Birthday Fun

We had a busy weekend - Claire had her birthday party on Saturday. From what I can tell, it was a success. We had the party at home in the backyard. The kids just played and played - we had a silly string fight as the big finale. Our yard was covered in silly string by the end; thankfully it dissolved in the rain. We had eight kids come, which was the perfect number. They were all friends from church and school. It was so wonderful to have a place in our home where we could have Claire's friends over. In the past, we have always been in small apartments or apartments that weren't very accessible.


Thankfully, my good friend Amy was at the party with her camera. She took some awesome pictures - to see a very cute one, click on her link "Playing House" on the right of my blog page.


A few weeks back, we went to Chuck E. Cheese with some friends. The kids really enjoyed themselves.

We had a nice, but stressful Easter Sunday. The kids loved hunting for eggs (while it was snowing) and eating candy. I've limited the amount of candy they receive - and it turns out that William didn't like the type of candy I bought anyway- it worked for me! Church was filled with all sorts of "exciting" events, leaving us stressed and upset when we left. We had dinner at our good friend Stephanie's home right after church. As usual with anything Stephanie cooks, it was delicious. We came home and I fell asleep for the evening (maybe trying to block out most of the events of the day). Good times!!

Silliness

I have been in a creative dry-spell lately: note the lack of interesting blog entries. So instead of waiting for some fabulous bout of creativity and inspiration, I'm just going to post a bunch of silly pictures from our daily life. So without further ado, here they are:

Claire got her feelings hurt, made this picture and hung it on her door.
That's Claire frowning in the middle. I think she was trying to evoke sympathy from us.

This photo didn't turn out, but the story behind it is that Claire was annoying Ryan with a balloon while he was trying to work in our bedroom. So he got upset with her and told her to leave. So she drew this and taped it to the bedroom door. That's Claire smiling and holding the balloon and Ryan saying "No Claire".

This is the first thing I see of William in the morning: bed-head, sucking his lip, holding his "bee" and asking for "qua-quit juice" (chocolate milk or hot chocolate - whichever we have).

A few weeks ago, we had a big snow storm. Well, the next morning, our yard was COVERED with deer tracks, and a raccoon had made an attempt at our trashcan. Well, the deer tracks led to my little bushes that I had planted last summer. The stupid, hungry deer ate half of each bush!! This is all that was left of one of them. Notice the stripped branch.

Ryan had bought me a birthday cake and we ate it a few days late. William was so excited about the cake that he stood on the chair, and did a little jig while shouting "Birthday cake! Yea!!"

I have successfully washed my shower liners in the washing machine in the past, but this one didn't make it. Ryan couldn't figure out what it was when I pulled it out of the washer.

Our trashcan that we C-clamp shut - yes, those are raccoon paw prints covering it.

Ryan putting Crisco on the post of the bird feeder. He was attempting to keep the squirrels off. They get up there and shovel out the bird seed, only eating the few types of seed they like. They can empty the seed from that thing onto the ground in minutes. The crisco did make it hard for the squirrel to get away when Ryan came after it with his air-soft gun, but it didn't work as well as hoped.

So there you are folks, a little silliness from our household. I hope you are all having a great day!

Down down baby!

For those of you who know my little Claire, you know that she is a thinker. Here is a close example of a conversation Claire and I had in the car today:

Claire: Mom, when you were a little girl, your name, Susan, didn't really fit you. It's the name of a grown-up lady.
Me: Really? Why is that?
Claire: It's just a silly name for a little girl, but it fits you now. I'm worried about my name. It's a good name for a little girl like me, but when I grow up, I don't think it will fit my body.

Where did she come up with this? I don't know. Claire then went on to say some cheers I can only assume one of her little friends from school learned in a cheerleading class or camp. This is the gist of it:

Down down baby, I can move my body.
Down down baby, I can call my mommy.
Down down baby, I can do karate.
To the left, to the left.
To the right, to the right.
etc....

Then there was the lemonade chant, which I will not include - it was equally silly.
So I asked Claire, where did she learn that? She replied that her best friend at school taught her and that I could apparently never learn it because it was too long and hard to remember. I asked her why it would be too hard...she begins to tell me, but decides not to. I fill in: because I'm not smart enough? Claire thinks for a minute and says, "No, I don't think that's it. I just haven't taught it too you yet." Oh, well excuse me! Funny girl.

I was working in the living room when I hear William yelling "I need get down!! I need get down!" It wasn't a call for help, just an informative call. I went into the dining room to find him standing on the kitchen table. He's never attempted to break the "no standing or climbing on the kitchen table rule" until now, but thought he would make it all right by informing me that he did indeed need to get down as he was breaking the rule. I told him to get down, which he promptly did (only to climb up a couple more times - each time yelling "I need get down!").

A little story...

It's 5:15am Tuesday morning, we're all fast asleep, and the phone rings. I poke Ryan to go get it; he runs down the hall and instead of grabbing the nearest phone in the living room, he goes for the kitchen phone instead, allowing the phone to ring another couple of times. My thought at the time: for crying out loud man! Pick up the phone!! He comes back a minute later to inform me that school has been canceled. I immediately turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. I am awoken two hours later by the breathing of my two-year-old next to my face. (I can't tell you how many times he has scared the c*** out of me doing this.) Time to get up.

My 5-year-old quickly follows her little brother's lead and wakes up ready for school. I let her know that she has no school. She has mixed emotions. She's ready to go back after the three-day weekend (and lets be honest people, I'm ready for her to go back too) and show off her new backpack. But she quickly makes herself comfortable with some cereal and cartoons.

The weather outside is bad and promises to get worse. The roads are icy and it's snowing. Another day stuck inside the house. Hubby is sure he can make it into work (frankly, I'm surprised he's even willing to try after having almost been killed on the way home the night before, due to ice). I point out that though he may make it in, he may not make it back. After a little persuasion, he sets up camp in our bedroom with the card table and my laptop.

I spend the day cleaning, doing laundry, keeping the kids happy, paying bills, taking a little afternoon nap, etc. It's a nice day overall.

The weather did in fact get worse and it didn't stop snowing until late that night. In the end, we got about 5 inches, St. Louis got about 10. Good times. So that's my little story - interesting? Not really. Clever? Certainly not. Gets the job done for getting rid of my guilt for having not posted anything lately? You bet!!