The Bunny Came!

My sister text messaged me this morning and said, "HE IS RISEN...have you? Get up and start enjoying this glorious day! May you all have a wonderful & blessed Easter."

To which I texted back, "Some of us rose at 5:45am and were put back to bed!". Ahem...Tate. Little stinker.

I half thought the Easter Bunny was going to bypass the Hollaway house this year the way Tate cried and carried on when they went to visit him a few weeks ago. (I will scan the picture in and post it.)

 

I LOVE the way toddlers crouch down with their whole body to pick something up off the floor. Drue still does it from time to time, but Reese has outgrown it. Precious.

 

S-T-R-E-T-C-H! Drue spied the orange egg on top of the mantle and went all the way down the length of the fireplace like this trying to find it with her little hand calling for it..."Orange egg? Orange egg?".

 

Reese with her egg loot on the couch. Again, the little coordinator. "Drue, I'll put my pile here, you put yours over there.." and so on and so forth.

 

Dye Job

Yes, it was messy.
Yes, by the end I was ready to run screaming from the house.
Yes, it made for some fun memories.

Drue insisted on holding up each egg she dyed for me to snap a picture. Half of which promptly rolled off her dipper and smashed onto the floor...but she was persistent by golly.

 

Reese loves to just dive right in and show the other two how it's done.

 

Tate was a little unsure about this strange tradition at first...

 

...but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. His hands still have a green and pink tinge today.

 

Dear Starbucks Employees:

You all must be psychic or something. Thank you so much for messing up my drink this morning and accidentally putting in an extra shot of espresso. You must have known I would need the extra caffeine boost and energy.

Trying to keep the dogs from opening our trash can, that silly man I married put the laundry detergent bottle on top of the lid. So when my 3 year old went to throw her gum away, somehow the entire bottle got dumped all over the floor.

 

This was quite possibly the worst mess I have had to clean up in all my mothering days. A sea of blue sticky liquid. I used almost an entire roll of paper towels. I was scared to use a regular towel because there was so much soap on the floor that I envisioned the washing machine bubbling over when I put the towel in the wash.

On a positive note, that floor has never been so clean. The glare from the shine was incredible afterwards! And the entire downstairs smells cottony fresh.

So, bless you, Starbucks, again for helping me get through this catastrophic fiasco. You can screw up my drink anytime...

 

Sincerely,
A Grateful Mother

p.s. Could you please spit in my husband's drink the next time he comes by? When I called to sweetly inform him of the results of his actions, he said, "Wow...I hope you were able to salvage some of the liquid and pour it back into the bottle so it wasn't wasted...."

What we've been up to

**Somehow the pictures have been lost on this post...I will try and fix it tomorrow.

Well, it was my own fault. Last winter one of the kids was sick every week it seemed like. David and I would take turns staying home with them, while the other one took the well kids to church. It was a long winter. This winter we seemed to escape most of the crud and were able to go to church as one big happy family. So what did I do? Weeks ago I opened my big mouth while I was talking to one of my friends, saying how lucky we'd been this winter, no one had been sick, etc. So, of course, the very next week...germs, crud, phlegm, puke, fevers, etc. all descended upon our little household.

David was gone for two weeks to Pennsylvania and California. When he returned home from Pennsylvania, he brought us all a special treat...the FLU virus. It was terrible. Our viruses overlapped which has never happened before that I can remember, so one day we both had fevers of 103 and 102 and were trying to take care of the kids. Anyway, we are finally emerging from our feverish fog and I don't think I've ever been so glad to see Spring coming.

Here are a few snapshots of the sick kiddos. I had to pick Reese up from preschool TWICE for being sick. Usually even when she has a fever, it doesn't slow her down too much, but this one knocked her out. It got up to 104!

 

My sick little man. His fever got up to 103.9 that day. You can tell when he and Reese have a fever a mile away...their little faces and ears get bright red.

 

Drue's face and ears don't get red, but her eyes glass over when she has a fever. And you can't tell by touching her. One night as I was putting her to bed, I felt her forehead and it seemed fine. On a whim I decided to take her temp because her eyes were giving her away...it was 102!

I decided to throw in a few pictures of Tate's new hiding place...the girls' dresser.

 

 

And thats our lives for the past few weeks in a nutshell. Feels good to be back...

Well, That's One Theory

This morning as Reese and I were snuggling on the couch before we were both completely awake, Drue and Tate were running rampant around the house full of energy. (Energy from the candy and kool-aid David had already given them).

Tate squealed with delight when he saw Molly dozing on the couch, ran over to her and tugged hard on both her ears. Of course, I verbalized my disappointment at his behavior and rhetorically questioned why in the world he would do something like that.

Reese simply stated, "I think we took the wrong baby....".

Our Future C.S.I.

When David is out of town, I secretly move the kids' bedtimes up a tad...trying to savor an ounce of peace in the house before I, myself, go to bed. The girls know not to test my patience at night. Last night I lovingly, albeit wearily, tucked them in, then went over how they would be punished if they got out of bed.

Reese has devised a plan to occasionally get out of bed to tell us something about Drue. She may creep down the stairs to tell us that Drue has ripped a book to shreds, or that Drue needs to use the potty, or something of that nature. And she thinks because she is bringing that to our attention, she has gained immunity from punishment.

I am on to her little scam. So last night, I went over every possible circumstance that might cause either girl to get out of her bed. And I ended with this warning, "If one of you gets out of bed to tattle on the other one...you will B-O-T-H be punished! Night night...love you...kisses..."

In between straightening up the kitchen, folding a load of laundry, and trying to catch the evening news to learn more about the ROBBERY that occurred at the Target we frequent, I thought I heard the faint squeak of their bedroom door. I stopped and listened for the unmistakable sound of little feet padding down the hallway towards impending punishment, but didn't hear anything else.

As I lugged the basket full of clean folded clothes up to my room later, I saw one of their fabric butterflies that hangs on fishing line from their ceiling laying in the hallway. I shook my head, not even wanting to think about the events that had led up to that and went to bed.

I pushed it out of my mind until this morning when I was getting ready to take Reese to school. She bopped into my bathroom where I was getting ready and I casually inquired about the butterfly I had found last night.

Her eyes got big and she dashed out of the room for a second, then returned with a tiny corner piece of paper she had ripped off a bigger sheet. Turns out, it was her "clue" to me about what had happened and I had completely missed it.

She elaborately went on to explain how her sister had been swinging the butterfly and pulled it out of the ceiling. Knowing they would both be punished if Reese came to tell on her, Reese scrounged around in their room until she found a piece of paper that had Drue's name written on it. She ripped it off and placed it neatly beside the butterfly evidence in the hallway for me to find. So I would be sure to know that Drue was the perpetrator when I stumbled across the crime scene.

I have been laughing all day about that...

Homecoming

 

David is off to the West Coast again this week. I took this picture when he returned from his trip a couple weeks ago. Tate was thrilled to see his Daddy! (I think because he lets him get away with more). And he was thrilled to get this cuddly lion souvenir.

The kids planned accordingly for his departure this time...they are all S-I-C-K! I think it is part of their grand scheme to inch me ever more closely to the looney bin...