What happened to October?

Tucker and Nicole's wedding and Halloween were the big events and between, school, swim, dance, karate, PTA, and teacher trainings... the rest just flew by.

Our trip to NH was awesome. I was so excited to take all the kids to see Fall. We had cold windy weather, saw pumpkin patches, picked apples, collected leaves... We visited Parkers Maple Barn for a rehearsal brunch and saw how they make syrup. The wedding was a blast and the kids were all in it and did fantastic. We had at least 15 people all staying at the hotel so there was plenty of family around to help with the kids and just a great time! The last 2 days we went on a hike up Rattlesnake Mountain and visited a Science center where the kids saw a bunch of animals and then we just chilled out at Tucker and Nicole's place.

I can't wait to get some of the pics from the wedding photographer cause of course his are way better than ours.

Some Labor Day Pics

Greg's mom was taking the kids over Labor Day weekend while Greg and I were going to Indian Rocks Beach with friends. It was a much needed break for me! School started out fine- we were all just tired from waking up so much earlier. But then, Tre got a stomach virus on the 3rd day. Sick kids wear me out! I'm trying to take care of the sick ones (Tre and Frankie were the ones that got it) and keep my house disinfected in the meantime. It's hard enough keeping up with the laundry as it is, nevermind washing extra towels and blankets and sheets every night! Not to mention, cleaning the carpets and couches. Have I mentioned how much I dislike my carpet and how gross it is? :shudder:

Anyhow, Friday couldn't have come sooner and Greg and I took the kids to the beach that evening (so I wouldn't feel guilty that we were spending a whole weekend at the beach without them (they love the beach)! We had a great time. It was so nice to go to the beach in the evening and not worry about sunscreen! The kids had a blast and then we all went home, slept and shipped them off to Granny the next day.

My brother, Tucker, was also in town for the weekend and was able to see the kids briefly before they left. We had a great visit!

Frankie Friday!

So school, karate, and dance have all started. Let the chaos begin....

I haven't blogged in a while and we have been so busy! Lots has happened but whenever I get a chance to sit down and blog I don't know where to begin. I'm thinking of organizing my blog by day/subject. I have some fellow bloggers that do it and it might help me organize my thoughts better. I haven't thought much about it but it's Friday so we'll make it Frankie Friday.

Frankie started school this year. She attends the same school as Joey and is in the 2 year old class. Joey and Tre had the same teacher and she is wonderful! I signed Frankie up to attend 5 days a week but figured I would kind of start her off just a couple days a week and work her up to 5 days. That didn't happen though. She loves it and expects to go every morning, since Joey does, so I let her. I walked her in on the first day and she was fine with me leaving. The next couple days Joey walked her to class, holding her hand. Now, I just drop the girls off in carline and Frankie waves and calls out "Bye Mom!" and then runs down the hallway before Joey can even take her hand LOL. She's always happy to see me and hand me her papers/pictures she made. She likes to go on the swings at the playground and says she likes her firends in her class (although the only name I've heard is Dominick). Apparently she has started asking to use the potty at school ( she occasionally does at home too) so I'm hoping she'll potty train soon!

Oh and that cute pink shirt with the alphabet down the front is screwed up. Target forgot to put the letter "O" in their alphabet. I didn't notice it until she came home that day. Boo Target!

Tre is in love

...apparently. We were in the car last week listening to a pop music station (the kids MUST be listening to music in the car these days... God forbid a commercial comes on the radio...).Anyhow, it's a Justin Beiber song with lyrics about how "your smile is so beautiful and your so amazing just the way you are"...(something like that) and I glance back at Tre who is staring out the window. Tre says, "This song reminds me of Ava" (a little blonde girl in his class last year). I asked him why and he said "everything he says in this song is what I would say to Ava. It's just like how I feel." Egads... the boy is 6! I didn't want to overreact and just concentrated on the road saying "oh, that's very sweet, Tre." That poor kid is going to get his heart broken one day.

edited to add that it's not a Justin Beiber song it's Bruno Mars' Just The Way You Are

What happened to summer?

I can't believe Tre goes back to school next week... and he's going to be in first grade! We bought supplies last week and he is currently sharpening pencils as I type. I'm feeling a bit guilty because my kids haven't done anything academic all summer long. I overheard some people talking about how they had their kids do handwriting or some such worksheet at least once or twice a week. I don't ever remember doing any school work during the summer time and it never even occurred to me to have my kids do school work this summer... until I overheard some other parents. Oh well, it's too late now.

The kids had their last day of swim lessons this morning. I will likely start the girls back up in October if I can afford it. Tre wants to continue karate so he'll do that rather than swimming and thanks to a friend who won an auction for a full semester of dance tuition, Joey will get to do that again in September as well. Let's just hope it doesn't all fall on the same day. Frankie will start at Joey's school in September as well so it will be a busy month for all of us!

I had pictures taken a couple weeks ago at Portrait innovations and they came out great.

My girly girls

I still shudder a bit when I walk down the "pink aisle" in the toy department. I was never very girly as a kid and pretty much just tried to keep up with my older brothers. Joey and Frankie are way more into girly stuff than I was. I don't discourage it though and I do enjoy clothes shopping for them. They like wearing dresses and twirly skirts especially and they both wear the tutus from Joey's dance recital. Joey had been begging me for over a month to rent this video at the library called "I'm so Pretty" or some equally nauseating title. It showed little girls how to put on makeup and dressup. I finally gave in last week and watched it with her. It wasn't too bad. They just put shimmery eye shadow, blush and lipgloss on and then dressed up and paraded around a bedroom (slumber party style). Of course, this video has spurred their latest obsession with makeup. The girls started rummaging through my bathroom drawers looking for stuff. I gave them an old compact and a shimmer body powder that I never used. Then we went to the dollar store and bought a set of 5 lipglosses. They're enjoying them. Here's Frankie getting into my lipstick. I actually thought she did a pretty good job of applying it. LOL

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July, despite the never ending rain. Actually, we did get to go out on the boat for a ride and spent an hour on the beach with the kids. We stayed at a house right on the water with Uncle Ben, his girlfriend, and some other friends of ours. The kids had a great time. The girls had other kids their age to play with and Tre had a great time fishing and catching crabs, and making friends with the neighbor boys. Good food, fireworks and lots of fun.

It's raining...

I'm glad it's raining. Unfortunately that means no swimming or going to the park etc... So, we're finding other things to do, even if it means watching that Scooby Doo movie for the third time.

We have been checking out all the different library branches lately. Last week we went to a drum circle for the first time and it was so much fun... for me too. The name of the company is Giving Tree Music and it's based in Clearwater (they're on facebook). All the kids had their own drums and enjoyed playing together and dancing. Frankie did some impromptu solo parts and Tre was asked to come up and use his arms to direct us in crescendo and decrescendo. The kids all loved it and we will definitely go to another in the future.

Yesterday we went to Main library and signed Tre up for summer reading. We read stories everynight before bed but maybe I can convince him that for the library program HE has to read to ME. He's a great reader but at bedtime he always wants me to do all the reading. We checked out a book called Sun Bread the other day which was a cute story and had a recipe on the back. We made it last night and it turned out really good. The kids had sunbread for breakfast this morning.

Tre starts karate next week and is very excited. His granny made his ghee for his Uncle Ben when he was boy and it fits Tre perfectly. He'll do karate this summer (thank goodness for indoor sports) and then if he likes it we'll continue in the fall.

One Fish, Two Fish...

After a long busy week (VBS, Greg got in a car accident...) it was nice to have a relaxing weekend. Friday, Greg came home early and we all went over to my Dad's for a swim and a cookout. Friends came over and the kids got to spend time with some of the aunts and uncles too.

Saturday we went to the Holland's and watched the World Cup game, went out for icecream and then had movie night. We all watched Avatar for the first time. Tre made it through the whole movie, but he was definitely scared at some parts (when he would conveniently go to the bathroom to work on his loose tooth). It's a top tooth and it's so loose it's practically sideways and it sticks out too. I'm hoping to get pics taken of the kids soon so I want that tooth to hurry up and come out already. The girls watched part of the movie and whined through the end that they wanted to go home. Granted, it was over an hour past bedtime. Finally they crashed on the floor.

Sunday, Greg told the kids that they could get a fish. He's been talking about it for a while now and of course the suggestion was met with great excitement (not so much by me- the primary fish tank supervisor and cleaner). Of course, I got on board with the kids excitement and we all made the trip to petsmart. We wanted to just get Betta fish cause we're too cheap to buy a big tank with a filter and all that. Greg and I found some little tanks with a divider in them so you could keep 2 bettas together without one killing the other. This was a great idea because it probably kept Tre and Joey from killing eachother over which fish to choose. After some prompting by us that they should choose a lively fish and not one floating, one fin in grave, Tre and Joey chose their fish. Joey's is a female red betta and her name is "Goldy." Tre's is a male betta that is red and blue and his name is "FreddyBlue." We finally transferred them to the big tank today and they are happily swimming. The kids are especially excited, although Frankie would be happier with a dog. LOL

We spent the rest of Sunday making homemade pizza and fried eggplant and watching tv. Then Greg and the girls all conked out and Tre and I snuck off to the grocery store by ourselves. I always love outings with just me and Tre. He's good company and always appreciates our alone time. All in all, a great weekend.

This one is for Frankie

I am officially done nursing! And... I'm not pregnant or planning on it. I have been nursing or pregnant for over 6 years now pretty much. I'm not really sure that everyone knew that I was still nursing Frankie since I only nursed her at home but she would have gone on forever and I was feeling pretty much done. I weaned Tre and Joey around 15-16 months old so nursing a 2 year old was a bit different. Frankie is such a peanut though (at maybe 18 or 19 pounds) so I never felt like I was nursing a large child in my lap. Anyhow, my mother in law offered to take the kids for the weekend and of course we took her up on it and I decided that I was going to use the opportunity to wean Frankie. She's spent plenty of overnights before and doesn't even think about or ask to nurse unless I'm around. After 3 days away the first thing she wanted to do was nurse when she saw me and she still asks numerous times a day (or rather... tells me "I'm hungy"), but so far she's been easily distracted and hasn't shed too many tears over it. I'm hoping she'll forget all about it by next week and quit asking.

She's a funny kid. She talks a lot and can be quite the character. She likes to play with her brother and sister but she definitely gets physical with them too (pushing and pinching). She's a tough little thing.

Frankie tries all different foods and loves broccolli, onions, olives... typically if it has a strong flavor she'll eat it. If only I could get her to drink some milk and fatten up a bit!

She likes going in the pool and playing in the kids' zone at the Y. In September she'll start going to school a couple mornings a week where Joey goes. I think she'll really enjoy it.

Summer time

So, May is a crazy month in our house. Joey, Frankie and Greg all have birthdays. We had a combined birthday barbecue celebration at the house with about 50 people attending. The weekend before we had a sliding glass door put in (we never had a back door at this house). It was great fun! It was also Mother's day weekend and my mom and my mother in law were both here. I haven't spent a mother's day with my mom since I was a kid. We went and had massages and pedicures and lunch and even went out to the bar the Friday before for Ladies night. Good times! Memorial day weekend, Gregory and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary (complete with an overnight stay to the beach without kids!) Granny brought them to the beach the next day and they had a great time. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera and the following day they were supposed to come back to the beach but Tre started vomiting. I think thats the 3rd stomach virus this year. Frankie and Joey had it the week earlier and thank God that Greg and I were spared this time. Poor Becky got it though and I felt terrible for her.



Needless to say, with all the holidays and all of the end of the year activities it was a crazy month and I didn't get 1 blog post written. Now its summer and we have been busy swimming! I love summer time (well, only if there's a water source and some AC). A few pics from Cool Dave's house. Days at the pool are some of my best childhood memories so I'm glad that my kids get to experience the same.

Tre's Triops

Tre got "sea monsters" for his birthday from Uncle Gavin and Aunt Jenni. Today I am finally convinced that we actually have one growing. For the past week or so they were so tiny I wasn't sure if they were some other pond creature of just mosquito larvae, but today one miraculously appeared and it's bigger and actually resembles the picture on the poster; although it's obviously not full size yet. They're pretty exciting. Uncle Gavin came over last weekend and helped Tre create this movie of them. He brought it into to share with his class and told me that everyone clapped at the end and his teacher asked if she could keep it for a while. He says she's going to show it to the principal :)

Easter

Joey had an Easter Egg Hunt at school and of course Frankie participated also. Tre had one at his school too but I went later on to participate in the walkathon with him. Our Spring break was packed. We went to BuschGardens and had Tre's birthday. Then we went to Kissimmee and stayed with Greg's parents. Greg's dad flew us to Sebastian where we stayed at Ben's house for the weekend while the kids stayed with Greg's parents. Tre stayed the night at a friends house one evening also. Easter morning we picked the kids up and drove back to Clearwater where their Easter baskets were waiting. They all got new flip flops, some chocolate and a toy/game. I made cupcakes and then we all went to Elsie's for dinner. It was a great spring break over all.

Happy 6th Tre!

Tre had a Birthday party at the house. 7 kids came over (including a few younger siblings) so 10 kids total. We colored eggs, sent the kids to the backyard while we cleaned up. They came in to drinks and snacks and we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes. Then everyone went back outside until it was time to leave. They all took their goody bags and colored eggs home and my house and sanity actually stayed in good shape. Tre enjoyed the party and Auntie Syd came over as it was ending, just in time to help me clean up and open presents with Tre.