The little green man invasion

 Parker and Emmie woke up on St. Patricks Day to find that our house had been invaded by a little green man.
 It's true.
 Here in the living room was their first clue of the incident:

The before and after of his night of havoc on our home.
(Pics taken at midnight-ish resulted in the lovely lighting)
 The Leprechaun made quite the mess and left Parker and Emmie to embark on the mission of finding his lost green boots...

Their first clue led them on a freezing morning jog to the mailbox with Dad (which is down the street and around the corner). They found all the clues and gathered some fun treats and a game along the way. The Little Green Man even left his mark in the bathroom.
 Green footprints on the toilet seat and green toilet water.
Ewww.
The kiddos ate it all up
(the fun, not the toilet water).

That afternoon, Emmie dressed up like a princess and went to a friend's princess birthday party, and RAPUNZEL was there.
Rapunzel!
 It was QUITE an exciting day!
Chris just rolled his eyes at the festive efforts, but hey, he just worked all day and we like to have a little fun around here every once in a while. Especially when we have a good excuse for it! :)
We are not just lucky but BLESSED to have these little people in our life! :)

Sunday Chaos Accomplices

In my previous life
 (aka my ignortant pre-children life where I thought kids were simply cute, obedient accessories), Sundays meant a few, nice, edifying and uplifting hours of church, followed by a dreamy, satisfying nap or possibly indulging into a great book, and often ended with a peaceful drive to visit family to celebrate a birthday or holiday, and/or to have a Sunday dinner.
We leisurely took our time and enjoyed our 'day of rest' and worship.
HA!
LEISURE is not a part of my vocabulary any longer.
{*Sigh. Miss you "leisure"!}
A lot can change when three of those "cute accessories" enter into the equation.
No matter how organized I try to be (laying out every person's Sunday best on Saturday night- accessories included, & stocking the diaper bag with snacks and coloring books sacrament meeting essentials ), I find myself SPRINTING and I mean literally to get myself + my three other human responsiblities church presentable and out the door each Sunday. Chris works one especially dreaded Sunday a month and the other three these days he has meetings and therefore is absent in the commotion to get to church.
 Lucky him. :)
There is always some sort of crisis that accompanies our Sunday morning routine.
 ALWAYS.
The baby has a blowout. The baby spits up down my dress. Or in my hair. Emmie gets toothpaste all over herself. Em decides to give her mermaids a bubblebath in the sink and in the process soaks herself. Our lovely dog that is getting old and sickly pees on the carpet. I can't FIND the darn dog to lock in her cage during our absense. Someone's missing a shoe. Or a sock. Someone has a meltdown. Where are the keys?  I can't find my slip that is essential for an otherwise see-through-in-the-sunlight skirt. Emmie doesn't want her hair done. We have to go on a hunt for Emmie's must-have blankie...
Just a few scenarios that inevitably arise on my (sorry to say, but dreaded) Sunday mornings.

A few Sundays ago Chris was working. I was teaching the Young Women (sometimes a crisis in itself). Parker was sick and I knew he really shouldn't even be going.
 (In case you don't know me, I'm not a fan of the mom that brings her sickly children to share the misery.)
Since I was teaching I knew we had no choice, but (the good non-germing mom that I am)  elected that we would only go to the third hour (the hour of my lesson).
So this left me with two extra hours to get my ensemble in order and out the door.
EASY. I can do this!
Thats what I thought.
 We were doing great on time until I was doing Emmie's hair and heard some crashes down the stairs followed by P crying.
Yep.
He tripped and fell down the stairs.
 Head first!
The poor guy managed to carpet burn his face and get a partial black eye. Not even kidding. Of course it was the same unfortunate eye that brought on an Air Med flight a year ago last Fall. Of course. I panicked a little bit. After assessing and consoling, I decided he was okay. Or he would have to be at least until we were through with church.:) But the poor guy really looked like he was in pain.  Hurriedly, I finished Emmie's hair, fed the baby, loaded up  my lesson handouts and props (yes, props -us girls like a decorated table), had E use the bathroom one more time...
and that's when I noticed it. Something in her hair.
 "What's that in your hair?", I asked.
The mumbled, matter-of-fact answer,
"Bubblegum".
Wha-huh?
Seriously?!
I didn't have time. Didn't have time to be mad, or ask questions, let alone slather peanut butter in her hair to get it out, rewash it and redo it.
 We had to GO!
So, we rushed to church.
 Parker with his developing black eye and a nasty cold (that I would normally never expose to his sweet classmates), & Emmie with a huge gob of bubblegum running down the front portion of her hair.
AWE-SOME.
AWESOME!
I kind of had to laugh.
This is SO MY LIFE.
What a sight.
My friend helped me get my kids to class upon arrival.
I instructed P's teacher to sit him in the corner and not let him  breathe on a soul.
 I'm not sure how serious he took me.
And.... I made it.
Made it in time for my lesson.
SIGH.OF.RELIEF!
I am pathetic, YES. I. am.
Am I the only one who scrambles like this?!
Sure appears so.

So here are a few of my accomplices who contribute to this crazy life of mine. P with his banged up eye (this pic does not reflect how bad it was -it really did turn dark blue the next day and a lovely scab adorned the middle of his nose all week), and I didn't have the energy to address E's bubblegummed hair until the following morning. (The peanut butter did work  btw, but I also combed out half her hair in the process...)
In the end, all was well. I did what I needed to do.
We missed the important part of church (the Sacrament) but that had to happen regardless, due to P's sickness.
And what about the littlest?
 She didn't make a peep - not one.
 Slept like an angel my entire lesson. It wasn't until we had gotten home and the kids were eating lunch when I took a peek at my cutie in her carseat and found her like this....

{Yes, her hair is out of control. Does that surprise you?}
Oh Lexi, thanks for being such a good baby.
 I can't imagine how crazy I might be if you weren't as mellow and go-with-the-flow as you are!

So, that's the truth about my life.

I'm sorry if you don't want to be my friend anymore.

But there you have it.
And often we have a very short down time once we've had lunch before we have to repack, rebathroom and rescramble back out the door to a Sunday night family event. The myth of Sunday being a 'day of rest' is just that -  myth! It's unfortunately quite the opposite at our house.
Go ahead. Judge away.
At your own expense, mind you. ;)

Parker asked us on the way to a family dinner the week prior,
"Mom, what time-o'clock were we supposed to be there?". Yeah that pretty much sums up our life these days. Pretty sad when your 5 year old knows what kind of schedule you keep...but that is just how I am handling
3 kids under 5. I like to think I am doing great!
Just as long as I don't have to go anywhere, or do anything.
Just stay home and spend time with my threesome. :):)
Whom I love and adore, despite the chaos they add to my life.

THOSE are my favorite days.
 And the ones I prefer.

{Parker and Emmie are standing on an ottoman. In case you wondered. I'm short, but not that short. :)}

Pre-dinner entertainers

A common scene at our house:

Cute, right?
 I think so too.
As long as the poor girl has a pocket of air to breathe through, it can fall under the "cute" category.
{Not gonna lie....sometimes they are a little overkill and their actions land under "obnoxious" and "relentless" but today we can call it the "c" word.:)}
But this popular little cutie doesn't seem to mind the adoration or attention.
Even in it's smothering form.
Not one bit!

The other night, I was fixing dinner and the older kids had just gotten out of their bath when I heard Lexi giggling. Like a lot.
I peeked over the kitchen island to find this:

 

P and E had pulled up their chairs and were practicing some sort of Vietnemese Tai Chai.
Er something.
 But whatever,
 the entertainment had arrived,
and Lexi thought it was hilarious.

Good thing because they kept her good and happy through the remainder of my dinner prepping.
 (Not to say she doesn't just sit happy as can be regardless of her sibling's attempts at Cirque Du Soleil...)

 

I could be wrong, but
I think P & E kind of like having their very own fan club.
Or is it the other way around? :)

Boy's night makes for a girl's night

A week ago last Monday, Chris announced that he was taking Parker to the Star Wars movie that came out in the theater.

I was all for it.

 The poor kid has watched in surplus his fair share of Netflix Strawberry Shortcake reruns, and dutifully played his part as Emmie's "pince" lately more than any good 5 year old boy should ever have to. He didn't even mind riding on E's pink scooter a few weeks back when she wanted to switch him vehicles midway through our walk.

He is a good sport, that boy (okay, most of the time that is).

 I figured some serious Darth Vader action, spaceship time, & light saber fighting, (or whatever it is they do in those Star Wars movies because I honestly have no idea) would serve to remind him that he does likes boyish things. A date with Dad does a little guy good every once in a while, right? I'd say so. :)

To make sure Emmie didn't get all jealous of their night out, I told her that the girls were staying home and having our own party.

 It worked.
 She was excited.

I realized about 5 minutes after the boys left that she had misunderstood my definition of "party" when she asked when our guests were going to arrive. I quickly explained to her that her dolls and stuffed animals were our guests, and thankfully, she was just as excited.

So we started the party.
 And she wanted to take pictures.
Because apparently that's part of what you do at parties.:)

So we did.

Emmie (in her favorite mismatched hot pink party shoes) and her party goers.

 Quite a diverse group. Even the teddy bear I bought when we were on our honeymoon 11 years ago (cringe that I'm old enough to be married that long...yiiiikes!) made the guest list. Emmie has recently adopted the tattered little guy. Lucky him. :)
She really has a big heart for the misfits.

The three girls.

 I love that the word daughter is now a plural one in our home. I love that I have these girls to do "girly" things with for the rest of my life. How did I get so lucky? And Emmie, she's most definitely girly. She had us singing and dancing our little hearts out (okay maybe more her little heart out) for our guests.

And this little attendee loved every minute of the entertainment!

We ended our "party"  like every good party should, with
chocolate ice cream and oreos.

We loved our girl time!

And Parker felt refreshed and renewed to be a boy upon his return from watching a bunch of Jedis beat each other up.
 Or whatever it is that happens in that movie.

 (That must be close, right?:)
It was all around a successful night. ;)