Wordless Wednesday

Just so you know

Just so you know, my Katie Kat isn't always throwing tantrums...

Holly's 13th birthday party

A blogworthy day

I am skipping "Flashback Friday" today because I had such a blogworthy day.
First off...my friend Julie brought me flowers yesterday so when I sat down to eat my Frosted Cheerios, I smelled lilacs. That made me happy...well, it made me as happy as possible for it being early in the morning.
I ran some errands and had to resist the urge to stop and get a coffee. I am only allowed one foo foo coffee a week and I chose to get one Tuesday when it was butt cold out and I convinced myself that I better get a coffee since I was sure that it was the last butt cold day and spring with all it's warm sunshiny weather was on it's way. Sorry, that was a long run-on sentence and completely irrelevant to my story. Anyhoo, I got home and was just going to put some water on for some tea (boring) when I saw someone pull into the driveway. It was the mom of one of Holly's friends. She was dropping off her daughter's clothes for Holly's sleepover tonight. As she was leaving she said, "Do you like coffee?" It just so happened that the foo foo coffee place had given her an extra coffee. AND NOT JUST ANY COFFEE! A white chocolate mocha...MY FAVORITE KIND! I haven't had one since 2009. I have been getting non-fat, sugar free lattes since the new year (I know, why even bother). Here's a close-up...

Notice...2% milk and the W/WH means "with whipped cream" for all of you Midwesterners who think that coffee should be drinken black (shudder).

It just so happened that this little gem had come in the mail yesterday...

So I sat down on my couch and drank my white chocolate mocha and looked at pictures of pretty houses and flowers.

Thank you Robin!

Switching gears a little here...this is why you don't let a six-year-old babysit...

She found a package of Rolos that I had bought for one of my Coffee Break ladies who has a birthday this month. I was so proud of myself because I resisted eating them yesterday when I was craving chocolate.
Here's a close-up...There was no paper lying around so I assume she ate that too.

This is what happened when I took them away...

I won't tell you what I did with the half-eaten, soggy remains of the Rolos.
Holly is FINALLY having her birthday party tonight. She has five friends over and they are spending the night in the playhouse. So far they have decorated the playhouse so it looks like some sort of sorority house, ate pizza, watched Mrs. Doubtfire, ate brownies and ice cream, tie dyed t-shirts, and this...

You don't even want to know.

More pictures tomorrow!

Keeping it real

1. Today I was so craving something sweet that I took chocolate chips and dipped them into a jar of peanut butter.
2. My youngest daughter doesn't talk much. I'm sure it's because I didn't breastfeed her. She knows about ten words. Momma isn't one of them.
3. Tonight I ate at a restuarant named "Chubbys". Do I need to say more?
4. I love reality t.v.
5. I have recently discovered that I have a terrible memory. If I've told you I'd do something and I haven't done it yet...you better remind me. If I went to Dordt with you and don't remember you...I'm sorry.
6. Remember this picture? Remember I told you that I put money in it? I didn't.
7. Sam just brought home his report card. The only thing he needs work on is "bouncing a ball". Where did his father and I go wrong? There goes all my dreams of a son being drafted by the NBA.
8. I did this to my chair the other day.

Now I don't know how to put it back together.

9. Remember this from yesterday?

I was laughing at her when took this picture.

10. Sometimes when I am sitting on the couch I am so lazy that I tell Sam I will give him $100.00 if he goes to get me a glass of water. I never pay him.

11. Anyone who talks to me before 8:00 a.m. is very brave.

12. Most days my kitchen counter looks like this...

13. On a recent Sunday when I was day dreaming during a sermon, I could not come up with our vice president's name.

14. I nearly lit myself on fire yesterday.

15. My neighbor recently got back from California and graciously gave me some really good oranges they got there. Today she asked me if we ate all of them. I said we had even though we still had a few left because I was hoping she would give me some more. She did.

Wordless Wednesday

You know you're livng with a kindergartener when...

his sister makes him angry at the supper table so he says..
"Yeah, well you know what Holly? Girls drool and boys are cool!"

Wordless Wednesday

Spring break wrap-up, some really cute girls, and a couple of Sammisms

I'm wondering where we would have to move to put the kids in school full time. If they need a nice family physician there and it never snows, I might be interested. Just kidding...sort of. It was a long week. Holly wasn't home a whole lot which left Sam and Katie and me...home alone...together...all day long. Katie wanted to play with anything Sam was playing with so he would spend more time building elaborate barricades to keep Katie away from his toys and yelling at her then actually playing with his toys. There was a lot of whining from Katie and a lot of "Can I go back to school yet?" from Sam.

Sam also got in the habit of waking up when John got up and crawling into bed with me and going back to sleep. This may seem really sweet but for some reason he wasn't comfortable unless his feet were in my face.

Enough of that though. It wasn't all bad. One day we went to Sonic for lunch. There's something about getting your food delivered by a gal on roller skates and eating in the jeep that's lots of fun.

We also went to the mall and let the little ones play while Holly and I shared a pretzel.

Yes mother...I did put money in it.
John gave Sam a much-needed hair cut. I love his face, it looks like he's bracing himself for electric shock therapy.

And here's my beautiful girls. They both got new spring dresses and although it's been a little

chilly here, they couldn't wait to show them off.

In closing...some Sammisms.

Sam: "Is Mrs. Thomas really married?"

Me: "Yes"
Sam: "Too bad"

Sam (upset over having to go to bed before Katie): "I think I'd like to go live with another family."

Flashback Friday

This is what we were doing exactly two months ago today...in Cabo San Lucas...on the funnest cruise ever. Every time I look at this picture it just makes me laugh. We made the best memories on that trip. I love how we learned about the Giggling Marlin bar from an seventy-year-old lady we ate breakfast with one morning, I love how we had to TEAR John away from shopping to go into the bar, I love how we laughed so hard we nearly wet our pants as we watched each other get hung upside down, I love how we drank margaritas at 9:30 in the morning, and I love how this Mexican guy is just standing there with a bored expression thinking to himself "these Americans are crazy and they better leave me a big tip".

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Susie!

A blog post with lots of pictures

Happy Easter to all my dear friends and relatives that I didn't see (or talk to) on Sunday! I hope you all had a wonderful time of celebrating with loved ones. We had a great day. We made it to church on time and with relatively few "incidents" (i.e. discovering a poopy diaper while I'm buckling Katie into her car seat or Sam and Holly arguing over who gets the red Lifesaver) and had a lovely service. I love, love, love Easter hymns. Later in the day, the whole gang minus Mark (we missed you Mark) came over for an Easter feast. There were not one but two chocolateilicious desserts - I was very happy...and full.
I spent Saturday getting the house ready for guests. Which, by the way, why do I do that? Because a. John's family has separation issues. They never leave my kitchen table. It is truly amazing how many Hiemstras we can get around a table. One might occasionally wander into the bathroom because...well...because they got to go but they always come right back. b. I need to mop the floors after they leave so why do it right before they come? c. No one will ever see the dust in the living room because they will not go in there (see letter a.) d. As long as they are eating, they are happy. They are also very loud. I realize that has nothing to do with cleaning my house but I thought you should know.
Anyhoo, while I cleaned the house, John took the kids outside to work. He informed them that one of the reasons he had children is so that he had someone to boss around. I was told they had to pick up a lot of sticks but I think they got some play time in too.

I had to take a picture of the back of them. Katie loves to swing with her big sister but she hangs on for dear life!

This is Sam's look after I said, "If you want me to push you, you have to say I'm the best mom in the world and you will never leave me for another woman."

John actually worked.

In the afternoon, we took the kids swimming up in Canada. They may talk funny and have weird tasting ketchup but they have the nicest recreation centers up there.

Katie wore one of Holly's Easter dresses. Since I was having some serious hair issues, Holly took some pictures of her for me before church.

And then she attempted a group shot..

I love it! It's so creative and artsy and it just captures my personalities of my children. Okay, not really but I feel bad because I accidently deleted the picture I took of them all together after church. They were sitting nicely in front of a backdrop of wildflowers, no one had a cheesy smile and Katie wasn't struggling to get away. It was perfect. Okay, not really.
I deleted the picture because I was trying so hard to get a shot of these beauties...

My sister-in-law laughs at me because I take so many food pictures. What can I say? I love food and I love the fact that it always sits still, doesn't give me a cheesy smile, and never struggles to get away.
After lunch, it was time for eggs. The big kids hid them in exchange for five percent of the little kid's loot.

Uncle Gary helping Katie.

Derek, let me know if you want a copy of this picture to put in your school locker. Chicks dig guys who aren't afraid to swing with babies.

Some of the gang eating leftovers while taking a "Quirky Bible Characters" quiz.

Jesse won! Here he is with his jellybean pooping bunny. He's smiling because he knows that chicks dig guys who win jellybean pooping bunny's.

Moving on...we took a long walk yesterday and Katie was too pooped (sorry about all the references to poop) to eat lunch.

Holly is all registered for Dordt Discovery Days! She is so excited, especially when she found out they get to stay in the air-conditioned dorms this year. Apparently, it got a little toasty last year. She is taking "Design of a Dime" and "Theater Makeup" for her classes this year. I tried to talk her into "Survivor" but with no luck. I guess she thinks eating bugs and not taking a shower all week is dumb. Silly girl.