Keeping Busy

Little Compton is gorgeous. Definitely the place to be.....IN THE SUMMER!!!! Winter? Not so much. The population drops by about 2/3's (resulting in approximately 10 people living there vs. 30) and it is cold and wet and, in case I haven't mentioned it, a bit "out there." That said, it is a challenge to find things to do to keep a 3 year old and a 20 month old busy on the weekends. But, we have managed.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Winter Festival in Newport. Holy Bouncy House Hell. Wow. Picture a ballroom at the Marriott filled with literally 10-15 bouncy houses and approximately 5,000 children. Holy crap.

Regardless, Avery is now big enough to go in the bouncy houses by herself and to deal with all of the other "bigger kids" running around, so she had a blast.

Al? Well, Al had a blast too, but given that he is too small and would get smooshed by the bigger kids, Mama had to be in the bouncy house with him. It was fun....for the first minute. After that, I was starting to get hot and sweaty and annoyed with all of the kids who can't seem to wait their turn in line and would just run Al right over if I let them. Much to their dismay, my butt was just large enough to shove them out of the way if they caused too much trouble. They didn't mess with Al after that.

The only issue that we had was that Al is currently at the age where he has a hard time with transition. And, by transition, I mean leaving the bouncy house to go and do something else. So, basically, every time we exited, I had to deal with a kicking, screaming 20 month old. He was THAT kid. It was awesome. Once he calmed down, we managed to get each kid the world's fastest face painting (not kidding - the rainbow? one sponge with 6?? colors on it). As you can see, not even the large, green shamrock on Al's head could cheer him up after being removed from the bouncy houses...

Avery also got a chance to touch a real alligator



and to watch some crazy scientist guy do science tricks.

Last weekend, it had snowed on Saturday night but was then in the low 40's on Sunday, we got a chance to get outside. Yet again, poor Al was stuck in his sister's clothes.

This time, it was because his snow pants and boots were left at daycare on Friday. The way I see it, he can have the "why in the hell am I wearing pink again?" discussion with Grammy and Grampy, as they are the ones who picked him up on Friday. Anyway - not only was it warm, but the snow was also perfect for building a snowman...named, Melissa.






Clearly we are not well trained snowman builders because, this was Melissa approximately 10 mins after she was built.

And, not only did Melissa die a sudden death, but as it turns out, Melissa was also toxic, as I made her mouth with raisins and her eye balls with hershey kisses - both of which will poison Deacon. That said, after Melissa's collapse, I was stuck crawling around trying to find every last raisin and chocolate chip so that Deacon couldn't eat them. I think that he did manage to find one, but he is still alive and well, so I'm not too concerned. Never boring!

This weekend, we start gymnastics up again, which will be a nice way to get out of the house on Saturdays up through May and then hopefully we will be back in playground and beach weather. This time around with gymnastics proves to be even more exciting, as Al is officially participating. Lord help me with the "transition"with that one!

Cooking Disaster

In an attempt to grant my daughter's wishes and make pancakes for breakfast yesterday morning, poor Al was attacked. What could he have possibly been attacked by while making pancakes, you ask? Take a look for yourself...

And, please disregard the hair - I had just woken up and was clearly not prepared for a photo op at that point).

Yep - poor Al was attacked by the flour. As I was carrying it to the island to begin cooking, I learned (the hard way) that the cute silver case that surrounds the flour container and makes it look nice while on the counter? Yeah...that was no longer glued to the container and as a result, slipped right off as I was carrying it and landed right next to where Al was standing.

I have to admit - I thought it was pretty funny. Al? Not so much. As you can see, he was totally freaked out by the whole thing. I guess I would be to if I were just minding my own business and all of a sudden got attacked by a pot of flour...

Dear Al...

If you continue to wake up at 3:30 AM and scream for an entire hour like you did last night, you will be wearing pink pajamas until you are 18.





Love, Mommy and Daddy

Dear Mommy and Daddy....

I am BEGGING you...PLEASE try to stay a bit more on top of laundry...

And, while you're at it, please don't try to force my sister to smile in pictures - it really isn't a good look for her...

Love, Al

Down Right Balmy

You know it's been a bad winter when you consider 43 degrees to be warm. At this point, I do my best to get the kids out of the house if it is at least 35 degrees or warmer. Otherwise? We all go a bit batty and I get rather irritable. And, if you have ever been around me when I'm irritable, you know it is not a pretty sight.

SO, that said - this last weekend, I was going to take Deacon outside to throw the ball for him (which is something that we haven't been able to do for a while, as our yard has been one big ice skating rink for weeks) and on the way out the door, I figured I should bundle the kids up to take them outside as well - a) they needed to get out, as they too were getting irritable and b) considering Josh wasn't home and Alex can now open all doors in the house, including the basement door, it is no longer safe to keep them in the house unattended. Not that it ever was, but lately, it is even less safe.

So, we all went out and the first thing that the kids did? Went for the sandbox. The site of them in the sandbox while surrounded by snow and bundled up for the winter was somewhat comical, but it worked - it occupied them for a good 20 mins.

What the $#%#$% is this, you ask?


Well, you see - this is a bird feeder that Avery made out of a toilet paper roll at daycare.....in SEPTEMBER. Yes, this thing has literally been sitting in our kitchen since SEPTEMBER. It starts out on the island. And, then, when guests come, it moves over to the corner of the kitchen where I put a pile of various papers that I need to do something with (because I think that it is completely reasonable and understandable for everyone to have "that pile" in their kitchen - even when guests are over) and then it makes its way back to the island in an effort to put it somewhere where I will see it and remember to hang it. It has literally been making this journey between the island and "the corner" since SEPTEMBER. Well, no longer. While the kids were playing in the sandbox, I hung it on the tree. And, I even witnessed a bird eating from it the other day - apparently birds don't mind stale bird seed that has been sitting around since SEPTEMBER...

Happy Valentine's Day

A (surprisingly) relaxing weekend

This last weekend, Jess and Christine (and their babies) both came up from Houston and Columbia, MO, respectively (did I just use the word respectively in my blog??). One would think that a weekend with 3 women, a 3 year old, a 19 month old (who happens to get into EVERYTHING), a 6 month old and a 3 month old could get to be a bit hectic and stressful. Well, it may have had we tried to do, well....anything. We were smart however, and stuck to the original plan of really not doing much at all and I think that we were all ok with that. The weekend was primarily spent eating (clearly, it was not a low-cal diet as evidenced by the bag of chips),

drinking, napping (for everyone but the 3 adults, unfortunately) and taking care of babies.

Avery was in seventh heaven and wanted to be holding either Max or Oliver at all times.

At one point, I had to take Oliver from her so that I could walk out of the room and Avery's comment to me was, "Mom, can you please bring him back? I just love him so much." Yet one more reason to have another baby in the Holland house! :) Kidding. Really.

We did manage to venture out for a short walk near the beach.

It was a gorgeous day and it felt great getting out of the house.

And, I can't post without mentioning the thrilling Super Bowl win by the Packers! Jessica was kind enough to cook dinner while I (i.e., Avery) took care of Oliver and watched the game.

It was heavenly for both of us, as we each got to do something that we don't get to do very often - me, watch TV (and watch the Pack win) and Jess, cook in the kitchen without a baby attached to her hip! As you will see here, I have my Packers shirt on (thank you, Sara!). I'm convinced that wearing Packers shirts while watching the games is good luck - ever since I've started wearing them, they have won. It had to be because of that because, it was clearly not a result of my stunning beauty on this particular Sunday.

Overall, it was a great weekend and hopefully one that we can do again soon (except during the summer so that we can do nothing on the beach in 80 degree weather).