Two Mom's, 5 Kids

Ryan L. and her kids made the trip from Fontainebleau, France to visit.  It was perfect timing.  She asked if she could come a couple days earlier than originally planned (her husband was studying for his finals), then Ryan came home from work the day before she got her and told me 'busy season' started the next day so we wouldn't be seeing much of him.

I had an awesome time.  It is amazing how much more enjoyable it is to have another adult around.  I felt like I'd been off lately and the weather had been cold and gray which makes having a positive happy outlook much more difficult, so I was in definite need of some easy friend filled days.

 The first day we just chilled.  We opened the doors and let the kids run wild in our backyard.  We were both amazed when we got to 6pm and neither of us were annoyed with our kids (that never happens).

The second day we made a trip over for Aachen, Germany.  We got some groceries (mainly almonds, spelt flour and oats) and a kebab and headed home.  The kids did great....it also helps that German people are friendly and thought our kids were cute.

I hadn't had these Kebabs for a couple months so I was pretty excited for them.  I now order 2, let the kids eat what they want and I get the rest.  Both of them at at least half the kebab...that's a ton! 

Most of the nights, after dinner we threw the kids in the tub for bath.   This must have been one of the first night because after that we decided a max of 3 in the tub worked the best :).

Saturday we had an extra set of hands with Ryan around. I went for a long run (9 miles) in the morning  and when I walked in, Ryan L. was cooking breakfast for the kids.  Kind of awesome.  After getting everyone ready, we walked to the bakery for some delicious pastries. Yummy! I love cream filled things. We hung out the rest of the day. Ryan L. and I made a deal that if she stayed longer, Ryan and I had to go on a date...pretty sweet trade on our part. So we did. We left her with 5 kids and took the bus downtown to a little Italian restaurant.  After dinner we didn't really know what to so we went for a walk and ended up walking 4 miles home.

Sunday we made it out the door to church on-time and the kids look adorable.  They hadn't planned on being her for a Sunday but we managed to get all the kids Sunday clothes from Kevin and Kherington's stash.  The kids even did good sitting through Sacrament meeting.  We came home to a delicious pasta lunch that Ryan L. prepared the night before while we were on our date. 

Monday was another awesome day.  In the evening the kids were running around with some superman caps that I'd made a couple years ago.  Lily and Jay liked them so much, Ryan L. and I decided to make some with some leftover supplies I had.  It took us until about 1am to finish them off.  It is so nice to have someone to do this kind of thing with. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were definitely a little more rough.  It really wasn't that bad, but kids stopped taking good naps which made them more cranky and us more cranky...and Kevin became very possessive of everything and went from one kid to next taking toys, pushing and hitting. At least we kept the nice weather.  

Tuesday we spent the morning running errands (hardware store and ikea) to be able to fix the smoke detectors and holes in the wall.  Ryan L. was amazing and filled all the holes we've made.  They now look awesome.  I smile every time I look around the room.  We also cleaned the house.  My landlord was coming by with someone that was appraising the property so I wanted to make sure it looked  good.

We went to the park a couple times which was a hit and also walked up to a cheap craftish store.  After the store, we were going to be late picking up Kherington so we ended up running the last quarter mile or so.  I had Kevin on my shoulders with a sucker in one had and a bouquet of eggs in the other hitting me with both as he bounced up and down and Ryan L. was pushing double stroller with two kids piled on top of each other in the front and one in the rear.  We must have been a pretty funny sight.  We made it just in time.  Wednesday's all the kids/teachers leave so if you're late they take the kids over to a different school which is another 15 minute walk away.  They locked the gate right behind us.  Whew!

Stefan took the train to Brussels and then public to our place.  He walked in the door a couple minutes before I walked out to teach Faith in God.  I once again left all the kids home (Ryan had to go to the Church too).  Yeah...we really got the better end of everything.  It was so so nice to have a friend to do everything with.  I'm hoping they'll come visit again soon.

We've also decided it would be awesome to live on a cul-de-sac with a couple of our good friends.  Our husbands all get along (kinda funny...they are all pretty easy going guys that get along with everyone), the kids could roam from one house to the next and we would always have other adults to chat with at any time of day.  One day :).

Just like when we went to visit Fontainebleau, after everyone left the kids were exhausted.  They had way too much fun and can't wait to do it again :).

Gaasbeek Castle w/ Daddy

We headed over to chocolate Neuhaus chocolate outlet since we hadn't been in awhile. After a generous helping of chocolates, we took Ryan to Gaasbeek Castle.  We had been a couple times, but never with Ryan.  Some day we'll go on a nice day with a picnic and explore more of the grounds.

I LOVE Nutella

Well, Kevin Love's Nutella :)

I used to keep it in the low cupboard...after him getting into it twice while I was out of the room I've relocated it to the high cupboard.

Valentines Day 2013

The night before Valentine's Day Ryan and I finished decorating.  We heart attacked the front room, door and hallway.  The best thing about a small place is that it is quick and easy to decorate.

We spent the afternoon at a friends house.  The kids hadn't gotten together for a long time so it was extra fun.  They did a little craft...painted a plate then attached tissue paper contact paper that covered a heart cutout.

We had parmesan tilapia, butter rice, broccoli and stuffed mushrooms for dinner then ended up skipping dessert because I didn't have time to make anything.  Kherington did help me make lemon raspberry muffins the next day though.

Potty Training...When did he get so BIG?!

Kevin I know has been growing tons.  There seems to be no baby left in him.

Just for kicks, I took his measurement today.  He is 32 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds (roughly).

I decided that now would be a good time to potty train since we don't have any trips planned for awhile.  Week 1 is done.  I had errands to run and still put a diaper him whenever we went out.  We had lots of accidents but also lots of success.  By Friday he finally caught onto making himself pee and recognizing when he needed to poo BEFORE actually going.  I feel like that is kind of huge especially for a almost 22 month old boy.

To potty train, I just rolled up our rug in the front room and ta-da, we are carpet free (well minus a small train rug in the kids room).  If he goes potty in the toilet he gets 3 chocolate chips and he gets to give 3 to Kherington.  If he wets on himself or the ground, I put him on the potty and have him try and go more while I get it cleaned up.  Aside from a 'we need to remember to put our pee pee in the potty' there isn't anymore scolding.

There have been 2 really bad accidents.  The first one he was playing and only wearing pj pants...no undies, no diaper.  He pooed and kept playing.  I noticed the smell and went to inspect.  In the middle of his toys a big chunk had fallen down his pants.  The rest was still smashed in there which made changing him pretty gross.  The second one was was the same day.  He had a diaper on for naptime.  No big deal.  Well, he was napping in our bed.  Pooed while he was asleep, then took it off as soon as he woke up and make a poo trail across our bed (on my side) to come get me.  On the bright side, he came right to me, told me he pooed and waited a good 10 minutes while I finished up getting dinner ready before I could wipe him down (I didn't know at the time there was a poo trail waiting for me on my bed).

He loves his cars undies.  Sadly I only bought one pack at Costco and the rest are just blue/green pattern undies.  Here is his just playing...lining up cars and dancing around them.

Valentines Day Kids Party

Whew! After a late night with Activities the night before, I got everything ready for a little kids Valentines Day.  A friends was nice enough to let us have it at her house which really ended up being a lifesaver.  My house was trashed by the time I walked out the door.  I had the morning to make the food, put the craft stuff together and get it all loaded into our car.  I was really working against a hard deadline because I had to grab Kheringotn from school before heading over so I couldn't be late.  I ended up with just 2 hours to get everything done in.  I had such grand plans, but in the end I felt more like a contestant on cupcake wars where you just want to get everything on the plate and it doesn't matter so much it looks just how it tastes.

I made pretzel bites stuffed with ham and swiss cheese, 2 pizza braids and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  I ended up cooking one of the braids and cookies (pre-scooped though) at the party. 

For the craft this year I decided on heart/straw necklaces.  I had pre-cut hearts and straws so the kids just had to thread them.  I also made the kids little head pieces with stuff I had prep for last years party but never ended up using.  I feel like I'm pretty good with using the supplies I have on hand to keep things cheap but fun for the kids.  I've been trying harder to just focus on the kids having fun intead of how an adult would view a craft...pinterest adds a little extra pressure to make everything look perfect but really that shouldn't matter.

 The kids also exchanged valentines and some brought their own valetines box.  Each year I've helped Kherington make one.  This year, a week or so after getting back from the States she started begging to make hers.  I didn't realize she liked it that much.  I just wrap up an old box for each kid (plus cut an opening large enough to get things in/out) and let the kids glue hearts and put stickers all over it.  Kevin was pretty funny.  He only wanted car stickers...no hearts.  I ended up sticking one heart on at the very end because I'd already cleaned up and had missed it.  You can tell from the smiles on their face they that they had a good time.  After they finished their boxes we also did some normal gluing....meaning paper, paper piece I cut up years ago and glue....very easy.

Anyways, so they made their boxes then for their actual valentines they helped me pick the colors of what I printed out and Kherington glued a heart onto her chosen contruction paper (her color combo ended up pink and green).  Kherington's valentines said 'You light up my life" and had a finger light attached.  Kevin's said "You're simply sweet" and had a simply fruit roll-up attached and mine said "Happy Valentines Day Big Hunk (*or Hunket)" with a big hunk attached.  Best of all everything we used we already had.

I think everyone had fun. I'll be honest, I felt a little stressed on my part.  I'm not very good at asking for help and even worse at it when I don't have everything prepped as well as I would like.  I guess I just have more things to work on.

Activity Days: Cooking

In addition to teaching the 8-11 yr old English class at church each Sunday, I also am in charge of 'Faith in God' or 'Activity Days'.  It's a little different here in that it is both boys and girls (Belgium Scouting doesn't quite align with church teachings...for example the boy scouts fundraiser is selling beer on the corners).

At the beginning of each activity, we do an 'ice breaker' game. Then we have a lesson and activity. I try to have each activity fall under on of the 3 main areas: Learning and Living the Gospel, Serving Other and Developing Talents and in addition to that keep it cheap and fun. Some of the fun things we've done include Secret Service Agents, Article of Faith Scavenger Hunt, Goal Setting (complete with a domino object lesson) and Getting to Know you Jenga.

This week since there wasn't any mutual (we meet the same night so parents only have to make one trip), I decided to do a cooking activity and have it at our place so I wouldn't have to cart all my stuff to the church. We ended up having the best turnout we've ever had with 9 kids and 2 adults (me and our Translator Rachel...I am so very thankful every time she comes because there is no way the French kids would understand anything if she wasn't there). Our apartment is not very large, so I sent out an email nicely saying Parents and younger sibling weren't allowed to stay...I would only take the 8-11 yr old.

We ended up barely getting through everything. We talked a little about bread dough (I had already made some up). I demonstrated a couple things they could do with the dough including pizza, roll-ups, braids, crescents, etc. Then I had each of the kids roll and a create their own savory roll with pizza ingredients I'd prepared (marinara sauce, pepperoni, pineapple, onions, green pepper and mushrooms).

While I baked, cleaned the savory ingredients up and laid out the sweet ingredients, I had the kids make a valentine for someone else.  I prepped little bag for each of them in that included a balloon, candy, string, a "Home your Valentine's Day is bursting with fun!" note, and a "Go ahead burst my bubble" tag. They each wrote their own note to include also then stuff everything into the balloon. They could blow it up right before giving it to their valentine :). It ended up being a great activity for them that didn't need attention from me.

One of the girls gave her Valentine to her sister and her sister posted it on facebook later that night.  So sweet!  It really makes all the planning and prep worth it when I see the joy it bring to the kids and everyone else it touches.

Back to the activity, after eating their savory roll they decorated sweet rolls with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutella, speculoos, marshmallows and chocolate. It was fun watching them be creative with the ingredients and design. We put it on parchment paper and sent it home with them to cook.

The activity went crazy fast but I know the kids had a lot of fun. After they left, my kids came out of their room and wanted to their turn so I went through the activity with them at 9pm. Kinda late, but they had fun. Kherington made nutella/marshmallow rolls which were delicious and Kevin made a pizza and nutella calzone.