Learning our ABC's...

Israel has been asking for me to teach him some letters ( because he sees us doing homework and reading with Keira) and at this point we don't think preschool is in the budget for the fall so I dug deep and put together a few things for him too do. He seems to like it and has learned A,B,C, so far. We do a few games, a few worksheets and 2 letter games on the Ipad. I don't know how you home schoolers do it. The homeschooling world seems so overwhelming that I just want to totally tune it out. The resources and methods are overwhelming and there are just so many blogs about it. It stresses me out to be in charge of what they ( my kids) know and don't know and to try and find the time to do anything with the baby and toddler..... AHHH!! Maybe I am lazy but I do NOT want to home school. I am eternally grateful for Keira's Catholic School and so glad that I do not really have to home school. Israel's birthday is 10 days past the cut off so he actually won't be eligible for Kindergarten for two more years so there is TONS of time to learn the basics.
Don't judge me on the disaster zone of a desk that he is working on. Its Keira's art zone and no matter how many times I organize it and make it tidy she destroys my handwork in 5 seconds of beginning an art project, and she starts projects about 20 x a day so yeah...

Happy 2 months Samuel!

 Birth

 1 month

2 months

Painted

The front is fully painted.  Still need to finish up the trim in the back and garage doors...but overall...this is the look we were going for...we LOVE it.

Before (shortly after we moved in and removed 2 tall bushes)

And now...new color. We still need some major help in landscaping and Mike destroyed our Rododendrons.  But the red door, black shutters and grey house are a major improvement over the white house with green shutters.

Spring = outdoor projects

 There is blog neglect happening because of the crazy chaos that goes with a new baby and because of this. The re painting of the whole house. We are not  naive enough to think that Mike can tackle a project like this by himself. We hired our favorite painter but Mike is working with him on the weekends to decrease the overall cost of the project and save us some money. As with any project there is always a can of worms to be opened. We had a general idea of what this can was. Rotten wood and windows. We have alot of windows and no extra cash so the window replacing cannot happen at the moment but Mike has replaced any rotten trim or pieces of wooden siding that needed to be done.

 We are changing the whole color scheme so its going to look VERY different color wise when its finished.

And the kids are ecstatic that their Christmas present of a new trampoline with a cage safety net now resides in the backyard and not in a box in the garage.

1 month old and first smiles

 The sticker above his head says 1 month... clearly I need to adjust the camera mode and or flash

 Not a great picture but he smiles when talked too

The world of terrorism through the eyes of a 5 year old and pics of an empty Boston

The news events of the day around here are just crazy. Boston Marathon Bombing on Monday. Massive manhunt today with the entire city of Boston on lock down.
These pictures of the "empty city " are  so so strange. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17826502-an-empty-metropolis-bostonians-share-photos-of-deserted-streets

So this is the world the terrorism that my children will grow up in. We don't watch tv when the kids are awake and our kids only watch shows on DVD or from Netflix so they have never seen any news programming or commercials. Keira heard about the bombings from school. She told me last night there was a really bad man in Boston who put bombs in trash cans and hurt alot of people. "Why would he do that? I would make people happy instead and instead of giving bombs I would give goody bags with lollipops"

Curtains make a difference and before and after mudroom shoe bin

 Before curtains

After curtains

 Prior to lid completion- Each side has a separate lid so you can grab your shoes then sit on the bin's bench seat and put on your shoes.

 Special child friendly springs so little fingers don't get squished by the lid ( found at Home Depot). One side will be for adult shoes and one side for kids shoes.

Outside of box. Since the floor is dark and the walls are white bead board Mike is going to stain the wood instead of painting it and hopefully that will provide a nice contrast of the dark and light in our mudroom corner.

Spring and growing

 What they don't know will make them stronger.... their berry smoothies have spinach hiding in it. :o) Mama is sneaky like that.

 I love this kid. He has passed the 2 week mark and he is still a calm little guy. He rarely cries, sleeps well ( so far even in the car), eats a ton and is generally just a cuddle bug.

 At 2 weeks they generally like to see a baby back to his birth weight. Samuel was 8 lbs 5 oz at birth. 8 lbs 6 oz at 5 days old and today at 2 1/2 weeks he was 9 lbs 8 oz. Yeah buddy!

 Warmer weather has arrived!!!!!!!!!!! 50 degrees means its a heat wave and no one needs shoes right?

Yes my children pick out their own clothes and yes it makes me cringe every day to see their fashion choices.

Samuel 2 weeks old

2 weeks old!

The helper

 First time outside!!

Because Mike went back to work this week, my 10 year old niece Kateri was kind enough to come stay with us for a few days and help me with anything and everything. She was amazing. From doing dishes and making snacks to putting the kids shoes and jackets on 101 times her extra pair of hands was a tremendous help. The kids love her and having her here all week to play with and read stories with was fun for them too. She held Samuel for me every day while I showered and did laundry and while I put Israel and Nairi down for their naps. Every morning when Nairi woke up the first thing she said ( after demanding to "Go downstairs!") was "Where Kateri go?"
Now I am sad to say I have to figure out this whole 4 kids under 6 thing myself.... stay tuned folks. This is probably my most difficult mission ever. :o)

Happy Easter 2013

 We have super powers. We made it to 8 am Mass ( only about 2 min late) with 4 kids under 6. Yeah we are awesome. ( okay maybe I set out everyone's clothes the night before)

 Take note: If you travel with a teenage girl people will think you have a LIVE in nanny. It will happen over and over again. No we don't have a nanny. Yes I would love one... or maybe a cook or a maid. :o)