Eating My Words

This was our largest apricot this season. It was bigger than the peaches and nectarines I bought from the store the other day. And more importantly it was tasty.

Five years ago when Matt planted this apricot tree (centered in the picture), it was a stick. Literally. It was as big around as my thumb and maybe four feet tall. I made fun of it and him on numerous occasions. I figured it would never grow or produce any type of edible fruit. I wasn't the only one to make fun. It just looked ridiculous. 

Well, Matt was inspired and we now have a full grown, fruit bearing tree. Not only does it produce hundreds of delicious apricots, but it provides shade for the backyard and the kids climb it almost daily. 

This Weekend

Swimming at the Watson's

Krispy Kreme's Monday morning for breakfast

The kids and Matt also went to the free project for kids at Lowe's on Saturday morning. And Monday night we went to the Johnson's for a barbecue. I just didn't have my camera at the ready for every event.

This Memorial day weekend I have felt especially grateful for our armed services. And for my brother-in-law, Ben and his service to our country. I am thankful for the sacrifices that have been made and are still being made so that the United States of America can be the great place that it is. 

Smile

Multiplication Help

Here is the link I told some of you about last night. This game has really helped Kate get better at her multiplication facts. 

http://www.bigbrainz.com/

Pacifier Update

It has been three days since Maggie has even mentioned having a "ba bu", I think we are over the hill and recovering from the addiction. I have to admit this was a more difficult task than I had imagined. The first four days were absolutely miserable. For me and for her. I felt like the meanest mother in the world (on Thursday I almost caved and gave them back) and she was having serious withdrawal.

The first night (Monday), when the ba bu fairy was coming, she opened up the bag and got two out to use. I didn't realize this until the morning, so she didn't sleep without them that night. She received her gifts from the fairy, but they didn't come close to replacing her pacifier. 

On Friday she took her first nap without crying herself to sleep or repeating in her very sad voice," ba bu, ba bu, ba bu." Since then it has been smooth sailing. I am relieved that she is still having a nap every day and going to bed without any tears. And I no longer have to search for pacifiers before bedtime or climb into her bed in the middle of the night to find them. JOY!!!

Baby Boutique

I am participating in this tonight and tomorrow. 

Anyone who would like to come is invited.

Self Torture

We are in for a tough week. 

Early this morning (1:30 am) after Maggie woke me up because she couldn't find her second "ba bu" (that is what she calls her pacifier), I decided that it is time to get rid of them. She routinely wakes us up in the middle of the night because it has fallen off of her bed, she just can't see it, or it is hiding somewhere in her covers. She has to have two at all sleeping moments. One for her mouth and the other to rub over her face to get herself to go to sleep. In some ways the pacifier is great. She still takes naps and she doesn't fight us to go to bed. But I have to say the drawbacks are starting to outweigh the benefits of the ba bu. I am getting too round to be crawling into her bed at all hours of the night, over the guard rail and sticking my hand down the side of the bed to find one of the blasted things. Or crawling underneath the bed. I'm so glad no one is watching me do this. I am sure it is not pretty. 

So the ba bu fairy is coming tonight. Her pacifiers are all packed up in a plastic baggie to go under her pillow at bedtime and the ba bu fairy will be replacing them with something else. I haven't figured out what yet. I am sure that nothing will do the trick, but at least I can try.

We had a failed attempt at a nap this afternoon without the pacifiers. I took the picture above after I had listened to her cry for a bit and finally told her she could get up. I even took her swimming this morning to see if I could wear her out enough to go to sleep without them.

 

Any suggestions?

Soccer

Kate and Parker are both finishing up their soccer seasons. Kate's final game was last weekend and Parker will have his last game this Saturday.  They have both really enjoyed playing. I can't believe how busy soccer makes my schedule. Between the two of them we have three practices a week and two games on Saturday. Luckily Matt has been able to have most Saturday's off of work so we can split up and get both games covered. They seemed to overlap every week.  I am now debating if we will play again in the fall. Probably, but I have to say I am dreading it a little bit. 

Kate played goalie quite a bit in her last couple of games and really liked it. It made me REALLY nervous. She did a good job though and her team won their final game with Kate in the goal for two of the quarters. 

Parker likes to run and run and run and run, so he mostly played offense and had a shot on goal last week. They have won every single game by pretty wide margins and he loves it. 

Mischief Stool

Margaret is mischievous and she has come up with a way to be even more so. She figured out that if she carries this stool with her, she can get to almost anything. The other day she was standing in my bathroom sink emptying out the medicine cabinet in search for band aids, for her non-wound. She couldn't get down, so she had to call me to help her, because in her words, "she was stuck." I have a hard time getting mad at her for her shenanigans, she just makes me laugh.

Unflattering Tag

My sister Noelle tagged me. And while I would normally ignore this type of thing, she will bug me until I do it, so here it goes. And it isn't pretty. I had never used the photo booth application on my computer before, so at least I learned about that.

so here are the rules:

-take a picture of yourself right now, no primping or preparing. just snap the picture.
-load onto your blog.
-tag 3 people to play… remember if you are tagged on another blog we will all be heading to yours to see if you played along.

now i'm tagging: my friend Erin C., and my cousins Marci and Emily. Sorry! 

Really?

So Matt got this new gadget at Lowe's the other night. It was on sale (for obvious reasons) and he had to buy it. According to him, "It is the sweetest flashlight he has ever had." So for the past two nights I have had this beacon of light shining in my eyes and he uses it as a reading light in bed. It even has a red light on it for an extra romantic evening...right.  Every time he puts it on I can't help but laugh. 

Awards

Kate and Parker both got achievement awards at school for their 2nd trimester grades. Parker had all A's (neither Matt or I remember accomplishing all A's in any grade). And Kate was on the A/B honor roll. They both really enjoy school, which is nice, considering that I hated it from day one and Matt wasn't a big fan either.