never say no to a free lunch

while we were at the library, i got a text from a friend asking if we wanted to meet her and her kids at the grand opening of a local hungry howies. apparently there was going to be free pizza. um, yes.

a little back and forth and we worked out our meet up. we were expecting there to be a pretty large crowd.

but we were wrong! there were maybe 10 families and we were the largest group by a lot (there were 10 of us). we watched the ceremony to open the new location.

and then we ate! we were thinking that we might get a slice of pizza. boy were we wrong! there was chicken caesar salad, chicken wings, boneless wings, several different types of pizza, bread sticks, two types of brownies and drinks!

we could not believe our good fortune - and full tummies. it was pretty hot but we lined up in the shade to eat. the employees even came out and waited on us offering more food and more drinks.

oh, and did i mention that they gave each kid a backpack with coupons, coloring book, crayons, cups, etc. huge score!

the kids weren't done hanging out with each other so we took all of the big kids home with us so that my friend could nap with her youngest (having a rough start to the day and had a headache). the kids were more than happy to play a little mariokart together.

it's the simple things. love.

did someone mention "snacks"?

our kids love to eat. like, LOVE to eat. so when they had to go to a 2-hour vbs training meeting with me on matt's golf night, they were happy to hear that there were snacks. they had already had dinner before we got there. and had lots of snacks that we brought from home. but i still think they ate more as a foursome than the rest of the room combined (like 40-50 people).

it was a little embarrassing.

when i apologized to the director, she said that she was glad they ate all of the fruit since it couldn't be saved. well, at least there is that. love.

national donut day

as if we need an excuse to eat donuts! happy national donut day. love.

our saturday hangout

matt is coaching mason, so i spend most of my time watching maddux (and the other two). he (#2) is having so much fun.

we left the field to go to the actual summer kick-off for the library's reading program - mainly for the free ice cream. it was a hot one so we had to huddle against the wall for the only shade to try and finish our treats before they melted. love.

"i want big broccoli!"

this might be my favorite tantrum of all time - manning demanding "big broccoli" after finishing his dinner. love.

the last jar of salsa

matt is always on me not to give the boys more salsa than they can eat. he rations his homemade salsa to get him through the whole year. well, he opened the last jar this week and we had to send him a picture of mason (and manning) eating some while he was at work. plus, mason is just cute. love.

pizza dinner

we had some trouble with a pizza hut location near us and redeeming the book it coupons (it's a long story), and pizza hut corporate was extremely generous in making things right. so tonight the kids and i were treated to a pizza dinner (at a different location) before i took them to my pto meeting (matt is still out of town).

while waiting for dinner we were talking about how much we missed dad and how he was missing out, so we took some pictures to send him. we sure love daddy! love.

kids are weird

so this is the face manning makes when he is 'holding' food in his mouth. it doesn't mean that he doesn't like the food either. he will just take a bite and then decide he doesn't want to swallow any more and, instead, holds it in his mouth until we notice. at first he would just open his mouth and let the dissolved food and saliva drain out all over with no effort to spit it out at all. we have now gotten to where he will attempt to spit it in a trash can. it is just so gross and sometimes it it long periods of time - i think once it was 30 minutes after lunch before i noticed the 'face'. kids are just weird. love.

"free" coffee

dunkin' donuts offered a free medium dark roast coffee today for 'national coffee day.' instead of just going through the drive-thru, i thought that i would treat the boys to some donuts. suddenly, my coffee wasn't so "free."

the boys were pretty excited about the pumpkin/jack-o-lantern ones.

(on a side note, the coffee was so-so. i like a dark roast coffee but this one was a little too bitter for me. it was a great treat though.)

love.

daddy date

daddy had four tickets to see the rubber ducks tonight (formerly the aeros) which meant that manning and i got left at home. i am not sure what we are going to do when manning cares about going too. i guess we will have to buy another ticket or two.

as with almost all of our outings, the kids weren't told where they were going. they were just told that daddy was taking them to a special "park." 

i got these texted to me during the game. i guess the ice cream was a hit! love.

"the best day ever!"

yesterday was not a good day. the kids were all tired and crying, manning was just plain out of control all day (blatantly trying to be disobedient in a way i remember with maddux - and he laughs at me while he does it) and just nothing went well with them all day. these days happen once in a great while and i know they aren't the norm, but, man, oh, man are they exhausting! they lost out on a lot of my plans for fun yesterday too. but i decided to start today with a clean slate and try to have a fun day.

first stop, "national donut day" at dunkin' donuts! the kids thought that it was so great to pick up donuts and manning couldn't get enough of pointing out all of the balloons everywhere - inside and out.

next we stopped by a local park for about 20 minutes before  "superhero camp." the day was simply gorgeous (we really earned these days over the winter and last summer) - about 75 with almost no clouds.

then we arrived at "superhero camp" for the big boys' last day. the parents were invited in for the last 5 minutes to take group pictures. this was such a great week for both boys.

today's 'craft'. both boys picked daddy as their superhero - me too.

we stopped over at an indoor play place on the same property after camp, but it was closed today because of a dance recital rehearsal being held at the facility. we quickly came up with our 'plan b' - the pool! the kids actually came up with the idea. i had thought that it was the most perfect day for laying out at the pool, but i wasn't too sure that it was warm enough for them swimming.

we had lunch at home first and loaded up to head over. we could walk, but heading out so late made it too dicey for the walk back home (one to four of them might end up crying and/or not wanting to carry their things). the big kids couldn't get into the pool fast enough and with very little complaining about the water temperature. manning on the other hand was not interested at all. at least at first. it might have taken me 30 minutes, but i finally got him out of his clothes and into his swim diaper and swimsuit. he even chose to get off of my lap and sit directly next to me. i had to take a picture of my little buddy and me.

shortly after this picture he was willing to stand on the first step. a few splashes and manning was sold! he was belly laughing while he splashed with his siblings and was soon willing to put his 'swimmies' on. within minutes he was back to the wild boy he was last year (although this year he is big enough for swimmies and it is much less stressful). he was kicking his legs while i helped him around the pool and trying to get him used the the balance of the flotation swimmies. then he started yelling '1...2...3...jump!" before jumping off the steps to me. over and over and over.

on the drive home, maddux told me, with enthusiasm, that this was "the best day ever!" love.

last art class

for tonight's last art class, the kids all got plain colored cookies of all different shapes and types and all different colors of frosting to 'paint' them. the teacher took this picture of the finished product before madelyn ate it. i think i will do this with our kids this summer. such a fun treat. love.

"best dinner ever!"

we surprised the kids with a sundae dinner to celebrate the last day of school. and they were very surprised! we had vanilla and chocolate ice-cream and every toping we had in the house out for them to help themselves. they thought that we were joking. much to their delight, we weren't. with a large mouthful of ice-cream, mason said, "this is the best dinner ever!" love.

happy cinco de mayo

the boys and i were super excited to score some free chips, salsa and juice on our way out of the ymca this morning. manning discovered that he really loves salsa!

and when we got home, we saw that they had broken ground on a new house next door. the kids have a front row seat for watching trucks from their bedroom windows. love.

watch out, dad, i am coming for your salsa!

sushi boys

occasionally, i make veggie sushi. matt and i love it but the kids have been skeptical about trying it - mainly because it is such a big bite. tonight the boys were both interested. i don't know what changed but they were on board. we had two types - one with avocado, peanuts and rice and the second has avocado, cooked carrots, cucumbers and rice. i did a few up with wasabi too, but didn't offer those to the kids. (although mason did ask to try one of the "spicy" ones and liked it.) i just love it when the kids are willing to give something 'new' and 'different' a try! love.

caught red handed (and mouthed)

those cookies must have been really good because after i put the boys to bed, i went in to say good night to madelyn. i heard manning come out of his room and walk over towards our bedroom and figured he found matt because he never came into madelyn's room. nope. he didn't find daddy. he found cookies. matt took this picture for me when he found manning sitting at the table with a fist full of cookies and a mouth so full that he couldn't close it. sigh.

manning has been in a help-myself-to-food phase this weekend. it is sort of like the i-can-get-my-own-water phase from last week. he will go into the pantry, get the bag of crasins, fill his bowl and sit down in the pantry to eat them. or he will get the crackers, or cereal, or anything else that seems tasty at the time and help himself. he isn't sneaking the food. he thinks that he is just being helpful by not bothering us with getting his food for him.

it did take him a little longer to wind down last night. love.

spring break - day 3

this morning, i made the kids some french toast before taking them for a surprise trip to chuck e. cheese. we got there right at opening so that we can just play games for a while and then leave to have lunch at home. you can tell that it is spring break because we weren't the only ones there like we normally would be at opening. in fact, we ran into madelyn's teacher who was there with her own kids.

it was a very pleasant trip, but there is always drama when it comes to choosing the prizes and some tears were shed. in the end, everyone left with something they were happy with having. since the kids were getting a little worn out from all of the fun we have been having, we just spent some time at home the rest of the day.

i had planned on taking the kids to chick-fil-a for "family night" before swimming lessons. i knew it was going to snow a little tonight, but it was white out conditions driving to dinner! i was seriously doubting this choice since cfa isn't exactly on the way to swimming lessons. we got there safely but manning and maddux had both fallen asleep on the ride there. this is unfortunate in good weather but it is extremely challenging in bad weather because i can't carry them both and the driving snow to the face doesn't exactly provide a gentle wake up. maddux was crying and manning was screaming when we got inside. we made quite the entrance. while i was trying to figure out what everyone wanted to eat i noticed that there was a puddle in front of manning - a "puddle" of 'vomit'! i asked madelyn if he just threw-up and the people in line next to us just nodded. sigh. we were here, we were hungry and the weather was less than ideal - we weren't leaving. i honestly think that it was 'vomit' so much as he was worked up and coughing and gagged himself (without being too gross - it wasn't chunky). oh and it wasn't "family night" after all (i had called and emailed the store to try and confirm with no luck). this was not our best visit to cfa and maybe our first 'bad' one.

another late night too because of swimming lessons. these kids are starting to be very tired. love.

snow dough

matt left early this morning for a business trip, but he couldn't even say good-bye to me since manning was sleeping on my face. manning loves to come in early in the morning and go back to sleep on my face. it is quite comfortable - as you might imagine. the kids all slept until 7, which is amazing! we very, very rarely get to sleep through the night as late as 7am.

since the kids had stayed up so late last night, i planned a low key day at home. to continue our frozen  fun from last night, we made snowball playdough (http://www.yellowblissroad.com/snowball-playdough-recipe-free-printable-gift-tag/). the kids really liked using the playdough to reenact the movie.

manning misunderstood and tried to eat it.

mason asked me to take this one.

manning made a "snowball."

manning was working on a miniature snowman.

madelyn made olaf.

mason made marshmallow

of course, we watched frozen again too.

for dinner we had corndog muffins. they received rave reviews! super simple too. just cornbread mix with some cut up hotdogs stirred in and baked. the kids loved them so much that maddux suggested we save one for daddy. i explained that they might not keep until daddy got home so maybe we could just send (aka text) him a picture and make them again when he is back home.

much to the kids' dismay, we did have to get dressed and head out to take madelyn to swimming lessons. we went a little early so that the boys could play off some energy after laying around most of the day. usually, matt takes madelyn to swimming so that he can run while she swims and not have to go int he morning. it also helps for him to take her since swimming goes until 8:10, which is past bedtime.  yep, i got to take all four and keep them out past bedtime after having them all up past bed time the night before.

thankfully, they all did really well and we survived the evening. love.

where have you been all my life?

i make pancakes at least once a week and we eat 'patty' style meals all of the time.  why, oh why, have i not bought a griddle sooner?!  i was using two, sometimes three, pans to try and make meals fast enough to feed us all at once.  and when we have guests it was even harder.  but now - wow - it is so easy!  thank you presto 22" electric griddle.  you are a very welcome addition to our kitchen.  love.