Life With 4

Life with four kids is hectic, crazy, and lots of fun. We have all had our moments when things have been a little too overwhelming, but we get past it and things settle down again eventually. We have not attempted many things away from home yet, and I am not going to push myself like I have done in the past to do so. The world will go on without me. I have even cut some of my school duties, as much as it broke my heart to do it. But with a week in the NICU under my belt, I am in absolutely no hurry to go back. So we stay at home, as germ free as we can be...at least for the time being.

I do feel a little bad for the Knight. He has been SO used to being on the go go go all of the time. To sit and actually have some time to watch cartoons and Christmas movies seems so strange to him. He still wakes up every morning asking what we are going to do that day. He has been acting out a bit more than the other two kiddos, but that is to be expected. He is almost four, and he has been the baby all of this time. Pretty soon it will be warm enough for the Knight and the Baby and me to go to the park during the day. The mile walk and the fresh air will do us all good.

GrandmaOf4

GrandmaOf4 and DadOf3 took off for the airport this morning. We had a lovely visit that went way too fast. I will post pictures and stories this afternoon.

This morning the boys and I are off to Kindergarten Round-up for the Prince! It is hard to believe that he will be a Kindergartener next year, but he is ready and raring to go. This time around, I have all the necessary documents where I need them. I ordered his birth certificate from vital statistics about 6 months ago. Now I have one for each of my three kiddos.

We had such a nice time with GrandmaOf4. I am bumming a little bit this morning. It is always sad to say good-bye. At least we have our next trip planned so I will see her again in about two months. We will see GrandpaOf4 then too.

Update

Since I have ventured into the realm of creative writing with my Write A Letter A Day stuff, I thought it would be good to post an honest to goodness update.

Princess - Princess has rocked her spelling tests the last two weeks in a row! She missed one this week and 2 last week, but last week's test was the hardest spelling test to date. I am very proud of her. I am in the habit of eating lunch with Princess on Tuesdays with the Knight. My little Prince is in pre-school so that means I just have to wrangle one pre-schooler while we eat. Princess invited a new little girl up on stage to eat with us. We will call her ZO. She was a nice little girl. I would love for Princess to make a good girl friend. Soccer is going well. She will miss soccer this week because she has a math tournament to attend on Saturday.

Prince - Prince has really enjoyed going to pre-school. He is always a little irritated on Thursday afternoons when I pick him up because he has to wait 5 days to go to pre-school again. He loves soccer too and has been able to practice with Princess's team on Friday night. For some reason, Princess's coach decided to devote two nights a week to practice and the kids can choose between Friday night and Wednesday night. Princess and AB chose Friday night. Because there are not many kids there, the coach asked Will if he wanted to practice too. Prince LOVED that! I would have asked for Prince to be on his team, but he really wanted to be on the same team as one of his friends. Prince continues to learn in pre-school. Here is a Prince Story:

PRINCE: Mommy I can spell "unbuckle"
MOMOF3: Really? Awesome! Can you spell it for me.
PRINCE: P-R-E-S-S (He was reading the button on the seat belt buckle!)

Knight - My little Knight is doing well. He has developed a BIG naughty streak lately. Last Saturday, DadOf3 and I had to divide and conquer because the kids' soccer games were at the same time. I took the Knight with me because DadOf3 was called at 3:00 in the morning for work and was up for an hour. Well, to make a long story short, the Knight got away from me, kicked a soccer ball in the middle of Princess's soccer game, and ran right into the mass of soccer players. I ran after him and got him out but man! That was not fun! I went to the mall with another mom friend of mine today and we took the Knight. He was pretty good but he was still trying to get away from me. Mr. Independent!

Our life is pretty darn busy these days with school, homework, soccer, work, and just having three kids in general. It is fun but I sometimes wonder where the time goes!

Big Thursday!

It has been another crazy day here in FamilyOf5Land.

The Prince went to pre-school this morning at 9:30. The Knight and I drove him over there and then headed over to the church where we have MOPS to make copies of the newsletter I write for MOPS once a month. It was nice to only have to chase after one child while making copies! After that, we headed to the grocery store. My MOPS coordinator sent out a plea for people to make more egg casseroles for the meeting tomorrow. There are going to be lots of extra people. I bought enough stuff to make two casseroles. We rushed home to put the eggs and stuff into the frig and then headed right back out to go to lunch with the Princess. She was SO surprised. She chose AB to come up on the stage with us. It was fun and the Knight was pretty good! It is now time to head back out and get the Prince!

Have a great day! Still hoping to get pictures posted! Soon!

Blog Slacker!

I have been a blog slacker lately! Between having visitors and the kids' activities, I have been running around like mad! It has been fun though!

Last night my aunt and uncle from Missouri were in town! They are traveling down to an even warmer climate over the next week or so, but they stopped in to see us last night and it was so much fun! They were traveling with a really nice couple who I think are their next door neighbors.
We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant and my kids were so good! I love nights like that!

The kids were super tired because I took them swimming yesterday morning. We met AB and his mom. The Prince decided to be brave and went down the slide into the pool for the first time! He did great and ended up going 7 times total. He would have gone more times if I would have let him but AB's mom was watching the Knight so I didn't want to be away too long.

I will add pictures in a bit!

Crazy Week!

This week has been totally nutso! Monday was basketball practice for the Princess and the Prince. Tuesday I helped take the kids in Princess's class on a field trip to the Outback steakhouse. Then Princess had girl scouts always crazy because I have to wake the boys up early to pick Princess up from school and drop her off. DadOf3 also came home sick on Wednesday night. Poor guy was just achy with a head ache and felt miserable. I put him to bed and the kids and I made bagel pizzas for supper. DadOf3 actually stayed home sick from work yesterday - I cannot remember the last time he did that. Poor guy. He is much better today though and back at work!

This morning was crazy too. First I had a meeting at the school so I drive Princess in. There is going to be a silent action to raise money for the school in the spring, and that is kicking off now. DadOf3 stayed home with the boys so I could go without having to watch them too. It is a good thing that he did because the boys were in rare form today. I had to run to the grocery store to get some stuff for MOPS tomorrow, and it was, in a word, sucky. It is my turn to bring something hot for breakfast at tomorrow's MOPS meeting. I am going the easy route and taking little quiches. They come frozen so all I have to do is warm them up. Some of these women make fantastic egg casseroles so I feel like I am cheating, but tonight is going to be crazy too. I am taking all three kids swimming with AB and his mom. AB is Princess's best little friend in school. I have a story about Princess and AB but that is a post all its own!