Trip to the library

We went to the library this morning right before lunch to get some books for the kids to read (M&M goes through them very fast when she is off track). After we came home and ate some lunch, I found the 3 older kids like this:

No thank you

This is how my conversations with Kitty go lately:

Me: "Kitty let's get you dressed."
Kitty: "No thank you."

Me: "Kitty can I change your diaper?"
Kitty: "No thank you."

Me: "Kitty let's go eat dinner."
Kitty: "No thank you."

Me: "Kitty let's get your pajamas on."
Kitty: "No thank you."

Me: "Kitty it's time for bed."
Kitty: "No thank you."


So I was thinking the other day that while she may be difficult and uncooperative at times, I should be grateful that at least she's polite about it...

Easter!

I love Easter time and being able to make my girls easter dresses. The dresses this year will serve two purposes - they were their easter dresses on Sunday and then they will wear them again to their Uncle D's wedding in June, with all their girl cousins in matching dresses. D & K's wedding colors are lavender and light green. My mom was able to buy a whole bolt of a lavender fabric that I used for my girls and my sister and sister-in-law will also use for their girls. Blondie is really excited about matching her cousins and keeps asking when Uncle D's wedding is. I think the dresses turned out really cute and the girls all loved it wearing them. I bought Luke a new white shirt to wear on Easter and he absolutely LOVED looking like his dad with a white shirt and tie. It was really cute.

Unfortunately Kitty didn't want to cooperate for a picture before OR after church, so this is as good as it gets...



Check out Kitty's face when I was trying to get her to stand with her siblings for a picture before church. She and Luke can pull some great lower lips when they aren't happy about something...

Our decorating eggsperience

On Saturday we decorated our Easter eggs. I was laying everything out on the table and the kids were all excited for it. I thought it would be fun for the kids to watch the food coloring tablets fizz when you add the vinegar to them, so I put a tablet in each cup around the table and was then preparing to measure out the vinegar when the next thing I knew, Kitty was coughing and gagging on something. I picked her up and was trying to look in her mouth, trying to see what she was gagging on. I asked my husband if he had given her a piece of pickle (he was eating some dill pickles right before this happened and had given some of the kids a piece to try). My first thought was that it was a piece of pickle and she was gagging because she didn't like the sour taste of it. When my husband informed me that he didn't give her a piece of pickle, it finally dawned on me that she had put one of the food coloring tablets in her mouth thinking it was candy.

At this point the inside of her mouth was a bright orange color and she was almost foaming in her mouth (my husband wondered later if it "fizzed" when she put it in). I was able to get the tablet out of her mouth (she hadn't eaten the whole thing) and then my husband grabbed the sprayer at the sink and started spraying inside her mouth to try and wash it out. Needless to say she didn't like that and I think she was wondering what we were doing to her. After we were able to flush a good portion of it out, I took her upstairs and grabbed her toothbrush to try and get some more of it out of her mouth and off her teeth. When I went upstairs my husband grabbed the egg coloring box and read that the tablets are non-toxic (thank goodness!). When I was finished with Kitty upstairs and carried her back down to the kitchen, Kitty informed me that the tablets were "yucky". She kept saying, "Eww, it's gross!" We were then able to finish our decorating with no more problems. Hopefully she has learned her lesson (and I have too).

To all you fellow parents out there with precocious 1 or 2 year olds, beware. The tablets sure do look a lot like candy. They're the perfect size to just pop in your mouth and they come in a variety of pretty colors...

Amazingly, the dye that was all down her shirt came out and there were no stains on her clothes (I was quite surprised especially considering how concentrated those tablets are). Needless to say, we didn't have any orange eggs this year...

Where's Kitty?

The last 2 evenings around dinner time, this is where I have found Kitty:

She's been in the pantry sneaking handfuls of cereal...

Tracy Aviary

One of the perks of being a member of the Hogle Zoo now is that we can also get into the Tracy Aviary free on the first Thursday of each month. Since this week was the first week of April and the weather is still beautiful, we took a trip to the aviary on Thursday after M&M's orthodontist appointment. I think the kids' favorite parts were feeding some geese and trying to find the peacocks that roam the grounds. They are very noisy birds and could be found hiding on roof tops and in the bushes...




The aviary is located in a corner of Liberty Park in downtown Salt Lake City. After we finished up at the aviary, we went to play at the park before we went home. Once again, Kitty had to climb up to the HUGE slide, over and over again. Every time she got down to the bottom she would say, "Whee, that was fun!" Thankfully M&M & Luke were good at looking after her...

I'm including a picture of the whole slide this time. M&M is in the right side of the picture to give you a perspective on how high the slide is...

Tulip Time!

I have some tulips blooming now:

Trip to the Zoo

The kids are off track now and the weather is beautiful once again so I decided to take them all to Hogle Zoo today. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. We ended up wearing our jackets almost the whole time we were there.
Some of the kids' favorite parts of the zoo today were the train ride, the elephants, the peacocks and the huge snake slide at the playground (which totally defeats the purpose of actually going to the zoo instead of the park down the street). Thankfully my parents gave us a one year membership to the zoo for a Christmas present this year so we can go as many times as we like for free, plus we get discounts on anything we buy throughout the zoo.
The kids are at ages now where it is actually somewhat pleasant going to the zoo and not a huge amount of work on my part. M&M is getting old enough to help out with the others and Kitty is old enough to walk on her own or ride in the stroller (she and Blondie took turns walking and riding).


Every time we stopped, Kitty had to climb out of the stroller so she could climb whatever railing there was around.






Here are some pictures of the kids on the train ride (Kitty was very excited) and going down the snake slide (I'll have to take a picture next time of how big the slide is).

General Conference

The Pros and Cons of being able to watch General Conference at home:

Pro - Can multi-task while listening to conference (On Saturday I was able to get some sewing done on my girls' easter dresses and DH was able to change the struts on his car while listening to conference on the radio)
Con - Can multi-task while listening to conference...

Pro - Don't have to get the kids dressed up on Sunday.
Con - Sunday feels like any other day when we're not dressed up.

Pro - Don't have to sit through conference at the church with the kids, trying to get them to be quiet and behave.
Con - Can't hear what is being said because the kids are being too noisy (why is it they always have to play in the room where the T.V. is?)

Pro - Don't have to sit on uncomfortable benches or chairs.
Con - The couch can be a little too comfortable (see picture).

Pro - The kids (and dad in this case) can take a nap during the afternoon session (Luke it turns out was sick and dad worked a little too hard on the car the day before).


Anyone have any more pros or cons to add?

A Day Off?!?

This is for all you fellow moms out there: