My Birthday Week

(plus lots and lots of pictures from the past couple weeks)

I had lofty plans for my birthday, including a big playdate with my favorite cake and ice cream and a family dinner out with friends. On Monday I started to sense that some sickness was starting. Several of our good friends had been sick the previous week, and after a ballet drop-off and a crazy grocery trip with the three littlest kids, I came home to make dinner and then hunker down for a rough week.

Katie's fussiness started last week. She's really not happy in the evenings and has a very hard time going to sleep, probably due to teething and now this virus. Thomas started with an earache Monday night. Over-the-counter pain meds didn't help much and after a few hours of crying and writhing, Steven opted to take him to the ER at 1:00am. Tommy wasn't keen on this and threw a royal fit about getting into the car, which resulted in a neighbor's call to police. Steven was surrounded, one cop came to the door, but after a few minutes they realized that all was okay.  Still more drama added to the otherwise rough all-nighter.

Katie wasn't doing well the next day, so I took her to the doctor, and then went back the next day with Thomas after his eardrum ruptured and he spit out most of his medicine. I had an insurance fiasco with the pharmacy, and sat in a lot of traffic. Now Steven Joseph appears to have croup, so I imagine it'll be another full night. There have been continual fevers and ibuprofen-administering, faucet-noses, and tissues all over the house. My clothing has been covered in child-snot all week long.

Tomorrow I was supposed to lead our first 4-H meeting at our homeschool park day. Piano lessons were rescheduled, then canceled. Our new swing set hasn't been touched all week. My days have been spent trying to appease the baby and make sure the sick children are comfortable. I have a stack of bills that haven't been opened. I've been wearing yoga pants and no makeup all week. Even my "big" jeans are feeling tight. So much for the step counting on my FitBit.

But being forced to have a quiet week at home caring for kids is really what my birthday is all about. It's about being given the best birthday gift ever...a wonderful family with a great husband and five beautiful children. What better to do than to spend the week focused on them and not on silly old me?   What better way to thank God for my life than to offer back to him these precious souls he has entrusted to me.

I can still hope for a happy weekend and a new week filled with healthy kids for Valentine's activities though! May his healing presence be with each of my children, and may they always know my love and His love. Thanks be to God for 37 happy years of life!

And here are some photos of happier days, since I'm not sure when I'll blog again...

piano lessons

goddaughter's skating party

fun times in the backyard

around the house

her first Shipley's donut

and at the park for a friend's birthday

Ellie's Piano Recital 2014

I'm having a hard time uploading videos with this new computer, but let's see if we can get it to work!  Here's Ellie at her piano recital on May 18th.  We are so proud of her hard work this year!

(I finally had to search for videos to explain this on YouTube and made a little shortcut because I can't get the videos to load straight from iPhoto!)

Gotta love the grandma taking a photo in front of us in this first video!

And this second one with her teacher is from Swan Lake :)

End-of-Year Activity Finale

Catching up with photos and some videos of the kids and their end-of-year activity celebrations.

Here is Steven Joseph right after he hit his first homerun at the last game of the season!  I can't remember if I wrote about it here, but he just kept running and running, even when the fielders started chasing him from 2nd base on, and the coaches told him to stop!  The stands were yelling and roaring in laughter and I only wish we would've gotten video of it!

But I do have a video of him playing short stop.  He is constantly out there practicing, pretending he's catching the ball, tagging the runner, spinning in circles, running around.  We all love watching him do this!  He's the one in the middle moving around.

Here he is with his team members at their end-of-year party.  They had a great time playing on the playground, then getting treats and trophies!

Coach Robert with some encouraging words about each player as they got their trophies

Texas Rangers Little League T-Ball Spring 2013, with the coaches.

 

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We had a Show and Tell End-of-Year Party with our homeschooling group that same weekend.  We enjoyed watching all the kids perform their skits and dances and everything.  Ellie played her piano pieces...

Steven happily recited "Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson

And Mary Clare recited "Foreign Lands" by Robert Louis Stevenson, including some cute props that she made, there in the basket!

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And Ellie also had her piano recital last weekend!  She played "Hello to the Drum"
(Sorry, videos got focused wrong and are of her back, but I'm just glad MC offered to be my video helper!)

and "Evening at the Ballet"

Receiving her certificate

So proud of our big kids!

It was a whirlwind weekend, but we're glad to have finished their spring activities and have a little break while we decide what we'll be doing this summer!  We were a bit sad to miss out on a ballet recital this year, but glad they got to perform in two full-length ballets.  Hopefully in another week or two, they'll start some lessons at their new ballet school.  Piano will start back up in mid-June.  It looks like we'll be taking a break from swim team this summer, but we should be doing at least one VBS, and hosting lots of friends and family coming to visit.  Should be a great one!

Bring on Summer 2013!

Christmas Piano Recital

Ellie started with a new piano instructor late this summer, and then Mary Clare joined in this fall. They've been taking since about March, around 9 months.  I think they're doing really well!  Mary Clare isn't sure she wants to continue (hates practicing), but we'll see come January.

Here are the videos:



And photos...
Ellie and Mrs. S setting up for her first song, Away in a Manger.

Playing with her teacher.  This was actually a Halloween song, "Zoom, Zoom, Witches Broom," but Ellie enjoyed it so much, they changed the name to "Gray, Gray, Winter Day" for the Christmas recital :)

I guess I only got one shot of Mary Clare playing her song, "On this Wondrous Night."  The only other photo was mid-bow ;)

Snacking with friends afterwards.  It was held at a piano store.