Me, me and me

This year my birthday fell on Mother's day.  Blah. Not the greatest, but after 6 years of it being close, I'm used to them being rolled into one.  Mark had already bought me a big present (season tickets to the upcoming Broadway season) that doesn't start until November so he worked hard to spoil me rotten all weekend.  

We got free babysitting at our Y on Friday night (Parent's Night Out) so we went to dinner.

Sat evening we got a babysitter and went to Carowinds.  It was all fun and games until Mark got sick,  seriously he did almost get sick.  He felt terrible about it and tried to make me ride some of the roller coasters without him.  I did, one.  But there is nothing more awkward then a 30 something year old standing ALONE in line with teenagers for 20 + mins and then getting up to get to the front of the line and being asked "how many?", responding "one" and the girl being stumped about where to seat me, cause they never have just one person.  We left and went to dinner after that.

I know you can't really see me, this is just to prove to my kids that we were there.

On Sunday Mark made me dinner and we had a little family party. 

As you can see the girls were very generous with their gifts, they even wrapped them in their baby doll blankets.  I think I had about 100 cards, some of them were Christmas themed, they must have ransacked their art stash.

Last weekend I ran the Warrior Dash with a group of my friends.   

Before, we did a super hero theme, I was Storm (from X-men)

Other then almost drowning in the water it was lots of fun.  There were a couple moments where I couldn't think about what I was doing or I would have chickened out.  At one obstical we had to slide down a pole after rock climbing up the wall.  I literally closed my eyes and thought about the instructions that I have given to our kids while they slide down poles at the park and went down (with my eyes still closed).  I feel ok about admitting that because there were some people that got there before me still standing there after I left.

Wjumped over fire, this was at the end where the kids could see me

grand finale was crawling through the mud under barb wire

Taya, Banda, Olay, Jennie, Emma, me,  Dore and Lexy

Marcus was the funniest, when he saw me he looked at me like I was crazy and he wasn't sure he wanted to know me and backed away.

 

They had a very weak hose where we could try to rinse off.  It didn't do much so we just tossed our shoes and used a towel to get some mud off and changed into what became somewhat less muddy clothes.

Everything in between...

 I don't remember everything that has happened in the past couple months, but here are the things I took pictures of.

There was a bike race in our neighborhood.  The kids were so excited to watch it, it was everything they were waiting for.  We even witnessed an accident, lucky it was mild.

 

 

 I dropped M & A off with Mark (during his lunch) while I went to an appt, he took them to the Discovery Place right by his work.  It is always super exciting to see him during the day.

We took a looong walk to get ice cream/custard.  Marcus and Addy were in the stroller and Katie rode her scooter.  The kids were supposed to take turns on the scooter but Marcus threw a serious fit about having to walk, then he fell asleep (seriously, it was a long walk).  The ice cream has a dogs eat free policy - so Rufio was pretty excited about his small ice cream cone.

Marcus and Addy came strawberry picking with me.  We met a couple friends there, one friend had a large bucket that she was putting all her berries in, so Marcus decided to add all the ones I picked to hers, AYE!!!  Then, Addy decided to dump a gallon of berries back onto a plant, stinker.  Luckily, one of  my friends finished earlier and took all the kids to the swing set.  I ended up with too many berries and we now have lots of freezer jam and frozen berries.

My boys wore matching suits and looked smokin hot! (My girls looked pretty cute as well.)

 

 Rufio and my kids are stinkers

Addy came downstairs one morning and asked Mark if he could help her "button her pants with his fat fingers".  She is always saying something ridiculous and funny.

We have been having lots of fun with friends.

Marcus, Dax and Addy at the Nature Museum

The kids were all in gymnastics for a 6 week class at our Y.  They loved every second of it. Addy is amazing.  I just couldn't find or remember to bring the camera during most of it.  There were only a couple other kids in the class, I think they liked it more bc it gave them more time on the floor.

Katie started soccer.  I won't lie, she is AWESOME!!!  She really wanted to score a goal this season so she started praying hard, I reminded her she needed to practice just as hard.  She is still one of the smallest on her team but she is not letting that stop her.  She has been doing so well.  A couple weeks ago she finally scored her first goal, Mark missed it because he was home with a contractor so Katie made it up to him by scoring two at her next game!!!

Katie had asked us before that game if we would buy her a present if she scored two, we told her yes...luckily she decided she wanted chapter books.  (Does it bug anyone else that Junie B. Jones does not speak proper English?)

 

Katie is becoming quite the reader, I love that I can find her reading to Marcus and Addy (and even Rufio sometimes) while they are playing.

This past weekend my little sister Heather graduated from high school so we made a day trip to the mountains to celebrate with her.  We drove up early and spent the day with Flossie (she had baby number 3 today, I had spent this past week making her a bunch of freezer meals in preparation).  We met the rest of my family at the park for a picnic dinner.  Of course my kids were in heaven the whole time--what is better then a million people who love you.

 Heather leaving to get ready

Her graduation was outside and they only had bleachers so half the crowd was standing or sitting on the ground.

People in my family

 Marcus had a couple of very loud emotional breakdowns, when I threatened to punish him he called my bluff by crying louder and getting hysterical.  There was nothing I could do right there, on a hill, in a crowd; oh my, what do I do with my kids?

More of my family, we mostly just talked to each other the whole time, we couldn't really hear and you could not see.  But we did yell really loud for our Heather.

Another important note is that my little sister Hannah is going on a mission for our church to the Dominican Republic!

And finally, yesterday Mark needed new shoes so we took a trip to the mall.  We haven't been shopping with all the kids in a really long time.  It went a lot better then expected (probably because we promised frozen yogurt if they were good for the whole trip)

 

Riding the carousel

Easter

Better late then never...

Easter morning we got up and went to church.  We got ready quickly so we would have time to take pictures.  Little miss Addy was being a stinker and wouldn't act normal.  We did what any good parents would do and threatened to take away all her Easter treats if we didn't get a good one.

After church the kids found their Easter baskets and spent the rest of the day eating candy and playing with toys, Mark and I spent the day relaxing (in between cooking dinner).

Somewhere in there we had an Easter egg hunt (Mark thought that this was an appropriate time to teach Marcus that it was ok to be outside without a shirt on--he refuses to swim without a rash guard on)

That evening we had a yummy dinner and a family night focused on Christ and his resurrection.