Cutest Pre-Schooler EVER!

She's been waiting all summer for this day.  I cannot even express how excited this girl was.  From May until August, she's been non-stop talking about going to school.  We picked out her folders and lunch box.  Packed up her book bag.  And captured her true "I'M SO EXCITED SMILE."

She walked into her classroom like she's been doing it for years.  She greeted her teachers, found her hook in the coat room, deposited her belongings and got right down to business.  After about 10 minutes of me hanging around with her, she gave me a big hug and kiss and politely told me I could go.

Just how did my Layla Bug get so grown up?!?

I love her and I miss her and I can't wait to go pick her up and kiss her and squeeze her and shower her with all my love and affection!

Back to School

I cannot believe all of my babies are in school now!  How is it possible that I have a sophomore, 6th grader, 4th grader and preschooler this year!  And I'm only 25!  (ha ha ha ha ha ha!)

I am so proud of all of them.  They are literally my heart walking around in the real world. I know God has amazing plans for each one of them and I'm looking forward to watching them grow and achieve and do great things this year.

My how He has blessed me!

The Last Hoorah

Last weekend, we took our annual trip to the river with our long time friends Chris and Jenny.  We packed up our car, picked up a few friends and headed out west early Saturday morning.  It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the low 90s.  We've been to the river a few times this summer.  Most trips, the kids spend the majority of the day playing on the beach.  This time, though, they were in the water pretty much all day!  Which means that Chris, Jenny and I were in the water pretty much all day.

It was a fun and relaxing time.  And a great way to wrap up another summer.

Later Saturday evening, I took Alex and a friend out to Kokomo Joe's.  My bank was having a promotion that included free admission, mini-golf, go-carts, laser tag and unlimited arcade games from 6 to 9 that evening.  I wasn't really sure what to expect as we had never been there before.  It turned out to be an amazing time!

Alex and Nathan really, really enjoyed themselves.  During their second laser tag game, I retreated to the Tiki Bar for a drink and some light reading on my Kindle.  Then we hit the arcade together.  It is so much more fun to play arcade games when they are FREE!

Although the weekend was quite busy, it was the perfect way to end the summer!

School is back in session!

40 Years

My parent’s celebrated their 40^th anniversary last Saturday.  40 years!  That is seriously amazing.  But if you know my parents and the love they have for God, each other and our family, it’s easy to see why they’ve been together for forty years.

My sisters and I started talking about doing something to celebrate back in May.  We thought about taking the whole family on a vacation, even just for an extended weekend.   My dad doesn’t really like to travel much and especially to unfamiliar territory.  We thought we could convince him to do a long weekend at Clearwater Lake in Peidmont, MO.  We’ve been to the resort before and he is very familiar with the area.  We put the numbers together, looked at the calendar and then talked to my parents.  They were not interested.  I couldn’t say that I blame them.  A long weekend with 11 kids didn’t sound that appealing to me either.  But now we were back to the drawing board, so to speak.

A few weeks later, my sister, Laura, and I were at the block party with my parents.  My dad was up dancing in the streets with the kids and really just having a great time! My mom leaned over and said, “You want to know what we want for our anniversary?”

Laura and I looked at each other and were like, “Please do tell!”

“We would like a nice dinner with just our family and for all our kids to put on a play for us.”

The first thought in my head, and I’m not even kidding, was “Are you F**** kidding me!!!!!”

But she seemed really excited about the idea and since it was their celebration, I figured we could pull it off.

And we did!

For over two months, this play and songs and actions have been running through my head.  I even took a day off work just so I could get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.  On that day, I took a walk around my neighborhood, passing by our parish Church.  I stopped and reflected on the garden area at the Church.  I asked for some divine inspiration. 

Once home, I fired up the laptop and started writing.  The words that came were not my own.  And this play was turning into something even more incredible than I first imagined.  I called my sisters over that afternoon so that we could run through what I had.  We drank a few beers, laughed, cried and determined this was exactly the direction the play should go.

Bev and Laura were instrumental in turning this vision (that I’m convinced came from above) into a reality.  They also spearheaded the dinner and decorations.  We got together several times during the week prior to the anniversary party.  We held several dress rehearsals with a wide range of what kids could and couldn’t be in attendance.  We streamlined, critiqued and created the perfect play.

There is no way we could have pulled this off without the Lord’s help and inspiration.

The evening was fantastic!  And more importantly, my parents loved it!

THIS IS LOVE

School Supply Shopping and I Didn't Die

School Supply shopping!  It is my most dreaded activity of the summer.  Sure, sure, I really like fresh new supplies.  I really dislike fighting the crowds, digging through bins, wrangling four kids and dropping several hundreds of dollars.  Each year, I try and try to make it a pleasant experience, but I typically fail.  Miserably.

This year, though, I woke up with a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  I’m sure that sense of peace had most everything to do with the fantastic anniversary party we had successfully thrown the night before.  I had been thinking about and stressing about it for months.  Today, I just got to enjoy the success.  And I’m sure that lightened my mood.

But to ensure the school supply shopping would go smoothly,  I made a couple of really good decisions.  First, I decided the 30 minute drive to Lake St. Louis was worth the time and gas to shop at their Wal-Mart.  Although it was crowded still, the staff was on point.  I’ve never been to a Wal-Mart where an employee actual stops to ask if she can help me find anything.  And then, actually find said thing and bring it back to me!  Their supplies were stocked, we found everything we needed and I didn’t break the bank.

The second good decision I made was to give each kid $25 and their lists to pick out the supplies they wanted.  They went through the store with their own carts and loaded up then things they needed/wanted.  Grace then took each of them to a scanner she located in the baby department.  They rang in each item as she added it up on her calculator.  If they were over, they went back to swap out items.  If they were under, they went back to pick up a few more items.  This gave me the ability to take Layla and shop with her for her first year in preschool.  I also picked up a few household items we needed plus some of the bigger items each kid needed.

We spent about 2 hours shopping which I never do!  But it was actually calm and peaceful.  We weren’t running from place to place or fighting through crowds.  As we made our way toward the checkout, another employee asked if we were ready and opened up a register for us.  Since it was tax free weekend, I also saved a few bucks.

In the end, I spent a total of $200 at Wal-Mart for 4 kids school supplies.

From there, we stopped at the new thrift store in St. Charles.  Alex and Eva picked out a couple of nice back packs and I found a lighthouse picture that I really liked for the living room as well as a new laptop bag for me.  We spent another $30 there.  With the last few odds and ins to gather up throughout the week, it looks like we will be right on the budget of $250.

Finally, we called it quits and headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  The kids had a great time and really enjoyed their meals.  I was happy with our dining experience and didn’t spend as much money as I thought I might.  A win for all!

Hands down, the best school supply shopping experience of my time.

The Whirlwind Vacation

The kids are gone this week on a whirlwind vacation in Florida with their dad.  It’s been very quiet in the house. And clean.  If they don’t get back soon, I might start to get used to this.   

The preparation for them to go on this trip was overwhelming.  The fact that I had to take a half day from work to pack for a vacation I’m not even going on is obscene.  But, their dad didn’t see any reason to assist the kids in packing for this trip.  He just left them to their own devices.  They were kind of stressing out about that so I did what a mother does and helped out.  A part of me wanted to just say sorry and leave it up to him, but I couldn’t let my kids go off for a week completely unprepared. 

Grace has been great about staying in contact and sending me some pictures.  The view of the ocean has got my planning mind racing.  I’ve already started looking into a North Carolina beach vacation for next summer.

Also through her updates and check ins, it’s been evident that he is literally throwing money at everything.  Spent a few grand on a condo, but no reason to use the actual kitchen.  Every meal has been dining out.  Want to go deep sea fishing?  Sure!  No reason to eat anything before hand or take some motion sickness medicine.  No big deal that each one of the kids got seasick and threw up on the boat.  Not his responsibility to clean up.  Want souvenirs?  Absolutely!  You can buy anything you want.  Because the only way I know how to pretend to have an emotion of love is to BUY THINGS!!!

This might come off as being jealous or bitter, but that’s not the case at all.  I’m glad the kids get the opportunity to vacation this way because it is not even close to the way we vacation.  Our focus is much more on experiences, spending time together and reveling in God’s beautiful world.  The best paradise cannot substitute for being with the best company.  And at some point this week, each kid has expressed that they wished I took them on this vacation instead of their dad.  No amount of money can make up for being an awful person.

The kids got to experience some new things.  They also learned a lot about what kind of a person their dad is.   

Neither me nor them can wait until they return home to our house built on faith and love.