When Ryan Cooks

I was sitting in the living room folding laundry yesterday when laughter broke out from the kitchen.  Ryan called me, and I saw this:

Ryan said he was getting annoyed at bumping into cupboard doors as he was trying to make chocolate chip cookies.

Well, duh.

Double Dog Dare

Friday Ryan came home from work like this:

The story went like this:

Some big shot student with a big shot truck said his big rig could only carry 2 picnic tables to the Livestock Show.  So Ryan upstaged him by stacking 3 picnic tables in his smaller, older truck.

So, neener neener.  He's a tough guy with a tough truck.  An '88 Mazda can out-do a full size Ford truck, in case anyone was wondering.  :)

What She Wore Wednesday

Do you ever see those features on some blogs called, "What I Wore Wednesday"?  Well, I was thinking about doing something similar to that, only about my kids and their amazing fashion sense.

So, without further ado- Elizabeth's first contribution.

Brown knit pants (Walmart), my Halloween socks (a gift from my mother-in-law a couple years ago) and gray velro shoes (Payless).  Awesome, right?

Time at the Library

Tonight while we were out and about after dinner, I wanted to stop by the library.  I had requested a book yesterday morning online, and since it is at my local branch, I figured it would probably be waiting for me.  Run in, grab the book and run out- 2 minutes tops. 

I walked in the library and over to where the "held" books are kept.  There weren't any bookmarks with my last name on it.  I walked over to the Young Adult section and didn't see the book, so I walked over to the children's section.  (The book is "Moon Over Manifest" and is a Newberry winner.  I figured it had to be in one of those two sections.)  Still didn't see it.  So I walked up to the front counter and waited patiently in line.

The girl in front of me I think was attempting to check out about a quarter of the children's section of our library.  (My local library isn't terribly large, or even medium-sized one.)  There were three large stacks of books to be scanned.  I could actually hear the shrieks coming from my minivan inside the building.  Ryan was watching them- they probably weren't maiming each other.  Or were they?  But the librarian must have noticed my impatience, because she called over another librarian to help me.

I walked up to the counter and asked which section my book would be.  He looked it up and declared it was the children's section which was, "Over there."  I walked back and tried valiantly to find the book.  I think I know my alphabet; why couldn't I find the darn book?

I walked back up to the counter to say that I must be blind or impaired in some way, but before I could say anything, I saw my book waiting for me on the front counter, complete with the last name bookmark. 

Hm.

So I picked it up and handed it to the first librarian.  "I wondered why I didn't see it over there," I told her. 

"It seems funny Thomas didn't say that he had pulled it already for you."

Indeed.  Or that he just silently left it there up front while I stupidly tried looking for it for another 2 minutes.  Since it had to have been pulled recently since it wasn't waiting with the other "held" books.

She's 7!



Our Elizabeth turned 7 yesterday.  Since it was a Saturday, we were all home and having a nice and relaxed morning.  Her presents were out and practically shouting at Elizabeth, "Open me!" so she did.

 Certain siblings were having a difficult time with it not being their birthday, so we went for a drive to Target so unspent birthday money could be used.  (We are now the proud owners of 2 more Barbie movies.  yippee.)  We also went to McDonald's for a chicken nugget lunch, per Elizabeth's request.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth.  We are so glad to have your enthusiasm and joy and YOU as a part of our family.

Once Upon An Afternoon

I have two little girls who are much too big for nap time.

Goo

On Monday Annie and Maddie were destitute without their big sisters and dad at home.  I just don't make the cut some days, I guess.  We had a major case of the grumps.  So after lunch, I made up some cornstarch "goo" for the twins.  I made pink goo for Annie and purple goo for Maddie, but about 20 minutes into it, they were combined.  Over the next hour and a half, the table, their arms, legs and clothes, the floor and walls were decorated.

 Once most of the 2 cups of cornstarch was mostly used up, I thought it was time to try to clean up.  I threw the twins in the bathtub, and started scraping, then sweeping....  And Emma and Elizabeth arrived home from school.

Guess I'll have to clean up again.

Dinner Conversation

Over a lovely meal of left-over ham, rice and salad, Ryan and I tried to have a conversation.

Elizabeth started with, "Do you like mice, mom?"

"Um, mostly just in stories," I replied.  I don't like the wild kind, or the kind in cages, so that leaves some of the fictitious ones.

"I killed a Desperaux today," Ryan started in.  This was greeted by exclamations of, "Ew," "Where?" and, "How?"  "Well, I was in the greenhouse and this mouse just jumped at me.  So I hit it in the air-"

"You hit it?  You know, most people when attacked by something nasty flying at their head, will move out of the way," I told him.  Frisbees, balls, socks, Polly Pockets, whatever- I duck.  Too many bad experiences with getting hit with flying objects, especially in the head. 

"Well, yah.  It was coming at me, so I hit it.  It hit the greenhouse fan, the fan blade kinda cut off its tale and beat it to death.  (insert groans here)  But when I commented about killing 'Despereaux' to my class, no one got it."  Ryan feels pretty proud of himself for knowing this.  He can thank the kids (and me) for getting to listen to books on cd in the van.

"That seems funny that no one would get the reference, since it was made into a movie too," I said.

Emma wailed, "I want to see it!  Why don't we ever get to see any movies?"

"You did see it.  We rented it when it came out on dvd."

"Nuh uh.  I would remember!"

Sigh.  You can't argue with Emma.  She. Is. Always. Right.  Just ask her.

I just love trying to talk to Ryan during dinner. 

A New Niece

For Easter, the Easter Bunny made a stop at the hospital and brought my sister her baby.  (ha ha... that's all it was, right Janelle?)  On Monday we drove down on our way home to meet Claire and tell my sister, "Congrats."

 Claire had a little bit of a rough start, so my kids weren't able to see her in the nursery.  So I took a few pictures so they could see their new cousin.

Claire is home now, and is doing just fine -and keeping her parents tired as all newborns do.

Easter

Easter morning started very early.  The kids were excited and up to find their baskets of goodies.  What surprised me was not only did the Easter Bunny leave treats for all of the kids, but also for us "big kids" too.  (That was very thoughtful- thank you!)

The kids showing off their bunny ears.

Our morning started so early that we had time to take pictures in our Easter clothes before church started at 9 am.  We had a nice breakfast all together, got dressed and hair done, and then I wanted pictures of my girls by the front door.  From there, it was all of the cousins, and then individual family photos.  And we still made it to church in plenty of time.  After sacrament meeting, we got a whole group photo taken by a friend at church.  (Scroll down for that one.)

I may have had a little fun messing with the pictures in Picasa.  There are a bunch of new features now!

After church, my mad photographer skills were required again in the back yard while the "Easter Bunny" got the eggs ready for the hunt in the front.  I got the kids doing silly things, and then took pictures of them doing it.  But you only get to see one of the pictures.

The hunt is on!

Afterwards, we had our Easter (early) dinner (at lunch time), and 3 of the 4 siblings got ready to go home.  We didn't have to be home for work or school on Monday, so we hung around for another night.

Daffodils

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival was going on while we were in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately the tulips were not making their appearance just yet.  But the daffodils were lovely.

With a backdrop as nice as this, you just have to take a bazillion pictures.

Easter Trip

We took a trip to visit family for the Easter weekend.  Due to parent-teacher conferences, we were able to start our Spring Vacation a little early.  So, after a couple of hours of shining faucets, sweeping floors and stuffing the rest of the clean laundry back into the dryer, we were able to escape on Friday.  (As it turns out, no one wanted to see our house over the weekend.  But at least we had a very clean house to come back to.)

When we arrived at Ryan's parents, we were confused to see an extra car out in front of the house.  We knew both of Ryan's sisters would be there, but the car didn't belong to anyone we knew.  So imagine our surprise to see Ryan's brother, his wife and son there in the living room.  (They rented a car- hence the unfamiliar vehicle.)  And so, we were able to spend the weekend with the whole family.  That's 8 adults, 6 children and 1 baby in one house.  

Maddie and baby Simon.  He's changed a lot since we saw him last.

We dyed Easter eggs. 

Simon was the object of a lot of attention.  Hopefully his parents didn't mind too much. 

Egg Hunt

Here are some pictures from the two Easter egg hunts we attended before Easter.

 Ryan had the kids stretching to get ready for the hunt.  (Since we were waiting on one last family to arrive and the kids were getting squirrel-y.)

 Eggs and candy!

 And the big group photo: 

After the photo, the kids stayed there eating their candy.  Yum, dinner....

Annie and Maddie's preschool group picture from last Monday.

It was spring break for some of the older siblings, but not others.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to share this video of one of my new favorite Primary songs from church.  The Primary aged children learned this song to sing in Sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday.  I tear up every time I hear it, and wanted to share.  Happy Easter!

Field Trip

This is slightly late in getting posted.  As in, the middle of last month we went on this excursion.  Last month was not the easiest, but I am so glad we seem to be finally better!

Our preschool class (and a couple extras, like younger siblings) went on a field trip to our local fire station.  Fire Fighter David (who was really, really good with the little kids) took us on a tour of the station.  The kids got to climb inside an ambulance, a fire truck, practice their "Stop, Drop and Roll," and see Fire Fighter David in his full get-up.  We also got to watch the fire fighters leave for a medical call.

April Fools!

Yesterday being General Conference Sunday, we didn't get up and race to church.  I fixed the kids eggs and toast, and "apple juice" for breakfast.  The apple juice cups had straws, so the kids were SUPER excited.  

 Trying to drink...

"Hey, what's wrong with my juice?"

(I made their juice into jello Saturday night.  hehe!)

The apple jello was a hit.  But then the kids felt like they needed to prank their parents in return.  So they Saran wrapped the bathroom (and used it all up), and unrolled the toilet paper, and a couple of other things.  They laughed and laughed at "getting" mom and dad back.