palm sunday donkey

manning was super excited to show me the fun little donkey he made in school today for palm sunday. although he did keep calling it a "camel."

look at this sweet angel face sleeping. love.

sleeping boy

manning still puts himself down for a nap whenever he feels tired. such a sweet little face. love.

morning surprise

the kids have all been sleeping in the boys' room all summer, but this morning i was surprised to find all four in madelyn's room. love.

a maddux shell

i found a 'maddux shell' laid out on the floor this afternoon. he has been sleeping on the floor (for some unknown reason) and laying out his pajamas where he sleeps. silly boy. love.

rock-a-bye, baby

manning's brother's put him down for a nap today... they were very proud of their work. love.

errands, shmerrands

i had a list of things to do today but it was a beautiful day and we only have a few more weeks where the pool will be opened. instead of running our list of errands, i packed us up and lunch and we spent four hours at the pool! the kids were so excited and we had the whole place to ourself until the last hour or so. we couldn't believe that no one else had thought to come to the pool today (it has been fairly crowded this summer).

today was a #mommywin for sure!

since the kids had vbs, i encouraged them to take a nap after getting cleaned up. not only does maddux look uncomfortable, but the finger on his cheek was what cracked me up! he was definitely worn out. love.

the return of the nap

manning has started napping again. it isn't at a set time but when he is tired, he just gives into it. today was a first for falling asleep at the table while eating. i had to check his mouth for pretzels before he moving him to his bed.

but he is so funny about napping! if he is tired, he just goes to his room and goes to sleep. if we are outside, he asks to go in and just goes to his room and falls asleep (i come in and check on him). we only wish that he went to bed at night that easily!

love.

orange machine

i encouraged all of the kids to take a nap today because we were out late last night and had plans for a late night today. maddux has been sleeping with his backpack full of all his 'treasures'. we love this orange on orange on orange kid! love.

ah, the fresh air

there is just something about fresh air that seems to bring on a nap. manning loves riding around with the windows down. love.

pajama party

i had originally thought that we would have an indoor campout (or as papa called it - a camp"in"). it seems that all the kids hear were "pajamas" and renamed it a "pajama party"! what ever you call it, it was fun.

the kids have been very excited about sleeping in the living room over spring break. after dinner we let them hurry into their pajamas and then matt took them downstairs for their sleeping bags. 

while they were downstairs, i worked on hiding all of the clues for our scavenger/treasure hunt. i usually write my own clues (a few words and a picture), but i found these and thought that the rhymes were cute: http://wildflowerbouquets.blogspot.com/2011/11/katrenas-indoor-scavenger-hunt-1-free.html. there were a few that were tricky for me (like "phone" because we don't have a home phone but i do have a spot where my phone usually is on the counter) and a few that the kids had to read through a few times.

they finally found the 'treasure' - frozen! the weren't quite as excited as i thought that they would be, but they got more and more excited as they looked at it. before we got to the movie though we had to get to our treat - s'mores! we just broil them in the oven, but the effect is the same and just as tasty! 

and then we all got snuggled in for our feature presentation! we all really enjoyed the movie. although after all of the hype, it wasn't quite as good as i was expecting. i was most surprised at how little it was about elsa. still, very enjoyable! they wanted to watch it again the second it was over, but it was already way past bedtime. 

manning ended up back in his own bed before he fell asleep, but the other three spent all night in the living room. maddux even slept face down on the bare hardwoods!

the "pajama party" was a huge hit! love.

another one who will sleep anytime, anywhere

once again all of the kids came up from playing except manning. i went down to check on him and he was asleep in the middle of the room. what is most exceptional about this is that maggie was down there too - manning doesn't really care for her. he must have been really tired! love.

stairs are a lot of work

manning often lays down on the stairs after all of the kids come up from playing downstairs to just suck his thumb.  today was a first though because he fell asleep! he normally just sits of lays on the bottom step for a few minutes of alone time before joining the rest of us. he took a long time today so i went to check on him and found him passed out. after i took the pictures i carried him up to his bed so that he didn't accidentally roll down the stairs when he woke up. silly boy. love.

the fever rolls on

maddux was next to get the fever.  there don't really seem to be any symptoms other than a 100-103 temperature and generally feeling "not good".  i was sending some emails and he came and fell asleep under the other office chair.  and when he woke up after about an hour, he moved to the other chair and fell back asleep.

then when madelyn got off the bus she wasn't looking great and was complaining of not feeling well.  sure enough, she had a temperature of 102.

they both perked right up after a dose of medicine.  madelyn did go to bed early and without eating dinner.  maddux was fairly rested from his two naps and resisted going to bed for a while.

as far as illnesses go, this seems to be a very manageable one.  love.

maddux is never boring

he didn't want to go to bed so this is what he set up in our room last night.  once he was done, he fell right to sleep (which is why we just let him fall asleep in our room some nights - it is just faster than putting him in his own bed).  love.

it must smell good

i went in to wake manning up (we needed to leave for dinner) and he was sleeping with his little blanket bear held up to his face so, of course, i took lots of pictures.  love.

i'm not tired

maddux would not go to sleep for some reason last night. (he has actually been doing really great lately about going to sleep and staying asleep - in his own bed.) he kept saying/yelling, "no", so we just ignored him. he sat in a chair in our room and within minutes fell asleep - like this. (and his feet really are huge, the perspective of the picture adds a little, but he is big.) love.

 

keeping mommy and daddy up is exhausting

 

everyone is getting a few more "z"s around here

well, at least the kids are... love.

 

and then there is this kid...

maddux brought his pillow with him to lay on the floor in our room (we were still awake and he was not interested in going to bed thanks to a long nap). then he got inside of the pillow case with the pillow. we thought it was pretty silly (and perfectly maddux) to do such a thing so i went to get the camera and then he started hamming it up to a point where matt picked him up and put him back in bed.

he does some pretty funny stuff this one... love.

 

nap time

i have been working on a project all week that i finished up last night (and very early this morning in true procrastination style). being very tired, i had plans for a nap. madelyn didn't have school today, but mason did. she was pretty sad that he was at school. madelyn and maddux watched some cartoons and played while i had a meeting during manning's morning nap.

once we picked mason up from school we headed to the library. my thought was to get them a movie to watch while i napped in the afternoon. but it worked out even better! i got manning down for his afternoon nap and then maddux crawled into bed with me for a nap.

madelyn and mason played very nicely while i napped for a bit making these colorful snowmen!

we had picked up the snowman craft at the library (they always have a color-sheet style craft for the kids to do or take). i was most impressed that madelyn came up with using the hole-punch to make the falling snow! i thought it was quite creative and i was thrilled with how well they did cutting and gluing together (there is normally some fight over who gets which scissors). they were pretty proud of themselves too...

...and then they just got silly!

we had a pretty great day! it is not often that i can get a nap when i really need one and i really needed one today! love.