Chillaxin

Nothing beats a day of visiting all of the farm animals at the farm...

a little lunch on the patio...

and a nice little nap in the sunshine.

We are so loving the cooler weather!

Happy 7th Birthday!

Today my Isabella turned seven!!!

Most of our celebrations were this past weekend (many pics to follow) but I did manage to get her to pose for a few pics in front of her Birthday candle before she headed out to school this morning.

Each night before a birthday I pull out the Birthday candle, set it on the same candlestick as the year before, and use it to decorate their Birthday spot at the dinner table. Once this is done, I go upstairs and decorate their doorway so that when they wake up in the morning they feel extra special as they walk out of their room. Kyle thinks I'm nuts, but what he doesn't know is that these guys start talking about my crazy rituals days before their actual birthday. I usually hear them talking as we are driving down the road, and this year was no different. Last week Isabella was discussing with Margaret what color of streamers I was going to use this year for her doorway.

This year as I pulled out her candle I first noticed how light the box was that I keep it in. Once I had it out of the box I then noticed how short it was. My first thought was that it must have broken...then after looking more closely I saw that she has almost lived half of it's 18 year span. I was really doing okay with this turning seven thing, until that moment. A timeline of the years I have with her home (assuming she moves out at 18) looks a heck of a lot shorter than what I have imagined in my head. This was just a great reminder to me that time is going fast. It reminded me to stop, slow down, and appreciate everything that this girl brings my way. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

Happy 7th Birthday my sweet Isabella!

Your love for life is so BIG, just like your heart:)

Pre-K

Are you ready for this one Pre-K???

Little Miss started school today and she was more than happy to get out the door this morning. I asked her in the car what she was hoping to learn this year, her answer...

"maybe some math"

My kind of girl:)

Can't wait to pick her up and give her lots of snuggles!

Walter's Big Day!

Today was Walter's first day of preschool!!!

He has been very excited about this day, right up until last night when he found out his friends were not going to be there with him from last year. This morning at breakfast he asked me if there was going to be cars there to play with, if not he said, "I'm not going!" Margaret assured him that there would be plenty of cars to play with and sure enough he found a big basket full when we got there.

When I picked him up he was full of smiles and full of stories of his day. We couldn't even get in the car until he pulled out his folder and showed me all of his work:) He had a great day, ate all of his lunch, and made some new friends.

Way to go Walter, can't wait to see how much you grow and change this year:)

Love you buddy!

Irish Festival 2011

This weekend came and went in the blink of an eye.

We finally have our break from the heat and we were able to get out and enjoy every minute of it! I love bringing my crew to the Irish Fest! We had a blast!

Margaret the Brave!

This girl is like a rock!

She is small but very mighty!

Yesterday she had her second round of tubes put into her ears and she handled it way beyond her years. Most children her age would be up the night before worrying about what was going to happen the next day, this little firecracker was up late looking for her doll's matching pajamas and making me fix the doll's hair so that it would match her own.

I don't know if her giddiness was because this is one thing that sets her apart from her siblings, she is my only one with tubes so far, or she is just really the bravest four-year-old that I have ever met.

She had tubes put in two years ago to prevent her from getting those nasty ear infections. Life has been good since until about two weeks ago she came to me to let me know that her ear was bleeding. No tears, no pain, just a bleeding ear. I thought maybe her eardrum had ruptured? I took her to the ENT last week and you know it is bad when they look in your daughter's ears and say, "Oh My". She then proceeded to leave the room and come back with another doctor who proceeded to schedule surgery for her right away. Long story short, her tube was trying to grow out like they are supposed to do but hers was getting trapped and causing all sorts of issues. She now has two new tubes and very cleaned out ears! She came through like a rockstar and within an hour of her procedure downed a cookies and cream milkshake and a taco:) The life of a four-year-old!

This whole mess was much harder on me than her, as it always seems to be. Even though I knew she was in good hands and everything was going to be fine I still got tears in my eyes as they wheeled my little girl away. When I found a seat in the waiting room my goal was to write out my grocery list as I was waiting. As I sat there all I could think about was my Margaret, is she going to do well with the anesthesia this time? Then my mind led to my Isabella, how was she going to do on her spelling test today, hopefully she liked the lunch at school so she wouldn't spend the day hungry. Then of course Walter, was he listening to his coach at soccer practice? And last but not least Caroline, was she doing okay without me there? Then poof, the doctor came out 15 minutes later to tell me that she was all done and Margaret would be waking up soon.

Is this what mother's do?

For the rest of my life am I always going to worry about what my kids are doing?

How did my mom survive this? I used to just call her crazy for all of the worrying that she spent on me. I think I finally get it, I can't even sit to make a grocery list without worrying about my kids!