Harried Happenings: Spring Break

It's 11pm on Sunday and the kids are fast asleep; Spring Break is fast coming to a close. Busy week its been, with weather more beautiful than we could have hoped -the leaves and flowers have exploded with all the warm weather we've had!

Can you say fresh peaches this summer? Yum!

We didn't travel anywhere exotic (unless you consider Pittsburgh exotic - it sure was an exciting trip though!) but Evie and William seemed to enjoy their time off from school. Here's a rundown of our week:

Tuesday: How to Train Your Dragon! We saw the 12pm showing in 3D with our neighbors at the Alamo Drafthouse. LOVED IT! I am so glad that Sarah and Jason are big enough to be entertained at the movies now, even if it doesn't hold their attention through the whole show, and we did lose Jason at the end (it was pretty much nap time, and after our weekend in Pittsburgh I don't blame him!)

Wednesday: I can't think of a thing we did on Wednesday other than go to Costco. I'd been up late Tuesday working on our taxes & everyone needed a lazy day after our weekend trip and the movies on Tuesday (no nap for S&J, other than what J got at the movie - not much!) While at Costco with the 4 Wednesday evening I was inspired to fill my cart with wine and cannoli. Can you blame me? I will NOT be grocery shopping with the four this summer... a 24 pack of cannoli is not helping me with my weight-loss efforts. I will note, however, that Costco (at least ours) currently has a Merlot from Santa Ema for $9.97 (deleted, they won't be selling it anymore) and its REALLY GOOD - GO GET SOME! I'm drinking it now ;)!
Thursday: After doing much of nothing on Wednesday, Thursday morning the kids and I made bread, the same William made at school a few weeks ago. Here's a picture to prove it, I actually let them play with flour and water and honey. This is a big step for me.
And actually? They were pretty neat about it and had a lot of fun kneading the dough. I might be persuaded to do it again if they asked!

Friday: Friday morning I came downstairs to find that Matt had been up a good bit of the night with a stomach bug that's been going around, poor guy! We'd planned on going into the city that day, but instead stayed home so he could take it easy. He blames the cannoli, but since he's the only one who got sick I highly doubt that! I was supposed to play Bunco Friday night, but stayed home instead & we all watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs together.

Saturday: Soccer! Should have brought my camera, but forgot it. William scored two goals early on, and Evie ran her legs off for Coach Dad. I know I made pancakes for dinner, but how is it that I cannot recall anything else we did just yesterday??

Sunday: We went to iHop for lunch (for God only knows what reason, Evie has been asking to go there forever!) and then to the local Discovery Museum. All four had a blast playing with the apple setup they had (pulleys, wheelbarrows, cranks, etc), the medical equipment, climbing wall, and of course - the funny mirror. Sarah especially loved this, see for yourself!


We also spent a little time outside enjoying the warm weather and some fresh brewed iced tea!
The week went fast, and it occurred to me: Sarah starts preschool in 5 months, and Jason will start in just 17 months. Time is flying faster than I can believe, and I'm starting to panic about how quickly it's going. I look at Sarah and cannot believe how big she's gotten - she will be FOUR in 6 months, and Jason - my baby! - will be THREE! How is that POSSIBLE? I want to shrink both of them down and keep them in my pocket just as they are now, because I truly do not remember Evie and William at this age. Is it human nature to keep looking ahead to the next thing and not appreciate where you are right now? Because I catch myself doing that. It's so hard to just live in the moment....

Easter Weekend, Harried Style

You know what happens when you try to squeeze too much into too little time? You get really tired! :)

I got the skirts done! Of course, this involved being up until 12:30 or 1am two nights in a row, but they were finished in time! We were leaving to visit family for the weekend Saturday morning so I had a definite deadline; I'd done Evie's earlier in the week & finished Sarah's up Friday evening, then I ended up adding a row to Evie's skirt as it was a bit on the immodest side. So if you decide to make the Can Can skirt, make sure to check the length before you hem the bottom. I shortened the 3 middle tiers on Sarah's skirt by 1/2" which worked out just perfect for her height (she wears a 3T); Evie's skirt needed an extra 3" wide tier (she wears a 7/8).


After being up until 11:30 pm on Friday finishing skirts and desserts for Sunday, after a week of many late nights, I wasn't in any hurry to get on the road Saturday morning; by the time we'd packed the van & hit the road it was a bit after 11am, and we had a 3.5 hour trip ahead of us.

Notice how I just said I wasn't in any hurry to get there? Good thing! We'd just gotten on the interstate near the Pennsylvania border when we hear 'BAM -bam bam' - "What was that?" queried Harried Mom - Harried Dad said he didn't know, and by the time I'd asked him if we should pull over, the tire warning light was on and Evie said "My side is getting really low"! Yes, flat tire. On I-70, in the middle of nowhere at the Maryland/PA border. Thank God for sunny days, wide medians, and handy husbands. If I had been alone when this happened, well, I don't even want to think about that. I was a bit of a wreck as it was :)

Now, Matt was perfectly willing to ride the PA turnpike to Pittsburgh (2.5 hours away) on a donut, however I was not comfortable with that idea. So we creeped to Breezewood (town of motels and gas stations, and not much else!), grabbed lunch, & tried to hunt down a tire shop. Long story short, we limped our way through the Pennsylvania countryside and made our way to Sears in Johnstown!

We had an hour to kill, so we wandered around the mall and had some ice cream....

They didn't eat much lunch but sure had room for ice cream!

and then, LOOK WHO WE RAN INTO! I spotted Edward from the upper level in the mall and suddenly the day didn't seem to be going so bad! Matt was kind enough to take our picture together :) And yes, I realize this sounds completely crackers to most of you but no judging!

He wanted to join us for Easter but there wasn't room in the van.

After our celebrity sighting and an hour's wait, the van had new tires and we were on our way again. 7 hours after we left home, we arrived at my sister's house! After some dinner, the kids dyed Easter eggs. Did you know there are 11 kids between my two sisters and myself? 5 eggs each = a lot of boiled eggs to cook. Thanks Becky!

Sarah, John & Jason

William and Gary

Joey (almost 15) , John (2.5) and Sarah (3.5) - oldest cousin and 2 of the youngest

The next morning we managed to get 3 adults and 8 children dressed and out the door to church by 9:15 - an Easter miracle! The family service at Becky's church was very child friendly & the kids had a good time - Evie said it was the BEST church service she'd ever been too! After church it was photo shoot time...

Evie, Emma and Anna

Us

After a light lunch it was time for a show for the little kids, followed by nap time!

Jason and John, the two youngest - 3 months apart

Daddy and his girl

After Easter dinner there was some tree climbing...

Lilly, sitting pretty in a tree

...followed by an egg hunt! Matt and my BIL Steve filled all the plastic eggs I'd saved from last year with coins and hid them for the kids, who hunted in shifts - youngest, middle, then oldest. There was some wonderment from the little kids, and pouting from my older two who didn't feel they'd gotten their fair share. Figures mine are the pouters :) And we're classy - we use plastic bags to collect our eggs!

Gary, Anna, John, Sarah

Matt & Jason

Evie, Greg, Emma, Gary

Evie and Greg, game faces ON!

Sweet Sarah

Jason's ready to go in

After all was said and done, we had some tired little people peacefully sleeping but the excitement wasn't over yet - Jason rolled out of bed at 2:45 am and managed to get a 1/2" cut on his forehead - I can not believe how much blood there was! Nurse Becky got him all cleaned up, and a sip of apple juice later he was back to sleep.

Easter was a beautiful WARM day here & I'm so glad my sister let me impose my family on her for the weekend! I must say, though, it was filled with just about all the excitement I can handle and I'm glad to be back at home - there really is no place like it :)

The Daily Battle

I face many battles during the day - battling to get small people out the door to school, battling with Sarah about whatever has set her off, battling against whether to eat that cookie or not (I usually lose that one...) But for the last 2 years we've been fighting a battle daily with Jason. Ever since he was strong enough to turn & wiggle, he has fought against getting dressed.

Every day.

Jason LOVES his pjs. It's no trouble to get him into them at bedtime, but try to take them off & you have a vicious fight on your hands. Watch out or you will get slammed in the head with his hard skull.

Once you're victorious in your battle, he will proceed to sob and cry and pout for the next 10 minutes or so. It's fun!

And yes, I took pictures this time :)

I guess I can understand wanting to stay in pjs all day.

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Click HERE if you'd like to know about my most memorable April Fool's Day. An update on the skirts, one down (almost, I need to add another row, it's a bit short on Evie!) and one to go. The first one took about 6 hours, or twice as long as the pattern said. Hmmm.....

Finished! Ottoman slipcover for the playroom

Ok my funk is over and I actually have something to show you today! Remember this? Ugh. The couch and ottoman my kids managed to destroy in the 7 years it's been in the house?

There, that's better!

My lovely new view walking into the playroom :) I would love to say I made the slipcover for the couch, but I didn't. I have Pottery Barn and their January sale to thank for that. I did however make the ottoman cover to match, and the six pillow envelopes! It only took me 2 months to pull that off. I have no idea where the days go.





I didn't really have a pattern for the ottoman cover, I started by making the skirt for it, by copying the box pleats on the couch. All seams are hidden inside the pleats. I should have started with the top first, as I ended up having to adjust the pleats on the short sides of the ottoman. For the pillow covers I turned to Google & found directions for 'envelope pillow covers'. Easy! And I am so glad I did NOT attempt to reupholster the thing, as I can only imagine how awful that would have been, all torn up for months on end making me crazy. My mom swears the PB slipcovers wash up beautifully, hopefully she's right - I do love the cream down there (sorry for the awful pictures, it's a narrow room with low ceilings and no natural light, and professional photog I am not!)

My next project is to turn this

into two of these

Clicky the link for pattern info

in time for the girls to wear them for Easter. Can Harried Mom do it? Time will tell - I've started the blue one for Evie & the pattern says 2-3 hours work time. Stay tuned!

While I have you here, let me share with you what William has been doing all week: playing Wii fit. He's been getting up at a little after 6 every morning and playing all the different games all week long. I guess I don't really have a huge problem with it, as it is an active video game. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to care? Anyway - he was doing this bird flying-thing, and it was really cracking me up to watch him lean this way and that while flapping his arms :)

Happy Monday and I hope you all have a fantastic week!