Fun-Filled weekend.... I did IT!

As I am typing this my body is aching and exhausted. But it is such a good thing! I had my first outdoor soccer game of the session! It was so fun to be out on the field again, and it was perfect soccer weather. Warm, but not too hot and sunny. On top of that, I scored a goal! One of the guys on my team got fouled in the box and only girls can take PKs. (Penalty kicks). Who knew, anyway he chose me to take the shot! I was so excited, PKs used to be my favorite, but that was a good 12 years ago. I got super nervous as the ref. lined everything up and people were staring and waiting. But I got it right into the corner! It was so exciting for me.


Not only that, Kent and I got to go on a date last night and had a wonderful dinner and 3 solid hours without interruptions. It doesn't get much better than that.

Then the night before, on Friday, I went to the sewing class I signed up for a couple of weeks ago! I had been really looking forward to it, it's something that has been on my to-do list for a year now. One of the girls in my twins group organized it, so there was five of us at this cute little shop. The owner has sewn for 40+ years and started her own business 18 months ago. I can't say enough wonderful things about her. She was so nice, helpful, friendly and had more patience than I ever thought possible. Check out her store at www.thetopstitch.com She has the largest collection of Amy Butler fabrics in the NW! I had no clue what that meant, but now I am in love with all of the Amy Butler stuff! We made a purse out of one of her patterns. The class was scheduled from 5:30-8:30, but we didn't walk out of there until 10. I was tuckered out! There is so much attention to detail for sewing (this may be why it could possibly not work out for me as a hobby). I did LOVE it though... I really want to make more cool stuff, I bought more fabric to make this same purse all by myself. I am going to borrow my Sis-in-law's sewing machine and see how I do! My friends Meghan, Amber and Kathy have really inspired me! I hope I can start cranking out projects like you! :)

This is the purse, by no means perfect, but it should work! Before I left for my class Brayden asked, "Mom if your purse doesn't work can you still bring it home so I can see it?" He was quite proud when I showed it to him the next day and it hadn't fallen apart and there were no holes in it! I am not very good at taking pics. of these things. But you get the general idea.....

More random stuff from last week....

This is Brayden's visor he made at school during his "beach party." I was impressed that he could do such a great job of putting all the letters backwards on his visor. He now spells his name backwards with all the letters having a perfect mirror image. It is quite impressive and his teacher says it's totally normal. When is that supposed to be fixed??

Eating more Easter candy with his cool visor.

These are my new favorite hats that the girls actually love to wear. They look like such big kids with them on, and so sassy too. (D's is backward)

Ready to hit the town.

Ellie even wears hers during breakfast.

Snuggles with the Cousins

A little bit of a struggle to get everyone involved.....6 kids four and under.

Ellie was being especially helpful and didn't want to sit on the couch! :) Dani and Ally were ready to go though.

The BOYS! Bryaden, Owen and Keegan!

This is the best we did. Dani, Ally, Ellie, Brayden, Owen and Keegan

A few nights ago, we had a speech therapy night while the guys had their Dad's night out! Sarah brought the kids over and I worked with my niece and nephew while she tended to all the kids. (I get the easy part of these arrangements). By the time I went back upstairs, the night was quickly coming to an end. All the kids had their jammies on and they matched! I had to take some pics. they were so cute!

Easter with the Phillips' (part 2)

A week later I am posting part 2.....it was a crazy week. Look at the previous post for an explanation of some of the craziness... After we had Easter morning at our house we headed to Grandma Phillips' and Grandpa Chris' house for Easter dinner. What fun! MORE Easter baskets and lots of egg hunts. The kids had a great time, I was exhausted by the time we left. YAY! A chalk egg for the driveway!

Lots of cool stuff in these baskets too.

Grandma Phillips modeling the ears!

A kazoo! (This item disappeared earlier in the week, I think it will def. be a toy that goes back and STAYS at G-ma's house).

Ears on Ellie.

Ears on Alexis.

YAY for Bun Buns!

Thanks for a fun evening G & G!

Up the nose anyone????

My darling daughter is always keeping me on my toes! For a few days, I thought she was just dirty and had a stinky diaper crack. I bathed her a few times, and she still stunk. Then I sniffed a little closer and thought, eeewww she has bad, rotten, milk breath. I brushed and brushed her teeth. Nothing....still stinky to high heaven. (this is over about two days). Then I figured, hmm she must have an infection between her lip and nose, it's a little red and she has had a runny nose FOREVER! I put some neosporin on it, but STILL stinky. A few hours later I see kleenex hanging out of her nose. I lie her on the ground, after retrieving my tweezers and pull a couple strips out. They were dry, and not at all stinky. I thought, well this should be an improvement. Kent came home from work and complained about how stinky she was. Poor girl, how sad is that?? I lie her on the ground a few hours later and see a little white chunk in her nose. I go for the tweezers again and pull out a few little balls of wadded wet mucousy kleenex. I couldn't believe how bad they STUNK! Then I checked again and I couldn't believe the size of the wad of kleenex that was shoved up there. It really was unbelievable! Kent just observed in awe. I got a huge ball out, and I think that was the main culprit of the smelliness! I could smell it from across the room. So icky! The reason I am blogging about this is because has anyone else had the pleasure of dealing with this??

My mommy brain has been on overdrive all weekend, paranoid that Dani is going to get some kind of brain infection.... since I pulled that all out (and I keep checking for more, but there hasn't been any yet) she hasn't smelled at all.....

I am planning on calling the Dr. in the morning (Monday) but I don't know that there's much they can do. Has anyone heard of anything horrible happening from something like this?

Easter with the Phillips' (part 1)

Our Saturday was jam packed with Easter traditions. First we made our sugar cookies.... still quite the experience with three little helpers. Kent suggested we not do this again until they are older. :) Through the whole process at least one child was on top of the counter "helping."

Notice the flour EVERYWHERE! It just got worse from here.

Time to frost, onto outfits number two.

YAY for frosting!

Everyone took a sample taste at one point.

I got smart and decided to dye eggs while the girls were napping. We didn't have enough hands to cover all the dye cups, eggs and spoons! Plus, B got some fun time with just us!

Brayden putting an egg tattoo on.

Dad and Brayden having so much fun! Kent was thrilled because we got TWO different blue colored dyes, but no purple. We had lots of blue eggs to choose from!

Before bed Brayden asked if we could leave a carrot for the Easter bunny. I said, "Sure, check the fridge." Luckily there was a nasty old carrot and a limp stalk of celery. The kids were THRILLED, it was the funniest thing ever. They waved their nasty veggies around forever before putting them in their buckets for the Easter bunny.

YAY for nasty vegetables!

Elizabeth

Danielle with her celery.

Brayden with a carrot AND celery!

Easter morning! Checking out the buckets, making sure she didn't get something better!

Ellie got into the chocolate first thing!

Dani on her way to hunt for eggs!

Brayden excited about his bucketful of eggs and treats!

YAY for egg hunts and the Easter Bunny!

My Two precious Two year olds

"No problem", I tell my friends at book club. "I can pick up the books at the library. Brayden will be in school and I'll just run in and pick the ones up that are on hold." I then tell my sis-in-law I can pick her book up too, they're all in the same spot. She asks, "Do you want me to drive with you and I can wait in the parking lot with the girls?"

"No, that's silly, I will just go in with them, it will only take a second." Ha, ha. Little did I know that my darling daughters were possessed that day. All I had to do was drop off the book club book bag, get a new book bag and pick up Sarah's book on hold. Two minutes tops! Not so much. The poor lady who helped me, and eyed my girls the second we walked into the silent library was very confused. I'm still not quite sure why this whole return/check out procedure was so difficult for her. For me, it was difficult because I had two girls who wanted to go in two opposite directions and do exactly the opposite of what I asked them. Between pushing the electronic buttons to open the doors (which stayed open the whole time we were there, because at least one of them was pushing it the whole time) and taking off for the stairs to explore the second level, things were not good.

Finally I was able to scoop BOTH of them into my arms and I tried to make them sit on the

counter. I learned why I never do this: Dani has extremely long arms (not really, but it seemed like it) and she tried to grab anything within ten feet. This included pamphlets (which fell and spread all over the floor), wires, electronic, and books. While I was trying to keep Dani's hands under control Ellie was squirming all over trying to get out of my death grip. I am quite surprised that she didn't fall and take a header onto the floor. Meanwhile, all the older people (Grandma's and Grandpa's) standing behind me looked on in horror. Step one down, book bag turned in.

Step two: Pick up Sarah's book from the hold section. This section is only 20 feet away, but when a couple of two year olds don't want to go a certain way, it is an incredible journey! It is especially hard when there is not a sound to be heard (except my protesting, screaming girls). I make it to the holds section, but the book I need has not been shelved yet. Perfect. I ask the nice lady where it could be, "Oh, you need to check the other three counters and see if it's in the 'to be shelved sections'." Great, no problem.

Seriously, we had to walk around, asking multiple librarians about this damn book. The first two had no clue where it could be, so back in line we go. Back to the original lady who struggled with my return process. After some searching they FINALLY find the book. Great, here's my library card, let me get the hell out of here. Not so fast. After she checked it out, apparently it said it was on hold for Sarah Phillips.

"Yes, I know, I am the best Sis-in-law ever and I am picking it up for her!"

"Well I need to get into her account so it is checked out under her name." Of course you do. More wrangling my children trying to keep them from running out the front door. People, I had no control over my kids. It has not been this bad in a LONG time. I was so embarrassed. Finally we get the book checked out properly and it's time to venture through the parking lot. Dani takes off running and Ellie is lolly gagging way behind us. Wonderful, I run after Dani, thinking, (well she can get hit by a car, if someone takes Ellie hopefully I can head them off at the front door). Yes, this is what I am actually thinking. I grab Dani before she gets off the curb and turn around to see a man holding the door open for Ellie and looking around to see who she belongs to.

"She's mine, I was going to come back for her." He just looks at me like I've lost my mind, which I have..... a long time ago!

I'm not even going to get into wrestling them into their car seats. Why are some days just so hard???

Bun Buns

My twin group had an early Easter party and there were bunnies (bun buns) galore! We had yummy treats and lots of fun crafts! It was packed out. We were there for an hour, but it was a LONG hour! We were all ready to leave, Grandma Wagener couldn't believe all the chaos with that many kids! Danielle won the cupcake walk, and she gave her cupcake to Brayden. We also had yummy treats and colored a ton. At the very end they had an egg hunt. Ellie and Dad

Finger stamping crafts!
Finally time for the egg hunt!

YAY for goody bags!

Yay for chocolate!

Danielle

The egg hunt was a success!