In which I am too slow to catch a 3 year old

Y'all know how I always like to document the various ways I find to embarrass myself. Well, last Saturday I found myself in a particularly embarrassing incident.  Tom was at the regional cross country meet, so I had Ellie and Sam with me at Jack's 8am soccer game.  Sam wants so badly to play soccer on the team with the big boys and so I let him run around on the field while they were warming up. However, when it came time for the game to start, Sam refused to come off the field.  I walked out to get him, but he took off.  This is where it gets bad.  I have gotten quite chubby (even more than usual) as of late and I am really out of shape.  Plus, Sam is FAST.  So, picture this: all of the parents on the sideline waiting to start the game and watching me lumbering after my 3 year old who continues to evade me.  I realized I was beat so I walked over and had Ellie chase him down and grab him. Once she had him in hand, I picked him up and carried my giant, screaming preschooler off the field.  He continued screaming and flailing about until a parent brought over a bag of candy and gave him the entire bag to keep him content.  Not my finest moment, but good motivation for me to get in shape.

Sam is so challenging.  He has so many meltdowns and he continues to be the family tyrant.  I have mad love for the kid, but I must admit that he can be exhausting. He pushes every one to their breaking point. However, I stayed home from work with him on Friday because he had a high fever on Thursday.  It was just the two of us (starting at 2am since that is when he woke up fever-free and ready to go) all  day and, honestly, it was such a great day.  Sam on his own is manageable. I really enjoyed my day of just the two of us hanging out and watching TV together.  I'll have to try to remember how much I enjoyed hanging out with him the next time he is screaming at the top of his luncgs and refusing to come down the stairs unless all of us walk down AFTER him.

Thursday - a sick Sam passed out on my bedroom floor

Friday - folding laundry and watching "Poldark" at 2am with my miraculously healed child

Sunday Best

Trunk-or-Treat: Where's Waldo style

So, I have never been one to get it together enough to have a coordinated family costume thing going for Halloween.  I always admire the families that do it and think they look adorable, but I am just not that creative. Plus, I am cheap and costumes are not. But...like 6 weeks ago...Target was doing a BOGO sale on their Halloween costumes.  I ordered Tom and I some cheap Where's Waldo costumes and then kind of forgot all about it.  I also "forgot" to tell Tom since he isn't big on dressing up. 
Well, Trunk or Treat at our church was last night and it just kind of popped up out of nowhere.  The plan was to also have purchased or made Where's Waldo costumes for the kids already, but yesterday had me borrowing one costume for Ellie and buying one for Jack.  Sam, who has been obsessed with Halloween for over a month, dug through his bin of dress-up clothes and picked out his own costume.  I was just glad it color-coordinated with the rest of us.  Anyway, the whole point of all this rambling is to show you our picture from Trunk-or-Treat last night.  We were *this close* to being one of those cute, costume-themed families!

Weekend recap: get your religion on

The weather was gorgeous this weekend! Friday evening, the family all got together at the park to celebrate Mark, Sabrina, and Daniel's birthdays.  We played ultimate frisbee and Bocci ball while the light held out.  Then we had pizza and dessert in the dark.

 Jack had an 8am soccer game and we bundled him up since it was 60 degrees outside.  I had to laugh at my little Texan because when I was growing up in frigid North Dakota, 60 degrees was shorts weather.

As soon as Jack was done with his game, I took him and Sam to church for the baptisms of two young friends.  Tom stayed behind because Ellie had a later soccer game.

  Then, in the afternoon, I took Ellie and Jack back to church to practice for our Primary program.  The 3-12 year old kids were going to be performing in church on Sunday and we wanted to make sure they were all ready.  I was in charge of bribing them all with pizza so they would attend.

 

Sunday was the program.  Tom came to church with us so he could watch and also keep Sam under control.  I had to be up on the stand with the kids since I am in the Primary presidency.  All in all, the program went well.  Kids singing and talking is always cute, right?  But I will say, this was a very church-y weekend for us!

Nerf War!

This weekend was all about Jack-Jack.  He mentioned awhile ago that he wanted a Nerf party even though we don't actually own any Nerf guns.  I perused Pinterest and realized that a Nerf party is probably the easiest party you can do so I was sold.  On Jack's actual birthday, his gift was four Nerf guns.  Surprise, surprise.  Then, while Tom took Ellie and Jack to their soccer games Saturday morning, I decorated the house with orange and blue streamers and balloons.  I set up a few targets outside, but I knew the kids would probably be more interested in shooting each other.  For food, I went orange-themed.  We had carrots, cheeze-its, nacho tortilla chips, pizza, and orange and blue gatorade.  Easy-peasy.  Oh yeah, and I made blue cupcakes with orange frosting. I purchased safety glasses off Amazon as well as 200 bullets.  The bullets came individually packaged in packs of 5 so I pulled out 12 packages as a send home gift and dumped all the rest in a bowl for use.

The kids all seemed to have a great time and they were happy with their take home gifts of safety glasses and Nerf bullets.  Although one boy did ask me if I was giving guns to go with the bullets.  I told him the party is not that awesome.

Sunday, we had church and then Tom's family came over to continue celebrating Jack.  More orange food was offered (red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, cheeze-its, and pizza rolls).  Also, cupcakes and cookies.  Tom's sister recently had a baby and he was the tiniest, cutest thing.  I felt a bit or a twinge in my ovaries, but then I looked at his parents' exhausted faces and I was good.

Dear Jack

Dear Jack,

Today you turn 7!  This past year you hit a growth spurt and have gotten so tall.  I like to push down on the top of your head and tell you to stop growing, to please stay my little boy forever.  You always respond by hugging me and promising me that you will always be my boy and you will never stop giving me hugs.  You really are the sweetest, most cuddly boy I have ever met.  You love to climb onto my lap or snuggle up next to me and you tell me that I am the best mom in the world and that you are so thankful for everything I do for you.  And your big sister will be in the background groaning and rolling her eyes, but I just soak it right up. 

I met with your 1^st grade teacher (Mrs. Tom, a name we both love) yesterday for parent-teacher conferences.  She showed me your work and talked about how bright you are and how she is trying to find more advanced work for you so you don’t feel too bored.  You got a 100 on the district math assessment and you are already reading way above your grade level.  She showed me your writing and talked at length about how impressed she was with your story development and use of various punctuation.  She did mention that you do have a problem with falling asleep in class, though.  Last night I decided to pop my head back into your room even though I thought for sure you were sound asleep.  Your eyes were open and something prompted me to ask if you had anything hidden under your blankets.  Sure enough, you pulled out a book.  No wonder you are falling asleep in school.

You have been working really hard lately on being a good big brother to Sam.  Sam can be so challenging and he tends to frustrate you and put you on edge.  But you have been trying so hard to stay calm and to spend more time playing with him.  Sam has started telling everyone that “Jack is my friend” and he copies your every movement.  I hope you continue to be such a good example for him and that you will always look out for him.

Jack, I love you more than words can say. I hope year 7 is the best year yet.  Happy birthday, Jackeroni.

I love you forever,

Mom

Grandpa Hansen is turning 90!

My grandpa is turning 90 on December 1st.  My mom wanted to throw a big party/get-together for him, but she realized that December was not an ideal time to visit Iowa.  So, she decided to do it on October 1st instead.  Tom had a cross country meet and was unable to attend, so my brother Mark and his youngest daughter were nice enough to carpool with me.

We left at 8am Friday morning and arrived at our hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa at 9:30pm.  The kids did fairly well in the car because we had lots of snacks and electronics to keep them occupied.

Mark drove the whole way there and we visited the entire time so it made the long drive more bearable.  Sam didn't nap at all in the car so I thought he would crash at the hotel.  I thought wrong.  He was WIRED!  He kept getting in and out of the bed, hitting Jack, and just being a crazy person.  I ended up spanking him twice and I fell asleep feeling like a really bad mom.  Of course, he woke up at 5am the next morning and promptly woke everyone up.  We went to breakfast and then to the pool to burn off some energy.  I was so glad when the cousins finally joined us so they could entertain my boys!

When we went back to the room to shower and get ready for my grandpa's shindig, Sam fell asleep on the bed (of course he did).  I wanted to let him sleep as long as possible so I was the last one to leave the hotel.  I would have still made it on time, but my phone had no signal in Council Bluffs!  I could not pull up Maps or use GPS.  I was just driving aimlessly around and getting so furious that no one in my family was answering their phones or texts!  My dad finally called me and guided me to my destination, but I arrived feeling a little emotionally unstable.   Then, everywhere I looked, there were pictures of my grandma and grandpa at various stages of their life (my grandpa married my grandma when she was only 15).  Every one was standing up and sharing memories of my grandpa and it just really, really made me miss my grandma so it was all I could do not to cry.  Still, the event was nice and I know it meant a lot to my grandpa and my mom.  We took a million pictures and then headed over to my grandpa and Aunt Janet's farm.

"Grandpa, what is your secret to a long and happy life? "A sense of humor."

It was so fun to have all 9 of us in one place...even if they wouldn't answer their phones!

I loved going to the farm when I was a kid.  There was always so much to see and explore and I was excited for my kids to experience that as well.  The kids and their cousins were in heaven being set free in the country.  They loved every minute of it.

My brother decided he wanted to walk to the pond that was on the property, but my grandpa warned him there was no longer a path to it and the brish was pretty dense.  Mark decided to beat a path with a large stick and the rest of us adults blindly followed him.  After walking what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at the green, scum covered pond.  Then, we just turned around and walked back.  I guess it was an adventure?

Then my sisters wanted to go for a walk around the block.  But a block in the country is 5 miles so that was also an adventure.  The best part was that I left my boys behind to be entertained by Alethia and Mark.

The day was over much too quickly and we all returned to the hotel.  I hurriedly showered the kids and put them to bed. I told Ellie I was going to the lobby to play games with the adults and to call if she needed anything.  I went back 5 minutes later to check and they were all fast asleep.

We woke up Sunday morning at 5:15, ate breakfast at 5:30, and were on the road by 6.  It was a long day of driving and we arrived home at 7:30.  We were on the road longer than we were at our destination, but it was most definitely worth it.  Ellie and Jack are begging to go back again this summer.