March Mind Mush

Well if February was all about firsts, March was all about Mind Mush...Mommy Mind Mush, that is. I know it's a total cliche to blame the things you don't do/forget to do/do by accident on "Mommy Brain"...but it is so. totally. true. And I'm completely serious when I tell you that for every pound of belly I am gaining, I am losing at least that much in brain material. I'm going to be in big trouble by month 9!! (Just for your information, I am only 6 months along but feel at least 8. This is not good.)

So I don't have a list of crazy things I've done/haven't done to prove my mushy mind, but I will give you a first-hand taste of how this mind-mush is affecting my life: primarily, the things I used to care about don't seem very important anymore. They seem kind of hazy, and blurry. Some days that manifests itself in my kids clothing - I don't care if they match (this is Jacki talking, here). Some days that manifests itself in supper. I don't plan it until I'm already cooking it and figure out what it is exactly that I'm cooking (this is meal-planning queen, here). Or my girl has a birthday, and I just don't care that the cake is from Safeway and will probably taste terrible - so long as Ellie thinks it's beautiful and I don't have to bake. On an extreme note, I often just don't care that my boys like to roll around in the dirt. This one is most definitely working out to their advantage.

Well, today I just don't care if this blog makes sense. And I don't care that I'm not going to take the time to edit my pictures. Okay, maybe I care a little...or else I wouldn't have told you. But I don't care enough to spend the time doing it. :)  So here's my attempt at filling y'all in on what went on here in March. If it's a little mixed up, you may need to extend some grace. Or come babysit while I nap and try to re-grow some brain cells.

1. We started off the month with chicken pox. All the kids got it for the second time...but Micah got it the worst. He was a trooper. He just played his harmonica and watched Elmo's World while I painted him with calamine lotion twice a day.

2. Ellie turned 6! CRAZY!

On her actual birthday we made her supper of choice - homemade pizza with LOADS of mushrooms.

 She got this ginormous unicorn stuffy in the mail from her uncle James and was quite pumped.

 She read her birthday cards all on her own.

 And got her first set of Lego - PINK Lego - from Nana and Bapa. SWEEET.

 Josh bought Ellie "something she will just love" : a fake nest. I hope he buys ME one for MY birthday! :)

 Nana and Bapa joined us for supper...and squashed the kids faces. They're such good grandparents.

 Speaking of squashed, Micah loves trying to squash Mr. Potato head glasses on his face. I don't get it.

 OPE! There's Mommy Mind Mush! Couldn't get motivated to bake...so Ellie got ice cream sundaes for her birthday 'cake' that day. She didn't mind. :) Thanks Ellie.

A few days later Ellie had her party - a DOLPHIN party. What a six-year-old theme. :) I DID work up a little umph to decorate. Check this out - I even hunted down two Polly Pocket dolphin toys for the centre piece. Unfortunately one played dead the entire time:

 Oh yes, and I also spent an evening drawing and 'sparkling' that dolphin on the wall. :)

 It was worth it - she made me take this picture with her 'excited smile'. :) I just love this girl. (Today, while I was cutting Josh's hair, she watched Micah in the tub, which I had asked her to do. But then she rolled up her pants, got in with him, scrubbed him down, took him out, dried him off, and put on his diaper...all on her own initiative. She's going to make quite the mom one day! In the meantime, her gift of helping sure blesses me a lot!)

 Ellie chose a small (first ever!) sleepover instead of a 'big loud screaming party'.

 Two of her closest friends, Maybeth and Emily (twins) came over for night...

 And cousin Regan came for the evening. It was just right!

Check out that self-control. Must be six!

Micah likes to wack things/people...even on birthdays.

Movie time! All cuddled up to watch 'Dolphin Tale'.

A few days after that we took Ellie on her birthday date. Here she is with that prize-winning 'excited smile':

We took Ellie to her FIRST ever movie in the theatre - Beauty and the Beast 3D! Slightly scarier than when we watched it on our lap top last year, but she only cried a little bit...

And then off to Build-A-Bear for her first time! She picked this bunny named 'Lilly' and bought clothes for her that matched her own outfit. 

So much fun and totally worth it for this occasion, but we won't be doing that again anytime soon. I can't believe you the things you can buy for a teddy bear!! It says a lot about our society, and kind makes me a little nauseated...

We wanted to take Ellie somewhere 'special' for supper, but she was quite insistent that McDonald's would be the special-est! This is pretty much all we saw of her:

I love you Ellie girl!! You are one special blossoming six year old sweetheart! 

3. Micah got funnier, cuter, and trickier at hiding. The whole family gets SO many giggles from this kid! There really are no words. Come over. Guaranteed you will be entertained.

Oh yes. He's also learned to plank. Thanks to Rob. This is the top of our piano.

4. I just love this man. Had to throw that in there. I love that boy beside him, too.

5. I found two Santas in my tub one day.

6. After hearing the wildest giggles coming down the stairs one night, a VERY pleased Ellie and Josh presented themselves ready for bed...in each other's pyjamas:

7. We've had the earliest, most wonderful spring ever...but I haven't taken any pictures outside because GUESS WHAT?? I don't care to carry around a camera (March mommy mind mush). That's okay. I'm certain I already have quite enough photos on this blog post.

8. We had a wonderful visit from Rob's parents. And I didn't take any pictures. Seriously. This is when you know something is wrong.

9. We're renovating our basement and I'm really excited about it. But I haven't taken any photos. *sigh*

Oh well. Sometimes we just need to take these things in stride, relax, and be cool like Micah...

Adios till next month! Hopefully I can still spell. :)

Fabulous FOUR!!

Every year I tell myself, "Keep it simple, Jacki."

Every year I can't seem to do it. 

I LOVE using birthdays as an opportunity to show our kids - through celebrating - how glad we are that they are in our lives.

Joshy turning FOUR was no exception.

So try as I did to keep it simple, we still ended up with three celebrations

...and I'm not sad about it at all :)

January 2nd

Because Josh's birthday is so close to Christmas, we don't ever throw him his party that day. However, to leave the day empty just wouldn't be right....especially now that his big sister can read a calendar and delights in giving countdowns to big special days. So we played lego and went sledding and threw him a little family party.

Ellie decided it should be a 'dress-up' party...so this is how she dressed:

Fancy, of course.

Josh, however, heard 'dress-up' and came to dinner looking like this: 

Dressed like a puppy. :)
This puppy got to choose our meal, and chose hotdogs, french fries, and veggies (this kid loves his veggies!!! Fills my heart with joy! :)

 Micah came dressed up as...himself.

We actually don't do gifts for our kids birthdays (more on this later), but decided that since it was so long until we were going to take Josh on his birthday date, he should have something little to open on his special day.

So we got him a gun.

Rob likes it too.

Josh didn't mind that his mom is no cake decorator.
It was chocolate, and that's all that really matters.

We love this boy. This year I'm realizing how great it is that he was born 2 days overdue.
Had he been born 2 days earlier, he would be going to school this fall....and I'd miss out on a whole extra year of hilarious views on God and the world, super sweet encouragements, and some of the best hugs ever.

The Date

So like I was saying, we don't really get our kids gifts for their birthdays anymore: we create memories instead. So about a week after Josh's birthday we took him on his much-anticipated birthday date, just Rob, myself and him...

To the MUSEUM.
He was so totally excited. He grabbed a 'map' (wasn't really) and became our self-designated tour guide, following the arrows on the carpet with great gusto, leading us through the museum, and stopping only for displays that were exceptionally interesting.

Like the buffalo:

The butterflies (at this point he wished Ellie were along):

The fossils:

And the DINOSAURS!

I forced him to stop and look at this one, because I think it's cool:

Then we reached...the BOAT.
Joshy morphed when we got into that boat.
Not only was he then our tour guide, but also became 'Captain Jack Sparrow' (for the record, he has no clue who that is) and stayed in character for the remainder of the museum.

We've actually never been through a museum (led by a marching, four-year-old pirate) so quickly. 

So we went downstairs and thought we'd try out the science centre, not totally sure if Josh would be old enough to enjoy it.

He was old enough.
So many things there seemed as though they were made for a kid wired just like him.

Time for dinner! Rob and I chose the Salisbury House, not so much for the food, but for the fact that it sits on a bridge over top a river. Totally a Josh thing. (However, there are no parking lots on this bridge so it was one coooooooold walk to the door!!)

Totally blurry picture, but it captures the essence of the meal. We actually got there 5 minutes before closing, and thankfully had a compassionate waitress who didn't want to wreck a four-year-old's special birthday meal, and let us stay. So we had the restaurant pretty much to ourselves.

What did Josh choose? Hotdogs (again). Gourmet in 4 year-old land! :)

Wanting to do one last special thing, and knowing Josh's love language is SUGAR, we stopped at a donut joint for dessert.

One terrific date with one terrific kid!!

The Party

Originally Josh decided he'd like a birthday party with the theme, "Bulldozers at the zoo." HA! Try making a cake of that!! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Balfour (who sent him some pirate lego as a gift) he changed his theme to PIRATES.
Friendly pirates, of course.

Here's him and Ellie decorating a pirate poster for the wall, exuberant about the party to come:

Josh's birthday party day prayer at breakfast: "Dear Jesus, I pray we have the greatest day, and that all the kids will have lovely times and the greatest journeys. Amen."

I could not have said it better. :)

Very thankful for a dear friend for providing the (wonderfully done) cake!

The finished wall masterpiece:

Party time! I told Josh he could invite four friends (plus cousins) since he was turning four. He chose William, Emily, Maybeth, and Abigail...all siblings from one family, all of them like brother and sisters to him. 

One happy pirate!

I was so thankful Rob took over the treasure hunt, and even made a treasure map, burnt edges and water marks included.

Did I mention he's really good at pirate lingo?

Cake time!

Josh received some stellar dress-up clothes as gifts. 

Micah didn't want to be left out of the dressing-up fun:

Even Nana was a sport, letting me decorate her face. 

All in all I think that was the funnest (and loudest) party we've ever had!

We love you to pieces, four year old Josh!