The Baby Is The Boss In Our Family

We've known Elizabeth ruled the roost the moment we told the boys they'd have a sister. They talked about her nonstop, worried about her before she was even born, and doted on her when she was. Quite honestly, it's amazing she's even able to speak because she has two older brother's more than willing to do pretty everything for her (for real, the girl has yet to lift a finger during clean up time). I've noticed her bossiness take shape the past few years. A few weeks ago, one of the daycare kids needed help finding something and Elizabeth rushed in saying, "I'll help you! I'm a really good finder." She then proceeded to tell every other child where to look but she herself never once joined in on the action. She's that kind of bossy.

So, we were treated to her "teaching skills" (otherwise known as bossiness) when she taught the boys some of her dance positions and moves she's learned. Turn the volume up and try to make out the figures in the sunshine and lamp (which was Elizabeth's spotlight, because she needed one).

My favorite part of the second video is Harrison exclaiming, "it looks like we're sniffing each other's butts."

I think we might have a little dance instructor on our hands!

Dinner Table Adventures: The Tale of Spaghetti Squash and Shitty Pants

You might have seen my Instagram video that showed my sobbing five year old crying about, mmm...nothing. Absolutely nothing. She simply spent the first ten minutes of dinner crying. Then she was fine. Completely and mind-boggling fine.

I would be shocked, but "interesting" things happening during dinner time seems to be the theme this week. Monday night a mini gagged on a lima bean and nearly lost all of their dinner all over the table. We had to resort to a 'no more talking to each other' rule when the other two ganged up on the near puker because they were worried he was going to ruin their dinner by "puking all over our plates."

The next night was our detailed discussion about hens reproductive organs and we had to ease fears that any eggs we had in our refrigerator WOULD NOT turn into baby chickens overnight. For real, a half hour of our family dinner was taken up talking about chickens. Then we have sob fest night.

That brings us to tonight. Dinner was spaghetti squash mixed with vegetable pasta (because they don't like "just plain spaghetti squash") with homemade tomato sauce, green beans, and peaches. Everything was great until the middle mini decided he couldn't stomach spaghetti squash. I informed him he would have to eat (as he has done hundreds of times before) if he wanted his small bowl of treats (M & M's and a few Twizzlers are huge treats in this house). We were treated to another gagging incident.

While the oldest laughed at him, he suddenly stopped, his eyes grew huge, and he said, "I think I pooped my pants from laughing!" This sent the other two into fits and giggles, as I rolled my eyes, looked at my husband and said, "all I want to do is actually eat my dinner." Thankfully it was a false alarm ("toots and poops are a lot alike," or so I'm told) and there was no more gagging, choking, or shitting incidents and everyone got their treats.

Can't wait to see how dinner goes tomorrow night.


Here's a quick video of only part of the hens and roosters discussion we had. Clearly it was near bedtime.

Let's Dance Instead of Clean

Anything to get out of cleaning up the playroom/daycare room at the end of the day, right??? 

The minis call this "having fun while cleaning." I call it "trying to drive mom crazy as she yells at us to pick up our toys over and over again until she gives up and tells us to go to bed." Hot Blooded is one of the mini's favorite songs. I caught the boys dancing and singing one night (during clean up time this week) and Elizabeth doing the same the next afternoon (when she was supposed to be cleaning her room). These boogie-ing bodies cracked me up!

Vacation Videos

We took a TON of photos during our week out West, but only a few videos. Here's a few of my faves that accurately capture my minis:

We listened to "the Moana song" (How Far I'll Go) so many damn times I could scream (we actually listened to my entire playlist on repeat the entire week. Somehow I'm not sick of Take The Money and Run or American Pie). The minis refused to watch very few of the dvd's I packed and instead chose to take in the views, read books, and belt out the playlist. 

One of our must stops was Wall Drug. When I went to SD years (and years) ago, we never stopped and I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. We ate at the cafe and let the kids play in the kids area outdoors. The minis loved the fountains (as evident from the above video).

Every evening at Mt. Rushmore they do a lighting ceremony. It was a very cool ceremony, minus the thunderstorm that started at the exact time the ceremony began....and lasted throughout the night. I attempted to capture the cool lightening strikes we witnessed as we drove to the hotel, but I didn't have the best timing.

Did I mention car dancing was very popular this road trip???

And hand games such as these. Miraculously no one got hurt and the games didn't end in tears.

Driving through the one lane tunnel along Needles Hwy in Custer State Park. Beautiful drives (actually one of our favorites from the entire trip), but a tad nerve wracking.

Stopped at a gas station (or maybe waiting for food, I can't remember) and still dancing and singing, but mad that mom is trying to capture them (yet again).

A Look At Life (From Last Weekend)

I love to that we have a (fairly) well documented thanks to the blog (bonus that it keeps you all entertained as well). While pictures are great, sometimes videos paint the best picture of life. Here's a few videos I took throughout our weekend:

Hiking with Lil Miss E is NEVER dull!

The minis were playing Power Rangers as we walked along the trail. The pretty much ran our entire 2.5 mile hike.

Pulling out the tooth with a Nerf Gun WORKED....well, kinda. The tooth is gone and that's all that matters. Apologies for ending the video with an "oh shit," as we temporarily lost the tooth. Luckily there was no freak out from the mini about it (just from me).

The minis played Old Maid half of the day on Sunday! Mom and dad even got in on a couple of rounds (not seen in the video).

Videos of a Monday Night

Sometimes when it's too cold outside my minis get a little crazy from being cooped up (they don't do well with lack of outdoor time). The youngest mini especially has a case of the crazies which was very evident Monday night. Here's some of her silliness:

I absolutely love these (I've watched them a few dozen times). I just had to share with everyone, but mostly put them in a place that one day I'll randomly come across them when I'm looking for past posts. Thanks blog for keeping my memories for me!

Vacation Videos

I am soooo excited to share details of our vacation with everyone, which is why I'm deeming next week Travel Week on the blog. All. Week. Long. You'll get so many details and pictures then of our vacay you're going to feel like you were there. To satisfy my excitement of sharing, I've decided to share some of my favorite vacation videos with everyone ahead of time.

I attempted to scared the kids/trick them into thinking it was a bear on the patio. It didn't go as planned and my lovely family almost locked me out of the cabin. This is what 13 hours in a car will do to ya.

A highlight of the trip for me was hiking a mile along the Appalachian Trail. We learned a lot about the Trail from our guide during White Water Rafting. If I were more brave, I would love to hike all of the Appalachian Trail someday (but it's not on my Must Do list).

Grotto Falls was one of my favorite hikes. We sweated, climbed, and worked our butts off on this "easy" level hike, but it was sooo rewarding at the end when we came to this gorgeous waterfall. We went swimming, dunked our heads in the freezing cold water, and watched the salamanders and tadpoles swim by. 

We LOVED White Water Rafting! Our guide was amazing and told us tons of info about the Smokies, living in the area, the river, rafting safety, and more. We were sooo proud of the boys, who actually paddled really well and got the seal of approval from our guide that they would be more than ready for Class 3 and 4 rapids next time (Elizabeth was holding us back). 

Sliding Rock was a must do on our trip. We sent Matt and Max down the waterfall with the GoPro on their heads (at different times) to give everyone a look of all of the fun they need to have! Max commentary on the second video cracks me up. I was behind him the entire time and I didn't catch that he was talking to the GoPro! 

Surprise Vacation Video

We've managed to keep our road trip plans somewhat secret from the minis. This has really cut down on the pre-road trip craziness from all of the impending excitement. Yesterday evening, we told the minis our road trip plans. I have to laugh about their level headed response to our news.

Despite their lack of enthusiasm on the video, after the camera was off there were TONS of questions and looking at maps. We're ready for our next adventure!

A Road Trip Surprise

We've been waiting to take an upcoming road trip for a couple of months. Our minis have inherited our love for road trips and new experiences. To get them even more excited, we've kept the trip a secret! They know that we are going somewhere, but they don't know when we're going or where we're going. They've spent the last few weeks trying to guess where we'll be headed:

The oldest mini found out where we were headed the other night when I was booking hotels. Sometimes I forget that he can read. He's doing a pretty good job of keeping our destination a secret. I'm so excited to tell them we'll be going on a whirlwind, long weekend trip to Indianapolis to attend Earth Day activities at North America's largest children's museum! We'll be leaving on a Thursday 
after school. I plan on surprising them that morning before they leave for school. I have already pre-apologized to their teachers for this.  Stay tuned for the surprise reveal video in less that two weeks!

Kid Down

What's better than a kid quickly falling and then acting like it never happened??

• This happened to Harrison during his first music program in elementary school. His face in this video is priceless. I could not stop laughing and had to share the quick video because, well, kids are hilarious.

In The Car

We've slowly been building our kids up for longer car rides. Hubs and I are road trip kind of people and look forward to going place via long car trips. As you can figure, kids and long car trips aren't exactly compatible. For Mother's Day weekend I treated my family to a weekend in the Wisconsin Dells. We had a fantastic time, but the five hour road trip there and back turned into a six hour plus ordeal with long bathroom breaks, needing special treats from gas stations, and playing at parks to get some energy out. All in all the three minis did GREAT on the drives to and from.

At one point I looked back and realized both boys had taken their shirts off, Elizabeth was hiding in her blanket, and they all three were trying to entertain themselves and each other. This is what I shot:

They always know how to keep things interesting. We're definitely working our way up for a cross country road trip someday!

Little Moments

I firmly believe that life's littlest moments are the most important. Those little moments lead to big moments that change life. Yesterday we went on a long hike and at the end of the hike we came to a playground and beach. My three minis thought the beach looked so inviting after our 3 mile hike on an 80 degree day.

"Can we please go to the beach mom!!??!!"

"Sure we can dip our toes in," I replied to their eagerly awaiting faces. I was met with hoots and hollers and sweaty hugs as they ran towards the water. The water was FREEZING and was more cooling off than I needed. Of course dipping our toes in quickly became having races into the water.

The water may have been cold, but their laughter made it all worth it. Someday I'll look back on this day and remember really cold water and the expressions on the kid's faces when I told them to dive in with their clothes on. While these little moments on this day didn't seem to morph into any big moments,  it was a great reminder that these little moments are what makes life so grand.

Swing Dancing Boys

If you've ever read any of my posts on FB, you probably know that we're a fan of dance parties to get that extra energy out at the end of the night. Recently I've been listening to a lot of 50's music on Pandora. Which means they've caught Hubs and myself swing dancing a time or two in the living room (and we're NOT good therefore there will never be video of that). Here's what the boys have picked up:

My favorite parts of this video: Harrison in Elizabeth's Elsa dress, Max wearing his fingerless Ninja Turtle gloves and pirate eye patch on his forehead, AND the fact that I got to witness this live, in person. These are the moments that keep me going when I'm ready to lose it with one of these little dancers.

Let It Go

Elizabeth has jumped on the "Let It Go" band wagon recently and has been singing the song (along with "Uptown Funk" but due to the inappropriate language she believes they're saying, we won't post that video).

The Proper Way To Go Down A Ladder

If you've ever had any question about how to get down a ladder, just watch my youngest Elizabeth figure it out.

Obviously this is the proper way to go down the ladder (and her preferred way).

"This Is What I Come Home To?"

My husband is usually a pretty good sport about my crazy ideas for the kids: a flour sensory bin on our carpet? A mud day in the backyard? Last week's idea involved us rearranging most of our living space to create Book Store Day. Not surprising, the kids made a huge mess with all of the books and took their creativity to a whole new level. This was the mess he was greeted too:





How much of a good sport is he about this mess? He laughed, put his head in his hands and then helped me clean it all up while indulging in a beer with me. He's a keeper.

Surprise Ending

I love watching kids play. How they view their world comes out in their every day play. This evening I was thoroughly enjoying watching my three minis play in the backyard and decided to record a bit of it for the hubby. This is what I got:

My sweet, happy video turned dirty. Just another reminder to always expect the unexpected when it comes to kids!

Into Trouble

No matter how closely I watch my minis, they always manage to get into trouble. Case in point, this video:

These two managed to get a hold of our nice camera, take a video, and put the camera back without me even knowing it. It wasn't until I was downloading pictures from the week that I found several videos and fifty or so pictures that had been taken one afternoon when I thought they were playing nicely in Elizabeth's room. Thankfully we can laugh easily about this one since no one was injured and nothing was broken......we'll see how it plays out the next time the minis decide to create their own fun!