I Scream, You Scream.... We All Scream!

Sooooooo suppertime around here for the last few weeks (months? years?) has been dreadful. Seriously. We cringe when it's time to call them to the table, then we brace ourselves for the fallout. They hate supper. I'm not sure if it's the idea of it, the content, the terrible inconvenience of it or what but we're almost to the point that we just might not serve it to them any more. We could get our plates ready, eat in peace, enjoy the meal and just leave them to play while we enjoy our repast. Honey hates just about anything we can put on her plate. Now sometimes we like different things. I know not everyone likes our Thai Chicken pizza (peanut butter & soy sauce, bean sprouts, broccoli toppings etc) but I'm talking about chicken and mashed potatoes here. Lovey just looks at her plate and starts to cry some nights. At times, they refuse to even come into the kitchen. They just yell "I hate supper and I'm NOT eating it". That's our starting point. Then we give them 3 warnings & then a time out if they dont' come in. Sometimes they get a couple of time outs before they'll get in their chair. Sweetie doesn't seem to balk as much as the other two but she tends to be hungrier and actually likes more foods than they do so is more likely to eat something. I've tried making buttery things, cheesy things, fun shaped noodles etc. Lovey can barely choke down ¼ of a SLICE of carrot. We don't want to force them to clean their plates (not sure we even could!) but I'd like them to have a bite of everything. They're allowed to have dips, sauces, ketchup.. whatever, if they'll just eat a freakin' bite!!!!! Anyway, last night we told them that if they did a good job on their supper, we'd go out for icecream afterwards. Lovey almost didn't get to go. She just kept saying "but I HATE venchtables!!!!!!" With much coaching, prodding, cajoling, cheerleading (backflips no less!) and a generous helping of ketchup, I got her to have a few bites of rice, some bbq chicken and that one slice of carrot. I have to put on a circus x 3 to get a decent meal down????? Anyway, last night was a success so they got the treat as promised.

We loaded up & hit the icecream stand and they were in heaven!

Chocoloate Chip Cookie Dough for these two.

and bubble gum for Sweetie.
orange pineapple for Daddy!

I'll have to work out some kind of reward chart/system and see if we can make mealtime a little smoother because this incentive seemed to do the trick!

More Outdoors!!!!!

Two days in a row of outdoor playtime! I'm trying to squeeze in as much as we can while we can. Although the girls are already looking forward to fall (ie Halloween) and winter (so they can make snowmen, snow angels and have Christmas), I am most definitely not anxious to get into the multiple layers of clothes, snowsuits and hats & mitts. Ugh! Going outdoors now is so simple (well as simple as things get around here), grab your flip flops & hop in your seat. (after arguing and chasing and nagging them to death for an hour). We went to meet a friend & we surprised her by showing up to play at the park.

You can see how they're all hanging on the big sister's every word. She was in charge & it was time to play princess and assign the roles. Lucky for us Disney has a large cast with lots of options to suit everyone : ))))

Park It!

Woohoo! A day without precipitation!!! We were able to go to playgroup outside today & the kids had a blast at the park with their friends. We had some added bonuses too! Tulip came and so did Boo and as if that wasn't fun enough, my good friend Koas came to hang out with us. Sweetie is completely wild about Koas and she just grinned ear to ear when she saw her arrive!
Koas in hot pursuit of runaway children!Koas mentioned today that she wishes she could get rid of her braces, (she's had them for 6-7 years, ouch!) so I thought I'd indulge her, if only digitally!

Koas is camera crazy so I actually get to appear on the blog today!

5 kids, one skinny ladder=trouble!

We hijacked Boo's sitter, sorry Teena!

Koas & Sweetie, doing underducks.

Could she be any happier???????
Good friends, good times!
Hey is that ME again???????? : )))

A Perfect Ten!

We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary on the weekend! Ten years, wow! hard to believe that much time has gone by but I hear it flies when you're having fun! ;)))) Murray's parents got their first crack at having a sleepover & kept the kids for the weekend. It started out a little rocky when Lovey got overtired on the trip down and then spent the rest of the drive crying, begging and pleading to please please please take her home so she could sleep in her bed. This continued after we arrived and then throughout the night but the next day she was fine & the 2 nights they spent at Nanny & Grampy's went without incident, or at least, without full tilt screaming hysterics.

The kids had a blast helping Nanny clean out the attic and playing with all the old toys she's kept there for years. They also got into their Great Nana's jewelry which would have been any girl's delight!

For our part, we had an enjoyable weekend of quiet togetherness! We did some canoeing, some biking & jogging (I biked to keep up with that freakin' runner!) & we stayed at a b&b that had awesome food and a cozy room to crash in. The second night we went in to the city and did some shopping, more eating and we wandered around downtown checking out the action there and caught a comedy show in the evening that was really good. It was pretty weird to be so carefree for such an extended period of time! Usually if the kids go to my mum's, there's something to work on at home so it's not quite as leisurely as this. I enjoyed it but it didn't feel quite real! Being free of responsibility is now a foreign concept to us I guess! BUT I'm sure we could get better at it, given the opportunity....

Murray calls this his "urban attitude". I think I've burned out another model!

Super Models R Us

do these girls have it or what? Seeing as it's mostly relatives that read this, I expect the answer to be pretty much a unanimous YES! : )))
wow, another good one! that's 2 out of 3, now if I could just get....
nope. our cool dude won't look, smile or sit still. Bribery may be needed here.

We were out for a walk last week & I got decent pictures of almost everybody, except the girl who's too busy of course! That one's always tricky. I want to update the individual pictures I have in the living room that I did last year in their Hines dresses. I've been working on them, pointing out that those are OLD pictures and I need NEW pictures of my four year old girls now. They seem agreeable until we actually get outside with the camera, then it's run away from Mumma time. Here they're feeding the "ducks" with the "food" they ripped off the trees on the side of the road. Environmentally friendly, that's us.

Lovey is our pokey little puppy, and has often declared: "I like to be slow!" Great that she likes to set her own pace but man is it hard to take a walk with her lagging along behind. She had a great time walking her "dog" though!and then there's Zippy! note: neither foot is actually touching the ground!

more of the "Bunny Sisters" in action.
we were almost all the way home without incident when Honey took a tumble on the pavement and required drastic medical attention for the scraped knee. Luckily we have this cold gel pack head wrap thing that is supposed to be for feverish babies. We use it mostly for bumps & scrapes, it seems to take the ouch out quickly! She walked around with this on her leg most of the afternoon. Whatever works!

Sweetie & Lovey were supposed to be sharing this popsicle. Honey had balked at the idea of sharing the only popsicle we had and opted for a different snack instead. However, she seems to have wormed her way back in to the sharing. Poor Sweetie can't get a lick in edgewise!

and then a little pool time to finish off the hot afternoon (one of the few days we didn't have rain last week!)

We are dive stick masters now! They can all scoop them up easily so I have to remind them, 2 each, put that extra one back for your sisters!!!!!! However, there's always somebody still trying to hog more!

more of my "practicing the focus" sessions. Sometimes I get it but it's still not 100%. Not sure if that's quite attainable but I'd like to get over 50/50 at least!!!