Saturday, June 23, 2012

I blinked and now she is 7

Am I the only one that feels like this?  My little sweet baby is all the sudden a 7 year old?  How could this possibly happen?  I swear I just had her about 3 months ago.  But at the same time my life has been so profoundly changed in the past 7 years I can't remember what it was like not to have her in it.

Well, I have to document her totally awesome birthday party.  It was so fun.  So those of you that know Rach, knows that she is a sugaraholic.  She loves candy!  So what better way to celebrate than to have a candy party?  We got to play Candyland.  But with every space they landed on they had to do something silly.....like act like a monkey, sing popcorn popping, spin around 10 times, or lick your elbow (Try that one!)  They did such a good job getting into it because some of them were pretty embarrassing. 
 And of course you have to make it to the candy castle....
 Now birthday cakes are my lot in life.  I'm so not creative and I hope my kids won't think they have a deprived childhood because of the lack of my cake-making skills.  But, thanks to Pinterest she got a really cute, candy themed cake. That's right folks.  M & M's. Covereing the entire cake!  It looked super cute (even better in real life) and the sugar high that those kids were on afterward.....they didn't even realize that the cake came from a box. 
 They had to guess how many candies were in the jar and the winner got to keep the jar of skittles.  The guesses ranged from 20 to 400.
 They got to be creative in making their "markers" for the Candyland game.
 Here they are playing the game.  What cute girls!
 They had to go fishing with Sweedish Fish and chopsticks.
 Cute little birthday girl.  Look how much she loves this masterpiece of a cake.

 Oh, and the grand prize winner of the candy guess was the one and only boy.  Josh!  I was kinda hoping we could send that home with someone else but with his guess of 400 and there being 424 skittles, he was the clear winner.  Way to go Josh!
 We ended the party by playing "Drip Drip Drench."  A favorite at our house....
 Here's their take home bags with their Candyland markers, the bag chuck full of candy and a toothbrush so I won't get any strongly worded letters from parents. 
 Birthday gifts are always the best part.  Josh got her some "girly Legos" by request. 

 You can tell what gift she really wanted the most....a gumball machine with about a  million gumballs...
 She had to model her new nightgown from grandma...
 Kate wanted to model her jammies too...
 Such and awesome day and I love that girl more than life itself.  It's been an awesome 7 years.  But as for the rest of the time...... We can't forget Father's Day.  Here's to the best daddy in the whole entire world!
 Every dad needs a giant bad of Gummie Bears...
 And new Joey stories, illustrated by Rach and Josh themselves....
 Kate's been watching "Fun Fun" (her favorite show that she dances along with)
 And the  other day Kate wanted to put on her old glasses from when she was a baby.  They're a little small on her but she sure looks cute in them!  It's funny because she can't see very well in them at all and was getting so dizzy walking around. 
 Wow, this post is long.....My brother in law was cleaning out some old toys and brought us this 4 wheeler for the kids. It's a good thing they leanred how to ride their bikes a few weeks ago otherwise those old bikes wouldn't ever get used with this thing at our house.  Rach and Josh both learned how to ride 2 wheelers pretty much on the same day a few weeks ago. Rachel's goal was to learn before her birthday.  When Josh was doing better than her she hopped on her bike and just started to ride.  She's a total pro on it now.  Josh still needs help stopping and turning, but he could go straight forever.  Let's just say we are so excited and so proud of both of them!
 And look at this gorgeousness. It is a good year for the Maughan garden!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

What would you do?

So, if you had one day with absolutely nothing to do, what would you do?  No kids to take care of, nothing you "have" to do, things that could be done but really don't have to be done right now?  Nowhere you needed to be, no one that depended on you.  Just for one day.  Seriously, what would you do?

Well, I had such a day yesterday.  My kids all slept at their cousins house and I didn't have to pick them up until 7:00pm.  Trav was at work, I had the whole house to myself for an entire day.  So many things ran through my mind with what I "should" do, but I wanted a day to do what I wanted to do.  No schedule, not strings, no commitments.  This is exactly how it went:

8:30am-- wake up, read scripures and read a little in my book
Go running
Eat breakfast
Get completely ready for the day with no interruptions
Talk on the phone
Took myself out to lunch
Went to Toys R Us for a couple birthday gifts and was in and out in 15 minutes
Made some brownies and licked the beaters myself
Turned on the t.v.  Daytime t.v. stinks.  After about 5 minutes turn it off and decide to go read my book some more out on the deck.
Relax and enjoy the peace and quiet
Pick Trav up from work and go out to dinner at Archibald's
Walk around Gardner Village for a little while
Go pick up the kids and pry them away from their cousins kicking and screaming

The best part of the day was actually sitting through 3 meals without having to get up once.  No spills, no refills, no nothing.  Just me eating my meal.   I don't know how many times I've said to myself "I would just like one day where I don't have to do everything for everyone!"  Well, I didn't.  I didn't even do one dish yesterday. I just stacked them up in the sink.  But the dishes were waiting for me today, and the kids needed me to refill their milk and help getting dressed and going potty and reading to them and playing with them and being the referee because someone hit someone and someone else put their toes too close to the other one. But "I want to sit by mommy!", "I don't want to sit by Josh!", "I need everything RIGHT NOW!"

But to tell you the truth, my day was lonely.  The house was quiet, the store was boring and I don't mind sharing brownie beaters (as long as I get some too).  I will take the chaos any day over days being lonely. It's good to have the kids home.......... But it is nice to have one day once in a while. 


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

And the rest....

So I was slower at writing about the rest of the week than I thought I would be.  But it was a good rest of the week.  First news....Josh graduated from pre-school!  Holy cow.  Watch out Kindergarten!  This boy is ready for you. 

 His program was awesome and two proud grandma's were there to see it.
 Plus a very proud momma and a very silly little sister.
 After graduation we came home and had a birthday party for Mr. 5.  Despite 95% of the guests at his party being female, he had a totally awesome Star Wars party.  Everybody had to train how to become "True Jedi's"   They had to pass an obstacle course, use the force, eat at the Jedi Cafe, and even practice using their light sabers.  It was awesome.
 Here's all the Jedi's after all was said and done.
 Then for Memorial Day we started the day off by fishing with Grandpa Maughan.  I love this 3 generation shot.
 Rachel caught the most with 3 fish, grandpa and Josh both caught some too, but daddy came home empty handed. 
 This was Josh's first time using his new fishing pole.  He even bought the tackle box with his own money.  I hope this will be the start of many fishing trips with daddy and grandpa (not that I want to actually eat the things)
 Then later that day (I know we need to spread out our fun a little bit) we got to go shoot some guns with all the Maughans.  Shotguns, pistols and a semi automatic big gun that I don't have any idea what it is.  But it was fun to shoot.


 Hey Kate!  Kate!  She never listens....
 Rach got to have a turn...
 Josh could have those ear plugs off and he still wouldn't listen!
 But he did get a chance to shoot too.  He would just pull the trigger as fast as his little finger could move.  It's a good thing daddy was aiming for him.
 And now.....Summer is officially here!!!  The creek is ready to be waded in so if you are having a hot flash of a summer day give me a call.  Yes you can come over.
 There will be lots of lounging around...
 And books to read....
 And last but not least.....Rach volunteered to put Kate to bed last week.  This is a shot of story time which I absolutely love!  What cute kids I have.