A Day in my Life

I mentioned to David the other day that I was in the market for some new brown boots. While he was perusing the ads from Sunday's paper, he ran across some for $20 at K-Mart. Nothing but the best for his gal. So he passed along this information to me.

Tonight after he got home from work he casually asked, "So, did you go check out those boots at K-Mart today?".

Innocent question. I don't fault him for that. But my defensive side did rear its' ugly head for a minute there. As I thought to myself, "What exactly does he think I do all day when I'm not at work?". I certainly didn't have time for a leisurely stroll through the boot aisle at K-Mart.

How exactly did I spend my day today?

Up at 6:40am, showered, got the kids up, fed, showered, ready for school.

Dropped off the girls.

Swung back home, made Tate's lunch, packed his bag, and dropped him at preschool.

Ran to Wal-Mart, bought a pack of gum, then barely made it to my eye doctor appt by 9:20am. (Needed the gum because I am always self conscious of my breath when the eye doctor is 2 centimeters from my face).

Rushed home from my appt and cleaned like a madwoman for the next hour. Ran up to the school to pick up Druebie and made it there about 3 minutes before her class was dismissed.

Came home, ate lunch, did a load of dishes, helped Drue with her homework while I folded clothes. Unclogged a bathroom sink, scrubbed all the toilets. Made my grocery list for supper and dashed off to Wal-Mart with Drue in tow. Got all the items on my list and made it to Tate's school to pick him up about 4 minutes ahead of time.

Came home and started boiling chicken and squash. Put together 2 casseroles for supper. A friend of mine called to say they had a sewer leak in their basement and asked if I could please pick up her daughter from school when I grabbed Reese. Folded more laundry. Headed up to Reese's school about 10 minutes early so Drue & Tate could play on the playground for a bit. Stayed about 20 minutes after school let out so the kids could keep playing.

Dropped off Reese's friend, came home, helped Reese with her Sparks verses she's trying to memorize for next Sunday. Popped casseroles in the oven, made blueberry muffins, folded and put away the rest of the laundry. Checked Reese's math homework.

Served dinner, cleaned up dishes after dinner. Sat on the couch to listen to Drue read her new library book. Googled a cute snack idea for Native American Day at Tate's preschool. Made another grocery list. Ran to the store to grab all the necessary items to make cupcake tepees in a sugar cone.

Returned home and made the tepee treats. An hour and a half later I finished treats and cleaned up the kitchen.

Sat down to do this blog post.

Whew.

And that's how I spent my day "off".

I'm not looking for praise or "Wow! You're a supermom!" type statements. It was just a normal day spent doing normal mom things. But I do kind of find my head spinning when I finally plop down on the couch at the end of a day like this.

I love these 3 little people I get to take care of and the 1 big* person I have as my life partner (he hates when I call him that) to travel through this crazy, but fulfilling life with.

I guess my boots will just have to wait.

*The term big here simply refers to height (6ft) and not weight. Just wanted to clarify.

Disney Recap

Whew! I am finally sitting down to write about our much anticipated trip to Disney World! It always seems to take me forever to recap our trips because I want to be sure and capture every little detail. Which seems like an insurmountable task. So I'll just stick with the highlights.

First, came that fact that the kids were FLYING for the first time! (Well, technically this was Reese's 3rd time. The first 2 times she was a toddler and flew to Alabama and Chicago. Drue and Tate also flew in utero, but I don't think we'll get that technical).

No doubt about it, everything is more exciting when you're experiencing it with children. Flying is always kind of exciting to me though. But it was 1000 times more so seeing it through their eyes. We even let them order diet cokes when the flight attendant came by to take their drink orders. That, in and of itself, made them squeal with joy. They each had their own little pack of gum to help with their ears during take offs and landings. The girls started frantically chewing their gum right as we started to pull away from the airport. They kept talking as though they were riding in a spacecraft, instead of an airplane. Reese said, "My favorite part is blasting off". And when we finally landed back in KC she said, "We're back on Earth!".

Our phrase of the week became, "But we're at Disney World...!". For instance, the first day we went to Magic Kingdom and the kids kept asking when we could go back to the hotel to swim in the pool. Really?! (Part of that stemmed from the fact that David told them we could go swimming the first night we got there, but by the time we got shuttled and checked into the hotel, it was almost midnight! So I think they all just kind of fixated on that.) Drue was upset on Friday that she wasn't at school because that's the day they get to pick out a 25 cent trinket from the treasure box. I explained to her (A) she didn't have school that day because of conferences and (B) WE'RE AT DISNEY WORLD for crying out loud!

While there were quite a lot of people at the parks while we were there, the lines weren't long at all. We waited just a few minutes each time. With the exception of 2 rides: Soarin' at Epcot, and Toy Story at Hollywood Studios. Those were long lines. But we had heard that we couldn't miss them. Tate freaked out if he heard the word "ride" so while we banned the girls from even saying it. We didn't take him on anything we felt would have been to scary for him. But he freaked out when a bar went down over his lap or he had to be belted in. While we were in line ready to board our flight home he asked in trepidation, "Will it go upside down?".

The kids really were excited about everything! Even the little things. They couldn't wait to see what kind of animal our housekeeper would form our towels into each day. One of Tate's favorite parts of the whole trip was getting to walk through the turnstyles at the park entrances. And his all time favorite ride of the whole week? The "people mover" in Magic Kingdom! A little car that goes over an elevated track that lets you see all the different rides available in Tomorrow Land. Or Future Land...something to that effect.

It almost felt as though we'd actually traveled abroad. Most of the people around us were from England. It was their midterm break. 2 weeks. And half the country headed to Disney World. I loved hearing them talk. Whenever David hears an accent, though, he starts talking in that accent. Which thoroughly embarrassed me. I kept saying, "Shhhh! They're going to think you're making fun of them!". Everything does sound more proper when said in an English accent. A mom and her two small kids sat behind us on a ferry boat ride to Downtown Disney. Her children were getting a tad bit restless and rowdy. She simply said, "Steady" (remember to say that with an accent) and it sounded so refined. Much better than when I hiss "Settle down or I'm going to flick you".

The girls and I got asked numerous times if they were twins. Drue is catching up to Reese in height. Add in the fact that I dressed them in coordinating outfits, did their hair the same, and they both sported their "It's my birthday" buttons, yeah, I guess I can see why people would ask that.

Drue is a roller coaster riding fiend. The girl has no fear. Reese liked them too, but Space Mountain did her in. So Drue quickly volunteered to ride again so I could go. I made David and the girls try all the roller coasters first, before me. Our favorite one was Everest Expedition in Animal Kingdom. The girls kept whispering as we were walking up to it. So I knew something fishy was going on. At one point the ride stops and it looks like the track is broken. Then it surprisingly whips you backward at full speed into a dark cave! They were both giggling as the ride came to a stop and said, "Daddy told us not to tell you it did that!".

Did I mention we made it to all four parks during our 3 days there? I could have spent a little more time at Animal Kingdom and Epcot and a little less time at Hollywood Studios.

Great trip. Great memories. Great time all around.

Halloween...Hollaway Style

 

And Drue's latest "Cheetah Phase" continues. She started out wanting to be a police girl with straight hair. Although I preferred her pick something a little more cutesy girly, I held my tongue. A few days before Halloween when we went to get her costume, she changed her mind. And her cheetah dreams were realized. The shirt and pants are actually a real outfit from Kohl's . A tagless outfit, thankfully.

 

I'm not sure what inspired Reese's pick this year. From the time we first began talking about costumes, she wanted to be a ballerina. A black and white ballerina. Apparently my kids are rather specific and detail oriented. Nevermind that she's about as graceful as a bull in a china cabinet. (She is our child who literally can fall down while she's standing still). She made a beautiful ballerina. On a sidenote she loves buns now. Yes, the hairstyle. She asks for one almost everyday. Probably just to get out having to have curls, no doubt.

 

Ah....Tater. When I pulled the box of Fall decorations out he and his dinosaur costume from last year were reunited. And that's what he decided to be...again. Reese said, "Wow Tate! Way to save Mom some money!".

 

My little crew. I kept reminding them nicely that I had to take some pictures of them before they could start trick or treating. So they were eager to pose and smile pretty for the camera, so things would go faster for everybody.

Disney!

Blog about our trip: In Progress
In the meantime, enjoy these moments by double clicking on the picture to see the whole album.

Hayride Party

 

The girls' hayride birthday party was a success. We combined their party this year and had a hayride at Heritage Park one evening. (Which I highly recommend to anyone with a Fall birthday. Just schedule it through Johnson County Park & Rec. I honestly think I had as much fun as the girls.)

 

The weather was perfect. Only one friend for each of the girls couldn't make it. Everything ran smoothly. We had enough food. No one fell off the wagon. (These were all worries that I had.) The only less than ideal situation was when we were unloading all the decorations and supplies from the van and David opened the trunk, accidentally releasing all the helium filled balloons into the blue sky above.

 

Pumpkin Patch Look Back

 

What can I say? I am addicted to COMPARISON PICTURES!

This is Tate on the preschool pumpkin patch field trip in 2007-2009-2010. He went along on Reese's trip and Drue's trip, and this year...finally...his very own trip.

It is cute to see how shy he is when his sisters aren't around. He didn't want to run up with his friends. He wanted to stick right by my side and hold my hand most of the time.

Which, of course, was fine with me.

6 Years Old!

 

Druebie May is 6!

And I'm really not trying to steal her birthday thunder by posting a picture of myself on her special day. I just thought it was neat to put these side by side for comparison sake.

These pictures make me think "cuteness". They may very well make her think "uh oh".