In which I discover something almost as bad as lice

Ugh, this past weekend. It was supposed to be a fun, family weekend where we celebrated Tom's new job offer, but it ended up being so stressful.

Okay, so here is the back story.  A new high school is opening up near us next year.  It is the high school Ellie will go to in a few years.  It is in a really good area and it is going to have some incredible athletic talent.  Tom applied for the cross country/track position and then had to wait for MONTHS before finding out if he got the job.  Tom doesn't do well with waiting so he was basically an obsessive, stressed-out mess the entire time.  Finally, last week, the offer was made and finalized so we decided to go to the movies after school to celebrate.  We took the kids to "Boss Baby" which they all really liked, but the kids kept referring to Sam as Boss Baby after that and he completely freaked out about it.  He is very sensitive right now to being called baby.

So, Friday was good.  Saturday morning started out nice because the kids' games weren't til the afternoon so Tom and I enjoyed a lazy morning in bed.  But then I went downstairs and discovered a moth infestation in the pantry.  In all my years of being a grown-up, I have never experienced this and it was so horrifying to me.  I had noticed a moth or two flying around in the evenings sometimes while Tom and I were watching TV, but I thought it was just because our kids are incapable of closing the back door.  It wasn't until I took a really close look in the pantry and discovered cocoons, moths, and little white worm thingies that I realized we had a problem.  A quick google search of pantry moths made me even more horrified because every site said they were near impossible to get rid of.  So, I took large black garbage bags and started throwing everything away.  I was taking no chances.  Then I vacuumed and bleached all the shelves.  Then I washed the whole pantry with warm, soapy water.  You guys, I HATE, HATE, HATE bugs and the thought of them in or near our food nearly pushed me over the edge.  Remember how I was about mosquitoes and lice? Yeah, it was like that.  I was on a mission.  I stopped only long enough to go to Ellie's 2 softball games and Jack's 1 game.

 {Jack did hit a double-header and was awarded the game ball. Yay, Jack!}  Then I returned and continued the process of cleaning and sanitizing the entire downstairs. And it wasn't like our house was that bad, I mean, the cleaning lady had just been there a week ago.  Finally, I felt like things were under control.

Then, the next morning, Sam is eating breakfast at the kitchen table and starts yelling about bugs.  I look and there were tiny black ants on my kitchen table!  The same table I had sprayed and scrubbed the night before!  And last night, while Tom and I were watching TV, a moth was flitting about that I couldn't catch,  This morning I opened my pantry to find THREE moths on the ceiling in there!  What the heck?!  I can't even tell you how stressful this is for me.  I am having the pest control guy come out ASAP and I also placed some moth traps in there.  I don't know what they are attracted to because there is nothing left!

Easter shenanigans

 Easter morning started off with the traditional egg hunt.  Sam is really into egg hunts this year.

 Then the kids ate way, way too much candy for breakfast.

 You know I had to color-coordinate their outfits.  I bought Ellie's dress and the boys' shirts the day before at Old Navy. Everything was 50% off...total score.

 The primary kids sand two songs during church. One of them was Sam's favorite song, Miracle bt Shawna Edwards.  He makes me play it on repeat in the car every day so he knew all the words and he was so cute up there singing.  Ok, so we aren't supposed to take pictures, but luckily I have rule-breaker friends show snapped away and shared with me.  Not sure why all the kids looks so sad here, though!

After church, we went to Mark and Rosie's house for Easter dinner.  They also did an egg hunt and pinata for the kids. Their girls are all older so I thought it was so sweet of them to organize this for the younger cousins.

Lately Ellie has been finding it so funny to tease Sam because he gets so mad.  I am not normally a fan of this, but Tom captured the following during the egg hunt and I find it so funny:

Ellie stealing the egg right as Sam is reaching for it

Sam ripping Ellie a new one

Sam telling his cousin Mia what a mean sister Ellie is

Ellie's birthday celebrations

After Sam's big party, I was so relieved that Ellie just wanted to spend her birthday at home with me. I needed a day of rest!  We had such a great day.  We dropped the boys off at their places of care in the morning and then went to the grocery store where she loaded up on anything her heart desired.  This was all very exciting for her because she doesn't normally get much of a say when we go grocery shopping and we try to keep it much healthier.  Then, we went home and started watching Gilmore Girls for hours on end.  We were on the last season and our goal was to finish it before it was time to pick up Jack and Sam.  We pretty much just watched it straight through, pausing only once when Tom came home to eat lunch with Ellie.  We finished the last episode of the series 15 minutes before we had to pick up the boys.  I didn't eat ANY of the food since I have been doing low-carb/no sugar since January, but I still felt sluggish and drugged after watching so many hours of TV!  Ellie was going strong, though.  She had her best friend spend the night and they squirreled away the rest of the junk to her bedroom along with their iPads/laptops for the rest of the night.  I could still hear them when I went to bed at 11.

Friday evening, I took Jack and Sam to a friend's birthday party and Tom took Ellie out for sushi since he had a track meet the night before and couldn't really celebrate with her.  She ordered a bento box and ended up bringing most of it home.  Probably still full from all the junk the day before.  She liked the one-on-one time with her dad, though.

Continuing on our tradition of stretching out birthdays for days, Tom's dad and his wife took Ellie out to lunch on Saturday.  They went to Houston's and Ellie ordered the prime rib.  Of course she did.  Then they went to La Madeleine's afterward for dessert.  Ellie was in food heaven.  We don't usually take the kids out to restaurants (because Sam) and definitely not nice ones.  Ellie loved getting all of the attention and being able to order whatever she wanted.

As I am typing this, I am realizing that Ellie's birthday basically just revolved around food and one-on-one time,  Sounds good to me!

Dear Ellie on your 11th birthday

Dear Ellie,

Happy birthday!  April 13th will always be an extra special day for me because it is the day I became a mother.  I know I always tell you that, but it is true.

This past year, I noticed a shift in our relationship.  I felt a little awkward, like I wasn't sure how to interact with you.  At times, you were still my little girl who wanted to cuddle with me on the couch, but other times you were full-on moody teenager who just wanted to be alone in her room with her phone and iPad.  One thing that has really helped us, I think, is that we started watching "Gilmore Girls" together.  I know your dad always complains about us watching it and he thinks the topics are a bit too mature for you, but I think it has helped us move to this new phase of our mother-daughter relationship.  Almost every night, we cuddle up on the couch and watch an episode or two after the boys are in bed. When topics come up that are a little mature, we talk about them openly.  I know you love this time together, too, because you chose to stay home and have a Gilmore Girls marathon with me today instead of our normal day of pedicures and movies for your birthday.  I am so happy you still want to spend your birthday with your ol' mom.

I still rely on you a lot to help me with your brothers or to do things around the house.  You are so great that you almost never complain about it.  I honestly do not know what I would do without your help.

Although you are getting older and more mature, you are still the same in a lot of ways.  You still love stuffed animals and narwhals, you still read to fall asleep, you still don't care about fashion and prefer to wear leggings and t-shirts most days, you still like do soccer/softball/swim, and you still prefer to think of boys as just friends.  Next year you will be starting middle school and I know a lot of those things will change.  Please don't be in too much of a rush to grow up.  

Ellie, I just have to tell you how very proud I am of you. You are a funny, smart, and caring person. And you are dang fun to hang out with.  Thank you for spending your birthday with me.

Happy 11th birthday, my Ellie-belly!

Love you forever,
Mama

A monster of a party

Y'all know how I love a theme.  Well, when Sam became obsessed with monster trucks a couple of months ago, I knew I wanted to do a monster truck-themed birthday party for him.  Poor Sam, he has never truly had his own birthday party.  The past two years he has had a combined birthday/Easter party with Ellie at our friends' golf course.  And his first birthday was an already planned family get together that I hijacked.  So, I felt like Sam was due a true party that included friends and family.  I ended up inviting 60+ people.  I might have gotten a little carried away.

The concept of the party was very simple.  For outdoor activities, I had a bouncy house,  inflatable tires for tire races, "pin the wheel on the monster truck," and face painting.  Indoors, I had monster truck coloring pages and books while Monster Jam videos were paying in the background. I also had a bin of monster trucks for the kids to play with,

The food was also very simple. I made peanut butter and "monster" jam sandwiches, turkey and MUENSTER cheese on Hawaiian rolls, car shaped fruit, chips (spare parts), and chocolate donuts (muddy tires).  I also made 50 cupcakes and purchased a Monster Jam cake from Kroger.  Since I tend to me challenged in the kitchen arena, I purposely kept things simple, but I still ended up making a lot of mistakes:
I bought a monster truck shaped cookie cutter for my PB&J sandwiches that ended up being too big for the bread so I never got to use it.
I bought all these condiments for the turkey & muenster sandwiches that I forgot to put out.
The orange frosting was way too runny and dripped down the cupcakes.
And I had way too much cake and cupcakes.  I was sending people hope with plates full of both.

For party favors, I sent everyone home with a large and small monster truck (the pull back ones that go far), race flags, and monster truck tattoos. The favors were also used as decor and I forgot to hand them out until a few people had already left. Oops.

Hosting large groups does not come naturally to me.  I find being around a lot of people very stressful. But I think the party went really well.  Tom thought the games and seating should have been more structured, but I liked the relaxed flow of it. I assigned older cousins at the stations so they could help the little ones.  I am nothing if not a great delegater. The adults seemed to enjoy visiting with each other and the kids all had fun. But, most importantly, Sam was so happy the entire time.

I'm in the checked shirt on the left. Commitment to theme.

Dear Sam at 4 years

Dear Sam,

4 years ago, you were placed in my arms and our little family was complete.

I'm not going to lie...I am welcoming age 4 with open arms.  Age 3 has always been a rough one for me with my kids and you were no exception.  Your dad and I have Googled "oppositional defiant disorder" more than once this past year, thinking that you might be a textbook case when it reality it is just a case of you being 3 and being the youngest child.

This past year you have gotten more affectionate.  You often will seek me or your dad out and ask to snuggle.  You like to play in the same room we are in and you always want to talk.  Lately, you have been so full of questions.  Sometimes we get on a loop of them and I feel like they will never end, but I love how curious you are about EVERYTHING.

A couple months ago, your dad took you to Monster Jam.  I wasn’t quite sure how you would like it because it is so loud and crowded, but you loved it!  Your started wanting to play monster trucks all the time and even built your own tracks with blocks.  For our birthday, you requested a monster truck-themed party (which you will be having next Saturday).

 

After Thanksgiving, we took away your nighttime pacifier and bedtime became a huge chore.  You fight it every night. But the one thing you love about bedtime is reading stories.  You usually have a favorite book that we read every night for a week until you move on to another favorite.  Curious George, Beauty and the Beast, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears have been on a heavy repeat the past few months.

 

You like to wake up very early and come into our bedroom and start demanding that we make you breakfast.  No amount of bribery or threats can persuade you to go back to bed and, inevitably, one of us with get up and go downstairs with you.  There have been many an early Saturday morning where I have had to remind myself over and over that this is a fleeting moment in your life and someday I will miss the sound of your little feet running into my room at 4:30 am.

 

You love to play with your older brother and sister.  Ellie is more patient with you and she tends to just go along with whatever you want.  You and Jack always start out having fun, but it always ends in some sort of shouting match, tears, and tattling.  You have a gift for teasing your older brother and making him lose his temper.  But, I love those little moments in between where you are getting along and I get a glimpse of the best friends you will be one day.

 

Sam, I adore your fiercely stubborn yet oh so lovable personality.  I am thankful every single day for my little April Fools baby. Happy birthday, Sam the Man.

 

Love you forever,

Mama