The Playhouse Is Still Awesome

I haven't shared any more pictures on here, but in case any of you were wondering, the playhouse is still awesome and, in fact, has continued to get even more awesome. Construction is now complete. It even has a roof. :) This weekend I took some pictures to put on here so you can see.

But really, pictures don't do it justice. You'll just have to come play with us sometime.

And no, we did not actually fill the sandbox with kitty litter. It's sand from the river bed near Sue's family home in Missouri. She and her sister collected it for us. Wasn't that nice of them? It makes for a much better play space than kitty litter. :)







Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to my mom and Sue for all of your hours of planning and measuring and cutting and revising and building and sweating and well, just all of the time and talent you gave us in designing and building such an incredible-beyond-words playhouse for our backyard.

We love it!
And we'll love it for years to come.

We love you!
And we'll love you forever. :)

More kidisms

Emilia and I were playing pretend the other day. Suddenly she said, "I'm going to be the doctor now, ok? I'm the doctor so now you hold still while I beat you, ok?"

For the record, our doctor has never beaten or even been rude to the children. Their pediatrician is a wonderfully sweet woman who is ever so kind to all of us. I have NO idea where this came from!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you have any idea how much I LOVE it when Audra holds out her arms and says,

"I hold you?"

Absolutely love it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not too long ago, we were having our usual Friday lunch at Grandma's when Micah came running in, a little teary eyed, and said, "I bit the chicken bone and now my tooth hurts." His tooth was already wiggly, so I wasn't too surprised about it. He opened his mouth and I checked out the damage. A little blood, a wiggly tooth. Just what I expected. I wiped up the blood and told him not to worry, that his tooth was already loose and no damage had been done. I reminded him that the tooth had already been loose and would eventually fall out anyway. He said, "Like maybe today?" I wiggled the tooth and said, no, maybe in a week or two. He went out to finish lunch.

Shortly after lunch was over, Micah ran into the living room and said, "Mommy! Mommy! I lost my tooth! It's not in my mouth!"

Me: "Are you serious?!??"

Micah: "No!....I mean, yes! I really lost it!"

Well, long story short--Micah ATE his tooth. What I really meant when I said "a week or two" was "a minute or two." I told my sister that I'm fairly certain that if I had pulled UP on the tooth instead of just wiggling it, it would have come right out. You should have heard the convincing it took to get him to believe that he had actually eaten his tooth. He REALLY didn't want to buy that one.

We left a note in his tooth fairy pillow that read, "Dear Tooth Fairy, At lunch, I accidently ate the tooth I lost." This is Micah's second note to the tooth fairy in as many months. The last one read, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost the tooth I lost." When our tooth fairy remembers to come, (s/he appears to be quite a slacker. I'm thinking of writing in to the Tooth Fairy council and requesting a replacement) she is quite gracious as she has always left Micah a coin in exchange for his notes. This time she even wrote him back. It says, "Dear Micah, I love your tooth stories." Micah has put that note in his keepsake box. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On the topic of tooth fairies, I heard this conversation from the backseat the other day...

Micah: Sophie, did you know that when my mom was little the Tooth Fairy brought her QUARTERS?

Sophie: Really?

Micah: Yeah, I guess she must have run out of quarters, though, because I just get these gold coins.

Fire Pit

at the Isaacsons the weekend of the half marathon.

I loved their fire pit. In fact, I think Santa should bring me one. :)

Insanity

I've heard insanity defined as "doing the same thing and expecting different results."

Based on this definition, I am insane.

I keep living this life with 4 kids and expecting us to find some sort of routine.

I'm sure most of you are already laughing at me for even entertaining the idea of a routine, but I just can't help myself. I dream big. I have a dream that one day I will not be so tired all the time. I have a dream that our life will calm down for a couple months so that I can get my act together (whatever that means). I have a dream that I will have free time to read books of my choosing and to blog and record all of the fun memories from our routine days.

(Notice I didn't say anything about the house being clean or the laundry being done because even I realize that those things will never happen. See? I haven't completely lost it.)

In the meantime....

Back in October (before I lost two weeks in the making of Halloween costumes) my mom, the kids and I went to a dairy farm, complete with a corn maze, pumpkin patch and homemade ice cream--yum!

The first maze was less maze and more education. It showed the kids the cycle of corn and the many uses for it around the farm. Here are the kids planting some of the seeds:



Emilia and Audra feeding the cows some of the corn:



The reward for making it through the mini-maze was an ice cream cone made with milk from their very own cows. They had 2 flavors--chocolate or pumpkin. Yum. The pumpkin was so good. It was like having pumpkin pie in a cone. The kids all chose chocolate...and enjoyed every last drip. :)





Micah would like everyone to know that eating an ice cream cone without your front teeth is a difficult task...but he'll manage, somehow. :)



The next corn maze was a real maze (and there wasn't any ice cream at the end of it, either) :( Audra stayed out in the fields and played with Nana, but boy was she happy when she saw us walk out of the maze!




She must've worn herself out running to meet us, though, because next thing I know, she'd bummed a ride from Nana.



Next up on the adventure was the hayride to pick a pumpkin...and one of the few pictures of me that day!




Here is the crew with their pumpkins.



Audra was QUITE attached to her pumpkin. When we got back from the hayride, we went to a milking demonstration and all the other kids left their pumpkins on a table to pick up later.



Not Audra. She toted hers around with her the whole time.




And what trip to a corn maze is complete without playing in the cornbox? And getting completely buried in it?