After visiting one of her favorite places (the grocery store), my little sidekick couldn’t wait to help me put it all away.
Grafton – North
Today was party day at Teague’s school. Wade came home at lunch to watch the littlest two. I packed up my bags of goodies and headed to school. The kids were super excited to see me and get their party started. We had a busy day with two crafts – heart painting and signs. Then we had games to fill the rest of the time – heart hopscotch, cupid arrow toss, and flip and color pages.
It’s definitely with relief that I can say there is only one more class party this year!
I have not worked with Kaitlyn and her ABCs at all. She can sing the song and knows “K for Kaitlyn” “T for Teague” and “A for Alex”. Those are the only letters she consistently recognizes. Today she was reading this book out loud. As she got to this page, I started paying attention – hoping she had somehow been learning her letters at school or on her own.
“H is for boxes”
Guess not.
It feels like Alex should be a lot younger her than 9. I’m sure he was just 3 years old a short while ago. Regardless, he was so excited for his birthday and we celebrated all day long. (The perks of having a birthday on the weekend!) His biggest want was a Ninjago Lego set – which he got. His favorite gift was a set of laser tag guns. His requested cake was “The World’s Best Chocolate Cake,” which is actually a recipe you can find online. (Actually there are a ton of them.)
One of my favorite birthday moments occurred after all the gifts were opened. I was cleaning up paper and stacking boxes. I looked over to see that the new toys were all laying on the ground and all three of my older kids were together and enthralled in Alex’s new book. My kids are definite book worms – all of them.
I can only imagine the views our neighbors across the street have every evening…
I have tried to choose the same pacifiers for all of my children. Avent makes a clear pacifier that I discovered when Alex was born. I was so happy it didn’t have cartoons or something silly on it. As the years (and pictures) went by, I realized I loved it also because it wasn’t as glaring in pictures as others would have been. For some reason I couldn’t find the entirely clear ones when Kaitlyn was a baby, but they were easy to find when Ben was born.
I never quite got around to doing monthly comparison pictures with Kaitlyn. With Ben I actually have been doing 2 versions. One shows up on the daily pictures and has some current information too. The other is a very simple picture of him in a chair with a stuffed animal for quick comparison.
Kaitlyn and I walked out of dance class to find a winter wonderland (and they predicted flurries). We decided it was a day to have muffins for lunch.
I love taking pictures of sleeping babies – especially my babies.
I feel like our house has been a constant “fort” since we moved in this summer. The kids are always wanting to build one and I have yet to come up with a real reason to say “no.” Today Kaitlyn begged Daddy to help her build a fort. Then they spent the afternoon reading in it.
Daddies are the best.
Maybe Ben will be a dancer. (This pose just cracks me up.)
I’m not exactly sure what prompted this, but I walked in to find Teague brushing Kaitlyn’s hair.
This is just a typical night in the Burch house…
Today I had plenty of time and attempted to bathe both Ben and Kaitlyn at the same time. They both had fun and I now have two clean kids.
Poor Madison is really starting to show her age. She doesn’t see well, hear well, or smell well. (Eating is still no problem.) She has always followed me around the house all day. Then she would only follow me up and down the stairs in the morning. Now she does the stairs only once or twice a day and it is an obviously painful exercise. When I go upstairs she now waits patiently at the bottom till I return. We are both going to be sad when she can’t sleep upstairs any longer.
What a day! The kids were up pretty early considering they went to bed super late. We had a semi-lazy morning with my two boys heading to the Pinewood Derby. We got everyone else dressed and arrived in time to see the last few races and eat some pizza! Then we left Wade in charge of the oldest six kids (he was super Dad). Amber, Nicki, Ben, and I took a walk to the Commons and had some delicious Clam Chowder. The kids spent the rest of the day playing in the woods, talking Minecraft, playing Playmobil, diving the go kart, and causing mayhem. We finally grilled burgers and hot dogs for the kids and started Star Wars. Then we sent Wade out for Lobster Rolls and had a nice adult dinner. What a wonderful whirlwind trip!
Alex has been counting down the days until his Milwaukee friends arrived for a visit. Tonight a car full of our favorites arrived at the house. The boys immediately disappeared to do boy stuff – iPad and legos. Glenna was greeted with a hug and then Kaitlyn had a huge list of things she wanted to show her. We let the kids stay up way too late and the adults did the same. There was eating, talking, baby holding, drinking, and lots of laughs. Our house may not easily accommodate 5 extra people but I’m so glad they stayed with us and weren’t bothered by the craziness!
Ben has not been a fan of tummy time at all. Today Kaitlyn tried to help by giving him some cars to play with. (It wasn’t successful.)
We are getting real smiles over here and loving it!
Poor fourth child. He keeps ending up asleep on the floor.
I could get used to having another cook in the family. Tonight Teague made us Cheesy Macaroni Chili. It was really good and Wade even liked the part we left cheese-free.
The TV stare cracks me up every time….
I walked in to find Kaitlyn doing a little light reading.
This is what happens when you don’t take a nap. You fall asleep on the way to swim lessons at 4 pm.
(In her defense, she did end up taking a cat-nap in the car this morning at 10 am. Then she was in her bed for over an hour “trying” to nap.)
Take your best guess. Is Kaitlyn experimenting with Joker makeup or just really messy while drinking milkshakes?
Almost every time I go to get Kaitlyn out of her bed, she has a lovey on top of her head..
We always read books before nap time and lately I’ve had my lap (and hands) full.
Teague has always been my baker but now he’s trying out entrees. Granny and Pop gave him a subscription to Raddish Kids for Christmas and he has made two of the recipes so far – drop biscuits and an omelet. I was really impressed with how easy the recipes were for Teague to follow. I was present but I don’t think he needed me at all. The recipe breaks everything down into ingredients, tools, and instructions. There are pictures with each item/step and nothing complicated. I’ll admit I was a little surprised at how tasty they both were. I would happily take the drop biscuits with every meal.
It appears that Madison has found a new napping spot.
Teague loves anything with wheels (or treads). Wade offered to let him help snowblow and Teague was so excited. They made a path through our backyard for Alex and Jadon and then kept going till Teague got tired (which never happens).
This worked out well for everyone.
Rarely do I think it is too cold to play in the snow. Today was definitely one of those days. We have older windows in our house and often get condensation on them, but this is the first time we’ve had ice crystals. The kids really wanted to go outside to play so I got them all dressed and went outside to take a few pictures. Kaitlyn wanted to come in immediately. Alex wasn’t too far behind – check out his cheeks! I had to drag Teague in eventually, but he would sit outside and eat snow all day long. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, reading books, and doing a little baking.
We got hit by a winter storm bomb. I have never heard this term before so I looked it up – bombogenesis” criterion – an ominous-sounding term frequently used in the winter to describe powerful low-pressure systems that intensify rapidly. To be classified as a weather bomb, or having undergone bombogenesis or “bombing out,” the central pressure of a low-pressure system must drop at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.
For us that meant 10-12 inches in about 24 hours. Everyone was home from work and school and it was gorgeous to look out my window. The wind was a little scary sometimes but we never lost power.
We have numerous crafty people in the family and that usually means fun and interesting Christmas presents. Not only did the kids get marshmallow guns from Uncle John and Aunt Louise, but they also got cool wooden cups. We used them for snack today and the kids loved it.
We all woke up to a white Christmas. It snowed all night and we probably got 4 inches or so. Our kids were excellent about waiting for us to come get them from their rooms. I have no idea how early they woke up, but definitely before Wade and me! They rushed downstairs and loved seeing the gifts Santa left – a dollhouse, Legos, light sabers, the promise of a puppy, etc. We spent quite a bit of time in our pajamas playing with toys and having a big breakfast.
We finally convinced the kids to get showered and dress before opening our family gifts. Most everyone took a nap (or played in their new iPads) while Gram and I did a little cooking for dinner. Then we got outside and played for a few minutes in the snow! It was a perfect holiday. (And now I have to get to packing for our trip to Tennessee.)
Kaitlyn loves to help with Ben – especially getting needed items. She heard him cry and was so excited to get the pacifier. She wanted to be in charge of giving it to him. She ran over to his chair only to find he had cried out in his sleep and didn’t need the pacifier after all.
Today was a day for fancy shoes.
Ben and I spent a good portion of this lazy Saturday snuggled on the couch. He slept and I read – perfect.
Just call me Supermom.
“Mom, my face is cold.”
Most days Ben is very cooperative and takes a nap during the time Kaitlyn and I read together. It’s one of my favorite times of the day.
Dad and Mary came to meet Ben and see our new house. Their visit was short but we had fun and the kids loved all the extra attention!
How fun that the first snow was on a Saturday. It snowed all day (about 5 inches total). We played outside, took naps, watched a movie, played outside again, built a fire outside, had hot chocolate inside, and then ended the evening by driving around looking at Christmas lights. Perfect.
Ben and I spend a lot of time just like this – especially when everyone else is at school/work.
Ben’s first bath went about as expected. (To complete this picture, imagine the 3 year old who was by my side desperate to help.)
First there was a box. Then there was a project. Now there is a fort.
We are definitely back to normal when everyone gets a random video game before bed.
Wade and I have a huge tub in our bathroom. We decided to throw all three big kids in and see what happened.
Summary – it was all giggles for about 2 minutes. Then the arguing and splashing started.
We got our tree on Friday and were determined to decorate it today. The kids were extremely excited and hard to keep out of the ornaments. Only a few got broken so we’ll call it a win.
In case you were wondering what a tree looks like after three kids proclaim it decorated – without help from adults.