Maren's own post.

Let me tell you about this little Maren we have here. Declan and Teagan call her "Missy" or "Miss Miss." She is smart. Scary smart. For Easter, she saw the eggs around the yard, and got the shopping cart to collect them. The other evening, Greg and I were sitting at the kitchen table and she comes by with the foot stool from the bathroom, so she can see into the drawers in the kitchen. T R O U B L E

When I put the 'blockade' up at the loft, if she didn't go over it, she climbed through it...

She just wants to be one of the big kids. I think she spent so much time watching them from the Excersaucer, she couldn't wait to be one of them.

She likes to play dress-up too. I saved the princess/fairy Halloween costumes so Maren can play too. She looks so cute, wearing her princess dress while pushing a truck on the window sill in Teagan's room.

I was putting clothes away in her closet when I heard all this commotion in the hallway. Crashes, grunting, but no cries. A minute later Maren comes walking past with no pants on. I figure they were too big and fell off while she was pushing the walker down the hall (and they were size 12 mos.). It only slowed her down because she probably tripped! A minute later she came out of Teagan's room wearing high heels.

Well, thanks for reading about Missy Maren. I noticed she is missing from many of the pictures I load of the kids. She is usually napping when I take pictures I guess.

This...

Recently unemployed Stallion, looking for a 1 trick pony... *wink, wink*

When I got in the car to take the kids to school this morning, I saw this. I asked Declan why his Pinata was driving my car, with $12 cash in his hoof. He just rolled his eyes and told me, "Dad must have done it, Mom" sheesh. When did Greg and I get so dumb??? =)

The Par-tay...

Do you like the photo I chose to sum up Declan's party? Let me point out the various reasons I picked *this* photo:

~I particularly like that the dog is whizzing on the tree.

~The boys pushing and shoving each other while attempting to get in line to hit the pinata.

~All the while, Declan is oblivious to any of it, getting his own little groove on!

I set up stations to decorate cookies and door knob hangers. The cookies were a hit, I think 1 kiddo made a door hanger.

After the pinata, we went to the back yard. I had put little squirt guns in the pinata, and the kids filled them up with the water from the sand & water table. It was crazy. Greg brought out the big guns and got all the kids wet.

Once that got a little too loud and wild I redirected to opening presents.

In the end, Declan had a blast, I was hoarse from trying to be heard, and the yard and house were a mess! I have a feeling they will remember this birthday though!

Ohhh yeah....

It is officially spring in California. One day it's 96 degrees, the next is a high of 74 and windy. God knows I love the temperature, but save me the allergies. Puleeze. So we had an Easter egg hunt on Easter. It was basically over before Greg, Maren or I was up... I awoke to voices that sounded like they were in the back yard. Got me a little grumpy, to be honest......

Later in the day we went for a bike ride, I broke out the Lincoln Townbike... with the bike seat for Maren. Greg pull Declan and Teagan in a trailer on his bike. We *must* be a sight to be seen. I am beginning to embrace the fact that I have become entertainment for others. Anywhooo.... here is Maren and I on the beach cruiser.

I've created this barrier to keep (or at least slow down) the kids out of my scrap area. I had to move the gate from the loft to the top of the stairs. Although, there are days I think it would be safer to just leave the stairs open, and keep the gate at the loft....

Maren has only been walking for a few weeks, and she already climbs up on stuff, usually with something sticking out of her mouth, so she can impale herself on it if she were to fall.

The school year is winding down. Which reminded me that I had offered to make a scrapbook of the school year for Declan's teacher. Lord, why do I commit to these types of things??? I'm going to have to get busy on that. Other than that, we pass the days playing dress up, and battles with action figures. I found the harmonica that I had put away (for good reason). The kids had a blast with that. I took the new "Spring Kids" picture the day they were all playing with it. Hopefully no one is sick =)

We are having a little birthday party for Declan at our house (may the force be with me) on Sunday. I told D he could invite 5 of his friends, and we are pretty sure 4 of them are coming.

Other than that, I went to see a nutritionist speech last night. It was pretty inspiring. She talked about buying fruits and vegetables at the local Farmer's Market. I think we should live where I can ride the Lincoln Townbike (need to get a straw basket for the front) to the Farmer's market every Saturday morning. You know, along the coast... LOL!

It Suddenly dawned on me

That Easter is *this* Sunday. Sheesh, where does the time go? So the 3 Loop Circus headed out yesterday morning. First we hit the donut store, picked up a dozen donuts. It just so happens that the donut store is in the parking lot of Kmart. I figured we could just walk to Kmart after donuts and get our egg dyeing kits.

I told the kids we would dye the eggs after Maren got up from her nap. After about an hour into her nap, Declan decided to 'peek' in on her, and thus that was conveniently the end of the nap. In retrospect, we should have done the eggs while she was napping, because she somehow got ahold of 1 egg, and pitched it onto the floor. I wonder why she was so cranky? Hmmmm...

I added a "follower" feature...

So when you log into blogger, if I've updated, you will see it. Thank you Tammy for being my one and only! =)

Declan is done with karate. That was 12 quick weeks. They called to see about getting him signed up for a program, to the tune of $750 for 6 mos. Yeah, we'll see after night night. I think he does a really good job, and would have probably like to have kept going. Someone needs to clue the karate place into the current economic state.

Teagan decided that she wanted to go to ballet bad enough that it was worth going on the potty. She hounded me for about 2 days to call the ballet place (conveniently located just down from the karate place). She got to go to a free class last night to see if it was everything she had been dreaming it was.

For the first 30 minutes they did tap, and the 2nd half was ballet. I risked certain incarceration by taking the picture of her in the classroom...

I had the other 2 wild ones with me, so I was not able to watch =( Instead, we layed around in the grass out front. When we were all wheezing and itchy we went back inside.

We peeked into the ballet room Teagan was putting on fairy wings. I figured she was in fairy utopia and risked the picture. Then the next thing I know, she is crying, and the instructor is holding her. This could mean many things when you are a 3 1/2 yr old girl. Either someone was mean to you, you crashed, someone else got the color of wings you wanted, or... it could be that you were the only one with black shoes and didn't know any ballet. =(

I told her we would get her own shoes and she would get better with practice. On the drive home I decided I'd let her bring ballet up, and felt bad for her that it may not have been all she had dreamed it would be. I was surprised that she would have felt self conscious about having borrowed shoes. I realized I had totally underestimated her range of emotions. Poor kiddo.