Enjoy the moment

My friend Alisa posted this quote on her blog today:

“The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”
― Anna Quindlen

So, I decided to listen to her wise counsel and enjoy a moment today. There are many things on my to-do list but these two needed to be at the top.

Thanks, Alisa, for helping me take the time to enjoy the moment.

Walking a little bit slower

So, yesterday morning as we were getting ready to go to school I was carrying Haley into the living room. I was going about my way when I stubbed my pinky toe on the kids slide we have. I did not think much about it, how many time in the past have I stubbed my baby toe on the corner of a wall? But when I set Haley down and looked at my toe something was definitely wrong. It was pointing out at a 45 degree angle and well, that is not normal! But I could walk on it, not too much pain and I continued to help my kids get out the door. But after that I knew it was probably broken. The pain was a tad bit worse but I could still get around. I miraculously got an appointment with a podiatrist with an x-ray machine in his office and William and Haley took me to the doctor. The resulting visit left me like this...

I get to wear this baby around for the next few weeks, including California. Yippi! We came to find out that my baby toe had been displaced and needed to be realigned. So, he numbed me up, and pulled and tugged on the little toe until he got it straight again. Haley hated the whole experience. She hated what the doctor was doing to me and screamed the whole time. Oh well, it is fixed now and I need to keep it like this so that it does not pop out again. Peter thinks it is pretty cool that I will be growing new bone just like Harry Potter did. And Caleb is so sweet saying prayers for my toe and helping out where he can. Won't I look so awesome on the beach? I feel so stupid for having broken my pinky toe!

Time together = time well spent

Since Sunday we have been doing some projects together that have been really fun and have gotten some creative juices flowing.

Project #1:All day Sunday Caleb was begging for us to make a leprechaun trap. He knew that the leprechaun had already come, he just wanted to make one. So, after church we got out some supplies and went to down. First it was only Caleb who wanted one, then William joined in and finally Peter could not resist. They turned out really cute. The boys saw a few ideas from the internet but for the most part they are the boy's ideas. Caleb even wrote up some cute signs for his leprechaun to read.

Project #2: This project went so well. It was fun, we spent almost 2 and a half hours working on it, and the boys loved the outcome. I got the idea from the internet to make a body book where you can flip the pages and change how the person looks or dresses, whether it be the head, body or feet. Then I scoured the web for different paper doll printable that the boys could use. Astronauts, cowboys, knights, robots, santa, swimmer kids, soccer and football dudes. We all sat down and started coloring, cutting and gluing and before I knew it it was time for dinner. It was wonderful to pass the time so nicely. The house was a MESS of paper afterward but the final product was worth it. Here is a sneak peak.

From Peter's book, this is the first page without any flipping of pages to change the body.

From Caleb's book, a cowboy/robot/policeman.

From Willy's book, a soccer player/robot girl. The boys loved looking at all the books and changing the bodies around so much. A lot of fun laughter.

Project #3: Since yesterday was the first day of Spring we placed some beautifully painted flowers in our house. Again, idea from web, but essentially the boys painted a bunch of flowers and the glued them all to look like a little bed of spring beauty. They all got really detailed in their painting. Caleb was mixing his own colors, just like his dad, to make beautiful arrangements, Peter was doing different textures with dots and detail, William was having fun with his watercolors, and Haley was having fun painting the table. They turned out great.

I thought this project would not happen because of some crazy events of the morning but I am glad that we made time for it. Each of the boys have one and they are so proud of what they created.

Week in review

We did a lot of fun things this week but I do not feel like breaking it all up into mini-entries. Besides, I think I am the only one that looks at this thing anymore (speak up if I am wrong) so it feels as if this is really for my own enjoyment to look back and see what my family has been up to.

First off, as I mentioned before Peter is in all day kindergarten and he has been coming home so tired everyday. But he seems to be enjoying the time at school. With him at school so long it affords William, Haley and I more time together. It has been very pleasant. Willy and I have been able to do school time together, relax more together. I have been able to take showers in the middle of the day and be productive, it has been nice. A few of our activities included reading together, play-doh, dancing. One day we pulled out the eggs and dyed some for Easter. It was Haley's first time and she was thrilled with the liberties given to her. To place her hand in the dye, handle the egg without restraint, and watch the magic happen as the egg (and her hand) transformed into a different color. And she got to do it with her best buddy William (they really do get along well). William loved coloring the eggs too, he is at the point where he likes to mix the colors to see what happens.

That smile says it all!

Another fun thing we did this week with everyone was blow painting. William was studying the letter B this week so we blew Q-tips dipped in paint out of straws and had so much fun with it all.

I love Peter's puffed out cheeks, blowing as hard as he can. The boys loved doing targets and seeing how good their aim was.

William, preparing to blow with all his might. Paint on his shirt and all, everything is okay.

She could not be happier. Given the chance to paint like a big girl; whether it was the paper, the actual paint container or her brother's paper, she was loving it.

On with the week. The weather has been so nice around here and they wanted to play outside. Haley absolutely loves the outdoors, without shoes of course. They were all in the backyard and Haley discovered the garden boxes, with all of that fresh - easy to dig in dirt. She climbed right in and with the help of some trucks she had a great time. Oh, how fun it was to watch her play, and what a good feeling to know that she did not care about getting down and dirty. She was in the thick of grabbing dirt and dumping dirt. It was great.

Then after her mean parents made her get out and eat her dinner Caleb and Peter dove right into the dirt fun and were attempting to dig a hole to China. But they eventually stopped their endeavor and came inside for the night.

Now for today, St. Patrick's day. The boys had fun (aside from one small war waged between two older boys) and declared it the best Clover Day ever. Peter was thrilled to be the first child awake and to find all the fun things the leprechaun had done through the night.

The leprechaun played with all the kid's green toys, left them fun little activities to do through the day, even left them something called a rainbow plant that the boys planted and will watch grow. They also found tons of sweet green goodies to munch on and the leprechaun also found all the eggs we are storing at our house and did an egg hunt out of all green eggs. Genius. Plus the boys loved finding the toilet water green, a surprise they found later in the day of more candy, and they proclaimed the leprechaun "tricky."

Here they are enjoying their pots-of-gold cupcake after the clover hunt. So much fun.

And as a side-note for myself to remember my crazy crafty ideas for my kids, this project was completed tonight - ready to be given to my cute kids for Easter. I saw this idea on the Internet and ran with it. Little chicks that can hatch out of their decorated egg.

There is a chick for each egg and one for each child. It was fun stitching a design on each one. They are such cute kids and I like doing silly things like this for them.

A close-up of Williams, because one of his favorite things is a rainbow.

First day of school - revisited

At Parent Teacher conference it was brought up that half-day kindergarten was moving up to full day if the family wanted to make the commitment. Peter enthusiastically said he wanted to go all day. We talked to him about it, made sure he understood what it all meant and that mom would miss him a lot. He made the decision that he wanted to go all day, his main reason was eating lunch at school and being with his best friend Payton more. I think that he does not want to miss out on anything that happens at school if he comes home early and it is such a novelty right now. So, we signed him up and today was the first. He woke up very excited. We packed the lunch and gave Caleb very strict instructions that he not forget to go pick up Peter at the front of the school when the day was done. I was going to meet them on the walk but Caleb was so excited to have a walking buddy. I did not want him to forget that walking buddy on his first big day.

Before school.

I went to pick them up and I waited on the other side of the crosswalk so not to get in the way of exiting children. We waited and waited and waited. Then a lady from our ward came out with her kids and she said she just saw Caleb and he was exclaiming that he almost forgot Peter as he was dashing back to the school! Crazy kid! I can just see him walking along, alone, and all of sudden he realized that he was missing someone. Arms flailing he dashed back to the school. Such cute boys!

Anyway, back to Peter. He was exhausted! I mean so tired. He was a snail coming home on that walk! But he said he had a great day. Loved his lunch and had fun at school. Only bad thing is that his friend Payton bailed on him. Payton went back to half-day kindergarten and so Peter cannot eat lunch with him. Peter is sort of bummed. And did I mention he was wasted after school!

Upon walking through the front door after school.

Look at that tired trooper! He did it though, one full day of kindergarten under his belt. And he went to bed so excited for another full day tomorrow. I think Caleb likes it just as much a Peter, Caleb is so happy he gets to walk home with him. Let's just hope he remembers to get him tomorrow.

Snow or Seuss?

This was a three day weekend for the boys and it kicked off with Dr. Seuss' birthday. Now I thought it would be fun to have some Seussical activities to entertain the boys on Friday, just so that we would not get bored. We had painting planned, making up your own Seuss type book, jumping contests; all that fun stuff. But it was all set aside the moment Haley went for a nap and we went outside in the snow. Snow forts are so much more fun than Seuss.

Also to be remembered is that on Sunday our family grew by one. William's primary teachers gave each of the Sunbeams a goldfish.

Total excitement by all of the kids and anxiety by mom. Rob says he is indifferent because as he so matter of factly stated, "I won't be here when it dies." Thanks a lot!!! I really hope this little fish, named Twilight, survives for a good while. William loves it! And he is such a sensitive kid when it comes to book characters dying, I do not like to think what will happen if anything goes wrong with this new pet adventure. Please live long little Twilight.

My solution to stuffed animal chaos

It may not be the most store-worthy/professionally done item in the boys' room but it does the job. The boys and Haley love every one of their stuffed animals yet there is no home for them. I conjured this idea to make a clear vinyl pocket hanger to go over their door and that would be home to all the loved and forgotten animals. What is seen is hopefully not forgotten. Unfortunately there are more animals that do not have a place in here, but only a few. Those can go in Haley's room, but for the most part there is a place to put the chaos and for now it is organized. Is it too dumb or is it a smart solution? You tell me.