A Day In The Life

I thought it might be interesting (at least to me) to attempt

to document what happens in a typical morning with

4 little ones, ages 3 1/2 (Everleigh), 3(Andy),  18 mo (Briggs) and 12 mo.(Ethan)

Here's what it might look like:

5:30 am     Alarm goes off, dress, coffee, out the door by 6:15

7:00 am  Arrive at Jesse's (home of Andy & Ethan)

7:20 am   Pack up her kids and take them to Scott's

7:30 am  Arrive at Scott's and unload 2 kids, my purse,

my day bag with crafts, treats (for me) and other asst stuff,

and the boys' diaper bag and lunch bag

Unpack diaper bag and line up what's for lunch,

juice cups and snacks, and shoes

8:00 am  Breakfast for 4:  Bananas, muffins, juice, raisin bread

8:20 am  First poopy pants of the day...Briggs

8:30am  Clean up breakfast and get everyone something to do/play

8:40am  Settle first squabble over who gets to play with Ev's

new umbrella...5 minutes on the timer for both Ev and Andrew

8:41 am  While Ev and Andrew have moved on to new things,

hide the umbrella.  Someone's crying.

8:42 am  It was Ethan.  He missed me.

9:00 am  Everyone heads to the lower level play room
(remember phone, camera and drink cups) where:

Ev: Little Pet Shop

Andy:  "Cars"

Briggs:  play kitchen making coffee

Ethan:  Floats between the older 3, trying to irritate one of them or all of them
But I find him some pegs to build towers with and he's entertained for a bit.

9:20 am  Someone else has pooped.  This time it's Ethan.

9:20  Ev suddenly realizes she has to go potty, too.

Soon all 5 of us are in the bathroom with her.

9:40 am  Ethan goes down for a nap in Briggs' crib.

(He's morphing away from morning naps but today he falls asleep :)

Somewhere in this time frame I realize Andy has used the bathroom all by himself.  Good boy.

9:50 am  Everyone back upstairs for snack time.

While they eat their snack at the dr table, I get lunch organized.

10:06 am  Ethan's already awake!

(and it isn't pretty)

Spend 10 minutes helping him to get it together

and then decide

10:30 am  Everyone out on the deck with

Dinosaurs (Thanks, Julie!)

It's a fairly nice spring day and they have been few
and far between but limited space and things to do
leads us to...

10:45 am  Everyone back inside and back downstairs to play

(remember juice cups)

Ev:  Little Pet Shop (again)

Andy:  "cars" again
Although they do interact with their play....Cars visit the Pet Shop, etc.

Ethan:  Mardi gras beads in Ev's dress up box and the play kitchen

Briggs:  whatever anyone else has

10:50am  sneak back upstairs to lay out lunch (5 minutes)

11:10 am  After putting away toys downstairs, head everyone

upstairs for lunch

Remember:

Briggs:  No strawberries/no yellow cheese

Ethan:  No peanuts/Feed him with a spoon

Ev:  No white cheese 

Andrew:  will eat most anything

Lunch consists of several types of fruit, apple bread, cheese (see above)

water all around, prepared baby food for Ethan (He's only got 3 teeth).

11:30 am  Briggs has pooped again and filled his bib flap with water :(

11:45 am  Ethan has pooped again and then

I clean up table, chairs and floor
It's Dance Time in Ev's bedroom with a Fresh Beat Band CD.
Everyone's dancing....so cute!

Noon:  Ben arrives to gather his sons

and I pick up remainder of toys

12:45 pm  Get Brigg's nap time ready and put him down

1:00 pm  Ev goes down for her "rest".

1:01 pm  Coffee....aahhhh...
Of course, there a hundred moments of sweetness to each other and to me,
a hundred moments of driving each other crazy,
and a hundred moments when I wished I'd used the camera.
Maybe next time....

Happy Mother's Day

Well, it's the day after Mother's Day and I didn't get this blog post done

in time but I think I'll go ahead and post it anyway.  It's a little picture

story about my own mom.  I tried to find a picture of just me and my mom

but actually could not find one, except when I was a newborn.  I remember we had a Brownie camera

and probably took about 24 pictures A YEAR and then had to wait to get the film developed for about another year so pictures were not a big priority!

The first set of pictures is of her birth

family.  She's the little girl in the front row with the little dutch boy haircut.

The next picture is of her and her mother, my Grandma Stock....

a rare photo of the 2 of them.  There wasn't much time or

money for photos when she was a girl.

Here she is as a young mother herself

with my dad and their 4 kids.  That's me

with the goofy hairdo on the right hand side

wearing what appears to be something

nautical.  Maybe it was Mother's Day.

It looks to be early spring.

Skip ahead a few years to my folks' 50th wedding

anniversary and 4 grown children.

Then, here we are the last time we were all together

for something joyous...Jesse's wedding in Aug, 06.

Shortly after this photo, Dad's cancer was back

and he died in November of that year.  But on

this day we were all pretty relaxed and happy.

Now her life revolves around her time in AZ for 6 months

and her time in MN with her great grandchildren.  Here

she and Everleigh are reading a story.  They both love it!

 Mom,

Thanks for investing so much of yourself

in your family.  Thanks for hanging

in there with all of us.  Thanks

for all the cookies, the mending

and just knowing you are there.

Happy Mother's Day!

All About Andrew

Andrew will be 3 on Tuesday, May 7.  Here's a glimpse

into his interests and his style.

He's pretty much potty trained with just a diaper at night.

He often just goes to the bathroom on his own.

He loves Thomas the Train, Lightning McQueen, 

fire trucks, Jake and the Neverland Pirates

and his mom.

He's a pretty good eater, most of the time....

which means his appetite comes and goes. 

He's very mechanical.  He gets ideas for

how things should work that his poor Grandma

can't quite accomplish.

He talks in complete sentences

and often surprises me with his insights.

He has a softer side and loves helping in the kitchen.

He has a creative side and likes to dress up or down.

He's pretty fearless.

He gets a kick out of the little(r) ones.

He's really good with his little brother and cousins.

And he has his own sense of style.

Happy Birthday, buddy

Can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Will you still need me...?

When I get older, losing my hair,

Many years from now

Will you still be sending me a Valentine?

Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

If I'd been out til quarter til 3

Would you lock the door?

Will you still need me?  Will you still feed me?

When I'm 64?

Ok...so today is my 63rd birthday and I can't get over

the fact that when this Beatles song came out in 1967

I thought that being 64 would find me in a rocking

chair with white hair and arthritus. Ok... so I was close.

But as I enter my 64th year I got to spend

a little time with 2 of my 3 kids having

a real conversation, getting some insights

into their lives and sharing a laugh.

And yes...I think they'll still need me,

probably still feed me...when I'm 64.

(Been waiting 46 years to say that.)

39 Birthday Cakes

Today (April 16) is a day a mother doesn't forget.

It's the day my son, Scott was born....39 years ago.

Yikes! 

How did this happen?

I am not much of a cake maker.  As you can see

birthday cakes usually were angel food cakes

with an interesting candle...that's it!  I would

never make it in today's world of birthday bashes

for kids.  The better looking cakes were made

by my sister, Ann, who probably took pity

on my kids and their rather untalented mother.

But....39 cakes is a lot and this year

I did something a little different as the last

photo will show.  I enlisted the help of his daughter,

Everleigh and she put her own special stamp

on them.  I'm guessing he would say it's

his new favorite (and he doesn't much

care for cake.)

Happy Birthday, Scott

I can do at least 39 more cakes if you like!

projects, projects, projects

Everleigh and Andrew (didn't quite get a picture of

him) made "chickens" this week with feathers,

paper plates and googly eyes.  huge hit.

Everleigh had a "family" of chickens of course.

The Natives were restless at the "zoo"...

Andrew has 3 collapsible tents that work nicely

for telling the story of the" 3 Little Pigs",

or as home, garage and office, or sometimes

they are rocket ships.  Love the flexibility.

(and the new lower level space!)

Ethan Loves his Grover phone.  Briggs calls it "Elmo".

It has a variety of messages and features....

and it tastes great!

Thank goodness Briggs was able to spend some time

straightening out the Batcave!  (He has picked up

some of Everleigh's tidiness.)  But he can also

toss toys with the best of them.

On Thursday morning we did a project with capsules

in water. (an interesting challenge with 4 toddlers)

  What will it be?

Everleigh's first capsule reveals an elephant.

Everleigh, Briggs and Andrew ended up putting all

the capsules together at one point to create a zoo. :)

I bought 12 capsules for $1 at Target One Spot.

It kept 4 kids busy for over 30 minutes....score!

Happy Birthday, Little One

From the first day we met you, we knew you were

something special.  

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan Gregory Swenson

March 28, 2013