A Lot of Erick and Aiden

I don't quite know what to do with my lot of pics of the boys from the past three weeks. 

Photo dump it is! :)

Only one week left to go ... maybe less if their mom decides she's up to them coming home Friday.  I kinda hope so ... for several different reasons.  We shall see!

Back Out Back

Not counting some freezing nights this weekend, spring has really sprung around here and it is so invigorating.  Josh has headed out to his workshop every chance he can and has even beefed up our playground with MORE goodies than it already had.  Spot Anna and you'll see three new additions to the structure.

Josh added a beam from the swing set over to the tree, and on it he attached a monkey bar, a ring, and a knotted climbing rope.  And under the tree, he put up our disc swing where the ring used to be.  A closer shot of the new attractions.

 

He has plans to extend the ground cloth and mulch all the way around the tree this spring.  I have plans to groan at the expense. :} 

Too

The boy got vomiting sick minutes before he was supposed to leave for his first baseball practice of the season on Saturday. Too bad!

He was promptly quarantined to his classroom-turned-bedroom-this-month in a desperate and prayer-filled attempt to contain the germs and not allow anyone else to get sick.  I shiver just to think of the littles throwing up all over my house.  Too risky!

He was up there for over 48 hours before I was convinced he was safe to be around the rest of us again.  In that time, Josh made him very comfy with video games, iPad, movies, quiet time with him, food delivered when he was up for that again, naps, etc.  I actually think he might have enjoyed his respite from the little boys. Too perfect!

And then this morning, 12 hours after his fever gave in, he emerged ... with a WHOLE NEW TOOTH sprouting in the spot that has remained empty for months. Which made me wonder if the fever that started after the vomiting/ diarrhea ended anyway, was more of a teething fever after all?  Hmmmm.  Too weird!

Growing up in spurts apparently. Too fast!

Remembering Anew

Ahhhhhh.  Hear that?

Silence.
Stillness.
After a busy, needy, active, full morning.

I had forgotten how much naptime meant to me way back when.  How I lived for naptime and bedtime some days.

It's all much less overwhelming to me now, but I am remembering it anew.  Remembering with a grin.

Instrksins [for] Poshin

Need some {BAD Smelling PoShin}? 

Anna has your {InstrKsins}.
(be still my heart at that correct usage of possessive noun punctuation!!)

First, some {watre} from the faucet.  I must warn you, though. Anna means b usiness after that.  It gets ugly from there ...

Add {1. Mud}, {2. PePe}, and {3. mous hare}.  The checkmarks she put next to each, although backward, worry me.

Memo to me, don't mess with that girl.  Shudder.

Poshin update and frightening backstory:  I asked Anna about it.  She says she DID MAKE IT.  A long time ago.  Like January.  When my eyes bugged out of my head and I asked how she got the pee, she assures me she used a pipette.  And that the poshin got lost, but it has a lid on it, so I don't need to worry.  She found it again in her make-up bag. !!!!  And she kept it.  And smelled it.  Which is how she knows it smells bad. !!!! And she STILL HAS IT!!!  And then she grins a guilty grin.

When I attempted to throw the entire concoction and container away, she cried and pitched a fit because that is her precious Chuck-E-Cheese prize.  So now it is sitting on my counter waiting for Josh to come home and deal with.  I cannot even...

Seriously. Laughing and crying at the same time.  Someone hold me.  I'm frightened.

Living Room Upgrade

We seem to do big things in quick bursts all at the same time.  So along with fostering at the moment, we somehow managed to also completely redo the living room.  We moved out our big brown couch of 6 years and of numerous configurations along the way...

and moved in this new (well, new-to-us at least) sectional that I scored for a waaaaaaay better price than anything we saw (and still didn't like) at the furniture stores last month.  

And the loveseat that used to fit in the classroom was brought back down in the bedroom switchup just before the boys got here, so along with that extra seating, I would say our living room is the most hospitable its ever been.  Josh only whimpers a little because his recliner was booted for the update.

I can't wait for Community Group on Wednesday to see it full ... and full without people squatting on the fireplace or kitchen chairs moved into the doorway.  Ha! 

Kimmie Back in Nashville

Not only do I still have four children alive and well, but I took them all to Nashville by myself this week!  There was a puppet show in Noah's lesson plans and Anna was home for her first day of Spring Break.  And I was still riding a victorious high from taking on Nashville Wednesday with Aiden for a GI appt at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  I figured I better strike again before my homebody instincts would keep us in Gallatin for the rest of the boys' stay.  Ha! 

Nashville Public Library it was ... 

for a marionette performance of a book Noah read to supplement a history unit we were studying, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

Noah was quick to notice some differences in the book he read and the puppet show. Both were still enjoyable however. :)

We were there with a few friends, too, and one of them snapped a quick shot of me and the boys who were sitting in the back row.  Erick was quite overwhelmed by the new sights and all the people.  He stuck close by my side the entire time, which works for me because it is one less wandering child.

Noah and Anna, who seem so very grown and responsible to me after these two last weeks with the little guys around, were sitting front and center with all their buddies. We capped off the outing with a quick trip through McDonald's on the way home.