Quick shopping trip

This morning Lydia and I dropped Laila and Landon off at school and headed to Olympia. I wanted to check out the new TJ Maxx that opened in Olympia. I had never been to one but have heard a lot of great things. The store didn't open until 9:30 so Lydia and I went over to Target basically across the street to waste some time. I could waste hours in Target but we only needed a half hour today. I needed to pick up 3 more 8x10's for the kids' school pictures this year. I also have been wanting to find some cute shoe size boxes to put all of our dvds in. I am tired of all the plastic cases that take up too much room and never have the right dvds in them anyway. I am going to buy some paper dvd sleeves and put them all in alphabetical order. I am not super excited about the ones I bought today but they were a good price and do the trick.

They are clear with black floral print. Hard to see with bad pictures taken from my phone.


After Target we went to TJ maxx. I found some cute clothes for the kids but nothing they needed. I didn't realize it was such a small store. There weren't as many options as I was envisioning. It reminded me of Ross actually. I ended up only buying Lydia a cute shirt with ballerinas on it that she "had to have." We had about an hour left at this point until we needed to head back to get Landon from school. We went over to petco and got Laila a new glo fish and some fish food. The kids got a really awesome fish tank last christmas and each got their own fish. Laila's died not too long after we first brought them home. She was upset when hers died but not enough so that we never replaced it. I think she will be excited when she comes home from school this afternoon. Petco didn't take very long so we went to Barnes and noble right next door. I love to stop there and look at all of their childrens books. I especially like to go there during different seasons and holidays. Today I wanted to try and find a fun new halloween book. There were so many to choose from but Lydia and I decided on The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything

I think this will be a fun one. I am excited to read it to the kids before bed tonight. Last year my mom bought them Room on the broom.

This is actually one of my favorite books to read to them. I highly recommend this one for all ages.


We were about to check out and this caught my eye

We have a few fall decorations but nothing for Halloween. I am not into goblin, vampire, mummy, etc. decor so I loved how simple and cute this is. I think it works well in a home with young children. :)

Since we were at Barnes and Noble Lydia and I just had to get something from Starbucks for the drive back. Lydia had cocoa which she dumped all over herself on the way home. Yay for wearing brown pants! I had my very first ever pumpkin spice latte. I needed to taste for myself what all the hype is about. I thought it was pretty good but nothing that my hubby has to worry about us going broke for.

8 and 6

Monday afternoon Laila and Landon had their yearly checkups. They are both up to date on their immunizations so it was nice knowing all they needed were their yearly flu shots. It is nice being able to do both of their checkups together each year. I think it relieves some nerves when they are not doing the tests alone. However, I know soon it won't be appropriate for them to be in the same room.

Laila is 4 ft 2 inches tall and weighs 57lbs. That puts her in the 50th percentile for height and weight. I was a little surprised by this. I have always thought she was on the taller side and people have been commenting lately that she looks much older than she is which I hate of course. Landon is 3 ft 9 or 10 I can't remember  now. He weighs 53 lbs. This puts him in the 49th percentile for height and 75th for weight. Last year they commented on how he was a little heavy for his height even though he didn't look it. This year they didn't say a thing. He is just a well built little boy.

They both passed their hearing and vision tests beautifully. Landon messed around a little with his hearing test. At first he just kept going back and forth between raising his hands instead of really listening. Luckily our nurse is very sweet and patient. When the nurse got done doing her part she said "ok have them take their clothes off down to their underwear"...Landon said, "but I'm not wearing underwear." That's my boy! Apparently he decided not to put on any underwear that morning. This is not the first time this has happened. I guess I need to be checking from now on. When the doctor came in they answered all his questions about how they are liking school and if they take their vitamins. Landon even complemented Dr. Karpel on his tie. Dr. Karpel is pretty serious and I have never seen him laugh but he got quite the kick out of that. He said he isn't used to getting complements from his patients on his clothes. :)

This year I chose to do the flu mist for Laila and Landon. They are old enough to follow directions and sniff when told to. They were so relieved. As my kids have become older they have become worse at receiving shots so it was a relief for me as well. Poor Lydia got her flu shot though. We weren't sure she could sniff the mist up correctly. I didn't want to waste the mist and then have to pay for that and a shot. She ended up getting poked twice. I underestimated how strong she is and she flinched at the last second on the first arm and the needle grazed her arm. Laila woke up this morning with a sore throat and a headache. It is possible that it is side effects of the mist. They told me before hand that they see more side effects with the mist than with the shot. However, nothing serious.

Applesauce

This morning after dropping Laila and Landon off at school, Lydia and I walked a few blocks down to Jays farm stand. I decided I wanted to make applesauce in the crock pot to fill my house with that delicious apple cinnamon smell. I love being able to walk down and get apples for 69 cents a pound and not have to worry about picking apples without any blemishes.

Lydia is the perfect age to go on walks/adventures with. Unfortunately, she has always been miss independent and won't hold my hand at all.

She insisted on bringing a backpack with snacks and her baby. Half way through the walk she took her coat off to wrap around her baby. It was a cold morning too!

    I don't have anything fancy to cut and core my apples so I spent awhile preparing them for the crock pot.

                                            My house may not be clean but it will smell heavenly.

new way to do cocoa

I found these the other day at the store.  They are just like the little marshmallows that come in the little packets. However, now I can put in as many marshmallows as I want!

Ta da!!

back pack emergency kits

This year my mom decided my kids needed to have their own emergency kits at shool with them. They are now prepared for anything. Lydia even has one but since she has no backpack we just keep it in the car with us. I took some pictures to show what they look like.

My mom got each of them a lunch bag from Lands End to keep everything in. It is the perfect size. Lydia and Laila have pink and Landon has a blue one.

Inside there are emergency blankets and a dust mask.

A first aid kit with bandaids and antibacterial cream.

some food and water. We will see how long this lasts in their kits before they have an emergency at school..like being really really hungry:)

not pictured is hand sanitizer and a whistle.

UGH

My kids are trying to kill me!!! Ok, not literally murder me but they are sure seeing if I can have a stroke before I reach 30. I am being a tad dramatic but the anxiety and feelings of frustration are fresh. This week hasn't been the best but definitely one for the books, hence the reason I am blogging. I think my blood started boiling once school started actually. I think every start of a new school year takes a little while to readjust but that better happen quick because I am not sure how many more meltdowns I can handle from each of my 3 beautiful children. Most of the recent happenings around the house have been no big deal just a lot of little issues adding up. Everyone is just a little cranky! However, 3 things happened to make this week memorable.

On tuesday I had my first mops meeting of the year. I was excited to see my friends and be able to go with all 3 of my children safely in school, surely unable to interrupt my mommy time. I always put my phone on silent so that I don't interrupt anyone speaking that day or coming up for a prayer. From now on I may be putting my phone on the table so I can check it a few times. Anyway, around 10:20 Pam, one of the ladies who works on the church came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder and said, "hi Liz, your husband needs you to call him right now...it's uhhh..kind of an emergency." My heart starts pounding and suddenly can't hear anything else. I am in my own world now. I quickly grab my phone and head outside. Luckily, Brad answers right away. He says, "I need you to go get Landon and take him to the ER....or umm the doctor...not sure which one...." Of course I need more info so I ask why and he says. "Landon ate a mushroom outside, it might be poisonous and they are on the phone with poison control right now." I pretty much say ok bye and run/walk back to my table and grab my purse. I THINK I said " Landon ate a mushroom can you pray for him?" I don't think I am alone on this as a parent but when you hear there is potential for your child to be in danger and don't know all of the information your mind goes to everything bad first. I am not sure how I made it to mt.view safely. I was speeding, talking to the pediatrician and crying all at the same time. I wanted to know what their opinion was before I even saw Landon. My pediatrician said he I'm sure it is not a lethal mushroom but I want you to bring the mushroom into us and we will go from there. Looking back now I am sure I walked into mt. view looking a bit crazed but I went to the office and saw my lil boy sitting there downing water. The nurse said poison control was pretty sure it wasn't a lethal one based on the description but that it could make him pretty sick. They really didn't seem that worried whatsoever. I started feeling like an idiot for crying but decided I wanted to see what the pediatrician had to say still. We were quick in and out of the doctors office. The pediatrician didn't know what kind the mushroom was either but said he could tell me it wasn't lethal. They just told me to be on my way and watch for vomiting and lethargy. On the drive home Landon fell asleep in the car, which never happens early in the day like that. Luckily, I think he was worn out from all the concern surrounding him. Landon never got sick. We have decided that he must not have eaten as much as originally thought.

Yesterday Landon came home with an oops card. An oops card is sent home when a child does something after being warned. It stated that Landon was tackling his friends. :) I just had to sign it and send it back to school. Obviously Landon's first offense wasn't a huge one. Brad and I had to sit him down and explain to him that it is unacceptable to get in trouble at school. I tried all day to think of a unique consequence but came up blank. Hopefully this will be the last of the oops cards.

We walk everyday to pick Laila up from school. We live to ridiculously close to not but it is also inconvenient with a 3 year old who thinks she's the boss. I am always highly stressed because at any given moment she will drop to her knees because she doesn't want to hold my hand. Most often, right in the cross walk. Why does everything happen in the cross walk??? Today Lydia brought along two strawberry shortcake dolls and two little pet shop cats. The walk there was pretty uneventful until the dreaded crosswalk on the way back. Today Lydia decided to sit down on the sidewalk the second I stepped out into the cross walk with Laila and Landon while 5 cars waited for us. I had to literally grab her arm and carry her across. Half way through she drops a little pet shop cat. Oh no, that was just one pet shop cat that mom just picked up. Now she realized she left the other one on the sidewalk. She tries to run back for it, while Laila starts wailing because it is HER toy. In my deranged Ogre voice I say " we are not getting it...leave it!!" We finally make it across the street with now 10 cars waiting for us when Laila says "oh no the dolls dress!" Before I can even open my mouth she has ran back into the cross walk to get it. It was one of those embarrassing moments when you feel like everyone has just witnessed one of your worst mommy moments. I felt like I might as well have been walking around naked. Anyway, I hate crosswalks!!

After all the anxiety felt on any given day with 3 kids, it is nothing compared to the love and pride I feel for them. That must be why when I browse the kids section on pinterest and see all the cute baby things I day dream about what it would be like to have another. 

"Falling" behind

I have such a hard time keeping up with my blog lately. I used to think that my kids were demanding of time as toddlers but now that my kids are older and in school they are busy busy. I am driving all over and the house has NOT gotten any cleaner yet. :) Therefore, the last thing I want to do when I have time is sit down and try to write coherently and intelligently. That said, I still want to document this life that keeps flying by and who cares if all I can muster up are a few pictures now and then.

I now have a 2nd grader who turned 8 on the 16th and a kindergartner that turned 6 on the 7th.

Lydia also started preschool. It is different this time with her because she is one of the younger ones in the class and much younger than Laila and Landon when they started. Laila and Landon were just turning 4 and Lydia has only been 3 since May. She is doing great which I had no doubts about.

We decided to put Laila in fall soccer this year. Actually we gave her the option to do dance for her 3rd year or soccer. Surprisingly she chose soccer. She is on the U9 soccer team which is all girls. She and her friend Hannah are the only 2nd graders, the rest are in 3rd grade. We have had two games so far one at home and one in Elma. Laila is finally learning the different positions and making a lot of progress since summer soccer.

We were able to get enough sponsors so that no one had to pay out of pocket for the uniforms. We also were able to order a team bag, goalie jersey and gloves. We are hoping to get a little more to get a tent for those yucky rainy days. We then would be able to put the names of the sponsors on the tent rather than on their jerseys.

The girls voted on their color of uniforms and their name. Almost everyone wanted blue. I never would have guessed that when they had pretty much any color available. They also voted on their name being Speedy Cheetahs. Trust me when I say it could have been much worse. Luckily, Brad decided before hand that we wouldn't put their name on their uniforms yet. The idea is that these girls will all play together for years to come. We will see if the Speedy Cheetah name endures:)