In the kitchen

Today was a kitchen day. I made banana nut bread, chocolate cupcakes, buttercream icing, and chili mac. They were all delicious! Several times I today I had lots of helpers in the kitchen. Helpers in the kitchen aren't my favorite thing but I'm getting better. I had Eric on my hip and 3 big kids helping stir and crack eggs!
I survived!!
When Caroline and I ran to the store for a few things this is what she did the whole way there and back!
Read read read! The girl loves to read. She stays up late reading at night and gets up early to read too. She currently has 4 chapter books on her bed! I think she is only reading 1 at a time but who knows! We don't discourage her reading at all and love hearing about the books.

And yes it was cold enough to wear jackets today!  Our high was 45!!!  Can't wait to get out of MI!

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So I have done lots of posts tonight trying to "catch up" a little.  I have been way slack about blogging lately.  After getting the birthday video done I haven't been on the computer much at all.  I hope to get better and post a little more often now!
No promises though!!

Trash or Treasure?

A few days ago while Eric and I were out walking Miles I spotted a TV someone had put on the curb.  It was a really old one and I immediately thought how cool it would be to take apart!  We did that with my dad when we were kids and it was fun then and I knew it would be this time too.  So today when it was still there I knew I had to get it home!  C and W helped me get it in the van this afternoon after school.  (it's trash night and if I didn't get it soon then the junk patrollers would).  I put it in the garage and the kids LOVED it.  The pushed the buttons to change the channels says number 5 is the weather, number 6 is traffic.  Then they had snack in front of it pretending to watch Dancing With the Stars!!  So funny!

It's a beauty right?!  A label on the inside said it was manufactured in May 1984 in TN. 

2 friends were over and I let the 4 kids start the "take it apart" process. Which quickly became can I use this hammer to knock this part off?

Then Will hit the glass on the front and looked up and Justin and I and said oh I broke it!  With a silly little grin on his face!  

With all the banging we attracted more kids! There are 6 in this picture.

They wore sunglasses if they were hitting the tv and had a BLAST!

They even tried to hammer through the wood.  They had so much fun!!  Then I rolled it right to the curb for the trash tomorrow!  I did have lots of glass and pieces to sweep up tonight. And then since it was chilly out and my hands were cold when I came inside to do dishes I dropped/slipped/threw a glass pan out of my hand and had more glass to clean up!!
Still a fun afternoon for the kids!

New bike

So I got a new bike and a new child seat for it too!!  Bring on the warm weather so we can go on family bike rides!!
We went on Sunday to a park that's about a mile away.  2 neighbor kids rode with us too.  Eric and I were leading the way, then 4 kids (ages 5-11), then Justin.  We had a great time even though it was chilly and we were all wearing jackets and Eric had on a toboggan!  Now if the wind would slow down and the temps get above 50 we would be in bike riding business!!  I haven't been able to go again since then.
There is a Tour de Warren coming up May 20 and it's a family event with distances of 10 or 25 miles.  Justin and I would love to have the whole family do the 10 mile distance.  So if the weather cooperates then we will do that.

Learning from big brother

So I'm not sure when Will started coming down the stairs like this, but it was in this house (the last house had hard wood floors!)  I know I have blogged about it before since it about gives me a panic attack when he does it and I am not expecting it.  It so sounds like somebody falling down the steps.  Well, now he has taught Eric how to come down the steps quickly.  He's not as fast as Will, YET!

Will doesn't typically go around in his undies, it was right after bath time.

Here is Will's super fast version.

Mynals and Eric

Mynals is what Eric calls Miles.  And when he calls for him using that name MIles comes to find him!! It is so cute to see.  Eric has also learned to bat at the dog's mouth to get Miles to play with him.  HE learned that from Will, or wheeeiilll, as Eric calls him.  He calls for Will quite often and most of the time it is actually yelling for/at him.  Even when he is at school he will call for Will and gets so excited when we go pick him up.  Caroline asked Eric for a hug after school today and Eric said NO but would give one to Will!!  He LOVES his big brother so much!

He got into my flour and I let him have fun playing/making a mess with it.

Eric put this hat on the dog and he left it!

Helping me make Keith's birthday cookies.  He enjoyed this part!

So I know for certain that Eric is going to be right handed.  In the last week he as burned a finger, gotten a splinter (same finger as the burn), and gotten a finger stuck in a vending machine.  ALL with his right hand!

He burned his hand on the brakes of my car.  Weird I know!

 We had just gotten home from running errands and were hanging out in the garage while I was unloading stuff out of the car.  Eric ran his hand down the side of my car and when he got to the wheel he didn't stop and his little hand went in the wheel and got the hot brake.  He didn't cry just held it out to me and said owie.  I kissed it not seeing the burn since his hand was dirty from running it along the car.  I noticed it later and was shocked he wasn't bothered by it.  Then a few days later I saw he had a splinter in the same finger.  I was able to get it out the first time I tried with tweezers!!  No crying at all.  Then yesterday at gymnastics while we were waiting for Caroline's class to start he was messing with the vending machine.  I was braiding Caroline's hair and he is behind me starting to fuss.  I turn and see he has gotten his hand stuck in the coin return door thingy!  I was able to get it out but it did break the skin and bleed a little.
Then what does Will do?  Stick is hand in there!!  I almost lost it!  I just got Eric's hand unstuck and then he's going to put his BIGGER hand in there.  In one of my better mommy moments I told him that if his hand got stuck I was just going to leave him there!!  With it stuck!!  Justin would be coming to pick Caroline up in 2 hours!

Helping me walk Miles

Miles got in the bounce house with Eric and me today!

Having snack after school.  It was windy.

Eric's language is just exploding and he is communicating more and more.  Which also means he is screaming less!  He loves to go walk the dog and play with any ball he can find.  He loves to be held and will either say hold you or hebby (heavy) if he wants to be picked up.  I would tell him you are so heavy when I would pick him up and he started saying that for me to hold him! He is also in a clingy to mom stage right now.  He hasn't wanted anyone else.  He is getting better this week but last few weeks has been pretty rough.  He wouldn't go to the gym child care worker or to the nursery at church.  And he didn't mind Justin as long as it wasn't bed time!  I'm glad he is coming out of this stage pretty quickly.

"I didn't even break a nail"

Here is a picture of the cake i made for Easter.  While it looks fun and yummy, don't let that fool you.  It didn't rise and in the picture is actually a 2 layer cake!  Yikes!  I have never failed at baking a cake and after we ate a piece we threw it out!!

 So the cake might have been a slight failure this week but today I more than made up for it!!  I went to mow the yard while Eric was napping and the pull string broke!  I emailed Justin to see if he knew how to fix it (he didn't).  So I looked it up on google and then got some tools and set to work.

I had to take the top plastic part off, the gas tank, the metal cover, and then could get to the screw that released the string winding thing.  I used some of Justin's military cord and then pieced it back together.

AND it worked!  The first time!!  All screws made it back to their proper place and I didn't bust a knuckle or break a nail!!

So tomorrow I will get to the mowing.  The breaking and then fixing took the productive parts of nap time.
Go ME!!

Toy boxes

So a few weeks ago Justin (with an assist from yours truly) built some toy boxes for the kids.  It has since taken me a lot longer to get them painted since it got too cold to paint.  But they are done (minus Eric's name)!!  

Piles of cut lumber ready to be assembled.

Justin and his helpers

The neighbor boy came over to help too! *note Caroline's colorful outfit!

FINISHED!  Pink, sparkly, wooden letter finish it off.

Will also has glitter on his!

I haven't gone through the toys and sorted them yet but they do have toys in their boxes.  

April Fool's Day

So on April Fool's day Justin and I fooled the kids for dinner.  I made dinner look like carrot cake and the kids were so excited we were having cake for dinner!  

 But really on the inside it was hamburger patties covered in mashed potatoes!!

Will was mighty disappointed.  For one thing he doesn't like mashed potatoes so he was mad when he thought he was licking icing and got potatoes.

The triple double stuffed oreo for dessert helped make it up to him!!

Picture time

I tried hard today to get a great picture of the kids in their Easter outfits.
The good news is we have a professional photo shoot in May so I'm hoping they can get some better pictures!

Happy Easter

Yesterday Justin and the big kids dyed some eggs while Eric napped. I only had one holder thing so I stole Laura's idea and used a whisk for Will.
And in the previous days we had been opening our resurrection eggs. They are really great for telling the Easter story and the kids looked forward to opening a new eggs at meal time.
Last week the kids also decorated an Easter house. They ate about as much candy as it took to decorate it!!

sick again!

Well 2/5 of us are still on antibiotics!  AGAIN!  We are trying to get well but so far this year it just isn't working for us.  Eric just finished a round of antibiotics for another ear infection and Caroline is on the mend after getting strep throat and I'm working getting well too.  After this I hope we are done for a while.  Maybe the weather will warm up too! (one can always hope)

A sick little boy!  He fell asleep in my arms around 11am while I was on the phone!!

A little 5ths disease (she seems to get this every spring).  She felt better over the weekend and then her fever came back Monday afternoon.

*Update on the toy boxes: Caroline and Will's are done!  And I'm waiting on the weather to get warm enough to put a second coat of Eric's.  Now when I feel better it will be time to organize the toys!

Will's turn

Will mastered the spinning wheel things today!  Eric won't get this done before we move but it was a goal of Will's.  Justin and I were more excited than he was!!