Grumpy Pants and Running Laps

Catie's face portrays exactly how we all felt yesterday- GRUMPY! Too many errands, too much to do, and not enough time to play!

Right now Andrew and Catie's favorite thing to do is run. I guess I am setting a good example and making it look cool? ;) They love to run away from me and run basically whenever we are anywhere. Yesterday that meant they ran all over the camera store and JoAnns... which added to my grumpiness. In the late afternoon we finally found the perfect spot for them to get out their energy- the preschool storage unit hallway. 

When we get home from errands Andrew always asks, "Can we run a lap?" and then when I say yes, he says, "C'mon Catie!" and the two of them race around our cul de sac. I seriously love our cul de sac. If we don't have anything going on or need to rush inside, they will run around and around the cul de sac again and again while I sit on the grass and relax. Best activity ever.

Today felt much less crazy than yesterday... maybe because I woke up before everyone and actually showered at some point during the day- unlike yesterday? Cara and I ran 5 miles early this morning and I spent the rest of the day waddling around recovering. We had a bunch of preschool friends and moms over to work on curriculum projects and then I finally sat down to relax and do NOTHING but eat ice cream and watch Netflix shows around 1pm.

I was too tired to even nap. After the kiddos had nap/quiet time, Andrew kept himself occupied with drawing and playdough creating by himself forever... so Catie and I sorted laundry and put it away. My laundry system today was sort, fold, put clothes in drawers, take out clothes Catie put in wrong drawers, re-organize drawers, try and sneak a nap on the floor while Catie played, then move to the next room and repeat... I loved that Catie eventually caught on to my system and would yell, "No Mommy, wake up!"

I love having such a cute and crazy buddy as my helper! She'll totally sit on my lap and say, "my buddy!" and give me hugs. It is adorable... even when it is annoying.

We ate dinner outside tonight and had a blast doing more creating with playdough. Catie finally stopped eating it. Hooray! Andrew was outside creating by himself for a long time and was so proud to show us his volcano creation.

I am going to be so sad when summer is over and it starts to get dark earlier! I love our evenings outdoors.

Only one more day till a long weekend, so we definitely won't be grumpy tomorrow!

Duped

I spent a few hours over at Andrew's preschool today working on Curriculum stuff and running errands. I am the Curriculum chair on the parent board this year. Andrew and Catie hung out with a new babysitter while I was gone. She is awesome and Catie was practically pushing me out the door (not crying hysterically- like usual) when I left. Yay!

My little Andrew "monster" chose not to cooperate with some of the things the babysitter asked him to do (cleaning up? why would I do that?)... and instead decided to pout. Until he wised up and told her that he was going to go pout in his room... with the door closed. A normal person would think, "oh, how cute, he put himself in time out." Someone who knows Andrew really well would know that the iPad somehow made it into the room with him... so instead of reflecting on his bad behavior, he was happily watching Avengers on his bed.

Made me laugh.

This crazy kids cracks me up.

The monster mask featured above was from a birthday party he went to on Saturday for his friend Simon. The soccer cones are his favorite accessory.... Today they only got worn in the car though. When we got to the park he said, "I probably should leave all of this in the car so that kids at the park don't think I am weird."

Really? Why would anyone think that? ;) Love this boy!

Tired

These two seem to have limitless energy. It makes me tired just watching them. 

In the mornings a few times a week I've been running 4-5 miles with my friend Cara. We run before the kids wake up. I love it and am so pumped to be so productive when I get home... but by 3pm on those days I am wiped out. 

I hate napping with the kids because 1) I always seem to fall asleep right when they wake up and it is sleep torture, 2) I feel so unproductive when I do actually nap...

So today when they woke up they played nicely in Andrew's room and I closed my eyes and tried to sleep on the floor. I was tempted to let this stealth iPad watching go on for awhile... Andrew claimed "Catie said she wanted to watch Avengers!" when I caught them :) Yeah right!

After unsuccessfully not napping (because Catie jumps on me anytime I lie down), I finally convinced my kids that we should leave the house. Lately they throw tantrums when we have to go anywhere because they like playing with their toys and each other so much (fighting with each other is super fun to them too). They also like dumping out every toy that we own all over Andrew's room :)

I bribed them with cookies and off we went to Blackhawk to feed the ducks, eat Draegers sugar cookies (yum!), and pass time until Kevin got home. I am not winning any mother of the year contest anytime soon... since it was 5pm and we were eating cookies before dinner.

My little cookie monster

Chasing ducks

Quacking like a duck

We made it home just in time to hang out with our fabulous neighbors for a few minutes before Kevin pulled in and helped me get the kids fed and to bed after our short little Family Home Evening.

Crossing my fingers I can sleep in a bit tomorrow! I may actually go to bed before 1am for once.

1/2 Birthday and Glamping

On Friday morning I headed off to join the youth in our ward for their annual Opening Social. Andrew and Catie hung with a babysitter until Kevin got home from work in the early afternoon (after his inner tube water polo game). 

I was in charge of helping plan and execute dinner and dessert for Friday night. We had enough mint brownies to last for two meals (this is just a sample), so I successfully accomplished my weekend goal. :)

We "camped" in a family's backyard up close by the American River. When we arrived and saw the infinity pool, bocce ball court, splash pad, tennis court, and other luxurious amenities, we were pretty stoked. Definitely not the sort of camping we'd been planning on... but man was it perfect. Glamping is totally my style of camping. I spent the night on the most cozy padded pool lounge chair ever.

Trying to get 30+ kids to go to sleep when there was so much fun to be had was quite a feat... I think I finally hit the sack around 2am. The only thing we did to "rough it" all weekend was all share one half bathroom (30 youth + about 10 adults).

On Saturday the youth floated down the American River on rafts while they had a giant water fight. I helped shuttle people and cars around and then helped set up lunch halfway through the day... and then met the kids at the end of the day to drive them home.

It is amazing how exhausted I was just from driving, chatting with friends, eating, and helping with meal set up... Rough life I live. :)

When I got home to Kevin and the kiddos you could tell Kevin was ready to do something fun out of the house. He thought we should go and celebrate Andrew's half birthday, so we hit up one of Andrew's favorite places to eat... Fuddruckers!

The kids played in the arcade, I sat and relaxed while watching them and forking out tokens, and Kevin stood in a mega long line for our food.

We let Andrew celebrate his 1/2 birthday by choosing his own meal- he picked french fries and a strawberry milkshake. Catie made sure she stole some milkshake while he was playing arcade games.

Once we got home, Kevin put the kiddos to bed while I crashed and fell fast asleep by 8:30pm... which is unheard of for me!

What a fun and exhausting weekend!

Catie's Words & Friday Night Fun

Catie's Words

Catie cracks me up. Gone are my concerns about her language skills. She has been learning tons of new words each day lately and today and yesterday she started putting them together into 2-3-4 word phrases (that kind of run together, but Andrew and I can tell what she is saying, so that is all that is important). Andrew actually usually figures out what she is saying before I do.

She also sits in her bed before and after naptime and chats with her stuffed animals. She can be in there for 30 minutes + and happily talk to them. It sounds like she is re-enacting conversations she has had with Andrew because I hear a lot of "NO" and "nine"when I sneak close to listen. :)

Her favorite things to say right now are...

• "Nine!" (mine)
• "I tried it" (I try it)
• "My turn"
• "Move please" (if I am sitting in ANY chair that she could remotely want to sit in... she used to just yell MOVE, so we're making progress)
• "Anen" (amen)
• Lots of potty words (thank you Andrew)
• "Tag"- she will hit me and then run in a circle and hit me again and yell it and then run in a circle again... provides lots of entertainment and she gets a lot of energy out. Doesn't bode well at the park when she randomly hits other kids though and they don't understand that she wants to play tag.
• "What's that?"
• "Here you go Mama"
• "Baby spider" and any other word related to bugs, spider, snake, bee, or anything else creepy crawly (she is partially terrified of them and partially in love with them)
• and many more that I keep forgetting to write down because I think I won't forget them... and then I do.

Friday Night Fun

I may have overdosed on Cadbury chocolate during naptime... so I was feeling like my morning run didn't cut it for our workout. After Catie woke up from her nap we decided to walk to a local park about two miles away and stop for popsicles. Once we started walking I realized that running there would just be much faster, so we did that instead. Two 4 mile runs in one day mean I may have partially made up for all the chocolate I ate...

Once at the park we hunted for lizards and played tag... and then we ran home and got popsicles on the way back. Andrew asked if he could run with me instead of sit in the stroller. I told him that was fine as long as he kept up (which isn't too hard when your mom is 29 weeks pregnant). I loved what he said as we started going, "I love running mom. It gets all my energy out. It is such a good workout. I love having a good workout with you."

Then he wanted to try pushing the double jogger. I told him if he works hard he can be the official pusher next year on our runs ;) He lasted a few blocks (since he'd already been playing tag full speed at the park for 45 minutes). We'll have to keep building his endurance over the next few months. I wish I could bottle up all of his energy (and speed) and drink it.

On our way home we also stopped at our favorite spider bushes to go on a spider hunt. We sure know how to party hard on a Friday night, don't we?

The night ended with dinner, a bath, books about being new brothers/sisters, and an early bedtime! I told Andrew that if he didn't crash immediately into bed after all that running that there was something wrong with him. :) I think he agreed with me because I only had one visit from him before he conked out.

Happy Friday!

Google Baby Shower

One of the many many reasons that I love Google is because of the extra details/perks. I especially like the little perks related to paternity leave and the little Google baby gifts they give out.

Kevin gets to go to a Google "Baby Shower" where they explain all of his paternity benefits. He came home with this cute little Google lovey for Baby Buskirk #3. None of our kids have ever used a lovey doll/blanket before, but we will be helping the new baby learn to love this one! It is so cute and soft.

Past Google baby shower gifts have included a Google onesie, Google "I'm feeling hungry!" baby bib, and  a Google hat. I'm planning to buy this YouTube bib and these soft Google blankets sometime soon too. I might need to check out the fleece Android beanie as well.

In the meantime, I will need to find a good hiding spot for this little bear before Catie tries to take him over.

Last Hurrah at Gilroy

The end of summer is fast approaching, so we're trying to cram in a few last minute activities before school starts.

Today we hit up Gilroy Gardens with a bunch of friends.

Andrew thought he was too cool for school and didn't want to go on any of the little kid rides... at least until he saw how much fun Catie was having... and then he was all over them.

I loved the look Catie gave me when I told her it was time to get off the fish ride- grrr! We arrived at noon and left close to 5pm... so I think our last hurrah at Gilroy Gardens was a success.

Best move of the day was buying the kids each their own icee...

Every ounce of my body was sweating because it was so hot outside (even my ankles)... so we sat and chatted and drank our icees for awhile and all the grumpiness went away.

At least most of it... 

Somehow Andrew convinced me to let him play one of the silly $1 carnival games before we left. It was either that or the balloon ride that makes me sick...

He made the smart choice and we all went home happy. 

We ended the day with dinner at In N Out in Gilroy (I was so sad we didn't have time or enough energy for outlet shopping)... and then we headed to Mountain View to pick up Kevin so that I could enjoy a lovely drive home relaxing while he got to navigate all of the traffic. 

We made it home right around 7pm... It was a long exhausting day (we left our house at 10:15am)... but the time spent catching up with friends and seeing the kiddos have so much fun made it worth it!

I am not anxious to take Catie on another road trip anytime soon though. She is not a fan of the car!

Only a few more summer bucket list items to check off before school is back in session!

One of the good days

I am trying to be better about recording simple awesome moments. Instagram is helping a lot with that. Today was one of those good days that I want to remember. It seriously was almost perfect...  

Here's why...

1. I managed to get out of bed before 9am on my own... which is so much better than being woken up by crying crazies... and I still got to sleep in till 8am. 

2. Catie slept till 9:30am, so before then Andrew played and I did some blogging work I needed to do and then we did some math activities. We did a school bus math activity yesterday, which he wanted to play again... wonder why? (M&Ms?)

3. We went running before 10:30am... and I ran a good chunk of the time pushing the crazies and Catie was absolutely adorable talking and singing to the park and home. She said, "hi baby hi" to basically every baby spider web that she saw and every baby flower, etc. We also met up with three friends at the park, so I had fun chatting with my friends while the kids actually all played pretty nicely.

4. Andrew had Cars, Trains, and Airplanes themed camp and Catie slept from when we got home from dropping him off (1:15pm) until the last possible second before I had to leave to pick him up (3:45pm)... which meant I had a lovely break all afternoon to do whatever I wanted. 

5. Andrew was a sweetheart and made Catie a train picture at camp. He told her yesterday that if they did a train project he would make one for her... and he remembered! So sweet. She loved it... although she also loved the wooden airplane he made too and that was quite a grabbing/hitting/name calling fiasco. Guess every day can't be totally perfect, right?

6. I worked with Melissa & Doug on a project earlier this summer and they paid me AND let me pick a few products to have as well. Our box of goodies arrived today... and since Andrew has been way into dress up lately, he loved his new costume and went right to work cooking in his play kitchen for us! The rest of the toys got saved for another day.

7. We did some reading and writing activities later in the afternoon and the little dude LOVED them. Catie played happily (or commandeered my lap to watch) while we worked. I don't think I have EVER seen a kid so excited to read words. I actually don't know much about typical development for 4 year olds and how much Andrew should know already, so he could be totally behind, but I was amazed that he was decoding simple short vowel words by actually sounding them out letter by letter and blending them to come up with the word. 

He was amazed by himself too and wanted to do it again and again. I had to force him to drop the activity so that we could go to the pool.

We also did a volcano name writing game... because little dude loves anything and everything with volcanoes. I laminated it so we can do volcano name writing every day.

8. Later in the afternoon we went swimming at the pool with our neighbors and there were no tantrums when it was time to leave to go home. Normally Andrew throws a giant tantrum and I have to leave with him running after me crying.

9. After dinner and family time I got to have a quick trip to the mall by myself... and I ended the day with one of these.

Yeah... I don't think it gets much better than that.

Tomorrow is going to have a hard time measuring up.

Hooray for the Weekend!

We had a great weekend... so great that I barely managed to take any pictures! 

My parents flew into town because my dad was speaking at a local YSA conference on Saturday, so we grabbed a babysitter and ditched the kids and headed to Oakland on Friday night for some yummy Indian food with Jessie and my mom and dad. I have yet to find any Indian food that is good anywhere near where we live, so this was a delicious treat.

Saturday was spent sleeping in till late, running by myself (it is always lovely not to be pushing a double jogger up the hills in the heat), and going swimming as a family.

Once the kids went down for naptime/quiet time I headed over to the Oakland Temple and crashed the singles conference to listen to my dad speak. He did an awesome job and I loved getting to be there.

Afterwards Kevin brought the kiddos to meet up with us for dinner in downtown Walnut Creek (Scott, Cat, Jessie, mom, and dad all came too). We ate and chatted and hung out at a park until it was past time for the kids to hit the sack.

Sunday was spent going to church and hanging around the house and making (and cleaning up) big messes. Kevin had three different church meetings during the day (plus church), so the kids relished the time they got to spend with him when he was home and we actually had a family dinner that was more than just Pasta Roni or quesadillas.

Catie and Andrew played dress up with dad while I took a lovely afternoon nap

And they also broke out some nerf guns. These two were cracking me up.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend. We loved getting to see my parents and siblings for a little bit and I was so happy that I managed to catch up on a few household things for once too- the fridge finally got cleaned and the dishes got done before Monday morning- always a bonus!

I still have loads of laundry to do tomorrow since Andrew decided it would be fun to sneak marshmallows into his room and then squish them all over his bed with his feet. Gotta love 4 year olds.

Camp, Olympic Fun, and Messiness

Andrew has been feeling extra creative lately, so I just leave out some materials (or he tells me specifically what he wants) and then he will craft for hours. He loves using old boxes and painters tape to make random structures.

His sticker, fire, Halloween, animal masterpiece took over our family room for two days... and today he finally declared it done and moved onto a new picture. Yay!

We have also been doing a lot of Olympic activities because we are obsessed with the Olympics around here. Kevin and I have been up watching events until at least midnight... if not later, every night this week. Our straw javelin throw and straw "high jump" were big hits.

For our "Camp Mom" this week my friend Chrissie hosted a morning filled with Olympic field events. Andrew and friends loved the broom hurdles, tennis ball shot putt, and frisbee discus throw... in addition to several more fun indoor Olympic activities. 

Catie even got in on the action a bit... though she thought it was more fun to make a hat with the discus than throw it.

Andrew also got to go to an adorable camp almost every afternoon this week put on by two girls from our church. Each day had a different theme and he went with loads of friends. His favorite day was the Olympics Day- of course- because he got to another torch! I think we have a torch in every room of our house right now! Camp also had a painting day (see shirt above that he made last year at the same camp), pirate day, and a water day.

Andrew has seriously been in heaven all week with all of the fun activities he's gotten to do!