What do you do when Mom says no Wii?

Leah is 3. That is a loaded sentence. Three has been associated with demanding, tyrant, terrible 2's on steroids, etc. Leah is 3. Most days I believe she is trying out to be the poster child for 3. Three. It's lovely, really.

In the mornings lately Leah has been asking, in a very demanding tone, to play Wii. Of course my response is always a firm no. After a morning show, breakfast, and devotion time with the girls they are to get dressed, do their morning chores and we start school. No tv. No Wii. Wii is really only every allowed after dinner for family time and on the weekends. She knows this, but of course she is more than willing to press the issue.

One afternoon I again told her no Wii when she asked. Then I told her she could do bowling without the Wii. Huh? Ahhhh, I've got her! She watched as I set up cups and got the ball.....let the fun begin!

Of course her sisters thought this was way cool too and had to join in!!!

Let's Get Wild!

ON Friday, March 23rd (yes, I am BEHIND on my blogging!) our home school group had a field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo. Since it is only 15 minutes from my parents house we invited Nanny to join us. Everything is more fun with Nanny!

The zoo, overall, is not that impressive. Lots and lots of birds. I do enjoy the aquarium side...mostly because I have a love of penguins! The girls are not zoo snobs like me (HA!) so they enjoyed it.

Nanny and the big girls taking in a brief "show" highlighting a few animals. Of course this was snack time for Leah....our sweet bottomless pit.

Leah was not afraid to touch anything and everything! The two older ones get squeemish, but not Leah....NO FEAR!

Mayah has a way with all animals. They are drawn to her! At the Phoenix Zoo it was a turkey and here it was this penguin. She went down it went down. She went back up it followed her. Awesome.

Yes, we wore Emma Lynne right out! She is not the kind of baby to fall asleep on me (like the other 3 did with ease), so when she does this I just melt. Had to capture this one on my camera.

Chiara Turns 7 (Part 2)

If you missed part one, you can read it here.

It happened to be "kids get in free" day at the county fair on Chiara's birthday so all 6 of us went out to see the animals, hear the music, and have some family time before 6 little girls came over for pizza, popcorn, and movies.

Chiara's Great Grandma Koebler sent her $5 to spend as she wished. So, I told Chiara to take it to the fair. We treated all three girls to one ride each ($3/ride is RIDICULOUS!) and then Chiara decided she wanted to do the 'bungy' jumping with her money. She did this about 2 years ago and was a bit scared, though she would not admit it her tight grip and face showed it for sure! I was excited to see that she wanted to give it another try.

Here she is all strapped in and ready. She had some difficulty jumping, but the guy helped her get up there. And UP there she went!

No fear, just enjoying the experience.

David asked her to find the truck in the parking lot! I love ALL that hair!!!!!!

Birthday party has begun. Since we were not making a cake and Chiara wanted her friends to sing to her I told her we could put one in her pizza. She loved it.

Here are all the girls in PJ's watching Dolpin Tale.

My personal favorite part of the party....the girls all taking turns doing each others hair. So girly. Such memories of my childhood!

Chiara and Sarah

Chiara and Lorelei

Chiara and Amee (Amelia)

Chiara and Savannah

Chiara and Heide

Chiara and Mikelle

All the girls

Of course we had to have one silly shot.

It was a great birthday and birthday party. A week later Chiara gets to have her own sleepover at my parent's house and then her family birthday party when they bring her home. Love this kid. Love celebrating her. Just wish it was not going by so fast.

Chiara Turns 7 (Part 1)

Well, it happened. I tried to stop it, really I did. However, Chiara insisted on turning 7. Didn't we just celebrate her turning 5?!?!?! Well, if she was going to turn 7 I figured I better make it memorable.

I came up with the party idea "Pizza, Popcorn, & Pajamas". It was not a sleepover, but close to it. Chiara was allowed to invite a handful of girls-her dearest friends. I want her to really think about who she invites. Her list was ready, invites handed out, and planning began.

Here are the favors I made to go with our theme. Popcorn containers containing a bag of popcorn and a sleep mask that said Sweet Dreams. Super cute. Chiara loved the idea.

I even made movie ticket stubs with each guests name on it.

Getting ready the night before her birthday. I decorated the house,which includes window crayons on the back door and both bathroom mirrors.

Good Morning Birthday Girl! Chiara woke to 7 balloons and a gift from Daddy and Mommy. It was a great morning. She requested cinnamon raisin bagels and bacon for breakfast.

Daddy picks out the cards in this house....it was a talking one. It sang "What I like about you!" She loved it.

One of her gifts from us....she loves American Girl and really loves Kit. She has read 3 Kit books already from the library.

SURPRISE! I love surprising our girls. David had planned to take a half day, but we wanted it to be a surprise-it's always better to go that route since we never know what may come up with his work these days. So, we sat down to lunch and planned on opening up some more gifts. I knew he was on his way, so we started later than planned. When we walked in the door the joy just about jumped up to the ceiling. There is SO much love in this house!!!

Chiara opening her cards and gift from her sisters.

She was so excited (as if her face did not give it away!)

It was Barbie Fairy Secret.

Another gift from Daddy and Mommy....I love her face!!!!!!!

She would not let it go....it is a Barbie Jet, Set, and Style Wii Game. She is fascinated that we remembered what she wanted. I love seeing her filled with happiness.

The day did not end here. We were all off the the Pinal County Fair followed by her birthday party. You can read about that all here.

She's that kind of kid.....

I just posted about sweet Chiara Marie's 7th birthday. Some days she has the attitude of a 13 year old and other days the maturity of a young lady. The hormone fluctuations of females starts young....way too young. Anyway.....

It is in Chiara's personality to be helpful-sometimes I even find that I need to limit her because her sisters need to contribute too. She does not do it to brag (most of the time) or get something from David or I. She is a lot like me....if you want something done right and quick, just do it yourself. Not always the best approach, but when you are working along side a 5 year old who is highly distracted and a 3 year old who still has tornado tendencies, it works.

We have started having conversations with Chiara regarding the fact that she is the oldest and therefore an example to all her sisters. They watch her and mirror her. Yes, it can be a heavy weight being the oldest, and we tell her that, but with that shadow side there are a lot of privileges too.

The other evening David went to a "Man Church" event and Emma was headed to bed early. I told the 3 oldest they could watch a television show (Dora) while I nursed Emma and put her to bed. I suggested to the two oldest that it would be nice if I came downstairs to a clean tv room- the only things out are some books and Emma's toys since the "toy" room is upstairs now. As I was nursing Emma I could hear sounds in the kitchen that sounded like dishes being put away. I knew the sink was full, but David empties that each night for me. When I came down the stairs after putting Emma and Leah to bed this is what was on the bottom step:

When I heard the noises upstairs I had a feeling Chiara was doing this great blessing for me so I was praying that she would leave the knives alone. I am sure she was very careful (even so careful it needed two L's), but I explained to her that it made me nervous. Of course she got a BIG squeeze and many thanks. She truly only did it to bless me, to "make my day." She is that kind of kid. She was also the only one who cleaned the tv room. I know her sisters saw this example and also saw the praise. I believe all my girls will have this helpful attitude as they grow and mature in this home. David and I teach them about team work, serving others, and most importantly we live out what we are teaching.

Love in a snack bag

I am a morning person. Not sure when that happened, but I think in college. I would rather get up early and feel ready for the day ahead than stay up late at night getting things done. Even on the weekends I am up early. Having four children-all still very young-almost requires it. Once they are up it is go, go, go. Because we choose to home school the dynamic of our home is different too. I am not rushing to get kids out the door, but rather spending LOTS of time together. I love this, but I am a person too (yes, outside of being a mom I am Jennifer) and I need time to myself. So, up early.

Another benefit of being up early is seeing my gorgeous husband before he leaves for work. Since he leaves around 6:15 am everyday I need to be up much earlier than that if I want to have time to myself and time with him each day. We just started working out together (30 Day Shred) at 5 am. We are holding each other accountable and getting in shape. Love it. Ok, right now I hate it, but I love the time together. After we work out, he showers and I make him breakfast. Eggs. Always eggs. He loves a breakfast scramble, but time is tight in the mornings now. He was chopping veggies every morning, which was 1. time consuming and 2. annoying. I am a morning person, but I like quiet in the morning. It is loud enough here all day long that an hour in the morning should be as close to silent as possible.

To solve both problems I decided to chop and freeze. I made 14 little baggies yesterday with onion, peppers, mushrooms, and either spinach or broccoli. Since David eats totally grain free and I am getting back there too, this is a fabulous way to serve eggs. I did not tell him that I did this, so when he came home and I showed him he was thrilled. What is great is that peppers are on sale right now so I can stock up, do all the chopping and since I am freezing them I do not worry about them staying fresh. Cost saving, time saving, and David feels loved. Awesome.

Emma Crawling Video