Another birthday party

We had Dax and Delaney's joint birthday party at Gym X-treme today! The kids had a great time and --even Mom and Dad got in on the action by jumping into the ballpit. OK--Daddy came up behind Mommy and picked her up and then jumped into the ballpit, but it still counts right? The kdis thought it was great, but Mommy tried to take a bath in hand sanitizer afterwards! Look at the picture! Does that thing look like it has ever been cleaned? Not to mention the work it took to climb out of that thing! Even the Grandma's jumped in. Grammy Michelle swears there is no bottom on the pit!

So, whew--done with our birthday party season again until next September!!!

We also had our first snow day on Friday. I wasn't surprised! I mean the four older children all put on their pajamas inside out, flushed ice cubes down every toilet and slept with spoons under their pillows. So, of course, when they woke up on Friday morning earlier than they would have to on a normal school day and the reason they gave when asked why thery were up was, "We want to see if we get to sleep in today!", I wasn't at all surprised that they got a snow day. They enjoyed just playing games and staying in their inside out pj's. And, of course, I was reminded of one of the great benefits of being a teacher--snow days. Sometimes, I think us teachers look forward to them more than the kids.

The only sad part of the day was when Daddy had to leave for work. Drake put on his shoes, grabbed his play cell phone, and went over to the boys and said, "bye, boys!" He was devastated when Daddy told him he had to stay and couldn't go to work with him :(

Little Man Dax turns 5!

I CANNOT believe he is5!!! Drew just turned 5 yesterday, when I was pregnant for Dax, didn't he? So hard to believe...

Dax and I did our traditional "5 years old today" fun day with just him and mommy! We started out at Starbucks for breakfast (OK, so technically this was for Mommy-but we are talking about Dax here, so I knew I was going to need the caffiene to keep up with this one!!!), then we went to see The Muppets at the theaters at Easton. I realize why the Muppets were big in the 70's---everyone was doing the drugs I needed to make it through this movie!!!!! Seriously--even Dax leaned over and asked when we could leave. Even Jack Black could not save this one. Once that was over, we experienced the torture that is Build-a-bear on a sunday! It was worth it, though. Dax made a bear for me and recorded himself saying, "Hi Mom, It's Dax, I'm 5 and I love you!" Now I will always have his little five year old voice for those days when he is 15 and "I love you Mommy" isn't exactly on the tip of his tongue anymore. He then made a bear with my voice. I said, "Hi Dax. It's Mom. I love you-you will always be my little man Dax". However, as you can see by the above picture, by the time he was done with his bear, I should have pulled out by best James Earl Jones impression and just said, "Dax- I am your mother!" So now, Darth Vader bear will forever have my voice. Please don't let me die any time soon--I would hate for that to be the thing he carries around to hear my voice and tell other people that it reminds him of his mommy! After this we visited Gamestop, Lego Store, and finished at the arcade. Yep--I happily spent $50, two hours, and got a leg cramp from trying to press the pedal on Mario Cart because he couldn't reach, but is too big to sit on my lap, and had to hold the lunge for the full two minutes of his race, to get three plastic swords, a bag of sour patch kids, and ....wait for it, wait for it....a tootsie roll! Yes-- this would have come to a grand total of $3.50 at the dollar store, but really--you can't work your triceps with twenty games of skeeball so you can use up the rest of the credits you paid for because the five year old suddenly decides he is done and wants to go home to play video games at the dollar store! If I wasn't turning 34 tomorrow, it might actually be funny that I'm sore today from the games!!

So, five years ago today, I was in the hospital with my perfect little family of two boys and two girls. Everyone had a brother and a sister, and Shawn and I were perfectly happy. Funny how sometimes, you don't realize what your missing until you get it! And boy did we get it with number 5! Yesterday, Aunt Cassie took Drake to sunday school with her since I was with Dax. Apparantly, he fell out of a chair and yelled out, "I suck!" in front of all of the preschoolers. Awesome--guess we're not getting "Catholic Family of the Year" again this year!!!!

Happy 2012!!!

We started 2012 like we do every year--with a bang! We covered the living room floor with bubble wrap and the kids jumped, rolled, stomped, crawled, and every other possible movement in order to pop the bubbles. It didn't really help Mommy's headache since I started the year by getting strep throat yet again!!!! But, it did make me smile :)

Can you say "Awkward Family Photos"? As you can see, four of our children are bright and happy and ready to face the New Year, one child is sick, tired, and did not want her picture taken. Did you ever notice that most statistics are 1 out of 5??? 1 out of 5 children end up in jail, 1 out of 5 children will drop out of school, 1 out of 5 children (insert any horrible fear of parent here)....Shawn and I have some running bets on which kid will fall into which category, but we usually keep that between us.

This one definitely falls into one of those previous categories, that ornery, sweet smile speaks for itself!!!

We wish every one of our family and friends a wonderful 2012 and many happy memories! Thanks for spending another year being an important part of Team Adams!

Christmas 2011!

The absolute best part of being a parent is Christmas morning! I mean, really, does it get any better than that???? Here are the fab five waiting for the grandparents to get here so they can actually open the gifts...but they have smiles of relief because at least they know at this point, that they made the good list!

This year, we started a new tradition...the kids decided to write letters to Jesus and send them up in helium balloons that said "happy birthday" on Christmas morning. Here is a picture of the kids doing the usual dropping of "reindeer food" (i.e. glitter mixed with oats) on the front lawn in the hopes that it will attract the reindeer to the house!!!

So- the big gifts this year were the Skylanders video game for the boys, barbies for the girls, and Drake got his own little tykes car--he has told mommy and daddy that he is going to Grammy's numerous times already.

The kids sang in the church choir on Christmas Eve...and Drew and Dawsyn both had solos. It was really nice and we were very proud of them. We also restarted a tradition that I stole from my childhood. When I was little, my mom's side of the family would choose "advent families" and all during advent--you would secretly take them gifts, then reveal who you had the week of Christmas. So, this year, we put the names of our friends in a hat and drew one. The winner (hopefully they agree with that) was the Byrd family. They have twins who are in Dawsyn's class at school. So, we very discreetly left them a gift or two every week from Thanksgiving until Christmas. We had so much fun ringing their doorbell and trying to run away before they saw us. It is difficult to be inconspicuous with 5 children! Needless to say, they figured out who was doing it before we revealed ourselves, but it was so much fun!

So--another Christmas is in the books! Literally--I already have the pictures in the photo albums! :)

Holidays weekends...

First weekend in December and I'm ready to drop already! We spent Friday evening in Mason for a Christmas parade. Then all day Saturday, my students and I rang the bell for the Salvation Army red kettle. The kids came and got in on the action as well and really liked it. We went on the Polar Express again this year. Drake really got into it, until he saw Santa. Then he was scared and wouldn't lift his head! Can't wait to sit on Santa's lap and try to get a picture this year. That should end well!

Today, the older three had their piano concert. This was Delaney's first time playing in front of a crowd. She played "Ode to Joy". We were very proud of her. Dawsyn played, "We Three Kings" and Drew played "Carole of the Bells". It makes the Tuesday piano lessons and sitting there for an hour and a half totally worth it!

So, we are off and running with the holidays. I can at least say that I am baked, bought, wrapped, and decorated. So, if I get a chance, I would love to take a little bit of time to just enjoy it all.

Happy Thanksgiving

I love those moments when I take a picture of the kids and just KNOW that 20 years from now, it will be the thing they will be sitting around the kitchen table laughing at me and saying how they can't believe what I did to them as children! This picture is definitely it!

We did our traditional Thanksgiving. The elves came back--and this year they had a baby elf with them whom the kids named "Dyllin". And--our friend, Alexa, who was spending the night even got an elf of her own on Thanksgiving morning. We had our Thanksgiving dinner, decorated our Christmas tree, and we even got a head start on the Christmas cookies for tomorrow. So, now we are in our matching pajamas (no-Shawn and I don't have elf pajamas) and watching a movie and getting ready to sleep in front of the Christmas tree as a family like we do every Thanksgiving!

Drew rolled his eyes about doing the Thanksgiving play this year, but obliged me and wore the elf pajamas, so I guess that the era of "choose your battle" has officially begun.

Number 5 is 2!

So little D is now officially two. Not that you need to be told that if you spent five minutes alone with him! He is the little man of the house and feels he has every right to tell everyone else whatever is on his mind, which apparently is quite a bit! He reminds me so much of Drew at this age with the way he talks and thinks, but he has Dawsyn's temper, Delaney's face, and Daxton's little ornery gene! What a combination!

I hate it when each of them turns another year older, but it is particularly difficult when it is Drake. He is the reason I started this blog almost three years ago when I found out I was pregnant for him. Now, as I type this, he is screaming that he needs Daddy because he wants his socks on!!!! He is very picky about having socks and shoes on. I think he is afraid that if he doesn't have them on, he will get left behind. I don't know where this irrational fear comes from since he has only been forgotten in the car once, lost at a greenhouse once, and accidentally left behind when we went to leave once--but most of the time we remember him--especially now that he is so vocal!

He doesn't like to be held anymore unless he is really tired or afraid. He hates the dark (the one thing he got from Mommy) and loud noises or heights. He is definitely becoming his own person and it is so fun to watch. I look at his little face and see so many possibilites for the future. I hope that he always knows that even though he is number 5, he is so important to us and we could never imagine life without him!