Doing the unthinkable

I had to run to Target with the boys today. I was doing the unthinkable - trying on clothes in the fitting room. You must know that I NEVER try on clothes at the store. I would rather buy - bring home- and return if they did not work out than try them on at the store. I wish that I was looking for something really cool (but I guess that I would not have been at Target to do that) but I was just looking for a shirt to run in for my race on Saturday. (That is a whole nother story)I needed one that would be cooler than running in a cotton long sleeved shirt. I had a few items in my cart and the lady told me that I could not make it in the ladies dressing room with that thing so I could use the men's. Just then a man walked into the dressing room and I would now have to wait. I could not wait because Hudson had just told me that he needed to got to the bathroom and I told him to wait. ( this was only the first request so I figured that it could not be too bad yet.) But who knew how long his little bladder could last and I could not chance it. I still had more stops to make. Anyway...... I decided to brave taking my kids out of the cart and let them go in a run around in there while I tried on exercise clothes. As soon as I cornered them into one of the rooms Hudson started bouncing all around and crashing into the walls like a mime trying to get out of the box. I was moving as fast as I could to end this misery soon. I had my shirt off fast and Hudson turns around and looks at me and says, " Mommy - put your shirt on ! Get that back on. You need to be dressed! What you doing?" He was totally confused about what was going on and then looked up again at me and said, " Mommy - where's the toilet? The toilet is missing. Wher'd it go? Wher'd it go?" Poor guy. He thought that I was playing some sick little joke on him. Maybe that is why he was bouncing off the wall - he was holding it so bad and I thought that he was just exploring his world. he even crawled under the little bench looking for the toilet. I guess I would be confused too if I had never been in a dressing room either. From the mouth of babes!

The big day

Here are some of the pictures from Emmelyne's birthday party that she planned. I guess that she is a little like her mom and like to be in on the planning :) here are some things that I learned about doing her birthday party:

1. When making frosting for the cupcakes DO NOT color it the same color as the shirt of the super hero (Super Why on PBS) that your 4 year old is obsesses with. Good thing there were extra cakes.
2. You can plan all the fun games and scavenger hunts that you want and you know what they have the most fun doing??? Jumping on our free trampoline (Thanks Dave and Leslie)
3. You can do a party inexpensively that does not last for hours and hours. I threw this party for less than $5.00 . I am not joking. I used the mantra of, "Make do with what you have" I made the girls each one of these darling purses from left over fabric that I had. You can make one too here. I just made mine a little smaller. They took about 15 minutes to sew. (that did not include pressing the fabric and cutting it out) Then they went on a treasure hunt to find what went in the bag. (Littlest Pet shop sets that I picked up after Christmas for 2.00 - regularly $10 thank you very much - and have been sitting in my gift cupboard for too long)
Easy - Peasy - Lemon - Squeezy and my Em had a great time and I did not even break the bank.

I guess we are officially a farm

I did it. I succumbed to the pressure of FINALLY getting some animals for our "farm". Ever since our friend Bob pulled up to our property the first time and said," You guys keep calling it a farm so expected chickens to be roaming around everywhere." Well Bob - now we do. However the roaming part will have to wait a few months until these guys are really to fly the coop (I mean our garage). My kids have LOVED it and have named them all except the 3 that Grandma and grandpa bought. I will be happy to have some egg producing chickens. I did not agree to this for any other reason than to further our efforts to become more self reliant. With 18 eggs costing over $3.00 I felt it was time. We paid for 10 chicks and came home with 11 somehow. The guy at the feed store told us not to worry about it. Going to the feed store with all 5 kids by myself to pick up 10 chickens was quite a story in itself. Did you know they just sent them home in a paper bag? Wish us well in this journey. And do not be surprised if you get a call from us asking if you would like some eggs. They say that they are supposed to lay an average of 257 a year time x now 11 chickens = WAY MORE EGGS THAN THIS FAMILY WILL EVER EAT!

Oh Emma - Lemma

7! I can believe it that my little almost Easter baby turned seven this past week. As in true Emmelyne form she had some very detailed plans of what she wanted to happen for her birthday celebrations. Dinner had to be homemade pizza and for her cake Frozen Lemon Pie. Big enough for an army. Chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles for her classroom treat and to finish it all off - doing HSM2 Bella dancerella on the big screen in the barn. It is good to have a girl who knows what she wants! Here are some of our favorite things about Emme:
She is an extremely obedient child.
She is super honest. If we want to know what really happened - we ask her
She loves to climb trees
She gets mixed up on the most common words and she knows it and can laugh about it.
Those eyes!
Did I mention that she is not perfect - she has a very feisty temper. I know it is hard to believe but trust me - she does :)
Emme we love you and we are so lucky to have you in our family.

Note to self

If suddenly you find that you have a large wet spot in the middle of your hallway ( and you have already done the smell test to make sure that it is not pee) and you think that one of your kids may have spilled a glass of water on it ....well.......After 3 drenched bath towels later think again.
The water just kept coming and coming and then my hallway started to smell like boy's sweaty gym socks. I had Charles pull up the carpet which was no easy task since it was not close to a doorway at all. He could tell that the leak was coming from the wall that backs up to the bathroom. Well another call to the home warranty people (this is the 3rd call we have made since we moved) and I had a nice Irish man here ripping into my wall. Here is the damage that was done but the leak is now fixed. He thought that maybe it was all the way in the attic. (Another reason to keep your closet clean - that is where the attic access is and let's just say that it was not "company ready" )
Now we have to wait a week to let it fully dry out and figure out what to do about our carpet that is going to grow mold any day now. Oh well I had a nice little lesson about copper pipes and flux and why you want to get that all cleaned off.