Let's play catch up, shall we?

I won't even bore you with the details of "I've been busy"...

that's a given.

But, I have also been schooling

(kindergarten, preschool, and seminary).

I have been sporting

(soccer/dance).

I have been creating

(some new stuff coming soon).

I have been mothering, homemaking and wife-ing too.

I guess, I've just been living!

We've had some fun stuff going on as well as some regular stuff so let's just play a little game of catch up....

 IHOP with Nana after the 1st soccer game.

 My kids LOVE IHOP!

 riding our bikes to school

 Puddin's Mr. Botatoe Head... notice the "B" on his head! :)

 Our first "sweet treats" to go out this year!

 homework

 time out

 MTSU opening game... so, so fun!!!

Two of my most favorite people in the world!!! {love}

me and my girls <3

everyone wears underwear and flip flops while creating, right??

NEW PRODUCT!!! Check out my FaceBook page for details.

Ok- I'll do my best to be back tomorrow with some "real time" updates!

What a day....

I'm wrapping up a day that started like this...

And ended somewhere around here...

 Full of cuteness but evidence of the day showing itself pretty clearly.

The kids all had marvelous days at school so we capped dinner off with this:

Now the house is quiet, and as clean as it's gonna get... resting for what's to come tomorrow.
As for me, I have about 5 hours before I do it all over again!
So, goodnight and blessings to you and yours!

Got OJ

Baby girl has been running a fever for the past couple of days, nothing serious, just a virus. But, the virus has apparently made her feel the need to be attached to my hip and only my hip. No other hip will do. While it has caused some serious juggling (to say the least) I have enjoyed a little more cuddle time with my little independent baby girl.

Since she hasn't been feeling well and I am feeling the sudden urge to save all of their immunity systems from whatever virus she is fighting, I decided we needed some OJ (the fresh squeezed kind). Problem was, I didn't have the ingredients.... you know, oranges.

Being the problem solver that I am, I loaded the children up and we went to the grocery store to get some. For the most part, it was one of our most successful shopping trips. No tantrums or clean ups necessary.
However, if you race across the parking to ask me if all these young'uns are mine,
and you happen to be dentally challenged,
and you are a "grown up daddy",
then, do not be surprised when an unnamed Monkey is surprised by the lack of teeth and asks you about your recent visits from the tooth fairy and how much money you got.
uh humm.

Back to the story. Yes, we got our oranges and proceeded to add freshly squeezed OJ to the lunch menu today. We have a juicer, courtesy of craigslist, and it's great! Yes, it's kind of a pain to clean all of the parts but it does the job so quickly and, even better, it just happens to be the secret to maintaining a quiet atmosphere at lunch around our house!

You could hear a pin drop, seriously.

And even better.... it leaves the best OJ mustaches ever!

See for yourselves!

Bud's reaction was just too adorable! He's very sensitive to, well, pretty much everything these days so I wasn't sure how he would react. I love this little stinker!

 Happy to be using a big boy cup 

 Thinking about it....

 savoring the taste...

He like it, he really likes it!!

Random thoughts

1. I started the letsgetupearlyforkindergatren routine today. At 6:30 am. ugh. it's been a mighty long day.

2. trying to fix this crazy back to school schedule for 7 people is hard.

3. kidergarten nerves have set in.... for the monkey brothers. I think it's more like seperation anxiety.

4. may have to leave bsf this year. See #2 above. bummer

5. missing my bestie... bad

6. had to buy another stroller....geeez.

7. I have a swagger wagon!!! yippeeee!!

8. been praying a lot.

9.sabra hummus us better than homemade... just my opinion.

10. my kids ate 13 eggs this morning! mercy!

11. I BIG PUFFY HEART skype!

12. that's all for now.

Fun times

My daddy recently had a birthday. He lives in Mississippi, so while it's not a world away, it's not next door either. Thankfully, we can make it there in about 5 hours...depending on how cooperative our littles are! So, we decided it would be fun to surprise him for his birthday. We loaded up the van and headed off one Saturday morning. Since I have lots of family in the area, we decided to visit with some of them first. So we hit Aunt Judy and Papa Hal's house first. There is always music and laughter there, which is something my kiddo's thrive on! Some cousins and Aunts stopped by for a quick afternoon visit too.
While it was a quick visit, it was sure nice to see my family.

Bud and Daisy

Aunt Judy, Papa Hal, Tim, Kelly

Bud, Daisy and Nana

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Cousin P and Bud

After we were all worn out by the Mississippi heat, and sufficiently sticky sweaty, we headed off to get a quick dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Thanks to cousin G my monkey's ended up with a face full of whipped cream. I guess in Mississippi, if it's your birthday the local "tradition" at the Mexican restaurants is to sing happy birthday to you, put a sombrero on your head, and then put a "pie" of whipped cream in your face. My monkey's did not find it amusing! poor things!


Finally, we hit our hotel for bath time (thank goodness!) I bathed the kiddos while hubby unpacked the van. We finally got everyone to sleep and we were up and at 'em no sooner than we were in dreamland!


After we were dressed and fed and repacked, we made a quick pit stop to pick up cousin G and then drove the additional 40 miles to my daddy's town. We went straight to his church, hugged on family, and waited for him to come out from Sunday school and be surprised! And he was! It was so sweet to see his face when he finally noticed the 8 of us taking up his row!
After the service we headed to my Uncle Jeff's home for lunch and his party.

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture of the day weekend. 

Daddy blowing out his candles

Nona, Monkey See, Puddin

Uncle Jeff, Bug, Kayla, Cousin N,

Cousins!!

Where is baby Hope?

I love my daddy and look forward to more birthday's full of surprises for him!

The View from Here....

All Quacked up!

Whew... what a whirlwind!

But, I'm back and ready to share the story behind this little photo....

I'll try to give you the short version...

Way back in my former life, when I was a teacher, I had an incubator and every spring my class would hatch eggs. We hatched mostly chickens but occasionally we would be lucky enough to get a duck or goose egg. It was a wonderful experience every year and truly a highlight of the school year for my children.
Now, not to be partial or anything but duckling are just too cute for words so, naturally, I have a soft spot for them.

Fast forward to present day and my new/real/current life of mommy to the fabulous five. Many times I have walked past that incubator on the top shelf of my garage, and thought, I should really hatch some eggs with my sweet little darlings. But, I wonder what the neighbors would think when we all waddled outside for our afternoon walk... me... 5 little ones... and a gaggle of ducklings??? Probably goes against the neighborhood bylaws.
hmmm.

BUT, I did have a friend who happened to have a duck that had laid some eggs. My friend was concerned that her little mama duck was neglecting her not yet hatched brood so she asked if she could borrow that lonesome little incubator in my garage.
I gladly agreed.

And a few short weeks later... ta-da... she had baby ducks! The were PRECIOUS!!! Just too cute for words!

Coincidentally, the 2 teachers I am mentoring (have I shared that yet?? I don't believe so but since this is the short version I'll have t come back to that in another post). Anyway, these ladies were also finishing up a unit in the classrooms that involved spring animals and mentioned how great it would be for the children to see real baby chicks or ducks.

Big smiles from me... my kind of teachers!
So I called my friend and asked if her ducks would like to go on a field trip with me. She said yes, I picked them up and away we went!
We spent the morning in the classrooms then I picked my crew up from preschool and didn't have time to return the babies in between those two stops. So I promised to have the babies home for dinner but ran home and put my children down for naps... ducklings too!

And when everyone woke up... what a surprise!! To say my kiddos were excited would be an understatement! They were thrilled and begged to keep them (if only!) They loved them! It was so precious to see the kids playing with them too. Monkey See especially loves animals so he was beside himself and didn't want to put them down. You can see in he pictures, he is sort of a "duck whisperer". Somehow, they would just lay on their backs and let him rub their bellies!

Anyway, we had lots of fun with the ducklings and I think we may be hatching a few eggs around here next spring!

In case you are wondering where the photos of Bud and Daisy with the duckling are... I didn't get any. It was impossible for me to take pictures of them holding them for several reasons:
1. Bud is also known as Baby Hulk or sometimes as Cave Baby around here. Super strong. and rough. 'nuff said.
2. Daisy was so enamored by them she just wanted to shove them in her pockets and run away and hid from us so she could have them all to herself. She is so much like Swiper the Fox it's crazy!
3. Tug of war with bby animals and two year olds is very, very ugly.
4. I'm just not that brave.

But trust me when I say, they were super cute during their supervised duckling visits!