The sights of Spring

Daddy took Dante to work with him yesterday, so the 3 little ones had mommy all to themselves. The thought of that was a bit overwhelming to me. I was so pleasantly surprised at how well the 3 of them played together. Elijah stepped right up into his big brother role and even buckled Justus into his car seat when we were getting ready to go out. Elijah said, "Well, since I am the one with the biggest muscles here..." We filled up the sandbox last week and I will tell you that is one of the best $5.00 I have spent in a loooooooooong time. I just love when the weather is beautiful, the bugs are still hiding and we can enjoy a few weeks of all day outside time.

Love,

Amy

Poppy is 70 !!!!

We have postponed celebrating my dad's 70th birthday for a few weeks until my parents were able to travel here. The kids were just so excited. They spent their own allowance money purchasing a few gifts from the Dollar Store for him. I love just letting the kids organize their own "events" to watch and see what awesome, creative ideas they can come up with. Dante and Elijah did a fantastic job of making a super special birthday party for Poppy. What a fun time for all. It was such a blessing to be able to spend this milestone with my happy and smiling 70 year old dad. WE LOVE YOU, POPPY!!

Love,

Amy

TGIF

Thank goooooodness it is Friday. We just love Fridays. We so look forward to having daddy home for 2 days. The children are so just content and full when there are 2 of us parent people around the house. Two people to cuddle, 2 people to get us juice, 2 people to entertain us and listen to us chitter chatter about everything, 2 people to love.

I am going to take the kiddos swimming today to burn some energy so that Rich and I may be able to get an early start on our weekly date night tonight.

Here are the kids are "patiently" waiting on me at 8:00 this morning to get ready to go swimming in 2 hours. I wanted to attach both photos so you can see the smiles all around. Ahhh, the promise of a pool does wonders for the disposition.

Have a super weekend.

Love,

Amy

Fresh air at the Goodwill?

This morning there was such a nice fresh breeze coming in my kitchen window while I was making 15,000 dozen pancakes, that I decided to take the kids for a walk. We live about 3 seconds from a Goodwill store and the boys wanted to walk in and check out the toys. It is always a nice surprise to find some good stuff for a super price. We were able to pick up some great bargain toys and it has entertained the children while I prepared lunch. Dante was also able to find a new cowboy shirt and a hunting shirt for $4.00, too. Gotta love having your kids find things they will wear for that price.

So yes, there is some fresh air to be found at the local Goodwill.

Love,
Amy

Just in time for Spring

Friends of ours adopted 2 rabbits about a month ago. Little did they know, but these rabbits were about to become mommy and daddy rabbit. So, along come some of the cutest baby bunnies ever. My boys are pretty sure that they cannot live without owning at least 2 of these bunnies. To our surprise, daddy said yes and we will be bringing Drover and Snuggly home Saturday, March 22nd. I wanted to share a picture of Dante with his newest little buddy Drover, the runt of the litter. I will post pictures of our homemade bunny hutch once we get it completed.

Love,

Amy

To the "Y"

Yesterday afternoon, Rich and I were sitting around trying to decide what to do. We wanted everyone to be able to go and have a good time. It would be nice if we could all be active. (that means Mommy not sitting with babies while daddy and other kiddos have the fun.), and we needed to be inside because it was pretty chilly. After going over our options, which were going to cost us around $30, Rich decided to go check out the local YMCA....perfect. Yes, a bit of a hassle getting 4 kids and a husband out the door for an afternoon of indoor swimming, but well worth it. We swam, as a family for about an hour. By the time we got home, the children were zonked and all slept in late this morning. WoooHoooo! We made the mistake of telling them where we were going about an hour before we were ready to leave...bad idea. They dug all of last years swimming stuff out and stalked us for the next hour armed with goggles. We had a nice time and will hopefully get our moneys worth each month.

Love,
Amy

Don't forget to eat your green veggies.

I always find it curious when people say that their kids don't eat this or won't eat that, in regards to healthy foods like fresh veggies and fruit or beans and rice or a food they have never tried before. I am not talking about food allergies or things along that line. I am speaking about allowing our children to be picky about what they eat. Now, it has taken me 4 kids and a husband with a big appetite to realize that I will never be able to keep making 3 or 4 different meals 3 times a day in order to please everyone's likes or dislikes. It is hard enough keeping up with just 3 meals a day for a family of 6. So, I made the decision that my kids were not going to be granted the choice to "be picky." So today, I ran this test to see how my "non-picky-eating-kids" choice has come along. I set a bowl of broccoli on the table before dinner this evening. The kids were "starving." Within 3 minutes I look behind me to see Elijah (voted least likely to voluntarily eat greens) chowing on a piece of broccoli and SMILING. Believe it or not, I think most kids will eat most anything if they are truly hungry.

Love,

Amy

Homemade Icecream

Dante has really been enjoying spending an extra half of an hour after the little ones go to bed snuggling with mommy and reading some cool mystery chapter books. The newest hit was Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew. It is the cutest series featuring the infamous detective Nancy Drew when she was younger along with some of her girlfriends. The book was based around a local ice cream contest held by the local "ice cream bigwigs," Jim and Barry. Attached to the end of the book was a recipe on how to make your own homemade ice cream. Dante and Elijah banded together on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon and tackled this recipe pretty much on their own. I love watching them work together like a little team. I snapped a photo of them rolling out the ice cream in the carport. By the time they were done, their little hands were like ice cubes. The ice cream turned out super.

Love,

Amy