happy mother's day!!!

my sister was in town this weekend (more on that in a different post),
my mom, sister and i all celebrated mother's day together.

group shots of "the girls" was relatively easy -
although we still need to work on looking at the camera :)



a group shot with all my kids...
well see for yourself.
this was the best one!

all in all it was a great mother's day.
the kids were so sweet -
i'll have to post a picture of olivia's card to me...
it was hilarious -
with a slight pop culture reference.

and to end a great mother's day...
my parents took the kids on an hour long walk,
then took them back to their house for baths & snacks.
they were delivered to our house all set for bed.
bliss.

happy mother's day!!

lots & lots of fun (and pictures!)

today the weather was awesome!
we packed up the kids and headed over to holland.

we only had 2 things to accomplish-
play on the beach
enjoy the tulips

mission accomplished!

{you'll notice a good group shot was not on our agenda}

the perfect solution

my kids love art projects.
unfortunately, i'm not a "fun" mom when it comes to art.
sometimes i try to get creative, but messes really, really bug me.
and it often seems like when i do let the kids do an art project,
it holds their interest for all of 5 minutes,
then i'm left with the mess.

so...

i've found the perfect solution.
art classes for kids.
every week they have different stations they can play at.
this week the boys' favorite station was pudding painting.
now that's something they won't see at home!

and the 2 best parts of art class -
the mess stays there (even the dirty art shirts!)
and
we can leave the artwork there to "dry" -
and yes "dry" is a code word for not ever having to bring it home.

no i'm not mean -
i love saving some of their art work.
but the class is 6 weeks long...
that's a lot of sponge paint pictures to file away at home!

put on your listening ears...

garrett counting in spanish...

uno
dos
tres
cuatro
i think so
seis

time for some more dora & diego!!

i have to admit, i'm not much better...
i had to google "spanish numbers" just to figure out how to spell them.

slightly random, but this reminds me of the friends episode when phoebe
thinks elton john wrote a song about tony danza...
"hold me close, young tony danza"
ha ha
that still makes me laugh

looks like spring

sorry josie - you're too little to stand on a rock :)

wordless wednesday

{pick me up}

school smarts

the exercise headband i've been waiting for just came today
(loving the fact that athleta is now under gap...FREE SHIPPING)

tried it on - love it!
olivia asked if she could try it on, too.
then she got this worried look on her face and said-
"mom, i'm not going to get head lice, am i?"

and that is when you know you have a kid who is in elementary school!!

i need sleep....and a bigger bed

last night...

2am
i wake up to garrett sleeping in the middle of our bed
and josie is screaming in her crib.
for the sake of my sanity (and b/c it's way too convenient),
i bring her into our bed and nurse her back to sleep.
while i'm feeding her, olivia walks in saying she had a bad dream.
i told her i was sorry, but there was no room in the bed for her.
poor kid!
thankfully she went back to her bed.
i finally nurse josie back to sleep, then put her back to bed.
tim carries garrett back to bed.

3am
wake up to olivia crawling into our bed.
josie is screaming again. argh.
repeat how i got her back to sleep before.
i know, i know... bad habit.

6am
realize josie is still sleeping in our bed and i have no room.
i carry her back to bed.
get back in bed, and push olivia over to tim's side :)

7am
i hate the alarm.

happy earth day

random ryan

my favorite ryan phrase these days...

"i not naked, i ry ry"

this comment started at the waterpark,
when we must have made a comment about him being naked.

2 yr olds just crack me up.