Good Morning

I wake up this morning to the sounds of Charlotte and Theodore fighting. Loudly. So, without even getting out of bed, I call out, "Go to your own rooms! Go back to bed! It's too early!" It gets quiet. I snuggle back down into my pillow, proud of myself for how easily that worked. I close my eyes to drift off back to sleep... Then a sound jolts me. My eyes snap open. It's Charlotte's  TV. And it's loud. I smile to myself, roll out of bed, and head to the coffee pot. At least they aren't fighting now. Let's get this day started, I guess.

Charlotte's Prayer

Charlotte likes to say the prayer(s) before dinner every night.  It goes a little something like this:

"God is good.  God is great.  Thank you for our food today.  Amen.

Thank you God, for making the sun, the moon, and the stars.  Thank you for making the seasons, like summer and spring and fall, and... Daddy what's the last one?  And thank you for making winter.  Thank you for making the clouds.  Thank you for making the grass and the flowers.  Thank you for making Mudder's Day and Fodder's Day.  Thank you for making the buildings, well, most of the buildings.  (???)  Thank you for making Bunny.  Thank you for making our dinner.  Thank you for making our souls and our hearts, and our brains, and our bodies.  Thank you for making Kindergarten.  Thank you for making ankles.  (???)  Thank you for making Santa Claus and Christmas trees.  Thank you for making Christmas and Easter and the Easter Bunny.  Thank you for making the beach called Galveston.  Thank you for making books and songs.  Thank you for making my family, Momma and Daddy and Theodore and Alfred and Oliver and Grampy and Spotty.  Thank you for making Grammy and Uncle Michael and Aunt Angela and Steven and Michelle and Matthew.  Thank you for making Lilly and Caitlin and Grace and Miss Becky and Miss Jill.  Thank you for making TV.  Thank you for making milk.  In Your Name. Amen.

Little children here and there, little children everywhere.  Thank you for our work and play.  Thank you for our food today.  Amen.

Thank you Father for our food and family.  Amen."

Then we reheat our dinner in the microwave and eat.

I hope my girl always keeps her passion for prayer.  I love her so very much.

Standoff

Theodore follows me down the hall, pointing a nerf gun up at me, and says in the fiercest voice a three year old can muster, "Time to die." I turn, look at him, channel my inner Grey's Anatomy, and reply in the most somber voice I can muster, "Nobody dies today."

Surprises

I found these on my camera.

I bet you could guess who left me those little treasures before you even got to that last one of giant baby.  I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did.

Now, I wonder if Theodore knows where I can find my remote control...

Spring Break: Days Three, Four, and Five

I've been so busy enjoying my Spring Break, I haven't had time to blog about it since Tuesday.  So, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Wednesday:

I spent Wednesday night laughing and catching up with my dear, old (and by "old" I mean, known-her-since-birth) friend, Jenny.  I love how we can go 3 months or 13 years without seeing each other and we just pick up right where we left off.  I can thank facebook for bringing her back into my life a little over a year ago.  She graduates from college in May and is moving back home for good, so I am looking forward to many more nights together like Wednesday night.  I just love that girl.

I spent Thursday antiquing in the Heights with my very best friend, Rebecca.  We found this wonderful little antique shop that specializes in rare, old books.  I found a treasure in the form of a children's song book that was published in 1880.  It looks great on top of my piano that nobody in my household knows how to play!  Thursday was fun and laid back, as most of my time with Becky tends to be.

Thursday night, Becky and Joe and their girls came over to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with us.  We had our yearly corned beef and cabbage with Irish soda bread and "green coke."  I hate that I did not take any pictures of this event.  Well, I did get this one.  Happy Birthday Joe!

Friday was spent "zoo-ing!"

That's a stork behind us.  This picture seemed appropriate.  :)

Oh and these guys were there too...

It's been a wonderful week and we still have a full weekend ahead of us.  I love Spring Break!

Spring Break: Day Two

1 pizza + 4 cokes + 75 tokens = 2 hours of playtime, 4 happy children, 1 good long naptime, and 1 happy momma!  That's that new math right there.

Spring Break: Day One

I am getting a little ahead of myself.  I have yet to blog about last week's Open House at the boys' school, where Alfred was in the 3rd grade program and I took 101 pictures.  Or about Heidi's baby shower that I gave yesterday.  But I wanted to tell about the afternoon I had out with Charlotte today.  And I warn you now, it's very likely that I am the only person in the world interested in this story.  But that is probably true for all of my blog posts!  I do love this little blog of mine.

First, because of yesterday's baby shower, the one I will write about later, our house is practically model home clean. The only messy room left in the place was Charlotte's room, so we straightened and organized all her toys today.  And while I was in the middle of my OCD mania, (I mean, spring cleaning) I finally cleaned out all her clothes that she has outgrown.  I've been needing to do that for weeks.  So, Baby Girl was left with 2 outfits, 2 dresses, about 4 sets of pajamas, about 8 pairs of shoes and a whole lot of empty closet space!  (I know.  EIGHT pairs of shoes.  A girl can never have too many shoes.  Am I right?)  I called up my friend Mandy, and gave her Charlotte's entire 4T wardrobe.  Yay for Emerson and Harper!  Boo for Charlotte! 

So, we went shopping.

First stop: Payless.  She may have 8 pair of shoes, but no white ones.  And no flip flops.  Charlotte loves shopping for shoes.  That's probably part of the reason she has so many.  After Payless, we went to Kohl's.  The entire way to the store, Charlotte was very confused about where we were headed, because "Wal-Mart has plenty of clothes."  That's my girl.  Once we got to Kohl's, Charlotte was in heaven.  There was a whole wall of night gowns!  If you know my daughter, you know why that would be so exciting to her!  My girl would wear nothing but night gowns and jammies, if we let her.  But they kind of look at you funny at church...

Anyway, long story short, here's her new wears.

And the first thing she wanted to do when we got home was put on her new jammies and watch a movie in her bed.  She said to me (hours later, at dinnertime), "Momma, I am so tired of shopping."  It's not even 8:00 yet and she is in bed for the night!  My girl knows how to shop till she drops!

Oh!  And she asked my why her night gown has a "curtain" on it!  I just laughed and told her it's supposed to make it extra pretty.  She liked that.  And she liked that her night gown came with a magic wand too. 

So, I think I am with Charlotte.  It is time for my jammies and some TV time.  Goodnight all!  More Tales of Spring Break tomorrow...

Theodore's (sort of) Birthday

My baby turned three over a week ago.  I hope you haven't been holding your breath.  If so, breathe deep.  Here it is...

Theodore is a leapling.  When I was pregnant with him, I hoped and wished that he'd be born on Leap Day, just because I thought it was cool.  Apart from Oliver sharing a birthday with Elvis, my other children have perfectly regular birthdates.  Some say that I willed myself into labor.  I don't think I am quite that strong willed, but it is still pretty cool to have a leapling.  It made me a little sad on his first birthday when I didn't get to have that special one minute celebration right at the time he was born, as I had done with the other three.  Okay, that's a hyperbolous statement.  (Is hyperbolous a word?)  On Alfred's exact one year old to the minute birthday, I was right in the middle of cleaning up his baby puke in the back seat of my car.  Not really a celebration by anyone's standards.  But I digress...

We created a series of birthday traditions with Alfred and followed suit with the other three children.  The first birthday was a home party.  The second was at McDonalds, and the third, Chuck E Cheese.  After that, they are all different.  Once you turn four, you tend to have your own opinions about how to spend your birthday.  So, without further ramblings, I give you cute pictures of Theodore's third birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  I hope you are sitting down.  This kid is cute!

My boy loves to "play bowling."  I am not sure where he gets his strategy from...

Okay.  So maybe I do.  His good looks isn't the only thing he gets from his Daddy.

His honored guests.

Yes.  Those are homemade, sprinkled coated cupcakes.  Did I mention I am super mom?  Just ask Theodore.  He'll tell you.

I love that face.

Oh and the candles were (accidentally) relighting candles.  Those were fun.  And his confused little face was precious.  I was laughing too much to get a picture of that!

He was all about dancing with Chuck E and friends.

The obligatory photo op.

I love this picture.  Does that boy mean business or what?!

And now some birthday present pictures that would probably only be interesting to those who attended.  And well, they lived it...  But here they are anyway!

I think this was the only arcade thing Theodore did the whole day other than his favorite "play bowling."

Oh, and the funny story I promised in my earlier post...  We decided that since there was no February 29th this year and Theodore had no idea he was even turning three, that we'd surprise him with his party.  We got all the way to Chuck E Cheese.  Daddy whispered in his ear, "You're three now."  He looked at Daddy, then at me, put both fists in the air and quietly said, "Yesss!!!"  It was adorable!

So there you have it folks.  That was the big day.  Fun was had by all.  My baby is not so much of a baby anymore.  But you know, he's such a fun little guy, that I think I am okay with finally putting the baby stage behind us.

I love you, Theodore.  You make life fun, surprising, and a little bit (okay, a lot) tiring everyday.  And boy, do you make me smile.  I can't wait to see what more you have in store for us in all the birthdays to come.  Happy Birthday Big Guy.

Hushpuppies

Tonight was Daddy's Fish Night for dinner.  Robert made fried catfish, hushpuppies, and homemade cole slaw.  It was delicious!  Theodore couldn't wait to get his hands on those hushpuppies.  He gobbled one right up and announced, "I love meatballs!"  Charlotte matter of factly replied, "Those aren't meatballs.  They are flushpuppies!"  We laughed a lot over dinner tonight.  My kids are pretty awesome.

100th Day of School

Today was the 100th Day of school!  Oliver's first grade class did it up big!  All the students were supposed to dress up like a 100 year old person.  What do you think?

My conversation with Oliver after school today:

Me: Hey Oliver, how was your 100th day of school?
Oliver: It was horrible!  Mrs. Burright kept calling me by the wrong name allllllllll day long!  And it made me mad because she KNOWS my name!  Every single other first grade teacher came to my class to see me and they all gave me compliments.  But not Mrs. Burright!
Me: What did she call you?!
Oliver: She kept calling me "Handsome!"
Me: Bwhahahahahahahaha!  (*stifle the laugh*)  Um, Bud, let's talk about what handsome means...

I also asked the poor kid if he was totally traumatized.  After I explained what that means, he said yes.

So, there you have it.  Happy 100th Day, friends.  I am off to find a therapist for my middle child...