Waiting On Spring

As I write this the sun is shining outside and I am so ready for Spring and warmer weather to get here.  The kids are itching to spend more time outside but we have been staying busy while we wait.  This past week I finished up some stuff for Valentine's Day.  I got these little mailboxes at the Dollar Spot at Target for the kids.  I put some small items in them (Ellie will be very excited about her heart earrings :-)) and then cut out their names in vinyl on the Silhouette.  And I also got some small glass jars, put some chocolate in them, and added their names.  I usually just have the kids give them the same cards they are giving their classmates, but Jackson and Ellie's had Fun Dip and I didn't think they would really enjoy that.  And then Lincoln ended up getting all new teachers in his classroom just last week because the his original ones ended up taking different jobs.  So I thought I would give them a little something as a welcome gift. 

I also finished up Lincoln's Valentine cards.  I just had them printed at Wal-Mart and they turned out kind of dark.  Oh well.  Lincoln loves Kit Kats, so I just taped those to the back of the cards and now those are done. 

Then Ellie's teacher ended up putting me in charge of the class party so I had to call all the parents that had signed up to bring something to the party or help out.  The mom that was supposed to do the game is going to be out of town, so I was looking for something to do.  But my mom reminded me of a game that she always had the kids play at class parties and they had a lot of fun-the relay where you have to change in and out of clothing items.  So I have gathered all of the items I need for that and now I just need to order some donuts to take for some of the snacks and get some goodie bags together for Jackson's class party. 

Lincoln doesn't have school on Mondays or Fridays so he gets to be my helper.  Sometimes he can be your typical little boy, but generally he is pretty good about putting his dirty clothes away in the laundry basket, putting his stuff away, and saying please and thank you.  This may not seem like much, but he was taking a bath one night and he was washed and just playing around, so I told him when  he got out to put his dirty clothes away.  When I went in there later, he had done just that, plus drained the tub, and turned the lights off.  His older brother and sister aren't that good at remembering to do all of that.  Then on Monday he wanted to help me vacuum, do the laundry, make dinner, etc.  Monday afternoon we had to drop Ellie off at dance and then pick up Jackson from swim practice.  We waited almost half an hour for him to come out and he said he couldn't find his shoes.  This was happening before Christmas break and has started again.  Someone takes his shoes and hides them in different lockers and this last time it was a random bag.  He has no idea who is doing it and I can't decide if they are doing it to be funny or be mean.  I think I will mention it to his coach tomorrow though.  Monday night I decided to give Andrew a break from bath time, so I was trying to get things cleaned up from dinner and start baths.  Lincoln was the last one at the table because he wouldn't finish his green beans.  I wasn't really paying attention too much as I was going between the kitchen and out bathroom, but at one point Andrew told me Lincoln was done and I noticed he didn't have any remnants of green beans on his plate.  So I got suspicious and looked in the trashcan and there they were.  This is the second or third time he has done this.  Ellie tried this before too, but she would say she had to go to the bathroom and would spit the food out in the trashcan in there. 

Leah and Alex came over on Tuesday so the boys could play together and then we went to my parents to eat dinner.  Wednesday was the same with Little K and basketball practice on Thursday.  Andrew did a presentation about wills and such for moms at Lifeline Pregnancy Center Thursday night and got home as we were finishing up dinner so that I could take Jackson to practice.  And then the race was on to get to Aldi and Wal-Mart before I had to pick him up again.  I was happy to get in and out of Aldi in 5 minutes but Wal-Mart took a little longer. 

Friday I was able to finish up a Kirksville K-Life alumni list I have been working on.  It took some pleading to get information from people, but I was thankful when people started responding.  It was fun to see names from when K-Life was in its beginning stages-around 17 years ago!  It is hard to believe it was that long ago.  Miles and Bennett were busy climbing on things during the day.  Here is Bennett on the couch and Miles on the ottoman.  They were pretty proud of themselves.

And even though they can fight with each other, I love watching them play together.

And a lot of times when I get down on the floor, they all like to climb on me.  So I decided to try to get a picture of it :-).

I was trying to think of new things going on with them, but there is not much.  We are down to one bottle at night and I was waiting for them to start feeling a little better before we take that one away.  And now that they are pretty much just using sippy cups, I spend a lot of my time looking for lost ones.  I don't like to get out a new sippy cup when I can't find one because I know I will forget about the lost one and not remember it until I start smelling sour milk.  My last search found the missing cup in Ellie's shoe basket under her boots.  One cute thing they do that I don't think I have mentioned is that when you lay them down for their naps, the first one you lay down won't settle down and actually lay down until the other one is in bed too.

Friday afternoon we went out for lunch at Colton's with Andrew's family.  The twins always seem to do well at Coltons because they love their rolls.  Then later that afternoon as I was making all the beds from washing sheets, my mom called to tell me that Andy and Autumn were on their way home.  I guess there was a miscommunication about them being back this weekend :-).  So I finished up stuff around the house-I was also getting a meal ready for a family in our church that just had a new baby.  Then we dropped Jackson off at Zach's for a sleepover, dropped off the meal, and then went to my parents for dinner.  It was Courtwarming for the high school (Andy and Autumn came back to watch Asa play) so Ellie went to the ball game with Andy and Autumn.  They were having a little fundraiser at the game selling old basketball jerseys.  Andy did some aggressive bidding (he just had to do the minimum $5 bid) and was able to get my old home jersey.  Ellie wore it home :-)

Briley ended up staying the night with us.  They started out the night coloring cards for Asa since the boys' team lost their game.  Then I tried to teach them how to play Guess Who and that ended up not going over well.  Next up was a craft from the Dollar Tree that involved gluing little pieces of tissue paper to styrofoam shapes.  They thought that was taking too long and finally settled on watching Eloise at Christmas as they went to sleep.  The next morning was a big bubble bath and cinnamon rolls before we headed to Jackson's ball game.

After the game, we came home, ate lunch, cleaned up, did some laundry and then went to my parents for the kids to play together.  Then today we went to church and then went to my parents for brunch.  The rest of today has been tons of fun.  I decided to start my whole house vacuuming, meaning moving everything and vacuuming behind and under stuff.  Now I need to finish this post and the laundry, eat dinner, and then get to work on our taxes.  I think I have waited long enough to receive all the forms we need, now it is getting it all organized and pulling together all the information from Andrew's many ventures (the law firm, his rental LLC, the cattle, etc) to send to the accountant.  Definitely not my favorite thing to do.  Actually, I dread it.  So to end on a smile, here are Miles and Bennett having fun getting into the shoe baskets.  They would get pretty mad though when they would tip over. :-)