Look at who's reached a decade

Someone in our house accomplished a great feat this past weekend- Laine turned ten.  I know you think that this is nothing, but here's the thing Christian does not like his daughters aging and had forbid the birthday. Good thing that Laine was able to use her new found debate skills and I was able to use the art of subtle persuasion  (best argument was that as she got older we got a built in baby sitter) we had a birthday.

Laine decided she wanted a tenth birthday party to celebrate so we had her family party the day before he actual birthday. A Laine birthday wouldn't be complete without her traditional homemade chocolate cake, with chocolate whip cream topping, and chocolate covered strawberries. 

 Laine is such a great big sister. She had no problem when James jumped up on the chair with her to open presents.

The next day, the actual birthday, we prepared the house for the ten ten year olds about to descend. This wasn't going to be a sleep over but a late over. Thank heavens because I don't think I could take all the squealing for the whole night. We had a craft station....

A pizza station with the requested homemade pizza dough...

The treat station (which at this point had not been stocked with the treats)....

And the movie station.

 We were ready and Laine changed into her pjs for this totally girl pj party. The kids had fun shaping their pizza dough and making their own pizzas.

 There a lot of silliness going on during this point...oh ten year old girls I don't know what to do with you and your craziness.

 Then while the pizzas were cooking the girls went and designed their own foam door hangers.

here is one thing I learned then year old girls might just be the silliest things on the planet.

After the movie, lots of popcorn, soda, sugar, and one very squeally pillow fight it was time for birthday cupcakes. After a chocolate cake Laine decided she wanted vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting topped with chocolate sprinkles and chocolate dipped Nilla Wafers.

These were a great success and the party was fabulous. The kids all groaned as various parents arrived to retrieve their children. It was tough but at the end of the day I had one very happy ten year old.

Laine is an incredible daughter, sister, friend, and person. She is quick to help and to serve. She is smart and works hard to maintain her grades. she also makes sure that everyone is happy. I have never seen a better big sister and Matthew simply adores her.  She is turning into a young lady and is an incredible person. I am so lucky to be part of her life.

Saturday is the only day pink is my favorite color

Last week the following things were heard around our house,  "Saturday is the only day pink is my favorite color."  and "I am going to run the 5K this year." and "How many more days until the Race for the Cure?"  and "Whose group are you going in? Dad's, Mom's, Aunt Hilary's or Aunt Amy's"

This has become one of the best family traditions that we have. The kids look forward to the race all year, in fact as we left this year they were already talking about who was going to run the 5K next year. 

It is funny this is the one Saturday that the kids don't complain about getting up early on a Saturday. In fact they were up before I was and had started breakfast before I could point them towards the lovely carb filled doughnuts I had purchased the day before.  They got themselves ready and got Matty ready and were in the car a full ten minutes ahead of schedule.

We drove downtown this year, by passing public transportation and saving ourselves from the crowds and a few dollars. And the kids were ready to go. Donning their pirate gear this photo right here became a photo opt for more than just mom. 

So there we were. The Bradly Pirate crew, with Matty, Captain of the the Pink Pearl. We are a surly bunch of buccaneers. 

Matty refused to don any of his pirate outfit, except for the pink belt. That boy has style.

The best thing about this race is we do it with family. Some of these kids have been doing this race since they were weeks old, it is fun to watch them get excited about this walk every year. That may have something to do with the swag that they love to collect- this year there was even cake pops. 

We all participated in one race or another. I was sidelined to the one mile with the boys thanks to my broken toe. While the girls and Christian did the 5K. In the end though we all finished.

It was a bittersweet year to walk though. Thoughts of Grandma Helen were fresh in all our minds, we walked in honor of her and missed her. Whenever we took her with us on that race she always thought that everyone was there for her, as if she was the only cancer survivor in the state of Utah.

It was a beautiful day and a ton of fun and a tradition that we will continue. I love that my kids don their new favorite color, pink, once a year. I love that they are learning that so many people are effected by cancer every year. I love that maybe they might learn a little empathy and compassion to others who are suffering.

Freezing time

One bit of advice that everyone always seems to want to pass on to parents is "Enjoy it because you are going to miss this one day." I have to admit whenever that advice has been given to me my response ranges from a polite smile, an eye roll, or thoughts of maiming. While you are in the trenches day to day it is difficult to understand how you will ever miss the fighting, hitting, sleepless nights, poopy diapers, vomit covered sheets and carpets, struggles to get kids to just try a bit of dinner you spent an hour preparing, running the carpool to this place or that, cleaning crayon off the wall or the fridge or the dishwasher, full tantrums in public places, working on homework projects you found out about the day before it was due, riding It's a Small World over and over and over again...the list could go on and on. Who in their right mind would miss any of this. 

Then one day you look out the kitchen window and see the four kids working together to plant raspberry and blackberry bushes and for a brief moment in time you long to simply freeze this moment. Keep them happy and carefree for just a bit longer. Enjoy them running around the house chasing each other with giggles of delight. Enjoy waking up to four kids jumping in your bed screaming "it's Christmas, it's Christmas!" Having a two year old throw his little arms around you and saying "I love you momma." And I realize that in this moment that "they" are right. One day I am going to miss "this" and I will look at a mother in the grocery store struggling with her four kids and think to myself, "enjoy it because you are going to miss this one day."

Oh and for the record I will never miss the poopy diapers or the vomit covered anything.

Kindergarten mom

Dear Mother of the Year Award Selection Committee,

I have not yet received my notification that you have selected me to represent your fine committee. I wonder if that is because you have not had the chance to look review my past submissions or if  so I have decided that I would try again.

My third child is currently in Kindergarten. The class of 2025, feel old yet? You might remember this boy as my budding body artist. He matured now and has passed on his love of body art to his brother. This  boy pretty cute and really smart. I would like to take credit for both of those things, but alas I cannot. I can however take credit for the fact that he generally wears clean clothes and to seeing he uses tooth paste.Oh and 90% of the time he will finish his dinner in under an hour!  

Recently this child had a school program and like all good mothers I got there fifteen minutes before the show started. Unfortunately  the great mothers got there at least twenty minutes before and we had to sit on the back row so the best shot I could get of my boy was this one. He is the one with in-between the the adults making the letter V with their bodies and that is with the good lens. If you could look closely you could tell we even made him brush his teeth- twice, you will thank me for that one. Trust me. 

Since I couldn't get pictures of my boy I did what any good mother would do. I took pictures of the other mothers. Maybe by studying them I will learn to understand this subspecies of woman called the PTA mommy.

But that is okay because when my little graduate of the class of 2025 emerged from his school program debut, forgoing the juice box and cereal treat,  he showed me that maybe I am doing something right. 

Then again, maybe I can't take all the credit.

Garden Boxes

Despite the snow that is falling off and on today spring seems to finally be here. I don't know about you but I feel that the winter has been very long and very hard.  One thing were were really excited about when we bought our new home was the fact that we could finally put in a  garden. There was already a garden plot but it wasn't nearly big enough to our needs (have you seen the monster tomato plants my husband grows?) so Christian and the kids built four extra garden boxes and then cleared an area for them to go. I tried to help with the clearing of the area but we quickly learned that I cannot use a shovel, it is a sad aliment that one day I will over come it, maybe. Then I broke my toe so my husband is limiting me to what I can and cannot do around the house, he is such a good man. 

Anyway the day finally came that we were going to make our own dirt, yes we make our own dirt.  It was the first Saturday that wasn't rainy, and we rented a u-Haul pickup so we could get a truck load of compost. I now can mark buy compost in bulk off my bucket list, how many of you can say that?

In addition to the compost we also bought Peat Moss, vermiculite, and perlite. Both Eve and Matty found the peat moss to be a great place to sit. 

So first thing is first. We started putting down all the ingredients on a tarp.

It looks so pretty once you are done.

Then roll the dirt. Even our neighbors got in on this one because they came and checked out and helped us. 

 I don't have a picture of us dragging the dirt over to the boxes but we did.

 The kids had a great time even though they got very tired and didn't want to do it anymore. They did enjoy the tacos we had after though and we even taught Laine how to mow the lawn and James helped dad with the string trimming.


We also had a big pile of dirt for filling a problem with our foundation. James was a great big brother and played with Matty while his sisters, dad and I worked on making garden dirt.

Now it is time to figure out what to fill our new garden with. Corn? Carrots? You know there will be tomatoes and for some reason my girls want beets. But what do you plant in your gardens?