Square Meal

A square meal we served to Uncle Nick tonight. Literally when he put his left overs onto the plate it was square. And I said to him..."We are serving you a square meal!" and we all laughed. This was his dinner, but it smushed down a bit. But, maybe you had to be there...but thanks for all of the laughs! We had a great visit.

Catie enjoying gift opening

Thank you Nannie and Pappa for my presents! I had a lot of fun opening them up this year!

Tire Biters

Went to a big car show in town. The kids had fun, and so did we. We hope to go back longer next year. We even got a great (free) parking spot which was a bonus :)

The birthday buds

Cliff was really happy to have Catie's bday one day after his! The year she was born, we were really hoping that they could have the same day, but that didn't work out. I think these are cute shots. They are sharing the lemon pie.

Happy 2nd Birthday Catie

Darn it, it is midnight, and I wanted to post a happy birthday on your real day. But this will have to do!

We cannot believe that our little peanut Catie is already 2 years old. Time has flown by, but we have really enjoyed every minute of you. Your day started off today with sliced lemon pie and 2 green candles! We sang you Happy Birthday, and when I got you out of the crib this morning I sang to you. You also tried to sing Happy Birthday, and you say "two" very well.

Happy Birthday Cliff

Just a shout out to my wonderful hubbie. Happy birthday Fella! I hope you had a good one.

We tried to make it as exciting as possible.

I know it was not as exciting as last year...hidden pregnancy lol. And after midnight when we let it all hang out...well past midnight! lol.

This year new running shorts, a store bought lemon pie and a coffee from Starbucks that burnt your tongue.

Love you!

Wednesday

Well, it is Wednesday afternoon. I am very exhausted already, and I still have 2 days until the weekend which will be very busy too.

My week started on Tuesday. In Laws back to work (yay), Cameron went to school for a couple of hours. I got the girls ready to go to ballet. Got them there on time. They decided they didn't like ballet, and sat down the whole time. So, I took them out of ballet. I then went back to the studio that evening to take a hip hop class. Boy, was that a workout. I was worked to the bone. It was just the thing I needed besides my running.

This morning at 2 am. I awoke off the couch and dragged myself back to bed. I was too tired to get into bed last night. Cliff just left me there. I wished he would have carried me into bed...not going to happen lol. It is hard to get used to getting up a bit earlier, and walking to and fro school 6x's per day.

This morning, the routine went well. I got up at 6:30. Showered, got ready. Kids got dressed (clothes were picked out the night before) and went to the bathroom etc. We had breakfast, beds got made by them. I then got us all out of the house on time, and to school on time. Came home did some clean up, did some laundry. My Dad came over so that I could take Claire to her "meet the teacher" at school. She and her teacher got along, and I am happy for her. Claire starts Kindergarten on Monday morning.

I think Caroline must be teething, as she has been quite stuffed up, hands in mouth and very fussy. That is tiring in itself.

Today, I will make a crappy KD dinner for the kids, as we need to make it quick as Cliff and I head out to run tonight.

Tonight after the run, make lunches and then really pick out school clothes, and fold the laundry (3 baskets full) dumped out on our bed) I can hopefully get into bed early.

Just getting back to the routine of school has been good for all of us. I am glad that things are getting back to normal. Claire is pooped out, and is sleeping on the couch. Danger---Danger---Danger. She hopefully will sleep tonight.

Gotta go make the crap dinner right now. I hope the hunks of tomato on the side will make it a balanced meal lol.

Things I find in the laundry

Today alone I found a Coffee Crisp wrapper go through the washer and dryer (Cliff I caught you!)

A pack of matches that were all soggy and wet? Where did those come from & why? very scary indeed

A miniature Iffel Tower from my personal collection! (Carly our resident Clepto!)

What next?

c is for c a r o l i n e

We finally got Caroline's name finished for the wall of our kid's names in the playroom.

We made them ourselves. It has taken some time and effort, but we figure we have spent $5.00 in paint only. The rest of the materials we had kicking around the house. I am REALLY pleased for us, and for her.

Why did I make them? Well because by the time we had Caroline, the place the other names/letters came from had stopped production on the letters. So, we were SOL.

DYK that Caroline's name can be spelled from all of the other kid's names?! If we would have had a boy he would have been named Cooper Ralph and we wouldn't have been able to make his name and would have to purchase new letters for EVERYBODY! That would have cost $$ big $$. The letters were $10 dollars per letter, and really there are a lot of letters to buy then! Just Caroline's name would have been $80.00

I used homemade playdough to make a mold, then I pressed the exisiting letters into the playdough. Pulled out the letter, then repeated that for every letter. I sprayed each mold with PAM. Then I mixed up plaster of paris and poured into each playdough mold. left them for 24 hours. Then I broke all of the playdough away. Left the letters for another 24 hours. Cliff got out the Dremel sander and smoothed the letters out. Then, we bought the craft paint and then MIL painted and distressed the letters to make them look as close to the originals as possible. I am very pleased, and I feel good that the letters are up.

Goodbye Summer 2006 Video

Summer 2006

Summer of 2006 was fun, and we look forward to the coming seasons...

Sunday BBQ

Yesterday in the afternoon we went to Pat and Nikki's place in the Fort. It was a blast for us and for the kids. They are our running friends. They both found love at the local Running Room. They actually got married February 24th last year on Claire's birthday. Nikki makes me laugh because everytime I see her at running she asks me how my "100 kids" are! I tell her, I only have 5! lol. She says I should have 100 kids.

They have this great backyard and and awesome sprawling rancher on 1/2 acre. They have a great playset out in the back 40, and a big dirt pile that the kids had a blast on. They were making "dirt couches!" so much fun. They had a climbing structure and a tire swing. And, oh yeah. A full sized volleyball court! The dirt pile was from the area of where the court is.

Everybody brought a side dish, and they supplied the burgers etc. The kids had fun with the other kids and they were all dirty and dusty! They also had this awesome grape arbour with wine grapes that grew over like a bit tent...it would have been perfect for a chaise lounge our two, and some quiet music...it was the perfect little get away. So fun for the kids.

We stayed until dusk. Caroline was loved up by Nikki's Mom and the other running friends. She wasn't put down for the whole night, and of course Catie kept everybody entertained! She had so much fun in the yard. I certainly think this was one of the best days of summer!

It was fun to watch the reactions of the 7 C's walking into the party. We got lots of looks and questions etc. But, I had a great time laughing about it all. There was this one guy Chris, who was asking lots of questions about our family. lol. He asked questions like, so all of your kids are C names, why? Are you having any more kids? To that question I answered no. They said we should keep going! lol.

He asked me to spout off the names of our family just like a server would read back a menu...as fast as I could. Cliff, Cathy, Cameron, Claire, Carly, Catie and Caroline. Then, he asked if I ever mix up the names when calling for somebody, and I said yes. I stutter with CCCUUU CCCUUU CCUUUU. lol. He also then noted that we all have "Hard C" names. He was a lot of fun. We also were asked if we go out for dinner a lot. To which I replied "not very often!"

They were also surprized that they were all 7 years and younger. One of the Mom's there also said she feels bad complaining about 1 child lol. I said, I remember what it was like to have one child and I felt that was very challenging! I couldn't get anything accomplished. And after two I felt that was VERY challenging too, but after the 3rd it was OK!

I also sat and chatted with another guy. They had a cute little guy Jackson. He was 18 months. This guy was the youngest of 5 kids. He said he LOVED watching our family of 7 and remembering back to all of the good times he had with his siblings. He said that he wished they would have started their family earlier as they were too old to have another child. If they would have known how awesome having a child was, they would have started earlier and had 4 kids. So, at that moment I felt VERY PROUD of my family and all that we have accomplished.

Our kids were helpful, caring, thoughtful and well behaved yesterday. It was a wonderful day.

Thanks to Pat and Nikki and family for the lovely bbq.

thankx for the memories

party pix

Caroline in her "Monkey Suit"


Me feeding my "monkey"



A self taken photo of myself












A full backyard! Fun stuff!


The birthday kids!



Awesome Monkey cake made by Cynthia!



Josh, Kevin and Cliff



Another Monkey!



Claire





Yummy burger...


There are Monkey's on the Mantel









Artwork for the party!



Monkey Pinata and Barrels of Monkey's!


Sunflowers and banana gummies

1st Annual Birthday Bash

Well, I would say that the BIG BIRTHDAY BASH was a big success. I think the big ole bouncy basketball castle was a BIG HIT, and I will be sure to rent that again next year.

We had "It's a Monkey's Birthday!" theme. Here is how I broke it down.

We had almost 50 people.
14 kids.
From babies to age 12.

We had brown plates, and bright yellow napkins. We had paper banana's and balloons (several which popped oh well)

We had those banana gummy candies in brown bowls.

We had a Monkey pinyata which was so FUN to watch the kids all swing at it! Lots of candy to go around.

We gave out "Barrel of Monkey's" as a parting gift to say thank you for coming!

Cynthia made the most wonderful and TASTY cake and cupcakes for the party. Her offer of the cake set the theme of the whole party! I ran with it.

We had hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken burgers. Macaroni salad, green salad ala Milestone's straberry and goat cheese salad, topped with nuts. Chips galore. Salsa and chips.

I made rootbeer/vanilla ice cream "punch" had a brown sharpie to write names on yellow cups. That was a hit! We went through about 6 - 2 l bottles and 3 containers of Bryers ice cream. Straws of course to suck them down!

My cousin Andrea made a wonderful banana bread (which I am eating right now lol) and I thank you for that cuz!

Other decorations included: Monkeys (stuffed animals) thanks to April my sis who has THE MOST beautiful belly (and the most swollen feet poor gal) Real banana's in a white dish and a vase of beautiful sunflowers. Can you tell I used a lot of yellow and brown?!

Oh, and Caroline wore her "monkey suit" or really it was a pink outfit with little brown monkey's all over it. Caroline was passed around the party and she was well loved.

Coffee and tea came out at the end of the night! And, lots of water consumed by all of the little monkeys who jumped and jumped and jumped! I even went in! It was very fun.

We also had these cool poppers that popped out sparkly plastic/metallic strings! And, somebody who shall remain nameless stuffed the stuff back in, and popped their eye...safety first!

All in all, I want to thank Cliff for doing all of the BBQ'ing. The dinner was delish, and really there was nothing left over! Which to me is a sign that things were good.

It was lovely to spend the afternoon with everybody. First guests arrived around 2:30, and the last guests left around 9:30. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Thank you to all who came out.

Cathy

BBB aka The Big Birthday Bash

Today we are preparing for our first annual Big Birthday Bash. We are going to have a triple party with family and friends every year for Cameron (7), Carly (4) and Catie (2). This year it is a Monkey theme. It's a Monkey's Birthday!

I am so excited, I woke up today an bounded out of bed excited for the day. The kids cannot wait either.

Cliff is out picking up a HUGE 15 x 15 x 15 bouncy house! Can you imagine all of the monkeys bouncing around in there! It is going to be great.

I will be sure to take lots of photos and share some of the fun details of the party today!

Stay tuned!

100 nail clippings

Nail clipping is a big job in our household. With 5 kids, and 10 fingernails and 10 toenails on each child it is quite the job. That is 100 clippings! 1oo clippings! So gross lol.

I especially find that summer toenails are really gross. All chomped up and green and brown from playing outside. Dirt under foot, in between the toes. So gross.

But there is a nice part to my nail clipping job... I get to spend a few minutes each with the kids by themselves. I love that. I get to see little wee toes and fingers all the way up to my big boy's feet and hands! My how they have all grown.

You know you are a Mom and you are clipping toenails and they go shooting into your hair, your eyes, and sometimes even down your shirt lol.

Today toenail clipping flew into the roll of my pants.

Now, if you can laugh at that, life is good.

12:01 am Puke Fest

This morning 12 am, Cliff and I FINALLY get into bed at midnight. We were talking about how good our new bedding felt. We described it like a hotel type bed. The sheets were so soft and inviting. We kiss each other goodnight. Ahhh...Bedtime. A late bedtime as Caroline wouldn't settle in for the night.

12:01. Running down the hall...a lot of commotion. Carly is puking into the toilet. Cliff goes to her, I go into the bedroom and do the feel and sniff test to see if there is puke everywhere. And thankfully everything made it into the toilet. I get out the old towels to lay under her head and at the side of the bed. We get her cleaned up and back in bed. She says she is feeling fine. about 10 mins later. Repeat. Repeat.

We got to bed around 1 am. Cliff's alarm went of at 4:50 this morning.

The good news is that Carly is feeling fine! She ate breakfast.