today is tuesday. two day

every tuesday, i hang out with these two.

while this handsome dude is at school.

somehow it's strangely easy to have only two children.
why does one more feel like so many more?

i'm sure moms of 4 or 5 would beg to differ that 3 is breezy. i should keep that in mind more often when 3 feels chaotic.

tuesdays are silly. we do funny things like eating lunch on the couch and having tea parties while sister is sleeping.

we race on skate boards through the house, zoom our favorite cars under the table, write notes on our thankful tree...we don't clean up anything. nothing. nada. it's awesome.

ok, so tuesday's aren't that much different than the other days.

this little boy loves tuesdays.

he's the biggest brother on tuesdays. he looks taller. he says grown up things.

he's charming and quiet and loud.

tuesdays are special days.

footloose and fancy free heels

it's been a long and wonderful few weeks.
blogging has been out the window.
crazy warm winter breezes have been in.
family and turkey and exhausted kids
the best kind of week.

last week ended with a black friday wedding and a much needed night out with my guy.
we danced the night away with great friends and showed our 30-somethingness when we all tore it up to Footloose...the 20-something's didn't know what hit them. :)
amazing how fun it is to have a few hours out together.
it feels strange and wonderful all at the same time.

and what's more? all three kids slept over at my parents house...a breakthrough for little lady to spend the night somewhere else. she's feeling more and more confident being apart from us and allowing someone else to feed and hold and love her. i'm so proud of her progress in this area. especially when i saw the look on her face when i came to pick the kids up on saturday morning. she literally squealed with delight and ran into my arms. a night out is great. wonderful in fact. but i can't help it. i still miss them.

  

one thing's for sure: we're classy

yes, we know our way around fine wines and proper tea etiquette.

we're gold members of the classy club.

we've never peppered the backyard with paintballs

(for the record, clint called me a hillbilly at least 7 times. i admit, i look ridiculous holding a baby and firing paintballs. but have you ever shot a paintball gun? they are awesome!!!)

FINALLY! she likes hats!!!

we'd never dream of letting our daughter ooze into a human mud puddle

  

or run with wild abandon whilst flinging slime balls at each other.

our house is in a constant state of put together
in fact, we're so classy that i'm sure our neighbors gander at what prim and proper citizens we are.
yes, that's us. prim and proper.

would you care for a spot of tea?

it's been freshly "sampled"

some version of the plague

i've had days when i just want to stay in bed.
to have a clone to do the meals and rif-raf and crafts and activity coordinating.
the cleanup and the nap time and the whining and the toy overload
to leisurely spend time, gazing at pinterest, watching an assortment of mindless movies on netflix or catching up on the House episodes i forgot about.

but when it actually happens, it's never quite as exquisite as i imagined.

that's because it only occurs when i've been swept away by some version of the plague.
take the past week for instance.

what started as a nasty cold, took all my might to make it through the week. i spent most days in a fever crazed state and found it necessary to let the kids watch way too many movies. we ate strange meals and at one point, while emery was napping, i was in so much pain, i told the boys to go into the kitchen and eat whatever they could find. by the time friday rolled around, clint came home early and i drug my nearly comatose self upstairs and didn't emerge until some 30 hours later.
i have no idea what the family did to entertain themselves. what they ate. what they did. it's a mystery.

clint peeked in to check on me (no doubt wishing he had a medical mask to donn for fear of entering my germ zone) and i whimpered how much i missed the kids and asked how they were doing.
"there fine. they are ok without you, you know!" he said with his usual candor.

my half smile disappeared. "they are ok without me? seriously? they don't ask about me at all? what about em? is she crying alot?"

clint knew where this was going.
"just go back to sleep. everyone is fine. they love you."

so round about dinner time, i mustered my strength to make an appearance. i had to make sure they didn't forget about mom, after all the fun dad was interjecting. 
as i wobbled down the stairs, all bets were off. 
emery went berserk, crying and crazy crawling over mount Everest to get to me.  foster nearly knocked me over to show me the cars he discovered when they cleaned out the back yard, and rowan wanted me to hold him for an eternity.
they hadn't forgotten about me.
in fact, i nearly failed to survived the onslaught of questions and project ideas and pillow fights during my short interlude of insecurity.

when i finally made it back to bed, i knocked back some nighttime cold gels, tucked under my humidifier mist, and rested, knowing they are just as crazy and wonderful as ever. and i'm their mom. even when i disappear into a medical meltdown for a few days.

this mom thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.
it's much more.
oh so much more.

to be loved by little people who forgive quickly.
to trust effortlessly.
who make joy and fun out of the simple things.
and i have done nothing to earn such earnest love and affection.
eesh, this mom thing is incredible.

ode to le pop tarte {science tube boy}

i'm not very well thought-out. i live most of life with ideas floating, things in mid-progress, and winging it.
today was no exception. 
one of my favorite things about my kids? they don't mind makeshift. they don't mind if i don't have it all figured out. often, it adds to the adventure.

today's project was one of our favorites. not pretty, but a favorite for sure. i've seen versions on pinterest, but didn't have an exact plan of how we would actually make it happen.

i put littlest boy down for a much needed nap just as emery was waking from hers.
biggest boy has been itching for a new project for days...nay, weeks.

so i did what every good mom does when one child needs to be entertained so another child can have some undivided attention:
i introduced one of the least nutritionally advanced food items: le pop tarte

don't judge.
girlfriend literally fell in love with this delicacy. and she can afford some calories on those slender thighs...whereas i cannot :)

and have you ever seen anything cuter than this pop tart loving lady??

le pop tarte allowed us to makeshift-craft our water feature:

it might not look like something martha stuart would whip up, but this little diddy was a grand success in little boy science world. foster was like a mad professor, mixing and pouring and creating and infusing new colors and blending the final water product.