Happy Early Easter

With Easter being tomorrow, our family wants to wish all of yours a very Happy Easter. We are spending the weekend just as a family of 5 this year. No travel plans in place. The kids will hunt for their Easter eggs and surprises in the morning and then it will be off to church. The children of the congregation will be singing a little song tomorrow that they have been practicing the last couple of weeks. That should be highly entertaining.

I can't believe my vacation week is over already. I only got about 1/8 of the things done that I wanted to get done. Really sad, actually. Isn't that always the case? I get more done on a regular week. I planned on finishing Arlington's quilt. Nope. I planned on finishing painting the basement stairs. Nope. I planned on finishing some scrapbooking. Nope. What did I do, you say? I entered data into the computer every day. About a year ago - right before we moved - our computer crashed and we lost a lot of data. Mat is a "pie chart-0-maniac". He likes to keep track of our finances and where all of our money goes. Fun times. I know where it all goes. Into the three little hoodlums angels that live in our humble abode.

Anyway, it all went far, far away into cyberland when the computer crashed, so I get the lovely job of starting over. Not from scratch thank goodness. But back to 2006. It is taking........forever. And in the process of entering said information, I have done something to a muscle in my back. I can't twist my neck or head to the right. I think I should qualify for workman's comp. Or at least an afternoon off given to me by my employer husband. My back really hurts. I am surely NOT getting old. No. That isn't it. I am just being over worked. Yes, let's stick with that.


We did have some fun this week. Wednesday on my day off from the kids, I got all of the Easter shopping done in the morning. The Easter Bunny went a tad crazy, and ended up returning a few things, but it was fun. I NEVER get to shop alone. I always have someone along - kid, hubby - someone. I have forgotten what it is like to have quiet while shopping. I didn't have to talk to anyone for 3 hours. I had silent, pleasant, thoughts without being interrupted every 8 seconds. I spent the afternoon wrapping my treasures. We don't do a lot of candy for Easter because of the girl's allergies and Cainan's dislike for sweets. (what a sad family we are). So the kids get other things like art supplies and book and some clothes, etc. They don't seem to mind or miss it.

Wednesday was also my conference with Arlington's teacher. She had nothing but great things to say about our girl, which always makes me happy. I was a little concerned with her level of talking in the classroom, but the teacher assured me that it is nothing more than most of the kids in the class and that if I wouldn't have brought it up, she wouldn't have thought twice about it. She's just like her dad and I am just fine with that. I think the two best things she said about our girl were that she is a good friend and joy to have in class, AND that the first grade teachers will be fighting over her next year. Yay. She had about a million wonderful things to say about how great she is doing academically, but that isn't what is the most important to us. We know she is Harvard bound. :) We want our kids to be good friends and good people.


Finley is doing well. I taught her to make the letter "F" this week. I thought she might like to learn her name. So, we started with F. She did pretty well. At first when I cheerfly asked her, "Finley, do you want to learn how to write F for Finley?" she looked at me and said "um, well.. no". She is going to be fun in Kindergarten.


She has been in to calling Cainan a baby lately. Not in a mean way. Just "Cainan's the baby". "Cainan can't do that because he is still a baby". Cainan will of course tell her he is NOT a baby, but she doesn't believe it. She is sure she is right. She is also gets concerned about Arlington when Arlington rides her bike. She insists on telling Arlington to "be careful or you will bump your head on the ground" every time Arlington gets on the bike. This has never happened, but it doesn't stop Finley from reminding her. Finley will also try to run along side Arlington on the bike which is pretty hilarious.


Our little mommy. Cainan had a cup of juice that he had sitting upright on the couch. Finley took it off and said "You cannot have the juice on the couch Cainan. It might spill on the couch and then I will have to be sad to you". Cainan just ignored her, but it was still pretty funny. Maybe I COULD go on vacation. I can just leave Finley in charge of the discipline. She would have to discipline herself 90% of the time, though since she is still my little ornery child. She would have to put herself in the corner at least twice a day, remind herself not to hit her brother, and use the potty without prompting. Hm......


Cainan is great. I tried teaching him to make a C today. It wasn't happening. I did find that he can make a circle, though, which was just as good! I count that as a win. He did sing "C is for cookie" and did a little dance, which was hilarious. He is into saying "I do it" more often which is nice. He wants to try more and more things on his own without insisting on help from others.

I did have a "New Adventures of Old Christine" moment yesterday. If you don't know this show, it is about a woman who is a single mom of a little school-ager. Something is always happening to her when she is in front of the snobby mom's of the class. Now, I wasn't necessarily in the presence of a "snobby" mom at my kids preschool yesterday, but she does think her son is stellar. She loves to use every opportunity to tell me so. Anyway, we were talking about how well Cainan was doing potty training wise, and Cainan is standing RIGHT in front of me and what does he do? Yep. He pees his pants. Unreal. We had just used the potty right before we left, but yet he felt the need to pee in front of this mom. So awesome. I chuckled and said "oh, he got so excited about the egg hunt, he wet his pants!" and we quickly went off to change. At least it got me away from said mommy.Arlington's day off was Thursday of this week. We spent the morning playing, reading, and going to the dentist. She had a good report at the dentist as well. She got a special little mouth wash that she is insisting on using every night now. We had lunch out together which was fun. In the afternoon she still had Kindergarten, but rode the bus from home. This is the first time I think I put her on the bus to go to school.

I did find Arlington and the babies like this Thursday morning before breakfast:


Excuse the hair do. We hadn't gotten that far with our day. But she was reading to the babies and they were listening! It was very sweet.

Friday no one had school. We did have an egg hunt to attend at the kids preschool at 10:30. The center made it nice for the kids and they had a good time. I helped Finley find her eggs, but Cainan did great on his own. The kids had each made a little Easter basket out of milk juggs at school, so they used those to gather their winnings. Here are some pictures from the egg hunt:

Finley is ready to find some eggs.

Cainan checks out his goods.Arlington running around looking for eggs

Just out of her reach:
Arlington and a buddy from preschool "M":
We spent the rest of the day doing art and playing outside. It was a beautiful day. The morning was warm and sunny. During the kids nap time, Arlington started a big art project.

When she does art projects, she brings EVERYTHING to the table. It was pretty funny! She is working on some birthday cards (ahem, Carrie, Teen, Jess). She worked - no exaggeration - for 3 hours without moving. It was pretty hilarious. She was really into whatever she was making! That kept her very occupied. The day went by quickly. Mat had an all day meeting today and I knew he was going to be home later than usual, but the day went smoothly. So it didn't seem so bad.


Today has been a cold and rainy day. Mat and Arlington ran errands all morning. I am still suffering in silence with my neck and back, but the babies were good to me today. They stayed out of trouble, and we all played nicely together. This afternoon was filled with relaxation, Wii playing, and time together. Overall, a nice end to my spring break.

That is about it! Have a wonderful holiday and I will be back to Tuesday. Here are a couple of "extra" pictures that didn't really fit anywhere in the post. Enjoy!