A holiday with my people

A.K.A. Fourth of July 2016! 

A week ago one of my cousins sent me a message asking me when I would be in Minnesota because she was also coming to town. It took a few messages back and forth to figure out that our schedules overlapped best on the fourth. I then sent out a few more messages to cousins and aunts and uncles inviting them to join us (all BEFORE asking my parents' permission to throw a party at their house. Oops!). And just like that we had a family gathering planned! 

In the end we had 20 kids and 16 adults - cousins, aunts, uncles and great grandparents! We came from Texas, Arizona, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Not bad for a last minute get together ;-) 

Good thing my parents are always willing to host a party and just rolled with it. (And by "rolled with it" I mean cleaned their house, bought and prepared food for nearly 40 people, planned and provided fun kid activities and said nothing all day as their house was used and abused). 

It was simple but fun. The kids played on the slip in slide (i.e. a large piece of plastic on the hill) and had two water balloon and squirt gun fights. I pulled out my old toys from the 90s and showed everyone how to skip-it and pogo stick. Though admittedly my big brother put me to shame with his mad pogo stick skills. We ate tons of food. And attempted to squeeze in little bits of conversation around the general kid chaos.  

The evening ended with our own personal fireworks show and sparklers. It was nothing grand but watching the kids' faces was fun. 

These grainy phone pictures don't do the day justice. It was great. Just what I needed. Time with my people. People that I know and love and people that know and love me. And now we are off to camp for the week! It will be Charlotte's first week as a camper. Thank goodness she will have two cousins in her cabin as she is nervous. Followed by a weekend with even more family! 

Funny story. As my cousin and I were messaging back and forth she asked me about a parade (per her kids request). I was busy packing to get on the road so I quickly googled a parade. Found one. Took a screen shot and sent off the picture to all my relatives. Only later in the day did I realize the parade was in Michigan. Not Minnesota! Oops. Needless to say we never made it to an Independence Day parade this year:)

We made it!

And as Isaiah said, "It was an epic week long cross country sleepover"!!! It kinda was. Night 1 & 2 were spent in Dallas with my cousin and her fabulous family. 

Night number 3 was spent in a hotel near Joplin Missouri. And finally last night was spent with good friends in Iowa. 

Cal and his "characters" & brothers. That sweet two year old (on the right) decided the characters were coming to visit. And I think he was right. We are quite the cast of characters:)

And finally tonight shortly before sunset the kids and I rolled into Minnesota!!!

And we were all so excited to be back!! It's been 389 days since we left. Once we were in Minnesota Charlotte told me she was "so happy her eyes were crying". Sweet girl misses Minnesota and family something fierce.  

Just before we pulled up to my parents house I told my sister (on the phone) "we are almost home". My kids heard this and freaked out. They thought I had tricked them and brought them back to Texas!

Road Trip Day 1

"Don't overpack." He said. 

"I won't." I said. 

"Just take the essentials. The bare minimum." He said. 

"I will."  I said

"Don't pack the kids in like sardines." He said. 

"I won't." I said 

And then I filled the van with 3 suitcases, 4 duffel bags, 2 strollers, 3 sleeping bags, 4 pillows, half a dozen backpacks, 2 coolers, 1 booster seat, 3 swim floaties, 1 potty chair, 3 bags of food plus too many miscellaneous items to count! 

I lied. 

But today I'm starting my solo trip cross country with all four kids. To say I'm a little nervous and therefore overpacked is a huge understatement! 

Only 1400 miles to go and the kids and I will be back in Minnesota for the first time in a year!!!

House Tour: Bedrooms

When I saw the next room scheduled in the house tour was "master bedroom" I almost didn't participate. I LOVE our master bedroom. It's spacious and bright. It's white. And it has an awesome vaulted ceiling with a wood beam. Plus a walk in closet and master bathroom. I've never had a private bathroom before! Lots of reasons to love my room. However it's not very photogenic:( For a few reasons. 1. It's rarely clean or tidy because it is mostly the collect-all space for the main floor of our house. And 2. It's not really decorated. We put the furniture in and threw a few things on the wall and called it done. Then I saw next week's prompt is kid bedrooms and I really wanted to give up on this house tour. Because let's be honest those rooms are always a disaster! But it's all about real homes, right? So I've decided to lump them all together in one big bedroom tour and be done with it.

Disclaimer: The only reason any of these rooms are somewhat presentable in these pictures is due to the fact that we were preparing to go to Minnesota for five weeks and I want to come home to a tidy home. That and I was worried if I left it a mess Joe would throw everything away in my absence! 

If you remember from the previous two room tours when you walk in our front door the kitchen is straight ahead and the living room is to the right. If you turn left there is a hallway that leads to our main floor bedrooms. (The laundry room and a bathroom are also down this hallway.) The first room is the boys' room. Our boys are ages 9 and 1. And thankfully (and surprisingly!) they both enjoy sharing a room. 

This is the room looking in from the hallway:

And the rest of the room...

(Yes Levi's crib sheet is pink. What can I say...he has two big sisters and that's the softest crib sheet we own.) 

Last summer when we moved here I decided Isaiah's room needed a theme. So I took him to the store, showed him a few sheet set options and let him choose. He chose sharks. I bought the sheets and asked/begged my mom to make some shark quilts. Voila! A theme. Recently I decided my early bird sons need to sleep in a bit. (I am not a morning person!) And blackout curtains were going to be the answer to my problem! So once again I took Isaiah to the store and allowed him to pick. He chose BLACK. I suggested gray would match his theme better. He then informed me he wants a new theme. (And that I didn't give him enough options originally.)  His new theme? Black. Everything black. Keep dreaming kid:) For the moment we have both the old shark curtains and new black blackout curtains on one rod. It's not going to stay that way permanently. Or at least I hope not. 

Isaiah insisted on being in the bedroom pictures. And how could I resist including him all cozy on his bed reading (Harry Potter)? I couldn't. Speaking of his bed. It's a hand-me-down from Joe when he was a boy. He shared it with his brother. And before that it was Joe's dad's childhood bunk bed with his brother. Isaiah is the third generation to use this bedroom furniture. How crazy is that?!

A little further down the hall (across from the main bathroom) is the girls' room. Our girls are ages 6 and 3 (nearly 4) and complete opposites in every way possible. And yet somehow they share a room and a bed quite nicely!

Their furniture is hand-me-downs from their Aunt Chelsea (Joe's little sister). And that amazing quilt and bed skirt were made by my mom while she stated with us this winter. 

Here's the main floor bathroom that can be seen across the hall from the girls' room:

Finally at the end of the hall is our master bedroom:

And another wonderful quilt made by my mom. 

The door on the left leads to the bathroom and the door on the right leads to the walk-in closet which REALLY is in no condition to be photographed! 

This little mattress usually lives under our bed...just in case we have any nighttime visitors. In reality we rarely pull it out. When a child crawls into our bed in the middle of the night neither of us can think straight enough to pull out the mattress. Instead we endure kicking and flopping and squirming until morning. And then we promise ourselves next time we will be more diligent about pulling out the mattress or returning the child to their proper bed. During the daytime we have great plans and ambitions...during the night...not.so.much. But back to the picture. It was out because we had a sick child for almost a week. And that child did not want to sleep in her room. Little mattress to the rescue! 

And lastly looking from our bed to the other side of the room. 

At the other end of that hall is the boys' room. Oh and that little workspace? Never been used. We recently moved Levi out of our room. Taking out the crib and glider left a lot of empty space! Which I thought would be perfect for a desk and my computer. And it is! Oh and the pack n play is always in that corner. With Isaiah home on summer break it works best to have Levi nap in our room so big brother can still play in his room during nap time. 

And that concludes our main floor bedrooms tour! 

Dads

Joe worked overnight last night and will likely sleep the day away (for good reason). He probably won't even see this post for a couple days but the kids and I had a lot of fun creating this picture for him so I had to share...

It was an impromptu photo session this past week. The little kids and I were picking up Isaiah from Robotics Camp and I had coupons for free slush monkeys (from the gas station) burning a hole in my pocket so we stopped. I then realized I had a permanent marker in my purse. Those two facts + the need to kill some more time so Joe could sleep longer (thank you night shifts!) = a windy and ridiculously hot Father's Day photo session with my phone camera. 

The majority of my children thought this photo idea was pretty fun. And sneaky! And since I'm never the fun parent that buys them treats their love for those slush monkeys definitely rivaled their love for dad in that moment. (Fear not their love for their father definitely won. It always does. He is the real fun parent after all!) 

One child of mine was very unhappy with this photo session. The gas station didn't have any good slush monkey flavors! The spot I chose for pictures was terrible! Sitting for pictures is THE WORST! There is always one in the bunch;-)

 

And now onto my dad. Recently I shared this photo and story on Facebook and I thought it would be fun to share here as well. It's SO typical of my dad. And though the man can drive me bonkers at times, I love him and he has the best of intentions always. 

My parents have come down to Texas FOUR times in the (almost) year that we have lived here. And I am so grateful for their visits for many, many reasons. But one of the best reasons is the comedic relief they (unintentionally?) provide. Today's laugh provided by Grandpa Paul who has been working hard to do a little landscaping for us. Those rocks around the tree...he did that. Plus he added a few sea shells for decoration. However every morning he would find the shells scattered around the yard. He would gather them up and put them back and blame the birds. Today Hannah discovered the real reason the shells kept moving....crabs! The shells have crabs in them and they were walking off. Oops! We will chalk this one up to being clueless Minnesotans. Grandpa and Hannah are now returning all the shells to their beach home.

Happy Father's Day to a couple great dads! We love you both!