Spring Break

Our first adventure for Spring Break was to Columbia with Amanda and her three oldest, my mom and Molly.  We headed out Tuesday morning and Lissy stayed home with Preston and Grayson.  We got to Bonkers just as they were opening which always works out great.  There was hardly anyone else there.  Their special for the day was to get half of your admission price back in tokens, which the kids loved.  I usually don't let them play the games, so they got lucky this time :-). They played around there for a while and then we headed just down the road to the new Shakespeare's location.  Oh, I love that pizza and miss it.  It wasn't busy yet either, so we found a good spot to sit, my mom let them each play one game, and our pizza arrived pretty quickly.  It all turned out well and everyone had a good lunch.  After lunch, we went to the mall to do a little shopping.  I had to exchange some sandals for Lincoln at Payless, then we hit Target, and then the play area.  Jackson and Ellie haven't been to the mall in a while, but they have officially become too big to play in the play area and I think that is hard for them to accept :-).  After the mall, we ran by Sam's and I did some quick shopping while everyone else stayed in their cars.  At least I tried to be quick, but it was a test in patience with a lot of slow-moving people in the store that day.  But I finally got out of there and we headed home with some sleepy kids.

Amanda bought everyone AJ's for dinner and picked it up on the way home.  I had Molly with me, so we stopped by the house and unloaded everything, switched the laundry, and then headed to my parents to eat dinner.  We didn't have small group on Wednesday, so I offered to make dinner for everyone.  So the kids and I headed off to do some grocery shopping that morning.  We went to Aldi first and Jackson offered to use one of his quarters to get the cart, but I already had one out.  So he used mine and got the cart for me while I got everyone out of the car and then he helped me bag up the groceries and take the cart back when we were done.  Sometimes he really appreciates having responsibility and I hope that through encouragement it will stay that way.  After Aldi, we went to Wal-Mart and ended up seeing Lissy and Carson there.  As I was checking out, both Jackson and Ellie decided they wanted to go with Lissy.  So I took Lincoln and the twins home to start on dinner and Lissy took the others back to my parents to start on Camp Aunt Lissy.  She had come up with a bunch of fun activities for them to do during the day.  They tried doing the thing where you paint cotton balls, bake them, and smash them.  They also painted a banner, played with oobleck, made s'mores with Peeps.  She also did some activities Thursday and Friday including "screen printing", painting shirts with freezer paper, and going on a walk.  Then they also played some different games including one where Ellie and Carson wore shower caps, then they put shaving cream on them, and the other kids threw cheese balls at them to try to get them to stick on the cap.  They all love their Aunt Lissy and she is so awesome to them.

 Thursday morning I did my weekly bathroom/general house cleaning.  While I was working on it, I had the music on and the song, "Tonight, tonight" came on.  Ellie had slept in the family room the night before and was still asleep on the floor, so I poked her to wake her up and started dancing.  With eyes half open and a little smile, she slowly stood up and started dancing with me.  She can hardly resist the chance to dance :-).  After we got done with some stuff around the house, we headed back over to my parents.  Sara came into town with Bella and Brady so they got to join in on Camp Aunt Lissy.  Sara and Ryan quickly sold their house in Arkansas, so now they are trying to find one in the Chesterfield area since they will be moving back soon. 

While Lissy was entertaining the kids and Miles and Bennett were kind of taking a nap (they don't seem to nap well at my parents) I did some office work and also worked on birthday party stuff for Colton and Carolina.  Their birthday isn't until May but we won't see Amanda again until the end of June.  She asked if I would help her with party stuff, so I came up with a design and printed and cut some stuff out for her.  Colton wanted a train party and Carolina wanted a princess party.  Amanda didn't necessarily want to merge them together, but have their own separate decorations.  We used some of Ellie's Cinderella stuff and used that as the basis for Carolina's stuff and then did some red train decorations for Colton.  The hardest part was making an invitation that had both of those themes.  But I was able to get something that Amanda liked, so that is good.  Part way through the afternoon, Andrew came by and took Jackson and Lincoln with him out to the ranch.  They tried to do a little gold panning.  They weren't too successful finding gold, but they definitely found a lot of mud.  Then later that night, Lissy had set up a girls night with some of her friends, so Amanda, Sara, and I joined them out in the pool house.  Ellie and Lincoln stayed at my parents for a sleepover with their cousins, but Jackson and the twins went home with Andrew.  I didn't get home until close to midnight and Jackson was still up.  He actually said, "Where have you been?  I've been worried about you."  And then he went up to bed.  But I didn't get to go to bed yet.  The twins were crying quite a bit.  Not really crying, but screaming.  They have little tempers and like to scream.  I checked on them and everything seemed fine.  But just randomly through the night, they would scream for a bit.  The next morning came quickly and I had a lot to get done.  My mom brought over some paper Amanda had bought for me to use for the party stuff and she took home some clothes for Ellie and Lincoln.  The rest of the morning was spent finishing the designing part of the decorations, printing them and sending them through the Silhouette.  I also worked on a dessert and pasta dish for a meal I was taking to some family friends whose son is in Jackson's grade.  The mom fell on the ice a couple weeks ago and shattered her ankle and had to have surgery on it.  My mom offered to make a vegetable and bread while I did the pasta, salad, and dessert so it all worked out well.  I was able to prep the pasta dish ahead of time and cook it at my parents.  They were waiting for us when we got there so that we could go bowling.  I left Miles and Bennett with my mom so they could nap and then the rest of us went-Amanda and all her kids (the youngest twins did a great job hanging out in their car seats the whole time observing everything), me and the three oldest, Sara and her two, and Lissy and Molly.  My mom and I had some vouchers that we were able to use to get us all in at 1/2 price.  It went pretty smoothly with just a few break downs.  The kids had a good time, so that is always a plus.

Carolina was pretty happy with her bowl

I think this is when I got a strike :-)

Just hanging out on the floor at Leisure World

Giving Brady a high-five

We had to help push Bella's ball or else it would go really slow or get stuck

Showing off his big muscles he uses to carry the ball

It was a beautiful day outside Friday, so after the bowling Lissy helped them all make shirts out on the pool deck.  I finished up getting the dinner ready and ran it by to the family.  My mom made all of us dinner though which is always delicious.  Andrew was out of the ranch again trying to look at some land that belongs to an estate he is working on.  Or at least he tried to look at it and ended up going mudding instead.  He said it was horrible.  I am not a fan of mud and it keeps making its way into our house.  So he has to keep cleaning his truck and I have to keep cleaning the garage so the mud doesn't get tracked in. 

Everyone slept in a little on Saturday-at least past seven.  Andrew took the older ones out to the ranch and I went by my parents to see Amanda and her kids before they left.  Can you believe she made both trips, to Kirksville and back to Dallas, by herself with five kids.  Amazing.  They made an overnight stop both times in Kansas City with Caroline and Jared.  My dad was outside a lot on Saturday taking down their Christmas lights and Miles and Bennett weren't happy about it at all.  They would just stand at the doors and windows and cry for him.  They hadn't had good naps most of the week and they were very grumpy.  So while the twins were busy yelling at my dad, the older three were out at the ranch panning for gold again.  Andrew sent me this picture of Jackson...

I thought they actually found something and so did Jackson.  But Andrew's mom was being sneaky and put some different pieces for old jewelry in his pan when he wasn't looking.  Jackson was very excited though and thinks he can cash it in.  He was excited to show it to all of us too.  He was worried about the leprechaun taking it that night and was scared about having it in his room.  Well after dinner, Andrew took the twins home since they were so grouchy.  The other kids got in the hot tub at my parents house while I made a quick grocery shopping trip.  After I picked up the kids and we were heading home, Jackson was talking about the leprechaun again.  He thought there were a bunch of leprechauns hiding all over waiting for everyone to go to sleep.  And he was wondering if Santa or the Easter Bunny helped them get around.  Then he said they must be rowdy to the core just like him :-).  Jackson tried his hardest to stay up late Saturday night.  And then the twins were crying again.  So I would let them settle down and just as I would think it would be okay to go out and put everything out for the leprechaun, one of them would start crying again.  First it was Bennett.  I went in to check on them and he was crying while Miles was out.  I gave him his paci and he was okay for a bit, but then would cry again for a little while, then would be quiet again for a bit.  Around 12:30/1, I started messing up the furniture and putting stuff out, when Lincoln came down.  Ever since he had the flu last week, he has been coming down every night saying his belly hurts. I can't tell if he is telling the truth or just making a habit out of waking up and coming down in the middle of the night.  I finally got him back to bed, finished up my stuff including coloring the milk and toilet water, and went to bed around 1:30.  One of the babies was still crying though and I thought it was still Bennett.  I decided to get him up for a bit but when I went into the room, it was actually Miles and Bennett was asleep.  So I just gave Miles his pacifier and went to bed around 2.  Ellie was up by 7 to let me know the leprechaun had come.  Then her and Jackson were wondering why there was a trail of shamrocks leading to the bathroom-they couldn't find anything.  Well Andrew got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and flushed away the green toilet water. 

Lincoln was still saying his tummy hurt before church and Jackson said he threw up.  There was just a little wet spot on his pajamas, so it wasn't much of anything.  I decided to stay home with him and the twins just in case though.  Andrew had to work a booth at church, so he took the older two.  I had a green pancake lunch waiting for them when they got home.  While I was cooking everything Miles and Bennett played a lot on the chairs and table in the kitchen.  At one point I looked over to see Bennett standing on one of the crossbars that goes across the back of one of the chairs.  I thankfully got to him before it tipped over and he was just smiling the whole time.  Later I also tried to get a picture of all of them in their St. Patrick's Day gear but it was not working at all.  Miles and Bennett had just got up from a nap and were made since I set them down.  And Lincoln didn't want to cooperate at all.  Here are a few attempts.

That night we went to my parents for dinner.  They were grilling steaks and then my mom added the green with asparagus, broccoli, and green cornbread.  I brought along some green baked apples and Sara made Fruity Pebble treats and mint brownies.  I would call it a great St. Patricks Day dinner.  Andrew decided I needed a little break, so he took all the kids home and I stayed and hung out with my family for a bit. We watched The Bible and just relaxed and then my dad took me home since he had to take Molly back to her dorm :-).  The kids were still up when I got home because they were finishing watching our recording of The Bible.  So it was a late night and a rough morning this morning getting everyone up.  I woke up to Lincoln on the floor beside my bed.  He came into my room at least three times last night and I kept sending him back up to his room.  A couple times he would roll around on the floor and whine a bit before I sent him back.  I guess I finally slept and didn't hear the last time he came in.  When I came out from taking a shower, he was then in my bed and slept until late morning.  I guess you are pretty tired when you are up most of the night.  So I can't quite figure him out.  He usually only complains of his belly hurting when you ask him to do something he doesn't want to, eat something he doesn't want to, or go to bed.  So I don't think it is really bothering him, but I will feel bad if he actually is sick.  Ellie was also saying she wasn't feeling well this morning, but I just attributed it to being up late a lot this week and being pretty tired this morning.  She can be an emotional girl in the morning, so I didn't think too much of it.  I guess my intuition is pretty off because I got a call from the school nurse around 11:30 saying Ellie had gotten sick in music class.  Andrew had just let to go to Jefferson City and would be gone until late evening, so I got the twins up from their nap and took them and Lincoln to pick up Ellie.  She went straight up stairs and fell asleep.  We had some of the Phenergan cream left over from Lincoln, so I put that on her wrists and it helped her for awhile.  We had to go pick up Jackson from school and get him to swim practice and the outing was just a little too long for Ellie.  Thankfully we brought a towel with us because she had to throw up a little on our way home.  Now I need to get this finished because I need to go pick up Jackson and work on dinner.  And I am just praying that no one else in this house gets sick.  Unlikely, I know, but I'll still pray about it.