"Just One Minute!"

Dave and I celebrated our 11th anniversary last weekend, it was so nice to spend some time with my hubby. He surprised me with a four day weekend (actually he tells me he told me about, but I forgot, so that is still a surprise right...especially since I love surprises.) While the girls were at school we spent the day visiting the botanical gardens. It was super gorgeous as the Camellia's were blooming, as were the flowering pears and daffodils. I forgot my camera while we were walking around, but just imagine huge trees full of white, pink, and red flowers, and the grass starting to turn green. (I love spring in the south.) We then had a picnic lunch (Spencer was so excited to have a picnic), then put the boys in the bike trailer and took a ride around the lake. The pictures of the boys and I (previous post) we took after the ride, while we were playing hide and seek with Spencer. While the girls were at school Friday we also took the boys for another bike ride (the weather was to just nice to resist) and then spent the rest of the day getting things done around the house. We also did get a sitter and went out for ice cream. It was so nice to just have time to talk and not have work for a few days. A great way to spend our anniversary.

Amanda also got a date with her dad.

Her Activity Days group from church have been learning some basic sewing skills. They each hand stitched poodle skirts, and then planned a daddy daughter dance to wear them to. I don't think I have ever seen Amanda so excited for anything like she was for this. She was on cloud nine and loved every minute of her date. The girls had hula hoop and bubble blowing contests, as well as lots of dancing and fun music. It took her forever to fall asleep after, even though she was so tired. As a side note, Dave had given me a gorgeous flower arrangement for our anniversary and by the next Wednesday (the day of the dance) most of the big flowers were spent. So I thought it would be fun to make each of the girls corsages with the daisies and fern and such, and give them all a splash of green (since it was St. Patrick's day and all). It was fun to ignore all my other chores and do my thing, and I think they all really loved them. Of course the dads all needed something, so they got a shamrock...yeah I ran out of time=)

Spencer has continued to keep me on my toes...his latest antic is screaming this really loud high pitched scream. The worst was when he got these two other little boys to chime in when they passed each other in the isles of the grocery store this week. I tried everything I could think of to get him to stop...which he finally did. But the other boys kept at it. I am glad I don't know their parents as they probably have a few words for me now. But I am happy to say that the bean jar is helping, and it is really great because it works for all the kids, even Dave got to put one in for changing not one but two stinky diapers today=)

Here is Spencer playing hide and seek, which continues to be his game of choice...all day=)

And my sweet Jacob, who just gets cuter and faster everyday. His favorite obsession these days is with the springs on the back of the doors, which he loves to spring over and over again. That and pulling up to the dishwasher while I am loading to get to the silverware. He does not like "baby toys", but loves his brothers cars and trucks and any paper he can rip to shreds. Between he and Spencer I think that I have my work cut out for me.
And last but not least, Maren was asking me this week to help her get some stickers down from a high shelf. I told her "Just wait One Minute Maren, I am stirring this, and then I will get those for you". She proceeded to go into a full out discussion about how long a minute is and how when I say that (above quote) I take "way longer than one minute" and she knows how long a minute is supposed to be. It was a good reminder of how smart my kids are, and that I need to re-evaluate how my minutes are spent. Nothing like a house full of kids to keep you on your toes!