Friday, July 24, 2009

Bounce Baby Bounce!

Our new bounce house!
Austin loves it!
Maxim bounced Emerson right down!
Emerson is so happy, he smiles and waves!
David and Alex share the Polish dinner from the Canal Festival.
Maxim and his pepper from Mommy's garden.
Could Griffin be any happier? He's such a big boy!


Bounce Baby Bounce!

As I'm sure you can imagine the bounce house we recently purchased is a huge success amongst my children. Since the weather has been so rainy and miserable it is an even bigger success than the pool. We have been bouncing pretty much everyday, well in between torrential downpours and thunderstorms. At first it was just Austin bouncing his little heart out, than Emerson, slowly Alex and now Maxim. For some reason Max was leery but he quickly overcame his fears when I took him in and let him bounce solo. Now every time I turn a round the four bigger kids(Austin and the triplets) are bouncing. I'm glad we got the commercial one. I looked for ones sold in toy stores and realized we would have popped it by now. I know it will prove to be a wise investment with 5 very active little boys.

Speaking of active boys, Griffin is my little wild man all of a sudden. He is now over 6 months old and is growing like a weed. At well over 18lbs he is almost the size of his big brothers that are 16months older than him! He can definitely hold his own when it comes to wrestling for a toy or grabbing for something he wants. He is eating up a storm. He wants all the orange stuff( carrots, sweet potatoes and peaches) but what he really craves in BREAD! I know it's probably just the teething aspect of bread, but he loves it. He is definitely a little German baby! He has this funny hair that sticks straight up in the center of his head like a rooster. David claims I comb little Mr. Griffin's hair this way but I do not. He's just "spikey" by nature! Anyway, he is an amazing little man. He has even begun to stand up holding onto the couch (with a little help from mommy or daddy of course). He's so strong and strong willed too. He does this growling yell, that I can only assume is him mimicking me. It's adorable. His face gets all red and he belts out this "RARARARH" sound. It's going so fast. It almost makes me want another one...ALMOST!

We have harvested quite a bit from the garden lately. The Zucchini and squash are HUGE! We have been eating them almost everyday. I am on the look out for more and more recipes for both. I am hoping to get enough squash for Griffin to have fresh baby food. Max is the veggie monster. He runs into the garden and grabs peppers off the vine and eats them whole. I can't wait for the tomato's to get ripe. They are taking their sweet time. They are huge though. If we could get just a few days of hot weather I think we would be good to go! You should see my pumpkins! WOW! I am so excited the kids are going to be able to pick their own pumpkins. With all the rain they are getting so big, I would say some are already the size of a large softball. My cucumbers didn't seem to like all the rain though. All except one plant died. We have around 20 cucumbers on that plant but just the one. I have all of a sudden grown a green thumb and I am very excited since I thought I would kill everything!

The boys birthday is right around the corner and all the final preparations have been made. I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and for the boys to turn 2! I can't believe they are almost 2! Where did the time go? I'm hoping the day goes smooth and we have NO drama. I think this year will be a good one.

Friday, July 17, 2009

It's raining, it's pouring...

Austin doing his best "Pooh" impression
Alex IS Batman!
No, Austin IS Batman!
Tigger...hehehehehe!
Dragonmax!
Emerspidey!
We finally added another car to the wagon...now cue the circus music!
mmmmmmmmmmm!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Making cupcakes Emerson style!
Now Maxim!
and Alex!
Griffin preferred the cone we put the cake mix in!

It's raining, it's pouring...

What a crappy summer. The weather has been all over the place. One day the sun is shining and birds are singing and the next it's cold and raining cats and dogs. We start out every morning as if it's going to be the best summer day ever. We stroll down stairs, make and eat breakfast, turn on sesame street (our new favorite), clean the house, naps than lunch. That's when it gets interesting. If it's a beautiful day we eat lunch than head outside to play on the swings, in the water table or swim in the pool. Well, more days than not it has been overcast and rainy. We can usually get at least an hour of outdoor activities in between raindrops but on truly dreary days we where hitting a rut. I didn't want the kids to sit and watch TV all day so I've begun dreaming up new activities for them. We color, bake, cook an elaborate dinner, paint(not suggested for 3 two year olds) or play dress up. Dress up is their favorite. Throughout the past few years I have bought all the Halloween costumes I could find when they get marked down to nothing. I found some for as low as $0.25 and have only paid $10 at the most. I accumulated quite a few one year when I happened on a 90% off sale at Target. I bought all the complete costumes I could find in all sizes and put together a dress up box for Austin and a friends little boy. It was a great idea since I no longer have to purchase costumes for Halloween, we just pick one out of the box. The triplets love to dress up. We have several years of Austins costumes so with a rolling up of the sleeves and pant legs, the boys are all set to go. It's hard to find something for 4...OK 5 little boys to do on a rainy day. If they where girls we could give manicures and do our hair. But 5 boys is a challenge.

Right now we are in full Birthday party crunch mode. I have been feverishly finishing all the last minute details to the big bash. All of the invitations have finally been mailed, the decorations purchased and the children's activities planned. Now all we have to do is decide on salads and we are done. This year I decided to order chicken and pizzas from our favorite caterer to avoid us standing in front of the grill all day. We are having some friends and family make side dishes and have ordered a beautiful cake from a local bakery. We even purchased a commercial bounce house instead of renting one. We figured we have 5 boys and a ton of yard space so why not? We may even rent it to family and friends. Since my children are now full blown Sesame Street addicts, that is of course the theme. The boys loved picking out all the monsters from Sesame Street for decorations and centerpieces. It's going to be a fun time and who knows, we may even have a visit from our favorite little(or big) red monster. I can't wait, I think I'm more excited than the boys!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Protection!

The starting points. The border and weed guard.
Michael laying the weed guard.
Now for the mulch!
All the boys helping(blurry but it was so cute!)
Austin helping with the mulch.
Kelly, Mike and Emerson spreading mulch.
Almost done.

Protection!

I've said it before and I will say it again...from the moment my children came into my life, be it from a small orphanage in Poland, an insane delivery with 20 people buzzing like a bees in beehive whisking three babies from my womb to places unknown or a sick full term baby ripped from my arms to awaiting doctors, I was was in love. Hooked. Addicted to my children. They instantly became the loves of my life. I made a decision at that point to do whatever it took to keep them safe. To protect like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Have you ever seen a bear protect her cubs? Ripping a would be predator to shreds for looking towards her precious babies. That's how I feel inside sometimes. I can't explain the intensity I feel when it comes to protecting my babies, all 5 of them. It's almost an anxious feeling. Knowing all the evil in the world, I feel this, almost painful need to protect my kids. My heart aches when I hear of someone mistreating a child, any child. But if it where to happen to one of mine...ewww, BEWARE! Even if my children fall and get hurt or scrape a knee, I ache for them. I want to take the pain away. Call me crazy, obsessive or whatever name you want. I call myself A MOTHER!

Like most parents we have baby proofed our home. Removed dangerous furniture, bolted shelves to the walls, safety locks on doors and cabinets, gates and fences. But we still can't protect them from the day to day events which will eventually lead to a scraped knee or stubbed toe.

Done but not cleaned up.

When it comes to our outside world, we have made provisions for are children to be safe. We had a privacy fence installed, locks on gates and protective gates in front of concrete stairs. So it was really a no brainer when we decided to put the recycled mulch(old tires ground up and dyed)down on the children's play area. The triplets are so curious now. Wanting desperately to be like Austin who whips up and down the rock wall and jumps down his slide. The little tykes play slides are tons of fun but it's the "no no" element of the large wooden swing set that makes the little boys curious. Up until now we have not let them play on the wooden set for fear they will fall and break their necks. But Thanks to our friends Michael and Kelly and some good old fashioned hard work and ingenuity the swing set and entire play area is now covered with 4000lbs of recycled tires. This makes for safer play and one happy mama!
Very late that night but all clean!
The next morning!
BEAUTIFUL!

All this doesn't mean I will worry any less about the safety of my children. It really is a built in mechanism in a mothers brain that says "protect at any cost". I will continue to obsessively protect my children from the evils of this world. Just try and stop me!