6:59am - Rory is the first family member "awake" and he stumbles in to snuggle.
6:59am - I turn on "Between the Lions" in our room in an attempt to grab a few more minutes of sleep.
7:06am - I can't fall back asleep so I grab my book for a few minutes of reading. Ann Lamott is a favorite for her honesty. Justin asked the other night if I love her because she says the things I don't think I can...I think he's right.
7:24am - Tait comes and joins us in bed. He's still wearing last night's clothes because he fell asleep on the way home from Costco last night.
7:30am - Svea is still asleep, a lump under her covers.
7:32am - Whoops! I forgot to start the dishwasher last night meaning that my french press is still dirty. I turn it on for a quick rinse so I can get some coffee.
7:35am - The boys come downstairs and discover that I've set the table for the babyshower that we're hosting this morning. It was a challenge to keep them from helping themselves to all that was there.
7:36am - We decide to have scrambled eggs for breakfast. I make them with spray in an attempt to make them be less Weight Watchers points.
7:42am - All done! Yum!
7:51am - The boys are enjoying their breakfast. All I have for breakfast is what eggs are left on their plates.
7:53am - I go downstairs to get the Roomba started in the basement so that all the little ones coming during the babyshower won't find our mess.
7:54am - I've gotten some company in the basement and Mr. Roomba seems to want to play a game of chase.
7:55am - While I'm in the basement, I start a load of laundry.
8:00am - Svea is finally up and has come downstairs dressed for the day in her interpretation of Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.
8:00am - She certainly is my beauty.
8:02am - The kids all ask for juice. When Daddy went to the store last night, he missed getting juice. They are quite insistent and in a moment of Mommy weakness, I give them the last of the gingerale instead. They are pleased!
8:08am - Rory is all dressed...in the first of many outfits of the day.
8:12am - Mommy and Tait get some snuggles in while getting him dressed.
8:18am - No outfit is complete for Tait unless he has a hat or a helmet and after the past week with several major falls (and one trip to the ER), it seems so appropriate.
8:18am - I finally get to start my coffee.
8:28 - Daddy comes down to make his lunch. I offer leftovers or turkey but he prefers a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich today.
8:31am - Tait plays with the Word Whammer and sings his ABC's for us.
8:31am - "Up, Daddy, Up!" says Tait. Daddy happily complies.
8:34am - I come downstairs to check my e-mail.
8:35am - Super Rory comes to help me.
8:36 - Svea shows off her "Fairy Action Jumps" (her title).
8:44am - Daddy takes his breakfast "to go".
8:44am - One more hug before Daddy leaves. See you this evening!
8:47am - Oh no! Rory gets sent to his room for disregarding my strict "Do Not Touch My Stomach" rule. This rule only applies to him as he is CONSTANTLY touching my stomach, jiggling my flab, poking his finger into my belly button. It drives me crazy!!!!!!! It seriously sends me over the edge and I know for his sanity and mine that we needed to be seperated for a few minutes. Gosh, it sounds so silly but I feel like he isn't respecting my personal space in an approprite way.
8:48am - Time for a shower for me.
8:49am - Pre-Shower in all my bed head glory!
9:05am - I sorted the clean laundry into piles on my bed. I'll put them away before I go to bed.
9:10am - Miss Terry (our neighbor and dear friend) stops by to let me know that Samantha, who is going to watch kids while we have the baby shower, will be a few minutes late because they are going to pick up a dog that they will be keeping for a week on a trial basis. They will see how the dog fits into their home and the current owners will see how they enjoy life without a dog. The dog's name is "Crackers".
9:24am - Rory is back in his room because he threw an orange at me while I was talking to Miss Terry. Looks like it might be an interesting day with him.
9:24am - Tait is very upset that his favorite, Curious George, isn't on TV so I find the PBS website and let him tool around. The only problem with that is...
9:26am - ...that Tait never plays on the computer without his sister and doesn't know how to click or move the mouse around. He's quite upset.
9:28am - I calm him down by having him help me rescue a bug that it stuck between the screen and the window. Unfortunately, the bug has already gone to bug heaven and he's just a shell now.
9:28am - With the bug disposed of, Mommy needs to finish getting ready. Tait needs to help.
9:29am - He wants deoderant under his arms like Mommy.
9:29am - And he wants "dinosaur hair". When his hair was longer, we'd use some hair stuff to make a row of spikes on top, a "faux-hawk" or "dinosaur hair" as he called it. Now that his hair is buzzed, it simply isn't possible but he still asks everyday.
9:37am - Hair dried, done, make-up on, teeth brushed, ready for the day...
9:46am - Time to run the dishwasher "for real", a full cycle with all the breakfast dishes added.
9:46am - Time to fill the pool since I promised the kids coming to the babyshower that they could swim.
10:06am - Guest are starting to arrive and our table of food is getting full.
10:18am - Tammi and Amanda grace my livingroom, as well as a large pile of presents. This little gathering is to honor two moms in our playgroup who are having babies soon. There are 7 babies at church to be born in the next several months and 6 of those we know are girls and the 7th, the parents know the sex but aren't saying. It might be a full run on girls soon at church. Bring on the pink!
10:51am - My dear friend Debby (debqcat on Amity) making a goofy face. She's really a beautiful lady and also quite funny. I'm so thankful to call her friend.
10:55am - Debby wants me to make her some coffee with my french press and show her how.
11:00am - The aftermath of all those kids eating shower food. Good thing I can just clear the whole table into the trashcan and recycling bin.
11:32am - Pool time!
11:33am - Rory is in Time Out for standing on the side of the pool. Thankfully this is the last such offense of the day.
11:48am - Jacquelyn and her mom. She's due at the end of July and said that she'll be teaching fitness classes right up until her water breaks. What an inspiration! :) I'm not sure how I missed getting a picture of Kathleen, our other honor-mom, but I did. :(
11:53am - Carolyn so enjoyed the pool!
12:23pm - Miss Terry comes by to ask if anyone knows of a good electrician.
12:26pm - "Mom, can you help me get my pants back on?" I'm not sure why he takes everything off to go potty.
12:33pm - Rory gets to go with Miss Terry back to meet Crackers and play ball for a bit. He's in love!
12:46pm - After removing her bathing suit, Svea gets dressed again by herself.
12:47 - Tait got into the rest of the chocolate cake that we sitting on the kitchen table. Whoops!
12:51pm - Svea demonstrates the best way to eat a fresh strawberry.
1:00pm - Looks like someone dumped sand into the pool. I have to drain it and clean it out.
1:12pm - Time to start preparing for the next party of the day. I make iced green tea for my "Green Tea with Mint" for the Moroccan cook-out tonight.
1:14pm - Looks like the basement wasn't too much of a casualty during the shower. The kids are watching a video.
1:17pm - I check my e-mail again.
1:25pm - Tara (from SM) links a great website for downloading mp3's of old children's records. What a treasure! http://www.artsreformation.com/records/
1:29pm - Time to take the laptop upstairs to start my carrot salad for the Moroccan cook-out. Thanks Bethan (from SM) for linking to the recipe.
1:55pm - Tait is ready for a nap. Nighty-night on a Dora pillow!
1:56pm - Rory needs a drink and chooses the mug that he and his big friend, Miss Rachel, gave me for my birthday with his hand outline on it.
1:59pm - He needs a carrot snack as well.
2:04pm - I don't like the kids to stand up on the couch arm and mess with the things in the little ledge, but I am enjoying Rory's company today.
2:10pm - Rory wants to help vacuum and does a really good job of picking up the leftovers from the shower food.
2:22pm - Maria calls...a normal and welcome break in my day.
2:42 - When I'm done talking, I check into Sewing Mamas to respond to a few threads.
2:45pm - Svea comes to me and says she has a headache and needs some snuggles.
2:47pm - But what she really wanted was to send an e-mail to Grandma.
2:58pm - "Mommy, I need help with my pants again."
3:11pm - The chopping of my carrot salad has come in several sessions. I kept getting bored. Next time, I'll buy the carrots already slivered.
3:12pm - Rory wants to play Disney Sorry and sets up the game in the living room.
3:14pm - Guess who stacked the deck??? She and Rory kept getting 1's and 2's while Mommy didn't. I asked her about whether she put the cards in a certain order and she just smiled.
3:16pm - Guess who's up from his nap?
3:19pm - Which means that Mommy got ejected from the game so that Tait could play.
3:37pm - Moroccan Carrot Salad all done. Yum! http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31954,00.html
3:40pm - Svea wants to take a picture of me playing with the boys.
3:49pm - It's Art Time with markers and chalk. I love our IKEA easel.
3:50pm - Svea's turn to go with Sam to meet Crackers, the new dog.
3:51pm - Um, Rory, why is your tongue blue? He colored it with a marker...yuck!
3:59pm - Starting eggs to maked deviled eggs for another party tomorrow.
4:02pm - The boys decide to use the pot lids as cymbals. I can tolorate this for about 3 minutes.
4:02pm - Or about one minute! :)
4:04pm - Sam brings Svea back home after visiting with the dog.
4:11pm - She enjoys some quiet time alone in the sandbox.
4:11pm - I water the tomato plants. I have a black thumb and so I don't have a whole lot of confidence but it feels good to have green things on the porch.
4:20pm - GRRRR! Our modem is dying and decides to just cut out for a while.
4:24pm - I decide to check my weight before my party this evening to see how "free" I can be. Not good!
4:25pm - I open the dryer and get the dry stuff out, folded, reload the dryer, and start the washer.
5:01pm - I decide to download all the pictures of the day thus far and have a pretzle snack.
5:09pm - I realize that as I'm doing that, the kids are deciding to SMASH their pretzles with a wooden block.
5:15pm - I go back up to retrieve my eggs from their ice bath. They are ready to be peeled and prepared tomorrow.
5:17pm - Time to get the mail. WOW! A very full box! Its so full because the weekly newspaper comes in the mail.
5:18pm - The day that our next door neighbors to the left of us in this picture moved out of their house, the neighbors on the other side put their house on the market. We must smell or something! :)
5:18pm - Whoops! Looks like I forgot to switch off the porch light last night. I do that as soon as I enter the door.
5:20pm - Look what came in the mail! Svea's final report card! Looks like I'm now the official mother to a first grader! Way to go, Svea!
5:23pm - Yeah! Daddy's home. He tells everyone to put their shoes on a soon as he comes in the door because...
5:30pm - ...we're headed to the park!
5:33pm - Everybody's buckled.
5:36pm - We arrive! High Ridge Park is our absolute favorite, which is so great because its so close to our house.
5:39pm - Tait examines the dinosaur bones.
5:41pm - and scales the rock wall.
5:42pm - Svea's a great climber too.
5:42pm - Svea's sparkly My Little Pony looks neat in the sun.
5:45pm - Giant Rory Toes!
5:52pm - Time for a walk through the woods...our favorite part about the park.
5:55pm - Holding hands with Rory. I was teaching him our hand squeezing trick (Person one squeezes once meaning "I love you", person two squeezes back twice meaning "How much?" and person one squeezes with all their might!)
5:56pm - Maybe flip flops weren't the best choice for a walk in the woods.
6:03pm - Lots of exploring happens in the woods. The wood of this tree was incredibly dry and light.
6:12pm - Justin talked to another dad at the playground who told him about this vine a bit off the trail. We had to try it out.
6:13pm - Svea's turn.
6:13pm - and now Rory.
6:14pm - Even Tait gets a try...and soon we realize that my neighbor Terry has stopped by the park to pick me up for our book club picnic. I was going to meet her bout 6:30pm at home but she realized she needed to take her daughter to band practice and it'd be easier to just pick me up from the park. She used our house key to "break in" and get my tea and carrot salad. We're like family so that was totally OK and very smart as far as I was concerned!
7:03pm - Kathy, our hostess, had a lovely set-up for us. A rug on the lawn, lots of pillows and lights in the tree gave us a wonderful atmophere.
7:15pm - "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult was our book this month. A very interesting and thought provoking read. I highly recommend it.
8:02pm - My dinner. I think my favorite was the olive salad. There were a mixture of olives in there (I "heart" olives!) and there was one that had a real smoky taste. Yummy!
8:36pm - And dessert! Terry made baklava and it was very, very good. I had two pieces. Whoops!
8:37pm - Terry discusses some event in the book.
9:05pm - Kathy's lighting was so fun. I loved these punched tin cans.
11:53pm - Finally home. Anyone want to guess where my family had dinner???? Justin was so proud to have spent just $6 to feed them all McDonald's cheeseburgers and apple pies.
12:10pm - Some snuggle time on the couch discussing our day and the rest of our weekend. It was a busy day but so much fun. Thanks for sharing it with me!
