Happy Spring!

The kids and I have been having lots of fun watching all of the Robins hopping around in our yard. I guess it really is Spring. Here's a little project that the kids and I did to celebrate the new season.

The pictures are hanging on our window which is why there is an odd border around them. As I was getting everything together for the project, I was excited to come across the little butterfly cutter that my mom got me a while ago. It was the perfect addition to the daffodils.

I didn't get any pictures of them actually making their art project. They each had their own bottle of glue--that should be all that I need to say. No time to snap pictures when glue is going everywhere.

Lenny was so sick this past week. I felt terrible when he had to miss school on Monday because of being sick. Since he only goes to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, his class was going to be celebrating Saint Patrick's Day on Monday. Needless to say, Lenny missed out on the fun. I made sure that they all had fun things to do on Tuesday even though poor Bo Benny was still sick.

I knew that Lenny's class was going to be making green pepper shamrocks, I didn't want him to miss out so that's what the kids and I did on Tuesday. You can tell that Lenny is very sick in the pictures.




Followed later by a pot of gold snack made with vanilla ice cream, bananas, and butterscotch topping and then for dinner we had shamrock pizza. Yes, we had the snack before dinner! Lenny was sick after all.



This Sick House

Starting last Sunday Lenny had a fever, cough, and runny nose. It was terrible and I felt so bad for him. There was no way he could go to school on Monday, on Tuesday as I mentioned he was still sick. Then his fever went away and I was so happy. I reluctantly sent him to school on Wednesday. They were getting class pictures that day and Lenny really missed school. He still didn't have a fever until that night. At about 6, Lenny got on the couch and didn't get off. I checked and he had a 102.7 fever again (that was low for what it had been). Poor guy. But by the next morning it was fine again. We had an easter egg hunt that afternoon and he was fine for it. He still has the watery eyes and runny nose but at least the fever is gone.

Tuesday night, Dominic got exactly what Lenny had. He had a fever and chills, cough and runny nose. He's not a very good patient. When he finally started to listen to me and do what I thought he should to feel better, I think he felt a little better. He is still getting over it today. Sorry Dominic but I'm going to say it. Dominic is a bigger baby than the kids when he is sick. Every time he gets sick, he thinks that he needs to go to the hospital. Geesh! Good thing I'm here to tell him he doesn't need to go.

The entire time this was all going on, Nathan had a rash all over his little body and a slight fever. Luckily that went away. And Brooke--well, she wasn't sick but Brooke is Brooke so she was still a hand full.

I think I need a vacation from all of these sick people in the house.



Here are a few other pictures from the last week or so.

There are those glasses again. The kids love them.

Brooke fell asleep with her purse and cow. You can see that she lost her binky.

Lenny was so proud of his floam bot that he made. Aunt Kristi got the kit for his birthday.

From the Mouth of a Five Year Old

The other day I was on the computer. Lenny came over and said in the sweetest voice, "Mommy, when you are done on the computer can I get on the Thomas website so that I can check out the new Thomas toys that are available?" Those were his exact words. I wrote them down immediately because it was so cute. Smarty pants.

Lenny, Brooke and Nathan were chasing each other around the house today and giggling. First it was Brooke, then Nathan, then Lenny with his hand up in front of him and he was opening and closing his fist. He then told me that they were playing Thomas and the Magic Railroad. He said that he was Diesel 10, Nate was Thomas, and Brooke was Lady. If you have ever seen that movie then you will know the scene where Diesel 10 is chasing Thomas and Lady. It was very cute to see them playing together like that and acting out a movie. Diesel 10 has a claw named Pinchie. That's what Lenny was acting out with his hand.

Success! (So Far)

I told everyone that my goal for the weekend was to potty train Brooke and Nathan. I told mom and Dominic that we had several things to do this week and my goal was to have them both in underwear by Monday. Well...drum roll please...they both wore underwear today all day long without any accidents. Yippee! I am so very proud of both of them. They are two years and three months old and both (hopefully) are potty trained. Now I don't want to jinx it or anything but I think we're good.

I had Dominic go out and buy some more underwear for each of them because I was sure we would go through a lot of them in a day. And the other reason is that Nathan refused to wear any of his underwear except for his Cars underwear. He only has three of them so we needed more. He LOVES that movie and Madagascar. Unfortunately I can't find Madagascar underwear in his size.

I started on Friday but wasn't full force that day. Saturday and Sunday it was underwear all day but quite a few accidents as expected. I still put pull ups on them for naps and bedtime just to be safe. Brooke has been dry for both when she gets up. This morning when they woke up, I put their underwear on and they had the same pair all day long. We had several outings today too. We took Lenny to preschool, came home, went to a doctor appointment for about 45 minutes, came home, picked Lenny up from school, took naps, played outside for about an hour, came in to get ready for dinner. With no accidents! I was nervous especially at the doctor appointment but they did great. Tomorrow is a big test because Brooke has an appointment with her ENT which is about an hour drive each direction (if there is no traffic). I'll be taking a potty with me.

In the beginning, they each got a sticker if they at least sat on the potty. After a few hours when it became easier to get them to sit on the potty, they then started getting stickers if they actually used the potty. This is the same way I did it with Lenny except he was three years and two months old. That was my fault though because at first I was HUGE pregnant with twins and then Brooke and Nathan were A LOT of work when they were babies. I just didn't have enough time that I needed to potty train. My poor little Bo Benny had to wait.

Here they are Saturday morning with their potty charts.



I think the pictures below was either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. It has all blended together for me. I love how this shows their personality. Brooke is always all over the place as are her stickers. Nathan is more structured and his stickers are all lined up in a row. If he chose two of the same at different times, he put them beside of each other.




I have no pictures to post of both of them looking at the camera.

Good job Brooke and Nathan!


From the Mouth of a Five Year Old

I can't forget about Lenny. He really amazes me sometimes. On Wednesday, he was playing with his Thomas engines. He had seven of them in a row. He said, "Mommy if we have seven and take away four. How many will we have?". I said, "Hmm. I don't know. How many will we have." He said "three". This next part is the part that amazed me. He then came back a few minutes later and said. "If we have seven and take away four. Then add two. How many will we have?" I was really anxious to see what he would say next. I said the same as the last time, asking him what it would be. He then said, "Five!". I told him that was right and was very smart of him to figure it out. He was very proud and so was I. It's so much fun to watch them learn by doing everyday things and figuring it all out.

The other day he was pretending to be Brooke and Nathan's teacher. He told me that he had to go get his glasses because teachers wear glasses.


Brooke and Nate actually listened to Lenny. It was very cute. He had them coloring and then he was teaching them about animals. I was instructed to be ready for snack time and that I was to serve them popcorn. Too bad we were all out of popcorn and they had to settle for Cheez Its.

Lenny is Five!

It's hard for me to believe that my little boy is five years old! He turned five this past Saturday and that was the same day that we had his party. I'll have to post sometime about the day he was born like I did for Brooke and Nathan's birthday. Today I will focus on his birthday party.

He has said for almost a year that he wanted a monster truck birthday party this time. I was so excited that he didn't want another Thomas party. His first birthday was Elmo, second birthday was Thomas, third birthday was Cars (only because I talked him out of Thomas), and fourth birthday was you guessed it--Thomas. So I was thrilled to have a monster truck party. And it was a lot of fun to plan! I had a blast!


The invitations for the party looked like tickets to a Monster Jam show. They were actually very cool. I was able to rent a room through the county parks and recreation which helped alot. I couldn't imagine having all of the kids in our house. That's the only problem with winter birthdays.

When the kids arrived at the party, they received a rubber bracelet that read "Monster Trucks Rock". This was their pass into the pit party. They were also able to get tattoos at the tattoo parlor.

After entering the pit party, there were four games for them to play and two art projects.

The games were:

Tire Toss--The kids tossed tennis balls through two big tires. This was Dominic's project and I must say that the tires looked really awesome.

Here is Lenny giving it a try with Aunt Kristi.


Pin the License Plate on the Monster Truck--Each of the kids had their very own license plate with their name on it. They then had to pin the license plate on the monster truck. Lenny was so excited to see that all of his friends had their own. Each time a new friend got to the party, Lenny ran over to get their license plate and then gave it to them.


Match That Truck--There were pictures of five different monster trucks and the kids had to match the name with the correct truck. The trucks were easier in case there were kids that don't know about monster trucks. I used Grave Digger, Monster Mutt, Blue Thunder, El Toro Loco, and Batman.


Qualify for the Finals--For this game, they raced a monster truck around a track and over a car to qualify for the finals. This was interesting with four and five year olds. It was cute though. This was also Dominic's project.

Lenny's friends Brooke and Michael with Brooke's mom.


The two art projects were:

Build a Monster Truck--The kids were able to build their own monster truck. They chose a background, body color, attached the monster tires and wheels, installed a window, and then decorated it however they wanted. I think this table was a big hit.

Here's Brendan and Karen building a truck.


Taylor building a truck.


Sign Making Booth--What's a monster truck rally without signs to cheer on your favorite truck? For this project, the kids made signs to cheer on their favorite monster jam birthday boy as he blew out the candles on his cake. It was so cute to watch and listen to the kids cheer Lenny on while waving their signs in the air.

Nathan holding a sign to cheer on his big brother.

Anthony-Glen cheering on his cousin as he blew out the candles.

Here they all are with their signs getting ready for the cake.



After the games and art projects, the "pit crew" headed over to their table for cake and ice cream. Here they all are.


I mentioned in an earlier post about a monster truck that Lenny had been asking for since July. The problem was that they haven't made that truck since 2002. It hasn't even raced for about that long either. He saw the truck at a friend's house who is older than him. The truck is called Great Bite and Lenny talks about it almost every day. No joke. I was so excited that I found a new one on ebay and ordered it right away. I put it on his birthday cake to surprise him. He was very excited when he saw it. Mom bought a cake at Costco and then I decorated it myself. The chocolate covered doughnut "tires" were a hit. They were requested by most of the kids when we were handing out the cake.


Lenny and Mikie eating cake.

I think Brooke enjoyed the ice cream.


Lenny's favorite part of birthday parties is to watch the kids open their presents. He gets so disappointed when they don't open the presents at the party. So we knew that he had to open his presents at the party. That was interesting. Tons of kids crowded around Lenny. It was difficult to keep up with who got him what. Thankfully my friend Karen was so kind to write everything down for me with good details.

Lenny really loved his birthday party. He kept talking about it after we got home. He was telling me what his favorite games were. My mom, sister, and her kids were staying at our house that night so Lenny had to sleep in our room with us. After he had fallen asleep, I was getting ready to go to bed when Lenny woke up. He looked at me and said, "Mommy, I liked all of your ideas for my birthday party." Then he went right back to sleep. It was so cute. That's one wonderful thing about Lenny. He really does appreciate things that you do for him and he will tell you too. I love my sweet little guy!

Here is a picture of Lenny and his friend Brooke right before everyone was getting ready to leave.


The kids all left with favor bags that had monster jam stickers, a grave digger pencil, a tire yo-yo, a tire filled with roll gum, a tire game, a Monster Jam t-shirt emblem, a truck note pad, some pixie stix, fruit snacks, their personalized license plates, and the trucks that they made. Lenny loved going through his favor bag. It was cute to listen to him get excited as he took things out of it.

The signs that the kids made at the party were given to Lenny to keep. He loves them! I knew he would and just as I thought, he carries them around and all of his cards. He loves to read them and show them all to us.

Happy Birthday Lenny!! You are the best! Daddy and I had a lot of fun planning your birthday party. We love you very much!