Just 'Cuz

We had a visit from Crazy Uncle Andrew and Mr. Bojangles on the weekend. Mandy stayed home to clean again so the boys had some quality time on the road trip. They arrived intact and were heavy into a sword fight with the girls when I came in so they were no worse for wear!
It was a gorgeous day out but nobody wanted to come outside with me so I gave up on the rest of them and asked Mr. B if he'd go for a walk with me & he was my only taker. So I started getting ready and suddenly EVERYBODY wanted to go. So much for MY quality time!!! :0
Sweetie decided to give everyone wagon rides and insisted on pulling them almost the whole way down to the main road and back! She took a couple breaks but for the most part, she wanted to do the work. She had a bit of trouble on the hills but she really put her all into it and got through the tough spots with a bit of help from me when it got too steep.


Mr. B greatly enjoyed his cousins and they doted on him like crazy! They hovered and followed him. They searched out toys for him to play with. Lovey even shared her Baby Alive with him.
He was pretty taken with it & held it during his entire time in the wagon and found some of her parts a little intriguing!
I had a couple conversations with him and learned some interesting things!

Me: are you smart Mr. B?

Mr. B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Daddy?

B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Mommy?

B: yeah

Me: are you smarter than Uncle Murray?

B: yeah

Me. are you smarter than Aunt Kelly?
B: yeah

(and so on as I named every person I could think of)

Me: so you're smarter than just about everybody?

B: yeah

Me: is there anyone smarter than you??????

B: Sweetie.
I know he puts his parents through their paces on many a good day but other than waking up at 5 am Sunday morning, he didn't give anybody a lick of trouble the whole time he was here! He was all fun and games for our visit. He just went along with whatever was going on, didn't fuss over anything, played gently with everything and came when I asked him to, ate what I gave him and was a pretty impressive little boy! (noooo I am not biased!!!!!!)
On Sunday morning Andrew had his race so we had Mr B for ourselves. Murray did not get to enjoy his nephew much though. In the middle of the night Murray woke up with what he now believes to be the Norwalk virus, and spent most of the night losing his lunch. Finally around 5am I mentioned that he seemed to be having a rough night and he moaned/grunted "every TEN minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!" It sounded agonizing and while I hadn't been keeping track or timing, the schedule did indeed seem busy. (he's now fully recovered and feeling fine)
On Sunday morning however, he was obviously out of commission. Using all my supermom powers, I got all four kids in the tub! Watching them play mermaids in there was priceless! I loved how Mr. B was right into it with the girls. The hot pink bikini clad scaly chick was fine with him!

That was a pretty ambitious undertaking right there but I decided that wasn't hard enough. So, I took them all to church. We got there EARLY! The girls kept track of Mr. B (don't worry Mand, I was keeping track of them keeping track of him!) and took him by the hand & led him around as we hung up coats, went to the choir room and got ready. While the choir was practicing, they took him off to the side and put their good shoes on and kept him right with them while they waited. Then we went in to find a seat and they got toys out of my bag to entertain him while the minister did the intro/announcements etc. The only tricky part was that they all wanted to sit by him and this caused a bit of a problem but it never got out of hand. At Children's Time, they led him up front and sat beside him and then took him to Sunday School with them. He was completely unconcerned and content with their leadership! While they went to class, he played in the toy room next door. The lady in there said he played happily but never said a word as he went around the room playing with everything.

So that's pretty good right? Nah, let's ramp it up and see how much we can really take. I hit the grocery store on the way home. We desperately needed some fruit and there wasn't going to be any other opportunity that day so it was one of those now or never situations. So I figured "how hard can it be? " and we unloaded and forged our way through the shoppers to get some bananas and miscellaneous produce items. We didn't stay long, I didn't want to push my luck, but we got in and out without causing a national incident! This is the first time in 5 years that I've ever had the thought "well maybe another kid wouldn't be so bad....?" but let me tell you it was THE most fleetingest though on the face of the earth!

So yes, we had a great time and really really really enjoyed Mr Bojangles! I'm already scheming how to steal him away for a longer visit this summer :) It's not really kidnapping if you're related right???

Love you Mr. Bojangles!!!!!!!!

We Love Surprises!

We got home from school today & found a parcel in the mailbox!!!!!!!!!!! Every time we check the mail, the girls have high hopes that there will be something for them. On the odd occasion that their names are actually on a piece of mail, things get very exciting at our house :)))

"a surprise for how well you worked for your mermaids!"

Woohoo!! New Dick & Jane books with the added bonus of STICKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
They immediately began decorating their pages and creating the zoo scenes. These are perfect!!!
That was awfully sweet of you Princess Pamela! Thank you for letting them know you noticed their efforts & successes! This definitely made our day :)))))

Favourite People

Five little people near and dear to my heart. One of them isn't quite as little as the rest, but she used to be!!!!!!
I loved seeing them all huddled together, playing with the toys and making up their stories to go along with their activities. All so serious but sweet at the same time. They don't see each other often but that didn't matter to them. It was time to play and they got right down to business in a hurry!
The big kids helped the littlest kid and made sure he was entertained and involved the whole way. Adults came in to check on them, watch them and see what was going on. They came and went unnoticed. They were intent on their "mission" and were not in the least distracted. No one even looked up as I took pictures!
We loved seeing Flowergirl & Mr. Bojangles and enjoyed their company!

Come Back Cans!!!!!!!!!

Have you heard of these? Did you ever make one as a kid? I'd never seen or heard tell of one before Nanny said she was going to make them with the girls. Lucky for Rick she was short of cans and so he "had" to go buy himself a can of pistachios so she'd have the right number in supply!

Come Back Cans! (known as CBC! from here on in) are not too complicated but they sure need a LOT of parts as you can see below!
The girls loved working on these and managed not to permanently maim anyone with the hammer. I did hear a couple of winces though so I know not every blow hit the mark!
Nanny is obviously the adventurous sort to be putting her fingers in this danger zone :)

They had to string some weights to go inside the can and Sweetie is helping Nanny get them just so for hers.

Here's Sweetie's finished internal rigging for the CBC! Very simple yet intricate at the same time. They were so fascinated and involved in this project. It kept them busy for at least an hour I think. They worked diligently alongside Nanny and I think they listened to her pretty well and were as careful as a 5 year old with heavy blunt instruments and small parts can be!

Then they took them upstairs for the test run. They got a huge kick out of rolling the can away from them and then talking to the can and calling for it to return to them. Sweetie was even using hand gestures to signal hers!
Nanny had been watching a bit too much curling and jumped in and started yelling "HURRY! HURRY HAAAAAAAAAAAARD!!!!!!!!!!!"
Ok, well maybe I made that last bit up and maybe I didn't....
Regardless the cans were a big hit and worked every time! Yay for interesting projects!!!

Tea Party!

What a busy week! I can't believe the break is over already, it went by so fast!
The library had lots of fun stuff going on & we went to a few different events there. We checked out the puppet show Wednesday evening and then attended a tea party on Friday. It was a big event with many many many children and parents in attendance. We barely fit in there!
Everyone was dressed up, even the librarians! They did a little re enactment of the Princess & the Pea. As the princess tossed & turned and then woke up tired and cranky and whining about being unable to get a good sleep and hating her mattress because it was soooooooooooo bad, Teena looked at me and mouthed "SHE must be FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!"

They got little booklets to make their own fairytale in. They were served special apple tea (warmed up apple juice/cider.... it didn't go over well with anyone!) and were served cookies by the princesses on duty.

Later one of the royals came along and distributed some of the queen's jewels to each of the kids. They were in heaven and thought it was the best party ever!