After the meeting, I ran by home and picked up everyone and then we went to eat at my parents. Kaitlin and her crew came into town and Owen met us at the door. Lola has something for Andrew. She just stares at him and likes for him to pick her up and sit together. Carolina was kind of the same way. And Andrew is a nice uncle and obliges. While he was snuggling with Lola, some of the rest of us got in a couple rounds of Uno. Then on Tuesday, Kaitlin, Owen, Lola, and Lissy came over to our house for a little play date. We thought Owen would love playing with all the toys in the basement, but he didn't want to be confined to one area and really wanted to explore our house. So they all played for a couple hours and then it was nap time. Miles and Bennett didn't go down too well but then I had to get them up earlier so I could take Lincoln to a little rehearsal for a spring program his school is doing. It was at the Nazarene Church, so we just dropped the twins off at my parents and walked to the church. I didn't notice any kids from his class there and they had already started, so we just snuck out-oops. He is only doing one song and I didn't really want to sit through an hour practice if none of the other kids his age were there. So hopefully no one saw us :-). So we just went back to my parents so the kids could all play. Jackson and Ellie went to Elevate after school and then Andrew picked them up and brought them over for dinner. After dinner, Lincoln got to get in the hot tub with Papa and Owen. He came up in some swim trunks that he thought fit him. Well they did in the waist, but they were pretty short. Probably because they were a size 12 months :-). Ellie took a shower at my parents so that my mom could braid her hair for Wacky Wednesday the next day. (Side note, Tuesday was Favorite Color Day and Ellie chose blue as her favorite color...makes me sad that pink isn't her favorite color anymore because it means she is growing up :-() We hung around at their house until it was time to take Ellie to gymnastics.
As I said before, Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday for Ellie since they were celebrating Dr. Suess Week. She was worried she wasn't quite "wacky" enough.
The twins had kind of a rough morning of a lot of crying. I was trying to clean the house and make snacks for small group, so that made it kind of rough. But they napped well, which is always nice. We were able to finish up most of our reservations for Italy. Now we just need to get a rental car and some trip insurance. And our passports. Andrew was able to get a new copy of his birth certificate and I thought we were ready to go. That is until I noticed that my birth certificate had my dad's state of birth as Illinois and I had on my passport application that he was born in Kirksville. So I'm pretty sure they would have rejected my application, so I called my mom to see what was correct. She said he was born in Kirksville, so I called a state number and was able to get someone to check on it for me and they are sending a form for me to fill out to get it corrected. I am 37 and just now noticed that my birth certificate was incorrect :-).
Back to our day, Jackson again brought home a nomination for Student of the Month and just smiled. Even if he doesn't get the actual Student of the Month I am so proud of him for being nominated each month. And we haven't done too much yet for his spelling bee but we are going over words each morning as I get lunches ready. He is starting to learn spelling bee etiquette of asking for the word in a sentence, writing it on your hand, and that he only gets one chance to spell it so make sure you have it right.
While Jackson is working on his spelling, Ellie is back to working on her backbend pull up. She kind of lost it at some point, so she has decided to practice it every day and she got it again. Thursday night Lincoln had his music program. Again, he was just singing one song at the beginning, so my parents kept the twins while Jackson and Ellie went with Andrew and I. We were waiting on Pagliais to show up at my parents for dinner before the program but we could also see the parking lot filling up at the church. The food came, but we needed to leave. Andrew ate a bit while the kids and I went ahead and headed up to the church. Lincoln found his class and we found Matthew and Kristin who had actually saved a couple of seats. It was pretty hard to see Lincoln, but I did see him sing and smile, so we were good. He got to sit with us after he was done and he was so proud of himself for doing what we asked of him.
Ellie had PJ Day on Friday and I had to convince her to wear a pair of her actual pjs instead of an old t-shirt and some of Jackson's old athletic pants. My mom braided her hair again, so that made for an easy morning of her getting ready which was nice since I went swimming before school. I wasn't feeling that great though-another cold (possibly ended up being a sinus infection). I did manage to get a majority of the packing done for the older three to go to Disney World. I just wanted to make sure I had everything they needed and was rushing around at the last minute. I decided to label everything in case my parents had to do laundry and were trying to figure out what belonged to who. Then I put each outfit in a ziplock bag complete with socks and underwear. I am just hoping to make it a little easier on everyone. We had decent weather Friday so the kids went out to play as soon as they got home. Then I decided to take them to the girls' district championship game. The Lady Tigers were playing in the championship game and we actually had districts here. Jackson ended up not going, so it was just Ellie, Lincoln, and I and we met my parents there. It was kind of sad that not as many people were there to support the team. Since it was district play, the jazz band couldn't be there and that was kind of weird. Ellie went in between sitting with us and playing with her friends (Faith, Addi, and Gracie were there). While Lincoln immediately got a snack and then got on my dad's phone even though he told me he would watch the game. It was a defensive game (the score was only 14-14 at half time) and they ended up losing in the end. It was nice to watch a game again though.
Andrew went to the ranch Saturday morning, but let the kids sleep in and so did I. I was worn out and figured it would be best if I didn't work out, hoping that it would help me recover more quickly. We were having Andrew's family over for dinner that night so I worked on getting everything ready for dinner and dessert. I also tried to clean the house a bit and do a little more packing, but the twins were into everything and made all of my preparations take quite a bit longer. It is a good thing I started early. I do have to say that Miles has become a little "cleaner". He likes to put things away. He will put away the wipe box after I change diapers (he will also get a diaper and the wipes if he has pooped), he will close doors, put away silverware, and even throw away diapers (I discovered he was putting them in a basket in their closet though :-)). Andrew took older three to office while he worked a couple hours in the afternoon. They brought skates and ripstiks and used them in the office basement since it is unfinished. Andrew said Ellie is getting much better on her skates. They came home a little before dinner and then Andrew's family showed up. The kids chased each other around the house most of the night and had a blast. The weather was nice on Sunday too so I cleaned out the car and garage while they kids played outside.
Then that night Andrew decided to do our first fire of the year in our fireplace outside. The Vincent kids saw him starting it and showed up with stuff for s'mores since we didn't have anything.
 |
| The view from our bedroom :-) |
 |
| The twins didn't make it outside, but still enjoyed watching from inside |
Monday was beautiful. Even though it was Spring Break, I went ahead and got up early to go swimming. I still wasn't feeling that great but I don't have much time left before the TriFAHL and want to get in as many swims as I can. Plus, the breathing technique while swimming kind of clears me out a bit (I know kind of gross). And since it was nice out, I wanted to take advantage of it and get in an outdoor bike and run. So when Andrew came home for lunch, I took off. Andrew took a video-I think he was hoping I would fall down as I tried to clip in and out of the pedals for the first time without the bike being on the trainer. I actually did okay with it though. What I did have trouble with was starting and stopping my time tracker on my phone. Andrew just laughed at me because he didn't want me to use it anyways. I like knowing my pace and everything when I running/biking, so I stuck with it. The bike wasn't too bad, except for the hills on Shepherd. They were tough. And my legs were pretty wobbly for my run, especially since it was hilly. It was definitely easier doing it inside. But my times weren't too bad. I was stuffed up though and couldn't breath through my nose which made things a little harder. I was very tempted to do the farmer blow to clear out my nose but just knew I would end up with a mess and look ridiculous. The kids played outside almost all day. They played basketball, football, soccer, rode their bikes, went to their hideout, etc. Jackson also had a little basketball practice. Their girl coach, Sarah, was still in town because the Truman girls team won their conference and stayed in town to practice and head to their regional game during Spring Break. She actually called Leah to see if the boys would want to practice. It ended up just being Jackson and Zach so they just practiced in our backyard. I got to talk to her a bit afterwards and she is a great girl. She is a biology major, pre-med. But she also has two minors. And she worked at Kanakuk. She is great with the boys and has done a good job working with them on basic skills.
When Andrew got home from work, he took the twins outside to play while I finished up dinner. They were soooo excited to get outside and we went back out after dinner too.
 |
| They made these faces when the UPS truck was backing up :-) |
We did have an interesting conversation during dinner. I have reiterated with the older three several times about how they are to behave while on vacation with my parents-no whining, no pouting, be polite, clean up after yourself, etc. So Lincoln says, "I know. No whining, no pouting, no pooping-no pooping in my pants." Yes, Lincoln, that is exactly what I was saying :-) My dad came by that evening and picked up the suitcases so that would be one less thing they would have to do as they were leaving town the next day. After baths were done, we stayed up late and watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. We slept in the next morning-I was sore from all my activity the day before plus I had not been sleeping well so sleeping in felt good. My shins still hurt-I think from running on the pavement again. Lincoln came downstairs early but then fell asleep again in our bed and slept until 10:30. It was another great day to get outside so the kids took advantage of it. I took the twins out for a bit before their naps and they were not happy to have to come back inside.
I was hoping to take them out again that evening, but the temperatures started dropping and the wind picked up that afternoon, about the time for the older three to head to St. Louis. My parents came by close to four and they were off. We will miss them but I know they will have so much fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment