at 3:00 in the morning

This. This just happened at 3:04 a.m., and all I could do was laugh.

Not a normal response, mind you. However, approximately 30 minutes ago, this 32+ week pregnant mama was awoken by my oldest daughter saying that the youngest daughter was in complete hysterics. Said hysterical child would NOT state the problem nor be comforted by anyone other than said pregnant mama. Three annoyed and grumpy older sisters were all awake and had endured enough tears from the youngest sister.

This comes on the heels of a fun (yet exhausting) weekend away where no one (especially the pregnant mama) got enough sleep. Though completely justified, I thought it might be weird to cart in the five pillows that I sleep with nightly just to survive two nights in a hotel. I may reconsider in the future if necessary.

Anyway, so upon arrival in the girls' room, I know right away what has happened. Olivia has wet the bed, and she is as worked up as an old wet hen. She cannot stop crying to save her life, and despite the moaning and groaning from the two oldest sisters and multiple offers to "help" from child number three, I am doing my best to calm down Olivia.

Did I mention that Josh has the nerve to still be out of town for the next 17 hours? Back to the story.

Olivia starts spouting off demands between sobs of discomfort: I need new jammies...and I only want soft, fuzzy ones...and I need Vaseline for my bottom because it itches...and I'm cold and wet...and...and...and...

And since it's 2:45 a.m., it is absolutely reverse hostage negotiation time. I will do just about anything at this point to calm down this raging storm of a five year old. Because let's be honest... discipline at this late (or maybe early?) hour is not going to get us anywhere.  Put out that fire and get all of those kiddos back to sleep!

The initial round of pajama options that I presented were denied on account of not being comfy enough. The fuzzy blue penguin pajama pants were then demanded, but they were nowhere to be found. These negotiations were not going well.

So my pregnant body starts frantically digging through laundry hampers and finds the requested item after approximately two minutes and seven seconds. Not bad on the whole. The remaining negotiations went quickly enough to satisfy all involved.

I get Liv cleaned up and transferred to a different sleeping location, clean up her bedding and bed, and make it to my own bedroom of refuge.  And then the spider...thinking he was all up in my face and trying to get a reaction out of me while sitting so nicely on my comforter.

My message to the spider: Ha. Ha. Ha. You don't scare me. I just dealt with a crazed, dazed, and unreasonable five year old for the last 20 minutes.  I laugh in your general direction!!!

Okay...time to sleep.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, House and More

We had an absolutely lovely Thanksgiving with our families despite me being sick with a horrid cold all week.  My mom had a great idea this year, and brought gingerbread houses for each of the girls to decorate as our post-Thanksgiving dinner activity.  The girls loved decorating while Dads and Grandpa slept and watched football.

We usually decorate gingerbread houses at some point during the Christmas season, but this worked out perfectly.  I have a feeling that this will become a new tradition!

Our Christmas season has been fairly low-key.  My mom took all of the grandgirls to see Mary Poppins on stage.  It was a fun day for sure!  Claire and Meredith have been running all of the Advent activities in our house this year.  It's been a nice break for me, and they have been enjoying being in charge.  They are getting so competent in so many ways.  I just love it!

This week has brought on a bought of sickness from a couple of kiddos in our house, but what's new?  This is the week each and every year that someone tosses their cookies in my house.  We always host a large Christmas party for our friends on the Friday before Christmas, and each year someone is puking.  I fear those germs every year, but our friends continue to come back!  They must not be getting too sick from being here. :)

In other exciting news, my new refrigerator arrived yesterday!  Our old one has not been able to hold an appropriate temperature in the freezer or refrigerator for months (consistently 5-10 degrees warmer than it should be).  It has an unacceptable amount of moisture in it always, and despite cleaning it over and over again, I can't get the mold to stay away.  It truly disgusts me beyond what you can imagine.  The old one is a side by side and barely has room to put anything like a cookie sheet or a casserole dish.  I have hated it for years and have often wished that I could have back my old refrigerator from our other house that we purchased at a garage sale for $35.  It was old and ugly, but it worked beautifully.

I wanted to hug the delivery guys yesterday morning when they arrived.  I loaded it with our food and am amazed at the additional amount of space that I have a available.  Our new fridge has the french style doors at the top with the freezer at the bottom.  I have an entire shelf in the middle that has nothing on it!!  The usable space is lovely.  Feeling so blessed today as I get ready to eat my cereal with COLD milk. :)

In house news, the drywallers are finishing up this week in our addition!  So excited about that.  Josh is taking the week off between Christmas and the New Year to work on getting some things completed.  Our new driveway is completely done, and things are definitely moving in the right direction.  We are getting so close to parking in the garage!!  I am giddy.

I'm sure there is more, but that's all I've got for now.  I hope all of you are having a nice Christmas season! Hugs to everyone!

the "almost" slumber birthday party

Oh, the "almost" slumber party!  It has come and gone, and we all survived. :)  We celebrated Meredith's 10th birthday party with another Dramatic Fanatic themed party...this one with a slumber party theme.  Again, it was a hit for all involved.  (We did a similar camping themed party for Claire's 10th birthday a couple of years ago.)  

For several reasons, we chose to do an "almost" slumber party instead of an actual slumber party.  One of those reasons included the fact that there were 20 girls here that evening celebrating.  What a fun time, though!

The girls had the option of coming in character or in their pajamas.  I scoured Pinterest for as many slumber party/sleepover party ideas that I could find.  You know me, I chose the cutest, easiest ones. :)  All of these ideas (and more!) including the printables and recipes that I used are on my almost slumber party Pinterest board.  

Here are some photos from the setup:

The Menu:
-sleeping bags (not pictured because I didn't have them baked when I took the photos): crescent rolls filled with pepperoni and cheese with dipping sauce on the side
-yogurt bar: yogurt in individual cups with strawberries, blueberries, and granola for toppings
-bed bugs: red and green grapes on small kabob sticks
-cuties
-bacon and eggs: white almond bark with little m&ms and pretzel sticks
-crispy bites: rice krispy treats made with fruity pebbles cereal on small popsicle sticks
-donut pops: donut holes on kabob sticks (by the way, I just wrapped a shallow box with kraft paper and poked holes in it for the donut pops holder)
-donuts
-water bottles: covered with fun duct tape and an owl sticker
*the food label stands are sitting in jumbo marshmallows...they worked perfectly for our camping themed party, so I used the idea again.

I decorated the tables with cereal-filled jars.  I added some larger cereal bowls and spoons as decor as well.  Believe it or not, all of the cereal in the jars and bowls was eaten by the end of the night!  It totally cracked me up.

Streamers were used to make a photo shoot area which was a fun addition:

The girls watched a movie and ate popcorn to end their night.  I found the popcorn bags on Amazon:

We sent home little boxes of cereal with the girls:

...and a little note on the back:

This was a really fun party to put together!  The owl theme was sweet, and I went with it because I found printables and matching duct tape.  Meredith had a great time and so did all of the girls.  I always love planning for and doing parties like these, but I'm also thankful to not have to do them every year.  I don't think my sanity could handle it.  Now, I get a three year break until Amelia's. Whew! :)

Happy Birthday, Meredith!

Happy Birthday, Meredith!  You are officially ten years old, and it doesn't quite seem possible that we've had you that long.  However, my photo records prove that we've celebrated each and every birthday up to this point.  It must be true. :)  

Since we kind of go "all out" for 10th birthdays around here (I'll post about her party soon), I thought I would put together some photos to document Meredith's ten years.  

#1: Day 1.  Really practically minute one.  What our anesthesiologist lacked in timeliness, he made up for in photography skills.  Since she was a c-section baby, I have photos of her literally half in/half out.  They are some of the neatest photos (as long as you're not grossed out by that kind of thing).  This particular one was probably 5 minutes after she was born, but I just love how we're holding hands.  Meredith is a complete cuddle bug, and I'm not surprised that we're touching already. :) 

#2:  Six months old.  Such a fun age.  So much personality.  She was a very pleasant baby, and I'm certain I had no major complaints.  By this point, her hair had finally calmed down a bit, and we were starting to drop the nickname, "Crazy Hair Mer."

#3:  Age 2.  This photo was taken on her 2nd birthday.  I remember making cupcakes with little ducks or chicks on them for her.  They were kind of last minute, and we ate them at my parents' house.  It wasn't much of a celebration. :)

#4: Age 3.  Three fingers in the mouth, elephant in the other hand, happy toddler.  This is the point in life when we started fighting over socks.  We would have 20 minute battles over wearing socks or not wearing socks.  It was a huge deal for her for several years.

#5: Age 4.  Not battling those socks anymore.  Embracing sockless winters with the agreement that she didn't have to wear socks as long as she didn't complain if her feet were cold.  We found fuzzy shoes and boots that helped as well.  This was also the point in life when I wondered where my sweet little toddler had run off to.  These were some very trying times in parenthood.  Meredith was all over the board emotionally, and most of her wardrobe bothered her when she touched it or looked at it.  Whites and stripes hurt her eyes.  Pants were too tight.  Shirts itched.  Shoes were too tight. There was a lot of stomping, screaming, and crying.  She fought a lot of things.  This was a hard stage to navigate.  But she also had this soft, sweet side which is captured so beautifully in this photo.  I honestly didn't understand how two very different personalities could be possessed by one child.

#6: Age 5.  Lots of prayers.  Lots of patience.  A few clothing items that she would wear over and over and over and over and over again.  Taking into consideration that this child valued comfort above all and that she was ultra sensitive to touch and smell made life much more tolerable during these days.  It was a learning process for all of us.  Still wouldn't wear socks.  This photo shows her painting, and she just loves all things artsy.  

#7: Age 6.  She's coming along.  Still no socks.  Still no white shirts.  Still no jeans.  Finding more pleasant days than unpleasant days during this time.  That newest little sister of hers (Olivia) fully brought out her most admirable qualities, and they often comforted each other in their times of need.  I snapped this photo to get an idea of lighting as I was prepping for Olivia's newborn photos.  The lighting was beautiful, and I've always loved this image of her.  

#8: Age 7.  She's wearing socks with her tennis shoes...now this is progress!  She's down to having an emotional outburst probably once a week which seems like such an enormous improvement from the three previous years.  The Lord is kind.  Her love and compassion for others is shining through everywhere, and that littlest sister of hers is one of her very favorite people in the entire world.

#9: Age 8.  We've completely figured out the wardrobe.  Black knit pants and nice soft shirts.  We've come a long way. :)

#10: Age 9.  Kind, compassionate, caring, and as sweet as sugar.  Begs each and everyday for another little brother or sister to love...which doesn't surprise me at all.  Wears jeggings, socks, and several different shirts. :) Major growth spurt on so many levels.

#11: Age 10.  This photo was taken on Friday.  We hosted her 10th birthday party.  She played an actress in the drama for the evening which is why she looks especially grown up.  I'd be tempted to say, "Slow down!" But she's only getting better with age.

Meredith, 

You are sweet, spunky, compassionate, and creative.  Art and babies are your two favorite things, and your heart is as big as your smile.  You told me yesterday that you hope to buy an island house in the middle of a lake, get two dogs, and live there painting pictures.  You are so encouraging and such a great teacher to the younger people around you.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if you decide to be an elementary art teacher someday.  What a blessing you are to our family.  We love you more than you know. 

On a side note, I've thought a lot about what I might have told myself had I known that good days were on the other side of those rough years.  I don't know exactly what I would have told myself other than encouragement that is so obvious: This too shall pass.  

It did.  At the time, though, I think I was clinging to the most positive personality aspects of Meredith that I could see, and I prayed so often that those would shine through someday.  I knew they were there, I just didn't know how to make them stay.  When we made it through a day without conflict, I rejoiced.  I found a lot of comfort in my friends.  I found a lot of comfort in my prayers.  

I found that the more I knew and understood the things that set her off, the better I could prepare her for the next task or event.  She needed downtime, physical touch, and a lot of rest, not to mention she doesn't like to be surprised about what's coming next.  It's been a learning process along the way and continues to be.  

May I remember these things as we deal with all of the bumps, u-turns, potholes, and detours along this road ahead.  And during the quieter and more pleasant days, I pray I remember to take lots of photos and to be especially thankful for the beautiful landscape that surrounds me.  

lego mania

I am not exaggerating when I say that the girls spent the entire weekend playing with legos.  They built, sorted, and made an entire little village on the one side of our playroom.

Two funny/scary things came out of this.

First of all, Olivia obviously walked through one area of the village and wasn't quite as careful as she should have been.  Amelia commented, "I think a tornado came through here!"  Meredith responded, "I think it was a Livi tornado."

Second story:
Did you know that you can download lego plans from their website?  People are pretty rough on their instruction guides around here.  So, when the girls were putting together some of their older sets this weekend, they had the computer sitting down low on a kitchen chair so that they could see the plans from the computer.

Our laptop typically sits on the counter right next to where they have been working this weekend.  At one point this morning, I heard Olivia say to one of her sisters, "I held the computer, and I didn't even drop it."

Cue pride from the child.  Cue panic from the mother.

We then had a very serious discussion about how "you may NOT move Mommy's computer! You may ask Mommy to move it for you, but you may not move it yourself!"  ...followed by prayers of thanksgiving that she didn't drop it. :)  Whew!!

halloween 2014

I'm a week late here, but I feel like I rarely take photos of my girls in their Halloween garb despite their continued cuteness.  This year, I vowed to document it.  I even made Olivia dress up in her costume JUST to take her picture...the other girls were already dressing up for another party.  

Claire and Meredith decided that they wanted to have a theme this year.  Meredith chose to be a detective (Nancy Drew), so Claire went with a robber.  

Claire put together her own costume this year.  She already had the pants, sweater (that used to be mine...gasp!!), and hat.  She made her mask out of felt and duct tape, and she made her money bag from a cheap reusable shopping bag.  So easy.  Loved that she did it herself.  

I wish Meredith could have sewed hers herself. :)  I made her detective cape from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  I've never made anything with the bias tape on the edge.  It was pretty easy to use, and I thought the edging really dressed it up.  She didn't want a hat (which probably saved me a ton of time), so I made her a quick headband to match.  She had a little magnifying glass earlier that week, but it broke, so she had to stick with just her notebook which had a photo of the robber inside. :)  

My little minion. :)  She won the creative costume award at one of our parties.  Yellow shirt and suspenders ordered from Amazon.  We took a sock hat and covered it in yellow duct tape.  With the help of Pinterest (of course!), I added goggles (Ball jar rings), pipe cleaner hair, and printed eyeballs and laminated Gru emblem.  It really was a fun little costume. :)

And my cute little chicken.  Awww.  This one probably came from a resale for less than $5. :)  I love that I can put her in anything and she's happy!  Makes things easy.  The best part of these kinds of costumes is how WARM they are!  I can't appreciate it enough for a little 3 year old on a cold Halloween night.  

our homeschool curriculum 2014-2015

School starts on Monday, and I'm finally looking forward to it!  I don't know why I was dreading planning so much this year.  Thankfully, once I was elbow deep into planning, I started to get excited.  Then, I was trying to decide why we waited until next week to start! :)

Amelia couldn't be more excited to start.  She was super disappointed a couple of weeks ago when I told her that we still had two weeks.  Meredith is supposedly "dreading" it, but I know she'll do great once we begin.  Claire is pretty excited as well even though she keeps telling me, "At the end of last year, I told myself that I was NOT going to be excited about the beginning of the year, but I am!"  Love it.

Amelia (1st grade)

Sonlight Readers 1 and 2
She started Readers 1 last year.  She has a few to complete, and she'll move on to level 2.

Handwriting Without Tears, My Printing Book

Explode the Code 1 and 2

Saxon Math 1

Spelling You See, level B

Harcourt Language Arts 1 workbook
We haven't done this book before.  It is a pretty simple little book, but I think she'll enjoy it.  I don't start them on their language arts curriculum until 2nd grade, but this will give her something to do and work on some skills.

Artistic Pursuits K-3, book 1

Co-op: performance, anatomy, and math/reading games

Amelia will be doing read alouds, history, and (some) science with the older girls.  She'll also be in gym class once a week, and we hope to find a swim lesson option in the spring.

Meredith (4th grade)

Saxon Math 5/4

Harcourt Language Arts 4 and Workbook

Spelling You See, level D

Explode the Code 5

Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

Sonlight Core E: History, Readers, Read Alouds (American History, Year 2)

Sonlight Core E: Science (Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy)

Artistic Pursuits Grade 4-6, book 1

Daily Geography, grade 4

Writing, IEW's All Things Fun & Fascinating

Westminster Catechism for Kids

Co-op: performance, teamwork, and science 

Gym

Volleyball, fall season


Claire (6th grade)

Saxon Math 7/6

Winston Grammar

Spelling You See, level D

Explode the Code 8

Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

Sonlight Core E: History, Readers, Read Alouds (American History, Year 2)

Sonlight Core E: Science (Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy)

Artistic Pursuits Grade 4-6, book 1

Daily Geography, grade 4

Writing, IEW's All Things Fun & Fascinating 

Westminster Catechism for Kids

Co-op: performance, teamwork, and science 

Gym

Volleyball, fall season

We are keeping a lot of things the same for the coming year, but we're also doing a lot of new things.  It's a good year for transition since we don't have any kinders this year.

Art, geography, spelling, and Claire's grammar program are all new to us this year.  Josh took the girls golfing each week all summer, and they both wanted to do volleyball this fall.  I loved that they both wanted to do those activities...make them much more easy to justify the travel aspect.  They are basically just participating in the practices once a week.  Claire was old enough to try out for the team, but she didn't feel like she had enough volleyball skills.  She wants to work on them this year and try out next year.  Meredith will have to wait patiently for her turn. :)

I'm looking forward to this year since I don't have to teach anyone to read!  And I love that Olivia is getting older and will sit and play/color/entertain herself.  She is so good at playing alongside her sisters.  She just loves being near them and watching them...monkey see, monkey do.

lake pics

We spent a week at the lake a couple of weeks ago.  We had absolutely gorgeous weather and made lots of memories.   

Monday was spent painting fingernails with the new nail art kit that Grandma had bought with Amelia on the way up to the lake the day before.  Now, let me tell you that I'm not a fan of little girls painting their own nails.  I completely understand that they need to practice to improve, but it makes this Mama a bit crazy to have them all wanting to do it all at the same time...at your parents' lake cottage.  

This may have caused me a bit of stress.  I told Josh that I was not having fun on this particular morning, and (after everyone's nails had sufficiently dried) he ordered everyone to put on swimsuits and jump in the lake.  This improved my sanity greatly.  And on a side note, I'm going to beg my mom to go with the hula-hoops next time. :)

We ended the day with ice cream from the local ice cream shop and a pontoon ride (or "contoon" as Olivia calls it...she also calls her swimsuit her swimsoup...and popsicles hotsicles)  

Tuesday was another swim day along with an all-family wave runner ride.  Claire, Josh, and Amelia ended up in the water at one point.  After Amelia finished crying, she thought she might want to fall in again.  The girls and Josh also went tubing.  

Grandma and Grandpa came back on Wednesday, but we were gone most of the day enjoying some time with friends.  

Thursday was spent playing and preparing for more friends and family.  Josh's parents came for a visit and a pontoon ride on Thursday.  

Amelia and Eden can finally sit next to each other without fighting at mealtime. :)  Eden is currently OBSESSED with Meredith.  Anytime Jill asks Eden what she would like to eat, drink, do, etc., she responds, "Well, what is Meredith having/doing/etc.?"  Every. single. time.

The breakfast crew...where are Grandpa's smiles?!

 Amelia caught a nice catfish:

Claire hooked a soft-shell turtle:

Meredith and Carter are inseparable when they're together:

This Meredith/Carter relationship amazes me each and every time we're together.  Our families get together 2-3 times per year, and they play together (almost non-stop) for several hours straight.  I have a picture of them together from 2009 (when they were 4), and I distinctly remember them not leaving each other's side that day either.  They eat together, swim together, play together, talk to each other, and wait to do anything while the other one is in the bathroom.  It's awfully sweet.

Lake days have always been some of my favorite days and continue to be.  Looking forward to spending more time up there before school starts.    

chop chop

Ever since Meredith heard that you could donate your hair, she's been wanting to do it.  She decided at the beginning of the year that this would be the year. 

The night before her appointment, she was in complete agony over the whole ordeal.  She had decided to cut 12 inches but was having commitment issues.  I told her that she didn't have to cut her hair, and she could donate another time.  She was convinced that she would regret either decision. :)

The organization where Amelia donated hers a couple of years ago takes 8 inch donations, so she finally decided that 8 inches would be acceptable.  

Before:

After:

She came home, admired herself all evening, and then went into total chopper's remorse at bedtime.  It wasn't pretty.  We tried to remind her that her hair would grow back, it was still really long, and it was really generous of her to donate her hair to a child who needed it.  

What won out in the end was a little extra time with Josh, Claire, and me after Amelia and Olivia had gone to bed...along with an extra snack of peanut butter bread.  I did an extra special hair-do on her this morning, and she seems much more content.  No tears today. :)

school year in review

The end of April and the month of May are always crazy busy in this house.  This year was no different, and actually I think it was busier than usual.  We threw in a homeschool convention, an out of town trip, and a half marathon along with the usual set-in-stone events.

I'm always a bad May blogger, but I see that I threw April under the bus this year as well.  Easter in late April didn't help. :)  I'm typically not a great summer blogger, but I'm hoping to change my reputation at least for this summer.

We had our last day of school last Thursday, and I've been thinking about our school year a lot.  Last year, I ordered all of our curriculum as soon as school was completed, and it was nice to not have to think about it all summer.  I'm definitely doing that again while things are still fresh in my mind.

Overall, this was our best year yet in spite of parenting a tween and a toddler at the same time.  The unexplored territory of the tween years baffles me at times, but we're going to survive (sometimes just one hour at a time, though).  This toddler thing...I totally thought I had it down...and then potty training reminded me that I, indeed, know slim to none.

Claire
Claire was an excellent student this year other than a slight hiccup in December.  She took complete charge of her math and her language arts programs and did an outstanding job.

For some reason, she was struggling to complete her reading assignments on time during the month of December.  She assured us that she would catch up over Christmas break, but we all know how difficult it is to catch up when people are building snowmen, decorating for Christmas, and drinking hot cocoa.

We put her on a strict school/chore/free time (or lack thereof) schedule through the month of January, and that seemed to do the trick.  She had no other problems through the remainder of the year.

I'm continually impressed at Claire's self discipline.  She often wakes up long before everyone else so that she can get to work on her math assignments while it's still quiet in the house.  I know that her motivation is that she doesn't want to "miss out" on free time when everyone else has completed their work, but I would have struggled to discipline myself at that age.

What is most shocking is that we now have a 6th grader.  When did that happen?!  We're looking forward to the next stage of the journey. :)

Meredith
Meredith was also a great student this year.  She continues to excel at reading and can often be found lying on her bed with her nose in a book.  I think it calms her.

Math is a frustrating subject for her, but she did extremely well this year while learning all of her multiplication facts.  Certain facts were continually giving her fits, and we did our best to work through those.

I'm praying that her attitude will be a positive one for the upcoming school year as she will be transitioning from me teaching her math lessons on a daily basis to her using Dr. Shoreman's DVD for her daily instruction.  Sometimes she has a difficult time with change, and I think she's feeling some anxiety regarding this.  I know she'll do just fine once she gets a few weeks into the program.

Meredith is a very willing student and typically gets right to work without much prodding.  She works right through her subjects and doesn't get distracted easily.  This is a blessing, for sure!

Amelia
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Amelia this year.  She is so easily distracted and by far the wiggliest child in our home.  Despite my fears, she was a joy to teach.  Distracted?  Yes...but also easy to put back on task.  Wiggly.  Ummm...for sure.  But, thankfully, kindergarten doesn't require that you sit and listen for hours upon hours each day.

She was the easiest child, thus far, to teach how to read.  Claire was the most challenging, then Meredith, then Amelia.  I'm not sure if their personalities/learning abilities are playing into this, or if I'm just getting better at teaching it each year.  I'm sure the latter is true!  If Olivia is the easiest, we'll know it's my experience playing a huge part.  My patience was certainly better the 3rd time around.

Amelia loved math this year, and often requested that we do it first.  Her Explode the Code book was also enjoyable for her.

Olivia
Olivia did great this year as far as finding things to do to keep her busy.  I often gave her little activities to complete this year, but mostly she was just happy to sit next to someone and play legos, look at books, or color.  She has learned her colors, shapes, and numbers.  We've done nothing formal, so I can't take any credit for her knowledge.  I am continually impressed at how much kids learn just by watching and listening.

Last year at this time, she was very interested in potty training.  I thought it was great timing with summer break upon us, but she only wanted to potty in the toilet...no pooping.  This was not what I had envisioned when I began the potty training journey.  Have I mentioned that potty training is my least favorite part of parenting?  Because it is.

I cleaned disgusting messes all summer, and I gave it a rest in the fall thinking that she would come around.  We tried to start again a few different times.  No go.  Mess after mess after mess.  Seriously, a few weeks ago, Claire took her into the bathroom and told her that she couldn't get up until she pooped on the toilet.  She sat there for about 5 minutes and then pooped.  We all celebrated! :)

Of course, she's had an accident here or there, but she's been really successful during the last few weeks!  This is such a relief.  Everyone has been super encouraging to me, and you'll find me often saying things like, "She'll figure it out by the time she starts kindergarten."  But honestly, I was kind of doubting it on this one!  Thankfully, I think we've made it through the hard part.  And if for some reason we happen to have a surprise 5th baby...I'm turning potty training over to Claire. :)

Overall, it's been a truly enjoyable year to teach the girls.  They are such a blessing to our family and to others.  Even though they have their sisterly squabbles, I'm continually impressed at the way they love each other and truly enjoy being together.

Selfishly, I must admit that I'm looking forward to the next two years of having the same number of students to teach.  Middle school seems like a daunting task when I think about it too much, but we're just going to keep doing what we're doing and making changes where we see fit.  It seems to be working, thus far, so we're sticking to it.

I can't tell you how much I love summer break!  We're looking forward to park days, lake days, zoo days, and lazy days.  Hope all of you have a great summer as well!

olivia turns three

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the fact that all mothers drop the ball from time to time.  Friday, it was my turn.  I uploaded some pictures to my computer, and I obviously didn't include them all in the upload.  It makes me very sad because the ones that didn't make it included little stinker pot's third birthday cupcakes.  

IF I had made them perfectly and taken perfect pictures, they would have looked like these:

Image: Erica's Sweet Tooth

Olivia's were similar...not as rounded on the top...no white mickey buttons...lighting not as great for the picture.  I'd say maybe it was better this way because the ones in the picture above are just so darned perfect, but then we miss Olivia's sweet little smile for her birthday cupcakes.  And you miss how three of them were lined up in front of her with a candle in each.  And you miss how she had to blow at them about 10 times to get them out because she was blowing up rather than out.  It was so cute, and I'm a bit teary-eyed just thinking about how I don't have it captured in a photo. :(  I'm sentimental like that.  

I'm sorry, Olivia.

And now I'm moving on because there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to bring back those pictures, so I'll happily show the pictures that did make the cut.  

The girls talked Olivia into a Mickey Mouse theme for her birthday party because they insisted that they do a Disney Day for Olivia since she didn't get to enjoy Disney with us in September.  They have been planning this for at least a couple of months.  They are so, so sweet to her, and they just couldn't love her more than they do.  

All three girls stayed up late on a Friday night to decorate and woke up at 6:00 a.m. the following morning to make cinnamon rolls, Mickey Mouse pancakes, and the works for breakfast.  Here's sneak peek at Disney Day:

Breakfast goodies: handwritten menus, Mickey stickers, autograph book for the day

fruit tray while we're waiting for our pancakes and cinnamon rolls

Loving the day already...and who wouldn't love Mickey Mouse chocolate chip pancakes?

Disney employees hand these stickers out everywhere.  The girls saved them for Olivia and used them in lots of places.  Love their creativity!!

Bippity-Bobbity-Boutique right in our own home!!  Complete with glitter hairspray, a tutu, fairy wings, and a sash.

1st Visit :)

She met Minnie Mouse...

...and Princess Anna...

and Queen Elsa.

The whole group together. :)

She rode Toy Story Mania.

This is a bulls-eye from TSM.  

They had her throw little sponges at the bulls-eyes that were all over the hallway.

They had the Mad Tea Party in the kitchen and used the roller coaster scene from Despicable Me as another roller coaster ride.  They put a kitchen chair in front of the t.v. and would lean the chair all around depending on which direction the roller coaster appeared to be heading. 

Is that so sweet or what?!  

At three years old, Olivia loves...

-reading books

-playing Legos

-taking baths

-playing outside

-being with her sisters

-eating snacks

-giving hugs

-being a helper

-playing with dolls

-talking

She's not so much into...

-sitting still

-trying new foods (although once she does, she often likes them)

-having her hair brushed

-being fully potty trained

-telling Daddy goodnight (not sure why?!)

Olivia,

We love you more than words can say.  You make us laugh every single day, and we can't wait to watch you grow this year.  What a joy and a blessing you are to our family!