Summer Vacation 2011-Fun and Sun Found Us!

Day 3
A miracle happened overnight, and we awoke to the beautiful sun shining down on the gorgeous beach. The kids didn't fight ALL day. God must have been listening to my prayers. It was a glorious day! My friend Stacey and her family came over the latter part of the day and her four kids (ages 13, 10, 9, 8) and my three kids (ages 11, 6, 4) had a blast playing together, and I got to hang with my girl. We even had a nice Mexican dinner out and everyone was well behaved. Here are a few pics.







Tonight, we wanted to take the kids crabbing on the beach. At first we couldn't find any, then these nice kids came by and dumped their bucket full of crabs for the boys to catch. It was awesome! The boys had the best time, well, except Roman. He screamed and ran for higher ground. Then, he jumped on top of a beach chair, where he remained until Jude carried him back to the condo. The crabs freaked him out, and that is when you realize just what a baby he is. My little man!

Here's some crack...go play!

Desperate times call for desperate measures! I am running out of ideas for the children to keep them entertained this summer. Just yesterday we went to a local bounce house

and it was $26 for all three boys to jump for not quite two hours. That is crazy to do more than twice a month on my stay-at-home-mom budget. I feel like I am just giving money away, with nothing to show for it.
As you may know, Aiden has a love and addiction for video games (a.k.a. crack), but more for computer games these days. We have limited his play time to just the weekends starting on Fridays, then it went to just Saturday and Sunday; and just recently we've taken the computer away all together. Lego.com is dangerously fascinating to him! Last night I decided to purchase Toy Story 3 for them. It was $50, equal to four hours/two days of bounce play. I think I may give them one hour each day to play with a timer, which gives them something to do indoors while it is sweltering hot outside, or raining. I am going to be honest and say that it is very hard to keep my three children entertained at all hours of the day, ALL summer. I value our quality time together, I do. I also feel a total disconnect from the outside world as I have children under my feet and in my hair non-stop all day, every day. But today, I feel like an enabler to Aiden. I feel guilt. Defeated. At the same time, I feel peace and quiet at this very moment while they are all playing the Wii so well together. Okay, Roman just watches, but he doesn't know what he is missing...yet.
It was so cute earlier, I made finding the Wii game into a scavenger hunt. I placed notes throughout the house and told Cullen he could only read them and hint to where to go and to let Aiden find the next note. Well, by the third note, Roman was onto what was going on and he grabbed the note. Aiden got a little upset, but was ready to find the next one. As Cullen read it, the word "tub" was actually written in it, and Roman took off before Aiden could and grabbed the second to last note. Aiden was so upset. At that second, I wasn't sure how a fun game turned into sibling rivalry. I kept Roman back as the last note was read and the prize was found. There were three very happy little boys then!

Here are a few pics from this week...
The day Roman ate his entire peanut butter sandwich at lunch goes down in the books!

Aiden, with his favorite Shrek glass that was recalled the day after we bought it. It's still here.

Sprinkler/slide fun

A baby pool for my baby

Playing games with Cullen

Happy 4th of July!

It's not that I take our country for granted, but sometimes it is nice to get a little reminder every once in a while on why our country is so great. This past week showed me what a wonderful justice system we have and the term freedom has a new meaning to me this fourth.
Jude and I started our day taking the two little boys to church and then came home to watch that movie we rented yesterday. Okay, I watched about fifteen minutes of it, fell asleep, and woke up at the end. I am just so tired these days. I entered my third trimester recently and I hope that has nothing to do with it. I think I need to get back on a routine and back in the gym. Then, it was nap time, which I slept some more. The boys played in the pool after, and had some water fun.


Andrea's

When evening came, we decided to catch some more fireworks on the river and drove downtown. I am so glad we did. The fireworks were awesome and the boys really enjoyed it. I took tons of photos of them being silly. I am also wearing no makeup tonight because that would have required energy on my part to put it on; but I am now regretting that decision after looking at these photos.
















Cullen is still at his dad's house. He got a phone call today to try out for the All-Star Baseball team tomorrow evening by his dads, so it may be another day or two before my little man comes home.
:(

Our Sixth Anniversary Weekend

Jude was off Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we made sure to spend some quality time together. After all, we were celebrating six wonderful years of marriage.

Friday:
We woke up and it was funky outside with rain (again). We got all three boys dressed and went to eat donuts. One of their favorite breakfasts...

Then, we headed over to the insectarium and the boys were in little boy heaven. To be honest, it truly grossed me out, but it was a very neat place to visit. All three really enjoyed it; it fit all their age groups apparently.





For dinner, we all went to Chili's to eat. The boys LOVE molten chocolate lava cake and it was gone in two minutes.



Saturday:
Jude and I slept late and stayed in bed pretty much all afternoon, just relaxing. Then, it was time for the boys to go sleep at Nanny and Paw Paw's so Jude and I could have a nice adult dinner at Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse.
*Six years ago, Jude and I had our daytime wedding reception in the FQ and got a hotel room to stay in down there overnight, before we caught a flight in the morning to Hawaii. In all the madness, we left our bags at his parents house and only had our wedding clothes to wear till the next day. Silly, I know. It was raining and we were starving come night time, so we got dressed in our wedding attire and walked a few blocks to Dickies. The wait for a table was outrageous and we decided we would leave and try somewhere else. As we were walking out the restaurant door, a staff member grabbed us and asked if we had just gotten married. Of course, yes. We were seated immediately, the staff was great, and the food was oh so yummy. We try to go back there once a year and we are never disappointed. Great memories!*

After dinner, we came home to cuddle and watch a movie, left to get snoballs at 10:30 at night, and went to bed soon after.


Sunday:
Since we were still child free come morning time, we decided to sleep in late and go have a jazz brunch at a local favorite restaurant. It was wonderful! After, we picked up our two little monkeys and headed home for naps. Yes, we slept some more. Then it was off to Richelle's 30th birthday surprise party with tons of family. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICHELLE!!) It was an amazing, relaxing weekend and it couldn't have been better. Jude sure knows how to treat me, even after all these years. I am one lucky girl and there aren't many days that go by that I do not count my blessings. He is an answered prayer:)


Six years of marriage and we've added two (and a half) kids. I wonder what ten years will look like...

Let me out the house!

This morning Aiden woke up fever free and all three boys were home. I tried my best to stay home, worried that he could relapse, but around noon I said screw it. I was going nuts. Each child was sent to their room at least once this morning. Cullen has been quite the handful, too.
**About a month ago, I went to Cullen's pediatrician to ask about his ADHD medication. He has only gained two pounds over the past year and the doctor said five to ten pounds is the norm. I informed him that I am concerned about Cullen's slow growth rate and was worried his medication could be affecting him. My goal was to ask for the patch, as I have heard it is better than pill form for eating habits. Well, goal-schmole. The doctor said that his current medication was the best one and if I was worried about his eating habits, I should take him off his medication during the summer to fatten him up. Not what I wanted to hear, but he is the doctor and Cullen does eat like a horse on days he forgets to take it. So, once summer started, oh, a few days ago, Cullen was ready to heed the doctor's advice. (He hates the fact that he has to take medication.) Friday morning he stopped his ADHD meds and my old wild Cullen is back. I think by the end of this summer, pregnant and all, I will need medication! My next option is to put him on a lower dosage, so he eats a little more and still has a little help from his meds. I am trying med free first, for Cullen's growth and for his preference.**
Getting back to today, I called Amy by twelve and asked if she had any plans. She didn't and was happy to get out of the house as well, so we headed over to a bounce house and let the kids run free. The boys played so well together, it was refreshing. An hour and a half later, it was nap time. Nice! Cullen rode his bike and I enjoyed the quiet. It is going to be one extremely long summer.