InsanKnitty

Last night we had a ‘hair’ practice session…. yeah, you may laugh, but a 9am First communion??  We need to get the Big girl up pretty early to get her fed and dressed with enough time… oh…and yeah, there’s 7 people who’ll be staying in our house, vying for shower time!

Ok, I get that teary eyed feeling when I see her all put together.. I know I sound like every emotional mom out there when I say this, but it’s so true… I can’t believe how grown up she’s getting… 8 years has just FLOWN by!

and this photo… SOOOO her

I might not be around much this week… I still have a shawl to finish knitting and yet another cake to decorate.. and this one I need to ‘learn’ something for (I’ve never made flowers and she wants flowers… so I have been reviewing the Wilton instructions)

Wish me luck!

Our weekend started with the blossoming of our tulips! Yay.. spring is really here (though this mornings chilly 46 F at the bus stop was a bit frightful!) As new home owners it’s been fun to see what the previous owner had planted in the yard, and what I want to add for next year… (yes the dork in me already has a notebook started of what to plant and where)…

there are some other tulips that didn’t bloom until Sunday, so I didn’t get their photo just yet…

Also this weekend the first of our veggies started poking through… no photos yet.. but big girl and I are pumped that our Artichokes are already taking root!

The biggest plans for the weekend though were the Middle Guy’s birthday party at the skate rink… and the trip to Philly for the circus with grandma and grandpa.

The middle guys party was a hit… to the bottom for some, but most actually were upset about having to leave at the end of the day…

here’s a few select shots…

The finished cake turned out great and everyone loved the whipped cream topping… much yummier cake when it doesn’t have the heaviness of the butter cream frosting on it..

Little girl did quite well once we switched her to these skates…

These however were much too ‘rolly’… the wheels spun too freely for her to even stand alone on the skate rink floor!

Big girl had a friend (sibling to one of the Middle Guys school friends) who was there too so she had a nice time visiting with her!

Eventually he was out there on his own… he had a ball.. in fact he fell asleep on a 5 minute drive to the park after the party had ended!

Cake time!

6!?!?! Where has the time gone?

After surviving the roller rink with 13 kids… we moved onto the Circus. My Father in law works in Philly and his company had discounted tickets to the circus. This is the first time I’ve been in I don’t know how long… at least 25 years! There were protest signs at the entry area about animal cruelty… which is always a concern for me.. however I have to say I was impressed with Barnum and Bailey’s new (to me) ‘information’ about animal protection and conservation. Talk is cheap though, so I will be doing more investigating. The show was SENSATIONAL to be honest.. I had as good a time as the kids, or maybe even better! What a fun time! They had performers on the floor for a pre-show and you could get autographs and watch acts from up close. The clowns were hilarious, the acrobats strong and amazing, and the elephant beautiful! we didn’t take many pictures because our seats were up high… we did get some from the pre-show though and I’ll share with you a taste of today’s ‘Over the Top’ Barnum and Bailey’s show. They offer a variety of shows now and ‘Over the Top’ was fabulous!

This first set of photos is of the Chinese acrobats. First off.. the strength these men have was just phenomenal.. however.. some of the unusual positions they were in had me mildly worried for a future family for them! I didn’t photograph ALL of their acts.. but there were a few that were really quite odd.. Flinging themselves off a swing onto a bar which they ‘caught’ between their legs? OUCH during many a practice session I’m certain!

A quick shot of part of the Elephant show

The finale

Each child had a favorite part… the Mama loved the agility dogs (yes they had a dog section!  Sooo cool).. motorcycles and contortionists… the clowns are also always a favorite with their various antics… The big guy loved the motorcycles in the ball and the acrobats,  the Middle guy loved those bouncy ‘wheels’ you see in the above photo… he even asked for one for Christmas (now that birthdays are over they’re already asking for Christmas… ugh)… the Big Girl loved the Tigers, the little girl was mesmerized by everything.. she slept for the second half but really enjoyed all that she saw in the first half! The Grandma and Grandpa really had a great time as well, they were most awed by the cost of cotton candy ($12) and coffee ($3.50) and it wasn’t Starbucks folks!

My black food marker is failing me… grrrr I’ll let it ‘rest’ for now and try to finish the dots and Wii and little squares later this afternoon… but here’s my progress..

Now.. I’m off to run to the park with the little girl for some swinging and soccer fun!

No.. not yet…

Today I’ll be working in chocolate to create this…

I will only make the ‘front’ view, not the sides or top or bottom. I mean really. it doesn’t have to be an exact replica.. but there will need to be 2… at least that’s the request I’ve got!

The cake will be our standard whipped creamed frosted Cookies and Cream cake….

Other than that I’ve got a mountain of laundry (which is what happens when you spend THE birthday week running from here to there non-stop… it’s all clean, it just needs to be folded and put away.. thank goodness the actual birthday party isn’t until tomorrow and isn’t at our home! Wahoo!

Last night we partied it up in our typical children’s favorite style… a la Red Robin…

The big girl kept saying ‘Monkey wants my burger’… (any of y’all seen that commercial.. hilarious!)

The birthday boy by the end of the meal was complaining of a tummy ache… a milk shake, corn dog, and ice cream sundae can do that to ya!

But he got over it fast enough for a trip to Toys R Us to pick up his big present…

And the big girl got a special ‘Sit n Knit’ night with Mommy and her (finally) knitting group… we’ve been working to put this group together for a bit more than a month now, and we’re growing slowly but surely

Gail and Ann

Carolyn and Felicia

The rest of the gang picked us up at Barnes and Noble when they were done shopping at Toys R Us…

The kids provided much more chaos than I’d have liked during knit night, but at least I got to go for a little while… Next week I promise to come alone and stay late!

Yes… oddly enough our first two children are 2 years and 1 day apart.. so while we partied it up Big Girl style yesterday, today.. we’re doing it in the Middle Guy fashion…

Our middle guy is so different and yet so similar to his sister that it can go from ‘are they twins?’ to ‘are they related?’ in a matter of seconds… their differences are vast, and yet, they love each other to pieces and couldn’t live without the other.. their differences started out right from the labor…

big sis 40 +3

Middle guy 7 +35 mins

Seriously folks… when approaching D-day I was worried about the length of time for my labor.. I mean the big girl’s was SOOO long… and SOOO Painful.. (back labor, slow progression 20+ hours before any pain relief.. you get the picture) I was really scared about how long this might be. The docs said that ‘in general’ second deliveries have about 1/2 the labor time.. so I buckled down and prepared for 20 ish hours.. and God gave me a reprieve!

so anyway… let’s move on to photos!

The big girls Godmother is a sonographer, and she took some high res (back then anyway) U/S of our middle guy… and this is my favorite shot…

awwww look at that face.. and he’s resting on his arm and sleeping calmly…

While his sister’s pregnancy was uneventful (outside of my ridiculous weight gain)… his was FAR from it.. gestational diabetes, heart palpitations, breast lumps, skin cancer development.. sheesh! And in the end, a blood typing incompatibility, resulting in jaundice for the poor thing…

It was Bili Lights and Blankets for the poor guy…

They had to cover his cute little ‘glasses’ with a hat (cut to just cover the glasses) because he was a pro at instantly ripping them off…

see…. that hand was FAST!

He was allowed to spend time with us… and look how cute he was napping on daddy (in my handknit blankey of course!)

He may be all eyes for Mommy, but for this pic, he was all eyes for Daddy!

We still joke about how we took home our garden gnome

And he actually had the BEST hospital photo I’ve seen of any baby in a long time…

I look at this photo and realize how much parenting has aged me… I look like a baby!!!

How tiny… it’s amazing it’s been 6 years!!!

The new family! Meanwhile.. big sis had JUST said ‘put him back’… before we took this shot… oh the LOVE that she had for him from the get go! (actually she grew to love him unlike any other siblings of any of my friends children… but back in the day he ROCKED her world, and NOT in the good sense!)

This is another of my favorite photos.. it was the 4th of July, and hotter than heck… and he just looked so cute… his onesie was one I made from iron on decals that said USA… it was too hot for any other clothing to be honest! His little ‘Kiwi’ head of hair didn’t last much longer… he was a baldy though for only a few hours.. and then sported a cute little crop of 1/4″ fuzz… it stood straight up on his head until it was about 1 1/2″ long!

And here he is today… my big boy! Still loves his mama more than just about anything else, though today I think he’d tell you he loves his new Webkin better

Happy Birthday little Man! I love you!

Looks like this…

There is ever so slight a smile there… really.. beneath those exhausted red eyes… the smile is real… because of this…

Yes… she joined us on Easter Sunday.. God had a plan… and while I didn’t like it’s execution as well as I had hoped… he wanted me to have my own little easter bunny

Eight years ago today… how has the time flown that quickly???

The following are some of my favorite photos of the early years…

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Eight years old today!

I love you!

You’ll always be my beautiful flower…

Info on this photo can be found here

I visited the Earth Lab website and took this test this morning on my family’s carbon footprint…

Honestly, I am proud at how well we are doing with our recycling, our ‘green’ gardening, our energy conservation in our home, but still… I faired poorer than I’d expected on my test… I’m certain that it is in part that I do not know how much of our energy comes from renewable resources (a lot of the energy (electric anyway) here in NEPA comes from wind.. if you look on the mountain tops as you drive up US 81, you’ll see the wind turbines… Also I am unsure of our exact ‘average’ monthly costs for our electric and natural gas. I will update my test with those averages and will research the renewable resource deal this afternoon as well… maybe our footprint will be better than the 443 score we received. (**Which by the way was higher than the average for our area which floors me since so few people here recycle and everyone has to drive to work down the mountain!)

443….

WHAT?!?!?!

I’ve started taking the NUMEROUS pledges on the Earth Lab Website, and strongly encourage you to do so as well… Many of them I already do.. so I picked those first since you can only make 20 pledges per month.. I figured.. .check those off the list and move on to others… I did of course pick a few that I do NOT already do… and will work hard on those moving forward.

How will you spend your Earth Day? Well … for one.. here at our house, it’s Earth Week… we have various activities planned for each day.. and today we are planting our veggie garden. We will start in pots on our window sills, and will move them to the outdoors when the weather is perfect (though honestly lately it has been.. I do have to remind myself though that we are in NEPA.. and the weather might change in 5 minutes…)

We’re using recycled yogurt containers and the like (the ones our local recycling plant won’t take.. **They only take #1 and #2 plastics, so we’re using #5’s and #7’s which are popular for yogurt containers etc. That way we’re doing our own ‘version’ of recycling with those particular items… and we’re also using the various terracotta pots I have… we’re going to do a pot garden that we have a spot to put them in … this is our first garden at our new home and sadly our back yard gets limited sunshine for a real garden plot… planting in pots seems most reasonable as they can be moved around if needed.

We will be planting some trees as well… and of course, our regular recycling. We have a semi secret recycling project going on in the basement as well.. the TOYS that are unused will be donated by the end of next week at the Salvation Army donation center in our area. It will clean up our basement for one, and bring lovely ‘gently’ used toys to kids who might not be able to afford new versions. My kiddos are in on this project at a certain level, however, Mommy has been doing a bit more ‘adding’ to the box than they realize…

I’ll update more on this post a bit later today, specifically about my pledges and how I plan to implement them… but also about our garden, what will be planted and why we’re doing such a varied garden this year… but I have a job interview to get ready for… and limited time.. plus the nerves are just about killing me

wish me luck!

Knitty is having a contest… you need to read how to enter on the Knitty blog!

http://knitty.com/blog/2008/04/biggest-contest-knitty-has-ever-had.html

Go enter!

Yes.. we ate the cake!  It was enjoyed by all… though the big girl was bummed it wasn’t made with it’s usual whipped cream frosting… ummm not sure I could have really made it LOOK like a snitch if it had whipped cream frosting.. oh well… still it was good..

On a totally different topic.. my kids know I blog… and they think it’s funny.. and they regularly ask me to take a photo of them doing something or wearing something or of something totally unrelated… and ask me to blog about it.. the middle guy in particular this past weekend wanted me to blog just about EVERYTHING he came into contact with…  I agreed though to one photo..  my kids LOVE to sleep in a ‘daddy shirt’… instead of jammies.. why?  I’m not sure… I mean… Daddy’s big.. he’s TALL.. he’s 6′5″ tall!  So that’s really tall.. so.. his shirts are BIG… but they love it.. even the littlest girl…

The middle guy came down wearing this..

Daddy, can I wear THIS shirt to bed???

Of course he said Yes!

Lots and lots of yard work and spring prepping the yard this past weekend.. it was just gorgeous.. and we were outside the entire time!  loved it even if it meant I passed out in the bed by 9pm on Saturday night!  The yard is looking nice, the chairs were brought out and we even ate dinner on our patio!  Ahhh hints of summer to come!  I love eating outside.. now to convince the big guy we need an outdoor kitchen

Knitting?  did you come here for that?  well.. I’m busy working away on the big girl’s First Communion shawl… it’s coming along… a bit slower than I’d like but I do have 2 weeks

Wanted

8 year old Gryffindor Seeker

Must be nimble fingered

fast on the broom

Must NOT be afraid of heights

Yay… she’s complete

Also, individual snitches for each party attendee…

(the photo stinks I know… )

And, in a rather ironic turn of events.. I received my Cocoa Swap Buddy today in the mail from dear sweet Mary… guess what she made me….

too dang cute!

keeping this guy away from the big girl… yeah.. um… that’s NOT going to be easy…

Thanks Mary .. you’re the sweetest… you mallow is stuffed and waiting on arms and legs, and he’ll be in the mail on Monday!