My Little Chefs!

While I was pregnant with Zeke I took quite a few naps during the day to survive. Twice while napping the boys got into my spices and a bunch of other things to "cook". Needless to say this Mama was none too happy about that! I know I know it was partially my fault since I was you know...napping and not watching them! Anywho...on Thursday I thought it would be fun to embrass the kids curiousity (it is a wonderful thing) and let them be chefs.

I got them each a bow, wisk, wooden spoon, measuring cup and measuring spoon.

As for the ingredients I just went through the pantry and picked out things that I either don't really use or there was just a little bit left of.

They had black beans, paprika, flour, turkey gravy mix, Grape Nut Flakes and barley baby cereal.

It was fun giving them all these different things to put together by measuring them out and all the ingredients had different textures too.

Just a smidge of paprika!

Seriously this kept the boys busy for probably close to an hour!

Silly chef!

Once they were done adding in the dry ingredients they added water and got to mix it all together.

This little adventure did produce a bunch of dishes and a bit of a mess, but the boys were really good about helping me clean up. The best part...I got to hear, "I love you mommy!" at the end of it all.

After the mess was all cleaned up I even decided to sit down and teach the boys how to play Uno! It was fun and if you couldn't tell we were on a TV strike for a bit. It felt really good to not have it on and actually DO something rather than sit there and and veg out!

Life Is So Rough!!

Peek-A-Boo I See You!

Sunday Morning Breakfast!

Our normal routine for the past few weeks has been that Michael makes breakfast on Saturday's and then I make breakfast on Sunday's. It's a nice arrangement! This Sunday we happened to have strawberries on hand and I didn't necessarily know what we were going to use them for except to just snack on. Then it hit me...Waffles topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Other than occasionally having this at a restaurant I've never made them at home.

For some reason even though I added sugar to the strawberries they didn't yield much liquid. I didn't want the waffles to be dry so I ended up blending up some strawberries with powdered sugar and made my own syrup. Oh my they were SO yummy and such a treat!

Here are the ones I made for the kids. It was fun making them look all cute and fancy. Jack and Ella had no trouble eating them, but Owen was beside himself. He kept saying, "I thought we were going to have "reglyer" waffles?" He ended up being dismissed from the table and then coming back later and eating half of a plain waffle. Seriously....where did we go wrong with this kid and his eating???

Comparison!

Zeke Russell - June 2012

Jackson Daniel - June 2008

First With Four!

Last Thursday I was determined to get out of this house. We had been cooped up long enough and the kids and I were going stir crazy. I hadn't felt well enough to get out with all 4 of them prior to this, but since the weather was going to be decent it was the perfect time for our first trip out!

All ready to go!

I got myself and 4 kids ready and packed to go by 9:30am. We got to the park by 10 and were the first ones there.

It was still a little on the cool side so instead of playing in the water the kids played on the toys instead.

Cute climber!

Jack is challenging himself more and more when it comes to climbing or playing on new toys.

At this particular park they have a zip line, but it's always been so busy the kids have never wanted to go on it. Since we had the whole park to ourselves they got to try it out.

At first Jack didn't want to go on it at all, but after seeing Owen and Ella go on it he decided to give it a whirl. He did great, but I'm still not sure if he liked it or not.

This girl is a daredevil! In order to keep the sun off her stitches I put a bandaid on her forehead. I didn't think it would feel very good to have sunscreen rubbed on it just yet.

Zeke slept while the kids were playing on the playground and just when they wanted to sit down and eat he woke up to eat too. I pumped so I didn't have to worry about nursing in public. I love that he is the first of our kids that does not care how he gets his milk...boob or bottle he's fine either way! PTL!!!

Snuggling my girl!

After about 20 minutes other kids started showing up and it got busy pretty fast. It also warmed up so the kids started playing in the water. Thankfully the boys aren't nearly as timid about playing around a lot of kids.

Handsome 5 year old!

Just hanging out!

One of the kids playing had this water squirter and he let Owen play with it. Of course now Owen wants his own.

The boys had a lot of fun playing in the water, Ella mostly stuck close to me and ate and Zeke after being feeding and held for a while ended up taking a nap in his car seat. There were zero meltdowns or tears so it was a complete success!

How You Doin'!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name!

On Monday night Jen came over with Logan to hang out and meet Zeke. Since the girls hadn't seen each other in over a month Ella did have a hard time sharing her toys. She eventually opened up and Logan and her started playing together.

Here they are reading books together. After this picture the girls ended up turning around and hitting the cabinet behind them...they were laughing up a storm! It was so cute!

A little while after this Ella was sitting on the couch and the footrest was up and she leaned out onto it and the footrest gave out from under her and WHAM!!! She fell and smashed her head into the wood coffee table. It was a blood gushing, tears streaming, cries for Mommy moment!

You can barely see the circle Band-Aid on her forehead.

Daddy jumped up and grabbed her and got a towel. Once we got the bleeding under control and we saw how bad it was it was off to Mary Bridge...hence the title of this post! Thankfully Jen was there so we were able to leave right away and then my parents came up so she could go home.

I sat in the back of the van to make sure she was okay. Even though she was hurt she still wanted to be stylish!

Okay now for the bloody pictures....if you get grossed out by this stuff you might not want to look!

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Serious gash!

When they were checking her out I asked if the ER was busy and they told me that they would be sending her through the fast track ER because she's wasn't going to need sedation.

After cleaning her gash up they wrapped it until the nurse could come in and apply the numbing gel.

Watching the nurse like a hawk....she did not like having the numbing gel put on.

Playing with the wall toys in the room while waiting for the numbing gel to do it's thing.

Poor baby girl! Other than the numbing gel all they did was basically swaddle her in sheets so she would keep her hands down. Even though she's crying she was super brave!

This was the first stitch and after this one she really did calm down and just kind of breathed heavily.

It took four stitches to close her up. They are the disolvable kind so we won't have to go to the doctor to have them removed which is nice. They should dissolve in about 5 - 7 days.

What do big brave girls get after stitches? Why an orange Popsicle of course!!! We ended up only being at the ER for about 2 hours which is a miracle! We were home by 10pm and Ella went right to bed and slept great. She was a little cranky the next day, but who could blame her. The doctor did a great job stitching her up so it will be interesting to see how it looks when the stitches dissolve. I will be putting the scar cream on it to help minimize it. They also told me I have to make sure she has sunscreen on it too.

At this rate this cute girl is going to have more battle scars then both of her brothers!

What Do You Get When...

You cut a hole in the bottom of a water bottle, put a sock on it secured with a rubber band and then dip it in diluted dish soap??/

Why the perfect contraption for making snake bubbles of course!

Sadly I can not take credit for this...Pinterest really is wonderful! It really was simple. I was sure there was a catch and I was going to do something wrong, but it worked!

The boys had TONS of fun and we even did it again when Daddy got home and Ella was up from her nap. The bubbles are light as air and they float around all over the yard. Tons of cheap fun!

While the older boys were blowing bubbles Zeke and I were chilling out on a blanket.

Me and my baby boy!

I Agree!

He IS extremely cute!!!

S's

Sweet Snugly Boy...

Sleeping...

Smirking...

Smiling...

Sitting around with siblings in their skivies watching shows!