Spring Break in NC

We are heading out tomorrow for a two week "vacation" in North Carolina. Peter is working next week during spring break, so he is joining us for the 2nd week. The teachers have been notified that the kids will miss a week of school, the car is tuned, the snacks are bought, the ipods are charging, and we are getting ready to pack and load the car. I've done the 12 hour drive once before by myself and even though it wasn't bad at all, I am nervous to do it again. It is a work/vacation trip because we are trying to get everything perfect so our house will sell (the basement started flooding and the sump pump stopped working, so we have to fix that). I can't wait to move all our possessions up to CT and buy our own house here. Wish me luck!

Ethan's Eye

The story of Ethan's eye is pretty simple. He was playing basketball and he and another boy ran into eachother. I didn't get a picture the first night, but it was almost swollen shut. Peter was worried it might be broken, but the swelling died down in a day and all that was left was the black eye (although the kids called it a purple eye and now a green eye).

Pinewood Derby Race

We had fun, even if we didn't win. Everyone liked the Wii design (Thanks to Kirsti for coming up with the idea!)

My Easter Pictures

I know that I am a little late, but we did celebrate Easter and here are some of our pictures. Unlike some people, we were freezing on our easter hunt! This year Peter hid the eggs (he worked all night and thought he would fall asleep if he sat more than 30 seconds). He made it much harder than I do!

Matthew Speaks!

So Matthew has finally started to communicate. He has been saying Momma and DaDa for a while (when he sees us), and recently started repeating the kids names when we call them. But on Monday he had had enough. Kirsti took his toy and he came up to me (crying) and said as clear as day, "Momma, KIRSTI!" Of course he picked the hardest of all the kids names. And I don't know if it is a bad sign if he starts his talking career by tattling, but he speaks! Yesterday (tuesday) he brought me a banana and asked, "Banana?" So I guess he is starting to get that talking is not too bad. (And of course I gave it to him even though I was going to make banana bread with it, but his second word- who could resist that?)

Matthew the Great Helper

As kids grow older, they try to emulate what they see others doing. Unfortunately, this made my housecleaning day yesterday especially exasperating. Matthew was more than willing to help me the WHOLE DAY. Here are some excerpts from the day.

As I washed dishes
"Stop emptying my cupboards."
"Get out of the garbage."
"DON'T EAT THAT!"
After I swept and was getting the dust pan
"Oh, what a good boy sweeping . . . my sweeping pile all over the floor."
Cleaning the bathrooms
"Stop eating the soap."
"The toilet brush is not a toy!"
"That was a new bottle of shampoo!"
Folding the laundry
"Where is that pile of Joseph's shirts?" - Turns out Matthew was gathering laundry and I found them in the dirty laundry basket along with several socks and sundry articles of clothes that hadn't been folded yet
"Stop putting on those socks, I just matched them!"
"Get back here with all my hangers!"
Vacuuming
"Matthew I need to vacuum there, move out of the way. Move out of the way. Don't sit down!"
Taking a break
"Matthew, how did you open all those help windows on the computer?"
Making beds
"Come back with my blankets!"
Finishing picking up the toys
"Who dumped out the crayons?"
Finished picking up crayons
"I just put those toys away."
Finished picking up toys
"Arrg! How did you reach those crayons!"
Finished picking up crayons Actually this time I was lucky because Matthew fell asleep under the table and hadn't done anything.

If only I could harness his powers for good instead of evil!

We love visitors

Peter's brother Doug came to CT for some business and we were able to have dinner with him. The kids loved seeing family (they are starved for extended family out here!) and were very disappointed he wasn't coming home with us!

Happy Birthday Elise

Elise turned 11 this March. She and Kirsti and their Dad got to go to a ballet in the morning and then came home for presents. She had a pretty good day and loved all her presents. She was especially excited when she opened her ipod. The cake (if you can't tell) is a monkey.

Joseph gets some culture

The playgroup we go to got tickets to see a play. Lucky for me, Peter was home to take care of Matthew. Joseph had a blast watching Max and Ruby, although as we were leaving, he said, "Mom that didn't look like the real Max and Ruby." I guess he thought it would be a cartoon!

Sledding

Taking my cue from Brenda (who doesn't?) I took some camera movies of the kids first sledding trip since we moved up here. The first two are of the kids getting their feet wet on a long, less steep hill. After that we moved to a steeper spot and finished the day there (that is where you see Joseph take off). The first time he went down the slope without or help. The kid was a speed demon. Although we stopped short of letting him go off the ramp like his older brothers and sisters.