The Last Couple of Weeks

You know when you think you have a great idea that no one else will have had, and then it turns out everyone had the same idea; well that happened to me last week. The Atlanta Children's museum is free the 2nd Tuesday of every month and is wonderful, but it's very crowded and you have to line up at least an hour before to get in. I though that as most of the schools went back on Monday it would be quiet and we'd have a great time. Just in case, we got there 30 minute early, but EVERYONE in Atlanta and for miles around had had the same idea, so by the time we got there there were at least 500 people outside!!
We went for a walk (in 40 degree heat and humidity!!) in Centennial Park which the children enjoyed and played on the scorching playset.

Then we went to the fountains (along with 1/2 of the immigrant population of Atlanta apparently!) and as I had no swim suits, the kids paddled in their underwear!!

Adison was overwhelmed by the noise and number of people but at least we got to do something fun and so the trip wasn't completely wasted.

I got a call last week when I was out grocery shopping to say I had a bunch of flowers delivered to my house! I was all excited because I've only ever received flowers once when I first met Adam (and I think it nearly bankrupted him!!). It was from Shelley, Jamie, Gayle and Lianne to say thank you for having them. The flowers are beautiful and are still on my windowsill.

Sometimes you just have to splurge on cute things for your little girl, like an Angelina Ballerina costume! Church had their big consignment sale last week so I stocked up on all the winter clothes for the kids (52 items for $135!!) and couldn't resist this outfit. We have so many dress up clothes, but the kids love them. I want to be the kind of Granny that has a big trunk full of dress up clothes for my grandchildren, so I'll probably pack them all away when the kids outgrow them.

I've been much better about getting out the craft stuff for the kids this week. Nicolas asked for glitter glue and he's loved it. Adison loves stuff that sparkles too and they've made some really cute pictures.

We tried painting with string, but it was a bit too advanced for Nicolas, he wanted to use the end of the string as a brush and then his hands got yukky from the paint on the string, but at least we tried.

Nicolas has graduated from the nursery at church and is now in Sunday school and the preschool Wednesday night program. He still seems too little. I've been helping with the 2nd Grade Sunday School classes, which I've really enjoyed so I get to watch Nicolas before we all break into small groups. He is fascinated by the lights in the Fellowship Hall and will just sit quietly and watch them move and flash. He definitely has Adam's technical mind (Adam is drawing a detailed plan of how to build our vegetable garden at the side of the house as I type this). They had a puppet show last Wednesday to kick off the Wednesday program and Nicolas loved it.

There was a baby in front of us and whenever she cried, Adison got upset and felt that she should cry too, even though the puppets weren't scary. I think the message was lost on Nicolas as he couldn't tell Adam anything the puppets had said, he just knew it was a puppet show with dinosaurs.

The rest of the week was spent playing, which Nicolas and Adison do so well together now, and going to the park in the mornings while I train for a 5k race that I'm not going to be able to run because Kirsten and I will be on our first retreat together! Only my friend Katrina could make me run up hill in 30 degree weather pushing both kids in the stroller to train for a race I won't get to run!! I feel fitter but I'm eating like a pig too, so I'm not losing any weight. Maybe now the birthday weekend is over I can get in shape and lost my summer weight too.

Sam's 30th Birthday!

All the girls went to the lake yesterday to celebrate Sam's Birthday and Adam took the kids to our friend Chuck's house to hang out with the Dad's. I wanted to make Sam's cake and some dips and things for the party and as I knew I'd see Sam, Erin and Rebecca on Sunday I decided to have a day at home ALL BY MYSELF!!
After a summer of fun and lots of noise all I crave is peace and quiet. I have alot of friends who just want to escape from their houses for time by themselves, but I want to be at home by myself. Adam took the kids at 10:30am and brought them back at 8pm. I never thought that the greatest gift my husband could give me was time to be selfish, rather than diamonds and perfume! I had a bath, got ready for Sam's party, read some of my book and then sewed while I watched rubbish reality TV.

By the time Adam came home I was desperate to see the children and Adam but I felt wonderful.

We had a great time yesterday, even Leo enjoyed himself (but he was definately missing Lianne!!)
Adison enjoyed hanging out with the twins again (they spend Saturday together).

It was great to see the pool clear (it's been varying shades of green for the last few weeks) and filled with children having fun.
We all chipped in to buy Sam an LED hula hoop that lights up, so I tried to make hula hoops for the zero on her cake. It's much harder than it looks to make an even hoop out of fondant, but the overall impression was OK.

We all sang happy birthday, ate lots of cake and had a wonderful time. Happy Birthday Sam!!

Slip & Slide Action

Woody and Stephanie bought the children a slip and slide a couple of weeks ago. We tried it out with Nicolas and Adison but they were just too little to understand what to do. I ended up pushing Nicolas down it. Once Jaden and Kirsten came back they showed them exactly what to do!

I loved the fact that I caught Kirsten in mid air! Jaden thought that he was too cool to slip and slide to start off with, but then when he saw how much fun Nicolas and Kirsten were having he joined in.

He's getting to the age where he's discovering that things like slip and slides actually hurt if you land hard!

If I ever break a bone it will be because I stood on a piece of lego! It drives me crazy. It used to be only Jaden who scattered lego all over the house but now all the kids play with it, so it's in every room of the house. The number of times I've stood on it is countless!! I hope the creativity it inspires in them makes up for my pain!!

Big Boy, Same Baby Face

When I saw this picture of Nicolas it just reminded me of a series of photos I took of him at 6 weeks old. Even Adam commented yesterday on how big he is now, definately a little boy and not a baby, but when I found the baby photo you can see so clearly the little boy he was going to grow into. I love him so much and he makes me laugh all the time. I couldn't have asked for a sweeter child.

Dunwoody Nature Center

Before we went to see Nicolas' surgeon last week we stopped off at Dunwoody Nature Reserve. It was free and on the way, but a bit too far to drive without a reason. We only had an hour there but it was wonderful.

They had made these pictures from old bottle tops which I thought was so clever. I can copy most ideas but I never think of creative things like that.

There were lots of really pretty trails but unfortunately they were infested with mosquitoes. That was one of the reasons we left. I didn't want to be eaten alive!

When I was pregnant with Nicolas I wanted him to be just like Adam but I wanted him to have blue eyes (thank you Teresa!), some hair (Woodall babies are all bald like Adison, but he had a little bit) and a sense of direction. I love Adam to death but without GPS he's not the greatest at directions. Well I got my wish! Nicolas amazes me because if you take him somewhere once he will always remember. He got a map at the nature center and decided to guide us around the trails. He didn't really understand, but it was a step in the right direction. He always asks for the road atlas if we go on a long trip in the car and 9 times out of 10 he can point to where we live on a map of the USA.

Nicolas' Smile after One Month

We took Nicolas to see his surgeon on Wednesday and get his 'whiskers' removed. He had three stitches that hadn't dropped out which Dr Burstein called his whiskers, which Nicolas thought was very funny.

These photos show the stitches because they were taken last week. Nicolas found the river rocks that we use to make animals out of (paint them and add eyes and it's lots of fun), and he and Adison spent ages playing with them, and leaving them all over the house to add to the lego I'm constantly standing on!!

Adison wanted her mouth photographed as I'm always taking pictures of Nicolas' mouth!

This is how Nicolas looks now. The vertical scars are still quite pink so we have a steroid cream to put on twice a day to fade the scar and then we go back to Dr Burstein in December. Hopefully that will be it for a long time.

He looks great and now with his lip fixed he looks more and more like Jaden everyday. I thought Jaden was one of the cutest little boys I'd ever met, and he was one of the reasons I stuck with Adam through so much the first two years we were together, just so Adam could give me a little boy as cute. Looks as if I got my wish!!

Keeping the Children Busy

I've been so tired and so busy recently that I've not made the time to think of things to do with the children. It always amazes me the amount of effort it takes to plan something fun to do with them. Nicolas never watched TV before the age of 2 but they have probably watched 2 hours a day for the last few weeks and it makes me feel so guilty.

I have planned all kinds of things for them for Aug and Sept and when Lianne was here we bought all kinds of craft stuff for them to use. I always wanted to be the kind of Mom who was always making and doing things with her kids, but swim team, and summer in general with all four of them for 14 hours a day, always sucks the energy out of me!

Jaden and Kirsten spent a week with their Mom so I had time to recharge and spend time just with the little ones. It's getting harder and harder to find things that all the kids will enjoy. We went to a place designed for little kids last week and they loved it! They had all kinds of stations set up, a vets office, a grocery store, music, sand and water. It seems like Adison could have a career as a vet as that was her favorite place to play.

My friend Katrina lent me her cooler for our party and I've not given it back yet. The children must have spent 20 minutes paddling in the ice water in the bottom. It's amazing how the simple things keep them busy for ages.

I'd bought a big bag of fluffy balls not really knowing what we'd do with them, but Adison is obsessed with glue and so she squeezed it all over and stuck the fluffy ball to the page.

Nicolas added blow pen color to his page of fuffy balls
Then one day I actually washed up in the morning (I feel like my whole life is just washing up, laudry and loading and unloading the dishwasher!!) and the children got to play in the sink. It was all going well until Adison decided to wash her hair......

.....and before I know it Nicolas is naked and Adison's in her diaper! Nicolas would spend his whole life running around naked if I let him!

When Jaden and Kirsten came back from their Mom's they joined in the sticking and painting action.

Jaden's favorite thing to do it bake. I think he humors me with the baking part so that he can eat whatever we've baked at the end!! We made cookies and topped them with cheese cake icing (cream cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar) and fruit. Adison ate nearly a whole punnet of blueberries which made for a yukky diaper the next day!!

I always feel better when I have a plan and something to look forward to, so Aug should be a fun month once Jaden and Kirsten are happily back in school.

We met Kirsten's teacher on Thursday and she was Jaden's 4th grade teacher, and we loved her, so we are very happy. Now I just have to learn my way around Jaden's middle school and get him signed up for all the things he should do but doesn't want to do!!