Life is never dull around here. I try to make it photo-worthy, but I slacked and I did not take a lot of pictures this week, so I have fewer to share. I will deliver some of the highlights, and low-lights of the week though.....
* A certain child in the house neglected to get to the bathroom on time and his father told him to put the soiled undergarment into the sink in the basement. The problem with that is that the washing machine drains into the sink and the underwear covered the drain and I ended up with water all over the basement floor. Bad enough. The girls had left a ton of toys all over the basement floor (because, well, that's where they play!) and I had to clean up wet toys and a wet floor. Not a happy me. Not a highlight. (The next time he had an accident, he tossed the thickly skid-marked underwear directly into the washer..... onto my freshly washed whites.)
* We are trying to purchase a Toyota Sienna. I spent the afternoon cleaning out our Mazda MPV in preparation for a trade-in. I'm so glad my dad makes me thoroughly clean out the inside every time I visit! It sure looks good right now!
* I have an ultrasound scheduled for May 20. So those of you who want to know, we hope to inform you if we're having a boy or a girl that day. To be honest, I don't even care which it is now. I've had so many girls, it might be nice to not have to worry about something different. But another boy might be nice. Either way, I'll be thrilled!
* Marian read her entire book to Dan. That meant we had to take her to Chuck E Cheese as a reward. Even better than that, the next morning, before she saw me, I saw her reading a book, all by herself! It was at her level and she was sounding out the words. I was so thrilled to see it!
* Joshua had 2 projects for school. He had to make a mask out of a brown paper bag, and he had to make a costume or puppet of an animal and give an oral report on it. I was worried these would be tough, but he was excited about both and got right to work on them! Both came out looking great. He decided on a Scorpion for his puppet and we managed to make a pretty cool sock puppet! Okay, I got to do most of the work, but it involved a lot of glue-gunning, and I wasn't confident enough that Joshua could do it without burning his fingers. Which is exactly what he did when given the chance. His oral report went really well and he was quite pleased with his puppet. He told me he got lots of compliments on it.
* I think I killed most of my seedlings. I had sprouts of everything, but after letting them sit in the hot 90+ degree weather last week, I seem to have lost all my cucumbers and this week I'm losing my corn. 1 is down, 1 is on the way and I'm worried about the rest. I did get the very healthy and LARGE zuke plants into the garden. Everything else is still in the house being pampered.... or not.
* Mice nibbled into 2 of my flour bags in the basement. My food storage is no longer safe and I'm a bit freaked out by it. Small furry animals are in my basement eating my food and pooping on my shelves. The ick factor is pretty high on that for me. I have put all the non-canned stuff into a tupperware bin. If the wee beasties make it upstairs to the kitchen I don't know what I'll do. Cry, I'm sure.
* Our block had its annual garage sale day today! We walked around and had a marvelous time this morning. I acquired a super-cool new stroller. I'm really excited about that. Joshua is more excited about the 2 sleds we found. He was quite upset when it snowed this year and I refused to buy him one. Today I was willing to pay $3 for 2 of them!
* Delaney wants to sit on the potty. She likes to sit like the big kids and she wants to wipe like the big kids. However, her wiping consists of grabbing great wads of toilet paper and stuffing it behind her into the toilet. Totally a good news/bad news thing here!
And I think that is enough. I have pumpkin pie in the oven that needs to be checked (because I LIKE pumpkin pie!) and then I'm going to channel surf and go to bed. Fun times for me!
Here it is, sitting in the rain. I had to take Dan's car to the commissary today since I don't have a sticker yet to get on base. Sigh.
Today they all went out and played in the rain with the neighbor kids. It sprinkled, it poured, it sprinkled again, and it dumped for a while. They stayed out and had a blast! Marian and Callie had an especially wonderful time. Long after all the other kids went home, my 4 were still going strong.
They had a lot of fun drawing with saturated sidewalk chalk on the drive and road. Callie was so cute racing towards me when I called her in for dinner.
Delaney had enough and was undressing at the front door. Once her pants were off, she changed her mind and ran around some more in her shirt and diaper. Hey, I believe in exercise!
My 2 girls, jumping up and down in the rain. They are so saturated! (I seriously could wring out their clothes when they came in.)
I don't think I mentioned that Marian lost her first tooth on Tuesday. You can see it here, along with her joy at playing out in the rain. What fun to be a kid.
Joshua and Marian worked at making a dam to keep the water from rushing down the gutter and into the drain. I think they had a pretty good pond going there behind the van. Joshua is racing in for dinner. Marian is not.
Here are my girls on the drive out. They were pretty good. It was suppose to take about 4 hours according to Google Maps. Apparently they do not take into consideration that all the roads around DC suck and the navigation of those roads is rotten difficult, even with their lovely (and not always helpful) directions.
Did I mention that it also poured rain the entire day? The whole drive was in the rain, and I am grateful that we had no real delays or issues from it. 
We got to the dealership about 2:45pm. The girls had a snack.
Then Callie proceeded to get her wiggles out by doing a very funny Butt Dance.
Delaney preferred to mess with the water dispenser and she filled 4 cups and spilled a bit. When I took a break from paperwork, I discovered she had gotten soap out of the bathroom so she could wash her hands in it. Sigh.
Once the negotiations were over and titles transferred, it was dinnertime and we lucked out with a McDonald's with a Play Area. So the girls had a good day.
We stayed the night there, rather than make the drive back. I don't like driving that much and I was already tired out. The girls had a marvelous time at the hotel. I must now mention that I took them to the room, and Delaney decided she needed to pee on the potty. So she sat on the potty. Then I realized I had no more diapers with me, but they were in the car in a bag. So I went out to get the bag. Delaney followed me out- bare bummed and all! Silly pickle!
Here are my 2 co-pilots in front of my new, fabulous van! Aren't they cute in their matching shirts? (Delaney kept talking about this shirt at 4am- "Strawbee shirt?" "Cupcake shirt?" She likes the "strawbees" on it.)
And yes, the chaos of getting it all done. Good thing I know I have a cute family, cuz you sure can't tell just how cute from our family picture!! (Thanks Aunt Miranda!!)
