My kids are taking over

Abigail’s birthday is next month, and when there is a birthday there is a birthday party.  Abigail is a planner.  She plans every detail of everything we do. She has everything worked out ahead of time.  Where people will sit in a restaurant, who will be invited to her “got well soon” party after she had a 24 hour bug this winter (she came up with the idea).  And what each person will bring.

I am sure you can imagine that she has been planing her birthday party since the day after her forth birthday.  Since May she has requested about 100 different themes.  And at least 20 of them were in the last week.  We have heard everything from all the different  Barbie Movies to Wizard of Oz.  Tonight when we sat down to eat I told her that we have to get the invitations made and she had to pick what kind of party she wants.  She decided she wants a medieval knights and princesses party.

In your face Barbie and the diamond castle! Cool wins again! Chris and I are so excited.  Our eyes lit up and we jumped into planing mode.  This could be a really cool party.    We are thinking of games and invitations. Arts and crafts and a menu.  So far we have come up with make your own crowns and  create your own coat of arms for crafts. A variation of pin the tail on the donkey involving a dragon and a sward for one of the games.  And cool invitations. Any ideas are welcome.

I have been waiting for Abigail to pick something that does not involve the Disney princesses or some other cartoon character. Now the question arises, who’s party is it?  Chris is probably the most excited, he wants to figure out how to have a joust, and other medieval type things that are maybe not so good for 4 and 5 year olds. Abigail is going crazy with decorations, she thinks we should have falcons flying over the party, just like at medieval times.  She also wants butterflies.  We could not figure out where the butterflies fit in but i guess we will have to put a few in, because it is her party.  Kind of.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am really, really, really disorganized.  If you have know me a long time just remember what my bedroom looked like when I was a kid.  (When my mom would go in with garbage bags and just start tossing things that were on the floor.) I have gotten a little better, you can walk in my house but there are still places that are just a dumping ground.

One of the main places is the closet in the hallway. We decided that today was going to be the day that we got that cleaned out.  To start out we took everything out and put it in the living room.  I am now convinced that my hallway closet must be an entrance into Narnia, or some other magical land that is crammed with an assortment of junk that people tossed into a closet last year.  I spent a good part of my afternoon walking into the wall in the closet trying to get to that magical land.

Can you believe that this…

And this…

And this…

And This…

And this…

Fit into this…

When the job was done all that was left in the closet was this…

How did we end up with so much junk in our closet?  I know it is going to sound crazy, but from cleaning off our kitchen table.  Most of the stuff in the closet was at some point on our kitchen table when we were having someone over for dinner.  Our table and counters just sit waiting to collect every piece of paper know to man.  We neatly put it into a pile when we set the table every day. But sometimes we need the whole table and just grab the nearest pampers box, dump everything into it, and chuck it into the closet (or on our bed, which is a whole different job). We never look in the box again and do the same thing the next week. Does anyone else do this? I would really like to know we are not alone on this one.  Getting the closet cleaned out really gave me the ambition to do some serious spring cleaning.  Wish me luck!

We took the kids to Medieval times last night. If you have never gone before make it a point to go next time you are  near one. It is on my list of fun tourist things that can not be missed.  The girls had a great time.  They were really into the whole thing.  Abby insisted on eating with her hands (I smuggled in plastic forks and spoons for them).  And they both loved to cheer on our knight.

In the begining of the show he came over and gave Maddy a pink flower, and later he choose Abby as his Queen of Love and beauty. He gave her a sash that says queen of love and beauty. Soon after he gave her the title she started to cheer for herself holding the sash above her head chanting “QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY”. And also said “well I guess I am the queen of our house now”. We explained that being the queen of love and beauty does not hold up once we get home.

Sadly our knight, the red and yellow knight did not win. I fact I think he was the first to die. Fortunitly the girls did not even notice because during his dramatic death sceen they were busy having a sword fight with the cheering flags we were given.  That was when I said the words I never even imagined, “No sword fights until you have finished your dinner!” They came back to the table and finished eating. After they finished Maddy was right back up cheering for our knight “RED AND LELLOW, RED AND LELOW” compleatly unaware that he was no longer part of the competition.

Wile getting into the car today, the same way we have been getting in to the car for years. We were informed that Abigail is not a baby anymore. This is how it went,

I put Maddy in her car seat.

Chris put Jake in his car seat.

Chris put Abigail in her car seat, at this point Abigail says “I am not a baby!”

Chris:  “What?”

Abby: “I AM NOT A BABY!”

Chris: (doing her seat belt) “What?”

Abby: (now in tears) “you always treat me like a baby”

Me: (I have finally stopped laughing at the situation to try to help)” She likes to get in the car by herself”

Chris: “I don’t treat you like a baby, I have been putting you in the car for almost 5 years. You can’t expect me to just stop. Sometimes I am going to forget.

Abby: (to me) “Daddy always treats me like a baby”

Me: “I don’t think he does.”

apparently this was the wrong thing to say because she just got more hysterical

Me: “We would never treat you like a baby, babies cry about silly things and you NEVER do that” (said very sarcastically)

Abby: “STOOOOP”

Maddy: “Now guys” (she is the voice of reason in this house) “Abigail and Mommy, stop crying”

Abby eventually got over being treated like a baby. But it really has me thinking, she is growing up so fast. She was my first baby. She will always be my baby. And like it or not we will probably slip up and treat her like one once in a while.

Everyone who really knows me knows that I LOVE COFFEE! I really love coffee. Because of my love for coffee Maddy (Ursula) also has some pretty strong feelings for coffee. I don’t let her drink it, but in the morning when Jake is in for his nap and it is just the two of us she will often pull something over to the counter so she can reach the coffee pot and put one of her princess tea cups under where the coffee comes out. She will then come over to the table and sit next to me and ask me “wanna have a coffee with me?” Of course her cup is empty but we like to “chat” over coffee.

She also like to make the coffee on the morning, but that never turns out well so I have resumed my post as the only coffee maker in the house. This morning she really wanted to help. She was not going to take no for an answer and it was way to early to listen to her cry about making coffee. So I gave her a large measuring cup with 3 cups of water some coffee and other various ingredients from the pantry. She came up with “coffee soup”. Here is the recipe.

3 cups water, 3 heaping scoops of coffee, peppermint extract, a full container of Montreal steak seasoning, some other kind of steak seasoning (also a full container), a lot of chocolate syrup, and some baby formula we found in the back of the cabinet.

The directions are to put all ingredients together and stir until almost all of the mixture is splashed out of the container and all over the counter.

I consider myself a pretty good mom, but no way will I be eating it.  But 14 hours later, it is still on my counter. Why you ask? It smells so good! It smells like I have been cooking. It smells like home.

If you give a baby a cookie, he is going to make a mess

When he makes a mess he will need to be cleaned up. When you try to clean him up you will say forget it, I have to change his cloths.So you go to his room to get new cloths. On the way there you will notice a pile of laundry in the hall. So you will get a basket and collect the laundry around the house.  As you are collecting you will here the baby cry from the kitchen. (Right… baby, in chair. Needs cloths.)

So you will try to focus. Get Baby Cloths! You will go into his room. When you are looking for something for him to wear you will notice that somehow all the cloths in the dresser are a size to small. (Baby crying, stay on task.) You get him cloths but pull out everything so you can clean out the dresser after you change him.

You finally get him changed. Putting the dirty cloths in the basket will remind you of the laundry that needs to be done. You will bring the laundry to the basement and bring up the clean cloths. After you fold the cloths you put them away. When you get to the baby’s room to put his away, you see all the cloths on the floor. You finish cleaning out the dresser and put all the clean cloths away.

You look at the clock. Has it really been that long since lunch? Can it really be dinner time? It is! You feed everyone dinner. After dinner they all want a cookie for desert. And chances are if you give a baby a cookie…HE IS GOING TO MAKE A MESS!

So this was my day yesterday. I had big plans for the day. Today is looking a little more promising.

My kids are  funny. They keep me laughing all day.  They are also completely amazing. I decided to start this to share the funny and amazing things they do.

Abby is my sensitive, intellectual child. She has a need to always learn more.  My mother in law says she will be in charge of something someday, so be nice to her.  She is also full of drama! I recently got my hair cut, when I picked her up from school she cried about my hair. Later I was told “I can’t even stand to look at you with your hair like that”. She is 4.

Maddy is my wild child. She keeps us on our toes. But is a lot of fun. Most little girls want to be a ballerina or a princess when they grow up. Not Maddy, ask her what she is going to be and she will tell you Ursula. You know, the sea witch from the little mermaid. She Ursula was not bad, she just wanted to sing nice like the Little Mermaid and it was not fair. Another new thing in my house.  (The use of “it’s not fair”.)She has also started putting her hand on her hip and telling me “YOU ARE MAKING ME CRAZY!” At 2 she has more personality and spunk than most adults I know.

Jacob is so easy going. As the third child I am not sure he has much choice. He is just starting to get involved with the chaos that is our life. He chases the dog and picks her up by the back legs. Takes toys away from his sisters. Has learned to object when they take things from him.  He loves reaction, as soon as he realizes he has an audience the show is on.  Right now he is dancing in circles to supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with Maddy.  As long as she keeps clapping he will keep dancing. At 1 he is learning new things every day.

My world is crazy, but good crazy as the girls put it. There is nothing else I would rather be doing than this.