Welcome to Langan Land

The SOLD Project

2011-07-28T19:25:00.000-04:00

The Langans are featured on the SOLD Blog this month, check it out!

Other Blog

2011-07-14T17:44:00.000-04:00

Hey,

   Its the guess blogger!! So I am taking over the other blog: http://langanland365.blogspot.com/. So I am just going to post random pictures each day!! So go and check it out!!

   Bye,
   The guess blogger!!

Camp Langan

2011-07-01T10:37:00.000-04:00

Green Smoothie Popsicles*

We were away in Washington DC at the beginning of the week so I didn't get to post about what would be happening at Camp Langan. So instead, I am going to post a weekly wrap-up of the goings-on here and I'll also post what will be happening next week at Camp Langan.

Week of June 27
Washington DC
Sleepovers x2
Pool Party
Pediatrician (annual exams)
Trip to the Library
Fishing with Friends
Golf (my husband)
Fishing with Dad (my older boys, my husband)

Week of July 4
Annual July 4th Block Party
Watching ET under the stars
Swing Summer
Atlantis!**
Annual Bike Race

As you can see, we are keeping busy!

*Unbeknownst to my children, I've designated this season as The Summer of the Green Smoothie. I've been making a green smoothie each day (well almost every day) for the kids to either drink or freeze for later to eat as a popsicle. I bought cheapo freezer pop containers at the grocery store that did not work at all. So I decided that if I was going to have success at getting them to eat/drink a smoothie each day, I needed to bite the bullet and buy the Tupperware freeze pop containers. I have to say that they are FAB. U. LOUS. They clip to each other so that you don't need a tray to hold them in place in the freezer. They have a handle that stays in the popsicle (unlike the ones from the grocery store, the handle would slide right out which meant that the smoothie pop would plop onto the floor). The lid easily slips off the pop and then attaches to the handle to catch the drips. I love these!

**My husband and I will be headed to Atlantis for a few nights without kids. (So excited!) My sister has graciously offered to come to Langanland to take care of all the Lads & Lasses & Emma. She'll have her hands full because she'll be bringing her two kids, plus her two dogs. So it will be a full house and I feel tremendously guilty for leaving her alone with seven kids and three dogs.

Washington DC

2011-06-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

Our mini vacay to Washington DC was a success. The weather was perfect, neither hot nor humid, I didn't think that was possible for DC.

Many highlights: meeting up with my childhood friend, Jenn, and her two boys; touring the Air & Space Museum, The Museum on Natural History, the Museum of American History; visiting Georgetown and Sprinkles and Georgetown Cupcakes; meeting up with my high school friend Cara, and her husband; visiting Mount Vernon and endless amounts of walking throughout the National Mall. (My girls were slightly disappointed to discover that the Mall was not a shopping mall.)

Obligatory stop at the White House. (Or as near to it as one can get.) It was kinda sunny.

The littlest Lad in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Our camera battery died just after taking this picture.

This picture just says it all. You must click to enlarge in order to fully appreciate it.

On the way out of DC we got lost (or temporarily misplaced, as my father would say) and we were driving through ghetto after ghetto in an attempt to work our way north and east.

I witnessed a shooting.

It was about 4:30PM and we were sitting in the car at a red light. We were in a ghetto but it didn't seem to be a dangerous area. There were families on the sidewalk and there was a park on our left. As we were waiting for the light to turn green, we heard a loud POP! POP! POP! sound, which I instinctively knew was the sound of gunshots. (My experience with guns is limited to TV and the movies but there was something distinct about that sound that made me snap to attention.) I turned to my left, (I was in the passenger seat) and looked up into the park (there was a tall retaining wall surrounding the park) and I saw a kid, maybe 14 or 15, pointing a gun (it was silver with a square nose) over top of us (many feet above us) and aiming across the street. It was crazy -- happening so fast, so much to process -- yet almost seemed like slow motion. Then a split second later, he turned and started to run parallel to our car. Just then the light turned green and I said to my husband, "We NEED to GET out of here NOW!!!" As we started to drive, I was watching people on the street react. Mothers grabbing their kids and yanking them into doorways, a family with a toddler on the dad's shoulders quickly ducked and tried to run at the same time. Further down the block people were craning their necks back towards the shooting trying to see what was going on.

A day in the life in the inner city, I suppose.

No thank you, I'll take suburbia any day of the week.

Tyler Arboretum

2011-06-24T17:00:00.030-04:00

We spent the morning at the arboretum with friends. We had a GREAT time, so much fun, (and so hot and humid!) We packed a picnic lunch and headed home afterwards because our Littlest Lad was worn out after such a busy morning.

The Whole Gang

Lots of cool treehouses for exploring

Peek-a-boo!

Cute little gnome home

Inside the gnome home

The Littlest Lad was in motion the whole time and I had to keep pretty close tabs on him. The older kids ran off to explore so most of the pictures on my camera were of this little guy. He took off his shoes soon after we arrived and explored barefoot. (Although I think he is wearing shoes in the pic below.)

Three Billy Goats Gruff Bridge

I wish I could build one of these mushroom trees as a focal point in my yard.

This treehouse was by far the favorite of all the kids.

Last but not least, we stopped by the pond, which was the highlight for our oldest Lad. He loves nature and science and was very energized by all the pond life.

(Frog photo taken by one of the kids, not sure which one.)

We're off to Washington DC for a few days, pics to follow.

Hair

2011-06-21T15:31:00.000-04:00

The boys requested "dorsal fins" today when they got their haircuts. (Who knew they were dorsal fins? Is saying fins not enough? Apparently not. Because they are definitely dorsal fins. Or so I'm told.) Lad#2 looks like a tough guy with the scabs on his face and his spiked hair.

In trying to work on my photography skills, I snapped some action shots last night and am including one of the oldest Lass jumping on the trampoline (no cast!) because it fits with the theme of hair.

Camp Langan

2011-06-20T11:03:00.000-04:00

Friday was our first official day of summer vacation and we are off to a great start! So far we're on schedule (see pic), but it's only Day 2, but still, we're on schedule!

I worked with the kids ahead of time to come up with a workable schedule for our daily summertime routine. Being the organized person that I am, I wanted to assign time frames to all the activities but the kids were NOT interested in keeping a schedule that tight. So we compromised . . . and so far, so good.

We have lots of exciting plans this summer after two years of not doing much of anything (due to the Littlest Langan being added to the clan). But now that he's 2 and completely mobile, we are off and running and we're all pretty excited about it.

A few things happening this week at Camp Langan:
Inverbrook Farm, haircuts, visit with friends, a Philadelphia Union soccer game, a Cub Scout swim party, Tyler Arboretum and Washington DC!

Photo Challenge Week #2

2011-06-19T18:22:00.000-04:00

This week's photo challenge was to create a photo for Dad for Father's Day. I opted to capture some photos of Dad on Father's Day instead.

We kicked-off the day by giving Dad his gifts during breakfast. Note: this photo is terrible, blurry, but so funny because it captures a moment . . . The moment my husband realizes that his Father's Day gift from the kids is a pair of Batman underpants. Why? Because he's the one who goes after all the bats that get into our house.

His other gift is a gift certificate to Zipline New York, the longest zipline in North America.

My husband spent the afternoon putting together our new patio furniture and had a little help from our Middle Lad, who loves to help his daddy.

We finished the day with a Bobbie that we enjoyed on our new patio furniture.

Photo Challenge

2011-06-11T16:17:00.000-04:00

Life in Langanland has been busy, so many things happening, so little time to blog!

I'm participating in a 12 Weeks of Summer Photo Challenge to try and learn more about my camera and hopefully become a better photographer in the process. Here are a few pics from Challenge #1.

A Trip to the Park, June 2011.

We saw something really cool on the way to the park: a raccoon! Right in the middle of the Boro! The boys were enthralled and it resulted in a mini science lesson as they noted that it was an herbivore, possibly an omnivore; it was female; it was a female that was nursing baby raccoons. They just couldn't understand why a nocturnal animal was out foraging for food in daylight. We learned the answer when we got home and googled some info on raccoons. Kinda funny how passing a raccoon in a zoo would elicit no conversation but passing one in an urban setting was the highlight of their day.

Spring

2011-05-09T20:12:00.000-04:00

I took these pictures at the park about 10 days ago in the early morning light. Our camera was broken so I used an iPod Touch to take the pics. The park is lovely anytime but especially so first thing in the morning.

Free Lemonade

2011-05-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

The oldest Lass and her friend decided to give away lemonade yesterday afternoon to passersby on their way to the park for a festival.

They made over $20 in just under one hour.

Take a look at the photo to see why the two of them garnered so many sympathy donations.

The Boys Are Back In Town

2011-04-28T08:52:00.000-04:00

My husband took the older Lads to Ireland during spring break. They had a fabulous time doing all sorts of things that little boys love: hiking, fishing, exploring caves, moonbouncing, attending a rugby match, playing with cousins, visiting the beach numerous times, and eating mountains of chocolate, just to name a few!

Tea with Grannie & Grandad

Hiking Up the Mountain

View from the Top

Fishing with Grandad. They all caught at least one fish and then Grannie made trout for dinner.

Sand in eyes! One of the hazards of beach play.

Building Sandcastles

Brothers (ages 5 & 7)

The last time we visited Ireland as a family was in 2007. I have a picture of the girls in the same spot on the same beach.

Sisters (ages 5 & 7)

Signs of Spring

2011-04-16T10:55:00.000-04:00

Even though it is only 45 degrees today, there are signs of spring at the park.

And if I'm at the park in 45 degree weather on a Saturday morning, it can only mean one thing: the annual Easter Egg Hunt. This year was the first year our youngest Lad was able to participate. He wasn't too sure about what was happening.

When it came time to pick-up eggs, he reluctantly picked-up only three eggs. But one of those eggs contained a golden coin, lucky little Lad! (As you can tell, he's not impressed in the least.)

This year was the last year for our youngest Lass to participate and believe me, she made the most of it. She's feasting on chocolate as I type.

Patient Update

2011-04-07T12:19:00.000-04:00

Green Smoothie: they're not always green

After the Lass's surgery, when the doctor said she'd have to wear a cast for 10-12 weeks, I decided that she was going to start drinking a green smoothie every day in order to promote bone growth and also to improve her overall health.

She likes smoothies and will drink them once in a while. However, she was less than enthusiastic about drinking one every day. But she has acquiesced and drinks them daily without complaint. I've been loading her up on kale (one of the most powerful foods on the planet) and spinach, as well as romaine and chard, plus lots and lots of fresh and/or frozen fruit to sweeten the smoothies.

Well guess what? She her had her two week post-surgery follow-up yesterday (complete with x-ray) and the doctor said she is healing perfectly and can most likely have the cast removed in four weeks! FOUR WEEKS!!

I'm going to go drink a green smoothie right now in celebration.

Taste the Rainbow

2011-04-03T16:07:00.000-04:00

The entire first grade at my son's school participated in a "rainbow of snacks". Each child was assigned a color and had to bring in a fruit or vegetable of that color to share with classmates. I love how it turned out! My Lad said he ate mostly coconut (which surprised me) and something orange but he wasn't sure what it was. Two thumbs up for a rainbow of flavors!

The Lass's Glasses

2011-04-03T12:22:00.000-04:00

Our Younger Lass started wearing glasses during the summer of 2009. Her vision keeps changing (getting worse) and so she keeps needing a new prescription. She's had FIVE pairs of glasses in the past 22 months.

First Pair

Second Pair

Third Pair

Fourth Pair

Fifth Pair

Hopefully she'll be able to keep the new pair for a while before needing a new prescription!

Ships Ahoy!

2011-03-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

The Lads enjoying some quiet time.

Yes. We have a whiteboard in our playroom. The younger Lass specifically requested a large whiteboard for Christmas so that she could pretend to teach school. It gets lots of use from all the kids.

Unfortunately, the youngest Lad does not realize the difference between a whiteboard and a white kitchen cabinet.

Gym Class, A Broken Arm & Surgery, Oh My! Part TWO

2011-03-27T18:02:00.000-04:00

To read Part ONE of Gym Class, A Broken Arm & Surgery, Oh My! click here.

After the Lass had a steady dose of morphine in her system she was able to semi-recline on the bed and watch some TV while I attempted to read a book in between her requests to put the bed up, down, up again, scratch her forehead, wipe her nose, cover her feet, etc. I didn't mind though, it was so much better to be able to help her with mundane requests than it was to watch her in constant pain.

She was not allowed to eat or drink so they started giving her fluids through her IV. But this didn't help the hunger. She had a scrambled egg for breakfast around 7AM. Nothing else. She was getting hungry. Yet in spite of this, the only thing she wanted to watch on TV were cooking shows: Buddy, Rachael, Ina, Paula and few others I had never seen. But she knew them all. She was salivating over salmon that Barefoot Contessa had baked. She doesn't even like salmon! I pointed this out to her and she said she was so hungry that she'd eat it if she could. I wanted to switch the channel but she was sure she wanted to keep watching cooking shows. For hours, literally.

On my way out the door that morning (after the nurse called, when I figured I'd be in for a few hours at the hospital) I grabbed the books that were on the top of her reading pile and on the top of mine. Her book was Soul Surfer, a book about the 13 year old surfer whose arm got bitten off by a shark. (Movie coming to a theater near you in April.) I thought this was a great read and perfect considering the girl in the book also had surgery on her arm, although of a different sort. I tried to reading to the Lass but she wasn't able to concentrate on what I was saying. So she went back to her TV and I started reading my book, One Thousand Gifts. It's a book about living life fully, with grace, thanksgiving and joy, regardless of the circumstance. It was an excellent book to take to the ER and really helped me to count my blessings in spite of the chaos of the situation.

Finally around 4PM they took us upstairs for surgery. The surgeon explained that she had broken both bones in her forearm and that surgery was required to put the bones back together. Not because she needed plates or pins but because it would be too difficult and too painful to do unless she was sedated. He explained that she would need to wear a hand-to-shoulder cast for 7-8 weeks. After that, they would replace it with a smaller hand-to-elbow cast for another 3-4 weeks. He said she could not go back to school until Monday (this was Wednesday) and said no PE class "indefinitely".

They wheeled her off to surgery and I went to the Family Lounge. I had planned to sit and read but there was a delightful family there waiting for their loved one who was in surgery and they kept me entertained with constant chatter, jokes, family stories. They had me talking and laughing and I started wondering if they did stand-up in their spare time. Such a breath of fresh air in a stuffy hospital waiting room!

Surgery lasted about 20 minutes and they let me go to recovery to be with the Lass since she's a minor. (Normally recovery is for patients only.) Immediately following the surgery she looked so much better than she had all day. The color was returning to her face and she looked more relaxed. (I'm sure anesthesia had something to with that!) Prior to the surgery she had requested a pink or green cast. The surgeon explained that they only had white casts in the OR and that we could come to his office the following day to get a color added to the cast. Sure enough, she had a white cast on post-surgery. But just a few minutes later, the Physicians Assistant arrived with pink tape for the cast! He made a special trip to the office to get the pink tape and returned to add it to her cast just after the surgery. So nice! Once they were sure her vitals were stable, they sent us upstairs to fully recover in the pediatric unit.

Up in the peds unit, they gave her ginger ale and crackers to eat and finally, around 7PM, said we could go home.

The end of a long day but just the beginning of a New Normal for our Lass.

Cake!

2011-03-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd lighten the mood in-between postings about the oldest Lass breaking her arm.

Last night was the Father/Son Cake Bake at Cub Scouts. The cake was baked at home but assembled and decorated at Scouts.

I think the cake turned out pretty well and I can't believe they didn't place at all. (Of course they insist that they should have won but said they were gipped.)

I'm including this next picture because it shows LanganLad2 enjoying some frosting and it cracks me up every time I look at it. (Far left side of the pic.)

They are already planning next year's cake. Watch out Scouts, revenge is sweet!

Gym Class, A Broken Arm & Surgery, Oh My!

2011-03-25T14:39:00.000-04:00

PART ONE:
I sent the oldest LanganLass off to school on Wednesday with a sore throat and instructions to go to the nurse if she felt like she was developing a fever. (She had strep a few weeks prior and felt like maybe it was returning.) When the phone rang at 9:43 and the caller ID was the middle school, I assumed it would be the nurse calling me to tell me that LanganLass had strep. I was half right. It was the nurse but she was calling to tell me that LanganLass fell during gym class and that she (the nurse) was pretty sure that she (LanganLass) had broken her arm. We agreed that I would pick up my Lass at school and drive her to the ER.

I immediately put down my coffee (I had literally taken one sip) and then called my husband to ask him to meet me at the ER. I couldn't reach him. So I started calling the desks of his coworkers, trying to reach one of them. No luck. I spent about 10 minutes trying to reach a human being at his company before finally speaking with him. (My cell phone is broken so I thought I should call him while I had access to our home phone because I didn't know if I'd have to beg a stranger for use of their cell phone in the ER.) Had I known how badly the Lass had broken her arm, I would have waited until I got to the ER to call him.

As I was driving to her school, I was thinking that she had most likely injured her arm during the rock climbing unit in gym class. The nurse said she was "pretty sure" the arm was broken so I was thinking maybe there was a chance it wasn't broken. Maybe just fractured?

Imagine my surprise when I get to school and find out that she broke it playing basketball. She gets through the rock climbing unit without incident and breaks her arm playing basketball? Apparently she went after the ball, tripped over someone's foot, hit the floor and broke her arm.

The principal took me to the nurse's office where the Lass was reclined on a table, still dressed in her gym clothes, her arm wrapped in a make-shift sling that consisted of ace bandages and an ice pack. We (me, principal, nurse) took her to the car and then proceeded to the ER.

When we arrived at the ER (around 10AM), I had to drop her off to wait by herself while I went to park the car. By the time I got inside, her principal was waiting with her. (He ended up spending nearly 3 hours in the ER, only going back to school once we got a diagnosis. The poor guy just sat and sat while we met with nurses, doctors, xray techs, PAs, etc. He didn't have a laptop or work with him to help pass the time. So nice of him to come with.) Anyway, shortly thereafter my husband arrived and he took the two LanganLads home while I waited with the Lass. (Such a gift to spend the day in the ER with only one child and not have to chase around after a 22 month old!)

The took us into Triage, took off the make-shift sling and my heart sank. Her arm was caved in on itself and I have never seen anything like it. I was mentally scolding myself for staying at home to call my husband and wasting precious time in getting her to the hospital. (Little did I know that we would be there for over 9 hours.) I was wondering how on earth she was sitting still and not shrieking in pain. The nurse looked at her arm and asked 3 questions:
1. How did this happen?
2. When is the last time you had anything to eat or drink?
3. Did the school nurse give you Tyelnol or Motrin?

Uh oh. This was my first clue that we were headed for surgery. Knowing that she was in pain, I asked if she could have Tylenol or Motrin. The nurse said, "No. Not yet. We have to find out what kind of break it is before we administer pain medication." Yep, we're gonna end up in surgery. Then the Lass asked how long it would be before she could get xrays and a cast? The nurse said a cast might not be the best thing for her. Another indication that surgery was likely.

They sent us to an exam room while we waited for the xray tech. (The principal stayed in the waiting room.) The exam room had a TV and a phone but the Lass was in too much pain to focus on anything but the pain. I tried all my pain management techniques that served me well through five labors and deliveries but nothing was helping. (And really, at least with contractions the pain comes and goes. Her pain was constant.) She did come to the realization that it was easier to manage the pain if she walked around so they allowed her to do that even though normal protocol is to stay in bed. FINALLY they took her for xrays, which was horrible because they had to move her arm a few times and I could tell she was having a hard time managing the pain. And then it was back to the room to wait.

A long time passed before someone came to tell us that her arm was broken. Yeah, we know! And that she'd need surgery to repair the break. At this point the Lass begins to cry for the first time. The doctor and nurse talked to her about what would happen and assured her that she would not feel anything during the surgery and that she'd feel much better after the surgery than has felt since she broke her arm. Then the nurse tells her that she's going to insert an IV that will allow them to give her pain medication right away and will also give her medication during surgery. The Lass is "terrified" (her words) of the IV insertion and I keep trying to tell her that it will be easy compared to what she has already endured.

Around 1PM the IV is inserted and they start giving her morphine. Which didn't really help. I asked for more but they refused, saying they had to administer it in small doses to make sure it wouldn't stop her breathing. About 30 minutes later they give her more morphine. Still lots of pain. I ask for more. Same story: wait. Another 30 minutes passes and they administer a third dose and finally she is able to sit, no longer needing to pace to deal with the pain.

Check back for PART TWO, coming soon!

Lost & Found

2011-03-18T10:46:00.000-04:00

So the kids were trying to figure out how to solve the case of the missing iPod. It was actually interesting to watch them work together to try and figure out a solution.

Should they buy me a new one? After googling it, they determined that this most definitely would not be their approach. A new one retails for about $185 and they calculated how many hours of Langan Family Clean-up they'd be doing to earn that much money and they decided they did not want to spend the next 6 months putting all their chore money towards an iPod.

So they moved on.

Ebay! Yes! Ebay! Oh look! You can get one for $10.15! Show it to mom! I pointed out that it was $10.15 because it was BROKEN. Ok, forget it.

WAIT!!! Craigslist!! It's even better than Ebay! Oh wait, no. Nope, not better than ebay.

Hey wait. I know! We can sell the old iPod on Ebay or Craigslist. Yes! Then we can use that money to buy a new one. (LanganLass2 has a really great iPod that would fetch over $100 if on Ebay or Craigslist. She was willing to give it up. Very sweet. Or desperate.)

They had stumbled upon a workable plan. So when my husband came home, they asked for help in listing LanganLasss' iPod on ebay. But before jumping into this project, my wise husband decided to clean out the car. As in, take it apart, move seats and carseats and find that iPod. And lo and behold, the iPod!!! The kids were cheering and relieved, I was thrilled and my car is clean, a nice bonus!

So I need to retract my previous post because although the kids lost the iPod, it's back, unharmed and thus my post is invalid.

The little buggars tried to tell me that I was in the wrong for blaming them for losing the iPod because it wasn't lost afterall. I tried to tell them that they did indeed lose it because they failed to put it back where it belongs and they failed to locate it for a whole six days. Let's just say we're going to agree to disagree on this one.

But it doesn't really matter now, does it?

And you know what? I had kind of gotten over the lost iPod. What finally did it for me was thinking about the snazzy iPod belonging to LanganLass2. She found that iPod a few months ago. We were walking through town and there it was, just sitting on a bench outside of the bus station. We called the police to report it missing and they told us to keep it. Really? They said no one would bother to call for a lost iPod and if they did, well, finders keepers.

So it seemed fitting to me that we found a fabulous iPod (although not an iPod Touch) and then we lost one. You know, "what goes around, comes around." And once I realized that, I was ok with losing my iPod and was starting to develop my case for replacing it with an iPhone.

Yay for the iPod, nay for the iPhone.

Why Some Animals Eat Their Young

2011-03-16T11:03:00.000-04:00

Today I discovered the reason why some species eat their own offspring.

Because said offspring do something really stupid, like lose the most valuable object their mother owns that she let them play with out of the kindness of her heart and then they go and "forget" where they left it and now it's gone.

I'm sure this happens in the animal kingdom all the time. Like a mother lion kills the best hyena out there and leaves her little ones to feast while she walks the perimeter to ensure their safety. And by the time she gets back to the hyena, the little cubs have eaten their fill and have wandered off and now the carcass is being devoured by a different family of lions and the mother lion is too late to feast and decides she must eat one of her own cubs for compensation.

Kinda like when you let your children borrow your iPod Touch. NEW iPod Touch. Given to you by your dear friend who so graciously handed it down to you when she got an iPhone. Yes, I finally entered the world of iThis and iThat, finally! And it's pretty great. Music, maps, grocery lists, plus a ton of kid games! And more! All on one little handheld device. And being the lioness of the family, I let the cubs play with it to keep them entertained during a long lunch at a nice restaurant in Philly. Because we were meeting up with my cousin from Texas whom I hadn't seen in a decade. And those cubs left the iPod in the restaurant.

But do they tell me this? Oh no. It's not until FIVE DAYS later that I discover that the iPod is missing. I mean, I knew it wasn't around and I questioned the cubs. They told me that it got left in the car. Ok, no problem. It wasn't until THIS MORNING when I'm driving the cubs to school (because one of the cubs had a Leprechaun Trap that involved a vat of honey and I figured he'd end up covered in honey if I let him take it on the bus) that I had them search the car. And guess what? No iPod.

I suppose I can't actually eat them as punishment. Even the Tiger Mother wouldn't go to that extreme.

March

2011-03-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

mean
miserable
messy
muddy
mucky
merciless
maddening
malevolent
maelstrom
mighty
malady
malicious
menacing
manipulating
melodramatic
moody
melancholy
mediocre

Obsession

2011-03-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

What started out as cute and endearing has turned into an obsession. This kid has almost every appliance we own on the floor. I can hardly walk in the kitchen. It looks like this all day long.

Yesterday he was asking "Please, please" and pointing towards one of the kitchen cabinets. I opened it and pointed to every single food item in the cabinet. He answered NO to every one. I couldn't understand what he wanted so I lifted him up. And he immediately lunged for the coffee maker on the counter beneath the cabinet. He hadn't wanted food at all.

Keep Your Hands To Yourself

2011-03-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

I must say the above phrase to my children more than any other repetitive phrase. I swear, 85 percent of the disputes in this house would not occur if everyone would just keep their hands to themselves. And when I start to ponder this thought, the next thought I have is that most of the conflict in the world could be prevented if we all lived by this phrase. (And then that leads me to Do Unto Others but that's a topic for another day.)

This topic was illustrated beautifully (or not!) this week as LanganLad2 brought home this piece of artwork:

It says Peace is helping the earth. Actually it says Peace is helpin zurf. (Yeah, I thought it would be helpful to provide a translation. And what IS it anyway? A thought bubble? A cloud? Not really sure.) Anyway, when he showed it to me I said, "What?? Peace! I'll tell you what peace is! Peace is not hurting your brother!" To which the LanganLad responded, "But he starts it!"

Which brings us back to, "Keep your hands to yourself!"

It's All In A Day's Play

2011-03-04T10:43:00.000-05:00

I really wasn't kidding when I said this kid doesn't play with toys. One of his favorite things to do is to play with our kitchen appliances.

Here he is making coffee for his older brother.

And in this pic he's making a green smoothie for himself. He played with the blender for over 30 minutes. I thought this was so cute and clever UNTIL I realized that he had gotten into the pantry (because someone, who shall remain nameless, left the door open) and got a hold of my container of flax seeds. (He watches me put the flax seeds into smoothies so he was just imitating what he sees.) He dumped the WHOLE container. Approximately 10 percent of the seeds went into the blender and the rest ended up on the floor. Despite earnest vacuuming, some of those seeds are STILL stuck between the 100 year old floorboards in my kitchen.

And then, the other day, I came downstairs to discover that he had found his sister's stash of American Girl doll items. He got out the mini violin and was using his voice to give music to his violin.

Then he went and got her music stand and was started to "play" his violin.

And now, when she practices her viola, he gets out the mini violin and plays along with her. It's adorable.

Sometimes I feel badly that he doesn't play like most other kids his age. But he doesn't seem to know the difference.

Baking with Sissy

2011-02-24T08:46:00.000-05:00

She calls him her Baking Assistant.

He helped her make red velvet cupcakes.

Big Kid

2011-02-01T13:09:00.000-05:00

He's a big kid now! He's almost ready to give up the highchair. He's been eating most of his meals at the kitchen counter or at the dining room table. And he loves it.

My neighbor gave me a Kaboost, which elevates the height of any sized chair to make it just right for little ones.

The Family Closet: 8 Weeks Later

2011-01-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

(Note the crib on the far right and the storage bin on the far left of the picture.)

So far, so good! I have to say that I love, love, love the family closet!

8 weeks later it is still organized and I've worked out most of the kinks. One of my biggest challenges was processing all the laundry after half the fam returned from Ireland. I was concerned that so much laundry would expose some serious flaws in the functioning of the FC. But I'm happy to say that I jumped over that hurdle without difficulty.

Some things that have needed fine tuning?

The littlest guy goes to bed before any of the other children. The FC is housed in his room. This means that I have to let the other kids know that I'm putting him to bed so that they can get their jammies out of his room before he goes to sleep. Oops . . . I am not good at this! So Plan B is for me to select a pair of pjs for each kid as I'm putting him to bed. Oops . . . well I am slowly getting better at this. We still have another year or more of him sleeping in that room so hopefully we'll all get better at managing the pj thing.
The littlest guy also naps. A lot. Which means that I can't put clothes away when he's sleeping. (Which was when I used to spend time on laundry.) So I have had to rearrange my laundry rhythms but once I got in the groove this was no longer an issue.
I need to slowly replace the disposable pans that I am using as bins. They are fine but they won't still be intact a year from now so when I see a sale on bins I will start replacing them a few at a time.

There have also been some unexpected benefits:

Packing for trips is so much easier because everything is in one place! Each kid can pretty much pack his/her own suitcase because they can see everything they own and can easily access their clothing. In addition, we can all be in the FC at the same time so I can quickly oversee the packing and help those who might need to be reminded to pack clean underwear.
Wardrobe Management is so much easier because I can quickly move clothing that is too small to the top shelf (or right into a box for the Salvation Army) and since I'm storing the clothing that is too big in storage bins, I can just grab a bin and quickly "shop" for clothes that might fit. (Prior to this I'd have to go to the basement, find the right bin and then bring it upstairs, sort through it and then take it back to the basement. Times FIVE. I cannot tell you how much time this saves me to have the too big clothing right in the FC!)

Two thumbs-up for the Family Closet!

Baby Toys

2011-01-25T19:16:00.000-05:00

This little guy rarely plays with baby toys. He would rather empty the pantry, stack measuring cups or peel the garlic in the garlic saver.

Yesterday he pulled out the mini muffin pans and then went over to the pantry and was motioning for me to open the door. Turns out he wanted paper liners for the pans. He had watched his sisters making cupcakes a few days earlier (yes, a lot of baking goes on around here) and I guess he wanted to try it out for himself.

However, his curiosity turned to despair when he realized that he didn't have any batter to put into the pans.

When he throws a fit he looks just like his oldest sister did when she was his age. It's a nice trip down memory lane to see him this way because it serves as a reminder that despite her toddler tantrums, my daughter has turned into a delightful girl. So I know there is hope for this crying kid.

Cookie Monster

2011-01-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

I wasn't joking when I said he was spoiled rotten.

The girls were making cookies a few minutes ago. I walked into the kitchen to check on them and this is what I found.

He was licking the bowl wholeheartedly.

But at least he's willing to share.

With anyone!

And when he couldn't get enough he stuck his head into the bowl to get some more.

Spoiled Rotten

2011-01-20T19:36:00.000-05:00

This little guy gets whatever he wants from his older siblings. The beater used to be the most coveted item in the kitchen when it was covered in cookie dough. Now no one fights over it; they just hand it right to him.

Snow Day

2011-01-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

Or more specifically, Ice Day. Whatever the reason, I am thrilled to have a 4 day weekend!

The oldest LanganLass kicked off the morning by making breakfast for us. She has Cooking/Family & Consumer Science this marking period and one of her assignments was to make a meal AND clean-up afterwards. She made french toast for us on Sunday morning and then again today. She is a great chef and I am looking forward to her future endeavors in the kitchen.

The littlest LanganLad is busying himself with anything and everything. After he played with some toys he moved on to emptying the pantry. Fortunately he can only reach the bottom shelf so he can't get into much.

Not to be outdone by her older sister, LanganLass2 is making cookies for us today. It's really nice that the girls are old enough to start making things for me to eat!

Passing the Time

2011-01-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

Winter seems to pass by so v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. The trampoline is covered with snow making bouncing impossible. It gets dark around 5PM so playing outside is not really an option either. What to do? Swim, of course!

Changing the World One Net at a Time

2011-01-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

Silly Boys!

Background
A few months ago I donated to a campaign to provide nets to families in Uganda to help prevent malaria. More than a million people die each year from malaria and most of them are under age 5. So I donated 5 nets because I have 5 children and felt that I would want someone to do the same for my children if I were living in an impoverished country.

Today
I just read an update about the nets reaching their destination and it is truly heartwarming. You can read the letter from the director here (scroll down, the first part is about Vietnam) but in case you want the Cliff Notes version:

600 mosquito nets have been hand-delivered in 4 different villages
3 of those villages (Munyolwe, Kisango and Njagala Bwami) now have nets covering 99% of the people living there
We’re already receiving reports from some of the earlier net distributions that malaria cases have dropped significantly

Fast Forward

In a few weeks I should receive GPS coordinates showing me exactly where the 5 nets I donated have been delivered. I'm so excited to find out where the families are that I'm helping! I'll keep you posted on the GPS info when I receive it.

PS: The above pic has nothing to do with this posting but pics make postings more fun and interesting.

Bold Boy

2011-01-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

The Irish use the word bold in place of the word bad. But bold can also mean that someone is acting out in a way that shows little regard for consequences.

This photo (taken with the iPod so the quality is terrible) embodies the meaning of bold.

Celebrity Status

2011-01-12T12:08:00.000-05:00

LanganLad2 lost a tooth yesterday at school.

This immediately catapulted him to celebrity status amongst the Kindergarten population.

His tooth was loose yesterday morning and he asked me to pack him a snack that would help his tooth to fall out. We discussed possible snacks: carrots, apples, pretzels, bagels. He settled on an apple.

Good choice! His tooth fell out during snack time at school. He got to go to the nurse and get a little box to hold the tooth until he could put it safely beneath his pillow.

He is still basking in the notoriety of being the "first one in my class to lose a tooth at school".

Crazy Calendar

2011-01-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

October was a crazy month around here. We had an obligation every single day. Every item on the above calendar represents some sort of obligation. However, the calendar does not include work, church or scheduled exercise so you can imagine how crazy it must have been if you factor in those as well! I remember feeling stressed and exhausted and overwhelmed and wanting desperately for the month to end. I remember promising myself that I wouldn't let us get so over-scheduled again.

I am keeping this calendar as a reminder of what an over-scheduled family looks like on paper. I am vowing to not do this again.

Below is my January 2011 calendar. So far, so good.

One of these days I may do a posting about the colors and symbols on our family calendar and what they mean.

Big Boy

2011-01-10T10:20:00.000-05:00

He's not a baby anymore. Walking, talking, cute as can be.

Family Closet Revisited

2011-01-09T14:31:00.000-05:00

An unintended consequence of the Family Closet:

This LanganLad can finally see all his clothing, now that we are using the Family Closet. Thus, he has insisted on wearing the above outfit to church. Every Sunday. Blue and white striped seersucker pants with a lobster print, short-sleeved button down shirt.

The first day he dressed in this outfit, he wet down his hair and was looking at himself in the mirror, admiring himself for choosing an outfit, getting dressed AND brushing his own hair. He smiled and said, "I look handsome."

As much as I dislike this outfit, I just could not force him to change after hearing that comment! So off we went, to church, in DECEMBER, wearing an outfit that is really suited for June. I figured he'd wear it once and that would be it.

Oh no. Every. Week. Sometimes he gets really creative and wears an orange/white/purple/turquoise striped long-sleeved shirt underneath. Or he changes it up with some crazy socks. One Sunday, he had the pants on backwards and the shirt buttoned crooked. I should have made him change.

But I didn't. Because we were late. And because my husband was in Ireland so I was trying to get three squirmy boys out of the house by 8:40AM. And because I went to the gym early that morning, to burn off some Christmas calories, so I was running late myself. And then I remembered that I don't even know his Sunday school teacher (my husband drops off the older boys while I drop-off the baby) so I wouldn't really have to be embarrassed by his outfit. And I figured that it wouldn't really matter in the long run if he went to church in summer clothing -- on backwards -- buttoned crookedly. He was happy.

As they say, God looks on the heart, not at the clothing.

Snowmen

2011-01-08T21:14:00.002-05:00

Sledding at the park.

An Irish Christmas

2011-01-08T12:30:00.000-05:00

My husband took the girls to Ireland for the week between Christmas and New Year's. They had a really great time visiting with family and friends while they were there. My husband will be headed over again during Spring Break but with the boys (although not the baby) because the boys really want to go fishing with Grandad and April is a much better time for fishing than December.

Cousins: my nephew (14) and niece (12) from London; my girls; my nieces (5) and (3) from Dublin.

Cosy Cousins: a sleepover for the girls.

A family hike (with some of my husband's cousins) "out the country" where my husband grew-up, in the western part of Ireland.

A typical Irish day: cold, gray, wet.

More girl-time for the cousins.

Walking The Prom. An Irish tradition: start the new year off by walking the length of the Promenade in Salt Hill. When you get to the end, you kick the wall. (I'm not sure why you are supposed to kick the wall.) After my girls "walked the prom" they called Grannie to come pick them up so that they wouldn't have to walk home.

The Whole Gang. My apologies to my sister-in-law for posting a pic of her when her eyes were closed.

Slainte! (That's Gaelic for "Cheers!")

Christmas Pics

2011-01-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, the camera was in Ireland. And I'm finally getting to posting the Christmas pics. Better late than never, I suppose.

This first pic is one of the kids waiting for the ok to run into the playroom to open gifts. Waiting for what? For Grampy to come downstairs.

LanganLad2 opening his box of Lucky Charms. It still makes me giggle to think about how much excitement and anticipation is generated by a $3 box of cereal.

Here's the oldest LanganLass opening her iPod Touch. She wanted one so very badly. I knew she'd be looking for a tiny package under the tree so I wrapped it (3x) and then put it in a pair of her sneakers (which are brand new but she doesn't wear them) and THEN I put the sneakers into a Sketchers shoebox and then wrapped the shoebox.

As soon as she entered the room, I saw her surveying her pile for something that looked like an iPod. And her shoulders slumped when she didn't see one.

The shoebox was probably the third gift she grabbed. She opened it and rolled her eyes and said, "Sneakers? Really?" And then she opened the box and with utter annoyance said, "These are MY shoes! WHY did you wrap them up?!" My husband told her to try the shoes on and she said, "Dad. Come on! You KNOW they fit me! WHY do I have to try them on??" He coaxed her so she grabbed a shoe -- the one without the iPod inside -- and tried it on and said, "See? It fits." I told her to try on the other and by this time she was thoroughly annoyed with us. She grabbed the other shoe and shoved her foot in and then realized there was something inside. She pulled out the iPod (wrapped), rolling her eyes, still not realizing what was in her hand. She started to unwrap it. Complaining all the while about how many times I had wrapped it. It wasn't until she had unwrapped 2 layers of paper that she realized she might be holding an iPod. And then she started shrieking and of course we have this all on video to enjoy for years to come.

Here's oldest LanganLad carrying ALL of his gifts at once. He kept exclaiming, "This is the Best Christmas EVER!!!"

Here are the four oldest children opening a Wii. Yes, I know we are late to the game, but as I said when I started this post, better late than never.

Resolutions

2010-12-30T21:03:00.000-05:00

As you may know, I hate New Years/making resolutions.

But lately I've been feeling like maybe I should set some goals. Not resolutions. Goals.

And then I remembered that after September 11th, I did a lot of soul searching (as I am sure many of you did) and I wrote down my Lifetime Goals. It's been nearly a decade since I developed my list so I thought I'd pull it out and see how I'm doing.

The first thing I noticed was that my list was hand-written. Oh yeah. That just cracks me up because I use the computer for EVERYTHING nowadays. Even my grocery lists are typed!

Just for a little background information, at the time I developed my Lifetime Goals in September 2001, I was 31 years old. I had a 2 year old and a 3 month old. I was on child-rearing leave from my job. We had dial-up internet access and I did not have a personal email address, only a work email, which I think I checked only two times while on maternity leave for nearly a year. (My how times have changed! Now I check email about two times per hour.)

I listed goals in four different areas: Lifestyle, Travel, Personal, Financial.

I'm doing great with my Lifestyle Goals and if I had to list goals today, I would list the exact same items as I listed a decade ago. Among them: live a cancer-free life, never need false teeth, exercise regularly.

My Travel Goals make me laugh. Clearly I did not anticipate having 5 children! The destinations listed on my travel goals were: Prague, revisit Italy (where we honeymooned), Iceland, New Orleans, and Hawaii. Even today, I would still really love to visit Prague, Iceland and Italy. I can check Hawaii off my list (visited there in 2004) and I have no desire to visit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

My Personal Goals were many and most are still relevant. One goal included raising 3-4 children so I guess I will have to revise this one to include FIVE children. Another goal was to get a second masters degree or possibly a PhD. I can tell you that I have absolutely no desire for that at this point in my life. I suppose I was thinking that I'd be gainfully employed, with someone else (my employer) footing the bill for the additional degree and probably thought I'd work my way up the pay scale with said degree. So I am crossing this off my list completely. (I have completed 6 graduate degree credits as well as a number of other workshops so it's not like I've given up on the idea of furthering my education. I just do not want to embark on another degree program.) I'm doing ok on the goal of staying happily married until 'death do us part' but I am not doing very well on my goals of hugging and kissing each family member every day and also telling each family member each day that I love them. This is something I struggle with. I know it seems like it should be so easy. I try. I do. It's just that I'm not great on the follow-through. (But at least I'm consistent, right? Ten years later I'm still working at it.)

My Financial Goals are short: live debt-free (except for a mortgage) and to pay college tuition and books for my children for an undergraduate education. Again, I was NOT thinking I'd have FIVE kids to put through college! So I think I might have to refine this goal a bit. We do have college savings for each kid (but not nearly enough to put them through college, at least not yet) so I'll have to give some thought to this. At the very least, I'm going to commit to driving them to college on their first day. Ha! Only joking, of course I'll drive them but I'm gonna help them financially too. But they're gonna have to contribute as well.

So I think I'm going to update my Lifetime Goals, add some sub-sections and figure out how to save for college AND visit Iceland.

Christmas Pics

2010-12-30T08:42:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely Christmas and I think we got some great pics. But I don't know for sure because the camera is AWOL. I think the camera is in Ireland with my husband and daughters. They will return on New Year's Day so look for some Christmas photos sometime next week.

Viola Virtuoso

2010-12-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

My younger daughter auditioned for the Honors Orchestra at school and earned herself a spot! I am so excited for her!! The Honors Orchestra is comprised of 4th and 5th graders from the (ten) elementary schools in our district and students were selected for their "skill and musicality".

I am a little bit surprised that she earned herself a spot. She practiced the audition piece only a couple of times. I had no idea how the song was supposed to sound so I didn't know if she was playing it well or not. She's not keen on practicing so part of me was hoping that she wouldn't get selected for the Honors Orchestra. Part of me wanted her to realize that if you want something, you have to work for it and not just show up at the audition and expect to earn a seat. So far, her approach seems to be working for her and I come out of this sounding like the adult character in the Charlie Brown cartoons: blah blah blahpty blah blah blah.

But I think she is going to have to practice to keep pace with the orchestra.

Generation Gap

2010-12-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

We got up around 2AM to watch the lunar eclipse. I'm so glad I got up to see it! My husband and I went outside with some hot tea, hats, coats, gloves and binoculars. It was amazing! It is NEVER truly dark in West Chester -- too many streetlights, houses too close together, etc. It is often difficult to even see stars on an average night. But due to the shadow over the moon, last night was darker than normal; the stars were shining brightly and we even saw a shooting star! (My 7 year old son informed me that it was actually a meteorite.)

We woke the kids up to see it. They weren't interested in going outside so they just watched, briefly, from the window. Except for my oldest. When I woke her up she said, "I'm really tired. I think I'm gonna stay in bed and just watch it online tomorrow."

That just says it all, doesn't it?

Dear Santa

2010-12-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

My 5 year old son is learning to read and write and wrote a letter to Santa. When I read it, I was so touched because he didn't ask for presents for himself. He asked for presents for his little brother. He then explained to me that the baby didn't get any presents last year and he wanted to make sure that Santa didn't forget him again this year. So sweet.

(I didn't buy the baby any gifts last year because he was too young to know the difference but I guess I can't go with that plan again this year!)

Secrets from the Family Closet

2010-12-09T13:10:00.036-05:00

As you can imagine, doing laundry for seven people can be cumbersome. Over the years I've developed some coping strategies and I'll share them, maybe some of them will work for you. (Sorry to disappoint those of you who thought this posting was going to be about deep, dark family secrets. Laundry secrets are not quite as exciting.)

No Laundry Day

I used to do laundry once a week. (Like before we had kids.) And then it was twice a week. And then every other day. Finally I gave up on Laundry Day. Every Day Is Laundry Day in this house. But you know what? If you do a couple loads each day, you can keep on top of it and then it doesn't get overwhelming.

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I am good at getting the laundry washed, dried and brought upstairs. What I am NOT good at is getting it put away. I used to assign a laundry basket to each family member and would put each person's clean clothing into their basket. And then the baskets would sit on my bedroom floor. For days. I'd never get around to putting away the laundry. Which is part of the reason for the family closet. Now that all the kid clothing is in the same room, I can just shelve it and be done. No stepping over baskets, no nagging kids to put away laundry. So far, so good. (But this is only Day 4 of the Family Closet.)

No Sorting

When I was growing up we had a clothes chute, which was an exciting and fascinating concept to me at the time. But now when I think about it, I think of all the clothes getting mixed together and know that translates into someone spending a lot of time sorting clothing into different piles prior to washing.

We sort the clothing by color when it goes into the hamper. It takes approximately 3 seconds to sort clothing as you are throwing it into the hamper and takes approximately forever for ME to sort it otherwise.

No Folding

This is probably my biggest time saver. We don't fold our clothing. Shocking, right? I used to fold clothing. But if my children were trying to find a particular item in their drawers, they'd unfold the clothing and then just shove the leftovers back in the drawer because they lacked the coordination to refold. (As they got older I discovered that it wasn't just coordination that was lacking, it was that just didn't care if their clothing was folded or not.) So eventually I just gave up. What do I do instead? I stack the clothing one on top of another. This way the kids can sort of "page through" their shirts, pants to find the one they are looking for. The clothing pile remains intact, they locate the item they are looking for and I'm happy because the clothing remains flat and tidy instead of disheveled and wrinkled. Are there exceptions? Sure. My husband and I still have our clothing folded. And I have started folding my oldest daughter's jeans because now she is so tall now that her jeans take up too much space (lengthwise) when they are stacked.

No Ironing

I use Downy Wrinkle Releaser on almost all of our wrinkled clothing. A few squirts, a few tugs of the fabric and it's "good enough". Exceptions? My husband's work shirts, dress clothes for the kids (we're talking holiday clothing) and any item of mine that looks like it needs ironed after using the Dony. But 99% of kid clothing remains un-ironed at all times.

The Dot-Method
I read about this years ago in a parenting magazine and it has been a fantastic help over the years. We use permanent marker to mark each child's clothing to identify which child it belongs to. My oldest gets one dot, my second oldest gets two dots, and so on. It's genius because as you hand clothing down you just need to add another dot to the clothing tag (or collar or waistband). As soon as a new item of clothing comes into our house, it is the responsibility of the owner (assuming he/she is old enough) to dot his/her clothing and then when the laundry is clean I just have to look at the collar or waistband to know where to shelve the item. This may not be necessary for some families but because four of my children are so close in age, many times their clothing is very similar in size and sometimes I have two kids wearing the same size at the same time. With a glance I can easily tell which items belong to which kid and can shelve them accordingly.

Sock-Locks

I have written about Sock-Locks before but I really need to write again about how much of a time-saver they are. Each person in our family has been assigned a specific colored Sock-Lock. When you take off dirty socks, just thread the socks through the teeth, put them in the hamper and then wash and dry as you would anything else. Then when you are sorting through clean laundry, just toss each person's socks into his/her bin and you save hours by not having to match socks together. Does each person in my house use Sock-Locks every time? No. But if most of the people use them most of the time, then the system works well enough for my liking.

If you have any laundry tips please leave them in the Comments. I'm always looking for ways to streamline my household!

The Family Closet

2010-12-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

I've become obsessed with the concept of the Family Closet, ie, one location to store all the family's clothing. I think I first saw the FC in action while watching an episode of the Duggar's show. Now that I have five children of my own, I feel like our clothing/laundry needs have changed and I decided that I needed to have a FC.

So I started to do some research (which is how I approach almost every aspect of my life) and read about how other people created their own versions of the FC. Then I took an inventory of all the kids' clothing (using a spreadsheet) and then created another spreadsheet to try and figure out how many shelves I would need and how I would group the various items of clothing on the shelving. I began pricing shelving online and then went to Target in search of shelving that I could see and touch (as it is difficult to determine how sturdy shelving is when viewing online.)

Score! I found an adequate shelving unit on sale so I brought it home and started organizing. Once I got started, I felt compelled to keep going. So I convinced my husband that we needed to go back to Target to get four more units (so that we'd have one for each kid.) With a sigh he agreed and off we went. (I think he knows me well enough to know that once I get an idea in my head, there is no stopping me. It's just easier to go along than it is to try and reason with me.)

I was giddy on the ride home from Target just thinking about getting the FC organized. (I realize that this is not normal.) We spent most of the day on Sunday putting together shelving units and organizing kid clothing. And the FC is complete!

The baby's room is doing double duty as both a nursery and the FC. Once the baby moves in with his brothers (which won't be for another 18 months or so) then I will add additional elements to the FC, such as: a counter for folding clothing and wrapping gifts, a drying rack to hang damp towels after showering and moving the ironing station from the basement to the FC.

In planning the closet, I estimated that I needed approximately 30 small/medium sized bins to house items such as socks, underwear, gym uniforms, leggings, etc. When I priced the bins online, I discovered that it was going to cost about $170 to get what I wanted. So instead, I went to the dollar store to see if they had anything similar. The bins at the dollar store were smaller than I wanted and they had about 10, not 30. So I decided to comprise, save some cash and buy disposable tin serving pans instead (which you can see if you double-click on the photos). The disposable pans ended up costing $33 which was a great savings. Although as my husband pointed out, that may have been "penny-wise but pound-foolish." Only time will tell. Between gift cards and a sale at Target, I ended up spending about $210 on the shelving units. So for less than $250 and less than 24 hours worth of work (including research, planning, shopping, assembling, organizing) I was able to make the FC a reality.

However, in the meantime, Christmas prep has come to a grinding halt and the rest of the house looks like this:

But soon enough we'll get to this room and get the house ready for Christmas.

Academic Award

2010-12-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

My oldest daughter received an academic award at school last week during an awards assembly. Not only did she make Honor Roll, but she actually got an AWARD.

This is H.U.G.E.

For those of you who know us personally, you know how much this dear girl has struggled academically. She used to sob her way through homework and get so frustrated that she would shout insults at herself and would punch herself in frustration. Once when she was in second grade, she asked me what kind of job she could get when she was older because she didn't know how she was going to get a job if she couldn't tell a 'letter b' from a 'letter d'. My heart broke for a 7 year old who is already worrying about getting a job as an adult. Many, many times she would be in tears asking me, "What's wrong with me?" We started down a L-O-N-G road of getting her help. This took a couple of years and involved educational testing, multiple learning disabilities, IEPs, eye glasses, dietary changes, love, prayer and support, to name a few.

My dear girl NEVER thought she would win an academic award. She works so very hard just to keep her head above water and never saw herself as shining in school.

Until now.

Her teacher emailed me a couple of weeks ahead of time and said that my daughter would be getting an award, that it was a surprise, and could I come to the award assembly?

The assembly was long and lots of kids got awards: honor roll, sports, etc. After the general awards, each teacher awarded one or two students a special award for going "above and beyond" in the particular subject area and for having "exemplary manners". When my daughter's teacher called her name, the look on her face was one of shock, pride, disbelief and delight. I was so very proud of her. It was really great to know that her hard work is paying off and it was wonderful to know that her teacher noticed her efforts.

She had a spring in her step afterwards and as soon as she got home, she took pics of the awards and posted them to Facebook and emailed the pictures to her grandparents, aunt and friends. The next day she wrote a thank-you card to her teacher for giving her the award. Her teacher was so surprised and said that she had never, in all her years of teaching, had a student thank her with a card for an award.

That's my girl.

Madsen Cycles

2010-11-04T13:36:00.000-04:00

Check-out the cool bicycle to the right. I am picturing myself zipping around the Boro with Emma and the baby (almost toddler but will definitely be a toddler by next summer) and a bunch of bigger kids behind me on their bikes. The cycle company is giving away a bicycle like the one pictured -- you can click on the image to get details. Fingers crossed, but I never win anything.

Halloween Hangover

2010-11-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

My oldest daughter collected 9.8 POUNDS of Halloween candy in just under 2 hours.

Our dentist is going to be very busy as a result of our Halloween hangover.

Halloween: The Holiday That Keeps On Going (and going . . .)

2010-10-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

By the time Halloween rolls around, I am in full Christmas-planning mode. I'm working on my budget, cards, menus, gift ideas. I have no interest in giving any time, money or attention to Halloween.

Is it my imagination, or is this holiday growing in popularity every year?

What ever happened to a $5 costume and flimsy face mask? Is there anyone out there who just goes into their closet and pulls together a costume without spending a dime? My four older children all wanted new costumes this year, at a cost of approximately $35/each, plus shipping.

Um, NO! I told them that every dollar that is spent on Halloween is one dollar less spent on Christmas.

Our Halloween calendar looks something like this:
Tuesday: youth group Halloween party
Thursday: Halloween parade in town
Friday: Halloween parade & party at school (elementary)
Friday: Halloween dance party at school (middle school)
Friday night: Halloween party
Sunday afternoon: Halloween party
Sunday evening: Trick or Treating (also known as Halloweening to those of us from Pittsburgh)

Really? That's a LOT of dress up and a LOT LOT LOT of candy. (Have I mentioned previously that we get around 180 Trick-or-Treaters?) Anyway, I thought that at least the baby could wear a hand-me-down and figured that my oldest wouldn't need a costume now that she is in middle school.

Wrong. As it turns out, my daughter's youth group was having a Halloween/dress-up party and besides that, the middle school students were supposed to wear their costumes to school. So much for saving a few bucks! I told her that I'm not investing any more money in Halloween costumes so she borrowed one from our neighbors.

My younger daughter found a costume half-off so my husband bought it for her.

My oldest son was desperate to be Boba Fett so we actually paid full price for his costume (although he paid half with his chore money).

We borrowed an Obi Wan costume for my younger son and I did indeed use a hand-me-down for the baby. (I realize this picture is of a Clone Trooper and not Obi Wan. We had a costume crisis. I accidentally sent both the Boba Fett and Obi Wan costumes to school with my older son in the morning. Then when it was time for my younger son to go to afternoon kindergarten there was panic and we looked for the costume. I quickly realized my error so I sent him over to our neighbors -- same ones my daughter borrowed from -- to get a last minute costume for the school parade.) The Obi Wan costume will make its appearance tonight for Trick-or-Treat.

October has been a VERY busy month for us and I am REALLY looking forward to a slower November so that I can catch my breath before the Christmas craziness takes over.

Fall Photos

2010-10-29T10:18:00.000-04:00

I took the kids to the park to try and get some photos for our Christmas card. I took over 1000 photos and had four separate photo shoots to get a handful of pictures. I won't post the Christmas card photos but here are a few others that came out well.

Cub Scout Salute

2010-10-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

I took the boys to the park this afternoon to try to get some photos for our Christmas card. My 7 year old is giving me the Cub Scout Salute in this photo. (He just started Scouts and LOVES it!) Although this pic won't make onto our Christmas cards, I just had to share it because he's so darn cute.

The Tooth Fairy Has a GPS

2010-10-18T19:07:00.000-04:00

I didn't think that any of my kids actually believed in the Tooth Fairy.

We are really bad at keeping up the ruse. Too many kids, too many teeth, not enough cash, too much cash (as in the only money around is a $20 and no way are we giving a kid $20 for one tooth!) Not to mention that we are extremely forgetful. Many, many times we have forgotten to leave money under a pillow. And then there's the time that we BOTH left cash, thinking the other hadn't -- jackpot! So when a kid loses a tooth in Langanland, we usually just fork over the cash on the spot.

But the other day my 5 year old son lost his first tooth and he was SO EXCITED and so sure that the Tooth Fairy was going to pay him a visit. He lost the tooth around 6pm and then headed out around 7pm for a sleepover. As he was leaving, I asked him what he did with his tooth and he assured me that he put it in his backpack. I said, "I'm not sure the Tooth Fairy goes to the Jacksons' house." To which his friend replied, "Oh yes she does! She ALWAYS comes to my house and leaves me two dollars!"

Ok then.

When my husband got home, I sent him over to the Jacksons with $2 to give to Mr. Jackson, who had no choice but to play the part of the Tooth Fairy. When my husband arrived my son was thrilled to show his dad the gap in his mouth. My husband asked him how the Tooth Fairy would know that he was at the Jacksons' house. My son told him that the Tooth Fairy has a computer and she also has email. She checks email each night before going to work. Her email will tell her who has a lost a tooth and where to find the kid, because the kid might not be at home. You know, he might be at a sleepover, or on vacation, or something like that.

I'm happy to report that Mr. Jackson is a much better Tooth Fairy than either my husband or myself!

Favorite Friday: Week 4

2010-10-08T12:57:00.000-04:00

When I asked my 7 year old what he would like for his Favorite Friday dinner, he replied, "Stuffing."

To which I replied, "And . . . .?"

And then he said, "From a box. That's all. Just stuffing. From a box. NOT the kind you make for Thanksgiving, that kind is yucky. Hey! This year for Thanksgiving can you make stuffing from a box? Cause the kind in the box is way better than the kind that you make."

I told him that I could not, would not, make stuffing from a box for Thanksgiving. And then he started moaning that he never gets to eat what he likes. I pointed out that he gets stuffing from a box all year long but on special occasions (Thanksgiving, Christmas), we are going to have homemade stuffing.

In an effort to feed the other 6 people in the house who enjoy stuffing, yet don't want it as an entree, I am also roasting a turkey breast, steaming green beans from the farm and mashing potatoes (also from the farm).

Tonight's dinner is sort of a warm-up for Thanksgiving.

Favorite Friday, Week 3

2010-09-30T18:29:00.001-04:00

We didn't celebrate Favorite Friday last week due to an ice cream social in the early evening (so we had appetizers for dinner instead.) But we are back on track this week with my oldest choosing the meal for Favorite Friday. She has requested Paprikas. Mmmmm. That's one of my faves too. Our former au pair, Aniko, started making it for us back in 2002 and it has become a staple in our household. It's a Hungarian meal that consists of chicken with paprika (hence the name PAPRIKAs) that is stewed in a broth-like, stew-like, gravy-like sauce. The paprikas is then ladled over Aniko's mashed potatoes: potatoes mashed with milk, sour cream, butter and salt.

Delish!

One Down, Two to Go

2010-09-27T14:10:00.000-04:00

One room is finished, only two more rooms to patch and paint.

Did I mention that there are holes all over the OUTSIDE of the house too? Yeah, looks like we were victimized by a drive-by.

The Many Faces of a Middle-Schooler

2010-09-21T19:37:00.000-04:00

As I uploaded photos from the camera to the computer, I was surprised to find over 300 photos (because I was expecting about 20.) As it turns out, my oldest daughter has been very busy with the camera and over half of the photos were self portraits.

So far she likes middle school, although she does not like getting up early. (Her bus comes at 7:31am whereas last year it arrived around 8:45am.) She likes her classes, especially Family & Consumer Science (Home Ec).

I'm really relieved that middle school is off to a good start.

Are you scared???

2010-09-19T20:46:00.000-04:00

My 5 year old borrowed this Hulk costume from our neighbor. He's been wearing it almost every day, taking it off only when it is time to go to afternoon kindergarten and then putting it on again when he gets home. I wanted to take a picture of him but he wouldn't let me.

Until I told him that Uncle Dan (my brother who is serving in Afghanistan) was REALLY afraid of the Hulk when he was a little boy. I suggested that we take a photo to send to Uncle Dan in Half-ghanistan (as my son calls it). Well that did the trick! Not only did he agree to have his picture taken, but he put on his most-scary-Hulk-face in an effort to scare Uncle Dan.

So Dan, are you scared???

Favorite Friday: Chili

2010-09-17T13:27:00.000-04:00

Last week's dinner (grilled chicken & pineapple) was at the request of my younger daughter. Tonight it's my 5 year old son's turn to have his favorite meal. It's so nice to know that he loves my chili. Because his brother hates it.

Isn't there some saying about how you can't please all the people all the time?

One Thing Leads to Another

2010-09-12T21:18:00.000-04:00

It all started here:

And ended there:

It all started last weekend. My husband decided to strip wallpaper off of my oldest daughter's bedroom walls. (Back story: She moved up to her own room on the 3rd floor in the spring. We bought her a new rug, curtains, duvet but put stripping the "old lady wallpaper" -- as she calls it -- had to wait until cooler weather.) Since we had lovely cool weather last weekend, coupled with a 3 day weekend, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to start stripping.

But one thing leads to another.

Once he stripped the wallpaper, he decided that he just had to strip the woodwork too. Four windows, two doors and baseboards.

And then he started thinking . . . the "bump out" in her bedroom is not insulated. Sooo, while the walls are bare, it makes sense to cut holes in the plaster and insulate the bump out, doesn't it?

Sounds fairly simple. But it wasn't.

Between renting the machine, rigging it to reach from the ground to the 3rd floor, keeping it filled with insulation (recycled newspapers), figuring out how to keep it from clogging, dealing with plaster dust, newspaper dust, getting a tarp to place of the insulation when it started raining . . . etc., well, I think you get the point. It was a LOT of work. (Most of which was completed by my handy hubby with a little help from me and quite a bit of help from the kids.)

After the room was insulated, my husband started thinking that he had rented the machine for 24 hours. Why let it sit idle for the next 18 hours? He decided he should get his money's worth and insulate the bump out in the baby's room, which is directly beneath my daughter's room. And then he decided to make a day of it and insulate our family room, which is beneath the nursery.

So now I have newspaper and plaster dust in every corner of the house. Plus around 100 +/- holes in the walls that will get plugged next weekend. And THEN we get to prime and paint over the plugged holes (which means repainting all three rooms!)

I am still asking myself how stripping wallpaper in ONE room turned into a project that is going to last for 3 months.

A pic of all the furniture pushed to one side of the family room. It's pretty much a construction zone.

Favorite Friday

2010-09-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

We're starting something new in our house. It's called Favorite Friday.

Each Friday, one kid gets to choose his/her favorite meal and I will prepare it for dinner.

Because no matter what I make, someone likes it but someone else is sure to dislike it. Honestly, rarely do I prepare a meal that gets "two thumbs up" from every kid. So now that we are starting Favorite Friday, each kid will be sure to have his/her favorite meal at least once in a while.

And when everyone has had a turn, we'll switch it up and have Favorite Friday: Desserts!

In the meantime, tonight we're having grilled chicken & pineapple kebobs.

Talkin' Turkey

2010-09-04T20:19:00.000-04:00

I roasted a turkey today so that we could make a Bobbie.

What is a Bobbie you ask?

It's a sandwich that is sold at a local deli. It is basically Thanksgiving dinner on a roll. Roasted turkey (NOT lunchmeat!), cranberry sauce and stuffing. The deli puts mayo on theirs but we put homemade gravy on ours in place of the mayo and I think it tastes even better that way.

Back to the story. I roasted the turkey and saved the wishbone at the request of my boys (ages 5 & 7). They were SO very excited to pull it apart. After much struggle -- (and I do mean MUCH struggle! One ended up with a cut on his face and they both ended up using hand towels to hold on tight to the wishbone so that they could get the leverage to pull it apart) -- they pulled it apart and declared a winner.

And so begins my story.

I overheard them talking about what to wish for. My older son asked his brother what he would wish for and he said, "I think I'm gonna wish for all the Legos in the world." My older son said that it would be great to get all the Legos in the world but cautioned that it might not work out that way. He thought they would have a better chance at having the wish come true if they asked for something smaller. So they continued to discuss an appropriate wish and they finally settled on some sort of Turbo Something Or Other.

And then later I heard them speculating that the Turbo Something Or Other would probably be waiting for them in the family room tomorrow morning. I had to jump into the conversation at that point and say that the Turbo Thingy mostly likely would NOT be waiting for them in the morning. I explained that the idea of making a wish on a wishbone was Make Believe. My older son with all his worldy wisdom said, "Oh mom. You don't know for sure. Sometimes things like this work out and we just don't know why."

Well, actually, yes I DO know why things like this sometimes work out.

So then at dinner, they announced their wish to the whole family. They were really quite sure that their wish was going to come true. I asked how they thought the Turbo Thingy would get into the family room overnight.

Hmmm. That stumped them.

Finally my older son said that he thought Santa might bring it.

My girls, being much older and wiser chimed in with, "Don't you know that it is September and Santa does NOT work in September?!" And my other daughter said, "Well, you probably COULD have Santa work to get your wish to come true but if he brought you the Turbo Thingy, he would probably have to take ALL your other Legos as payment."

To which my son replied, "No way. Santa wouldn't do that! I think he would want us to have all our Legos AND the Turbo Thingy too."

Well then, it's settled. Santa is bringing a Turbo Something Or Other to our house tonight.

Or not.

Family Photo

2010-09-02T21:59:00.000-04:00

Today I realized that we have ZERO photos of us as a family. Not one. So I asked my neighbor to take a couple pictures of us. Oh, we are a funny bunch, yes we are.

Here's the Scoop

2010-08-31T12:51:00.000-04:00

My neighbor organized a Back To School Ice Cream Party for the neighborhood kids. We partied hard in the alley immediately after they got off the bus. The event was a HUGE hit and I think it will become an annual tradition.

My other neighbor brought this cool, retro Tupperware caddy to house all the toppings for the sundaes. Guess who was on ebay today trying to get the same one for her own ice cream lovers? (Who am I kidding? I love ice cream as much as my kids do!)

All in all, the first day of school was a success. I asked each kid, "What was your favorite part of the day?" and "What surprised you most?" Answers below.

6th Grader

Favorite: Lockers. (Apparently she's at the age where she gives one-word answers.)

Most Surprising: That we had an assembly during last period.

4th Grader

Favorite: Lunch! (That's because she made whoopie pies the day before and took one to school to eat for dessert.)

Most Surprising: That we had recess BEFORE lunch. (Recess before lunch is new this year; previously it was held after lunch.)

1st Grader

Favorite: The cafeteria! (This is funny to me because he packs his lunch. I guess just being in the cafeteria is exciting?)

Most Surprising: That people in my class speak Espanola!

Kindergartener

Favorite: The Lego table!

Most Surprising: That we got to write on a piece of paper that was shaped like a bus.

Here's to 179 more days just like the first!

First Day Photos

2010-08-30T13:06:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of school. Lots of milestones this year!

My oldest started middle school today. I think I was more nervous than she was!

My younger daughter is entering 4th grade and my oldest son is starting1st grade. This will be his first year of being at school all day. He is most excited to eat in the cafeteria and to have his own desk.

My middle son is officially a kindergartener now. He is "a widdle bit novus" (a little bit nervous) about riding the bus and making friends. He's off to a good start though, our next door neighbor is also starting kindergarten right along with my son.

You may be wondering why the kindergarten photo was taken in the front of the house while the other photos were taken in the back? My son has afternoon kindergarten so we have to catch the bus in the front, thus we took the photo in the front. And we proceeded to meander to the bus stop. Except that the bus came early! And had a different number than it was supposed to! So there was no time for photos or tears, we ran to the bus, they got on, the door closed and we waved goodbye.

Here's to a great school year!

Bad Blogger

2010-08-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

I've been terribly lazy at posting to the blog. I love the slower pace of summer; the lack of a schedule or routine. I guess I've taken it to an extreme and have completely ignored the blog. I

I promise to do a better job with blog postings, starting Monday, on the first day of school.

In the meantime, here's a pic, because a posting is always more interesting when it includes a photo.

Baby's first ice cream cone, Kennywood, August 2010.

Phillies

2010-07-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

Images courtesy of Guest Blogger

My husband took some of the kids to the Phillies the other night. It was hot, hot, hot. The temp reached 104 that day so by the time the game started, it was probably still 97 degrees at the ballpark. Fortunately, they had seats in the shade. But they were still melting. The kids had no energy or stamina and wanted to go home so they left after the second inning. However, the kids got free baseball bats so at least they have something to show for all their sweating!

I've never been to the park (baseball is not my game) so I can't really narrate the pictures below but I thought I'd include them so you can get an idea of what the park looks like.

Camping

2010-07-07T11:09:00.000-04:00

My husband took the kids camping for a couple of nights last week when the weather was warm (not hot). The boys have been asking for weeks for my husband to take them camping and fishing and finally, they got their wish!

Fishing was the main attraction. My 7 year old LOVES to fish (he's like his grandad in that way because my father-in-law loves to fish while my husband is not at all interested).

He caught his first fish! As he says, "I'm a real fisherman now because the last time I fished, I didn't catch anything!"

They camped at a local campground, which has lots of amenities and nice views too.

The nice thing about camping so close to home is that it's no problem to go pick-up a camper (oldest daughter) who decides that she MUST go home after one night because she misses her baby brother SO VERY MUCH. And who can blame her? He's pretty cute!

Christmas in July

2010-07-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

As part of her Christmas present, we arranged for our oldest daughter to have sewing and cake decorating lessons. Not only is she interested in these activities but I have friends who were willing to give her lessons because they too enjoy these activities.

Her sewing lessons took place during the winter months. She made a pillowcase, pajama pants and then ended by sewing this bag. She really enjoyed her lessons and she uses her bag almost daily.

Her cake decorating lesson took place this weekend. My friend baked a mini wedding cake and then taught my daughter how to decorate it using fondant, tips, buttercream frosting, etc. My daughter was really pleased with her lesson and said she felt like she was on Cake Boss because she learned so much. Now that the cake is home, we've all enjoyed eating her creation!

July 4th

2010-07-05T18:22:00.002-04:00

So much to post so I'm going to start with July 4th photos and work backwards through our recent pics.

We celebrated the 4th with our neighbors at our annual block party. The kids had as much fun -- or maybe even more fun -- than the adults. They organized their own parade:

Our neighbor offered to do face painting for the kids

and grown-ups too!

As my boys like to say, "Boys rule the alley!" It's true!

There are 25 kids who live along (one block) of the alley. 19 of them are boys!

And of course it was about 95 degrees, which feels nice compared to consecutive 100 degree days forecast for this week. (Hear me now. I am NOT complaining. I much prefer the heat to 3 feet of snow!)

And a special 4th of July shout-out to my brother in Afghanistan. Happy 4th Dan!

July 1: Random Ramblings

2010-07-01T14:50:00.000-04:00

Totally random posting. Just thought I'd let you know what is happening with us on a random day during summer vacation.

I needed an onion to make dinner. I went next door to see if my neighbor's had one that we could borrow. Or keep. Whatever. (They were at work. I have a key. I let myself in. No onion.) So I sent my younger daughter to another neighbor's house to get an onion. She comes back with a can of OLIVES. Which just proves that she does NOT listen to me! (Note: I HATE olives and have NEVER made a recipe calling for them. Further proof that she does not listen.) For a minute, I thought maybe I wasn't clear in wanting an onion but then my oldest said, "What are you doing with olives? Mom wanted an onion." All of our other neighbors were at work or at the pool (sadly, I do not have keys to every home in the neighborhood) so I had to trek (ok, actually I drove) all 5 kids to the grocery store to get onions. And spent $112.89.

A Bit Behind on Birthdays

2010-06-22T09:06:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit behind in posting birthday photos.

My oldest turned 11 on the day we left for Disney.

We had the neighbors over for cupcakes and then literally got into the car to head to the airport.

We celebrated my son's 7th birthday while we were at Disney.

We had dinner at the T-Rex Restaurant in Downtown Disney. It was such a great place for a little boy to celebrate his birthday! He was in awe of the place -- it was so well themed -- you must visit if you ever get the chance!

Just so you can get an idea of the scale of the dinosaur behind my son, I am including the pic below. As I said, the place is remarkable!

And finally, my younger daughter turned 9 the other day. We celebrated with a sleepover/pizza/swimming/pinata/movie party. I was not looking forward to having nine girls sleepover but it went really well (they all fell asleep between midnight and 1AM) and I would definitely do it again.

Splish Splash

2010-06-20T20:02:00.001-04:00

. . . . he was taking a bath . . .

He's such a water baby. We had him at the pool today and he seemed to really enjoy it. And as you can tell, he delights in bath time.

More Disney

2010-06-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

Finally getting around to posting some pics from our trip.

We started out the trip by visiting Disney Hollywood Studios for their Star Wars Weekend. There were Clone Troopers on the roof as we were entering the park. Although the boys love Star Wars, they were a little bit intimidated by this real, life-sized Clone Trooper.

My 6 year old Clone Trooper.

A pic of me with my sister.

And one of my oldest daughter with my nephew. The cousins had a GREAT time together!

My 5 year old had some spending money saved for the trip and he desperately wanted this lollipop.

My girls.

The typical Disney pic of the fam in front of the castle.

At one point, while we were at Blizzard Beach, I was on baby duty. I captured these photos as the cousins enjoyed some baby talk.

And finally, no trip to Disney would be complete without a photo op with Mickey! (Of course we had to wait in line for nearly an hour just to see him. It kinda made me miss the good 'ole days where you could just walk up to a character and pose for a picture without having to wait an eternity.)

A Taste of Disney

2010-06-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

More pics of the trip to follow . . . but thought I'd whet your appetite with my favorite pic from the trip:

While at Typhoon Lagoon (our favorite spot) and waiting for a thunderstorm to pass, we bought this bucket of ice cream. We did the same thing on our last trip to Disney and now the kids really look forward to this treat. We have decided that this the most affordable treat in all of Disney World: it cost $9.99 and fed 9 people!

Ho Hum, ANOTHER Bat

2010-06-08T10:33:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, you are probably getting tired of reading about our bat situation. I know I am getting tired of it myself.

How's this for irony? We had the Bat Guy here yesterday to check our exclusion (the technical term for preventing bats from entering a structure). He said we were "tight". Exclusion held. No bats. Paid him $200 and he was on his way. (I should note that he is a very nice person and I really do like him and don't think he is ripping us off. You see, our house is connected to our neighbor's house and we share a common attic. Sometimes the bats enter from his side and then travel over to our side of the house. He refuses to take action on this. I've even had the health department here because of the bats. I have considered moving. Anyway, I'm way off topic here. As I was saying, the Bat Guy gave us the "all clear".)

But then, last night, a bat!

I actually thought my husband was joking when he told me to go into the mudroom so that he could locate the bat. It didn't take him long; the bat whizzed past him in the upstairs bathroom and he whacked it with a badminton raquet (left here by the previous owner, hangs on the wall, taken down only to hunt for bats) and splayed it's guts on the bathroom floor.

No, I did not see this for myself. My boys came running downstairs to tell me about the guts on the floor and they were excited to report that the "bat is a boy because he has a penis!"

Wow. I never want to see another bat and I surely do not want to see a bat's penis. Ever.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

2010-05-22T21:01:00.000-04:00

The baby turned one today! Such a milestone for both mom AND baby.

We started the celebration with cupcakes made by my friend who has her own cupcake company. The cupcakes are Creme Brulee, yum!

I let the little guy take a peek at the cupcakes before we sang to him.

They were delish!

Look at how much he's grown in the past year!

A Week of Firsts

2010-05-21T21:33:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy week and it's going to continue to get even busier! We've had a number of "firsts" this week.

Swimming With the Sharks
Ok, so they haven't done that yet. But the boys did complete their swimming lessons and they are now very capable swimmers! They take lessons each year at the university; it's intense. Lessons run daily for 2 weeks and the kids pretty much hate the lessons. But I told them that if they did really well and were able to swim by the end (they were already swimmers, I just wanted to know that I could take my eyes off them this summer at the pool since my attention is going to be on our littlest family member who most definitely cannot swim) then they would never have to take lessons again (unless they want to). Not only did they progress to the next level of lessons, but they are ready to swim with the sharks at Disney! Whether or not they actually swim with the sharks will determine whether or not they have to take lessons again next year!

Family Run
The kids' school sponsored a family run and the middle 3 kids participated. (The baby is too small and my oldest was on a school trip. The run was scheduled for last week, so as to not interfere with the trip, but just as it was about to start, the skies opened and it rained for hours. Soooo, they rescheduled the race for tonight, which meant that my husband, who is chaperoning the trip, and my oldest daughter, could not race.) The kids have never raced before, and I had my doubts, but they did a great job! My 5 year old ran the 200m race, FAST! And then he got in line to run the 1 Mile Loop! He lost steam towards the end, but overall, it was amazing that he kept up with the big kids! After a rest, he got in line to do the adult 5K! There was no way he was going to make it through that so I pulled him out but his enthusiasm made me proud!

No Training Wheels
My 5 year old also mastered riding his bike without training wheels! He still isn't comfortable navigating intersections, but otherwise, he is keeping up with the big kids. Once a Langan kid learns to ride without stabilizers (as my Irish husband refers to them), they get to cycle up to Seven Eleven and choose a treat. Can you guess what he chose? Gum! I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but my rule is that you have to be 5 to chew gum in our house. (I found out the hard way that 5 is the minimum age to chew/discard appropriately.) So it's been a busy week since my little guy turned 5: birthday, biking, running, swimming!

First Birthday
And last, but not least, the baby turns 1 tomorrow so stay tuned!

Green Smoothies

2010-05-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I started drinking green smoothies.

For those of you who don't know what I mean by green smoothie, you can find out more here, at the Green Smoothie Queen website.

There are lots of reasons that I decided to try green smoothies (which I won't bother to write about) but my main motivation was to improve my overall health by eating (or drinking, as the case may be) more fruits and vegetables.

I started drinking my smoothie each day at lunchtime, in place of my meal. I had read about the benefits of eating raw foods and couldn't wait for miraculous results. Every morning I would get up and look in the mirror and expect my wrinkles to be diminished. (They are still present.) I would then get on the scale and expect to be down 5 pounds from the previous day. (I wasn't.) I kept thinking, surely, any day now, I can toss my acne medicine and revel in my amazingly clear skin. (I'm still using Proactive.) When I couldn't really see any physical changes, I finally concluded that for me, the main benefit was just knowing that I was doing something really healthy for my body and a great deal of peace of mind comes along with that.

So about 10 days into my green smoothie experiment (during which time I was eating fairly healthy foods for my other meals/snacks), during a moment of weakness, I opened a jar of Jif and a bag of chocolate chips and ate a few spoonfuls of peanut butter and chocolate chips. Then I went to Target.

I started to feel awful. Like the shelves at Target were spinning past me. Headache. Dizzy. Stomach in knots. Seriously? Just from eating a few spoonfuls of crappy food? Apparently so.

Ok, so maybe there are some benefits to this lifestyle.

And then I started to notice that I'd forget to have my Cherry Coke Zero (which I treat myself to each afternoon.) It would be dinnertime and I'd realize that I forgot to drink it. (Prior to that I would hit the fridge without fail by 2PM.) And I noticed that I'd make a pot of coffee in the morning but only drink one cup and then not really want the rest. And then I grabbed a Junior Cheeseburger from Wendy's a few days later and threw it away after 2 bites because it tasted weird. And last night I ate a Jello pudding and it tasted all chemical-ly and gross.

So I'm now on Day 19 of my Green Smoothie Experiment and I think it's safe to say that it is now a habit. I really do like them and look forward to them. (I must confess, I made one that was REALLY terrible and I had to pour it down the drain. But I'm learning what to use and in which quantities so most of my smoothies are yummy.)

And the baby likes them too!

Happy Birthday

2010-05-14T10:12:00.002-04:00

Yesterday started our marathon of birthday celebrations. All five kids have birthdays within the next five weeks. (That's a lotta cake!) We kicked off the celebrations with a s'mores cake.

My first attempt at this cake failed miserably. I needed parchment paper and thought I had some but didn't so I tried it without. Big Mistake. The cake was completely stuck to the pan. To make matters worse, the cake was completely flat. When making the batter, I had noticed that the baking powder was really lumpy and wondered if that had anything to do with the cake disaster. So I checked the expiration date and it said Best if used by July 2005. (Yep, that probably had something to do with it!) So after purchasing parchment paper and baking powder, my second attempt was a success. Recipe here in case you're curious about what goes into a s'mores cake.

Stay tuned for more birthdays, cakes and pics! The baby turns one on Saturday!

Mother's Day Moments

2010-05-10T10:28:00.000-04:00

The kids all gave me homemade cards for Mother's Day -- very sweet and cute. It's always nice when the classroom teacher gives them some direction . . . .

Thanks to teacher prompts, I discovered that my 4 year old loves me because I pack snacks for him when we go on an airplane. I learned that my 6 year old thinks of me as the color violet. My 8 year old thinks I'm a good mom because I pay her for doing chores. And my 10 year old thinks that my favorite thing to do in my free time is clean.

Hilarious, right? I guess a 10 year old would think that anyone who cleans in their "spare time" must enjoy cleaning. Oh, does she have a lot to learn!

In addition to the cleaning comment was a report card. There were about 15 items on the list and I got As in everything except for the first item: patience. I got a "E" for patience. An "E" means "try harder". I guess it's kinda like an F but a little more friendly than an F. ANYWAY, I find this ironic because I think I am fairly patient but whatever. Nevertheless, I was patting myself on the back for earning As in everything else. I was feeling smug that I am so good at every aspect of being a mom. I commented to my daughter that I was a "Straight A Mom" and she said, "Oh, actually, I just didn't feel like reading all the things on the list so I just gave you A's in everything."

Did I mention that she suffers from ADHD?

Baby Talk

2010-05-09T10:19:00.000-04:00

Photo courtesy of Guest Blogger

The baby has been babbling for a while now: all done, dada, mama, etc.

But he calls Emma by name every day. When he sees her walk into the room, he raises his hand and says, "Hi Eh!" Lucky dog, she's the only person who gets consistent chatter from the baby!

Until the other day.

I thought he was trying to say my oldest daughter's name.

And now I'm sure of it.

We were at the mall yesterday and I was walking through the store, pushing the stroller and calling her name. And then the baby shouted out her name! And then when he finally spotted her, he shouted her name again and waved his fist at her as if to say: Where the heck have you been?! I've been looking for you!

And today he's been dragging himself from room to room (still not crawling!) calling her name as he goes. So cute and such a gift to be adored by a baby.

Baby Toes

2010-04-29T10:05:00.001-04:00

Is there anything more delightful than baby toes?!

These toesies have been covered up for months now (except for a few warm days last month). I am SO looking forward to warmer weather so that I can take his socks off and enjoy looking at those chubby legs and yummy toes all day long.

In other news, this kid is almost one and is not yet crawling! I can't decide if he is lazy or content. I suppose he does not need to crawl because he has four older siblings who cater to his every whim. They carry him around, push him in his stroller (even in the house), and push him along the hardwood floors to get him from room to room. Why would you ever start to crawl when you can get catered to like a king?

He has, however, started to drag himself around. Finally! Just in the past day or so, he's started to pull himself from one side of the room to the other by dragging one leg behind, while the other leg is tucked under his body. He's pretty slow with this manuever (which is good) but much more content to sit on the floor -- now that he can see something and move himself across the room to get it.

First Academic Competition

2010-04-28T10:26:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I don't have any pics of the actual event. I'll post a random pic of my lovely daughter instead.

I am writing to tell you about our (ours as in her first time participating and my first time as a parent/spectator) first academic competition. My daughter participated in the Reading Olympics last night. It was really exciting! (Ok, it was really a lot of sitting around and people speaking in hushed tones, but it was exciting for me!)

My daughter signed-up for this back in the fall and there were about 40 books that she could choose to read. Each student had to read at least one book you could choose to read as many as you wanted. We bought some of the books in paperback and even downloaded one to her iPod so that she could listen to it in the car. I was really nervous about her participation because she wasn't really interested in reading the books but seemed to only because I nagged her.

Imagine my surprise last night when she was participating in answering questions about books that I didn't even know she had read!

Each team received a ribbon for participation. Although scores are kept and each round is a win/lose, the emphasis is on fostering a love for reading, not on scores.

She said she'd like to do it again next year so that's a win in my book!

Any Bookmark Buyers???

2010-04-26T19:39:00.005-04:00

By: Guest Blogger

Hey-O peeps, I would like to know if you would interested in buying bookmarks? You do NOT have to buy them from me (but if you want to you can). So if you are interested would you like to buy bookmarks from me?????? I am selling them because I am going to make a website if people are intersted in buying 'em.

Here are some pictures of my handmade bookmarks, they will cost 50 cents each.

Park Pics

2010-04-26T10:56:00.005-04:00

Disclaimer: these are the only decent pics from my trip to the park.

I was really looking forward to heading down to the park to take some pics with my new camera. Spring was in full swing and I just knew I was going to get some fantastic photos.

WRONG!

I was clicking away and headed home to download and pat myself on the back for a job well-done.

Ugh. The pictures (for the most part) were TERRIBLE! I did a better job with my P&S camera.

Maybe I am just a terrible photographer? It's possible. Or maybe there is some other reason?

Yes, let's go with "some other reason".

So here's my thinking.

I wear glasses for distance. But at some point during my last pregnancy, I felt like I needed a stronger prescription. But they (you know, the Experts who are always referred to as "they") say that your vision changes temporarily during pregnancy and lactation and thus you should NOT get a new prescription during this time.

So I started to regard my glasses with contempt as they were not helping me one bit.

And then, somehow, my glasses got stepped on and crushed. And . . . well . . . I haven't worn them since.

Fast forward 15 or so months.

I'm almost 40. (When I say almost, I mean I am days away from the big event.) I've been noticing lately (mostly during my hideous bout with an abscessed tooth) that it is difficult to read fine print (such as the kind on the Motrin or Aleve bottles). I've been noticing that I really can't see far away (as evidenced by not recognizing people at the grocery store who I would have recognized had I been wearing my defunct glasses). I've been noticing that I've been getting headaches almost daily.

So when I looked at my pictures from the park, the only logical conclusion was that although I thought the camera was focused, it actually was not. Because what looked good to my eye through the lens clearly did not look good when I downloaded the pictures.

So I'm blaming my whole bad photography experience on the fact that I need glasses. Badly.

I'm actually going to end this post and go call the eye doctor.

None Seatbelts, Mom!

2010-04-14T21:06:00.002-04:00

My husband recently took the boys to see How I Became A Pirate at a theater in the city. They had a really great time. My 4 year old said his favorite part was taking a taxi. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey, how was the show?
Son: Good.
Me: What was your favorite part?
Son: Um, the taxi! Mom, did you know that we got to ride in a taxi???!!!
Me: Wow, that sure sounds exciting!
Son: Yeah. And guess what? (He asks me to "guess what" at least 7x per day.)
Me: What?
Son: There was none booster seats in the taxi!
Me: For real! Holy cow! That is CRAZY!!!!
Son: And guess what?
Me: What?
Son: And there was none seatbelts either! None! None booster seats AND none seatbelts!

Next time we can save the money on the tickets and just pay for him to ride around in a taxi cab.

Shark Boy

2010-04-13T16:54:00.005-04:00

I've been calling my 6 year old by the name of Shark Boy because for about 2 months he has had two rows of teeth on the bottom. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for his baby teeth to fall out and F-I-N-A-L-L-Y he lost his first tooth the other day.!

The tooth fairy got a little confused and he ended up with around $2.50, instead of the usual $1. Considering that we (husband, self) are really bad about remembering to play the part of the tooth fairy (we usually just hand-over the cash when a kid loses a tooth), I am kind-of in disbelief that we both remembered. What complicated the situation was the fact that my son slept in 2 different beds that night and left his tooth in a 3rd location (in an empty M&M tube next to his bed) so ended up with cash in 3 different locations. Not too shabby!

All Jumped-Out

2010-04-12T15:14:00.000-04:00

Someone wore himself out today from jumping on the trampoline.

The Candy Man

2010-04-08T10:51:00.005-04:00

I love candy. Pretty much any kind, but especially chocolate. I am a candy connoisseur.

My husband is not. (Unless we are talking about Irish chocolate.)

I had purchased some Easter candy for the kids but couldn't seem to get back to the store alone to get the rest so I sent my husband an email at work asking him to buy the remaining items. I sent him a list of what I already purchased and listed the items still needed (chocolate bunnies, Cadbury milk chocolate eggs, M&Ms, etc.) CHOCOLATE. All the items on the list were chocolate.

The night before Easter he pulled out his purchases. Here's what he bought:

Sour Patch Kids
Sour Watermelon Drops
Sour Patch Jelly Beans
Swedish Fish
Mints (they were totally gross -- they looked like marshmallows but had CANADA imprinted on them)
Chocolate Bunnies

Um . . . where's the chocolate? The eggs?! The M&Ms?! The Hershey Kisses?! What are these gross looking white things? Don't you think you went overboard on the sour items? This is supposed to be EASTER!

And then I look at the bunnies.

Three out of four of the rabbits were all shrunken and lumpy. Why? Because he bought them on his lunch hour and left them in the car for the rest of day while we were having record-breaking heat. Needless to say, there was a lot of whining the next morning. "What happened to my rabbit?! Why is it melted?! Hey! His rabbit isn't melted, why is mine?! That's not fair!"

And then, "Ew. Sour jelly beans? Where are the Jolly Rancher jelly beans like last year? What are these mint things? And peeps? Don't you remember that no one in this house likes peeps? Why do we get peeps every year if no one likes them?" (My fault, I bought the peeps.)

I will say that the Nerds (my buy) were a hit.

I told my husband that he lost his job and will no longer be on candy detail.

But that didn't last long because it is so much easier for him to stop on his way home from work to pick-up needed items than it is for me to trek to the store with 2-5 kids in tow. So on Tuesday afternoon my daughter sent an email to my husband asking him to pick-up candy for her and her sister to eat during the PSSAs (Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment tests). The PSSAs started yesterday and will be administered daily during the next 2+ weeks. (I know, overkill for sure but that's education in the 21st Century.) ANYWAY, the kids are allowed to have candy to suck on during the test. So my husband stopped on his way home and bought each girl a bag of Life Savers.

Sugar-free Life Savers.

Have you ever eaten more than your share of sugar-free candy? I personally have not (since I love sugar so much) but I had a diabetic friend in high school who did. And believe me, it's not pretty.

So both girls came home from school yesterday and reported that they were getting sick because they had stomach cramps and had to run to the bathroom 3x yesterday. I assumed they were just nervous from test-taking. But THEN I discovered the almost-empty bags of sugar-free candy and now I know why they had such gastric issues.

What was he thinking?! He knows that sugar-free candy messes with your intestines. He also knows that if you give a kid a whole bag, they are most likely going to eat the whole bag. Especially if they are not allowed to have candy at school except for this one time, just during testing. If they can eat as much as they want during the test then of course they are going to eat it all. (Which is why you should buy them Tic Tacs, not a whole bag of candy.)

My husband is DEFINITELY off candy detail from now on.

The Candy Man he is not.

Hair Cut

2010-03-31T14:25:00.008-04:00

BY: Guest Blogger

I wanted to get my hair cut short because my long hair bothered me and I didn't like the feeling of the hair. So I got it cut SHORT. I donated 9 inches to Pantene Beautiful Lengths!!!! Pantene makes free wigs for women who have cancer.

Here are some before and after pictures.

more baby pictures!!!!!

2010-03-30T10:37:00.003-04:00

by Guest blogger

Pictures of the baby!!!!!!!!

Signs of Spring

2010-03-23T10:39:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not talking about flowers, I'm talking about cuts, scrapes and bruises. The bad news is that my little guy fell down in the alley ("I got my legs tangled") and his forehead broke the fall. The good news is that he spent almost the WHOLE weekend outside playing because the weather was BE-YOO-TI-FUL. Bumps and bruises are par for the course for an energetic little boy.

He was pretty upset when it happened (ouch) and being a little self conscious, he doesn't like explaining it (the forehead) to people. The other night he said, "Mom. Can you say to people, 'Pretend that you can't see his blood streaks?' Cause I don't want to talk about anymore." Easier said than done! I cannot preemptively explain this to each person who sees him, most especially the 18 children in his class.

When I took him to school today, I noticed that a boy in his class has an almost identical mark on his forehead.

Ah, the signs of spring!

Update

2010-03-19T09:29:00.001-04:00

The remaining strep cultures came back negative. So we have 3 kids on antibiotics at the moment. Hopefully this will eradicate the strep and we'll be healthy going forward!

Crazy Hair

2010-03-17T13:09:00.005-04:00

Bed Head

I walked into Sally's Beauty Supply last night and the woman working behind the counter looked at me and asked, "Crazy hair?"

I was thinking, does my hair really look THAT bad?

She repeated herself, "Crazy hair?"

I was trying to figure out how to respond when she said, "Are you here to get supplies for Crazy Hair Day?"

Oh, right. Tomorrow is Crazy Hair Day at school., "Um nope, I'm not here for that although I would be a hero if I walked into the house with green hair spray."

Of course they were out of green hair spray, what with the next day being Crazy Hair Day AND St. Patrick's Day all rolled into one.

My girls had crazy hair-dos planned.

But.

No one went to school today.

Strep in the house.

Again.

The first case appeared three weeks ago. The next kid got it two weeks ago. Then yesterday, yet another kid seemed to have contracted it. So I took him to the doctor, along with the baby (who goes everywhere with me). The doctor, noticing a pattern, cultured the sick child as well as the baby and recommended that I bring the remaining children into the office by the end of the week to be cultured so that we can eradicate this germ once and for all.

The doctor called this morning; both cultures were positive.

Yikes! Babies don't get strep. They just don't. Unless you are a baby who has four older siblings who get great joy out of shoving cheerios into your mouth with their germ-covered fingers because they love seeing you squeal with delight when they do this.

So I scheduled the other three kids for cultures Friday afternoon and hung-up.

And then my oldest came downstairs -- I kid you not -- about 1 minute after I hung-up -- and tells me that she thinks she has strep.

Here we go again.

So I called the doctor and took all the kids in this morning to be cultured.

We'll know tomorrow morning whether we are five for five.

The pediatrician wants me and my husband to be cultured as well, in case we are asymptomatic carriers who are infecting the children. (Highly unlikely. Kids are germ factories.) I explained to him that I'm on antibiotics (one positive aspect of an abscessed tooth) so that leaves my husband as the main suspect in the case of the strep throats. He's going to cultured tomorrow.

Spring cannot come soon enough! I'm tired of winter and cold and dark and snow and rain and sickness and root canals. I keep telling myself that it will all seem better once spring is here. The light is (literally) at the end of the tunnel.

Mis-Match

2010-03-16T09:09:00.002-04:00

Today is Mis-Match Day at school. I think they did a pretty good job, don't you?

In other news, we're off to the pediatrician; third child has succumbed to strep in as many weeks.

And, am scheduled for a root canal Friday. Never thought I'd be excited to get one but I am looking forward to the relief.