Having fun.... and NOT.

Marian has been obsessed with going rollerskating ever since she went to a skating birthday party a while back.  She has asked many many times, and I finally promised her I would take her during spring break.  I didn't realize they only have Saturday hours.  (Fine, they have weeknight hours, but open skate starts at 7, so that's not gonna happen!)

On Saturday, I made good on my promise and I took all 4 girls to the skate rink. It was rather pricey for the 5 of us, but that was okay, Marian's dreams were being fulfilled.  I told the girls we would be spending a minimum of one hour there.  Marian was hoping to be there all day, but was content to know she had at least an hour.  She took to the skates like a duck to water and was cruising around in no time. 

Callie was enthusiastic, and jumped right into it.  She gave it her best, but even by the end of the session, she was still struggling to stay upright and balanced.  She had a great time though and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her stumble twitch her way around the ring, arms flailing.  She was pleased to report she made it around the ring twice without falling! I loved that she had such a good time, even though it was hard for her.

Delaney cried.  She cried because her skates were too tight.  She cried because she fell down.  She cried because she couldn't skate.  She cried because it was too hard. She cried because she couldn't do it.  She cried because she wanted a thing to push and if I only loved her enough, she would be happy.  It was rather exhausting! Delaney did manage to make it into the skate ring twice and she inched her way around, hanging onto the wall for dear life.  She let me help her a little bit.  She declared it the worst day of her life at the end, and made me promise to never take her there again.

Rylee was adorable.  Something about clompity skates on scrawny baby legs is just cute.  Rylee clip clopped all over and occasionally skated in brief spurts.  She thought it was hilarious to "accidentally" fall down and had a very good time.  The skating place had a small ring for little kids and once she felt confident there, Rylee and I went for a spin around the big ring. She enjoyed herself immensely.

Not sure she wants to be here. 

Very excited to try this! 

Hanging out in the kiddie ring. 

Callie catching her groove in the kiddie ring. 

Delaney excited to try a larger pair of skates. 

They did not magically make her skate better and her hopes were dashed. 

The wesome blur that is Callie, working her way around the big ring. 

Marian, zipping along, doing her thing. 

This is the support thingy on wheels that some kids had.  Delaney was convinced it would cure all her woes, and cried incessantly for one.  I did find out it was $10 to rent one, and I wasn't going to.  Plus, my bag was already put away in a locker and I wasn't going to get it out and have to spend another $1 to secure my stuff again!  So Delaney cried, and an older girl took pity on her and let Delaney borrow hers for a little while.  Sorry about the picture quality.  Dimly lit spaces with moving subjects does not make for good photos!  But look how happy she is for this brief time.

 Delaney cruised around for a few minutes before the nice girl came back to take her thingy away.  (I think the girl's dad was unhappy about her loaning it out.)

Rylee, after a fake fall. 

I loved this.  Marian and Callie were skating together and it was cute to see my girls getting along.

Feeling brave after some success, and inching her way around the big ring. 

The tears.  Endless tears and drama! 

Can you find all 4 of my girls in this shot?!

Just us Girls!

Dan took Joshua out for fun, so I took my 4 favorite girls out to the movies!

They were quite cute.  We went to see "The Croods" which was the only kids movie showing, so it was the only option.  I wasn't excited to go see it, but the girls were.  All of them wanted to go, which is unusual.  We hit the 10:00 am showing, when prices were cheapest.

We were the only people in the theater!  What fun!  The girls got to sit right in front, and there was a bar there that was perfect for climbing on and hanging upside down on while viewing the movie.  There were some scary parts for the littlest ones, so I got lots of snuggles, between their roaming the aisles.  It was great to have our own private viewing!

The girls proclaimed it to be wonderful, and to my surprise, I agreed with them.  I liked the movie a lot better than I expected to.  I give it 2 thumbs up.  

A Day at the Dentist

3 of my girls had to have some dental work.  I couldn't even remember who needed what, other than Callie.  A month ago, the dentist told her that her two bottom teeth needed to come out but were going to need some work.  She said Callie could wiggle them out but if they were not out by her appointment, the dentist would pull them.  There was much drama over this for the last 4 weeks.  Callie was quite anxious and distressed over this.  If you read the blog post from Monday, you'll know she got one of those teeth out.  Sadly, she still had to have the other one pulled.  She also got sealants on her grown up molars.  Marian got a little filling, as did Rylee.

I had 3 very unhappy girls when they came out.  Rylee was unhappy that there was "something" in her mouth.  She meant that her mouth was numb and she could not feel it.  Marian was certain she felt something and there was a sore spot in her mouth.  It seemed odd to me that she'd still feel the shot site, but she was adamant that it hurt right there.  And she hated not feeling her cheek.  Callie was nearly hysterical that I hadn't come back to hold her had like I had promised.  The dental assistant said Callie was fine and doing well, and never asked for me, so they just did all the work.  I was a bit grumpy, because I HAD promised I would hold her hand and I had been very clear that they were to come and get me when the tooth puling was imminent.  But it was over, it is done and thank goodness for that!

Aside from Rylee chewing the heck out of her numb cheek and waking up crying multiple times last night.  Poor kid.

Thank goodness the Pediatric Dentist has this awesome play place!  Rylee was sufficiently distracted to forget about her mouth for a while and it stopped her crying. 

Marian would wander off to play, but would return to fuss. 

I love this  Rylee is probing the numb mouth and Marian is in mid-whine. 

This is Callie's tooth.  Check out how long that root is!! Yeah, this is her baby front bottom tooth! 

Here she is, with her new smile and cute lisp!

Spring Break- FAIL!

The kids have Spring Break this week.  I know, it is a ridiculous time for a break, since school is all over in another month.  But, whatever.  They have no school all week, so we wanted to go out and do something.  I thought it would be a good day to check "Alligator Farm" off our Bucket List.  So off we went.

Sadly, I had looked at too many different things and got confused.  I didn't realized the one we chose didn't open till 12.  We arrived at 10, after an hour drive.  Grrrr.  I was grumpy about the wasted drive, and doubly grumpy that I hadn't taken the time to double check the details. 

But we were here, so by golly, we needed a picture of the kids with an alligator!  Whew!  Thank goodness there was an alligator on site just for us to get our photo op in! 

Callie had to be funny. 

The kids were very good about the long drive to nothing, and were content to play on their DSs all the way back.  I got to look at some pretty bridges and scenery. 

We did stop by a great park, so it wasn't a complete waste.    I particularly love this picture since you can see Marian in the front, and Joshua, Delaney and Callie behind.  They had a lot of fun at the park.

This spinning thing was the best!  I had a marvelous time on it myself! 

Of course, my children must climb to the highest part of the park. 

And more spinning. 

More climbing. 

I did stop by Wendy's to get Frosty's (or is it Frosties?) for everyone.  They were pleased. 

So many things to do at the park.  They played longer than I expected.  Joshua especially didn't complain as I'd have thought he would. 

But he was happy to make faces for me as I took pictures! 

Callie begged me to come over her and take shots of her on different equipment. 

Delaney just dashed from one thing to the next.   

"Take a picture, Mom!" 

Yes, a good time was had, despite the alternate plans of the day.

At Last!

Yep, Callie FINALLY lost her first tooth!  I know, she's turning 8 this year, so she's a late-late bloomer in the tooth department. 

Unfortunately, she still needs that other bottom tooth out.  You can see the permanent tooth has grown in behind it and that baby tooth has no intention of leaving.  We were at the dentist a month ago and she said if it didn't come out, it would have to be pulled.  Guess what is scheduled for tomorrow?!  

Guess who is not thrilled about it?

And guess who now has the cutest whistling lisp when she tries to make her "s" sounds?!

Callie and Marian finally got their Orange Belts in Karate.  I think Joshua leveled up to green, but he's in a different class and I didn't get pictures!

 Here they are getting their new belts.  They were quite pleased.  They did a good job on their Kata.  They had to stand in front of the class and show certain moves and they looked pretty good to me!  I guess they looked good to the instructors as well, because they got their new belts.

Rylee was not impressed with the proceedings.  She saw the camera and said, "Take a picture of me!"

Camera hog?  Why yes, yes she is!  A dang cute one at that. 

Here are my lovely ladies with their certificates of belt whatever it is. I love these kids!

Sad

We currently have 4 empty houses on out street, and I know of another 4 people moving out this summer.  We're having a huge turnover!  I know that summer is the season of military moving and change, but I can't remember losing this many people I know before.  It is sad.

Even more sad is that we found out Delaney's best friend is moving.  A week ago, his dad was gearing up for a 9 month deployment, and was suppose to be leaving Friday morning.  On Wednesday, they were told, just kidding, no deployment, but you are moving to Korea in a few months, so get moving.  Yikes!  So they go from being mentally prepared for a 9 month deployment and have to adjust to their whole family moving in 8-10 weeks.... to a foreign country!  I'd been so happy they were going to be here another year, so now I am really sad.  And sad for Delaney.  She and James have been best friends for the last 18 months.  And I mean BEST friends. Delaney will disappear over to his house and I won't see her all day.  She will come home just before bedtime, having had dinner over there.  I'm pretty sure they could pack her up and take her with them and it would be a few days before I noticed she wasn't here anymore.  I think she may spend more waking hours at their house than ours.

On the plus side, I love the excitement of getting new neighbors.  I am so hoping for some more girls Callie's age.  She is having trouble with a girl here who is trying to keep all the other girls from being Callie's friend and it is so much drama!  I'm hoping for one nice kid to be good friends with Callie.  And another nice boy would be great.  Joshua's best friend was one of the move-outs in March and I've missed him having someone to go play with.  And someone who "gets" Marian would be nice.  There was one kid who got along very well with Marian when we first moved in, but they left about a year ago.  Marian does fine on her own, but I think she'd like to have an actual friend some days.

I'm losing a few friends too, so I hope new people will move in who are compatible with us.  Sigh.   This is such a depressing time of year sometimes.

And a year from now, we'll be the ones moving.  The cycle never ends!

Happenings

We got a little cake pop set a few weeks ago and Marian has been dying to try it.  I had hoped with a kit it would be a little less of a project, but alas, it was still rather time consuming.  Fortunately, being a kit, it only made about 15 of them.  Whew.

Marian was thrilled with the results and they were a surprisingly big hit with all the kids.  I didn't actually try one myself.  They were strawberry flavored.  Who wants to ruin perfectly good chocolate cake with strawberry?!!  Oh, these kids do!

Joshua the photobomber strikes again!

 There was a little base 5k, plus Kid's 1 mile Fun Run, plus Health Fair this past weekend.  Since Dan took Joshua camping, I took all the girls to the event.  I ran the 5k, and was pleased with a time of 27:36 for 3.26 miles.  The girls all wanted to do the 1 mile run, except for Marian.  I ended up walking the mile with Delaney and Rylee, but Callie rocked it!  She went out in her pink skirt and pink shirt and tights and sparkly shoes and she ran that mile in a little over 7 minutes!  She was second and a little miffed that some boy snuck in front of her at the last minute to win.

You can see Rylee in the middle.  She took off running and then got scared by the motorcycle.   The motorcycles were there to keep the kids from getting lost. 

There is Delaney, running along holding hands with her friend Andy.  So cute!  I'm so glad my friend Kelly got pictures!   That's me in the pink to the left behind them.

The girls really enjoyed the health fair.  This was one of their favorite things.  Rylee was determined to hula hoop.

 It was really funny to see her shake her little booty while the hula hoop dropped to the ground.

But she kept trying! 

(She's wearing her race shirt over her cute dress.  She was so excited to get a race shirt, even though it was huge on her.) 

Marian was amazing with the hula hoop.  She just stood there, barely moving and the hula hoop kept going and going! 

And Going!  She probably could have stood there forever.  I was impressed. 

Also this weekend we went to play at James's house.  James is Delaney's very best friend in the world and she spends more time at his house than at ours I think.  We hung out with them and had a great time.

 I really just wanted a picture of the raised sand table James's dad made.  The kids spend hours playing with this thing!

Delaney and James. 

The hammock was also a huge hit.  Rylee thought it was doubly fun to sit on Joshua and to swing. 

Joshua and Marian were the best at sharing and were so cute here.

And this.... this just makes me want to cry.

 I keep the church bag in the car.  It is filled with the books the kids can look at during church.  This scrapbook of our family from 2010 was in that bag.  Saturday, Rylee unrolled her window and I forgot to roll it back up.  It thunder-stormed and poured down rain all Saturday night and Sunday morning.  The huge drops of rain that drench you in a single drop.  That sort of flooding deluge is what we had. When I got into the van for church Sunday morning, there were puddles on the floor of the car and everything was saturated around Rylee's seat, including the church bag.  This book was completely soaked, along with everything else in the bag.  I was so sad.  I still am.  The book has mostly dried out, but it is in bad shape.  Let his be a lesson to you.  ALWAYS roll up the windows!  I won't be forgetting for a long time, partly due to the nasty smell growing in the van as it slowly, slowly dries out in this 80% humidity we have.  Sigh.