The Slacker that I am!

I think I have used this title before but I am not sure! My nook has all but replaced the laptop so I am lazy about getting my blog posted faithfully every week. In fact, except for posting Maddie's band concert link, I have not posted anything in, dare I say it, A MONTH!! But don't worry! I have been taking plenty of photos so all's well!

This is right before Easter. In back of Maddie is Mr. Jerry. He is one of our friends from the assisted living/nursing home we go visit every Wednesday. Mrs. Everett is right in front of him. She is 94 years old! Both of them are so nice!

Robert earned his Webelos II patch. This is his Cubmaster shaking his hand.

Here he is with his den leader. He and Mr. Handsome LOVE Cub Scouts! :)

Here is Mr. Handsome and Robert.

Lindsay, Beatrice, Beaker, and Maddie

One of our spring banners

This is what the little girls do when I am working on something REALLY important...... in my craft room....

And not wanting to leave the kitchen free of mess and craziness, here is Kristinie the Great's handiwork. Yes, she did this all by herself. And YES, she also cleaned it up all by herself!

Maddie really wanted to play an April Fool's joke on Mr. Robbie. So she made him a cupcake with Old Bay seasoning. He does not look very happy does he? He was such a good sport. He knew she did something!! The sad part was, Mrs. Melissa and Mr. Kenny wouldn't eat their GOOD cupcakes so two of the kids in Trek got them!

It was crazy hat and hair night. Here are two of our club members having fun with a soda bottle....

and a cup!

We went to Dorothy's to decorate eggs. The little fella in the lower left is our nephew's son, Aiden. He is going to be 4 next week! He is my brother Chris' grandson. 

Everyone is working hard and Dorothy did a great job making sure everyone had the same amount of eggs AND the same amount of colors! From the bottom it's Rachel (Tom's daughter), Beatrice, Maddie, Kristinie the Great, and Lindsay.

Beaker and Lindsay having a great time!

Robert and John working hard!

Here is Aiden. He really enjoyed himself. He loves his cousins, too.

Beaker showing off her handiwork.

THE BOYS! 

Beatrice and Rachel

Beaker, Beatrice, and Rachel. We were blessed! We got to bring home five DOZEN eggs!!! 

We owed Lindsay a trip out to a restaurant all by herself. She picked Hiro's, a Japanese steakhouse.

Lindsay's effort to get a photo of Mr. Handsome and me.

After lunch, we went on an Easter egg hunt at the nursing home. Boy, was that ever fun!!! The staff there is terrific. They really do a lot of fun stuff to get all ages of people around the residents. Our children had a ball.

Beaker getting ready to find eggs!

Robert won a rabbit. He named him Georgie! And he won a big Easter basket filled with a soccer ball, kickball, and basketball.

Getting ready for the egg race. 

Beaker's turn at the pinata.

I also had to make a chocolate poundcake for Mr. Handsome's birthday..... AND....

A danish for our Easter breakfast at Church. The danish was wonderful, if I may say so myself. We were advised to get the danishes from SAM's but they are so unflavorful and boring! The great part about this was  one of my sister friends tried it, loved it, and came over and I showed her how to make them herself! 

Here we are eating breakfast. From left to right: Rachel, Beatrice, Robert, John, and Lindsay.

After the breakfast, the children put on a play. Robert had a main role and he was on the other side but I did not get his photo. This is the choir. Everyone did terrific except something happened to the sound and I was so sad for all the hard work the children and the directors put into it! Even John and Rachel joined the fun. Beaker had had enough and she came and sat with me. 

Here is Robert watching the maintenance guy at Champions, where we go every Wednesday, unlock my car. YES! I locked my keys in the car. NO! I did not have a spare! But now I DO have a spare. It is hiding on my van. Don't worry, you'll never find it. You have to be at least six feet tall to reach it. I nearly gave our song leader, who also happens to be a Mr. Jerry, a heart attack! When he realized what I had done, he was so worried, but I added to it when I turned to him and said, "Do you think AAA will mind coming out more than once in a month to unlock your car?" Yes, a week and a half prior to this, I did lock my keys in my car. Mr. Handsome was so relieved to know I had finally gone and made the extra key after this incident! There is a reason my friends call me Lucy! OH! And the maintenance guy DID unlock my car!

The OTHER spring banner taking shape.

After band we decided to go to the local park by us. Lindsay accidentally dropped her glasses in the pond. THE BOY graciously volunteered to get them, which he did. And then everyone wanted in on the fun. It wasn't until AFTER we went up by the playground and read the rules for the park, that we learned it was illegal to swim in the pond. My friend and I were mortified. And what's even worse is, someone was arrested over the weekend for swimming on park property! Not at this park, it was downtown in the Cape Fear River. I would never swim in there - ever again. There are all kinds of snakes, alligators, flotsam and jetsom. It's like a little Hudson River - well, except we have alligators. 

Beaker got to go to a birthday party! By herself! One of her little friends had a birthday party and she had a ball! We are terrible, horrible, bad parents. We don't do birthday parties with friends. Not because I don't want to but we celebrate everyone's birthday about three times. Once with my side of the family, once with Taylor's side, if we are there or they happen to be here, and then with just us. By the time, we are done, I am partied out. And we have SEVEN birthdays to celebrate, which translates into approximately 21 birthday parties. Now, when they children turn seven, they get a big sleepover birthday party. They can invite as many people, providing they are the same gender as the birthday child, as they want. And I try to pull out all the stops. The girl parties, quite frankly, are the most stressful. Robert's was drama free, everyone obeyed, no issues going to sleep, and we even had to babysit a younger sibling of two of the attendees! The girls tend to be a bit bossy, dramatic, and overall emotional. But they still have fun. 

Here is a montag of our attempts at being crosseyed. The winner of course, is our Beatrice!! 

Here is one of Beaker's friends. Mr. Handsome and I have been teaching the 3-4 Sunday School class the last two weeks. It has been a lot of fun for Mr. Handsome! Poor Beaker doesn't know what to do with us in her class! Mr. Handsome asked each of the children if they had ever disobeyed their parents and her friends were glad to share their sin (weird, I know) but all Beaker did was stare at Mr. Handsome when he asked her!! Ha Ha Ha!!

Here is her other little friend. It was his birthday party she went to.

And Our Beaker!

This rather nondescript and confusing photo is important. For, below the mug you will see a coaster. It belongs to Mr. Handsome and our Maddie made it for him!! He was so delighted. And you can me in the frame behind his mug! I never knew he had a photo of me on his desk!! He is so sweet!! I married Prince Charming!!

Well, that's all the photos! We have had a busy month. Couple that with Mr. Handsome working very long hours and lots of activities going on, it has been crazy. I will make a better effort at writing weekly now. I am glad to be caught up, though. 

Trying to be more on top of things!!

We have a homeschool band and, while it is small, it is a lot of fun for Maddie. There are three second year players (Maddie is one of them) and the rest are all first year players. Here is the link so you can watch her. She is, obviously, the one closest to the camera:

http://youtu.be/WslJ8qT4V8s

Let me know if the link doesn't work. Have a great day!

It's been far too long.....

It's been rather busy the past three weeks but I really don't have any excuse for not posting except my laptop has become obsolete. As in, my nook is my new computer. It does everything but print!! I can type on it but I am not very good - yet. I'm learning. Once I get the hang of it, I will be able to type my blog on it. It does everything but clean the house and babysit the children. Oh wait!! It DOES babysit the children. I've found lots of "educational" games for them to play and it is great, as long as Beaker and Beatrice are getting along, to let them use it while I am trying to get a few things done and I don't want the TV on, which is all the time.

Here we are eating lunch with Grandma at the Italian restaurant near us. It's not a "real" Italian restaurant, for there is no "real" Italian restaurant within 600 miles of here. No offense, south, but you can't hold a candle to John's, Steve's, and Michaelangelo's! Robert on right and John on left.

Here is Lindsay - she's on the right just in case you're not sure - and Mr. Jerry with Lindsay's rabbit. We are at the nursing home. The little girls and Robert always bring some stuffed animal to show our friends. They get such a kick out of it. When I am in a good mood, I let Kristine and Beatrice bring all their doll stuff with them - diaper bag, stroller, carrier, and of course, the well loved doll! 

Here are John and Robert. Robert spent the night at John's house and they are both very tired. 

This is Dagmar the wonder dachschund.

And here is Teddy Bear. He is pretty old and very cute. 

Krsistinie the Great and Beatrice working on multiplication tables. Seriously!! We are cracking up at them. Kristinie the Great has no idea what she's reading and Lindsay is telling Beatrice what to say!! And Kristine repeats it. Notice they are NOT the easy ones, either!

Here we are on one of our favorite field trips: YUP! World Market!! We love world market. You can get marzipan here. That is only important if you grew up in a European home where marzipan was a staple. And you can get toffifay, my most favorite candy in the world. 

At the park with friends, though they are not in this photo.

Or this photo!

Ah, here is one of the friends - on the right! 

Getting ready for the AWANA Grand Prix. 

Robert working hard on a car he won't be able to race because he has a scouting camping trip. 

We had a Sunday School party at our Sunday School teacher's house. He, obviously, lives on a small lake. Robert is out there showing off his boating skills.

Lindsay fishing. No one caught anything.

Here is Kathy and Preacher Correll. He's our Sunday School teacher. We had a great time. The food was great. I had two helpings, I'm embarassed to admit. We have a terrific Sunday School class, too.

Here is Kristinie the Great wandering around. Beatrice got a hook in her thumb. No surprise here as we are truly the safety "party crashers". You can depend on one of us to have an accident at a party! Sort of like when I was a kid you could depend on me hitting my head on something. Sometimes it was even serious enough to go to the ER. And the Chinese doctor there knew me!! 

Here is Beaker fishing. In the background is Glenda and Jerry Smith, THE Mr. Jerry we go to the nursing home with. They really enjoyed fishing. What was funny was watching the adults, including myself, fish with Scooby Doo and Barbie fishing poles!! We did bring regular poles but never got around to getting them out. When you have as many children as we have, there's always a lot of paraphernalia to be shared! 

Maddie fishing!

Here is our Preacher rowing our children. He is very brave. Most people get tired of being around us or try to avoid spending time with us but he, and Mr. Jerry and Mrs. Glenda, and several other friends, never tire of being around us! Boy, are they an encouragement to us!! We really thank the Lord for them. 

Here is everyone hoping a fish will just jump out at them! Actually, I think they are watching Maddie and/or Robert row the boat.

Um, yes, that IS our girly girl Lindsay holding a worm.

Mr. Handsome rowing Beakster and I think that is Lindsay.

At home, practicing using the bow. We're not very good but hopefully we will take some time to practice. We need some kind of weapon to protect ourselves since guns will become illegal at some point. I will not elaborate here as I may get some bleeding heart liberals on here and I don't want to offend them too badly.

I thought we would get a photo of Kristinie the Great shooting the bow, but obviously you got yours truly. Don't I look like I should be living off the land?!! 

Robert showing us how it's done.

Spring banner design nixed. We are going with vines and lettering that says, "I am the vine; ye are the branches." 

This design is also nixed. This one is for Fourth of July. We are going to make red and blue VERTICAL stripes because, yes you probably guessed it, it looks like a tie!! And vertical are a lot easier to cut. Horizontal would be very difficult to stitch on without the thread showing on the other color when I make the hems. So we are going with blue and red VERTICAL stripes and white stars appliqued on top. I am hoping we can do 25 on each banner but I think I will give my sew out helper a heart attack. I'm a bit overzealous I suppose. 

Ahhhhhh, the joys of killer badminton. Yes, in our home it's a dangerous sport to play. But fun. Seven to eight racquets, six birdies, and lots of children equals craziness central! 

Here are the Cubbies getting ready to Start yer Engines at our AWANA Grand Prix!! What a great time we had, too!! Beaker, Rachel, and John waiting to be called to bring their car to Mr. Jason.

Here are the Sparkies waiting to race. Beatrice, Lindsay, and Megan.

And our Trek club: from the left, Maddie, Jared, Jacob, Evanne, and Toni.

And the winners are!!! Everyone in our family won a trophy so no tears. I can tell you, that was a HUGE relief!! And John won first place in Cubbies. Tom was a proud daddy. He couldn't be there so he had to live through Erin's photos she sent. Maddie's car went about 203mph!!!

Beatrice happy to have a trophy with her new webkinz, Pucky. Yes, Pucky. I have no idea.

Here is Beaker with her car.

We had a lot of other things going on. Of course, Robert and Taylor went camping with scouts. We are getting ready for Easter and Taylor's birthday which is April 7. That is always exciting because we have a big party at church for him and one of his friends, whose birthday is a day later, or earlier; I can't remember. We'll also celebrate it at my parents on Easter. Around here, we usually have at least three birthday parties for each person. Have a great week! :) Shhhhhhh... Don't tell but my absolute most favorite holiday is coming up. Seriously. Yes. April Fool's Day. And I have got some great pranks to play on Mr. Handsome. I am going to sew all of his underwear together. Don't worry, I won't use my sewing machine; I am just going to get a needle and thread and run it through the whole pile twice and tie it up. What do you think? And if I can get my groove on, I am going to paint a bar of soap with clear nail polish and put it in the shower. I really am torn with this one, being the cheapskate that I am but I guess I can use the veggie peeler and just peel off the nail polish, right?! Don't tell him!! It's been quite a number of years since I have played one but I love to play jokes on people. The last April Fool's joke I played was on my family. I made meatloaf cupcakes and tinted mashed potatoes to look like frosting. I didn't tell them what I was doing and served them for dessert. We even pranked the neighborhood kids, too!! Ha ha ha haaaa.... Remember Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart doeth good like a medicine...

Wee wee wee alllllllll the way home.....

Yup, that's my title and I'm sticking to it! Thinking we were going to just jump right into Monday after our vacation, it came as no small surprise on Monday around 10:00am when I started feeling kind of bad. I told the children to start school and make lunch and I was going to lie down. Well, what I thought was going to be a short rest became a five hour nap!! I was sick. By Tuesday I was feeling slightly better and back in the land of the living to a certain degree. I still slept from after lunch until around 3:00. But by Wednesday, I was a lot better and I had noticed something: (this is ironic because at one of my friends' blogs she is ALSO discussing potty training!!): everytime I turned around Beaker had a new set of clothes on. I know that Beatrice and Kristinie the Great love to change their clothes on a whim but this was getting ridiculous. As I was musing to myself, quite loud but definitely not yelling, well, I was really complaining, Maddie happened to hear. She said, Oh, that's because Grandma Blake put her in pull-ups all week!" Well, that explains a lot! So we had a little course in re-potty training last week. I thank the Lord it was not a long process but it did take a little "prodding" to convince her that it would be in her best interests to use the toilet. After that, she was fine. We finally left the house on Thursday, though I thoroughly enjoy being home. It is a lot of fun to spend time with the children when I am well, but when I am sick they get kind of stir crazy, even when they go outside to play, so they were thrilled to go out. We went to my mom and dad's and had lunch with Mom.

We celebrated our pastor's birthday last Sunday and here are two of the cakes we picked out. It was a fun time and it was great to have a Birthday party for him. 

It is ironic in this photo that Kristinie the Great has a pull-up on but it was Wednesday night and right before she was to go to bed. She is teaching Pat-Pat how to play Angry Birds! She is also using my Nook Tablet which for some reason has become not-my-Nook-Tablet! Everyone ELSE wants to use it. I highly recommend it. It does everything but my wash, the kitchen, and vacuum. I put my grocery list on it last week and it was great not to have to carry a pen and paper. I even managed not to get confused and miss things! I also had my Food Lion list on my phone so I could cross reference. I know, I'm just a nerd! 

Here is Maddie in Dagmar the Wonder Dachschund's cage. She thought it would be funny to be in there. Dagmar is my mom's and dad's dog.

Friday Frenzy came quickly last week due to the fact that we only had two days of actual days! Here is one of my friends' children after his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We're at co-op. He is so cute. He is one of Beakers' buds.

And here is what happens when you leave the house at 8:30am and don't arrive home until approximately 5:00pm. We start with co-op then have lunch except today I made the VERY BIG mistake of going shopping at Sam's. I say VERY BIG mistake because it wore the children out. Then we went to band, then art, back to band, then back to art. Don't I sound like a boomerang! It was a great day but clearly tiring. We raced home, I fed the children, we brought them to church for play practice, and Mr. Handsome and I got a date! And free babysitting! HA!

Saturday, Robert got to race in the regional pinewood derby for Scouts. He did not place but he had a great time racing. His car ran approximately 213 mph, while the fastest cars were going 118 mph and upwards to 221 mph!! We came home, I finished food shopping, then we got to have a great dinner. After being sick last week, (I did forget to mention that everyone else but Maddie was sick too, because I was too focused on myself.) we have ramped up our healthy eating. That is not to say we don't eat junk food. I have been trying to be sure that our main meals, especially lunch and dinner, have a lot of good healthy food. Saturday night we had a roast beef and blue cheese salad with parmesan bread and grapes, served up buffet style. Everyone LOVED it! I couldn't believe it. The purple lettuce was kind of bitter but everyone ate it. And I have decided to try to find a new vegetable to give them each time we go shopping. Everyone is pretty much on board now with brussels sprouts and asparagus, so I bought some sugar snap peas and they liked them. I did have to explain to them that they didn't need to take the peas out of the shells, though. I am glad that they are patient with me! Short post this week but hopefully we will have more excitement this week.