Mother's Day 2014

My family, kids and husband all blessed me over the top for Mother's Day this year.  I had the privilege of having both my grandmothers together, my parents, and my sister over to our house for a combined-effort meal.  My kids had a lot of handmade gifts and cards to give me.  Dave wrote me a sweet card and added a chocolate bar.  The kids and him got together and bought me a little firepit so we can burn wood outside for "campfire" nights - this gets me so excited!

My grandmother Rowena made the main dish, beef bourguignon.  I had to google that word to know how to spell it.  We served it over rice and noodles that I made (my fingers first typed roodles, that would be an interesting food item), and my mom brought a bowl of mixed fresh fruit.  Rachel topped off the meal with a from-scratch angel food cake topped with mangos and strawberries.

My grandma Dee told stories about her past and the plans she had for her life and how they got "disrupted" when she met Joe Pavicic.  She acknowledged the Lord had better plans for her!  She had lofty goals of going to Louisiana to write for a newspaper and travel to New York to work for Vogue.  I didn't know she was such a fashionista!   She met Joe by way of needing a ride from where she was to Gary, Indiana to attend a meeting for college sorority start-ups.  Of course, Joe had a car.  That's where it all began!

Dave mentioned during the meal how thankful he was for our family and the legacies of good strong marriages as examples to us and our children.  I just came across an article that our children's generation is known as "the fatherless generation" ~ too many broken families and single moms.  I am so thankful for my grandparent's examples having dedicated and lasting marriages, my parent's marriage and my father being there, and Dave as my committed husband and father as our children.  I know we have something precious here, like a diamond in a routh, worth protecting with every weapon necessary against attack.

Some things my kids gave me are worth sharing.  I was touched with each one.

From Violet, "Dear Mom, Thank you for being a good mom, I love you so much." and from Calvin, "you are vare swhet oo you are so swhet" = translation, "you are very sweet, oo you are so sweet".  

Violet noticed the words "celebrate mom" in some newspaper advertisements laying around and cut it out and made a flower out of it.  With LOTS of staples.

the inside of Calvin's card to me - he loves me a million times. :)

"To the best mom I've got" = haha!

Eli's handprint from Sunday School

Vanessa and Eli - Smiling-->Smashed

Vanessa is either cooperative or not with photos.  Today she was spinning in a chair with Eli and hammed up for a pic.  Then she got goofy, and Eli noticed her changing expressions and did the same.  :)

Smiles can be hard to capture with these two sometimes, but this pic is proof that if I take at least a hundred, one will be good.

oh wait, let's be silly instead

Eli trying to be silly  but still has a smile on his face

yes, there you go.  Face totally smashed.  Nailed it!

Eli in his car seat forward facing for first time

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8ha22lu9jsak3u/VIDEO0003.mp4

Car seat shuffle

Car seats have been rearranged yet again in our van.  I still like to keep Vanessa on the passenger side for ease getting in and out for preschool drop off.  Eli has been moved to forward facing as he's reached the height limit of his seat facing the back.

Violet's seat has been converted to a booster (harness out, seat belt through the slots now).  Calvin moved to the back, and Eli behind the driver.  Vanessa is in the middle!  She was crazy elated when I picked her up from preK and her seat was closer to me!

Eli now says "Car! Car! Car!" and points to everything he sees when he's driving.  He also says "plane! plane! plane!" which sounds more like "payne".

Easter weekend 2014

Dave and I took the opportunity to see the LaMarche/Butler family over Easter weekend.  Dave's cousin Kala and her new husband Adam were also in town to see a baseball game at Wrigley Field.  I'm blogging this a few weeks past so I won't remember every detail, but I can recall it was a delightful trip!!  Traveling with our crew is becoming easier as the kids get older (well, Eli is still a pill, ha! but he's only 1/4 of the kid equation now so it seems less).  We drove straight to Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows (the original HBC location) - to attend a Good Friday service with Josh and Carrie.  We aimed to meet them at 1:30 and pulled into the parking lot at 1:29!  From Iowa!  Was amazed by our impeccable timing.  

We had a rare opportunity by being invited to go out to dinner by Adam and Kala on Friday night of the weekend.  We chose a well rated steak house downtown Chicago called Bavette's - and Martha was gracious to babysit and put our kids to bed (at her house) so we could get out alone.

We decided Dave and Adam look like twins in this pic.

Saturday was another gorgeous day!  Dave helped out his mom with some house projects around her house in the morning.  After lunch, we met up with Josh, Carrie, their kids, Tim and Deb Butler, Roger and Mary Butler, and Martha at the Brookfield Zoo.  The kids had a blast running around with their cousins.  There was more running happening than oohing and aahing over the animals.  The weather was beautiful too.  We ended the day by getting pizza at Giordano's Pizza as a group.  Got some great pics.

We only stayed at Martha's Friday night and stayed with Josh and Carrie Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday morning at 11 am we went to HBC again - Elgin campus.  I remember Calvin hitting his lip on something hard right before we dropped them off for chilcare and he was so upset he didn't want to go to child care - so we let him come with us.  Later he said he loved the music!  James McDonald gave a message and emphasized the risen Savior - comparing Him to all the dead ones people worship (buddah, etc).  He is risen!

We had spent most the morning preparing the lunch meal, putting together a sweet potato casserole, baking the ham, etc.  Coming home to the smell in the house was pretty yummy!  I made a cheesy sauce to go on broccoli, Carrie baked some herbed rolls, and we ate strawberry shortcake for dessert.  So delicious!  Josh and Dave set a bunch of eggs out on the lawn (and some smashed in bushes and on top of our vans) for an "egg hunt" - which was kind of an "egg pick up" - ha!  There weren't many places for the eggs to be hidden.  The kids loved it anyway.

Later in the evening J&C lit a fire in a fire pit and we sat and talked to them about their upcoming missions trip (June 2014) in the Turks and Caicos islands where they'll be helping out with a church plant and marriage counseling for a week.

Overall a nice trip.  Easy drive home Monday afternoon.

Vanessa, in her usual fashion, not willing for me to take her picture

these two are well trained however

Josh and Carrie

Carrie and daugher Renee

Dave is 6'

Aqua blue was the color of the day - Eli and Uncle Tim sporting the color

to match the dolphins of course

cousins!!  L --> R: "Wesley, Austin, Eli, Violet, Calvin, Renee, Vanessa"

If its not Frozen, its The Sound of Music

If the kids aren't obsessing over Frozen songs, its music from The Sound of Music.  I heard Violet and Calvin the basement "rehearsing" this little performance they came up with.  They performed it here!

Violets third tooth came out

Seems like it was wiggly for months!  She was determined for it to not hurt when it came out so she just kept pushing it back and forth with her fingers and tongue until it was hanging on by almost nothing.  It came out Thursday morning when she woke up before leaving for school.

Thursday evening we (bad mom and dad moment) forgot to exchange her tooth for some coins in the special Tooth Fairy Pillow.  Whoops.  She was sweet though.  She reminded me when I was in the bathroom getting ready Friday morning.  She said, "It's OK mom, but you forgot to take my tooth out of the pillow last night.  But its ok! You can just do it tonight."  I was like, "whoops, sorry hon."  She kept smiling and said "its ok" :)

Dad told her I guess we forgot to text the Tooth Fairy and let her know a clean sparkly tooth was ready to go to the fairy's tooth castle.  She totally knows its mom and dad but I guess he likes to have more fun with it than me. :)

My candid photos of all the kids - Spring 2014

I am kidding myself when I think its possible to get everyone smiling and looking at me at the same time that I hit the button to take the picture. 

At least I tried. 

Reality check

I have a tendency to only post things on my blog that I find funny, sweet, endearing, memorable, etc....

As real and as precious as those moments are, I've learned in the last 8 years of being a mom that the times of normalcy and the tasks of "the daily grind" are to be just as memorable.  Same people involved, all doing things necessary for survival.  Feels sorta like going back to the roots.

I snapped a pic of my laundry pile and yes, this took me all day to fold and put away.  It was a miracle I put it away in the same day it was folded, that never happens.  I was expecting a guest for the weekend, that was my motivation to put it away.

Someone (or who knows, maybe it was some mommy blog but I can't remember the source) told me one of the best times to pray for your family is when you fold laundry.  Every member of the household has laundry, and with each outfit brings a memory or possibly a life lesson learned, or re-learned for the hundredth time.  I'm going to start using laundry time as prayer time (even if it has to be silent) for my family.  It kinda guarantees each person will get prayed for on a regular basis.

Kinetic sand

My mother gave the kids a pack of interesting sand on her way back from a trip to Wisconsin last week.  Its just a pile of sand, but its not ordinary sand.  Its incorporated with some kind of binding agent that makes it stick together.  But its not sticky.  Its more like....fluid sand.  Its packable, but it doesn't really stay in shape.  The kids find it mesmerizing to work with.  Vanessa especially loves playing with it with out Violet or Calvin bothering her during the school day.

Vanessa's preschool field trip to the Youth Pavilion

Vanessa's preschool field trip snuck up on me as far as schedule goes.  I knew she was going on one, but I didn't realize it was happening the day after I read the paper from her teacher about it.  Parents are always invited to come along.  I debated going and really, I should always want to go along on these cute little adventures, but I have to be pushed into going.  Maybe its hanging out with a whole crowd of three year olds that makes me think twice about going.  But that should really be my place of most familiarity, right?  Anyway, I digress.  Turns out when I go along with a child of mine on a field trip, it is one of the more special times I have with them and are enjoyable and memorable.

I found a friend who was willing to watch Eli for a couple of hours (thanks Kim!!).  I brought Vanessa to preK at 9 am like usual, dropped Eli off with Kim, then made it back to the preK building in time to meet up with Vanessa and her class at 9:35 am to board the bus at 9:40.  I was waiting in the entrance of the preschool wing when he class was lined up walking towards the door.  She had a fun day being the leader and bringing the snack, so was first in line.  When she saw me she lit up like a ray of sunshine and ran to me saying, "that's my mommy!!!" and gave my leg a big hug.  I held her hand and we boarded the bus together.  She chose a seat and say by the window, and the ride to the youth pavilion was pretty exciting.  She found it funny she didn't have to wear a seatbelt, and stared at the ground as the bus drove noting how fast we were going.  She recognized Bethany Bible Chapel and said "that's our church!" and we drove by the building.  She was excited to go under a bridge.  And the bumps on the bus are always exciting.

When the bus arrived, she noticed the big blue X on the building which is part of the logo.  Each class hung up their coats in the building and a lady directed our classes where to go.  We first looked at a moving piece of art behind a glass wall that was activated by a button.  The kids were directed to another room where the feature was recycling things - a big circle of tires roped in a trike/bike riding area.  Vanessa listened to music made from recycled materials, drew on paper, and did other things.  Her attention span is very short.

The kids got to wander around the other play areas where they could put on dress up clothes, play on a stage, play with puppets, stack blocks, and explore little rooms that were informational about other countries.  The lower level of the play area had the painting screen, milking a cow, riding a bus, and fishing with magnetic poles.  She jumped from thing to thing.

The hour there went by very quickly.  Vanessa wanted to do everything with me, drag me everywhere to every little thing that captured her attention, and insisted on holding my hand.  She told me I was the best mommy ever.

On the bus ride home she wanted to sit by her friend Baylor, so I squeezed in a seat next to those two girls who giggled and switched spots a few times.

What a fun time.  I'm so glad I decided to go.  Vanessa is such a sweet little thing and so loving and really seemed to love having me there.

our selfie on the bus

Vanessa with her "bestie" Baylor

Eli's "sleeping in bed progress" and no more pacifier

One night last weekend nobody could find Eli's pacifier.  We just made the decision that it was time to take it away for good.  The switch has been dreamy.  He doesn't ask for it that I know of, as he doesn't really have a word for it.  He says "wanket" for blanket though.  I'm sure if I gave it back to him he'd take it but he's been doing just fine.

As far as him sleeping in his twin bottom bunk, it really only took three or four nights for him to get the idea that this was now his bed.  He doesn't climb out during the night anymore.  He's had about a week of solid nights sleeping in his bed and not getting up in the middle of the night.

We're working on him staying in bed when we put him to bed for the night though.  He typically gets up, very quietly, pulls the cord that the fan is plugged into so it turns off, opens the door, shuts the door, and walks out.  He does this with the most somber face, it is almost comical.  We find it funny he closes the door quietly behind him.  He's learning each night that he gets a little spank if he gets out of bed.  Last night only took two times putting him back in bed.

I'm really loving not having to keep track of that pacifier.  He was down to one or two pink pacifiers that were mildy chewed up.  Ick.  I did find the one pink one I'd lost, of all places, under his pillow.  The night I found it I stuck it in my pocket without him seeing.

One of us checks on the kids before we turn in for the night (usually Dave) and we've always found Eli sleeping on his back.  I guess he is a back sleeper (?)

Eli's first haircut

Don't worry anybody, those blonde crazy curls are still there.  I only trimmed the back of his hair by his neck where there was a crazy long piece sticking out.  The little tail is gone, and the rest of the hair curled right up.  It looks more even, and much better. :) 

When he sees the camera he immediately says "cheese!" - he's a ham like the rest of `em!

Mommy & Violet date (Becks, lemon drops, and mini golfing)

I took Violet out just the two of us on Monday night this week.  She was very excited to go with me, and really wanted to find a place to get her favorite mac and cheese.  She said she remembers the perfect place but wasn't sure what it was called, but she described it as the place with lots of curvy and colorful staircases.  My mind went to Becks, and when we pulled up in the parking lot, she confirmed it was the right one.

We got a table right away and we ordered.  She wanted to sit on the same side of the booth bench with me. :) She got macaroni and cheese with a side order of cottage cheese.  I'd say she got her fill of dairy for the day.  I ordered chicken tortilla soup and a chicken southwest salad.  We played the activity sheet while we waited and completed the word find and the dot to dot box game.  I don't remember everything we talked about but words were flowing easily.  She was overall very happy and excited to be with me.  She said, "I love you so much that I love you to the moon, to the planets, back to earth, then to the sun, then to the earth, then back to the planets, (and she went on and on)...."  It was so sweet.
At one point during dinner I squeezed my lemon wedge into my iced tea.  I could smell the fresh lemon scent and smelled my fingers - she wanted to smell too.  I asked her if she's ever had a lemon drop, because there was a candy that tasted exactly like that smelled.  We made it our mission next to find some lemon drops.  :)

I proposed going to the indoor mini golf place in the Crossroads mall.  She looooved that idea!  On our way I saw a CVS, so I parked, we walked in, and with in 2 seconds were upon bagged candy.  I found some lemon drops, and she agreed they tasted exactly how that lemon smelled in the restaurant.  We got to the mall and got our clubs/balls for the mini golf course - it was a blacklight golf course and everything white lit up brightly!  She found that quite entertaining.  She and I golfed poorly, haha.  At the end of our 18 little holes I scored 61 and she scored 62.  Average was 4-5 strokes per hole.  There was nobody else in the golf course so we took our time going through each one.  Hole 7 was our favorite.  She took one look at the course and said, "Oh, this one looks super easy."  I said, "Maybe you'll get a hole-in-one!"  She looked doubtful, but after hitting the ball once straight towards the hole, it sunk right in.  She opened her mouth in amazement and couldn't believe it.  I did the same!  She said, "Ok, mom, you have to do it too!" I was like, "Uhhh, that's doubtful I'll get one too."  But I lined up my shot and sunk my ball right in the hole with one hit.  So funny and fun at the same time!  We got a good laugh out of that one.

By the end of our game it was 8:45 so it was definitely time to get home.  She wanted to stay out and get dessert, but instead I said she could have a piece of the ice cream dessert in our freezer.  

Eli's switch to the bottom bunk twin bed

We thought his first successful nap in his new twin bed would prove a smooth transition from the crib.  On Saturday after we revealed the new rooms to the kids, Eli did take a nap in the bottom bunk of the boys room that afternoon.  I suspect he was just so tired that he fell asleep quickly.  I laid him down in the bed once it was dark and the fan was turned on, and he fell asleep almost immediately.  We watched the Frozen movie while he slept.

Eli woke up a couple hours later and emerged downstairs.  So weird to see him walking around after a nap! 

The night, however, didn't go so well.  Dave was more optimistic about Eli's switch to the twin bed than I was.  I was kind of dreading it, to be honest. 

We got the kids to bed the first night.  The older three were actually excited to sleep in their new beds - there was no issue with them.  Eli, however, kept getting out of bed, opening the door, and coming to visit us.  After repeatedly putting him in bed over and over, I think he fell asleep out of boredom.  Dave heard him wake up and babble during the night four times.  He got out of bed and went to see what Eli was doing every single time, and once he found him downstairs wandering around the dark house.  Dave said he went back to sleep every time when he'd put him in bed though.  By morning, he was awake so early.

The second night was last night.  He did the same thing, getting out of bed repeatedly after putting him in bed.  Some spankings later, he stayed in his room.  I think he learned not to open the door, rather, he would get out of bed and wander around his room. 

Dave and I retreated to bed last night and Dave checked on the kids.  He looked in Eli's bed and he was nowhere to be found.  He looked around the room, nowhere.  Under the bed?  Nope.  Besides the bed? In the closet? Nope.  In the hanging chairs?  Nope.  He pulled back the canopy flaps and saw Eli laying on the cushy pillow inside the play canopy totally asleep holding his blanket.  We couldn't stop laughing for awhile.  I snapped a pic.  Dave put him back in his bed.  He got up a couple more times in the night again.  We tried putting the toddler gate under the mattress but it won't fit the way the bunk frames in the mattress.  So we're not really sure what to do...I guess Eli will just learn.