Wednesday, March 30, 2011

In a nutshell...

The post-holiday part of our winter was eventful, with long stretches of nothingness in  between events. We celebrated Ace turning 6. We had his b-day dinner at Friendly's and a small party over winter break. They played kinect, played some Transformer's themed party games and made "allsparks" from construction paper and shoeboxes. It was very low key and fun, Ace is in his element with just a few friends who share his interests (toys, food, fart jokes) so he was well behaved and so were his buddies. A few weeks later we celebrated Hayley's 9th birthday early with a trip to the A. Girl doll store and a "fancy" dinner out in Boston. The night before her birthday she had a friends over for more kinect, a dance party, and a movie. Again, it was perfectly simple and fun. For anyone with more than one child, I highly recommend lowering expectations for birthday parties (actually, I recommend lowering expectations all together).  It has taken so much pressure off this year not to plan parties and the kids have enjoyed their birthdays as much as any other year. In fact, I think they may have had more fun because the day was really focused on them and they had more than one celebration.
We spent a week in NC, househunting and getting to know our soon-to-be home. It was busy and the kids were pretty bored but it was a nice break from the ordinary and got me feeling really excited about our move this summer.
So, that was the rest of our winter. I'm leaving out some very important events of course, like Lucy's continued resistance to potty training. If you ask her if she will try to use the potty she will look at you like you suggested she try snorting pepper and say "I do that later, Mommy".  Hayley has lost 2 more teeth, one while she was eating her first half rack of ribs (the girl is 40 pounds soaking wet and she ate those ribs like they were a light snack, our waitress was astounded.) Ace is into all things Transformers, he watches the DVD's on the mini tv in his room while acting out the scenes shot for shot with his toys. Ever since the week that Julia was sick and spent the day in front of the tv she has been really into cooking shows. She loves to watch Giada and the Neelys and then request whatever they are making for dinner (ironically, her favorite food is still ramen noodles).
One more thing and then I will end this rambling. As the weather has improved I've started a new routine of taking one of the kids at a time with me on my evening walk with the dogs. I used to resist taking them because it was my time to have some quiet but now I've started taking my own walk earlier in the day and I've discovered how much I enjoy the one on one time with the kids. Ace will open up and talk to me without getting silly and distracted. Hayley gets to talk without being interrupted and Julia and Lucy mostly love to ask questions and anxiously await one of the dogs' pooping. I hope they don't get tired of it because I love it.