Bamboo Sprouts

 

We started the evening at GG and Grpas house for a BBQ and then headed over to a local park to watch the big show.

Then we headed home for some sparkler fun.

Sophie and Levi weren’t too sure about holding sparkly fire but they caught on.

Seconds after this, Bella THREW it in a moment of hysteria and was quite done with that event.

Remember, they were SPARKLERS.  Quiet ones.  But this was her reaction to the whole experience.

Happy USA day!

 

I love how Sophie and Isabella adore each other.  Sophie is such a good big sister and Bella just thinks she is magical.

As we were leaving the park, Bella said when her daddy comes back to this place with her next time, she will have him pick up this rock for her because he is weewy weewy stwong.  Better start working out Rick. 

This is some of the craziness that we dealt with to get pix of five kiddos!   And notice that only the BOY is behaving.  Probably because he has no idea that there are 4 naughty ole girls behind him. 

See that spec of a man on that rock?  Now Levi is pretty sure he can be a spider man just like that crazy guy.

Since Levi got a new Spidey room and Sophie recently got moved to the downstairs and sort of got a new room (still working on all that), I guess Bella was feeling left out.  She is such a passionate girl and about way too many things so I suspect her room will get crazy but her latest kick is strawberries of all things so imagine her delight when she spotted this comforter set with strawberries all over it from across the store!  Little eagle eyes.  Thing is she wants me to paint horses on the wall because she still loves those and oh could I include some butterflies too because they are really her favorite.  LOL  We shall see.  They do think I am wonder woman lately.  Actually that is another one of Bellas passions and she is determined to be WW for Halloween.  Yes they are already planning their Halloween outfits.  LOL   Anyhow, today after I fixed Bella up after a bloody nose (just due to dry air here, no biggie and happens more often than we would like) Sophie said to Bella well don’t you think Mommy is just exactly like a real doctor?  Bella didn’t answer that I could hear but Sophie declared that I really am.  I know the years of getting to be their heros will end soon enough so I will soak it all in for now. 

Well that was rambly. 

Anyhow, the comforter she chose happened to perfectly match her paint, rug and green curtains so I am thinking I got off pretty easy here…for now. 

Here is the rest of Bella’s room.  We took down one of the beds when Sophie moved out to give her more space and also to use the mattress in Levis room. 

 

It was time to redo Levis room again already!  I originally did the farm room for Levi and Bella to share a room but now Levi is old enough and his language is good enough to put in special requests, so although I swore I would never do this sort of thing not being a fan of character stuff and all, here it is:

Before:

After:

Super-Spiderman as Levi says.  He really doesn’t know one character from the rest still but he likes the super hero guys so it looks like he will also be having a Spidey bday in a couple of weeks too.  :)  Ah well.  So much for my house all being my taste.  Really what it came down to was that language has been a rocky point for us during this past year with Levi.  He picked up English super fast but he has been slow to be able to really express original thoughts and instead does a lot of copy catting and liking and saying what his sisters do and say.  This has made it hard to feel like I could meet his needs because I didn’t know what on earth they were!  So when he made this request, I threw my decor ideas out the window and granted his big wish.  He is pleased as punch with it and I am not as horrified as I thought I would be.  LOL

Painting over my labor of love was a little sad though!

This was the hardest part to paint over.  LOL  I thought this little mouse and chicken came out the best but I couldn’t make them work with the Spidey-guy. 

Our visitors had never been to Colorado so we wanted to spend extra time in the Rockies.  We rented this cabin for a night and enjoyed beautiful views, oven baked smores (no kidding), early kiddo bedtimes and late night grown up conversation huddled under a blanket on the deck.  A real slumber party for seven.

The view from our diggs.

Kids were well entertained with a few dollars worth of art supplies.

And since campfires aren’t allowed on the premises, we made a version of smores in the oven.  No one seemed to mind that they weren’t cooked over a fire. 

Nothing like a yummy full bfast cooked on a minature stove in a tiny cabin with breathtaking views when you wake up in the Rockies.

So many treasures.

 

 

We are lucky that several families that we traveled with when we went to China for Sophie live right here in town so we try to get together with them a few times a year.  We had everyone over while our visitors were here since they were part of the travel group too.  It’s always so fun to see the girls all together again and I think none of us can believe the girls are FIVE now!

These are 5 of the 12 the girls from travel group 548 who could make it this year.  All are from the same area of China and all have birthdays within a few weeks of each other.   We missed the rest of you and hope you can make it out one year soon!

 

And here are the girls with their siblings.  This group used to be MUCH smaller. 

Here is master tree climber M.  This little pnut got herself 40 feet up??  LOL  Only laughing because it didnt happen at MY house but instead at her own. 

And here is beautiful Miss M who traveled the furthest to join us for the reunion this year.  Please come again soon!

And sweet S.  This girl is a heart stealer and sure to be a future heart breaker. 

And charming little L with her cutie pie new glasses and missing teeth!

And my sweet Sophie although this photo is from a couple days later.  Guess I was too busy taking pix of our cute visitors and forgot to take many of my own kiddos!

We just love you all.

 

 

See all these turkeys?  They kept me hoppin lately.  We actually traveled with one family to China TWICE which is pretty rare and of course we have become good friends and we try to see them whenever we can.  This year they were able to come see us for a week and we partied til we were bone tired every day.  :)  Actually, Rick was out of town for their visit and just the mom and her two girls came so we have been on major mom duty.  We are usually home way more than we are out on the town but of course I had to show them some hotspots while they were here. 

All four girls are from Hubei China and Sophie and their oldest are both from Xiaogan City and are two weeks apart and both Bella and their youngest are from Huangmei City and share the same birthdate.  Big fun was had by all but more about that later. 

In other news (LOL), I got my laptop back from Dell yesterday but it is not fixed so I am back on the rigged up desktop.  Its a bare bones set up but I decided I better learn my way around it because enough is enough.  So that and company sorta explains my absence.  The rest of the explanation is just computer issues and lazy bones I guess.  LOL

Anyhow, more pix of our past couple of weeks coming shortly but I just wanted to hop on and say all is well and I am looking forward to catching up on your blogs and my own. 

Rick is a wonderful father to our kiddos!  They all adore him and love to spend time with him.  They run to the door each evening when he gets home from work, race to be the first to volunteer to help him or accompany him on an errand.  He is consistant with them and always helps them with their bedtime routine of jammies, teeth, potty and BOOKS.  Everynight they snuggle up and read bed time stories. 

We did our celebrating a little early since Rick isnt home this weekend.  Hope everyone has a nice day celebrating treasures. 

Happy Father’s Day Rick!  We love you.

I am sure I have some fun posts after my hiatus but lets just start with todays events.  Good grief.  Would you believe that the kids and I spent 2.5 hours stranded on the side of the highway in our NEW overheated car??  This has been the craziest car situation.  I posted a bit ago about a neighbor backing into my new car…brand new at the time.  400  miles on it and its hit.  UGH.  Then it was leaking something so although it looked like a tiny scratch on the bumper, we had it towed in because of the leaking.  Sure enough, when he hit the front bumper, it pierced a hole in the radiator.  So new bumper and new radiator later, we are supposedly back to new.

Only it never felt back to new.  But you know, I felt so lucky to have a nice new car and all and I wanted to be grateful for it and all but truth is, I was frustrated with the car after that.  It just seemed like damaged goods.  Couldnt ever get the a/c to cool down the car right, it rattled and was sluggish. 

Then today, we are stuck in a massive traffic jam on the highway and it starts SMOKING.  WHAT?  I am freaking out…and Levi says oh no, is the car FREAKING OUT AGAIN?  YES it is.  Rick is of course out of town, I am in a smoking car with 3 kiddos 5 and under.  Ok it is what it is. 

So I call road side assistance and they say a tow will come in an hour but only one person and the car are covered so I need to arrange a taxi at my expense for my passengers.  Remember, my “passengers” are all 5 and under.  I finally manage to convey my perdicament to this pretty much uncaring woman on the phone and she tells me she will try to find a tow with a large cab but no promises.  Whatever. 

Once that is arranged, I call the dealership to let them know we are coming in.  They are SO GREAT and offer to send a shuttle to pick us all up or a service guy to the scene or whatever will help.  I take the service guy…blah blah.  But, I am still in this HUGE traffic jam situation.  I mean I am pulled to the side now but traffic is not moving at all and no one can actually get to me at all.

TWO AND A HALF HOURS later, no tow, but the service guy shows up.  He looks to be twelve but he is pleasant and on the job.  He seems to think I am some ditzy girl who would let her car run out of coolant and wait 2.5 hours on the side of the road for somone to bring me more but he doesnt say this aloud so ok.  I point out that the car has 1200 miles on it and how could it be out of anything??  Within 3 minutes, he “tops off” (later I overheard him tell the mechanic that it was EMPTY) the coolant and PLUGS IN THE RADIATOR.  That is right.  The brand new radiator that the body shop installed a few weeks back…they never PLUGGED IT IN. 

I dont even know what to say.

That completely fixes the problem but he follows me back to the dealership just so we can make sure no other damage has occurred.  I dont drive all the much and I pulled over the moment it started smoking so no damage has occurred.  All is well except that I am frazzled and on the verge of tears.  I only burst in to tears once while on the phone with my mom asking her to come rescue us as we had been stuck for 2+ hours at that point.  Of course this was very upsetting to the kiddos so I quickly got a grip and was back to cool mommy.  By chance, I had pbutter crackers and juice boxes in the car and the kids were such TROOPERS through all this.  Amazing really.  It was HOT, our plans were RUINED and we were STUCK for hours but they were patient and great.

After the fiasco, we hit Dairy Q for ice cream and then the park, trying to salvage the day.

This apparently worked wonders because when talking on the phone to Rick tonight, they each told him all about their ICE CREAM and no one mentioned one word about being stuck on the highway for hours.  LOL  That was some extra delicious ice cream. 

I FINALLY feel like I have a new car (it is working great now in every way) and kids memories of this mess were erased with a few dollars worth of treats.

There is more to this story but for heavens sake, this is quite enough.  I am just exhausted from it all.  Something more fun tomorrow and maybe even pix.  If I can figure out how to get pix on a desktop.  It has been years since I worked on a real computer and it seems archaic.  LOL

Well Rick has rigged up a desktop computer for me to use until my old friend is back from Dell.    If you emailed me during the week my computer was crashing or before, I dont have your email or address handy but I should have it back once computer is back.  I am sorry if I owe you a note!  It will be a while.  Anyhow, that is that.  Its funny how I went through a little withdrawl at first.  LOL  Kinda sad really.  And then I sort of didn’t miss it.  Now I am looking for a happy medium with it.  Does that exist for those of us a bit addicted to email and blogging?  We shall see.

>????????uter troubles.  Email and blogging and such affected.  No computer man until Monday so hope to be back on Tuesday.  Yep, I am distraught!  It keeps shutting down so need to post before it does that!

And I don’t mind.  :)  Sophie has always been such a little mommy but lately she has kicked it into high gear and is keeping her brother and sister in line.  LOL  Last night they were cleaning their rooms and she finished her own super fast so then she came upstairs and I was folding laundry and she asked which of the “babies” rooms was messiest because she would help whoever needed it the most.  Now isn’t that cute?  I told her she should go check out the situation and decide who she should help and she decided that Bella’s was messiest (of course) so she helped her but she told Levi she would check on him.  LOL  Then I heard him at one point ask her to come check his room and she said she couldnt because she was too busy but she was sure he was doing a really really great job and she would be there in a minute.  Isnt that all too funny?  Or did you need to be here to appreciate the whole thing?  It cracked me up.  And although she really does help, she also dictates what they should be doing.  And they DO it.  Not like when I tell them and they continue to goof around. 

Then this morning they played in their playroom and then it was time to straighten it up and I can hear her telling them what to do and to move their booties and get their jobs done.  Wonder where she gets this stuff. 

It is done with love and kindness and she works alongside them so even though it might be weird that I let my 5 year old boss around my 3 and almost 4 year olds, it’s working too well to mess with it.

She is one bossy girl.  And I don’t mind because I need all the help I can get.

Well I am out of time.  Calendar submissions are due on Friday so I am going to choose something I already have.  I am thinking that these are the best options:

Well I think this is it.  Sigh.  I have zillions of each child but of all three together?  Very tricky.  I can submit 2 photos.  What do you think?  I didnt number them since there are only 4 but think of them as numbered.  Which one do you like?

 

Boy toys have been a super fun addition around here! 

When I ask them if they are my little turkeys, they tell me no, they are my sweethearts!  :)  And they are right.  But they are turkeys too. 

More pix from the weekend.

It is tricky to get pix of Bella smiling anything but a fakey smile these days so one of us has to entertain her and the other has to stand off to the side and take the photo.  LOL

Playing in the woods.

I notice this often.  This is how they play…they wander away from each other for a few minutes but it isn’t long before they all gravitate back together.  This happens at the pool, park, etc.  People OFTEN ask if they are “real” brothers and sisters.  What a very dumb questions that is. 

Daddy is cracking everyone up!

Have a great day! 

 

The Organizing Junkie is hosting a show off your containers tour.  LOL  This is truly a woman obsessed.  ;) 

So I got to thinking about how I containerize and they are scattered everywhere throughout cupboards and shelves and closets.  Going through and taking pix and giving it some thought (and also, especially seeing some of the other containerized storage areas on the tour!) made me think I have more work to do!  But here is what I have so far.

Some in the pantry to group pasta, popcorn, snicky snacks and potatoes..sprouting potatoes to be specific.  Guess its time to clean that basket out!

Some baskets to help out in the kid cupboard.  The kids like to put their own dishes away so the system doesn’t keep things looking immaculate but I think it helps.

Containing they guy stuff in the garage.

The top of the coat closet.

Organizing the kid’s fridge in the playroom. 

One of my faves- recycled containers!  I just taped the flaps of these boxes down and labeled them with a marker since my label maker has been out of label tape for a few YEARS now.  LOL  Anyhow, this is an area of cupboards above my washer and dryer and I store cards and ribbon and such here which is next to this:

My gift wrap center.  :)  If only my whole house was as organized as this tiny corner of it.

 

This might be the best I can get for the calendar.  I dont know.  We spent a day in the mountains this weekend and I took zillions but I tell you, in every single photo, someone is a little off.  I know I am being too picky though.  I will post the choices later this week and maybe you all can vote on which 2 to submit. 

Here are a few more I liked from the weekend.

I am one lucky MaMa. 

 

Congratulations Mark!

Congratulations Aunt Dale and Uncle Kim. 

 

Mark and his graduation date. 

Who was also his prom date. 

We are proud of you!