G'ma K's Visit - Part 1

Not sure this post will make much sense as I completed the first day of my residency today and my brain hurts :)

G'ma K flew in on Tuesday. The kids and I picked her up at the airport. One of her connecting flights had some problem with the plane, so she ended up showing up several hours after we thought she was going to, which resulted in the kids getting kids meals and Hershey's pie slices from Burger King, which they loved :) It also resulted in me realizing that apparently five small children walking through an airport are quite a sight. I didn't think it was that noteworthy, but you should have seen the looks I got. People stopped what they were doing and stared as I walked by with Eva in the carrier and two kids walking on each side of me. Anyhoo, we found G'ma K and made it back home :) It was late, but G'ma read the kids a book before they went to bed.


And she got to hold Eva for the first time ~ Eva LOVES her! G'ma is perfectly content to just hold her and play with her for hours and hours and so she is definitely on Eva's list of favorite people! I'm so glad as it makes it much easier to leave her for hours and hours at a time when I know she's not crying :)





The next morning, Beth, Jack, Eva, G'ma and I went grocery shopping. Jack and Beth both brought backpacks in the car with them. Jack wore two right-foot flip-flops - one brown and orange, one spiderman.


It started raining as we drove home and was dumping by the time the end of the school day rolled around. G'ma stayed home with Eva and Beth while Jack and I happily splashed to school with our "gumbrellas". We were pretty much the only ones who walked that day as there was so much rain, but the kids loved it and the line of cars to pick kids up went about 5 blocks down the street and (I heard later) took 25 mins to get through, plus it was fun to splash in the puddles and see how much fun Jack had stomping through the water with me :) I made Meg and Kylie wait to splash until we got home and they changed out of their school clothes and shoes. I know from past experience how completely they embrace splashing :) They more than made up for it though after we got home!











Jack stood in the puddle that was up to his knees in water deep enough that it spilled over the top of his boots, but he decided an umbrella was necessary :)







That night, Megan, Kylie, G'ma and I went out for a combined Mother's Day for G'ma and I/early b-day presents for Megan and Kylie. We started off with pedicures. G'ma picked blue nail polish and the ladies at the salon said she was the coolest grandma ever! It was G'ma's first pedicure and she loved it. It was also Kylie's first and she loved it too! The lady who did Kylie's said that Kylie did the best sitting still of any child she had ever seen :)


With the children's pedicures, they got manicures too. Kylie asked for flowers and the lady gave her a flower on each finger! Megan was more concerned with getting "jewels".


After the salon, we went to Mimi's Cafe for dinner.

Side note ~ Eva loves playing with her feet. She just recently figured out that she can get her feet into her mouth, so that is now one of her favorite pastimes.





Thursday we took G'ma on a drive around our area so she could see things like Rob's work. Thursday night we dropped G'ma off at Rob's work and the two of them had a Mommy/son date and went to the temple and out for Greek food. Rob brought me home baklava :)

Friday was field day for Megan and Kylie. Since we knew it was all day, we slept in and took the morning easy, then walked over for an hour after lunch.

We got to see Megan play miniature golf . . .


And saw Kylie's class get hosed down ~





And saw Kylie use a huge sling shot to shoot water soaked balls and then do a relay where she fished plastic sharks out of a wading pool with her feet (sorry, we don't have pictures of those activities) . . .

Then we watched Megan's class play tug-o-war with the high school students who volunteered to help. Megan's class won. Three times in a row. Then the parents and teachers took them on (I abstained as I had Eva in her carrier) and they managed to beat Meg's class.





Beth (wearing her ballet slipper shoes), G'ma, Megan, and Jack (wearing his cowboy boots with his shorts - a look he somehow carries off) . . .


That evening G'ma watched all five (!!! - we offered several times to take Eva, but G'ma was happy to have her stay home) kids while Rob and I drove in to the hotel to get me checked into the residency. The road on the way there is under construction, so we wanted to make sure Rob knew where to go when he drove Eva in during my lunch break. We found it and I got checked in. We called on the way home and everyone was having a wonderful time, so Rob and I were able to stop at the store on the way home and get some last minute things I needed, plus diapers for Eva, etc, etc :)

My first day was today. The day flew by. Rob found it easily, Eva did really well at home, and I think I burned up every brain cell in my head. My brain hurts, I feel completely drained, and I think I need a vacation :) It was nice to come home to happy kids who had already eaten dinner and be able to take a nap with Eva :) G'ma and Rob are doing a fantastic job! And this will be a good week. I figured out that we covered about 3 wks worth of material today. It is quite the experience!!!

Brittney's taking me out for ice cream tonight for my birthday, so I've got to wrap this up. On to tomorrow!!!

One of the Big Kids

As Eva now sits up on her own, she's been wanting to play more and more. Beth sees this an an opportunity to involve Eva in their games and pounces on her whenever I put her down, carrying her away to a corner of the playroom. I love watching Beth, Jack and Eva play together :) Eva LOVES it and as Beth picks her up and carries her off, she grins at me ~


Note the curl of long hair on the top of Eva's head, curving down over the mostly bald rest of her head. She'd have quite the mohawk if I used gel!






Megan loves reading to Eva. Often the other kids get in on the action, which is good as Eva doesn't particularly enjoy books yet . . .


Tonight after all the kids were in bed, Rob and I were downstairs working on some stuff and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something flit across the playroom. It was Beth, who happily responded to our invitation to join us. She and Eva played for a while, Beth talking in a silly voice and Eva laughing as if she'd just heard the best joke in the world ~

Happiness is . . .

Kylie's Soccer Pictures

The mother of one of Kylie's teammates is a professional photographer and she generously took pictures of one of the Panthers' games and gave each family a cd of pictures. Below are some of the pictures of Kylie. (By the way, I know that her shin guards are supposed to be inside her socks. Kylie was very adamant when dressing for that game that they go outside her socks, so that's where they are :) Not quite sure how one of Rob's and my children ended up stubborn . . . )

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

A few weeks ago it hit 97 degrees here . . . which is rather hot for TX in April. Apparently Mother Nature has decided to make up for it. The high yesterday was 50, which we hit just after midnight. The temps went down from there and it's currently in the mid 40's. And it's raining. Not the quick thunderstorms we're used to down here (although there is thunder and lightning), but the heavy, drenching rain we used to have in New England. The rain is good - it's been the driest spring since 1917 and there are fires all over the state, so we really could use it :) I love cold, rainy days. Days that are cold enough to wear fuzzy sweaters and make hot cocoa and homemade cookies or bread. I may have to take a break from my diet and make one or both of those :)

Although my preference on days like today is to get the kids a hot breakfast and then have them climb into bed with me and watch movies, we had doctor appointments this morning for both Kylie and Eva. They were pretty early, so I planned on getting everyone up with Megan and Kylie and leaving shortly after Rob left to take Megan to school. That being the plan, of course we slept through the alarm . . . and all five kids slept late too, which NEVER happens. It figures that the one morning we needed them up, they all sleep in. On mornings when we can sleep in, they are all awake by about 6am.

Anyway, so Rob and I woke up about 15 mins before I was supposed to walk out the door with the kids. Rob was a huge help and we managed to get all five up and dressed (and we even warmed their clothes in the dryer!), made hot cocoa and grabbed chocolate toaster pastries so they could eat breakfast in the car, and left only about 15 mins after I planned to. I admit I was just a tad frazzled at that point. About a minute after pulling out of the driveway, I looked over and my protein shake had spilled . . . all over my jacket, the center console, the cd case, the passenger seat and the floor. At that point I decided that I could either laugh or cry, so I laughed. On the plus side, I have come to the conclusion that stop lights instinctively know when you are actually looking forward to being stopped at a red light (such as when you need time to put on your lipstick or clean your spilled protein shake off your purple coat), so we didn't hit a red light almost the whole way to the doctor. We got the dr's office almost on time, but of course there were no parking places in the garage, so the four kids and I hiked across the parking lot in the rain . . . me in a coat covered in my shake (I sort of got it wiped off . . . I think the rain washed some of it off too), the kids running through the puddles (Beth was wearing her slipper shoes, which was also fun). Chalk it up to adventures in motherhood :) At least Eva slept through it all and didn't wake up and have a blow out diaper or something! It could have been worse :)

Both appointments were just check ups. Kylie is doing well :) If she keeps growing at the same rate, she'll end up about 5'6". We'll have to see how accurate that ends up being! Kylie's about 1/4 inch away from 4 ft exactly and weighs about 60 lbs, which the dr said is perfect for her. Eva's growth was a bit more dramatic. She started off five and a half months ago, born a month early and in the 5% for weight. She now weighs almost 18 lbs (17 lbs 11 oz), which is in the 90% for weight. She's also 26 inches long (55% for length) and her head is 17 1/4 inches (90%). She's supposed to be rolling over (which she started doing 2 months ago) and holding her head up and sitting with assistance (she now sits on her own), so she's doing fantastically well! The dr also agreed with me that she will probably be crawling within a month, which is also way ahead of schedule :)

We are getting really close to my residency. It's only about a week and a half away! G'ma K flies in to help us in a week, which we are really looking forward to! Rob especially is secretly hoping that his father surprises him and comes down for a few days as well, but my guess is that this time it's just G'ma. The kids are so excited that she's coming and are making all sorts of plans :) It's been almost 3 years since we saw her and we've never gotten to show her TX! She and I are going out for Mother's Day pedicures and she and Rob are going to the temple together one evening. We're so glad she willing and able to help us out! It's going to be an interesting week! Rob and I are kind of excited to see how changing roles affects us :)

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

After our wonderful photo session, I made good on my promise to make the rest of the day fun :) We started with an Easter egg hunt. 100 eggs go a long way when you only have four kids hunting for them!

Jack found one!!!

Megan finds the "gut grabber" (a K**** tradition)

We knew how many eggs each child should end up with, so in an attempt to prevent full of stale candy from being discovered months from now, we counted each basket of eggs. Kylie and Beth gathered their respective number of eggs quickly. I helped Jack fill his basket as well. Meg and Rob opted to search for the harder-to-find eggs. It took them a bit longer, but we managed to find them all!

Beth, Kylie and Jack dividing their spoils ~

After the egg hunt, we dyed eggs. Each of the kids were allowed to pick one color at a time. Beth and Jack chose to dye all of their eggs their favorite colors; purple for Beth and yellow for Jack. Meg and Kylie tried several different colors.

Jack happily dying his hands . . . er, I mean eggs ~

The end results ~ clockwise from the top left corner: Beth's eggs, Kylie's, Jack's and Megan's

Rob and Eva spent the afternoon discussing military tactics as Rob played Age of Empires. Eva was less than impressed apparently ~

As our church starts at 8:30am, we asked the Easter Bunny to try something new; rather than leaving the baskets out, he left each of the kids (except Eva) a pair of shoes. Meg and Kylie got new rain boots, Beth got church shoes that look like ballet slippers, and Jack got new cowboy boots. The Easter Bunny also left a note that said (in the tradition of my father, who uses this method every year to hide a Christmas present for each of his kids) ~

My dear little munchkins

I’ve left you some shoes

But to find the rest of your baskets

You must follow the clues!

(Ask your parents for the first clue!)

Love, the Easter Bunny

We went to church, came home, changed out of our church clothes, and ate lunch before giving the kids the first clue, which read ~

On freezing cold mornings

Your Dad uses this

To warm up your clothes

Then he gives you a kiss

The answer, of course, was the dryer, and the kids stormed upstairs to find the next clue ~

The clue in the dryer read ~

The greatest show on Earth

Is held in one of these

Elephants and acrobats

Give the ringmaster a hand please!

The kids came thundering back down the stairs to check inside the circus tent.

Jack wanted to read the third clue, so Megan helped him. It read ~

Here’s where you go

When you need a quiet break

This room is for reading

Not a sound should you make!

It didn't take the kids long to figure out that they needed to head to the library and they didn't waste any time ~


Kylie, Beth and Jack started checking under chairs and pillows and on bookcases, looking for a clue. Megan alone notice the filled baskets in the middle of the room :)

The baskets this year had a bit of a pirate theme ~

Jack demonstrates his prowess as an archer ~

The kids played all afternoon, then Brittney, her sister Becca, and her parents joined us for dinner. The missionaries came over as well. We had a wonderful dinner :) Jack was a pill and threw a fit, but he quickly fell asleep under the desk. Becca claimed "her" baby and Eva happily cuddled up against her, hanging on to her shirt ~

It didn't take long for Eva to conk out :) ~

We are so blessed to have such each other and such good friends to share special days with!