out? Where are we going?" I wanted to tell him we were doing something really cool, but really we just had to go to the grocery store, again. They were so good in the store, they picked out some flowers. Chase really wanted to get a potted plant, not "dead ones" as he calls the cut flowers. He settled on some cut flowers of green and white and Claire picked a mix of purples and yellows.

We spent the afternoon in the backyard eating popsicles, playing on the playground and (of course) pulling weeds. Ok, I pulled weeds... the kids played!! When I got home from hip hop, everyone was outside. We played a little basketball and then called it a night (thanks to the bugs.).

Wednesday

Ever been to a landfill? Claire, Henri and I have. We went this morning to pick up some recycling bins for Chase's class picnic at the park. I rolled down my window to tell the lady who we were there to see... and the smell... oh the smell. It doesn't smell like a dumpster... it's worse... it's a funk that I cannot begin to explain. Then we pulled up to the building and the kids and I got out. We all held our noses and Claire asked why it smelled so bad. I looked and pointed to my left and said, "Because 'that' is a big hill of trash."

At gymnastics, Claire and Henri did as much as they could without me, which is everything excluding handstands. For lunch, we went to Chick-fil-a... yes, AGAIN. Claire loves her some Chick-fil-a. Luckily for her... I do too :) Normally, they play in the play area for an hour or so... but today it was like an ice box. So we came home to hang out the laundry on the clothesline. The kids love helping hang the clothes... they hand me clothes pins or laundry to hang. They're great helpers!

When we picked up Chase from school... we had the windows down and as usual Chase threw his backpack in through the open passenger window... he thinks it's hilarious!! On the way home, Claire asked if she had dance and continued to tell me that she didn't want to go. But later while she was at dance, she was having SO MUCH FUN!! During her class, Henri colored and Chase wanted to draw Transformers-- his new kick-- but he forgot blank paper. So once Henri was done with his pictures... he and Chase ran around playing tag. At the end of Claire's dance class, they've started to do some tumbling stuff... handstands and wheelbarrows... which the kids absolutely love! After dance, we went to the grocery store to pick up some Manwich. On the way out, Claire was skipping and somehow she tripped over herself and hit her head and her elbow. And yes, the tears did flow... and screams!! She was like that for at least 30 minutes... she seems to be OK... elbow still hurts. She's been quite the calamity lately. Saturday she hurt her foot at the park, now the head/elbow incident and just a little bit ago she was sitting on the rocking chair and she fell off. I'm starting to wonder when a bone will be broken.

Aaron got the new pool vacuum today!! He put it in the pool as soon as he was done with dinner and Chase dove down to the deep end to retrieve something at the bottom-- he's such a great swimmer! The kids found 6 live toads in the skimmer basket. Upon our order (as the mosquitoes were eating us up), they released them all into the flower garden.

Buckets of Rain

Puzzles and games... that's how we started our Tuesday. Claire, Henri and I went to the grocery store and while we were inside, we heard the sky fall out. When we finished grocery shopping, we looked out the front windows to see that it was indeed pouring buckets of rain. We went outside and I parked our groceries, Claire and Henri behind the "fence" on the sidewalk, told them to stay put-- 10 times-- and then sprinted. By the time I got to my car (in the second spot), I was completely drenched. I got Henri and Claire (and the food) into the car without getting wet. Well... Claire did say, "Mom, my hand is wet."

It rained until early afternoon. So we did puzzles and played hide-n-seek. Claire has finally learned to be VERY quite! When Chase got home, he read his new book to us. He wrote it. It's called "If You Give a Horse Some Hay" and it's dedicated to Omaha-- Grandpa Bill's horse. He'll have to read it to you sometime. After our snack, we watched the movie "Spirit". It's an animated horse movie. The kids and I really enjoyed it... even Ryan got sucked in :)

Memorial Day

I would like to tell you that we did some really exciting stuff yesterday, but we didn't :) We (including Ryan) went to the mall to pick up a few things and ate lunch. Aaron, Chase and I had Chinese. Chase's plate was overloaded with Lo Mein, Orange Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken! Ryan, Claire and Henri ate Chick-fil-a. Claire's foot was still a little sore from her fall at the park on Saturday. Turns out that she landed on the tip of her toes... so her foot was jammed up. So, Ryan pushed Claire and Henri in the customer service "car stroller" around the mall. He's a much more exciting driver than me... or should I say pusher?! Doing wheelies and going fast... he was goofing around so much with the kids that he wasn't looking where he was going and when an old lady stopped, he almost... by about an inch... ran into the back of her legs. Oh, that would have been a mess!!

After our mall trip, we took Ryan home and Aaron finished cleaning the pool. The kids jumped in as soon as he finished and didn't get out until dinner. I pulled weeds, again. Aaron hoed a section for me so that I could rake out the weeds and plant our squash and zucchini. While I did all of that, Aaron jumped in the pool with the kids. They had races to the deep end, played whale and Aaron even threw Chase into the pool :)

OH NO! Moment

I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner on Thursday. All of the sudden, I heard Aaron yelling, "NOOO, Henri!!!" and then he yelled, "Danielle! Get out here now! I need your help." I wasn't sure where he was so I looked at the backyard... no Aaron. And then he yelled again. I walked out the laundry room door and there were Aaron and Henri. Aaron with the hose and Henri crying. I said, "What the heck happened?" Henri was covered in navy blue paint.

Aaron was painting his trailer floor boards and stepped away from the paint bucket. Henri never being one to miss an opportunity... plunged his hand/arm into the paint bucket. When he pulled his hand out, he proceeded to shake his hand to try and get the paint off. His hand was covered with paint, with streams running down his arm. He also had spots on his face, his legs were covered and even with a shirt on... he managed to get some on his back! I grabbed him with a towel and Ryan ran ahead of me to start the shower. After a quick rinse, I transferred him to the bathtub to do some major scrubbing. Fortunately, he cleaned up pretty good... my bathtub, however, is gonna need some bleach.

And no, unfortunately, I do not have any pictures.

Kid Quote of the Week

Thursday, we were lying on the hammock and Chase was reading his book to us. Henri was climbing all over the place and driving us nuts!! But then he leaned over and touched my face and said,

"You my friend."

Henri's a pretty great friend to have.

Friends

For the second day in a row, we went to Wrightsville Beach Park. Yesterday, it's where we ate lunch on Chase's field trip. Today, it was Emma's birthday party. Emma and Claire were in the same 3 year old preschool class and had dance class together last year. While their personalities are complete opposites... they get along SO well. So Chase, Claire, Henri and I spent a few hours at the park playing. Henri loved the slides and climbing up these "monkey bar" looking steps... which made me so nervous! Claire and Chase spent the entire time running around with the other kids at the party. At one point, I overheard Chase saying, "You ever hear of Chicken Chase? That's me." We call him that from time to time, but I never realized he liked it so much or thought it was THAT cool. At the end of the party, I pushed... OK, ran under the swings of Emma, Henri and Claire. Kids LOVE that! Shortly before we left, Claire was trying to get across this thing... it was like monkey bars, but instead of a bunch of bars it was one long bar that you were supposed to hang and go across... or do pull-ups... I'm not quite sure of its purpose to be honest. Well, first time she fell it was funny. The next time... not so much. She was crying so bad that I thought she had either broken or sprang her right foot. She was in so much pain that when I asked her if she wanted to go to Chick-fil-a... she said "no"!! We ended up going through the drive-thru and going home (as Claire requested). Luckily, Aaron checked it out and it's not as bad as the Chick-fil-a comment would have made it seem!! Thank goodness!!

After lunch, Claire laid around for awhile. Then the kids all went upstairs to play. I was sitting down doing a puzzle and there was a knock at the door. It was a neighbor from down the street with her little girl (Claire's age). She wanted to know if Claire could come down and play with her because both of her older sisters had friends over. Claire was super shy at first, BUT... after showing them her chickens and pets and me letting her know that I would be right down to check on her... she hopped on her bike and rode down the street with them to their house. Now, this is a momentous occasion for Claire because she has never been anywhere without me, Aaron, or her brothers... always has at least one of her family with her. She had a lot of fun and asked if she could invite "Abby" to her birthday party. Claire made a new friend.

WB Field Trip

Growing up in the Midwest and land-locked (as Catherine calls it), I only hoped to get to go to the beach. Today, the whole 1st grade went on a field trip to Wrightsville Beach. Of course, as a family, we go to the beach all of the time... but the realization that this was an "organized" school event... made it sink in how cool it is to live by the beach!! 130 kids, plus teachers, parents and siblings running around the beach was a sight to see. They had a sand castle building contest... Chase's class won (according to Chase's class ;) ). They did have the most creative and largest sandcastle. With moats and rivers, it stretched about 10-15 feet. We also had lots of buildings... the kids could have built more and were so bummed when it was time to go. We checked Chase out at the beach and stayed a little while longer... just so the kids-- really I mean boys-- could get wetter and sandier! We all had so much fun.

When we got back home, the kids wanted to go swimming. Over the past few days, we had gotten a significant amount of rain... so the pool was a nice GREEN. Aaron got out the vacuum and reminisced about how much he hated cleaning the pool when he was growing up. Today, he bought a new robot (vacuum), so he never has to hand vac the pool again :)

The Snail

Bugs

We found a snail on the pool vacuum hose.  It was very cool.  Once we picked it up, it stretched its head out and took a look around.  Henri and Claire were especially fascinated by it. 

1500... that's how many ladybugs we let go in our garden this evening.  It was pretty amazing.  They were everywhere... including our arms and Claire's hair.  I'm hoping that they stay around for awhile and munch on some aphids ;)

Graduation

8:34!!

This morning, I woke up and looked at the clock. "8:34!!"

I quickly got around and asked Aaron why he didn't wake me?!! I wasn't feeling the best yesterday, so he thought he'd be extra-nice and let me sleep... but he quickly asked if I was going to make breakfast. I promptly said "uh, no way." Claire had to be at school at 9 and her graduation started at 9:15! I had to get the kids dressed, fed, teeth brushed and still wake up Henri... all in a matter of 20 minutes!! Luckily, we live so close to Claire's school that we weren't too late! In fact, we weren't the last to arrive (which always makes me feel a little better). In the church, we went up to the top section... Chase was freaking out. He has this new fear of heights! So the 2 year olds sang, then the 3's and then finally the pre-K kids came out and sang a couple of songs. AND... Claire actually sang! Normally, she just sings in "her head". We were adamant for the past week that we can't hear her when she sings in her head... it's always nice when we can see that our kids actually are paying attention to the things we say ! After they were done singing, they were presented with their certificate of preschool completion. Can't believe preschool is over for Claire.

After graduation, Claire, Henri and I went to Henri's gymnastics class. (Chase decided to stay home with dad and do puzzles.) Claire and Henri had so much fun doing gymnastics together... they're like a team. They were doing forward rolls in unison... it was sooooo cute! Claire has also gotten braver... she refused help on the balance beam and didn't need me right by her side. Henri has also started jumping on the tumble track (or as Claire calls it: jumpolene)... he usually just runs down it! He's making strides in the jumping world :)

This afternoon, Claire had dance and then I took the kids to Aaron's office. Henri had a crying fit for about 20 minutes, because he didn't realize that I was leaving. Luckily, little momma Claire was there to help Dad. I went to a Recycling Round Table Discussion at UNCW. It was a really great meeting... I had a "Change Is Gonna Come" feeling. The meeting got out about 20 minutes late, so I got home to find Aaron and the kids swinging.

It was a great day.

Rainy Day

We had a nice relaxed morning... Claire woke me up to see if she could let the chickens out. They were "so loud" she told me. Once Henri woke up and ate his breakfast, we did some running around. Chase would really like to get a bird he's seen at PetSmart the past few times we've gone. Today was no exception... even after we told him it was $650, he still insisted.

We stood strong ;)

At Home Depot, Claire had a meltdown. She was so irrational that I had to take her out to the truck. At lunch, she got herself under control and from then on the day was great! Until we played Old Maid. It's the princess version where Ursula is the "old maid"... Chase ended up with Ursula and he wasn't happy... to say the least!! The rain was coming down in two places-- outside and Chase. He was crying because he lost... we tried to explain to him that as long as you have fun... it doesn't matter... because in the end... someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. So we played some more....Henri danced around silly in the middle of our game and after watching others "not win" Chase became a little more accepting of "Ursula".

Last Weekend.. Dolphins

I keep forgetting to tell you about last weekend!! When we went out on the boat and to our usual spot at the beach...there were some fish jumping out of the water. And then as we were sitting there, 3 dolphins appeared. They were about 20 feet from the shore and so close to the back of our boat. They were so beautiful, but it happened so fast and we were so in awe that I didn't pick up my camera.

Bruised, but not broken

Uncle Ryan got home today... and the kids were SO excited. Henri thinks that he's been at his house this whole time... so I think he was probably like, "it's about time!". The kids rode their bikes down into the meadow... Claire bit it hard!! She was riding down the hill and lost control. Ryan was there to offer help, but typical of Claire she only wanted me. She got her hug and kiss and was back at it!

Aaron and the kids went on a bike ride through the neighborhood. Aaron clocked Claire at 8 mph!! She's a little speedster. Chase caught up to them... he's so much faster now that he said
"Adios" to the training wheels!

Before dinner, the kids were on the trailer "helping" Aaron do the wiring... when (now I wasn't there for this) Claire pushed Henri off of the trailer. I got to get Henri in the aftermath... he cried forever. He just has a little bump on his head-- thank goodness. We're not sure what Claire was thinking. Once Henri got over it all, he was back to helping Aaron.

Those kids :)

Friday was Claire's last Friday of preschool, so it was also the last bike ride to school. The past few weeks, Aaron has been taking Claire to school on his bike. She thinks it's the coolest thing! Besides her friends... I think she's going to miss that the most. After school, we met Aaron and Ronnie (working with Aaron for his Rover Recycler business) at Jersey Mike's for lunch. Then went to the grocery store... I forgot my grocery bags, so I said "No thanks" to a plastic bag and walked out with 4 lemons in hand, Claire carried the buttermilk and Henri carried the syrup. Luckily, my kids are "trained" and they wouldn't expect to do anything different! Aaron picked up a pallet of bricks to finish extending the patio... very excited to see the area that the dogs and chickens have destroyed fixed. The kids and I spent the afternoon outside... Henri scrapped his knee... I swore by the way he was crying that he was being attacked by fire ants! But really, it was nothing too bad... just the asphalt and sand were a lot to bear for him!

We went to Pizza Hut last night for dinner... big mistake!! Should've stayed home... the kids were CRAZY! They were playing tag on the way to get our table and Claire & Henri kept crawling under the table to knock Chase's Rainbows off. Yes, last night... we had those kids. After dinner, we did a first.... we went to Big Lots!. Talk about an experience. As soon as we walked in, Aaron said, "Your grandparents would LOVE this place." The kids thought that it was SO cool... Aaron found lots of good stuff and in the end... I came around and got a couple of garden tools... guess I should go put them to use!!

Rainy Day

Ok... so I'm going to keep it real... I am whoooped! Just got home from my hip hop class and I'm feeling like jello. So based on wanting to lay down and veg... I'm going to keep this brief.

My deal with Chase has been holding up! He woke up this morning and got dressed and made his bed (I added making his bed last night :) ), then was ready to go on Lego.com... mornings are SO much easier! We took Chase Subway for lunch and typical of everytime I meet him for lunch... he asks, "Mom, will you take me with you?" As much as I would like to, I have to say, "nope". It was a rainy rainy day... the kids and I had to run through the rain when we picked Chase up. It was a nice drizzle and the temp was close to perfect, so it was actually kind of fun! Of course, Henri made sure to stomp in every puddle he saw!!

Growing up...

Last night, when I put Chase to bed... we made a deal. I told him that if he woke up early for school that he could go on the computer. This morning, I woke up to Chase saying, "Mom, can you help me with the computer?". It was music to my ears not to have to pry him out of bed! Once Chase was off to school, Claire took over his spot at the computer playing games at Playhouse Disney. She is having a difficult time with the fact that Disney has discontinued "Higglytown Heroes". She's been watching the show since we moved back to St. Louis-- she was less than 2 years old!

Henri had gymnastics today... he's quite the tumbler. He loves to do forward roll after forward roll. After gymnastics, Henri and I came home to finish the "birthday" brownies with ganache and sprinkles to take to Claire's school. Henri had a difficult time waiting to eat a brownie... he kept saying, "Mom, they done. Brownies ready." At Claire's school, they have lunch bunch on Wednesdays and today they celebrated the 4 summer birthdays with a pizza party. All of the kids had a lot of fun... the teachers got the birthday kids little gifts... the kids were excited to be celebrating what Claire calls a "fake birthday". So today, was Claire's last lunch bunch at preschool and her last Wednesday besides graduation next week.

This afternoon, Claire had dance. She has really come out of her shell this year. Actually dancing and conversing with her teacher and making friends. Back to Claire singing all of the time... today it was Kanye West "Robocop". The girl has a thing for music :) After dance, we went to Aaron's office and then out to dinner. The kids wouldn't go into the restaurant until Aaron got there... but when he did arrive... they ran to him with their arms wide open and JUMPED all over him! It's been a wacky night... Claire and Henri are still up... and ALL over the place! I suppose, though, at least they're having fun together.

Field Trip

So, I'm late... sorry!! Yesterday was a busy day to say the least. Claire had a field trip to Old McFaye's Farm. We let Chase stay home from school so that he could go with us and Aaron took the morning off. The kids got to feed goats, chickens, a pig, and sheep. Of course, Chase was in his element and had a great time. They caught some baby chicks, groomed a pony and Claire even worked up the nerve to ride a horse!! She was nervous, but it was obvious she was proud of herself for getting over her fear. Oh, and Chase and Claire went on a hayride. It was pulled by a four-wheeler and the screams from the kids made the farm sound like an amusement park. We ate a picnic lunch at the farm and were the last ones to leave because Claire finally met up with her friend Emma.

Later that afternoon, Chase began to finish his Lego project that he started in the morning. It took him until bedtime, but he finally finished his Lego Stegasaurus... it's very cool. He got out of bed to have me come see the eyes glowing in the dark. Claire has been a jukebox lately... singing anything and everything that comes to mind from Kanye West to her school church songs!! And of course, her favorite song of the year: Damaged. Her favorite part is, "My heart is missin some pieces... I need this puzzle put together again!! Damaged, Damaged..." and she goes on. Henri put himself to bed last night. I tucked him in and he decided that he wasn't ready for bed... so he got up and after about 10 minutes of playing, he got into his bed... to which I tucked him in and turned off his light. That's a milestone for Henri... even if it was just for one night.

Like every day since Friday, Claire has been walking (or sitting) around the house singing, "1,2,3,4...I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart....". It was her song from the Mother's Day program that she sang (in her head) on Friday. She's so cute... her singing brings an immediate smile to us.

Chase's horse riding lessons are going really well. He's still day-dreaming while he rides "Misty", but he's really getting good at leading her and giving her commands. We brought her a carrot with the greens attached... the kids couldn't get over the fact that she ate the whole thing!!

Mother's Day

I woke up this morning to the sound of Chase and Claire talking and reading books. They were in their sleeping bags on Henri's floor... and Henri was still sound asleep. I made pancakes for breakfast... since according to Chase's "Mother's Day Book" is one of the reasons that I'm so special.

When we got home from lunch (Flaming Amy's btw), the kids were ready to go swimming. Running, jumping, splashing... they had so much fun!! Claire even took her "swimming baby" for a dip! It took Henri awhile to warm up to the water... but once he was comfortable, there was no fear for him. He even jumped in the pool butt-naked... luckily, his big brother was there to help him... otherwise... Mom or Dad would have been jumping in with our clothes on!! They stayed in the pool for about 3 hours and only got out because it was time for dinner.

After dinner, they rode bikes and then played tag. Henri... still naked... was running around the front yard trying to get everyone... he doesn't really know the rules, but he has no problem following what everyone else is doing!

Boat Day!

We spent this morning watching Aaron finish our brick walkway... and start on extending the patio. Chase loaded up bricks, Henri swept sand into the cracks and Claire helped put the "fence" back up to keep the chickens out of the flower

garden.

After lunch, we packed up the boat and went to the beach. The boat ride was an event... Henri freaked out! I was reminded of our flight to St. Louis in March. "It's not fun. Wanna get out of here." he cried. Chase and Claire, on the other hand, were loving every second of the ride! Once we got to the beach, Henri was still a little worked up... but then we took a walk to look for seashells. We ended up where the marsh comes in and the tide was SO low... there were hundreds... thousands of snails AND hermit crabs in shells the size of my hand. Chase caught a minnow... he was so pumped!! We built a small sand castle, but mainly the kids swam. It was a little (ok, a lot) cold for us, so we just watched!

What a day!

What a day! At Claire's school, they had a mother's day brunch. Claire sang (well, just in her head) and we (plus Henri) ate lots of good stuff. We spent the afternoon playing on the playground and playing what Claire calls "I Spy" clouds. We saw an elephant, a camel, a rhino, a seahorse, and lots of other strange named things that I can't remember :) They also helped Aaron take bricks (for our walkway) out of the back of the truck... the kids were having so much fun "working".

Chase painted a tile for me and gave me a "book" about why I'm so great! Turns out that I'm pretty special because I make really good pancakes and let him go to http://www.lego.com/. Claire gave me a frame with a picture of herself surfing... it's too cute!

The kiddo's are all sleeping in Henri's room tonight. They were crazy excited...didn't go to bed until right around 10. Henri kept stealing Chase's sleeping bag because he wanted to sleep next to his big sister on the floor. So he fell asleep on the floor next to Claire and then I switched him with Chase. Now, Henri is in his bed.... hopefully, he doesn't wake up to realize that I moved him!!

Knock Knock

Today, we went and ate lunch with Chase at school. Took his favorite--Wendy's (of course). For the first time ever, Claire and Henri sat by each other and I got to sit by Chase. The kids have been on a "knock, knock" joke kick... so trying to come up with new knock knock jokes is getting hard. Aaron came up with.... "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Claire." "Claire who?" "Clairely (Clearly) you're not getting the point of this joke." Which Claire doesn't... Chase, however, thinks it's hilarious. After school, the kids found 3 toads in the pool's skimmer basket. I feel for the poor toads when they start making squeaking sounds!! Luckily, I was able to convince Henri... the most tight of hands... to put his toad in the flower garden. Wisely, the toad jumped away and hid :) Oh, and Claire has anther rash (allergy or virus... who knows?)... poor girl... hopefully, she wakes up better.

Take them off!

Last night was a monumental night. Chase asked me to take off his training wheels! He said that he was going to practice in the front yard, BUT he never made it there! He started riding his bike with CONFIDENCE!! all around the driveway. No wobbles, no falls... just Chase finally realizing that HE can do it. With Chase's new found confidence, Claire decided that she wanted her training wheels off, too! If you've ever seen her on her scooter, you know that she's probably been able to ride without training wheels for a long time... she was just waiting on Chase to show everyone :) So she, too, had no problems... a speedster on her training wheel-less bike! And Henri? He's moved up to the radio flyer tricycle. Pedals like there's no tomorrow. I guess it's time I got a bike.

Hungry Hippos

I said,"Henri, do you know the hippo's names?... This one is Homer, this one is Harry, and this one is Happy. Do you know what this one's name is? It's Henry Hippo."

Henri said quickly with a smirk, "NNNaaaoooO. Is not."

I can tell that he still doesn't believe me.

Blooming

A Day Late

Old habits die hard, but it's hard to bring life to new ones!! Tuesday's are one of our less busy days, but I somehow forgot to post! Yesterday, we got some much needed rain... so we (Henri and I) spent the day inside doing puzzles. He has a thing for doing puzzles of 100 pieces (or more!). Once Chase and Claire were home and the rain had subsided-- we did more puzzles. Henri was on a streak and wanted to do every kid puzzle that we own!! I finally talked them into coming outside with me to play while I picked some spinach and leaf lettuce. While in the garden, I decided (since it was so nice) that I should pull weeds... ugh, a never ending task!! The kids were running around and shooting the stomp rocket in the pool. Game over! Cooking dinner, I realized that it was May 5 and we were having tortelinni... oops... I totally could have ate Mexican!!! SO... cooking dinner... no parents watching kids... they got out the hose... chopped up some carrots they found by the compost pile and put mud in the dogs water.... all in a matter of 10 minutes!! Kids!! Luckily, they clean up nice ;)

Henri's been staying up SO late (10ish)... so last night we-- Henri, Aaron and I-- were watching Nitro Circus. They were in Jamaica. They had this huge ramp set up to jump into the water (gorgeous btw)... after many attempts to use it as a waterslide... they changed things up. Special Greg got on a bike and launched down the ramp and did a flip (on the bike) into the water... to which Henri said, "Oh...I never gonna do dat." Of course, I kissed him on his head and reassured him (and myself) that he was never going to do that.

Homework

Chase doing his nightly homework. He's started doing it on his floor (instead of his desk) and he seems to be doing much better-- at least it doesn't take him an hour anymore!!!

Les Rapports

So... I've created a blog. Not for myself... but for you. You don't always hear about what we do day in and day out or the little things that may seem small to us... but let you get to know our family better. Sometimes it's the little things in life that are so meaningful-- especially when shared with others. So this blog is about making connections (les rapports) with our family.