Activity Days Talent Show

Reese and Quincy were very brave and each played piano for gbe Activity Days Talent Show on Tuesday Evening. Fancy bun updos and whole-family attendance were the girls' requirements for being brave and since the requests were reasonable, we obliged. It was the cutest little talent show ever. The leaders were so kind to include Corbin and even invited him to perform after the other acts finished. He asked Reese to sit with him, then confidently played up on the housetop (in May hehe). Nice job, kids! You can do hard things! 

Corbin Turns Six!

I'm blogging from my phone while my oil is getting changed. Soren is in the bounce house and I'm nursing Sloane. How's that for multitasking? Go go gadget motherhood. 

On a side note, did you know the oil warning on a Honda Odyssey can go into the negative percentages? Like, for example, it might say 5% capacity left, but since there's no time left in your tuesday you might ignore it until Thursday, when it is flashing  -14% instead. And then you really need to get your oil changed, and you'll find yourself blogging and nursing and entertaining a toddler in the car dealership. So there you go. 

Corbin had a memorable birthday. This was his first party with friends and he was delighted by every detail.  Despite his tough pirate looks, he was a gracious host and had the time of his life with all of his favorite pals in one place. 

Here are a few of the boy buddies

All of the pirate attire was pulled from storage for this day. 

I summoned the help of baker friend, Gwen, at Bentonville Baking Company to create Corbin's cake. I learned so much from her, got to play with fondant and cake paint for the first time, and spent hours creating this little masterpiece. Thank you Gwen! I

It was LEGO mania for this guy and he was as happy as a kid can get. 

We set up a tattoo parlor for the pirates. This was a real treat because I absolutely loathe temporary tattoos and don't normally allow them. The kids were covered in Jolly Rogers and anchors and skulls by the end of the night. 

We also had a pirate ship piñata and a pirate eye patch game. 

The bonfire on the island has been wanting to be lit up since Labor Day. We s'mores it up hours past everyone's bedtimes and then some. 

The birthday buccaneer found a friend's tablet and ended the night in screen filled LEGO Star Wars bliss. 

I love you, Corbin Mac. Being your mother is one of my life's greatest pleasures. 

Memorial Day 2015

On Memorial Day, Aaron wond up early and drove a few of the young men from church to set up flags on 50 lawns in Bentonville as part of a boy scout fundraiser. 

When Aaron returned, he did some yardwork, and worked on scraping away the walkway of our never-ending peeled paint  disaster porch project. I took Reese and Quincy to visit Frances. 

Frances looked great and was in good spirits. The poster birthday card from the children was hanging on the wall, and she asked about our little boy. She wasn't having the most lucid day, but it was good to be with her nonetheless. 

We made a spur of the moment trip over to Lake Ann for some kayaking and tube floating. It was a bit stressful to take so many non-swimming children to the lake. Part of my anxiety is a recurring nightmare that one of my children is drowning: the van goes off the road into the flooded creek and I can't save everyone in time, bathtub, the ocean, or the neighbor's pool. Any form of water, really, and I have at least 2 a week and sit straight up in bed insisting Soren is in the pool. Aaron has gone outside in the middle of the night to assure me the gate is closed and locked multiple times. I was really proud of myself for not only going to the lake, but driving over a flooded bridge to get there, and enjoying myself once we arrived.  We were short one jacket and it stressed me out so I eventually took the little ones with me back home to pick up a third jacket and remind myself that all of the things I imagined could happen at the lake were pretty unlikely. It helped to have so many extra adults watching out for the children too.  Luckily, with the 3 middle kids in life jackets, I felt much better, and they each gained enough confidence to be a little independent as the afternoon went on. I think this summer will be a critical one for Corbin and Quincy being water safe without any help. 

They all piled on big red floated around. 

Some prefer to do their "floating" from the docks. ;)

This is a summer preview, right here. 

Valerie sent me some pics she took, too. I wish I had her talent for photography! 

What a fun day. 

Aaron bought me this hat in Florida. I love it, and I love how thoughtful he was to think to bring me something. 

Thanks Lake Ann. We met the Chandlers there and were later joined by Davis' and Blakes.  Seidels came too and we decided to BBQ and play games. The kids were in friend-abundance heaven. 

After the BBQ, kids played and watched a movie and we played two new-to-IG games, "Telestrations" and "That's it!" -a word guessing game I really liked. The night ended with an intense downpour toad strangling thunderstorm. "Free showers!" I declared, and sent the kids to school the next day with leftover lake hair. Because that's the kind of end-of-school- mom I am. No one really cares about cleanliness or cuteness the last week, right? Right. 

"Slow down, you move too fast..."

I'm I'm behind on posts. Aaron was out of town most of last week and I will admit it was a much more difficult week than I expected it to be. So much crying (myself  included). The end of school field trips and festivities are running me ragged and the children are overtired, over scheduled, and crabby, too. 

It was a rough week, but here are some highlights: 

1) We spent last Saturday at Silver Dollar City with the Davis and Pendleton families. Big fun. That's me on the teacups. Barf. I rode my first real roller coaster in about 10 years. They used to be my favorite. I went on powder keg with Reese and thought I was going to die, but Reese REALLY thought she was going to die, so I had to pretend I wasn't terrified so she would calm down. She ended up loving it and dragging me on if a second time. My life flashed before my eyes and I realized I am officially an old lady. 

2) The last two weeks have been fun and field days and field trip extravaganza for the children. Two (freezing!) days of nonstop fun: water play, inflataes, swimming at metfield pool, a Naturals baseball game, mini golf, shaved ice, Walton 5&10 museum, peel mansion, Crystal Bridges, Native American museum, hiking trails, singing at local assisted living homes, golf lessons at Dogwood, a teddy bear picnic, the Drive Thru Safari, ice cream on the square and I don't even remember where else they went. It was fun, but exhausting. Cooper needs to simmer down a notch on the every day field trips. Mama can't keep track. On multiple days last week I had all three children in different locations between Bella Vista and Springdale and the threats of severe thunderstorms made me a nervous wreck until they were all home again. They froze all week and loved every minute of it. I just chased them down with blankets and dry clothes. 

3) The ward Talent Show/Broadway Night is coming up and I spent a fun morning singing tunes from Wicked with my friend Valerie, who is kind enough to be my Galinda.  I ordered some green face paint and we're gonna slay What is this Feeling on Friday Night. Fun! 

4) Reese had a dental appointment after school one day last week and the other children were ripe for destruction. Against chasing everyone around the waiting room and silencing cries of boredom and Fox News, I opted in favor of staying with them in the van and letting them watch a movie. Everyone cried anyway and a little someone punched another little someone in the face (no black eye luckily), then this little someone smiled and cooed until they all were content to spend the hour trying to make her laugh. So thankful for babies and their calming powers. She's so tiny and cute and smiley. The other great thing was how well Reese did. Zero complaints about her numb face or the baby root canal they did on her. That was a tender mercy. 

5) Aaron purchased the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS (yes really) and it's been nonstop talk of Princess Leia, Storm Troopers, Death Star, R2D2 and the Force around here. The best part is when the little kids go to bed, the big kid (Aaron) starts the movies over and watches them again.  The other night, we returned home from our date and decided to watch a movie. The Princess Bride (also on VHS) was in the player, and Aaron asked me, "Do you want this, or Star Wars?" I replied, "uh the 80's called and they want their movies back" 

What happened to romantic comedies? Or anything produced this century? We watched The Princess Bride that night. Mostly because we were both too tired to get up and change the movie and using the Force to do it for us proved to be unsuccessful. 

6) I took Reese and Quincy on a date on Saturday. They both needed new shoes, and Reese has, very suddenly, outgrown all of her shorts. We hit the target, the mall, and Taco Bell, and had a little talk about encouraging and championing each other instead of getting jealous or fighting for attention. I loved being with just big kids. We laughed, belted to the radio, and used their gift cards to buy (Star Wars) lego sets. They've been saving those gift cards since December, with the hope of using them on a date with mom. Patient children. 

7) One perk to Aaron traveling last week, was the break from cooking real meals. I texted this picture to my sister Amy a few nights ago and she replied, "that is SUCH a Meg Meal!" She's right. I love a snack plate. Crackers, cheese & salami. Carrots, pretzels, and hummus. Grapefruit. This is a perfect meal. Another night I ate a plate with sliced hard boiled eggs with everything bagel topping sprinkled on them, sliced pink lady apples, sharp cheddar, turkey, wheat thins, and grapes. And another night was celery, apples, and peanut butter, a Greek yogurt with granola and a zillion Lindt chocolate truffles. I've never thought about it before, but it's not uncommon at all for me to eat snacks stuff instead of cooking real food, when given the choice. 

8) I ordered some new prints and they're ready. They're stunningly beautiful and such a blessing for my home. 

9) my tiny pirate turned 6 last week and requested a pirate BBQ with the neighbors, Gulbransens, Kasey, and "the Shaws. all the Shaws, mom."  Request granted, Corbin! 

So on Friday night, we hosted a BBQ and between the 5 families, there were 32 people here, 21 of them were children. I called upstairs that it was time for cake and they all came flooding down in masses. It was like a clown car, they just kept coming down the stairs!  Big families are so fun. Big parties with big families are REALLY fun. There was a friend for everyone! 

 

10) the birthday night ended with a bonfire on the island. We were outside until almost midnight telling stories and laughing.  

11) the wild jasmine is blooming and my street smells like honeysuckle. It's intoxicatingly marvelous and amazing to me that Heavenly Father has created a plant so fragrant that it can change a mood with just the blow of a breeze.

12) one morning, while Aaron was gone, we were in a rush to get out the door and  it seemed like everyone was upset about something. We hurried around, finding shoes and then Reese hushed everyone and whisper-shouted, "Look!" 

Well isn't that majestic? She was right on our driveway (probably headed the hostas in my flower beds) and we stood in silence at the front windows and watched her move out to the island for a snack. After a quiet minute, she startled and bolted into the woods without leaving a trace of her presence except the moment of quiet in my home. We had family prayer, then  bolted out the door and went on with our day, thankful for the moment of peace to invite the Spirit into our day.  I'm grateful we didn't miss it.