Mommy

Sunburn Sadness!

This weekend was the first weekend of summer vacation for the kids. And lucky for us it was a beautiful weekend as well.  We decided to make our first trip to the river, and it was a blast!  We remembered everything, everyone had fun and there were hardly any fights. 

Izzy Taking care of Oppie on the road

Mommy and JackLynn, beach babes!

Getting ready to get in the tube, first time this season!

Are we ready yet?

Alex realized that the tube can be fun if it's to cold to wake board.  He got a little squirmy, and maybe had to much fun ;)

We were having so much fun, that before I knew it we were all sunburned.  Yes I used sunblock, re-applied every 4 hours, however it's wise to check the expiration dates!  Ours was bad, so it was as nearly as horrid as wearing nothing at all.  When we got home Saturday night, I gave everyone baths.

For sunburns I like to fill the tub with warn water and add 1 Cup raw oatmeal, 2 Cups milk, and 1/3 cup honey.  You wouldn't want to wash your hair in this bathtub, but it does help the sunburn.  After I got them out of the bath, I realized that we did not have any aloe, so I used cotton balls soaked in white vinegar and pat it all over the sunburn, try not to rub because that can cause more pain.

I went to the store for essentials today.

I used an ice tray and filled the cubes with aloe, and we have frozen cubes of relief!  These are so easy for the kids to use on themselves when they need some relief through the day!

Finally I make a soak that is applied much like the vinegar, I make this by filling a pitcher of warm water with 2 bags black earl gray tea, and 2 bags of peppermint tea.  The black tea works much like vinegar, and the peppermint works as a natural coolant.  You prepare the tea mixture, and once it's lukewarm you dip your ran into the mix, make sure to use a rag that you don't care about because tea stains.  Pat the liquid over your body and allow to air dry, I like to do this before bed so you can rinse it off in the morning. 

It's always easier to apply sunscreen {not expired} than to treat the sunburn, so be more prepared than I was and double check that.  I know I will be from now on!

Pennie B

June 17th 2012

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What's in a name?

My sweet Jaydyn! Jaydyn is such an amazing spirit, he truly is.  He is kind and sweet, never wanting to let you down.  He is incredibly creative, he prefers abstract art, and he is amazing at it.  We try very hard to raise independent children, to make their own opinions, be who they want to be.  All that wonderful stuff being said, Jaydyn is all of it.  With this child who likes himself so much and knows how amazingly awesome he is, sometimes things take you by surprise.

About 3 years ago, Jaydyn started asking if he could change his name, then he informed me that he wanted to be called Buzz.  Quickly I advised him that although Buzz Lightyear is in unbelievably cook dude, I think that you should be yourself.  He stopped wanting to be called Buzz, but never let go of the fact that he wanted to change his name.  It's a topic that would come up in conversations randomly, so I never gave it any thought, past the knowledge the he may not like his name. 

Recently though, Jaydyn has been quite vocal about wanting to change his name.  So I sat down with him and asked him why?  He told me that he just doesn't like his name, that he never has liked it.  He doesn't feel that his name suits him. 

"So what name does suit you?"

"Silas." {SYE-las}

"Silas? Where did you come up with that?"

"I heard it once in a movie you were watching?" 

Running that through my memory and I realized that it's from Weeds.  I used to tVio weeds so I could watch it when the kids were asleep, he was bound to have gotten up to go to the bathroom or get something to drink at some point.  But that was a long time ago, I'm just now starting to watch again and I left off at the end of season 5!  So I ended the conversation with saying that I would discuss this with daddy and I'm sure we would all sit down at talk about it later. 

I was beyond shocked!  I mean I LOVE his name, and I don't know why he would want to change it.  I checked in with his teacher to see how many other Jaydyn's were in his class, and she said there was another Jaydyn but that was it.I flocked to the Internet with little luck there.  So Chris and I sat down to talk it out.  He is adamantly against it, and in a very macho voice "I'm not calling him anything else!  That's the name I gave him!" Where I on the other hand am pro-choice, and in this case I think it's Jaydyn's choice not mine.  I can relate to hating your name, because to this day I still hate mine.  I would not legally change his name until he is 18 and can make that choice himself, but I see no reason in asking his friends and family to call him Silas if that's what he feels comfortable with.  I'm just so confused, and wish I had some guidance.  Help me mommies!  What should I do???

Pennie B.

May 27th 2012

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It's that time again.......

Yes my lil' Monkey man is officially 6 years old!  Noah was brought into this world surrounded with love.  I'm not kidding, my delivery room was FULL of family and friends watching our "last baby" being delivered.  Our bond was immediate.  Natural and Strong, and I'm proud to say that it still has not faded or wavered.  As he has gotten older, instead of pulling away from me, Noah is pulling me with him. Exploring his independence, but always keeping me near.  Noah loves diversity, and is curious about all things different than what he knows.  He is incredibly loving and sensitive.  Noah has always been creative, he loves to draw and paint.  Recently he started sculpting, which I am BEYOND excited about. 

I always plan the theme of the upcoming birthday's at the beginning of the year.  I crave organization, especially for events, I make lists on top of lists to make sure everything is done correctly.  While I was planning the year of parties, this was a give-in, we HAVE to have a craft party! 

As always our kitchen table served as our buffet.  Noah's party was int he middle of May, and we live in Portland Oregon.  Mother Nature is never consistent during this time of the year, and we were attempting to do an indoor outdoor party, so we opted to decorate the living room and the Deck.

Craft Time!  Each child was set up with an art station all their own.  We decorated T-shirts with glow in the dark fabric paint.  We used glitter and feathers to create our own masks.  We painted bird houses, and designed our own canvas art pieces.  We had about 14 kids all together, and I was pleasantly surprised at how everyone was able to stay on track.

In between crafts, and playing in the yard, we were munching!  I have found that for children finger foods are almost always a safe bet.  It's hard to make everyone sit down and eat when there is that level of activity and energy in the room. We made chocolate cupcakes in regular and mini sized.  Noah made these cupcakes with me, it was the one thing he asked to help with, so of course my 7 layered rainbow cake was pushed to the side {I still envision it, in my mind}.  We did a funky spin on "rice crispy treats" and used Trix cereal instead, and marshmallow fluff they were a HUGE hit!  Noah would eat deviled eggs morning noon and night if he could, so of course they would be served for his party.  I dipped marshmallow's in chocolate, then gram cracker crumbs, and they were devoured faster than I could have ever imagined!  My fruit salad is always a hit, Chris is always requesting it during the summer months, and it is always eaten up.  This time I put my own spin on it for Noah's party.  I prepared the fruit I wanted to use; grapes, strawberries, bananas, kiwi, and oranges.  I filled ice cream cones with the fruit, and topped it with a dollop of whip-cream.  So adorable!  Finally bite sized caramel apples.  We also did hot dogs and french fries, but they weren't really touched.....{can you blame them?!}

I love throwing parties, and this one was much more mild than my normal, but I know that it was just what he wanted.  I always make the kids a part of the process that goes with planning parties.  I want to know that this is what they truly want, and will appreciate years down the road.  It would be, and is, extremely easy for me to take over everything.  I'm working on it. 

Pennie B

May 20th 2012

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Mom’s Home!

Monday was an off day for us. Chris has a FULL schedule, and I had no nanny. She is recovering from surgery this week {ironic much?}, so I went in for a few hours, and came home. As soon as I got home I was informed that we needed to make a project. Well I was stumped because I hadn’t stocked up for a project. We didn’t have the stuff in the house for Play-dough {crazy!} and we could bake, but then I will eat it. So Slime it is! We made slime for Jaydyn’s birthday party last month, and the girls were crushed that they could not make their colors.

Start by dissolving 1 tablespoon Borax in 1 cup of water, set aside.

Empty 1 bottle of Elmer’s white glue into a bowl, add 1/2 a cup of water and mix well, then add your food coloring.

once well mixed, pour the water/borax mixture into the glue/water/food coloring. Now reach in. I know you won’t want to but you have to! Reach in and grab the blob, it won’t really look like a blob, blob but I promise you there is a blob in there. {I have a new-found appreciation for the words blob, and goop}. There will be a large amount of excess water that you will leave in the bowl.

They played with that goop until Noah got home from school, and it didn’t get old. A couple of warnings though, if your home is fully carpeted this is probably not a project for you. Any goop that gets on your carpet it WILL BE RUINED! This is only allowed to be played with at the kitchen counter, in our house. We keep in ziplock baggies, and it lasts about a month. After that it doesn’t seem to stretch as much, and we end up replacing it. But it’s a fun project for all ages!

Pennie B.

April 2 2011

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What Can I Create?

This week is spring break here in Portland, and we are enjoying it! Even though I am back to work, they don’t have homework when I get home, and I’m being extremely lax on the chores. What can I say? I was bedridden for 2 weeks because of this horrid gall bladder surgery, and I am finally feeling well enough to do some of the fun stuff with them! Tonight when we got home I told the 3 little ones to get on their junky clothes, because we were going to get messy! {Que screams of excitement now}

I saw this on Play At Home Mom LLC. If you have not had a chance to check out this blog, YOU NEED TO! There are always amazing idea’s here, and most are educationally geared. Which is a huge plus in my book! Either way, you have to check that blog out!

{Empty an entire bottle of hair gel in a large Ziplock baggie}

{add desired amount of food coloring}

{add glitter for fun!}

{Noah is adding his glitter}

{Mom or Dad need to get the air out of the bag and the kiddo’s can mix everything together }

{Cheese! Having fun with our baggies of goo!}

This was just another one of those great easy projects that I enjoy doing once in a while. It’s silly, and we cannot do anything with them. They will probably only last a day, but it was fun. It got them doing something creative and out of the ordinary. We do craft a lot, but this is just a silly project that really got them interested in mixing products to see what they can get. I want them to be curious about the world around them. I want them to look at a bottle of hair gel and ask “What else could I use this for?”.

Pennie

March 31 2011

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Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

Jaydyn is turned 8 on the 5th of March. We decided on a Ghostbusters party. We did however, decide on that before realizing how hard of a party this really would be to plan. First off, there are no Ghostbuster party decorations, so we splurged with Amazon.com and got toys that we could use around the room. We decided to go with Slimer as our main color inspiration, because red black and white just aren’t that much fun.

I asked Chris to help with the balloons, because I filled the front room with lime green and black balloons! We used green streamers, and caution tape all over the room too. We were about 1/2 way done here, and I am impressed so far!

Jaydyn Chose his menu. One thing that I’ve found with kids parties, is you don’t want to put out all the food right away, it gets warm before the kids want to eat it. And face it, who wants to eat carrots and celery at room temperature? Keep fillers in the fridge until ready to serve, saves you a lot of time, and wasted food. We served, Mac and Cheese bites {some with bacon}, Slimers deviled Eggs, Lil’ weenies wrapped in bacon, Carrot’s and Celery sticks in ranch cups, Cheesy Ranch Bacon bread bites, a french fry Buffett, and slimer punch

Of course, our HUGE 3 Tier Slimer Cake was super cool as well! Il used double layered tiers, so a total of 6 cakes. I used green frosting that I blended myself, so I could get different textures, finished off using the food coloring spray, for added texture. Of course, I did not make the top, this is a slimer piggy bank.

Who can hold the most balloons??

Guests are arriving!

Oh NO! It’s STAY PUFT!!!

Don’t Cross The Streams!

He’s my Hero!

Ghostbusters 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jaydyn! You are an amazing kid, and I am blessed to have you as mine. You make every day an adventure, and I am lucky to be your mom.

And this is mom and dad by 8pm Saturday night. We are pooped, and ready to crash, lucky for us we don’t have any plans for Sunday, we could use a restful day.

Pennie B.

March 20 2012

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Football Party!!

Alex is turning 9 years old in a week, and I am a bit slow on the party planning {I’m still coming down from Christmas}. Lucky for me, Alex was willing to put it off a couple of weeks for me. We Planned a football party, Oregon Ducks, specifically. Out local hometown hero’s are going to california for the Rose Bowl, and we are going to be supporting them. Now, I assumed that this party would be a breeze to plan, I wouldn’t need to put that much thought into it, because it’s a football party. Alex has always had a “commercial party”, and this is no exception. His parties are easy, his friends are what make it difficult.

If you have had the luxury of being my dump-ee this past year, you will know all to well, that Alex has had a rough year with the move. It was very important to me that his friends felt comfortable, and had a good time, and Alex didn’t get made fun of. I was never picked on in school, so I can’t say how that feels, but as a parent this is the worst torture! I was very busy with this party, and it did need quite a bit more help than I had anticipated. Because of that I left Chris in charge of pictures, I should have left him in charge of something that he could handle. Needless to say, were I take 5 pictures to every 1 that gets used and edited, Chris takes one picture and calls it good. I kept asking him if he was taking pictures, and I got the same response “Yes, I am”, finally he got irritated with me. “Why do you keep asking me that, I’ve taken at least 20 pictures!” by this time, the party is nearly over, and some parents have even picked up their kids.

As I suspected, I didn’t have nearly enough pictures, and what I did have were not ones that I would have used myself. My first attempt at giving up some responsibilities was a MAJOR FAIL! I threw a rocking party, and have little to show for it. Chris went on and on, about how I bite of more than I can chew and I never prioritize well enough, then I take it out on him. Well you know what? He’s absolutely right! Who else am I going to take it out on?!?!? Ok, Okay I get it! This happens every year, I guess that I need to work on delegation. Jaydyn’s party is just around the corner, and I am going to start delegating certain tasks to the people who are willing to help, and pay someone to do some things for me, and assign helpers to the tasks that they can help with! This all sounds easy, and doable. However putting this into action is another story. Nobody else can get it just right, no one else knows JUST how I want it to look. So my perfectionism will also have to take a back seat. Oh confetti, grant me strength through the next 3 weeks until Jaydyn’s party!

Pennie B.

January 2012

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Shopping Time!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! We have been having such a blast getting ready for family time, as we are going “home” for the holiday, which in reality means we are going to make the 3 hour drive to southern Oregon to visit my husband’s family for a bit. We always have such an amazing time around the holidays, even if I don’t always agree with the holidays themselves it’s nice to see family. However all that gushyness aside, let’s get down and dirty to the truth about thanksgiving. It really is the kick off for holiday shopping, and I right? Well as I am sitting down with the kids to make their Hanukkah and Christmas lists I am excited to see all the options that are out there for parents these days other than “fisher price” and “Playschool”. Although, they are amazing brands, I am trying to get away from plastic toys as much as possible. I am OBSESSED with the brands like Melissa and Doug, KidKraft, and Imaginarium. These toys are easily accessible to almost any mother near a Toys R’ Us, Wal-Mart and Target.

I enjoy the way that the wooden toys look, I am a more modern parent so bright colors and specific shaped items with smooth surfaces are something that I flock to. There are a tons of benefits to buying wooden toys over plastic toys. We’ve all had those cardboard puzzles that our babies chew on and are trashed in less than 5 minuets. However many of our wooden puzzles have held up through several toys! Plastic surfaces tend to soak up stains very easily, and just become dull within a matter of time.

Last year it was time for us to purchase a new kitchen for the twins. I was a bit worried because I did not want to spend$600 on a kitchen for a couple 3 year olds! I was able to find a KidKraft kitchen for $119 on sale at Walmart.com! That’s a great price, and I am happy to say that it has made it through a move to Portland, and is always in our living room!

We have gotten quite a collection going, and I am not planning on giving up any time soon! Remember…..Wood is good!

Pennie B.

November 11th 2012

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Pick a Patch of Pumpkins!

October means the start of our favorite time of the year! Time for the rich hues, and the way the streets look with the leaves turning colors It’s beautiful! We took the kids to the pumpkin patch at our local farmers market. It’s not one of the big pumpkin patches, but that’s one of the charms! We took the kids to the pumpkin area and went on a little tractor ride, and it was really neat to see the back part of the market that we don’t ever get to see. So I thought that I would share some of our pictures from the day!

Here we go!!!

They didn’t want to walk all the way {a whopping 5 minuets}

My two big boys i love them

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch and I really enjoyed that we did it at our local market! Sure they didn’t have all the extra stuff, like the pumpkin throwing thing, and the corn maze, but it was quaint.

Pennie B.

October 17th 2011

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Summer Lovin’…………now it’s over

I always have mixed emotions about the beginning of the school year. I’m excited for them to see all thier friends again, and get back on a routine. I’m also sad because the school year is very structured and I crave it, and hate it all at the same time. Summer’s end means shopping time, which is always fun for me! I get as excited about school clothes as they do, and all the cool supplies they get. I decided to give up my obsessive compulsion about lunches and allow them to eat hot lunch, they begged all last year. We always take the kids to the first day, and then they’re off on the buss for the rest of the year. I’ll stop driving them when they ask, but so far they like it.

Noah’s First day of Kindergarten

I love the structure that the new school year brings, and almost everything that cones along with that. I love their love of learning, and am inspired by them every day. I am excited to start this year out from the start at our school, and I hope that we will be able to make more friends quickly. I have high hopes for this year! Whoo Hoo 2011-12!!!!!

Pennie B.

September 2011

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I wish we all could be California Girls!

It’s our first summer living in Portland and we are taking full advantage of it! I am excited to plan more activities here in the coming season’s, but for now we are thrilled to be able to enjoy it.

My in-laws have a boat and we have been taking it out every Sunday we can.

So much fun!

Noah’s gonna drive!

JackLynn loves the river!

Chris is ready to board!

Taking a break from Boarding

It doesn’t get much better than this! Relaxing on the beach, with a drink in my hand while my babies play in the sand and the big boys play in the water……….

Pennie B

July 2011

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Off To The Park!

We are blessed to have an amazing park, literally, right across the street from our house. We are there every single day, sometimes twice a day. Alex learned to ride a bike with no training wheels there. Izzy took her first strolls in her skates there, and the first time she rode a skateboard. Noah learned to ride his motorcycle there, and JackLynn………plays a lot of hopscotch.

I love to take a blanket and some chips and a book. The kids are all around me, laughing and playing, it’s like my earthly version of heaven.

Now, that’s Love!

First try on the new ”motorcycle”

Even if you don’t have a park as convenient as I do, you should still take full advantage of what you do have. Get kids out of the house to have fun and run and burn energy. For their sanity and yours. Kids cooped up in a house all summer will drive you insane!

Pennie B.

June 2011

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Pool Time!

We bought our pool! It is the beginning of summer, and because of our work schedules most of out camping trips are cancelled. The kids needed to have something to make up for the fact that we cannot take any summer trips. The fact that I just started a new job does not bode well for summer vacation. They knew they were getting a pool, but they had no clue how BIG this was going to be. We can all swim very comfortably, even with guests!

Playing in the new pool while it’s filling up. It took 3 solid days to fill this baby up!

Biggest weirdo’s EVER!

I think this is going to be an amazing summer!

Pennie B.

June 2011

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I love being a mother, it is honestly the most amazing thing that I have ever been privileged to do. That being said, the road to motherhood has been quite a bumpy one for me, and still stumble today. Follow my trials and tribulations of attempting to raise 5 healthy, strong, individuals, and when this is all over we’ll count how many end up in therapy!