The Drain Blaster

Since it was Friday night, John and I decided it was high time we do something fun and entertaining. Also, our kitchen sink was very, very clogged. Our handy man wasn't able to fix it. John was hoping he could do it himself. His optimism is endearing.

Behold, The Drain Blaster.....

This was after using maximum strength draino and a sink auger. I also endured having a plunger used in the sink by the handy man earlier today. The floor has flooded, grossness is everywhere. Sigh.....

The Bump

Joshua woke up this morning complaining of pain and when I checked him out there was a big bump under his skin near his bladder. I took him to the doctor and it looks like he has a hernia. We'll go see a surgeon this coming week. Bummer. =( The good news is that he is doing good now and is playing normally.

All of that, combined with a flooded kitchen from a clogged sink, a school (or "shool" if you've seen Mega Mind! ha!) dinner and concert tonight, and a big lunch I'm heading up on Monday for the teachers is making it difficult to put up the official "after" post for our no longer pink bathroom. I hope you'll forgive me. The bathroom is lovely though and pictures will be here soon.

Outside Our window

We have window boxes outside our upstairs windows and this week we found some baby birds!

Here is their beautiful mother. I had to take this through the closed window so you really can't see just how pretty she is. Her coloring is amazing!

When the mother gets food we can open the window. Or, if you're John David, you can just open the window and pretty much knock the mother bird out.

It's been so neat to have them right out our window, BUT I'll think twice about telling the kids next time. This window is behind our headboard so every chance they get they are climbing up on our bed and messing it all up just to see the birds. And there is now a little yellow bird toy that Julia has put in our windowsill to keep them company. The mother has looked a little stressed out by it all. Poor bird....

Reminded me of Easter 4 Years Ago

After I finished our Easter picture post I was reminded of this Easter picture failure from 4 years ago back in San Angelo. Looks like my son has been perfecting his picture taking skills for some time now......

Egg Hunting

My parents arrived Saturday morning and even though it was their 35th anniversary (wow!), they decided to celebrate Easter with us for the weekend.

They took us all to IHOP for breakfast, then they took the kids to see Hop while I came on home and cooked an anniversary meal and hid eggs.

We did half of the egg hunt in the front yard and half in the back.

Joshua decided he only wanted green eggs.

Aulora was enjoying a big lollipop with Grandmamma. She smiled and said she would always remember that moment because I was taking a picture of her and Grandmamma.

Joshua and Aulora traded licks.

It was a happy Easter!

Attempted Easter Pictures

Easter was wonderful.

Easter pictures, however, not so much.

We tried.

And tried.

But between bright sunshine issues, cranky children, and one child who thought funny faces would actually be funny....

This is the best we could do.

Other than Joshua, the picture with my parents turned out pretty well.

Aulora felt the need to take a bow.

Thank you, Gran, for the beautiful clothes!

John David - of course he doesn't make the goofy faces here.

Julia is usually the easiest to take pictures of.

She's getting so tall!

Joshua, on the other hand, had NO desire to have his picture taken. He turned his back on the camera.

He hid his face with a stuffed animal.

This is what I was finally able to get.

I bet you can't guess who the cranky kid was.

The Princess Ring

Last night, as Aulora was stroking my face and telling me about her time at church, she mentioned that she had dropped her princess ring in the potty at church. I then noticed she was wearing that princess ring. And then (as she is still cuddling with me and stroking my face) she tells me that she just reached right in and got her special ring. It was a touching moment.....

(How long do you think it took to get her to the bathroom sink for a good hand scrubbing?)

This Has to Stop!

This is what the girls did to Joshua a couple of days ago:

He was thrilled and didn't want me to take anything off of him. He insisted he was a girl. John David nearly choked when he walked in the room.

There was this incident about a month ago too. This little man really needs a boy to play with during the day! He's had way too much exposure to dolls and tutus. Oh my....

Getting Closer to Having a Bathroom

This whole bathroom thing has been long and painful. Mostly because of where the bathroom is and how whenever work is being done I have no access to my bedroom and all of upstairs is crowded and messy. The little ones like to play in their rooms a lot during the day so it's been a challenge. Anyway....Here's some progress pictures:

tile that still needs a good cleaning

some of the grout and all of the caulking has to be done after the bathtub is refinished

here are the built in shelves that aren't all the way set in or painted yet

Can you feel just how small this bathroom is? We've just been happy to have 2 1/2 bathrooms in this house. Most houses around us seem to have only 1 or 1 1/2 bathrooms.

Having a toilet in the hallway closet is a new trend we're trying to start. Don't be jealous!

Bowling

My mom and I took the kids bowling during spring break a couple of weeks ago. If you enjoy pictures of the backside of peoples' heads, then this post will be especially riveting for you.

The speed at which Joshua's little ball traveled down the lane was painfully slow. Like, I think my mom went to the restroom and made it back before any pins went down.

Julia didn't do half bad - of course the bumpers were up.

John David bowled on a bumper-less lane with me and my mom. He wasn't half bad either.

Julia felt the need to help Aulora on all of her turns. This turned into Julia trying to take over some of the turns. Aulora is pretty easy going though.

Joshua was enjoying the hand fan. We also realized after a good while that he was pushing the reset button too. It made for an interesting game!

And although I'm sad that I didn't break 100 (a difficult thing since I was taking pictures, video, and helping little ones bowl) I do want to post this picture of my score. John David was trash talking the whole game because he thought he was going to beat me. But he ended up with 73 and I got 99. Yes! Victory, boy! I have to keep him in his place. (That's why I also beat him several times in air hockey at Chuck E. Cheese the next day.)

And just in case you haven't seen or heard about the kids bowl free program, you can check it out here!

Pinewood Derby

Two weeks ago we had the pinewood derby race at church. John David's car is the one in the middle. He made it himself and the Wednesday before the race they got to test their cars at Royal Rangers.

I asked him how he did and he said "I got fourth place." I thought that sounded pretty good so I was trying to encourage him, but then he told me that it was fourth place out of four. Then he told me that one of his friends bet him that he could beat his car with just a block of wood. Sadly, his friend won that bet!

Before the official race started, Daddy helped rearrange the weights on the car. It made all the difference in the world because John David was getting first and second in most of the races. He was so excited!

He won second place and his buddy won first.

Julia was very proud of her brother and his trophy.

Aulora and Joshua had fun with balloons, flags, and some little kid games that were set up.

Joshua and John David watch the races.

Paper airplanes were another good form of entertainment that day.

I think next year the girls and I should enter a car like this one!