We went grocery shopping today and Eve wore this:
She is such a stylish girl :) She got oohhs and ahhhs all morning, from everyone! She, of course, hammed it up and loved it. Wish I could look half as good as her on any given day!
We went grocery shopping today and Eve wore this:
She is such a stylish girl :) She got oohhs and ahhhs all morning, from everyone! She, of course, hammed it up and loved it. Wish I could look half as good as her on any given day!
Just a few days late…
We had a nice Easter this year. It started, dark and early, with Lex coming into my room at 6am to tell me “I guess the Easter bunny doesn’t come until after the sun comes up.” I wasn’t sure how much he would remember from last year, but I guess he was expecting the bunny. When we went downstairs he found that the bunny had left little baskets on the table instead of beside the bed (guess he didn’t remember that from last year!) They got a few pieces of candy, a few Berenstain Bears books, and some stickers. They were happy and by 6:30 they were asking if we could go outside and hunt for Easter eggs. We had told them the night before that if the weather was nice we could do it outside. They were excited! I held them off until Alan woke up and the sun rose, and around 9am I snuck outside to hide some eggs. The kids came out and had a great time finding them. Then Alan hid them again while we went over to the neighbor’s house to see if Parrish wanted to come find Easter eggs too. The three kids together found them all, then the kids hid them for the grownups to find. Mostly the boys hid them and Eve followed behind collecting them :) Lex kept taking them out of her basket to hide, but I don’t think he realized she was collecting them, so the process went on for awile! Then we all played outside in the sunny weather until lunchtime.
With minimal protest I got the kids inside for lunch and naps (for all of us!) After naps we headed to the playground to use up some energy before dinner at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. As we drove to the playground I was thinking of kids putting on their Easter clothes for dinner at their grandparents house. My kids were securely fastened in the car in their grubby clothes from the morning. Sigh. We played hard at the playground for awhile then I washed them up and changed them into the spare clothes I had brought along, just in case. Not exactly Sunday best (Lex’s pants had a hole in the knee!) but not dirty and sandy and grubby. It’s a start, right? So we went to dinner. When we got there we found that Grandma and Katie had hidden plastic Easter eggs throughout the house. The kids had a great time finding them all and opening them to discover little candy treats and coins and toys. Then they planted themselves in Grandma’s chair to inhale their candy! A little chocolate and a lot of laughing (Eve and Aunt Katie together are very silly!) was a bad combination for Lex and he threw up (chocolately yuckiness!) all over! We rushed him to the bathroom, cleaned him up and the chair, and put him back in his grubby playground clothes. Then he was happy and raring to go again. In fact, he said “I’m just going to have one more piece of candy.” Umm….. no! Then we had dinner. Yummy lasagna and salad and ham that I’m sure was also yummy. Part way through dinner Eve sat straight up and said her back hurt. Before anyone could respond she threw up all over the table! More chocolatey yuckiness! I rushed her to the bathtub too and the sweet girl looked at me with big eyes and said, “I’m sorry mommy. I didn’t mean to throw up on the table.”
After that we finished dinner (someone cleaned the table up and everything was spotless by the time I returned) and laid low for awhile. The kids both felt fine right away, so I’m sure it was just too much candy and excitement. When I got them in bed at 9:30pm they both were asking for snacks (they didn’t really eat any dinner!) so I gave them milk and carrots while we read stories. They both ate happily. I LOVE when they eat carrots happily.
So that was our day. By the time I got to bed it felt like a very long day! Then back to school and routine on Monday. I’m actually ready for some consistent routine. We’ve been pretty far off schedule, and pretty hepped up on sugar, for awhile now and I’m looking forward to some boringness.
One more quote from Lex. “I’m just going to hug this carrot shaped bag of jelly beans,” says Lex as we were driving home from Grandma’s. I told him he could hold them, but not eat them.
Here we are at nine weeks again. We were here two weeks ago, before the ultrasound tech decided baby was really only seven weeks. Oh well. Baby is still doing a good job of striping me of all energy and making me feel constantly nauseous. Just baby’s little way of making sure I don’t forget :) I’ll tell ya though, I don’t know how people handle this first trimester stuff with a houseful of kids. I’ve had roughly the same symptoms with each pregnancy, but they seem so different. When I was pregnant with Lex I was self-employed and was able to rest when I needed to and take care of myself. With Eve, Lex was still young and we were busy with the new house and changing jobs, but he still napped twice a day and we didn’t have any firm schedules. Now with preschool and swimming and playdates and two active kids, I can barely make it through the day… even though I nap with them every day! By lunch time and bedtime I am a very cranky mommy. I hope the kids don’t remember these days well :) I tell them often that it takes a lot of energy to raise two kids and even more energy to grow a baby inside and I’m just pretty low on energy. They are sweet and seem to understand, but I still feel bad for being so tired! We had a playdate today with five kids (my two plus three others) and by the time everyone left at 5pm I was whipped! Sigh. How do people do this with their fourth and fifth pregnancies?!?
I have a list of thoughts to post here… written on a piece of paper. I was going to update tonight, ’cause I know it’s been awhile, but instead I spent my evening back and forth to a school board meeting (hotly debated, cutting school funding, poor kids!) and shopping for dad’s 60th! birthday present ;) It will be a day late, Dad, but worth it!
I will post about our exciting Easter celebrations and Lex’s love note to me and an adventure the kids took with Alan today… later. For now, here are a few pics to amuse you.
My idea of a good day starts with a shot-free trip to the doctor’s office.
Eve went in for her 3yr well child check up. She’s 36lbs and 38″, which makes her 90% for weight and 75% for height. The doctor said she was just perfect! I said, of course! :) I had prepped her for the whole exam and we were pleasantly surprised that there are no vaccinations at the 3yr checkup. I really should know the vaccine schedule by now, but alas, I don’t.
Then continues at the playground on a warm, sunny day.
No school today (parent/teacher conference day) so we went to our nearby elementary school for some serious playing. This is where Lex will be going to kindergarten. We all love the playground!
Includes my son saying, “Mom, can I share your apple?” Ok, that really MADE my day!! The three of us shared an apple while they ran around and played.
Then the morning ends with happy kids leaving the playground, eating a nice lunch, and taking easy naps. You can’t beat that for a good morning! Now I have to do some cleaning and hopefully we’ll be meeting some friends at another playground this afternoon. Happy April!!!
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Eve… Happy Birthday to you!!

The kids had pretend cake while I made breakfast. I also got her an apron, but she said, "I don't need an apron mom, it's just pretend food!"
Today we celebrated Eve’s 3rd birthday. My baby is growing up! I made her another birthday cake (red velvet with raspberry butter cream frosting and chocolate bunnies). I made a small cake for the family and 12 cupcakes to take to a playdate this morning. We ate cupcakes at 9am with friends. It was fun. Yesterday Lex was very upset that I wouldn’t let him stay home from school. He had it in his head that we were having another party for Eve and almost cried when he realized that our family and friends were not coming back today. It was sad. He decided to go to school and told EVERYONE that it was her birthday. She wore her birthday crown to school too, so it was pretty obvious. His teacher said he’s been talking about it all week :) After lunch and naps (good naps from both of them!) we went to the aquatic center for Lex’s lessons. Eve and I swam and we all had fun. They were both really tired though! We ended up leaving after an hour because Eve was crying (some kids bumped into her on the slide) and she said she wanted to go home now. Then Alan and I subjected ourselves to some parental torture and took two exhausted kids out to a crowded restaurant for dinner. Eve’s choice, but in hindsight we all would have had more fun (and at least three of us would have eaten better) if we had just gone home. Oh well. Once home it was past bedtime but I had pink and red cake in the fridge, so we sang Happy Birthday and had cake. It was a long day! :) Luckily they went to bed with minimum fuss and I hope to be in bed soon too!

Red velvet cake (a very unnatural color!), with pink raspberry butter cream frosting and Annie's chocolate bunny decorations.
Happy Birthday Eve! We love you!
We celebrated Eve’s birthday this weekend. A good time was had by all. As usual we had a crowded house and sugared up kids. She wanted a chocolate party, which is hard to do for a three year old! I think it went well though. My nauseous stomach even cooperated that day, though it was back in force the next day. The party continued into Sunday and by last night we were all exhausted! Today the kids both eagerly took naps and I napped the entire time with them. Whewh! One more recovery day and then a mini party for her actual birthday on Wednesday. Just one more day until she is a big three year old!
I’ll let the photos tell the party story…

The cake this year was in flux right up to the end. Eve and I had a cupcake thing all planned out, then about a week before the party, she started insisting on cake instead. Turns out she wanted the EXACT same cake as our friend Dylan had at his party. We settled on a different style of cake, but the day before the party I realized I didn't have the right pans. Ugh. Back to cupcakes. I had this vision in mind so I made cupcakes and cookies the day before and during naptime on party day my dad helped me set them all up. Then Rachel came in and suggested putting jelly beans on top. Genius! A complete team effort that turned out really cute, and delicious! Thanks all!!

Eve and her balloon, which she calls Tommy. She REALLY wanted this balloon and was asking about it for weeks. It was a big hit at the party.

Molly was trying to be helpful and put ALL of Eve's new hair bands on her head at once. Eve was not impressed.
I got a call from the midwife this afternoon at about quarter to five. I was so happy because I meant to call her and forgot all day! Anyway, she said the ultrasound from this week showed a 7wk baby, not a 9wk baby and she adjusted my due date to November 9th. A birthday baby!?! I think this date is more accurate based on the late positive test result and “delayed” morning sickness. Based on this new number the morning sickness actually came a bit earlier with this pregnancy and we announced the pregnancy VERY early! Eeek! I’ve already started seeing some weight gain (which is scary after 2yrs of WW!) and I’m a little bummed that I probably have even longer than I’d expected to deal with the morning sickness. Maybe it won’t last the whole 12 weeks. One can hope, right? I keep reminding myself that this is the final pregnancy so I need to enjoy, or at least respect, the whole thing. No complaining! (repeat as needed) For now I take Goldfish to bed with me and the kids get a kick out of sharing a snack with me at 6am as we all head downstairs. The weight gain will be what it will be and I’m going to have another beautiful baby!!! A birthday baby! :)