More Christmas Fun

I wanted to share a few more fun moments from over the holidays:

Snow!
While at my parent's house over Christmas, we did get a little bit of snow. It stuck around just long enough to play in it Wednesday morning. Evelyn built a snowman and Isaiah was intent on pelting me with snowballs!

Second Christmas
When we returned from our time at my parent's house, we had a second Christmas opening the remaining presents that had been sent from Jeremy's side of the family.

 The reindeer antlers and red nose were gifts from Jeremy's family. They proved to be a big hit with the kids.

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Birthday Blues

It is well past both Evelyn and Isaiah's birthdays - unless you're talking half-birthdays which are coming up. But these are some thoughts that have been swirling around in my head since their birthdays and I am finally getting around to actually writing about it. I will warn you that I am going to gripe a bit. I'll try not to be too negative, but I am going to be honest. Hopefully the pictures from Evelyn's birthday will help temper some of that.

I already posted a little about Isaiah's birthday party and my attempt at making a fire truck cake. We also had a party for Evelyn for her 5th birthday. When I was growing up I did not have a lot of birthday parties. My parents would host family parties, but we did not have the big "kid parties." The one occasion I remember was my 5th birthday where my parents did actually throw a party for me and some of my friends. Looking back I'm not sure why they chose to do a party for this birthday considering my mom was pregnant with my sister and delivered 2 days later. As much work as it took to put together Evelyn and Isaiah's parties (which were fairly simple compared to some!) I couldn't imagine being 9 months pregnant and trying to pull it all together!

Evelyn's cake. She wanted a purple ballerina/princess cake. I found the idea for the cake topper on etsy. The cake is just a 2-layer round cake and I put some flaked coconut around the outside. I was actually petty satisfied with how it came out and it was waaaaay easier than Isaiah's!

That is really the only "kid" birthday party I remember. The fact that my parents didn't throw big birthday parties for us did cause a bit of contention between me and my parents. I don't really remember all their reasons for not doing it, but now after having thrown two "kid" parties, I think I know the real reason behind it - they are A LOT of work - and I'm not sure that the result was really worth the lack of sanity on my part.

Evenly and her friends ready to devour the food.

 Although both Evelyn and Isaiah had relatively simple, low-key parties, there is still a ton of work involved when you are hosting something at your house. With Isaiah's party, I was up until 1 or 2 in the morning finishing the cake - and then cleaning up after finishing the cake. I didn't have to stay up quite as late for Evelyn's party, but the day of there was a lot prep work to finish up. I don't really remember, but I might have taken a shower before Isaiah's party. For Evelyn's I ended up finally getting in the shower about an hour before guests arrived and just throwing on a t-shirt and jeans - no make-up, hair in a ponytail.  Some of this I acknowledge is my own problem (i.e. not doing more prep in advance, not requesting help from others, not getting enough rest, etc.).

 I also am very task-oriented when it comes to putting on stuff like this. I kind of just get in my "zone" and power through until the work is done. This works great when you're on your own and can just focus. Not so much with kids - who don't recognize the importance of what you are doing and tend to interrupt and make demands because what they want/need in that moment is so much more important that what you are doing, even if what you are doing is for their benefit. Because of that I find myself getting very frustrated and short-tempered with the kids as the day goes on. This does not make for happy kids or happy mom and is hardly the kind of feeling you want going into a party.

 By the time it was over I had pretty much resolved that I would not be doing this again. Not because the kids didn't have a good time - they all enjoyed themselves - but because I felt so bad about losing my patience with them during the preparations. I feel that if in the process of throwing a party to try to make my kids' day special I end up losing my sanity and feeling like I'd rather adopt them out, then maybe it's really not worth the effort. If I'm going to go to the work of throwing a party, I want to enjoy it too! They'd really be just as happy going somewhere special, or just having cake and ice cream at home.  Maybe most of it is just my personality and expecting too much of myself, and still not knowing my limits as to how much is realistic to accomplish on my own while also taking care of two kids.

Modeling the tie-dyed t-shirts they made. This was our activity at Evelyn's party. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take any pictures of the kids making their shirts,so I just have Evelyn and Isaiah after the shirts were done. Evelyn's headband even completes the crazy retro look!

Maybe one of these days I'll get to the point where I can relax and enjoy the party as well as hosting. Until then I think I'm going to have to limit myself to casual get togethers or a playtime with friends at the park or zoo. Forget the cake, forget the presents, forget the games. Let's just hang out with friends. Now, when my kids ask me why I'm not going to throw them a party for their next birthday do I tell them this story, or come up with a reason they're more likely to understand?

5 Years Ago . . .

On May 17, 2007, I became a parent for the first time.

From Parent Ponderings

Words cannot describe the awe and joy I felt at holding this tiny baby for the first time.

From Parent Ponderings

Or how amazing it has been to watch her grow over the years.

From Evelyn's 2nd b-day

Time has passed all too quickly.

From Parent Ponderings

From Evelyn 4th birthday

And now she's FIVE!

From Evelyn Birthday - 2012

In the past year Evelyn:
Learned to recognize and is trying to read some words.
Has been writing her name for a while now and can write all her letters and other words (when I help her spell them).
Can count up to 100.
Learned to ride her bike all on her own.
and
Will start Kindergarten in the fall (I hope to blog more about this another time). 

As frustrated as I sometimes (OK, often) get with her, I really do believe her qualities that drive me crazy will someday be her greatest asset. I pray I can help her develop them into positive traits that will help her succeed as she gains more independence.

What a whirlwind it's been. I'm sure the next five will be just as crazy; full of joy, laughter and frustration - though hopefully more of the former.

Happy 3rd Birthday Isaiah!

Isaiah turned 3 on Friday. I'll probably say it every year, but it's hard to believe he's already 3! Didn't I just bring him home from the hospital?

We celebrated the special day by having a few friends over for lunch and playtime. A few months ago all Isaiah could talk about were fire trucks and how he wanted to be a fireman, so I decided I would go with a fireman theme. A friend of mine had made a fire truck cake for her oldest boys 3rd birthday. She graciously shared the pictures she'd taken and I did my best to copy her creation. She did warn me that it took her several hours to decorate. I'm sure I spent somewhere around 2 hours on it. Partly due to the fact that I didn't have enough powdered sugar, so at 9 p.m. I was running to the store to get another package, then back home to finish mixing the frosting. Then adding enough red food coloring so it would look red and not pink. Apparently there is a food coloring gel which works better for that sort of thing. If I ever do this again I'll be sure to remember that! For this being my first real cake decorating effort, it actually didn't turn out too bad. By the time I actually went to bed somewhere around 1 a.m., I had a crick in my neck that is still there after three days.

I'm not sure what I was hoping for as far as a response from Isaiah. When he saw the cake he just looked at it and then asked "Why is it a fire truck? That's silly!" Then he tells me "I wanted a police car."

I just had to laugh! It all just goes to show once again that a lot of this effort was really about me and not so much about him. All he really cared about was getting to eat the cake!

It seemed like everyone had a great time, especially Isaiah. Today he asked me "Am I still 3?" Maybe he thinks after the party's over then you're all done being 3! Happy Birthday Isaiah! We love you so much!

Spring is Here!

While much of the country experience unseasonably warm weather during the month of March, here in Seattle it was just the opposite. Fortunately, April seems to be shaping up to be fairly decent. We've been enjoying the warm spring weather by spending most of our time outdoors.

Today while I was at work, Jeremy and the kids played in the yard and they discovered how to climb the tree in our front yard.

More Easter Fun

We were very fortunate to have lovely weather for our Easter Weekend. I think it's the first Easter in recent years where we could actually be outside in short sleeves! Somehow the gorgeous weather just makes it that much easier to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Saturday we took part in the community Easter Egg Hunt at the park. These things really aren't so much a "hunt" as they are a scramble. Despite organizer's efforts to have some semblance of order by dividing kids into age groups and such, it really is just pure chaos. Both Evelyn and Isaiah seemed to enjoy themselves despite only being able to grab 6 and 2 eggs respectively. Evelyn was certainly more aware of the discrepancy between the amount of eggs she ended up with compared to some of the other kids. Fortunately she got over it once she opened her eggs and saw that there was actually some cool stuff inside.

Sunday was church and another egg hunt. This time the kids were prepared for the competition - and parents were more involved in enforcing the rules so that kids weren't hoarding all the eggs.

The best part though was spending the afternoon with many of our good friends at the Need house. This has become an annual tradition for us and Denise and her mom put on a fabulous egg hunt for the kids as well as the adults.

Decorating Easter Eggs!

Haircuts

It's been a while since the kids had haircuts. Up until recently I would take them to Great Clips to get their haircut. Alas, I'm getting too cheap to pay $13 a pop for a kids haircut, and Isaiah especially needs at least a trim more than every 6 weeks.

I figured - how hard can it be. I did a little research (meaning I watched a couple videos on YouTube).

This is actually the 2nd time I cut the kids hair. This time went a little quicker. For Isaiah, I mainly just trimmed up the long hairs around his ears and in the front.

Isaiah after his cut.

Evelyn wanted her hair SHORT. This isn't the first time she's said that. So this time I decided, OK we'll go for it. It will always grow back.

Evelyn before

It was a long time for her to sit still - the hair salon is much quicker! It didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself. It looked a lot cuter and more how I envisioned it after we washed her hair and let it dry curly. She seems pretty happy with it which is the important thing. With a little more practice and some better tools I might actually get pretty good at this!

After

One for the Memory Book - or Kids Say the Darndest Things

Sorry,no pictures on this post. Just something I wanted to make sure I got down before I forget.

Since having 2 kids and finding that by some miracle - maybe breastfeeding, maybe genetics, maybe hormones, maybe . . . - I actually ended up losing weight rather quickly and ended up weighing less than I did before I got pregnant, I have continued to make somewhat of an effort to keep the pounds off. To that end a good friend and I have had a fairly regular routine of meeting up to run or swim, and attempt to hold each other accountable to exercise and eat right.

So last night, I had just left a message for her to let her know I'd meet her this morning for a run. Evelyn, being the inquisitive (i.e. nosey) child that she is, overheard my message and asked, "Mom, why are you going running tomorrow?"

I answered probably a bit bluntly and in an exasperated tone at the never ending barrage of questions into my personal life, "because it's good exercise and will keep mama from getting fat!"

To which Evelyn replied with a laugh in her sweet, innocent way, "but mama you're already fat!"

When I asked her why she thought that, she said "because you're going running."

I don't even know how to respond to that kind of logic.