Been a while....

So here I'll do an entire month of April update since it's now May. May already, goodness where did the days go?? The kids have less than a month of school left and I am so ready, I'm certain they are too.

Tommy is thriving in his new preschool class. He was fussy just one morning since starting. Not sure what his deal was, thinking he just didn't feel good. It sure beats the fussing every morning. He loves going to school now and actually tells us about his day too.

Robby and Kimberlyn have been playing soccer. They have two more weeks left. I've missed most games due to them being over Tommy's nap time or having to be horse mom with Kaitlyn. I went to their games yesterday. This season they play every Saturday at the same time. Their fields are near each other....thankfully as after I moved closer to Robby's field porr Kimberlyn got abused. First her finger got hit by the ball and then her face. It made her loose tooth bleed, but it's still not quite loose enough to come out. I suspect the Tooth Fairy will be coming soon.
Robby's a rockstar goalie. He found this talent last season. The soccer league through church has just two boys teams for his level. So every week they play the same team. Larry was told by a parent on the other team that at their practices they are working on ways to get around Robby in the goal!






Kaitlyn had her first show of the season. It was at the National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis, MO (just outside St. Louis)~ it is a HUGE indoor facility. I was nervous... When Kaitlyn gets nervous (which happens for any show) her pony tends to feed off of it. In a bad way ;) She was amazing....she held it together and rode without nerves. She did what I always tell her to do, just ride and have fun! She rode around that show ring with the biggest smile ever!! She had FUN.

Romeo was "hot" or fiesty at first on Friday evening. By Saturday morning (show time) he was a sweet, mellow thing. The joke is he's just a "SHOW" boy and likes the big lights...he really just did everything that was asked and it was great experience for Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn showed in the crossrail (18" high jumps) division. She had a warm up jump round, two jump rounds and a flat class (walk, trot and canter- no jumps). In her warm up round she placed 2nd. Her next round she lost a stirrup, she couldn't get it and just rode the course like a champ. I was so proud. She looked so good we thought she got her stirrup back...she didn't place in that class as in the judge's eyes the lost stirrup is bad :) Next jump class she placed 3rd. For the flat class she placed 6th, this was out of 11 and she knew why she placed lower- always a nice thing. She has never gotten a 6th place ribbon and was THRILLED to add a green ribbon to her collection!

Her number was 444 and she thought it was the COOLEST number ever!!




Isn't this smile HUGE?!?!?!

Jumping like a pro missing one stirrup :)


the ribbons!!!




GONE FISHING....
Tommy had asked to go fishing one day. And I explained that Daddy would have to take hime, he asked to go fishing every time he woke up....morning, naptime...everytime. Then it went to every other day or so....finally Dad took them fishing. He claimed they had the worst time ever. Kaitlyn lost her boot, it filled with water, notice her purple sock. The kids kept getting the lines snapped and hung up on stuff...seems Robby was the photographer of the chaos. I got a good chuckle... I wonder if now a few weeks later it's a better memory for Larry. I'll have to ask him.....





Tommy on his first field trip. To the bowling alley! His first bus ride and all...we had a fun time!




Kaitlyn with her napping show boy....one morning while she was sick with a stomach bug.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

What a great fun filled day. My brother Robb couldn't make it but his family did and we missed him.

here is a sign Kaitlyn posted last weekend....I think the rules were followed nicely.


Jess and Lil' Robby got in yesterday and instead of coloring Easter eggs, the vote won to go roast marshmallows over a fire out back. It was a nice time. Made for a very fun, busy Easter day for us. We woke to the kiddos around 7am, this is almost like sleeping in ;) Tommy stayed up way too late and wasn't interested in what or what not the Easter Bunny brought. He woke up shortly. The kids got worried, that Easter Bunny hid eggs outside this year. The kids searched our house pretty intensely prior to venturing outside.
We colored eggs, played outside and then had a marvelous "dinner" for lunch. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed every last bit of daylight again today!

The Easter Bunny CAME!!!







The Egg Hunt




All the kids after the egg hunt. Kaitlyn, bless her heart was in a funk ;) She thought all the pics I captured earlier should have been enough. Silly girl. Kaitlyn 10, Kimberlyn 6 1/2, Lil' Robby 5 1/2, Tommy 3 and Robby 12.


Coloring Easter Eggs





Kaitlyn and her shadow....both no fear. I do believe Aunt Jess had all the fear they needed, so much so she clipped Romeo's head out of the picture!

Romeo cute as ever wearing Kimberlyn's bunny ears!


Tommy's new sleeping arrangements....
Tommy has insisted for quite some time now (like weeks) to sleep on his "carpet" ~tonight mom and dad laid down the law and made him sleep in his bed or on a his nap pad from his old school. Naturally he has two old nap pads. One is like a sleeping bag with built in pillow, the other is the plastic lined "pad"- yes, Tommy wanted the nasty plastic lined one. So another unexpected battle. We finally got him to sleep on the plastic lined "pad" inside the sleeping bag style nap pad. Why won't he just opt for his BED...................

Tommy's first ever Easter Egg Hunt! Last week at his school he had an egg hunt and caught on to it rather fast. He really enjoyed it.

Sitting in class waiting to go outside.


Not quite sure he can even see....


Very happy to have found TWO eggs on top of that steering wheel.


How exhausting....


Tommy and Mommy.


Tommy's new class and teachers. He loves it. It's a blended class of 3, 4 and 5 year old kids.

PS No news is BAD news when it comes to potty training. NOTHING, nada to report. Someday.....

3 years, 3 months and 3 days.....

....How long it took Tommy until he finally pee'd in the potty!! To top off the three's he did it THREE times today. I thought this was kind of cool!

Desitin and preschool....

Wow, what a very welcome time to have hubby home and to catch a break. Yesterday I had a morning that compared with many days I experienced while Larry was deployed. I'm not certain I could get it all in chronological order...but it started normally. Sending all the kiddos out to catch the bus, even got to exercise before Tommy woke up. Then it started, yes IT was an adventure....I hope to not experience IT again anytime soon.

I was heading into the bathroom to shower. I heard Tommy and wondered what he was up to? Oh, he found some hand lotion and thought it was hair gel. NICE! So I said "Tommy now you need to shower with mommy." He said "I make poopy." Gee thanks! Actually the warning of the dump is a fairly recent thing. "Okay" I say. "Go get wipes for mommy." Yeh, I should have done that one on my own. I go to check as he was taking longer than I expected. DESITIN in his hair. I was honored to find just the quarter-sized glob that hadn't been smeared in yet! He was very set on getting hair gel, and he ended with hair coloring. At that moment I thought "thank God he doesn't have school today." Later I assure you I wished he had gone to school!

In case you are wondering....good ole shampoo does NOTHING on Desitin. I thought I should have him pee on his head, seemed every time I needed desitin on my kids bottom the pee always "washed" it off :) ARGHHHH. I washed his hair twice, only managing to smear desitin all over creating an even larger mess.

Desitin hair adorable boy showering.
This picture was taken about 3 minutes before he decided to bend over to pick up a toy off the shower floor. He nailed his head on the built in 'seat' in the shower. thankfully I was finished getting dressed, he was all done showering and wanted to be dried off. I just kissed his head and couldn't immediately figure out WHERE he hit.

He ran to pick out his clothes....he did a mighty fine job. He's known for picking only orange shirts...they must have been all dirty or something he came back with the most adorable button up shirt. Had it been me trying to 'dress' him up for church or something, he'd refused and I'd had to have sat on him to put this shirt on!

So I took him into the bathroom, laid him on the counter and used Palmolive to wash the desitin out of his hair....worked like a charm. Got him dressed in his adorable outfit and finally saw where he hit his head. Right on his eyebrown, I mean I eyebrow. I just love how he calls it his eyebrown. He's got a nice bruise there today.

I was doing dishes and tidying up when I hear Tommy say "mommy, look I here" ~ I turn to find him HERE!!!! Seriously, can't I just do the stupid dishes! I had the camera application already open on my phone, I pulled it out of my pocket and snapped the picture, at which time he let go with one hand to reach out to me for my phone to see the picture!!! I promptly grabbed him down at that very moment!

So now after he kicked and screamed about my taking him off the stairs he decides to go roller balding down the stairs. I could have cried right then and there. I was furious I had run downstairs to grab something and in like 4 minutes he took his shoes off, put on his sister's roller blades and attempted to walk down the stairs. It was the worst sound, very loud. In a away I was glad to know the skates probably were making all the loud clunking sounds instead of his head. He seemed more mad than hurt when I got to him. I was fairly mad too.

Before I could remember where we were heading out the door to...the door opened upstairs. Robby walks in. It was a half day of school. He usually rides the bus home with the girls. For whatever reason the middle schoolers were dropped off first. We all loaded up to get the girls. We ran to the local farm store that had customer appreciation day and got free lunch. they and hot dogs, donuts and sodas- fabulous way to get your shopping done...bribe them. Eat this hot dog, let me shop and I'll take you to get a donut :) I originally said no to the soda, I thought the donut had enough sugar, but while getting donuts Tommy helped himself to a soda. We all shared it.

Straight home for nap time....

Tommy woke up to being a cute kid, still passionate about roller blading. Even experienced enough to have snack while roller blading in the kitchen!!!!
and where does this kid get eating tomatoes as if they are apples from???? YUCK....I like tomatoes ON certain things, burgers, tacos.....but alone??? no way!


Tommy's new school!

I had Tommy evaluated through the school district. I was curious to know "where" he was and if he was doing fine. On paper (Larry and I had to fill out this questionnaire form) he is doing fine, but according to their findings during the 1 hour long screening/evaluation time he was shy and not cooperative for the evaluators. I expected a to bring him back in the Fall to re screen him.

Less than a week later I got a call from the Pre-K director. Reviewing the evaluations from the previous week she said Tommy's caught her attention and concerned her. They had mild to moderate concern in almost every category. They also had an immediate opening at their Pre-K program, a program for 3, 4 and 5 yr old kids. It's currently blended, with at at risk kids and regular not-at-risk kids.

Long story short, due to funding they expect cut backs and to be sure to have a spot next year in this program, we needed to switch now. We visited and he was in love. I was blown away. He talked all weekend (last weekend) about his new teacher- even saying her her 10-letter last name! Larry and I decided to give it a go. Just two months until summer break. If we hate it and want him back in private preschool I have already held a spot for him...and we can use it. Better to start him now than starting next Fall, hating it and being left high and dry as for preschool options.

Anyhow...he went everyday last week (besides Friday) and loved it, was anxious to go back. Never once cried at drop off or anything. SO NOT HIM! His school day is just 2 1/2 hours long. I found I really enjoy my breather, I get stuff done, get him for lunch, put him down for his nap and still have free time with him alone before the big kids get home and our after school activities run us all over!

For disliking change....it's turned out to be amazing...please pray it stays this way!

The below pictures are from this past Thursday, the Pre-K had their story time and it was put on by local college students. Completely Corduroy the Bear themed. They had bean bag toss into Corduroy's belly/face...pin the button on Corduroy (in the story they read his button was lost) and then create your own Corduroy...they had a few other activities. They had bear shaped snacks (teddy grahams and fruit snack bears) too. It was a very enjoyable time.
I do believe his favorite...hello THROWING!

Right on, he liked this one!

very particular!

Event that motivated me to get current on blogging...

See...I am like you, busy. Life with kids is busy and on the go. Goodness just tonight in the car watching Kimberlyn at soccer practice Tommy informs he wants to play, I think he may be old enough to play next Spring....wooo, just 12 months to relax while hauling just 3 kids to activities until the baby, and 4th kiddo is in activities :)

Anyhow, Kaitlyn informed me that for extra credit in science she needed to be shown the breaker box and the main power shut off switch. No big deal, right??? RIGHT??!?!? Unless you have to use your garage for hay storage that is!!

So this was us last night. We I think all had a fun time doing a not so fun chore late last night.
Moving hay...

Found the box!

Well we had fun right up until the point where smarty pants dad feels he should DEMONSTRATE the "main power shut off switch" ~ give it a go yourself. 1) tuck in your other three kids. 2) flip the switch. 3) see how fast each child comes hollaring!

Kaitlyn trying to stop her dad from shutting off the power...


Tommy freaked and must have thought that "storm" he askes me about every night had come.

Robby said "great dad you broke my stereo" -that he's had a whole 2 weeks from his birthday!

Kimberlyn comes asking what we're up to, seems I think she was brushing her teeth or whatever (I THOUGHT she was "tucked" in already!

NOW when I realized we were covering the breaker box I DID have my wonderful hay-unloaders "mark" the breaker box with a crooked bale of hay in case we needed to access the box.

P.S. Mrs. Pruett we love you :) although last night my husband wasn't so eager to do this extra credit - I think he deserves the extra 10 pts!