step into my backyard, baby

Today marks the end of a very long and ambitious week for me. For the past couple of months, I've had the luxury of our mother's helper for three mornings every week. This past week, since I'd been feeling a bit more energetic (though after this week, that's no longer the case), I thought I'd be adventurous and attempt to take the kids to a playdate hosted at the home of one of the families in our Catholic Moms group, so I told E not to come on Wednesday. The kids loved the spacious yard with its fun play equipment and large kiddie pool in which to splash around with a bunch of other kids (and I loved conversing with the other moms in the shade). After that, though I'm so glad we went, it's safe to say we were all thoroughly exhausted-- enough for everyone to take long afternoon naps (except for me). But I got a message on my cell phone that afternoon that E wasn't going to be able to come the next day. So we made do and played and did reading and writing lessons in the morning and went to the library after lunch-- a feat, I think, in itself (I was reassured of the beauty of my library reserve system as we carted our 20 or so books, divvied up between the four of us, out of the front doors, and then had to return to the circulation desk and check each of our books again because the alarm went off, as it does 85% of the time when I have the kids with me). No matter...

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

checking on the bugs...

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

The kids always enjoy their outings to different parks around the South Hills with E, but I'm just not up for that yet-- at least the frequency with which they ask to go. While I'd love for them to "get outside" and "unleash some energy," our yard doesn't exactly pass muster for playtime. They'll ride bikes around the sidewalk connected to our neighbors' and tool around looking for bugs, and on rare occasions when I'm ready to take on three kids in wet and grassy swimsuits and bodies, we get out the hose and play sink, but it's not all that captivating for long. So we've been keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a suitable- and cheap- play set-- sadly, all the wood ones are too big for our yard. The other day, I found just the thing and emailed about it right away, and even asked the woman if she would take considerably less for it than she was asking (the nerve, right?), and she did! Mike went out during a thunderstorm last night to disassemble it to put in our van and bring home. Fortunately, we fared better weather-wise this evening and let the kids play around in the water while Dad expertly reassembled the playground in a matter of minutes. He's great like that.

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/27/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

The end result? A playground... and a dungeon and a mountain with a cave and a castle and an enchanted tower and a restaurant and a pirate ship and a tree house... all rolled into one! Now they have a medium to really let their imaginations run wild... I love it. And so do they. Jack was giddy this evening getting ready for bed, talking about how he wanted to show his friends how neat our new playground is... and when he could see it out his window-- he said he just couldn't believe we had that in our backyard, to stay. So sweet... all of them.

Welcome to The Bug Hotel

From 07/22/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Jack is a complete science fiend. During quiet times, he devours- at least the pictures- of such books as Keeping a Nature Journal, Science Play, What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?... Science Play is filled with all number of-- well, science-y experiments and activities for young kids, and one day, he came across one he's been set on doing ever since-- constructing a bug hotel. For a few days, we've been setting aside bits of sweet compost (a mango pit, some strawberry culls, an apple core or two...) that small critters might enjoy- into the bottom half of a 2-liter bottle. He was very upset with me one day for pitching a mostly eaten and browning apple core because he was "saving that for [his] bug hotel!!"

From 07/22/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Yesterday, with the help of Mike, Jack dug out a small hole in our shamefully overgrown garden in which to place the "hotel." He came in to get me almost right away, informing me ecstatically that his first creepy-crawly guest had arrived and was contentedly munching on some mango. I wish I could have captured his glee throughout the whole ordeal. Mike found a board to put loosely over the container as a roof, and I'm sure we'll be checking on the number and kind of visitors present frequently. He has high hopes for a roly-poly(otherwise known as a woodlouse).

From 07/23/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/23/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Last night, Jack was having some trouble sleeping, suffering from nightmares, and at least the first time I was up there, he seemed calmed by a bedtime story about Oswald, a weary Roly-Poly who had chanced upon the hotel and was so excited that he went to retrieve his wife and two kids. They promptly packed up their suitcases and set off to their garden resort for a much-needed getaway.

...Makes me want to break into song...

...While the crickets click their cricky melodies
All the ants were fancy dancing with the fleas
Then up from under the ground
The worms came squirming around
Oh they danced until their legs were nearly lame
Every little crawling creature you could name
Everyone was glad
What a time they had
They were so happy they came.

Come on let's crawl (gotta crawl gotta crawl)
To the ugly bug ball (to the ball to the ball)
And a happy time we'll have there, one and all and the ugly bug ball!

yarn along- finished snug

From 07/15/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/15/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/15/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

The hooded snug is finally complete, except for a few toggle buttons. It turned out pretty cute- and it's sooooo soft and squishy. Right now, Bunny is donning it, just to be sure it's nice and broken in once the baby is ready for it.

I finished Cinderella Ate My Daughter and have moved on to Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too. The kids have actually been playing remarkably well together as of late, for which I've been extremely thankful, but they all have their moments (as I'm sure most siblings do) when I'd like to banish them to separate corners of the house (and I'd like to hide in my room with the noise maker on). I'm hoping this book might have some useful insight into how to deal with-- how to guide them to deal with-- certain sticky situations. Wouldn't it be great if they (almost) always got along swimmingly? I've seen it in other large families... I know its possible. There is hope for us yet!

From 07/15/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

I think I'm going to trade it my knitting needles for the Brother for a little while. Some pretty fabric is waiting to be made into a quilt, and I'm going to try to venture away from the simple patched charm square variety. Not too far, mind you.

outings

I've been feeling relatively good- and energetic- for the past couple of weeks... well enough to get out of the house some with the kids.

Last week, we visited two different parks with the Cramers/Wards on consecutive days (and the kids had gone to another park with E the day before)-- which made for long and quiet nap times around here.

Mike had a church meeting on Thursday evening and wasn't giong to be home until late, so I braved a Chik Fil A outing with the kids (there's a nice play area, which I thought would be a good outlet for them-- plus, I wouldn't have to deal with dinner). Unfortunately, the large "She Cow" was making her rounds. Abigail got in a hug before Iris spied her and began to howl and arch nearly out of her high chair to get away from the bovine terror. And that pretty much did her in for the rest of our meal and playing afterward. She cried and clamped my hand back in place if I let my tight grip around her loosen. Just ask her if she liked the cow. She'll lower her brow in a grimace just recalling the experience: "I not wike it. It scary. It yucky. I scweamed."

We jaunted down to our parish's annual Fun Flair on Friday evening and only ended up coming away with one item that we'd donated to the garage sale (a true feat considering the bulk of items I carted down there-- I wouldn't allow them to go the first couple of nights of the fair, knowing that most of our toys might still be lingering there)-- a Touch and Feel book that Iris chose as her take-away. Abigail got a book and puzzle, and Jack came away with a Tom and Jerry puzzle book and a broken microscope (I take full responsibility, as I didn't realize it was missing its llight and mirror until Mike told me when we got home), but it makes a pretty awesome gun. And it was less than a dollar.

On Saturday night, We enjoyed the company of our college friends, the Mehaffeys. They always bring the most thrilling games, and this time was no exception. If you haven't played Ticket to Ride, I'd highly recommend it.

And thank goodness for Family Tuesdays at Ikea, when all meals for kids are free- no adult meal purchases necessary. We popped over there today with the Wards and let the big kids hang out at Småland while the rest of us made our rounds in the sprawling store-- while there we scored some frames, kids' utensils, and meatballs.

From 07/17/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

And tried out some of the kids' wares...

From 07/17/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/17/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/17/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/17/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Those XLerator hand dryers are pret-ty rad, let me tell you.

Yarn Along... slow and steady

From 07/11/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

I've lost interest in knitting this little number (as you've probably grown tired of seeing it week after week in its slowly progressing state). But I told myself I won't start any more projects until this one has been cast off the needles... and I'm on the final stretch with just the back of the hood left. I checked out Vintage Baby Knits: More Than 40 Heirloom Patterns from the 1920s to the 1950s last week after swooning over its delectable little classics. In reality, who knows when or if I'll get to any of those. But I couldn't pass it up.

What's been keeping me up past midnight lately is homeschool preparation- and backlogging my reservations on the library's website. I just get so pumped thinking about Jack's excitement over learning. We were truly blessed with that boy. Which brings me to two of my other greatest blessings-- sweet, girlie girls who love nothing more than to be coddling their babies and being swathed in pink scarves as princesses or ballerinas. So my current read, Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, has been an appropriate, fascinating and very humorous insight into the forays of raising the fairer-- ha!-- gender. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a daughter... or a son for that matter.

he got the eyes

From 07/08/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

(Kinkajou with quiver and bow and arrow)

From 07/08/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

Jack was paying attention during our drawing lesson on pupils, irises and highlights last week.

kid-free

Have I mentioned what a great mother's helper we have? We've been so blessed by her these past few months. On Friday night, Mike and I seized the opportunity to have her here and get out together for a whole night without any kids-- the first time since before Jack was born. We figured we'd better do this before #4 comes, making adult-only time even more scarce. E was scheduled to be here until close to lunch time today, but as it turned out, we decided to come on home early after sleeping in until 9-- we were itching to see our dears.

A squealing crew greeted Mike and I, excited to recount to us their time with E-- coloring, a trip to Rita's after pizza, summarizing in full (just about) their new favorite movie, Mulan, a broken window unit (nothing that a flipped fuse wouldn't fix)... they were also a bit confused as to where we'd been for almost 18 hours-- "Where were you, Mom and Dad?!"

As for Mike and I, we had a wonderful, restful diversion. We spent most of our time at the beautiful Omni William downtown, with dinner beforehand and a late-evening downtown Slushee quest wherein we dealt with phantom 7-11s (according to Google maps) and an out-of-order Slushee machine. All in all, a fantastic getaway with the sweetest, and most incredible man I know...

fireworks!

From 07/04/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/04/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/04/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 07/04/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

This morning, Mike took all three of the kids to the Dormont Park Fourth of July celebration in the hot hot heat. They came home, faces and arms painted, telling me excitedly about bouncy rides and slides and prizes they won.

Tonight, Mike and Jack headed back to Dormont Park to see the fireworks up close for Jack's first time. Seeing as the 9:30 start-time alone was an hour and a half after the kids' bedtime, I opted to watch the same ones from the third floor window with Abigail while Iris slept. We had an amazing view (see photos). Abigail kept saying, "Oh my! That one was sooooo pretty. Oh my!" Jack liked "the medium ones and the small ones... and the glowsticks" that he saw some people carrying. Other than that, he was terrified and asked to come home early.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! And Happy Baptismal Day to our sweet Iris Faustina!

TEAMS picnic

We had a picnic for our last Teams of Our Lady meeting of the year-- hosted at the home of our friends, the Gilberts. They have a spectacular yard...

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

...as well as a great selction of dress-up clothes. Maria, the Polen girls, and Abigail requested to promenade onto the porch in their fanciful attire.

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

She was less than pleased that she didn't get in on the whole dress-up affair.

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)

little sweetie Joey

From 06/30/2012 (by Eye-Fi)