snow day

much to my surprise, we had almost three inches of snow last night! the forecast was for less than an inch and it had already stopped by the time we left swimming lessons so it really wasn't what i was expecting. we were planning on meeting up with some friends but they asked if we would mind canceling - not just because of the snow. 

the little  boys helped me make some muffins. well, they each did a little counting and took a few stirs. they are quite the twosome! it looks like maddux is choking manning but that is how he thinks he is hugging manning and helping him look to the camera. (maddux has the best bedhead!)

after lunch we bundled up to play out in the snow. all of the kids, except manning, were very excited to be out there. manning just screamed after falling down once. he still won't wear gloves so one fall in the snow and he is done.

mason decided to try his hand at sledding. i thought that he was going to have a difficult time since so much grass was showing, but he stuck with it and was able to slide down the 'hill' several times. (notice that the runners in the second picture are wearing shorts - i did not think that it was that warm.)

maddux would only wear his knit gloves which don't work all that well for snow. madelyn tried to build olaf but found it to be a little difficult to get the right shapes.

manning did calm down a little and wanted to walk down the trail. he stopped to watch the ducks and quack along with them for a while. he lost it again, however, when we couldn't walk farther down the trail because the other kids were still playing in the yard.

i took manning inside to watch a movie and warm up while madelyn was able to finish up her snowman and the big boys burned a little more energy. it was crazy to have enough snow to play in but it was fitting for our 'frozen' themed spring break.

i guess i wasn't feeling much like cooking while matt has been out of town because tonight i took the kids to cici's pizza for dinner before church. i thought that they would like the opportunity to pick any pizza they could imagine and even have 'dessert' pizza. matt has zero interest in going so this seemed like a good chance. the kids loved it! they thought that it was one of the greatest places ever and were very well behaved. i did underestimate how long it would take us to eat given that i was really the only one to help with seconds (and thirds) and we were almost late to church. madelyn was able to help get the pizza a few times though.

matt's flight got in around the time we were leaving church so i did my best to keep the kids up to see him (he was driving in from cleveland - about an hour). they all made it except for maddux; he was just beat. the kids had all worked on a welcome home sign today and couldn't wait to show him.

love.

tuesday tip - lose the top sheet

maybe our kids toss around more than most, but we discovered early on that a top sheet was more trouble than it was worth. they were always getting tangled in it or getting up to ask to have it straightened back out so we just took it off their beds. they have a fitted sheet and a blanket (or 10). it also makes it much, much easier for them to make their beds up in the morning.

how do you make bed making easier for your little ones?

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.

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.

can you find maddux' flower?

matt put together this bulletin board at church for our hallway for easter. we had the kids all color different flower shapes. they have the kids' names on them, but i bet you can guess which one belongs to maddux. love.

paper arts

i thought i would share some of the paper arts around here...

a picture frame for noses (who knows where that idea came from).

madelyn set to building a "castle". she had assembled it before detailing the exterior and was disappointed at how difficult it was to draw on the vertical paper.

maddux and madelyn worked together to make this monkey hanging in a tree. i was pretty impressed with the branch out the side of the tree for the monkey to hang from by his tail.

we have many more crafts planned so we will see where the week takes us. love.