…in a very Dwayne way.

We spent  the last day of mid-winter break at the cabin and brought cousin Parker with us. 

This is my favorite shot.

 

It was just me with the four kids, so I wasn’t too surprised to wake up with all five us in my bed.

 

We got lots of play time and I wrote a fantastic post about the deer and snow and park, but lost it and somehow couldn’t recover it. 

The (new) end.

I had promised Kyla for a long time we would make it back to the PSC as soon as we had a free day.  She had earned tons of quarters from chores and had been saving to buy some minerals she saw at the museum store.  Kyla had an appointment this morning, so we were able to go from there.  It was after noon, so we stopped by Trader Joe’s to buy lunch for us all and ran into a good friend, who had recently taken two kids extra into her home, just older than her first two kids. The other kids were visiting family for a few days, so Heidi was down to just two.  I had been wanting to do something for Heidi since she became a foster parent, so I begged her to let me take her kids to the PSC for the afternoon.  Seriously, five kids is not much harder than three, and most kids are easier to take places than my own progeny. 

Our goal was to see Journey to the South Pacific at the IMAX.  It was not as thrilling as the Mammals of the Ice Age, but still amazing.

 

They talked me into giving them $2 for the tornado machine.  Since all 5 fit in, it was a good deal.  All kids made it out again.

 

Fortunately, at the end of the day, I made it out, too.  Six exhausted people trudged back to the car.  I gave them lots of extra time to listen to The Frog Princess in the car as I wandered all over Seattle trying to get from the Space Needle to the freeway.  I am a perfect idiot in Seattle traffic…and that’s with a GPS!

In the four months since getting our membership, I’ve used up all our IMAX tickets.  My kids, who refuse to let us take them to see Frozen in a regular theater, will always eagerly watch a IMAX movie.  I think it’s because they all can handle violent nature shows better than fictional stories with happy endings.  Odd, but useful, since I prefer the nonfiction as well.

A rare winter day at the beach—dry, not horribly cold, with a low tide. 

All my nincompoops, ahem, children, took off their boots and socks as soon as we got off the rocks and explored their beach barefoot. 

Wesley wore his cape under his winter coat, giving him a duck butt look.

 

Piper loves to get into the clay and give herself an elephant makeover.

 

Kyla’s friend has the sense to keep her shoes on the whole time.  I love those red boots!

 

Kyla really needs nothing more than a stick to entertain herself for hours.  This time, she has a ball of clay to double the excitement.  I’m not sure what it says about her, but I like it!

 

We love our beach…and happy to be going back for hot baths.

Piper models her new clothes and barrette she got for her birthday (thanks, Aunt Janet!) with her favorite accessory, Rosie. 

Then she accessorizes Rosie.

I think I was more of the “every cloud has a silver lining” type until motherhood drained me out of that optimism.  Now, I’m more of “every rainbow has black clouds above it” pessimist, which is why I’ve found the downside of having my kids in so much school—Valentine’s Day.  Wes and Piper are both in two classes (morning and afternoon), so that meant 5 sets of Valentines to wrangle out of my children.  Getting Wesley to write a “W” on 24 + 19 store-bought cards just about did us both in.  And with Piper’s birthday thrown in, there were 7 parties in 3 days between the kids.  I only hosted 2.5 of them, but I was mostly done by Friday night.

Dwayne has a sweet tradition of bringing home balloons and flowers for everyone on Valentine’s.  This year, Wesley was standing on a kitchen chair trying to reach the ribbon to his heart balloon.  It was just out of his grasp, so he jumped, clearly oblivious to the fact he was on a chair, that the table’s edge was next to him, another chair’s back in his way, and the hard floor below him.  Sheer luck made him hit only two of those three in his attempt to get his balloon.  As I commented to Dwayne later after hours of cleaning up blood and reducing the swelling on his face, Wesley may not be our brightest child. 

Having an inconsolable, injured child  (with a temporarily deformed face) put a bit of damper on Valentine’s dinner, Valentine’s treats, and Piper’s birthday gifts.  I had completely forgotten about the bouquet Dwayne had brought me until I found him putting the flowers in a vase much later that evening.

But my beautiful six-year daughter loved her horse stable and her special day.  But that paled to how much we love her.

My kids really want Valentine’s to be a special day (I give credit–blame?– to Dwayne for always making this a great day for the kids).   We start off the day with pink heart pancakes with sprinkles. 

We all left for our regular days—party in Wesley’s preschool class, volunteering for me in Kyla’s class before going next door for the Kindergarten party, to celebrate with Piper. 

After that party, we invited the entire Kindergarten class over for pizza and cake to celebrate Piper’s 6th birthday.  Fifteen kindergartners came, along with a a few siblings and some preschool friends, making 22 guests plus some moms.  Crazy, but my goal was to not drag Piper’s birthday out too long.

 

Because Kyla was still in school, I didn’t to worry about serving all this wheat.

 

Yep, give me a knife and take a picture.  This is safe, I promise.

The weather was dry enough that we gave each kid a large slice of cake and sent them outside.  They didn’t come back until moms came to pick up their kids.  That’s when the party got fun—ignoring 22 kids outside while my friends hung around the table and gabbed, while eating our kids leftover food.  

Those kids ran around like street gangs.  It was fun seeing the kindergartners just being kids together.

Mama: Love the Superman valentines, Wes.

Wesley: Yeah.  Is this Wonder Women?

Mama: No, but that might be Lois Lane. Do you think she is Superman’s true love?

Wesley: No.  Superman flies.

Mama:  Can people who fly have a true love?

Wesley: No, they don’t need one. They can fly.

Mama:  Good point.   Can I have a true love?

Wesley: You can’t fly.

Mama: So true.  Why do people who fly not need true loves?

Wesley:  Because they can fly.

Mama: Are you my true love? 

Wesley:  No.  You have Daddy. And Nathan.  [Nathan?! Really—the one kid who doesn’t like me?]

Mama: What is a true love? 

Wesley:  A good friend.  Like Alexis, Xander, and Corban are my true loves. 

Mama:  Yeah, well, you might actually be my true love, too.  Because I can’t fly.

Piper wants a stable for her toy horses and we found one in the store at the Children’s Museum.  I wanted a chance to find a cheaper one on craigslist and buy one when she wasn’t with me—trying to keep some element of surprise for her birthday.  Craigslist seemed to fail me, so off we went one morning when the girls were at school, grabbing our neighbors kids to give their very pregnant mom a break.  The three kids got good play time while I read some homework.  As we left and I went to buy the expensive toy…they were out.  Doh!  Good thing the few hours were not totally wasted as the kids had a fantastic time. 

 

PS  Craiglist came through for me—I found a better, used stable for just $20, here in my own town, later that day!