Who's Who?

It was haircut time again for the boys.  I usually cut Tommy's hair different just because his hair doesn't stick straight up when cut - it sits nicely at any length.  I buzz cut the other two boys.  This time, however Tommy wanted the same cut as his brothers.  That was fine with me.

 
However, when I'm running around crazy every where and trying to locate a certain son of mine, they all look the same from behind.  Hmph...

Can you tell?

When I'm out with my kids, especially with all five of them, I get all kinds of comments.  I'm sure you mother's out there with large families know exactly what I'm talking about.  One of the comments I get most often is how much my boys look alike.  They often think they are twins or triplets.  Their faces look similar, now so do the back of their heads.

Just the Three of Us

Now that my three oldest are in school, that leaves me with two at home.  The dynamics at home have changed once again!  It's been so nice to spend more time with each of my youngest kids.  It definitely feels more manageable, however things still feel busier.  Hm...

My little guy, Eddie has oral apraxia and needs to receive speech therapy twice a week at two different places.  During the Summer, I dragged all five kids with me to his sessions and either went to the park, ran some errands or hung around and kept busy.  Now that school has started I'm left with just Bernadette to hang out with. 

This particular day, after dropping Eddie off, I decided to walk to our neighborhood convenience store. 

I think it's more than a convenience store, it's a Market.  Anyway, it's a bunch of houses and BOOM, there's a Marketplace!  It's located right across from the school so it does pretty well with regular customers!  I decided to walk over there and grab some ice cream and share it with Bernadette. 

I love Good Humor Chocolate Eclair bars, YUMMY!!  She liked it too.  Then I thought we'd take a walk and hangout at the park next to the school.

I let her do the walking and I just followed her.

She eventually got tired from all the walking

I told her it was time to get Eddie.

Yeh!  That sounded good to her.

We went to the park together for a while until it was time to go home and have some lunch.  The morning flew by once again.

Peek-a-boo!

Trains

It has been a year since I've been blogging!  It's been great doing this - it's fun for me.  It's also nice to have a place to put my pictures with memories attached to them.  Otherwise, I think the pictures would remain on my hard drive.  Anyway, I just placed all my pictures from my blog onto a Shutterfly photo book so I have a hard copy.  Yeh!

I also thought I would change up the look of my blog since it is a new year.  It's nothing spectacular, but I had to put another Autumn theme to it since it is my favorite season of the year.  Today happens to be the first official day of Autumn, however if you look outside it doesn't look it yet.  So when those gorgeous colors emerge, the smell of the air changes and the sweater weather actually arrives, I'll get all excited, do a happy dance and perhaps shoot some photos!

In the meantime, I'll share with you my boys' passion for trains!

Don't you see it?  It's all over their faces!  Love it!  I never thought Thomas the Train could do it, but he started their fascination with trains, however I'm sure the passion would have come somehow with or without Thomas.  It seems all little boys are born with it.  Right now we are in the Disney's Chuggington phase.  We've got all sorts of train tracks (plastic and wood), die cast trains, wooden trains, train books, etc... So, when we heard there was a train display nearby, we came running!  Look at the excitement in their eyes!  What little boy doesn't like trains?

As soon as we got home, the kids wanted the Lionel Train set their Lolo and Lola got for them set up.

I wonder how long they would have stayed if I left them there? 

I love the steam coming out of the trains!

They had a great set up!  A large set up.  I thought the little towns the trains went through were pretty impressive as well.  Now, if you go into my basement, you'll see the kids' version of this huge set up.  It's not pretty.  I don't go down there anymore.

It was eventually time to go.  My kids were in a silly mood afterwards.  They started to make funny faces.

Whoot, Whoot....

Annual Testing

It was that time of year again.  These pictures were taken in August, but I am now just getting to them.  Coach tests his players before they officially start practicing for the upcoming football season.  He thought it would be good to test our family too and see where we stand annually.  I think we have a few years recorded so far and it was neat to see how the kids are growing athletically.

Look at his form!

They did some hanging.

He makes it look easy.

Some sit-ups.

Some jumping.

Some stretching.

And some heavy lifting...not.

Some of us just tried to stay cute and cool under the sun.

I did a lot better this year in most of the tests, but some I did worse.  I wasn't smiling during most of my tests, but all my kids seem to have smiles on their faces.  

Finicky Eaters

I love to eat.  I like to try new things.  I like to cook.  Food excites me.  So when it comes to feeding my children, you would think it would be something exciting or fun to do.  WRONG.

It all starts pretty well when they are babies.  They eat their baby food rather well and then they seem to transition into table foods rather well since it's so much tastier than that bland mushy stuff.  They'll put almost anything in their mouths and then once they get used to that it goes downhill from there. 

To be able to feed all my five kids is such a chore and a stress in my life.  I am disappointed that most of my kids are rather finicky.  Can they be my kids?  I love to eat, why don't they?  I've always dreamed of cooking these beautiful meals for my kids and seeing their eyes widen in anticipation as they see a home cooked meal served before them.  My heart breaks every time they decide they don't want to have any or rather eat chicken nuggets instead.

A was probably the worst out of them all.  She ate french fries and graham crackers for most of her early years, but like many said, their taste buds change with age and they will eat more things as they get older.  Yes, it's true!  Now she will eat salads, burgers, meats and pastas.  Yeh!  This trend is also holding true with A's siblings as well, HOWEVER each child has their own picky palette and in the 8 years of cooking food for my kids, I've fallen into a horrible habit of cooking to one's preferences.  "Ok kids, what will you guys eat tonight?  What do you want?"  I end up walking to the kitchen and making 3 to 5 different things.  Oh...it's not that I'm making 5 different elaborate home cooked meals, but I will go out of my way and make something they will eat.  I'm ashamed to admit it.

I've heard it before - they won't starve, make one meal and if they don't eat, they don't eat.  They will eventually eat.  Why can't I do that?  I have gotten so fed up sometimes that I just get all worked up and yell as if I'm laying down the law, "This is what's for dinner, take it or don't, I don't care!"  But I walk away and I stare at them frowning at the meal in front of them and desperately want them to eat so they grow big and strong.  That gets me and the bad habits of making something else for them creep back.

I have small kids!  They are all hanging on the bottom of the growth chart.  Coach is 5'6 and I'm 5'5 - we make small kids, I get that.  But when I see other kids eat so well it drives me crazy. 

Not only do I want to transition to just one big meal a night for my kids I would also like to add the element of a balanced meal to the mix.  Oh boy, that's even more challenging.  I have five kids who like a variety of foods, but not all the same.  I have to face the fact that no one is going to like everything on the table.  Can I resist the temptation of making a little something for the kid that doesn't like what's on the menu? 

I also have other small obstacles too.  During football season, we don't always eat with Daddy because of his odd hours.  I end up cooking two meals sometimes - one catered to kids and then one for the adults.  I get discouraged making a bunch of food no one will eat.  There are a handful of dinners that I make that the whole family will eat, but that gets old. 

I will try to keep focused on my goal of one dinner a night for everyone, making it balanced/healthy and broader for all eaters and trying new things to expand their finicky palettes.  This is my desire.  Wish me luck!

First Day of Kindergarten

After years of watching his older siblings go to school, P gets to put on his uniform and join them in the morning ritual of getting ready for school! 

He wasn't nervous or scared. 

He looked older in his uniform, they are just clothes!

Wow, I've got three in school!

What's nice is that they really love each other.  They get so excited when they see each other at school.  They always like hanging out with each other at home.  I hope they stay like that.

A's teacher is the same third grade teacher Coach had as an 8 year old, so we reunited them this morning.  I think it's pretty neat!

While shuttling my kids around today, I had a window of time where I had P all to myself.  That's rare for me to be out and about with just one child!  Wow, it's really wonderful.  I was able to give him my full attention and just enjoy all of him.  We had a great lunch together before we picked everyone else up.  Thank you God for that time.

So far, this year is starting out well!







Back to School

I love seeing every one's photos of their kids' first day back to school.  I'm not sure how other schools do it, but my two oldest returned to school today and then my Kindergartner will go to his first day of school two days later.  So, I will post again when P has his day!

I think I'm just as excited about the school year as my kids are.  Some parents are sad to see their kids leave after a fun filled Summer, but I look forward to all the exciting things school has to offer.  I love hearing their stories, the challenges, the growing pains - yah, all that stuff!  All the fun stuff they get to do too, projects, field trips, parties, etc...

For myself, I get to focus on my two little ones still at home.  It's a nice change of pace to run errands with 2 kids instead of 5.  The chaos that school brings forces structure to my unorganized lazy tendencies during the day.

A will be in third grade this year.

T will be starting first grade.

The amount of school supplies that I had to buy this year was insane!  To have to buy for three children was confusing enough - wait until I have 5 to buy for.  I went to my favorite place in the whole world, Target.  Although they had most of what I needed, I still had to go hunting for the specific color and style of folder.  I realized early on that some of the supplies I am buying is for the class and not necessarily for just my kid.  My den was a room full of supplies all over the floor for a few weeks then we organized them all into huge paper bags that my kids would then haul into school by themselves (ok, I helped a little).  Little people with big bags, I should have taken a picture of that!

The buzz in the auditorium this morning with all the parents, kids and teachers was exciting.  I almost felt like it was my first day of school seeing all the other parents, some familiar some not.  I kind of stood there by myself smiling at everyone, but focusing on my kids and watching them interact with their peers.  I finally said bye after morning prayers and went home. 

Have a great day, kiddos!