Gag List

Every morning the kids have to all empty the dishwasher as one of their morning chores. They rotate between 3 positions.

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Position 1: put all silverware away.

Position 2: Pass dishes from dishwasher to "counter person"

Position 3: Counter person stands on the counter and the " Emptier person" hands them the dishes.

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It is a set up that has worked for us for quite awhile now. Hunter HATES position 2. He has a very weak stomach. Every thing makes him gag. To list a few...

-When we decorated Easter eggs the smell of the hard boiled eggs...gag

-Anytime he has to throw something away in the garbage and it isn't so rosy smelling...gag

-When he has to feed the dog and gets a whiff...gag.

-White macaroni....gag.

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So to add to his gag list is the smell of the dishwasher, when it is clean. (He'd probably throw up if he smelt it when it is dirty) So that he can continue in his chores when he is in position 2 without gagging, I suit him up with rubber gloves and an towel strapped over his nose so he can't smell.

I don't think he will be going into the medical profession.

Soccer Cheerleaders

Practically every night we are off to soccer games and practices. Thank goodness it isn't for longer than a couple months! The kids are so good at the "new daily soccer routine" we have become accustom to....

3:30pm - kids home from school, make snack and start making dinner

4:00pm- pack bag (water bottles, camera, snacks for the other kids so they don't try to beg and pawn off from the poor mom who brought the game snacks)

4:20pm - kids and I eat around 4:20pm...(pack leftovers for munchies during the game)

4:40pm - dress the soccer player for the day in uniform (Hunter and Logan are playing this year) ...try to find socks...clean or not...make sure shin pads are on...tie shoes tight. Make sure the other kids have shoes on their feet, somewhat clean faces and aren't sporting p.j.'s.

4:50- get kids in van and drive to Wenatchee during rush hour. I have to mention that we like to play the primary songs while we are in the car...but ONLY if the windows are up according to Hunter...if they are you will hear him singing loudly "Scripture Power!"

5:10- arrive at soccer field, start to "unpack" (5 chairs, 3 water bottles, snacks, dinner #2, 2 blankets, purse and cameras)...then become suddenly abandoned by my crew and have to truck all the gear across to the field by myself. (do you hear violins?)

5:25pm- Matt arrives.

5:30pm- Game begins...wrestle with kids. (Matt literally, me emotionally)

6:30pm- Game Finishes...head home.

7:00pm- sit the kids down to start homework

7:30pm- hound kids to do chores...hound kids to do chores again....then one more time again.

7:40pm- drag my tired butt around and clean the kitchen and tidy downstairs. (the upstairs will be clean and tidy once my kids move out.)

7:50pm- hound kids to get jammies on...hound kids again.

8:00pm- read to kids from novel we are currently reading, say prayers, sing song, brush teeth.

8:20pm- hound kids to get back to bed...hound kids again.

8:30pm- sit down finally and start to blog.

Hmm...I sure hound a lot huh?

Wackamole

I caught the boys entertaining themselve wrestling...again... however this time I noticed they found some new gear to wear. They used their soccer shin pads as armor. These kids crack me up...time is going WAY too fast.

Tonight Matt is out of town in Yakima. The kids were talking to one another at dinner time about where Daddy was....

"where is daddy?" Logan

"He is in Wackamole" Jessica

Chuckling at Jessica, Hunter says, " Not Wackamole! It's Wackama!"

Since the kids were little guys they have called Yakima, "Wackamole". And for some reason we didn't see the need to correct them.

FINALLY!

Jessica finally lost her front tooth at school today. She said it was just dangling there. As you can see by her picture she is just BEAMING about it. When she told daddy she lost her tooth today she jumped around the house singing,

" I am going to be rich...I am going to be rich...

I'm going to get a buck... I am going to get a buck"

Special Bond

Over the years Jessica and Grandma have created a very special bond. The two of them chat and giggle like two little school girls, cuddle every morning, have secrets between each other, and always look like they are in their own little world.

We are so lucky to have a Grandma and Grandpa that are willing to put their life on hold to come for a weekend almost every month to be apart of every aspect of the kids lives. The kids jump for joy every time they hear they are coming down for a visit and mourn when they leave. (especially Jess) I am so grateful for such wonderful devoted Grandparents and Auntie
for our kids. Matt and I love having them too...we always laugh so hard while they are here....they are a hoot.

Easter Hunt

After church we had a egg hunt for the kids. A couple of months ago we helped out a friend by letting her store her trampoline at our house for a couple of months. Just long enough for us to really start liking it. A couple days before Easter weekend it was time to return it, the kids thought that was less than cool. So with Easter being this weekend we thought it would be fun to incorporate the hunt with surprising the kids with a new trampoline. I hid different letters in the eggs so the kids had to unscramble the word "trampoline". They were thrilled! At Easter time we usually don't give any gifts let alone a big one, but we thought we would have fun with how we were giving the trampoline to the kids this year.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful. I gained two pounds this weekend, that is how good the food was...A two pound rating. Matt is a wonderful chef. We had Matt's amazing gingersnap brown sugared ham, amazing garlic potatoes, asian salad and deviled eggs. I ventured out and made a carrot cake that wasn't too bad. We were lucky to have Yvonne join us for dinner. She is our neighbor from our old house, we just adore her. A wonderful Easter this year.

Soccer Season

Soccer season has begun! Logan and Hunter are both playing this year. That means practices or games every night of the week except Fridays and Sundays. Whew! I love watching them play. It is very entertaining at each level. In Logan's age group you'll find the butterfly chasers, shadow followers (really...we had a kid on a team who would followed his shadow the whole game) etc etc. In Hunter's group we start to see more strategy and game play being used. Fun times.

No Fun

We gave the kids the opportunity to earn some extra dough. They were less than thrilled about what the job was. Fill one bucket of rocks for a buck, each. They are usually pretty good about not complaining about their regular chores, this job was "beneath" them apparently. We told them it was completely optional, but for some reason they sulked and complained like their dog had died or something. Oh brother... They filled two bins...barely.

Betrayal

Have you ever seen such horror?

Jessica's front tooth has been taking it's sweet time falling out. Since way before Christmas it started to become wiggly. It is now Spring...

She likes for you to just "test wiggle", no pullsies...but the urge is too great while you are in there poking around, so I always go for it. Which always leads in a look of utter shock and then...
"YOU LIED!!!!!!" and they go off running crying.

Oh, I just can't help it. I keep hoping the outcome will be I pull the tooth lose and then they yell..."YOU DID IT!" but no...I inflict pain and distrust every time.

This time daddy tried...I am taking a break from being the persecutor. No success for him either.

FAMOUS...Front Page Wenatchee World Newspaper

Team Mighty Yodas heads to the finish line Saturday during Jr. Ridge to River. (World photo/Kelly Gillin)

(they were originally called Mighty Yoda's and it got changed to Running Lima Beans)

I Thought I Was a Good Mom... Until I Had Children

I watched Oprah today, and I about started to cry. It's topic was about the fact that for some reason we are trying to "fool" each other that we are doing it all and doing it well as mothers. They had all these mom's reveal their dirty little secrets of motherhood....oh do I have many. So if Jessica grows up and may become a mother herself, I want her to know it is completely normal and okay to not have it all together all the time. So here it goes...these are a few of mine....

JUDGMENT FREE READING

*I sometimes put earphones on with music so I can tune out my kids for just awhile, especially during Spring or Summer break when we have no break from each other.
* I hide in the bathroom sometimes longer than I need to be there.
* I usually only mop when people are coming for dinner or my parents are visiting.
* Most days of the week I don't shower until 11am...if I even get to it that day.
* If the kids are fighting and it ends in Moooommmm, most times I purposely tune out and pretend I didn't hear them, hoping they won't keep calling me.
* If my kids are thirsty I make them drink from the bathroom sink. They are flipping camels!
* I am horrible at getting my kids to get in the bath....does the sprinkler count?
* I skip pages during story time to get through the book quicker.
* I don't give my kids Tylenol when they are sick or they won't rest....unless they have a horrible fever...I am not a beast.
* I won't play Barbies or anything of the sort.
* I give the crappy candy to the kiddo's and sneak the good stuff for me.
* Usually my list is only half completed on a daily basis.
* I have a live in babysitter...meet the T.V.
* Sometimes my house looks like every drawer and cupboard vomited everywhere.
* In the car sometimes I tell them to just stop talking for a moment, or pretend to play the quiet game for 5 minutes of peace.
* Sometimes there are no clean dishes and the kids have to eat out of Tupperware and serving bowls...they actually think this one is cool.

This isn't of course how it always is, I love being a mother....but "motherhood" isn't always peachy. But I want my darling Jessica to not be as hard on herself as I know my mom was on herself, and I am on myself. Maybe I can teach her to break the cycle of thinking you have to be perfect all the time. It all comes down to doing the best you can, even if means feeding your kids cereal for 3 meals of the day.

P.S. Thanks mom...

Spring Has Come...finally

Spring is my favorite season. Many of my fondest memories as a child involve Spring...

• Walking down streets lined in cherry blossom trees and trying to pick the biggest bouquet to take home...(remember El?)
• Purple and yellow crocuses
• Making daffodil crafts in school that involved lots of tissue paper and white glue.
• Making daisy chain necklaces on the field during recess.
• Teachers bringing in vases of pussy willows.
• Birds singing, finding fallen blue bird eggs and bringing them home as wonderful treasures.
• The smell of fresh cut grass and lawn mowers humming
• Brighter days and awaking each morning to a world coming out of it's winter slumber...
  

My children are now creating their own memories of Spring. A big one each year is to visit the chicks, and rabbits, Jessica's most favorite Springtime activity...however the boys on the other hand enjoyed other Springtime fun, pretending THEY were the caged chicks and rabbits.

Jr. Ridge to River

SPEEDY CHEETAHS & RUNNING LIMA BEANS

Ridge to River is a very big deal for our little town. People flock from all over (Seattle and even Canada) to be apart of the Ridge to River race. It consists of a six legged race that begins with downhill skiing, then run, then bike, then kayak, then sprint to finish....It's a big deal. Anyway they have created a Jr. Ridge to River for kids to participate in. We put together two teams this year with five kids in each team. It starts with a run, a kayak, bike then ends with an obstacle course. It is very very fun for all the kiddo's. The boys team were The Running Lima Beans, and Jessica The Speeding Cheetah's...I made their t-shirts...well I made Jessica's team and Hunter's evolved to the making his to the Lima Beans...it's a long story.

Anyway we met at Walla Walla park with hundreds of other people and their kids and tried to organize the two teams. We went over and over all the technicals to make sure everyone knew what they were to do and when. We suited the team up with their time chips etc.. and promptly at 11:00am to all their posts. We waited and waited for Hunter and Carson our team runner to come down the race so they could tag our kayakers...all was well until......

I shouted to our paddler Alexis, "okay RUN RUN RUN!"

Before I could clarify that he need to run to his post and wait to be tagged...he ran down to the water and jumped in a kayak and started before Hunter had a chance to even tag him, he then went on to tag Hayden...you get the idea... oops!

According to them they came in first...(in actuality they should of been disqualified for starting before being tagged, but they don't officially disqualify children in these sort of things...thank goodness!) We chatted the whole way home about what went wrong and thought, "oh well the kids had a great time that is all the matters right?"....until....

We got a phone call later in the day from the race officials asking why our kids team came in four minutes before they even started...hmm...they noticed? Well they totally understood but explained that the newspaper wanted to print their picture tomorrow and they may print the mishap and that they were disqualified...not only was it their first official disqualification it was going to published...oh dear. Oh well.

RESULTS out of 44 teams in there age group:

RUNNING LIMA BEANS: Even with the 5 minutes penalty they came in 4th

SPEEDY CHEETAHS: 20th (not bad!)

FYI: Hunter and his team are completely unaware of any of this race drama, according to him, they came in first and they may put their picture in the paper tomorrow...let's just keep it that way for now.