MIA

Simply put I've been MIA. I have no excuse but life. Today the boys went back to school and I feel like this is my year to jump back into blogging. Honestly, the only reason I do it is because I feel like I need to document our lives. Ben has little to no photos or written text to document his childhood. It's sad really. I've only seen one photo of Ben when he was 2 and a handful when he was a little older. I refuse to have that be my childrens' fate. Ben is really good at journaling so I hope to continue my effort using this blog as my personal journal to share with my children and future posterity. No better time to start than today, right? First day of school photos coming right up!

Noah-8th grade (which by the way was my favorite year of school!)

Adam-6th grade, Seth-2nd grade, Josh-K

Josh got to go and listen to a story on the rug today for a special first day. His official first day is Monday August 29th.

Finishing up last school year

I had a little extra time today so I think I will catch up a little on the blog. I am going back to the last few weeks of school. Noah got involved in a club called Lego Mindstorms. There were 2 fathers who worked at Boeing who volunteered to run a club that taught kids to design, build, and program robots. They worked in teams and Noah's partner in crime was Wyatt. The 5th grade robots were programmed to run through a maze. The 6th grade robots were sumo. That means they were programmed to push the other robot off the edge of the platform. It was really fun to watch them spend 2 months going after school twice a week (sometimes more) learning the programming and building their robots. Then they'd try it in the maze and tweek it if needed. They had a deadline of 2 weeks before the competition. If they couldn't get their robot to successfully complete the maze at the school they couldn't go to the competition. Luckily, they got theirs to work and got to take their robot to the Lagoon State Physics Day to compete. I was really proud of him for sticking to it and getting to the competition. It was a lot of hours and lots of frustration that he had to push through learning this new skill.

Part of the competition was talking to a judge and explaining what you did to create and program your robot. It was to prove that the kids did their own work and not the adults.

The whole group of kids from Jenny P. Stewart. This is both 5th and 6th graders.

Noah working feverishly on his robot

Always wear your seatbelt

I hope that others have this same problem as I do. I spend quite a bit of time planning, prepping, and preparing a nice meal for my family with a dream that it will be a calm and enjoyable experience. It ends up that no one wants to sit down, eat the food, or be nice to mom for all the love and effort she put into it. Okay, I'm a big girl and I can take the criticism like this looks gross, I don't like_______, etc., but it's having to tell my kids who are 3, 5, and 9 to SIT DOWN 10 million times that drives me completely insane. It's no wonder they are hungry 10 minutes later. No sooner than we have cleaned up dinner someone is asking me for a snack. WHAT??? You want a SNACK???  You've gotta be kidding me? All you have to do is hold still for 10 minutes, nix the complaining and shove some food in your mouth. Then I will be perfectly happy to let you go about your crazy little active life. It's exhausting.

I think I found a way to solve the problem...tie down seat belts.

 

Child cruelty? I think not. It's a small mom victory.

 

Going back to my lucky day

I wanted to post this because I needed to show that I don't always post about my kids. Even though they are cuter than me, and involved in a lot more things than I am, sometimes I do things for myself. It isn't often, but in March Stephanie and I made wreaths for St. Patrick's Day. She didn't have anything for her front door for the Irish holiday and neither did I. We found one on the internet that we liked and tried our best to copy it. I think it turned out cute, but lets see what you think.

A doughnut as big as Texas

Adam's soccer team finished their season and coach (NOT Ben) showed up with the biggest doughnuts I have ever seen.  The boys went nuts! Adam continued to go nuts as he ate it. (sugar overload-you know) It was called a Texas doughnut, I believe it's bigger than his head, and it was fantastic! 

What happens in Vegas...

Hello again. Playing more catch up. Another big fun trip I took in March was Vegas with some of my friends. Ali, Nicole, and Megan. I found a deal on a hotel on KSL and planned a trip around that. We signed up for the Cirque Du Soleil 5K at the Springs Preserve. Nicole actually won her age division. She didn't think much of it, but we thought it was fantastic! The race was where we met Big Baby for the first time. I love him!! We got tickets to Mystere and got to see the show. It was amazing! A little bit strange, but Big baby kept us laughing. 

Do you see the giant man in a diaper and baby costume among the other Cirque characters? It's hilarious!

We walked the strip and saw the Bellagio fountains, and went inside to see the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens because Ali had never gone before. She sent me 21 pictures that she took on our trip and 11 of them were of the gardens. I knew she would like it. We went to M&M world, The Coke Store, the worlds largest chocolate fountain, and ate dinner at Bobby's Burger Palace. A dream of mine, by the way. It was de-lic-ous! I had the Dallas burger. It had spice crusted meat with coleslaw, Monterrey Jack cheese BBQ sauce, and pickles. Then I ordered a pistachio shake that was to die for. Here are some pics to remember the trip.

 

Thanks for all the fun memories girls! I can't wait to do it again next year. Someone better learn to drive a stick before next March or I might lose it!