Friday Morning Cute Boys Edition....

The oldest son got his braces off.  He's a handsome thing.

 Mark and the Tiger Cubs made a trip to Tanneyhill.

Out of all the group pictures of the boys, this was the best Mark could get.  I think that will tell you a little about the day-fun chaos with a little boy muddiness thrown in.  So thankful for James' Tiger Cub leader.  He must have a heart of gold and a mind of steel.

 James fought evil in our backyard yesterday.  He just doesn't pretend.  When he puts on his costume he becomes what he plays and he is very serious about it.  Very.

 Mark and the big boys went hunting the other day.  My Matt was tired.

 Some of the spoils.

Well, tonight is the night.  The Heritage Girl lock-in.  9 PM to 7 AM.  Sixteen young ladies.  All night long.  I am no spring chicken and you know I love me some early bedtimes.  This will be interesting.  And exhausting.  And fun.  :)

This & That....Birthday Edition

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a good one.  Nothing truly out of the ordinary, but a good day together.

Abbie's art class was taking a field trip to the Birmingham Art Museum so we all tagged along.  James was not excited about it and let me know in no uncertain terms that "this was the worst day of his life since he had been born."  Once we were there though he was good.  He actually didn't want to leave.  Local friends-I have not been to the museum in a long time, and they now have an interactive play/creative area for children. 

 My bigger sons scattered as they had an assignment for school so James and I spent time together looking at art.  I loved having babies in the house, but it is so much fun to see my babies growing into little people and see what their interests are. 

He started giving me a commentary about the different pieces and wow, a seven year old's perspective is interesting.  When we got to the Samurai swords and armour he was in awe and just stared.  He finally turned around said, "Mom, I would tell you about this, but it is just too sophisticated."  And he walked off.  I laughed and laughed and I bet the other patrons were wondering what was so funny about headmasks and swords.

Abbie wrote me a poem for my birthday, and although well-written, I do have a big question regarding it all.  I'll let you be the judge.

Angry Birds are red

Tardis is blue,

I cannot tell you how much I love you.

The butterflies fly in the big blue sky

They say to each other,

"My, is she pretty!"

The stars in the sky twinkle like your eyes

You are the best mom ever 

From now until never. (I think she meant forever, I hope so anyway)

I love you so much 

I want you to know.

You are perfect in every way

No matter what others say!

So, my thoughts for my birthday were, "Just what are others saying??????"

That girl, she has my heart.....

Two Handsome Boys....

 Two of my handsome boys ready for the first day of VBS on Monday.  I have a third handsome boy who declined to wear the shirt or get his picture made.  Imagine that. 

James is loving VBS and my three big kiddos are enjoying helping with the little ones.  Although Mr. Contrary won't admit he is having a good time.  Abbie is eating up being a helper to the little girls and she is so cute to watch.  Could I just go to VBS to watch my big kids be sweet to the little ones?  It does a momma's heart good. 

I go to VBS and then come home and pass out on the couch.  Seriously, what makes it so exhausting?  I have 7 first grade girls though and two of them don't even make a peep.  They are so easy.  First grade girls-they will be the ones I request next year, for sure.

The Tangled Web That Led To One Lone Spoon....

To say that the child has an imagination would be an understatement.  This child can scare his own self so bad at night by thinking of the bad dreams he might have he begins to cry and runs to me to me for consolation.  He wakes up almost every morning with a new character in his head and his whole morning, or until he thinks of something else, will be devoted to living out that character or scenario.

So you can imagine the tension I encounter almost daily between trying to explain to your six year old what is a lie and what is a fun story you made up for entertainment purposes.  And how the older you get it is very important to be sure to differentiate between your entertainment stories and your flat out lies.  We need a code word for the entertainment side-Maybe, "Mom, I'm making this up, but it sure is funny and cute."

So, one spoon was found in the yard.  Along with a bowl so as Ma from Little House would say, "There is no great loss without some small gain." 

 I lost about 15 spoons, but found a bowl.

Apparently when I declared that all my spoons were missing this prompted James' little mind to go into overdrive and things go all "confused in his head" (his exact words) about things his Aunt Mollie had told him, his actual taking of the spoons outside (I believe now it was the one lone spoon that was found), and something he buried a long time ago in memory of our former dog Sadie, who now lives with the said Aunt Mollie. 

And I am up to four spoons in the house.  We found two in the boy's room and Tyler found the one outside.  We are moving on up in the world now.  Only two more and we will all be able to eat our cereal at the same time. :)

So now I can add crime scene investigator, lawyer, judge, and lie detector to my mom resume.  And spoon purchaser.

 Walmart loves families like mine.

Actual Event That Is Taking Place At My House Right Now....

A little earlier I was loading up the dishwasher and noticed that I could only find one spoon-clean or dirty.  I yelled at the children to do a spoon hunt in their room as well as any other dishes they could find and bring them to the kitchen.

James looks up innocently from his breakfast and casually says, "I know where they are."

"Where?", I innocently replied.

"In the backyard.  I buried them out there."

After a round of questioning in which I received no answers that made any sense, I sent him out in the yard to dig up my spoons and bring the inside. 

I continued to load up the dishwasher.  I got everything in except the missing spoons and still no sight of James or said spoons.  I go to the back door and he is wondering aimlessly around the yard. 

Upon my questioning on why he was not digging up spoons he replied,

"I can't remember where I buried them."

So I have the children combing the yard for buried spoons. 

You just never know what the day will hold around here. 

I will update as the Saga of the Spoons unravels.

Coolness...

Monday night James was gifted this awesome tractor.  He rode it all yesterday morning until he wore the battery down.  The first thing he said to Mark when he got home was, "Daddy, can you charge my tractor?" 

I think he likes it.


After another lap around the yard he parked by the back porch and called me outside.  He then proceeded to say,

"Mom, if I was any cooler I would be frozen."

And I have to agree he is pretty cool-even with his sandals on the wrong feet :). 

The Toil and Burden of Being Six....

Last night James, Abbie, and I were riding home from a Heritage Girl Meetings.  James and Abbie were chatting in the backseat and I heard James say,

"Abbie, do you remember when I was four?"

She replied that yes she did.

He then said,

 "Yeah.... that was a great life."

I guess all the phonics at age six are taking their toil on him.

Just Sittin....

Just sittin around-on the couch-watching Duck Dynasty-

with a chicken on my shoulder.

Just another normal night at Clark Acres....

A Doozy....

This week has been a doozy with my James.  And its only Thursday.

But he is so much fun.  Tiring, but fun.

This week alone he:

-put butter on the doorknobs so he could practice being a spy and having to get out of tough spaces
-"discovered" a new species of bug-The Hornby
-rescued two ants from the Hornby and tried to convince me to let them live in the house
-after he was reminded he was allergic to ants he went on an ant-killing spree
-was a ninja
-was a spy
-was an alligator wrestler
-caught a bee in a spice jar for his daddy's bee hives (which we don't have yet, but he appreciated the thought)
-saw Bigfoot out of his bedroom window
-opened up an old firecracker he found and tried to convince me to let him set it off to see how loud he could make the boom.  He told me "not to worry" because he would relocate himself to a safe location before he set it off.
-fell from the tire swing and hurt himself
-stepped on a wire that punctured his big toe (we seem to be notorious for that around here)
-tried every nerve of mine in trying NOT to read-he is so there-he just won't do it!
-had to stand in the corner about 15 times for throwing himself in the floor.  He does this thing where he just walks into a room and throws himself in the middle of it.  Very strange.
-had a corn eating contest with Abbie

and numerous more things I can't think of right now.  Ladies, at one time I had a three year old, an 18 month old, and a newborn.  But he might top all three of them all together.

Or maybe I was just younger then.

No respect...

Last night on the way to Scouts and Heritage Girls a particular child made a little remark about my Southern accent (which is the pot calling the kettle black if there ever was one).  Anyway, I told that particular child they could only laugh at me when I was trying to be funny.

Another particular child spoke up from the back and said,

"How are we supposed to know the difference????"

As I was repeating the story to their father he replied,

"If we have to wait until you are trying to be funny that is going to greatly reduce our chances to laugh at you."

See, no respect around here. 

I think I'm going to have to add another dance/song routine to the repoitare just to get back at them.  That will teach them, I'm sure.

Ice Cream on a Freezing Day....

And man, was it good! If you live in Alabama and have little ones (well, even my big kids enjoyed it) you need to take a little trip to the Blue Bell Factory in Slyacauga.  It was a very short tour, but I learned a lot and from now on my family will be a loyal Blue Bell customer.  And and to top it off you get the biggest scoop of ice cream to sit and enjoy in their parlour.  And not a measly free little taste-test. Enough so that you don't want lunch!

James before the tour started. He really wasn't that interested in the history of the company-he wanted ice cream!  But he did surprise me last night be telling me he did like it and I really should have paid more attention.  Well thank you son.

Love these boys and their friends.

James chose Crazy Colors of course and that blue was everywhere!

I would take a scoop from this cute little guy.

Abbie was making some sort of sculpture with her ice cream. 

Pretty Sure He's Comfy....

This week James has discovered Abbie's bean bag chair. I think he found it to be a win in the comfortable category.

An Accident Was Had....

Yesterday was going along peacefully when James burst in crying to beat the band.  I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but his cornea was scratched in three places by a pear tree limb.  I think from the looks of his swollen nose and the other scratches he actually fell from the tree, but for some reason he does not want to tell me.

He has to wear this patch until later today (hopefully they will take it off because he is miserable with it) and then we will see what happens from there.  It was clean straight scratches so they should heal very quickly. 

They wanted to put a contact in to protect the eye, but I knew if they actually got a contact in this child eye then she would get Doctor of the Decade, not just Doctor of the Year. 

James is not known as  the Stellar Patient.  It took them almost an hour to get it bandaged.  He can be such a sweet little boy, but if he enters a doctor's or dentist's office it is all over.  And now here we go with the eye doctor. 

And you know how some children become super-sweet and lovely-dovey when they are sick or hurt?

James is not one of those children.  This is a great lesson in patience, mercy, and grace for me though.  I know he hurts and it breaks my heart for him. 

James and the Pear Tree got into a fight and the Tree definitely won on this one.  Here is James' mug shot.

Love this boy....

James had an exceptionally busy day yesterday.

It was finally warm and dry enough outside so that he was able to spend an extended amount of time outside playing.  Its a good thing he had the time, because he caught a Borneo Tiger first thing, trapped it in a cage, and had to spend his day taking care of it.  He also made some cedar potion thing with cedar branches, water, and my hand soap which he wanted me to rub on my hands. 

He also began to really catch on to the reading three letter words thing yesterday during school time.  So I guess you could say by 10:00 pm last night he was exhausted mentally and physically.

We were late getting the kids to bed because the boys were late getting home from Scouts and by 10:00 he could take no more.  He had a mini-meltdown, we had prayer time, and then he took off for bed.  The big boys stayed up a bit and we were all chit-chatting.  After awhile I guess he realized his brothers weren't in the room with him and he came tumbling out of bed.  He looked at me and said in his sleepy tired voice,

"Momma, aren't we supposed to be in the bed?"

I agreed with him and off we all went. 

Love that boy.

(Deciding between being Thor and Spiderman can be a very hard decision.  Sometimes it is best to just combine the best of both superheros and be a super-super hero.)

A Little Late...

The Difference Between Girls and Boys...

For my birthday Abbie made a newspaper all about me!  It was so cute and the headlines screamed,

Local Mom Has Birthday!

She wrote cute articles about me and then she interviewed the boys so they could share their favorite things about me.  

Abbie's was long and sweet and heartfelt and she said all the things that make Momma's hearts go pitter-patter.  The boy's response was a little different.

I'll just write what they said verbatim.

Tyler-That she is a good cook.

Matt-A good cook.

James-My fav thing about mom is how pretty she is when she cooks. (At least we got a complete sentence out of him)

Well, its good to know you are good for something.

Fall Days Are For Swinging...

Well, He Did It...

James Daniel turned six.

So far I have held up well.  I have kept busy.  I have tried to think of other things.

Other things other than how did it happen?  Didn't he just learn to walk?  And give wet slobbery open mouth kisses all over my face?  And learn how to pull up so he could stand at the back door and watch his siblings run around and play outside?  And get his first tooth? 

Hello?  Did I fall asleep and miss the last five years? 

They happened so fast.

We celebrated James' birthday Sunday with a very sick little James.  He started running a fever Wednesday morning and it all went downhill from there.  Poor little thing, he was so sick. 

He was better Sunday morning for his birthday, but still a little puny. 

Mark did the traditional carrying him through the house although he did it very carefully.  We sang and opened presents and then he laid back down on the couch. Just that wore him out. 

He is much better now and is itching to go outside and play.  He is also an eating machine, so I guess he really is feeling better.

A Little Meltdown....

Last week I dealt with some sickness all week and on top of that we had school, a field trip, an allergist's visit, which was really a consult which said to come back in two weeks and spend $50 more dollars, a spend the night, a Fall Festival that has turned into Fall Festival Week and a myriad of other this and thats which left me Saturday morning in meltdown cry mode when I could not find the shirt that Abbie needed for her dress up and beg for candy at Tanneyhill time.  By the way, I had to pay $9 to get in and we didn't even get out of the car it was so crowded.  That did not help my feelings on top of the meltdown.  Mark says I really just need to let it go... Oh, and church and another fall festival and again, I wonder why I do this to myself and then I go to bed and here it is Monday morning and I am bound and determined to stay home this week and get some things done.

School is our priority.  Has to be done, no excuses.  And it will be.  And this week it is going to be done well, by cracky.

Then laundry and ironing.  Monday is ironing day. No excuses.  Believe me, it will be better for everyone if the ironing gets done all on one day.

Then, the Great Clothes Switchout and making a list of who needs what.  Cause they keep growing.  And growing.  And throwing the temper-tantrum in Abbie's room Saturday morning revealed that I got to get busy in that closet.

And I suppose I will cook some meals here and there.  And pay some bills as payday is this week.  Oh, and groceries.  And I have this grand scheme in my head to do some garden research to see how we can better implement year-round gardening.  And I want to make these cute little pumpkin letter cards for James and oh my goodness, it is almost November and I remember making the cutest little feather headdresses and Pilgrim hats for the big kids when they were James' age...

Or I could just go back to Pinterest and look at all the people who have already done all this things.

Hmmm.....

Thank you Aunt Sister Jill for the poodle skirt.  She was adorable.

A mighty Ninga was he.

Friends before we left for the non-happening Fall Festival at Tanneyhill.  We did go for frozen yogurt to try to make it up to them and then Kelli and I left the kids with Mark and went out for an early Mexican supper.  It was hard work deciding not to do the festival and deal with the fall-out, you know?????  Thank you Mark!

But then I see pictures like this and I am able to get up after a good night's sleep and after Mark reassures me for the 5, 925 time that I am not the worst mother in the world, and I get back at it again.  Because those little smiles-they do my heart good.

Two Boys and Their Goat....

Matt and James are trying to teach Beatrice to walk on a lead.  Beatrice is greatly offended by it all.