Fourth of July Projects/ Ode to Pinterest

Wow, I knew I hadn't written a post for awhile but I didn't realize it had been almost a month. Sheesh. I've been busy doing your typical mom things and I still can't say I truly have free time to write, but I wanted to share a couple things we did around the Fourth of July that were fun and crafty.

First of all, Pinterest is amazing. It makes it so easy to categorize and save links for awesome ideas for...everything you could ever want. I am a better mom because of Pinterest...I think. I love that so many people share the clever things they've done so that others can get great ideas as well. All that to say that over Independence Day weekend I used two ideas I got off Pinterest, and that I'd like to pay it forward by taking some pictures of what we did and maybe someone will benefit from them. Almost two years ago I made astronaut costumes for Cal and Clark, and the pins I have of various pictures have been repinned tons of times. I know it's maybe silly, but I hope that my ideas helped others in the very important first world problem of what to do for your kids' Halloween costumes.

The first Pinterest-inspired Fourth of July project we did was that we made fireworks in a bottle. This was the easiest thing, but the boys loved it and it gave me a much-needed break from the shrieking of wrestling and the other typical loud soundtrack of our days. They simply shoved red, white, and blue things into a bottle: pipe cleaners, pom-poms, glitter, and their homemade "foam confetti." Then we added water, glued the lids shut, and flipped them upside-down over and over for our own little "fireworks." The boys loved making them as well as flipping them over and over, snowglobe-style, for their own silent fireworks.

Secondly, on the Fourth we made t-shirts with handprint flags. It's another idea from Pinterest. Pretty self-explanatory. We were at the lake house and made these with Gammy and Poppy. We actually all have one with one of the boys' handprints on each, though the rest of us aren't as photogenic as the kids, so we only have kids' pictures.

They were two fun projects, and the bottle one was especially easy.

Clark stuffing his bottle...quietly

Just add glitter

Water added, lids glued closed (note: use school glue, not hot glue)
These provided intermittent  fun for a couple days
and then I threw them out-- the perfect project.

Teddy was not a big fan of gooey hand printing. 

I made the lines with the paint and the boys spread them out.

Aerial view

I put the date and each boys' name on each shirt.

Just getting them all together on a couch is complicated.

I think that qualifies as three smiles!

Practicing sparklers for nighttime

Reluctant models

...and again

Doing

Introduction: I wrote this entry ("Doing") after a long day of mothering. After I published it and read it through again I realized it sounds pretty bitter. I was definitely venting, but I do love being a mom. I was trying to entertain my readers a bit by finding the humor in it all through a little hyperbole. I hope that this went without saying for most people who know me, but I wasn't sure. 

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This is a lot.

I have no idea how mothers of more than three children at home manage their lives. From dawn until way after dusk and into the wee hours of the morning, I am doing. I am doing everything. And I don't mean I'm doing everything to take care of our household, I'm certainly not, but I'm doing constantly, and what I'm doing doesn't involve much sitting and sometimes not even much thinking, but it is constant.

Turns out these little turds have to eat three times a day, Teddy even more often, and preferably healthy food that makes up a balanced diet, which is a lot of work just on its own and involves grocery lists and recipes-- two things I'm not very fond of-- as well as heaps of dishes every day.

But. There are a million other things these boys need as well. Like a cup of milk please and for me to take their hair out of the other one's hands NOW, and their Batman shirts out of the laundry before the villains strike, and for me to watch the AMAZING slide into home in slow motion and for their toothpaste to be extracted from their noses and for me to observe their ant farm through their magnifying glass and show them how to make their beds and get down Candy Land from their shelf and to open their applesauce lids and to take the teething ring off the baseball bat and look at the cool car they made out of gears and take Teddy out of the bedroom so he doesn't knock over their Lego restaurant and tape the box to the balcony rail so they can shoot their basketball into it and to clean the finger paint out of their ears and the Play-doh off the chairs and read their new books and set the chicken out to thaw for dinner and label the body parts of an ant and look at the pretty drawing they made and play their memory game with them and get their damn hockey gear on them before their hockey class and floss the corn out of their teeth and give them all baths that aren't too cold or too hot or too long or too short that actually remove the baseball field dirt from all crevices of their bodies. No biggie.

On top of these odds and ends that keep me hopping all day, I am to keep the house on the better side of the filthy and cluttered vs. almost filthy and fairly cluttered line, and hopefully provide some semblance of education and exercise to the boys' lives. How do parents do it and retain sanity? I like to think I am sane, but I'm actually not so sure. Right now I am drinking a Mason jar of wine and talking to a measuring cup full of chocolate chips, so you tell me.

These menial tasks and goals are what make up each and every day of my life and are why I haven't been blogging much. We also just moved Teddy into Cal and Clark's room, which has proved challenging to say the least. We have tee-ball, which has been a blast, but also consumes time and I've been maintaining a spot in my book club, which requires some late-night reading stints. One daunting thought is knowing that it will only get more hectic from here. The twins will develop different interests and not be doing every activity together, which will involve more time spent figuring out transportation for each of them, more weeknight and weekend activities, and inevitably more freaking laundry. Teddy will begin to be involved in more activities, and meanwhile I will not be working out, but remaining a lumpy blob of a mom who eats leftover hot dog scraps and secretly makes and eats piles of nachos and dips anything and everything into her homemade ranch dressing.

So, I'm kind of a mess.

But as all the well-edited articles about this stage of motherhood that I get a quarter of the way through but never have time to finish tell me, I should enjoy this time because it will pass so quickly and soon I will be missing the days that I find superhero capes in my pillow case and raisins in my hair. I will miss washing out bib pockets and stepping on tiny dinosaurs. Right now that doesn't seem possible, but in order to keep myself on the good side of sanity, I choose to believe that the articles on motherhood that I partially read are correct.

I also remind myself that I have only a little over two months before my little baby twins will be off to kindergarten and I might have time to actually vacuum the carpet and chop an entire onion up at once. But I know I will also miss them and their LOUD presence throughout my day.

I'm actually not even sure what the point of this entry is. I guess just to write something, because it is therapeutic and fun and it's a weekend night so I'll have Brian's help in the morning. And now Teddy is awake and I have to put him back to sleep without waking up Cal and Clark.

I know I will not miss this part.

These rings around the tub and dirt at the bottom sum up
the conclusion of my days quite well.

Thursday Thesicle

Tough hockey players can feed little cousins too.

Memorial Day Lake-ing

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Brian's parents' beautiful lake house with some of his family. It was a nice, relaxing weekend that for the boys and I extended Friday through Tuesday.

The lake house is about a four hour drive, minus any stops. The boys were awesome and one of the things they did to keep themselves entertained was to sing to us. They sang songs they made up all by themselves. (Yaaaayyy) Here are the titles of the lovely songs we were serenaded with:

Little Maple Face
I Love My Booty So Much
Trees, trees, trees
Automatic Spiderman
What's Wrong With the Internet?
I Am a Nipple Surrounded by Trees

I don't think song writing is in their future, but you never know.

The weather was perfect. We got to see Tracy, our sister-in-law who recently had the cardiac arrest and basically came back to life in an absolutely amazing story and recovery that has left her pretty much unaltered. She and her family of six drove up from Atlanta to spend the weekend with Brian's parents and his sister and family from up by us.

As usual lately, I don't have much time to actually write an intelligent, witty, and/or poignant entry about it, but I'll share some pictures. Somewhere there is a picture of me driving Brian's mom around on the jet ski, which was awesome. Me, driving! So fun and exhilarating! I'll add the picture when I find it. Enjoy.

Teddy at the beach!

Just add water! Put a Teddy in a lake.

Sand- the mark of a good beach day

Concerned citizen Theodore Crosson goes for a spin on the jet ski with Dad.

Three boys on a boat ride

A brigade of  cousin water gun fighters generously paused the fight for a photo.

Calvin practices on shore for his crazy driving one day.

Zane says Clark will be the better driver.

I think Clark may have actually taken the jet ski out in his mind.

It was hard to not take pictures of this kid

Morning coffee Cheerios on the deck

How do I look from the side?

Sandy toes

Worn out after a walk with Cousin Clara to see baby goats

The three 2013 baby cousins: Ivy, Teddy, Clara

Giggling Clara, Concerned Theodore, and ATTACKING THE CHAIR Ivy

Taking pictures of multiple babies is hard work.

Playing the bucket

Cousin water wars

s'mores at the fire

The goodbye boy cousins bear hug...this is the part where they look
at the other camera, not at mine.

Ivy hug-attacks Teddy

And we drove home

Thursday Thesicle

The kid knows how to party.

Bowling for Five

Well, the twins are five. Crazy. 

Their birthday was a few days before their party, and they had a hard time fathoming how that works. I think in their minds, you become the next year old when everyone sings and you blow out the candles. We had quite a few busy days in between their real birthday and their birthday party.

April 29th, their birthday, was a Tuesday, so they started off the celebration with Gammy bringing over their favorite drink-- Pellegrino with Bai. They drank the drinks with straws and toasted each other. I made a treasure hunt for them with clues all over the house to find a a gift from us hidden under the couch-- a real goalie stick. They've been wanting a real goalie stick for quite awhile now, for their "real" hockey games in the house. Yay.

Birthday drinks

Birthday breakfast sandwiches

For lunch on their birthday they wanted to go Macaroni Grill with Gammy and Aunt Julie. They ordered a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and the waiter brought two pieces of chocolate lava cake.

Spaghetti and meatballs and BREAD

It was pouring rain for about an hour before we went to lunch and while we were at lunch and then for a few hours after. We had to catch the bus to go to engineering class at the community center after we had lunch, so that was an adventure with three boys in pouring rain. We made it to their class without being as drenched as I imagined we would be.

Our dear family friend Margo from out of town came over that night, played some Wii with the boys, and watched baseball with us. Cal was convinced that she spent the night because he tricked her and turned the lights off and she fell asleep. We went with it.

The next day we did what I have been dreading / looking forward to / sad about / happy about / unsure about for quite some time-- registered them for kindergarten! When we walked to the school to get registration forms the week before, Clark had asked to dress as Spiderman. We got some grins from passersby as we walked the three blocks to the school. The front office staff was elated to find out that Spiderman and his twin brother would be attending school there next fall. "How lucky for us!" one of them said.

Registration packets!

Saving the light pole?

Concerned citizen Theodore isn't sure about Spiderman's
ability to take him safely down a slide.

It all ended up fine.

All registered! The elementary school doesn't know what is about to hit it.

A couple of crazies

The next day I found a tick on Clark's head while in line at the pharmacy. I bought tweezers and took it out, and it was horrible and scary and horrifying. I don't even want to write about it anymore. Also on Tick Day we had tee-ball practice in a muddy, muddy field, which resulted in Brian cleaning off all the gear in our tub. Oh, and checking for ticks again.

Something much better that happened the following day is that we went to the National Zoo for a friend's birthday. We ended up having such a good time that I told my friend who brought us to drive home without us and the boys and I stayed for another hour and a half and caught the metro home. That was the first time I'd tackled the metro with all three boys by myself and it was a piece of cake.

Several brightly-clothed animals gathered for cupcakes at the zoo.

Shockingly, a tiger escaped and was found lurking behind a garbage can!

Thanks to some excellent photography, the tiger can be seen here up close.

We got to see a Giant Panda eating bamboo... and this statue,
which was not as cool.

Teddy enjoyed his stroller-view of the zoo.

Orangutan crossing! Sooo cool 

A mischievous lion joined the tiger at the panda exhibit.

After a Saturday full of tee-ball and a tee-ball pizza party and tee-ball fundraising, we had a Sunday of Brian and I playing softball on our coed team, and then the boys party-- a duckpin bowling party! (Duckpin bowling is with smaller balls.) It was the least stressed I've ever been about one of their birthday parties. I sent the invitations, made the cakes and cupcakes, made a birthday banner, and sent Brian to buy plasticware for the cake. That's it. Not as creative as I like to be, but easy. Bowling alleys are not good places for picture-taking, but we managed to get a few pictures.

The birthday bowlers

Cal poses

Here's my banner

Wish I had known the party room wall was painted like this...oh well

Cakes, giant cupcakes, and mini cupcakes

They each had a bowling lane cake with pin and ball candles

Bowlers refreshing themselves

Lighting the bowling pins candles...

Making wishes...

One of Calvin's approaches

Little Teddy was awesome, though not quite ready for competition.

Clark Aaron and his namesake...Uncle A

And another Uncle A selfie

It was quite a week of celebrations and events...well, and the tick. I'm proud of myself for getting this post up so quickly. Life is moving so fast these days!