Hats for Sale

As I have mentioned before, we live down a dirt lane on the blueberry farm, surrounded by trees, and we have 1 neighbor.  So of course, Allison and Clay think this is the perfect spot to make paper hats (they are tiny and won't stay on) and try to put them up for sale.  They have worked really hard at making paper hats and crowns, airplanes, and bookmarks.  They have a good price list, you can buy almost anything for a penny.  The first day they did it, Alli came inside and said defeated, "no one is coming to buy our hats, we haven't made any money."  At that time, I had no idea that they were even doing this.  I saw what they were trying to do, and I tried to explain to them that no one knows that they were trying to sell anything, because no one can see them.  Alli, still looking defeated, said, "well, maybe when your customers come, they will buy a hat from us."  I had no customers coming that day for cupcakes (it was a Monday), so I told her she would have to wait a long time.  Luke and Reed came in, and I gave them some small change, and they went and bought hats.  That made the salesman/lady very happy.  I called Ross, so he would be ready to buy something from them too.  Ever since then, they make hats, and set up on my porch, in hopes of making money.  

This is their little set up.

The sign says, Hats for sale, take your shoes off, take off 

your socks too, no food, no babies only if there ours, no mean
people.

And this is the hat you can get for 10 cents, but they'll also

let you have it for a Penny if that's all you have.

I love their imaginations and how well they play together and make hats.....If anyone needs a small paper colored hat, you know where to come!

Forgetful

It's the end of the school year, which means I'm barely keeping every thing on my kid's schedule straight.  I'm sorry teachers, we are scraping by.  Special field trips, and as I wrote that I quick hopped up to check the calender because I wasn't sure if Clay's class trip was today (it's not, it's next week, whew).  Anyways, the schedule is just jam packed.  

Last week, or was it the week before? It was the week before last.....  Clay got off the bus and started to talk about Fredrick Meijer Gardens, and I said to him, "you'll see all that stuff when you get to go there for your class trip."  Fast forward to the weekly Monday note the teacher sends home and it says, "we had so much fun at Fredrick Meijer Gardens on Thursday....."  and there I sat, searching my brain to see if I remembered about it.  I didn't.  I ask Clay about it and sure enough they went there.  At least I remembered to send in the permission slip and money a few weeks prior to the class trip.

Last week Friday, the teacher e-mailed a picture of the class.  All the kids, except mine and another boy, were wearing green and yellow.  There was Clay in the picture, standing out like a sore thumb, in navy and orange.  Apparently, they were supposed to wear John Deere colors for a small outing across the road to a farm. I totally forgot about it!  We're not John Deere people anyways, we are Allis Chalmers folk here.

We get the school note on Wednesdays and it has all the school reminders and important info on them.  Ross was reading it Friday morning, and says to me ,"Erin, there are only 20 year books left, did we get one?"  My response, "I've been meaning to send in the money with Leanne, but keep forgetting."  Ross replies, "Do you even read the note?"  I said to him, "I skim read it."  Maybe that's part of my problem this year, all that skim reading that I keep missing stuff.  But I don't really think so, I think I would forget anyways, even if I read it closely.  I sent Leanne to school that morning with money for a year book. 

Thursday, last week, I could sense that I pushed something wrong on my alarm clock and my mind told me to get up and check it out, but my body did NOT listen.  I woke up when the bus was supposed to pick up the kids for school.  I got the kiddos up, full well knowing that I would have to bring them, got them dressed and fed and dropped them off.  Alli and Clay were on time but Leanne was a few minutes late (we outgrew our school, so this year we leased the Beaverdam school and grades K-2 go there).  The whole day was totally off.  I HATE that when that type of morning happens.


There, of course, are the normal forgetful moments too.  Like forgetting to initial minutes Clay has read for reading, doing their catch up homework from sick days (we have yet another virus going through the family!!), and just generally keeping everything straight.  BUT we are in the HOME STRETCH!!!!!!!  I'm doing a little happy dance.  Only 2 weeks and a day left......I got this (I think....) Three more class trips and a field day.  I'd better get those brown paper bags out so I don't forget about sack lunches for class trips.

Vacation

Wow, it's been awhile since I last updated my blog.  I've been busy with starting my own cupcake business among other things that just keep life, well, busy.  I was also busy with Ross' family on spring break at Orange Beach, AL!!!!!  That's right, we went away for spring break!  We have never (Ross and I and our kids) gone away for spring break and I have never gone to the ocean for a vacation.  My family always camped and went fishing and things of that nature.  When I met Ross, I found out he HATES sand and anything to do with water, so that nixed a honeymoon by the ocean.  But that was fine because I love outdoorsy nature stuff and I have a hard time sitting still.  So anyways, ORANGE BEACH!!!!!!!!  We decided to leave a few days earlier and go to the land of the Ozarks, in Missouri, since we don't know if we'll ever do anything like this again.  We are huge fans of Laura Ingalls books, and decided we wanted to visit where she lived and since this one was only a couple hours out of the way, we decided to go here.  We rented a small (more like tiny) cabin for a night (that turned into 2 nights).  Did I forget to mention that Clay caught a nasty stomach bug a few days before vacation?  And that Luke and I had it before we left and Leanne started puking the night we were supposed to leave on vacation?  Oh, and Reed puked that night too?  Whoops, well that's what happened.  We were debating on whether to stay home or not, but decided we were going to go.  As Leanne said, "I'm not sick, I only puked twice."  That poor girl was sick the entire drive and into the next day at the cabin.  We decided to stay there an extra night because of the the sickies.  Oh, and Alli finally caught it right when Leanne started to feel better.  Leanne is the one in our family who loves the Little House Books, so thankfully, she was well enough to go see where Laura lived out her final years of her life and where Laura wrote her books.

Luke and I at Laura

Ingalls Wilder's house.  

Photography credit goes

to Clay.  Ross stayed back 

with the sickies.

Laura Ingalls Wilders home

Rose, Laura's daughter, bought this house

for her parents.  It had top of the line

stove and fridge, it was all very modern for

that day in age.  Laura and Almanzo lived here

for awhile, and then moved back to the white

 house because they liked it better there.

We left the land of the Ozarks and headed to Alabama.  Poor Alli still wasn't feeling well.  She got pretty dehydrated, to the point if we were at home, I would have taken her in for IV fluids. After hours of driving (12-13 hours), we made it to Alabama.  We were all pretty tired, and as for Alli, she got some Gatorade in her and we woke her up through the night to force her to drink.  After that she started to perk up and finally made a turn for the better.  

The place where we stayed.  Our family

had the lower level.  The second

level is the main level with the big

kitchen and large area to relax as 

an entire family.  

Lynelle (her hubby was unable to get

 off work to come), Ross' sister

and her to girls stayed on that level.  The

Top level was mainly sleeping

area.  Brandon, Ross' brother, and his

wife, Leah, and their kids stayed up there,

along with Ross' parents, and Chad, Ross'

brother, and his wife, Anna, and their

baby, Thomas.  

Our daily view!!!! Nothing like waking up and looking

out the window and seeing this.  It was AMAZING!!

Sunday was Easter and we listened to an online sermon and had a nice big brunch.  We pretty much stayed low key to remember the Lord's day (and it felt good after so much driving and sickness).

Monday the kids could not wait to get into the pool, so we let them swim and play in the sand and gather shells.  Anna's (Chad's wife, so sister in law) family was staying next door to us and her dad went charter boat fishing that morning.  When they came in, we went down there to see them gut the fish and visit the docks.  After watching them clean the fish, we went for a walk down the docks to see pelicans.  One guy had his fish (5-6 nice sized fish) laying out on the docks and he was taking pics of them.  He turned his back and started to talk to some people by the cleaning table.  Those pesky pelicans walked right up to the fish and grabbed one.  He almost had it in his neck area (or whatever you call that thing).  We were yelling several times,  "hey, they've got your fish!!" before he finally noticed what was going on. Good thing it slipped out of the pelican's mouth.  They did have it quit a bit a ways from the group of the other fish.  I almost felt bad for the pelican, almost.  We also went on a bit of a nature walk.

Watching a fish getting gutted.

Family picture on the docks (this

is right before the pelicans tried to get the

fish.  Leanne was in stitches laughing

so hard!)

Pelicans waiting and watching

The recovered fish from the pelican

The kids had fun digging this big hole.

Looking for gators on our nature

walk, no gators seen.

Tuesday we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum.  That was really neat.  They had a lot of different airplanes from different wars in the museum.  We also got to see the Blue Angels practice.  That was the highlight of the day.

Majority of the kids.  Look

at Clay being a goof at the

top of the chain

Inside the museum

We didn't get a good picture of the Blue Angels practicing because they were so fast, but it was AMAZING!!!!!

Wednesday we planned on playing it low key, but last minute we decided to go to Alligator Alley.  It's a place that takes alligators who are considered pests.  Like alligators that come too close to houses, or eats people pets......   

 

 Kids at the alley.  It was hot and they were tired.

Clay and Alli

Luke and Reed (not sure who is who here).  

Lee and one of the twins

Ross and I

Thursday we went to the U.S.S. Drum and the U.S.S. Alabama.  My kids love going through ships, so we couldn't pass this opportunity up.

Alli, Brooklyn (cousin), Reed,

Clay, Luke, and Leanne

Time for a nap!

Maybe if we all try together it will budge.

And Grandpa came too!!

Thursday night sleepover.  Haley (asleep), Alli, Leanne,

and Brooklyn.  Lots of giggles coming from that room!

Friday we just laid low key.  We spent time down by the ocean, swimming in the pool, relaxing and packing.  We were all enjoying our last day of vacation.

Enjoying the last time stepping in the

ocean.

My little guys

We woke up at 1:30 AM and got on the road 2ish.  We drove it straight through to home with minor backups (which is why we left so early).  My kids are really good riders, the twins cried for maybe 5 minutes during the trip and the older ones fought very little.  I am proud of their riding skills.

So sad to leave.  Goodbye Orange

Beach!

We had a wonderful vacation with Ross' family.  So thankful for the time spent together with nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, and mom and dad.  

Let Them Sleep in the Middle

Luke and Reed are now 3 1/2 years old and things have quieted down with them quite a bit.  After Christmas, they started to play with actual real toys, and not things that they decided were going to be their toys.  I haven't had to clean up sprinkles in awhile, nor syrup on my floor.  They are learning how to behave as little boys, not crazy little monkeys.  But still, they are twins, identical twins, and mostly identical twin BOYS.  Just the other day, Ross was letting the boys pull off his socks (just something they like to do) and they took off with them and soaked them in the toilet.  Those instances are only a couple times a day, instead of every 5 minutes a day.  The new challenge that we are trying to tackle (we only try to do 1 challenge at a time) is getting them to stay asleep in their own beds.  The problem is, they are trying to phase out of naps, but still desperately need them.  If they get a nap, they will be up until midnight.  If they don't get a nap, they go to sleep in their own beds.  I try to keep them up all day, but there is only so much that a mama can take!  It's not so much crabbiness (although that's part of it), but they get slap happy and NAUGHTY!  I know they need to take a nap when what I say won't hold any water to them.  They feed off of each other and get giddy, a certain kind of crazy giddy.  They sit there and laugh and giggle and encourage each other in naughtiness.  So cringe, into bed they go for a nap.  

It would be one thing if we could keep them contained to their rooms, but no, they use every trick in the book to get out of their room and stay out of there.  I'm sorry to say, it works in their favor a lot of the time.  Ross and I will be downstairs in our family room and we can hear noises (very quiet noises) at the top of the stairs.  Then they slowly inch and creep down the steps.  Sometime we have no clue that they are coming and they'll come around the couch and startle us.  My heart has ended up in my throat more than once.  We put them back to bed, but the cycle keeps repeating itself until Ross and I are ready to head to bed.   A lot of the time, it's just one twin up and the other asleep.  So that's when we have to decide what to do with the one that is awake (wide awake).  Do we (A) Put the boy back in his own bed and hope the ruckus won't wake the other boy or (B) let him climb in bed with us.  Normally plan (B) happens.  I think we normally get only 2 nights without any kids ending up in our bed sleeping with us.  The worst is when both won't sleep and they both somehow get in bed with us. Sometimes we have it where we are asleep (they are in their own bed) and they both come in, get in bed with us and hog it (read post spring for the king).  There is no space at all when that happens.  I have no shame in leaving our bed and going to go to sleep in either Alli's bed (she's just so snugly) or sleep in one of the twins' vacant twin sized bed.  I've found Ross in there before, and I know I've ended up there more than once or twice.  It's pretty bad, but at that point, I don't care where I sleep, just as long as I sleep.  

Sometimes  I'm so tired I sleep through the uncomfortable situation of being absolutely squashed from both sides from each of the boys and my hubby laying there hogging part of the bed (I literally just have enough space to lay straight on my side) that I wake with a kinked neck and back pain (the chiropractor is amazing for being able to work out the kinks).  

Tonight was a no nap type of day.  Luke fell asleep right away in his own bed and Reed did not.  Ross and I were downstairs in the family room area.  I kept thinking I heard one of the boys breathing at the top of the stairs, but kept telling myself I was just hearing things.  Inch by slow staking inch, Reed made his way down.  I looked over at him and he made his way quietly to the 3rd step and stayed there.  We just let him be.  It's a good thing we let him just sit there, not 20 minutes later and he was fast asleep on the stairs.  The step is a perfect sized sleeping place for him.  

And that's how the song goes (by Lonestar) "let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle, oh just let them be little."  Someday, I know I will be missing them when they no longer want to sleep in the middle.

Potty Training 101

I've been potty training the twins (it's been a long ongoing process) and this is how it really is potty training 3 year old (I started right before their 3rd birthday) twin boys.  We started the potty training journey in the middle of summer.  I thought it would be a perfect time to start because they could pee outside.  First of all, we live pretty far off a road, and we're surrounded by trees, so no one can even see us.  So I decided to not buy pull ups (a first time ever thing for me, I used them with all my other kids) because it would just be so expensive for twins and the fact that they are just a glorified diaper.  Anyways, I put them in undies and let them run around the yard, in just undies.  They peed through them all. the. time!!  I had a stash in the garage, so I didn't need to go inside to get more undies.  I gave them control of where they wanted to pee.  So they chose various trees, bushes, plants, rocks, and off the deck (watch out below!!!).  And talk about praise, I backed up every pee on the tree, with a nice piece of candy, which I also had stashed in the garage next to their extra undies.  They were starting to get the hang of it.  It was exciting to see them make progress.  
Now, when we go away, public restrooms are a cool place to visit.  It never fails, they want to try out every public bathroom they can.  At home, they never tell me they have to go potty, but the minute we step into Aldi, Target, Meijer, and anywhere that is not home, they tell me they have to go potty.  I don't know what it is with them and public restrooms, maybe it is the way the toilet flushes and they don't have to wait for it to refill to flush it again, maybe it's the stalls with the locks on the doors, maybe it's the soap dispenser, or maybe it is the hand dryer (they love to put their hands and then heads underneath it).  I have no idea why they like it, they just do.  I took Alli to get her haircut where her Aunt Leah works.  It's a little bit aways, so when we got there I was going to have the boys go potty.  Public restroom, so no problem, right!?!  This bathroom was the kind with no stalls, just one potty and a sink.  I get sick of how long it takes to have one go and then the other, so I had the bright idea of standing the boys on opposite sides of the toilet, so they could go at the same time.  Reed starts to go and misses the toilet by a long shot, but had a perfect arch over the toilet and was drenching his brother, Luke, in pee.  Thankfully, it landed mostly on Luke's waist and his pants were down, so it only got on his clothes a little bit.  Reed and I started to laugh, and Luke looked at us and started to laugh too.  I think he was pretty startled by being peed on and didn't know what to make of it until we started to laugh.  Lesson learned, do not have little boys stand directly across each other while peeing, it's a recipe for disaster.  
As I mentioned earlier, the boys love public restrooms.  We went grocery shopping last week and they decided they needed to go potty at Meijers.  I took them to the one in the back of the store, so there wasn't as many people in there.  Good thing too.   I hauled my cart in there (it had no merchandise in it, just Alli and the twins).  It was one of those coveted bench seat carts and I didn't want anyone to take it.  I had to basically jam that cart through the door and it took up the entire restroom aisle.  We were the only ones in there, so I didn't feel bad about my cart blocking all the sinks and the hand dryer.  So, I learned my lesson to do one at time, and I was helping Reed in one of the stalls.  Luke went into the handicapped one and locked the stall door!  Then, every mother's worst nightmare, Luke started to army crawl under the door, ON THE GROUND! So gross!  I tried to get a hold of that little boy and he squirmed back into the locked handicapped stall.  I wrapped it up with Reed and then went to try to get Luke out of that stall.  I told him to get out of there, but he said he was peeing.  I couldn't tell, so I tried to peer through the cracks of the stall and couldn't see anything because the toilet was so far away from the stall door.  I heard him flush and he got the door unlocked all by himself (I breathed a sigh of relief because I didn't want to crawl under there to get him out), and I promptly took him and washed his germy public bathroom hands.  They had fun at the hand dryer and we finally got out of there and finished up grocery shopping.
We are still potty training, everyday gets a bit better (famous last words!!!).  I'm sure I'll have many more fun incidents potty training these boys.  

Bright Idea

The weather has been beautiful this week, so I decided that I would take full advantage of it.  We, the twins and I, met my friend, and her little girls, at the park yesterday and let the kids run off a bunch of energy.  The boys loved it and had a lot of fun.  After we went to the park, I decided that since we were already out of the house, we would go clothes shopping for me at Clothes Junkie (an upscale, secondhand, women's clothes, retail business).  I haven't been there in awhile, and I just wanted to get a few new (to me) shirts.  Talk about a horrendous idea.  The twins were already good and worn out from the park, and they were really ready just to head home for the day.  While I was picking out stuff to try on, the boys thought it would be a good idea to play inside the clothes rack.  After pulling them out of there, more than once, and trying to be firm with them, without success, I was almost ready to try some clothes on.  I spotted 2 chairs and books set out for kids in the store, so I encouraged the boys to sit there while i looked at one more final rack.  Meanwhile, my big double side by side stroller was in the way of other shoppers.  A woman walked passed it and got caught up in the shirts I had hanging from the stroller handle.  I profusely apologized.  Embarrassed, I then looked over at the boys and they were rough  housing by the chairs.  I really should have stopped right there and left, but I didn't.  I hauled those boys into the small dressing room with me, and began to try on clothes.  The boys each had a book to look at (they were the stores).  One was a normal kids book and the other was one with really cool pop ups.  So they were busy looking at those while I got busy throwing on shirts.  It didn't last long.  They were crawling outside of the dressing room door and back in again.  The store owner gave them some smarties, trying to help me out in calming them down.  As soon as those smarties were gobbled down, they were back at it.  Reed, or was it Luke, was sitting on his brother's head while his brother was screaming.  I don't know what possesses them to do things like that, except that they are 3 year old boys.  Meanwhile, I'm working up a sweat and trying to go as fast as I can with these clothes.  Finally, I'm done and ready to check out.  I bring the items up to her, along with the books and a hand full of ripped out pop ups.  Talk about a face full of shame (mine!!!).  I overspend, because I can't think straight and apologize to the owner, who looks more than ready to see us leave.  I tell her, "they're not always this bad, but then again, I don't ever take them clothes shopping with me."  Her response, "I can see why."  That comment clearly stated to me that she had had it with them too.  I got the boys, loaded them up in the car, and left.  They didn't even make it a minute down the road before they were out.  Lesson learned, don't, just don't got clothes shopping with two, tired, three year old, boys.  It's just not worth it.

A Good Sense of Humor

Fore note:  We have one set of neighbors who live right on the main road (we're set back in a wooded lot).  That is all the neighbors we have.  They are a very nice middle age couple.  They have one son, who is married, and no grandchildren.  Ross knows them pretty well, but the kids and I don't, since we mainly stay in our yard and don't venture that far up often.  

Allison and Clay were outside playing with the twins (Leanne was inside reading) and I suggested they pick flowers for the neighbor lady since I get many of their precious flower (weeds) bouquet.  They thought it was a great idea and went to work picking.  I went back inside to attempt to clean up my baking mess, while making several glances out the window to check on the twinners.  I came back outside, once I had the kitchen under control, to find it very eerily quiet.  It came rushing back to me about them picking flowers for the neighbor and I ran down the driveway to get them.  Thankfully, they were on the way back from their house.  Allison and Clay were walking along side of Luke and Reed, who were only in t-shirts and undies (we started potty training).  Grimacing, I asked how it went bringing the flowers to the neighbor lady.  Allison said, "They weren't home."  Clay said, "We think they are on vacation with their cat."  I thought, okay, this sounds a bit odd.  When I questioned them on why they thought they were on vacation with their cat, Clay's response was "We didn't see the cat."  Their cat is an indoor cat, so I knew I had to dig a little deeper on this one.  I asked them what they did with the flowers and both of them responded with, "we put them on the counter."  I was really confused at this point and almost afraid to probe deeper.  So I asked if it was in the counter in the garage (thinking it might be on a work bench or something), Clay said, "No, we left it on the counter of their kitchen."  My mind was exploding with the phrase in their kitchen.  I then asked them if they walked around in their house and I was relieved when Clay answered, "We know we aren't supposed to do that."  I had a little talk with them about if the neighbor is not home or no one answers the door, not to go inside the house.  I also addressed them taking the twins up to the neighbors, since it's right by a busy road.  And they learned that they need to tell their mom where they are going and to let me know when they are leaving.  They learned a lot in a space of a few minutes.  I couldn't bring myself to walk back up there later when the neighbors were home, to let them know it my kids who put flowers on their counter.  I figured that they would know it was them, since we are their only neighbors.  Ross went up their for me instead.  I was relieved since he knows them a lot better than I do.  I walked up there when Ross was talking to the neighbor guy.  Ross asked me if I knew what the kids put the flowers in.  I didn't know the answer to that one, I had assumed they just laid flowers on her counter.  The neighbor man filled me in with what happened.  He was taking a nap and heard something in the kitchen.  He thought it was his wife coming in, so he quick pulled on a pair of shorts and headed out to the kitchen.  There was no one in the kitchen, but on the counter was flowers in a beer can.  My face turned about 5 shades of red, but all 3 of us were laughing!  I can't believe out all the things they could choose from, they chose a BEER CAN!  We let him know that our kids will not be entering in his house with out them answering the door.  He said that he didn't care and found it funny.  So thankful for nice neighbors with a good sense of humor.