So you had a bad day...

There are certain things one doesn't want to write about publicly, but in the interest of maybe making someone else feel better I will share "one of those days" with you.

After watching Joseph scratch his head for a couple of days I finally thought, I better check. Sure enough, it was the dreaded hair infestation. And Rebecca, too. But here I have to tell you that for her, poor girl, it was the third time this school year. Can you believe it? And believe me, I'm beginning to be an expert right now. People ask, have you done this or that? Yes, I've done it all, including spending more money than you want to know and done more loads of laundry than I can count....

I worked on the kids that evening and had the professional lady come out the very next day. (Did you know there were professionals to help with this issue? I didn't the first time.) As she was working on Rebecca, Joseph started throwing up. I thought it was just because he was eating popcorn on an empty stomach (I was letting them watch movies to distract them from getting their hair done), but no, he had a fever, too, so it was the stomach flu.

So, on top of dealing with the dreaded you know what, I had a sick kid.

But no day would be complete without damage to your car, right? I dragged all my kids, including the feverish, sick kid (who didn't want to move) into the car so we could pick Warren up and then proceeded to back out of the driveway. Crunch.

Oh no, not the stroller again. Please let it not be my stroller. But no, it was the tail light, which had been coming loose for sometime and had chosen my special day to fall off the car. So, we took it in a few days later and even though they had quoted me $80 including labor over the phone someone apparently misquoted and it was actually $250. Arg. Oh, and of course they discovered that it was time for our back breaks to be replaced, too. Like my friend once said, you blow on a car and it costs you a hundred dollars.

I have to admit. The first two times we had the infestation I didn't do so well. Especially the second time (It was several months later, so not related.) The second time I completely lost it. Majorly. This time, after thirty seconds of tears the night we discovered it, I actually did well. I've been laughing at the irony of it all. And on top of it, one of my friends wrote to me about an infestation they are fighting in their house of a different kind. I'll DEFINITELY take mine over hers. Mine is conquerable, even if it's hard.

To quote Bob:

Can we fix this?

Yes, we can.



Hope your week was better than mine.

A Family Lives Here: Hide-outs

Where would childhood be without the occasional "Let's built a fort!" activity.
Can you see the kiddos?



After playing in their "fort" for awhile they decided to have movie time.



I loved making hide-outs as a kid. Sometimes I don't want to let them, because it's work to clean up. But I try to remind myself of how much I loved it, too, and just let them do it.

After all, a family lives here.

This is part of Queen Scarlett's Fridays, "A family lives here" series.

Mother's Day 2011

The arrival of the balloons


However, trying to get a successful picture with three kids and three balloons is not so easy!






Ooops, there go the balloons...

Success at last! (Well, sort of-if you count that we can see part of the balloons!)


It's a little easier without number three! :)

Don't I have the greatest job in the world!

Easter 2011

Easter was festive with two of my brothers in town. We had fun finding eggs and eating a scrumptious ham dinner. Once Theo discovered the eggs had candy inside he was unstoppable!

Children's Book Week!

It's Children's Book Week, hip hip hooray! If I were really on the ball and feeling better I would be preparing a fun book party. I have ideas stashed in my head and will do it another time...but for now we'll just celebrate by acknowledging my LOVE LOVE LOVE of children's books and my dear friend, Queen Scarlett's fun book giveaway. Go check it out on her blog. She has been doing one every day this week. They're all still open.

Tonight I will share with you two books that received top favorite status because my children requested them over and over.

For Rebecca it was Goodnight Gorilla. When she was around 2 years old this was part of our nightly routine. We would delve into the pictures, look for the balloon, the banana, and the moon on many pages, we would act surprised as we saw the big white eyes in the middle of the dark room and laugh and laugh at the gorilla's big grin as he is discovered by the zoo keeper's wife. She loved this book that I even bought a small copy to take with us on our trip to Germany, hoping it would help her feel a sense of routine and settle down despite jetlag.

For Joseph the number one book I will forever associate with his toddlerhood is: The Bravest Knight. I think he requested this book every night for about a year. Before he could even talk properly he could finish all the sentences in this book. The illustrations are great and I don't think I ever got tired of reading it to him.