Sometimes...Life

Sometimes life gets busy. And things go by the wayside...like this blog. My bad, but I make no apologies. We've been busy.

Busy getting ready for dance recitals.

Busy planting food. One Ordinary Dad built the raised bed. Our backyard isn't flat or sunny, so the ideal place for planting is actually at the top of our driveway. Last year we did small pots and planted fruits and veggies from seed. We had a small yield. Seeds are hard, y'all and I am not a green thumb. This year we decided to start with starter plants. We already have romaine lettuce ready to eat!

Busy tending flowers. C likes to help and watering the plants is now one of her daily responsibilities.

Busy hanging out at the zoo.

Busy pretending to be a turtle.

Busy crafting (One Ordinary Dad made this beauty for my birthday...it hangs on our bedroom wall now). It's made of wood from a potting shed in our backyard that was falling down and disrepair.

Busy celebrating 31.

Just. Plain. Busy. (Too busy to bother watermarking these, so don't steal them, okay).

Life is like that though. The school year is winding down, vacation plans are firming up (One Ordinary Dad are thinking of escaping for one day while we're in California for a wedding and hanging out with the Mouse at Disneyland), the temperature is staying warmer, our windows are open, lawnmowers are humming, the grill is fired up often, and well, life is happening.

And in the rare moments when we have peace and quiet and stillness, we're reading out on the porch with a glass of wine or watching movies, or relaxing with friends, or cheering on the Reds. Blogging just kind of ends up at the bottom of my list of things I want to do in the still and quiet moments. But it was time for an update to let you know that yes, my few dear readers, we are very much alive and well. Hopefully summer vacation will bring more opportunities to update.

~One Ordinary Mom

Party Day

I. Am. Tired.

Yesterday was full of fun for my sweet C's fifth birthday. I hit the ground running Friday when I got home from school, making 24 cupcakes for her friend party and an Angry Birds cake for her family party.

Then came yesterday. We got up early and headed to Run, Jump, and Play for C's birthday party with friends. There about 15 kids there, mostly from preschool. They had a blast on all of the inflatables.

I have to say, I was pretty proud of C for her patience and thankfulness when opening presents. She took the time to admire each gift and thank each kid, without any prompting from us.

 Run, Jump, and Play was awesome! The staff set everything we brought up in her party room, kept the kids moving from room to room, kept a list of all of her gifts so we can write thank-you's this week, and cleaned everything up. So worth the money we spent.

Last night was C's family party. We had about 20 people crammed into our small house to celebrate our sweet girl. We made a ton of pasta, a huge salad, several loaves of garlic bread, and capped it off with cake and ice cream. The Angry Birds toppers on her cake are part of this game, which I'm sure we'll be playing a lot of in the coming weeks.

And now the celebrating is over. Today's plans include cleaning up, hanging up all of her new clothes, re-organizing her art supplies (she got a ton of art stuff from both friends and family and can't wait to get around to the business of creating), and relaxing.

Tomorrow is her 5 year well-check. I'm anxious to see how much she's grown in a year.

Happy Birthday, Sweet C! Until next year...

~One Ordinary Mom :-)

High Five

There's a saying that goes, "days and weeks are long, but months and years are short." Whoever said it wasn't kidding. I feel like we've gone from this...

...to this in about 5 seconds. Not 5 years.
My sweet C turned 5 today.

 I took a half day off work to spend the morning with my girl. I always said I would take some part of my work day off on their birthdays to spend time with my kids on their special days. B's birthday falls so close to Christmas that it's usually while I'm on break. C's 4th birthday was on a Sunday and her 3rd while I was on maternity leave with B, so I haven't taken a day off for her birthday since she turned 2.

Her gifts included the traditional new outfit (so you look awesome on your day), a Mario and Luigi shirt (she loves Mario; I'm not even sure why), a puzzle, some story cards, a Leappad, and the Brave game for her Leappad.

 We sent her on a treasure hunt around the house for her clues. C has quite a few sight words and is great at sounding things out. She needed some help with the clues, but recognized enough words in each clue that she knew where she needed to go to find her next present.

 She calls her Leappad her "iPad." And other than when she was at school and when she took a nap (One Ordinary Dad has gotten her back on a napping schedule-- she takes a 20-30 minute power nap almost daily-- he is a saint), she has done nothing but play Leappad.

 Her restaurant of choice for dinner was McDonald's. She loves the indoor playland at the one near our house. I bought some cupcakes for after dinner and we'll probably do her puzzle before bed and use her story cards to create a bedtime story. She wants to wear her Mario shirt to school tomorrow.

Saturday will be filled with parties. One with her friends in the morning at a local giant inflatable playland and one in the evening at our house with family. I make the kids' cakes for their birthdays and C has requested an Angry Birds cake. I ended up buying the tabletop Angry Birds game and plan to use the pieces from that to put on her cake. The game was only $1.50 more than the Angry Birds cake decorating set, and I know she'll play the game in the future.

It's going to be a busy week, but I'm glad I got to steal a few quiet moments with C this morning before school and I plan to steal a few more tonight.

Happy Birthday, Sweet C. I can't believe you are a whole-hand-full-of-fingers old today!

Love,
One Ordinary Mom :-)

PS: Sweet C could use your prayers for peace. We thought she was doing okay with the transition to a pet-free home. She hasn't brought it up much at home or really acted like she missed them. However, she acted out at school quite a bit last week and exploded yesterday when she didn't want to share, yelling that "everyone is taking things from her like her pets." Her teacher assured us this is normal processing for her age and circumstance, but it still breaks my heart. At school she has also been drawing our pets a lot and talking about them. We checked a helpful book out from the library (which a guidance counselor at my school suggested) and are working through it. I'm really hoping that the birthday celebrations and gifts are a nice distraction for now and that God will continue to heal her broken heart and give her peace about it. On the bright side, we have noticed a pretty significant decrease in her snoring (which was part of it, apparently). She used to saw logs and you could hear her from the hallway. Now, it's barely audible unless you're close to her.

He Still Hates "Happy Birthday"

Sweet B celebrated his second birthday today. Yes, two years ago, after 21 hours of labor that resulted in a c-section, my sweet little man made his appearance. Because he was a c-section and had a little bit of jaundice to boot, we spent Christmas in the hospital, finally getting discharged on the 26th. Thankfully, C was little enough that she has no recollection of Santa coming while in the afternoon that day we arrived back while she was outside playing. All of her presents and family members were a nice distraction. On the bright side, we had the hospital to ourselves, which meant an extra bed for One Ordinary Dad when he stayed the night and the nurses giving us extra attention.

Today we started off with presents and a doughnut breakfast. Balloons and this year's birthday book were also on display.

 I took C to a local toy store last week to pick out a present. She picked out this. B got 2 large Automoblox and an outfit from Mommy and Daddy.

 After breakfast, it was off to the Museum Center for the annual holiday train display. Grandma and Poppy (One Ordinary Dad's parents), Uncle Josh, Aunt Kristin, and cousin Emmy also joined us. My train-loving little man was so happy to see the trains.

 We came home to eat pizza, open presents, and have cake and ice cream. Despite our practices all week, B cried again when we sang "Happy Birthday" but was perfectly happy before and after the song.

 He's definitely got the present opening thing down.

 Aunt Kristin, Uncle Josh, and Emmy got B a sweet Imaginext helicopter (which he calls "Harold," like from Thomas, even though it looks nothing like Harold). Grandma and Poppy added to his Take-n-Play Thomas collection with the pirate cove set and Great Grandma (Grandma's mom) got the train service station. When you combine this with the small set we had from when C was in her train phase and the tunnel and bridge set B got last weekend, we have a whole lot of Thomas. And that's not even the wooden railway stuff we have downstairs (which he also got more of last weekend and has also been played with a lot this week).

I'm pretty sure that after Santa comes and we open presents Christmas morning, we'll probably have enough Take-n-Play and wooden railway Thomas to loop around the house!

Happy Birthday, Sweet B! At two years old, you are amazing! You love cars, trains, and anything that goes. You also love any activity that involves throwing a ball. You speak in full sentences now and definitely speak your mind as well, telling us what you want, what you don't like, and even attempting to mimic C's knock-knock jokes. You play hard and sleep harder, often 12 hours a night, plus a long afternoon nap still. Your energy seems unlimited. You are enthusiastic about everything. The zoo remains one of your favorite places to go-- and a ride on the train is always in order. At the park, you head straight for the slides. If you aren't sliding, you're giving Mommy and Daddy heart attacks climbing up as high as you can go. You smile often, you give us great big belly laughs, and you nothing escapes your notice. We love you so much!

~One Ordinary Mom :-)