Just when I thought we were done with snow....

Happy Easter. We've had an adventurous time in Cleveland, visiting family, being family, driving through snow storms, getting kids in and out of snow gear... What? Yes, on the way up on Friday night, we drove through a snow storm that dumped like 6-8 inches of snow at Brian's mom's house. I was wearing my birkenstocks. There should be some sort of cosmic law against going from 64' weather to 32' weather in a 12 hour period. We built a snowman and had a snowball fight yesterday at Brian's dad's house. Again, lots of fun, but the time and effort to get 3 kids and myself bundled up for the snow seemed anticlimatic. I had just put it all away for heaven's sake.
Oh well. Last year, it snowed 10 inches the day before Easter while we were here, so it must be us- or global warming....

The Day After...

As most of you know, Zach's birthday is Monday and so he asked if he could have 2 friends from school spend the night instead of having a party. For obvious reasons I thought that this was a good compromise(besides the fact I can't keep a birthday party simple: for those of you who don't know- last year I turned our basement into a castle and dining hall complete with costumes for all the guests and proper weaponry...the year before that we did pirates...

So, we had the boys over (big difference of 3 boys- good lord are they loud) and we went swimming, had pizza, shot paintballs (the highlight of the evening)and then they watched Return of the Jedi- complete with more junk food than our entire family has consumed in like 5 months. Bri and I got them down around 10:30 and were in the kitchen when Zach came up with a sheepish smile and says "Um mom, Curtis was sleeping and got up and got the shaving cream and put it all over his face and sleeping bag". To his credit (or due to exhaustion) Brian burst out laughing and went downstairs. Poor Curtis, who had fallen asleep earlier had shaving cream on his face and sleeping bag. He didn't stir as Brian cleaned him off and Brian laid the smack down and that was all we heard from them until morning.

It's so hard to think that Zach will be seven. It seems like just the other day I was bringing him home from the hospital wondering who thought me having a child was a good idea! While I still wonder that at times, I'm glad he's ours. I'll keep him around!

Elizabeth is a big girl

Tonight while we were making dinner (grilling out to take advantage of the warm weather), I had Zach and Hannah outside with me. Missi was getting things ready inside and got a phone call. Elizabeth had apparently decided that she needed to eat. She got out a bowl and some cereal and managed to get most of it in the bowl. She called to Missi, quite proud of herself. She then opened the refrigerator and got out a glass of milk that had been unfinished from lunch and poured the milk into the bowl. Since the damage was done, Missi set her up at the table to eat her cereal. When I came, Missi told me what had happened and I said to E, "Did you get out some cereal like a big girl?" She gave me the biggest, proudest smile that a almost two year old can. It was precious, but we are now aware how close of an eye we must keep on our precocious little E.

Milestones

Well, we're finally healthy and chicken pox free (hopefully E won't get them) for the past few days. YEAH!!!! Although, in all honesty, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

The past few days though have shown me a lot about my kids. It doesn't seem possible that in just 2 weeks Zach is going to be 7. I still think the math is somehow off there. In case I've not mentioned it, I think Zach is one of the best kids around- I know I'm a bit biased, but he never ceases to amaze me with his heart, his intelligence and his whole being. We've been struggling a bit with his cello playing and the relationship with his cello teacher and the past 2 weeks have been a complete turnaround. He is doing great and for the first time actually wanted to play for people other than me (he's not EVER done that before- he'll play in concerts and such, but not for others outside of performances). One of my favorite things he does is reads to E for however long she'll endure it. It's very tender. In the mornings E wakes up and starts squawking for Zach and Hannah. When they come in, she jumps up and down and can't wait to hug them.

ANYWAY... so the big milestone the past few days is Hannah has started to read! We have a series of books we got for Zach that are all 3-4 sounds words and are perfect for a beginner. I can not believe how quickly she's picking up on it. Tonight, with just a little help, she read an entire book (8 pages). Zach and I both were so proud of her. It was good and encouraging to hear Zach tell her that he was proud of her. That doesn't happen too often.

Elizabeth is doing great. She's such a fun kid and I enjoy her immensely! She is talking more- still in Elizabeth language, but you have to start somewhere! Her new favorite thing is to sing. We have a rotating playlist that we do in the van and right now we're listening to David Crowder- The Lime CD purely for song #5- "Undignified". Zach and Hannah LOVE this song and sing it as loudly as they possibly can. Elizabeth just claps and then yells "HEY" (or something like it) during one part of the song that David Crowder yells Hey. It makes me laugh. She's also started singing Elmo's World. Every time she does it, Brian and I just laugh and make her do it again because it's so darn cute.

Wow. This is a little long. Milestones are good and fun and unfortunately a reminder that the kids are getting older.