Take two....

The kids went on their class trip to Schlitterbahn again yesterday.

If you remember, they got rained out the first time.

This try wasn't much better.

They got to play in the water for a couple of hours before this blew in.

I feel so bad for them. They've looked forward to this all year. (I think they would live in the water if they could.)

I guess we'll have to see if we can make it there this summer.

Of course, when they got out of school and were home it looked like this:

Oh well, what can you do?

Question of the week

What is the craziest thing someone has ever said to you about your multiples and how did you respond?



I think one of the craziest questions that we have actually been asked is if we have two boys and two girls.

Really? There are three babies in pink with bows in their hair and one child in blue and it's that hard to figure three girls. I really think that most people just don't look at the babies, they just see a bunch and start asking questions. Our response was usually just 'Uhmm, no.'

But, the craziest question asked was asked to my Mom.

She was getting her hair done and the lady doing it was asking how I was doing and all (I was stilll pregnant at the time). There was an older lady in the beauty shop at the same time listening to the conversation. After it was explained to her that I was pregnant with four babies at the same time she asked my Mom if they all had the same father.

Yes she did!

I don't know for sure how my Mom answered but I told her that she should have just told her 'No,  she's like a dog in heat, that girl is.'

Moral of the story: Stop. Think. Then ask. lol

Got art?

Now, I'm not usually one to brag on my kids and their limitless talents.


Yeah, right. I couldn't even keep a straight face while I typed that.


Anyway, on to the bragging......


Abigail came home yesterday with some artwork that she had done at school.


I'm in love with it and totally impressed. Way better than anything I could do, that's for sure.

Isn't it lovely?

I'm so proud of her.

Dax told her that we would get it framed and hang it at the office so lots of people can see it.

Once again....

Guess who greeted me at the door when I got home today.

Anyone? Anyone?

Yes, Kuddles got out of her kennel again. Gaah!!!

Thank goodness I got home before lunch time so she wasn't out all day. Who knows what she might have done then.

And this isn't the worst of it!

I had baked cookies for the kids' lunches and made some extra for Dax. There were also two orange rolls left over from breakfast that were in a dish on the stove. Kuddles actually got on the counter and ate them all. I don't mean that she jumped up and ate the cookies. I mean she climbed up ON the counter and ate the cookies and orange rolls. There were muddy little foot prints all the way down the counter (she knocked over a cup of water too). The footprints even went through the kitchen sink and out onto the counter on the other size.

What to do.........

Choir concert.....50's style

The girls had their choir concert tonight.

The theme was rock n roll forever.

It was really good!


I made poodle skirts for them. (Well, not Addison's. It was left over from a Halloween costume.)

They had a whole stage scene and in addition to the singing there was dancing too.

Did you notice the tall kid by the juke box? He's Elvis. It's too funny because he's a blonde headed kid and the wig was just awful. Of  course, that only made the whole production even better. Everytime he would talk all the little girls would scream.

They all did a great job.

Graduation

I almost forgot to post about Dax's graduation from the Sheriff's Citizens' Academy.

This was the second round of classes for him and he graduated last Thursday.

We all went to see him graduate (and eat some great bar-b-que.)

The Sheriff presented the certificates.

They even gave little badges to the kids.

Wasn't that nice?

Question of the Week

From the multiples and more blog, here's the question of the week:

How do you encourage your multiples to develop and maintain their own individual identities?



Do you plan to, or already separate them in school?

We chose to separate our kids in school from the beginning. When they started school we were living in a  very small house and they all four shared a bedroom, so the time apart at school was very important to    them. They each took great pride and ownership of their own classrooms. Aside from that, we also wanted    them to make their own friends rather than cling to each other. It's worked out great for us.

Do you encourage your kids to pursue separate interests, or try to keep them in the same activities?

We encourage them to pursue the things they are interested in and strive to work out the kinks when they happen. There's been everything from soccer to fencing to choir and a whole lot in between. We   encourage them to try new things if they're interested, but once they sign up they have to finish out their    commitment even if they decide they don't like it.

What are your feelings on dressing multiples alike? Coordinating names?

We've never dressed them alike and their names don't coordinate. I figure that they get treated like parts of    a whole often enough, I don't want to encourage that any more than is necessary.

If your kids are older, do they still like to, or choose to dress alike?

They don't chose to dress alike now either. Heck, I'm not sure they even talk to each other when they're at   school.

What specific things do you do to help encourage your children's individuality?

We encourage them to do the things that interest them, regardless of whether it interests any of the others.    Especially when they were younger Dax or I would take one of them with us when we ran errands so that they could have some alone time with us. (We usually stopped for lunch too.)  Dax makes sure to spend time with Wyatt doing 'guy' things and the girls like for us to have girls' day out (which for them means going shopping.)

Field Trip

The kids had their class field trip today.


They've been so excited all week.


They went to Schlitterbahn Water Park.


Unfortunately they barely got to stay long enough to get into the water at all.


When I got up this morning it was raining. I kept telling myself that it would be fine and they would still get to go because they were getting wet anyway, the rain wouldn't really matter.


As it turns out, they got off the bus and headed for the water when the lightning started. They waited for awhile to see if it would stop, but it didn't. They were back at the school by noon.


I felt so bad for them.


On a good note, though, they get to try again on the 25th.


I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them.

Band Update

We went to the orientation for Junior High (where does the time go?) tonight and the instrument drive for band.


They had a lot more kids sign up for band this year than they ever have before so they just kind of had to assign instruments to kids.


Here's our break down:

Wyatt will be playing the trumpet. He's thrilled because it's what he wanted.

Abigail will be playing the flute. She's thrilled because it's what she wanted.

Addison will be playing the trumbone. I don't know if she's thrilled or not. It was the last on her list. But, everyone kept telling her that she was too small to play it so now she's determined to. I told her that she might have to wear flip flops to band class so that she could use her feet to help her get the trumbone fully extended.


She doesn't think I'm funny.


Anyway, now begins the search for instruments.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the moms out there have had a great Mother's Day.

Mine was fabulous.


Dax did his ride out last night with the sheriff's department and got home at about 4:30 this morning. Since the kids knew hew was out all night they were especially quiet when they got up.


I took complete advantage of the situation and sat in bed reading. Woohoo!!!

We took it easy for the rest of the day.

The most active thing we did was go  buy sno cones.


Oh, and Dax made the kids do the dishes. I think he had to threaten them before they actually made any effort at 'looking like' they were doing it. Not many dishes actually made it into the dishwasher.


My little angels gave me this:

Actually, I ordered it and thanked them profusely for the wonderful gift. But, hey, it works for me.

Now the disclaimer: When I saw the ring in a catalog and it wasn't expensive, I wanted it. I ordered it and told the others (more than once) not to get me anything else for Mother's Day. I even went so far as to make a big deal of it when it came in and asked them how they knew what I wanted. The kids all made cards for me and they were wonderful. I felt (feel) very loved and blessed.

Life gets crazy sometimes!

It's been crazy around here the last couple of weeks.

The week after the 15th (that's kind of how we keep track of things this time of year - when they occur in relation to tax day) Kirsten and Wyatt each stayed home sick one day.


Had another busy weekend with soccer. I took Addison to her game on Saturday which was first thing in the morning in Kerrville which is about 1 1/2 hours away from us.


Dax had his field day with the Sherrif's Citizens Academy. They got to watch how the SWAT team operates and then did some shooting in the afternoon.


Then on Sunday he took Addison to her last (thank goodness) soccer game of the season which was in San Antonio. Another 1 1/2 hour drive in the opposite direction. We've covered some territory this soccer season, that's for sure.

It's a relief to have that over with for a few months.


But then on Monday morning (I hadn't even made it to the office yet) I got a call from the school nurse.


Abigail had fallen in p.e. and hit her head and it was going to need some attention.

I'll say!

They didn't stitch it, they used dermabond and that's the 'closed' version. I wish they had just used stitches. She didn't go back to school until Wednesday because she couldn't wash her hair until Tuesday night. I couldn't send her to school with all the blood still caked in her hair.

Because the dermabond holds all the hair away from it, I braided the hair around it to help hold it closed and keep it covered so all the other kids wouldn't be bugging her to look at it. She hates that kind of attention.

Anyway, back to the story.  Dax was still at the house so I called him to go get her and take her to have it taken care of.

While they were cleaning it out, at the clinic, the stress of it all got to Dax and he passed out (which is really weird because I'm the one who does that, not him).

Anyway, when he did, he fell and hit his head on the wall really hard. His knee got hurt, his elbow is all bruised, and he has a mild concusion!!

Really? I thought this stuff only happened in the movies!

It took him two days to feel better after the fall, but then from being on the dirty floor in the clinic he's picked up some kind of bug so he's sick now.

And, to top it all off, Wyatt missed three days of school this week (one of them was the TAKS test) because he's been sick. I think he's had the flu. He's been running a fever and throwing up.

I wish there was something more I could do for him, but I think he's finally starting to feel better. He actually got out of bed yesterday.

All I can say is that I'm looking forward to the start of a new week. I have high hopes that it will prove to be better than the last one for sure.