What Time Is It? It's LEAP Time!

Hello!  Another busy week here in New Orleans, but the kids survived all their testing, so yay!  (Well, most of it, Matthew is still taking the IOWA test this week. :oP)  But they all came home from school each day feeling good about how they did, and they had so much fun enjoying their homework-free lifestyle!  (Which is now over because they've dived right back into projects and studying this week, haha.)  Yep, it's all good. :o)

Monday:

Since it was LEAP testing week, we started it off right.

With some yummy home-cooked breakfast.  :o)

Evie was rocking her amazing LEAP shirt.

Bring it!

Emily still enjoys helping me water the flowers each week.

And I still enjoy taking sleepy midget pictures.

Guess all that reading wore her out.  ;o)

And then she put her kitty-cat finger puppets on her toes and made them dance.

Hehe.  Oh - and she said the funniest thing the other day.  She told Chris that her toes say, "LaLaLaLa!"  O.o  Uh, what?

Yeah, she says, "Look, my toes go - LaLaLaLa!" and then she wiggles her toes while making the "LaLa" noise, almost like she's rolling her tongue.  Haha, and now she does it all the time, "Emmy - how do your toes go?"  And she wiggles them while saying, "LaLaLaLa!"  Lol!  :o)

The other day, we drew pictures of her brothers in her little notebook.  Well, she took stickers and "decorated" the pictures of them, and I thought it was just so cute!  I don't know if you can see it in this pic, but she gave each of them heart stickers for their eyes and put Easter eggs on their shoes, haha!  Silly girl.

Then we picked those test-takin' midgets up from school.

And Matthew showed us his Grrrr! face.

Haha!

At school, he was reading through the Guinness Book of World Records after his test and could not wait to show us what he found.

An entire 2 pages devoted to Doctor Who!  Lol!

It's listed as the "Longest Running Sci-Fi TV Show" and has some other records too, but it was really neat with lots of cool facts that the kids all just loved.  :oD

We decided to have dinner in the living room - which we never do during the week, but there was no homework!  We were living it up!  ;o)

I called for the kids to set the table and Emily was the only one to show up, haha, so I handed her the napkins and spoons and set her loose, not completely sure how it would go.  But check it out -

Not only did she set all the napkins and spoons out, she also got all of the chairs out and put them around the table, giving the right chair to each person!  Wow Emily, I'm impressed!  :o)

After dinner, Daddy took Evelyn to her gymnastics class and Emily rejoiced that she got to go too.  

By the way, if you haven't noticed, she now wants to go everywhere that Daddy goes.  I leave the house and it's all, "Bye Momma!"  But he tries to leave and she loses her mind, "No! I get jacket! I go too!!"  Haha, my poor attached baby.  But it's all good.  :o)

And the boys happily spent the rest of the evening playing outside.  :o)

Tuesday:

She held the truck over the edge of the bed going, "Noooo, don't drop me! Ahhhh!"  Lol.

Then she hopped over to me in a pillow case.

"I go hop hop hop."  Alright Em.

And then she hop hop hopped off.

:o)

Sorry I have so many pics of her, but she's with me all day, so there's always more pics and funny stuff I get to see her do...  When the other kids were little, it was the same way, and we took a ton of pictures, I just wasn't as good about documenting it all and sharing them.  :o/  My bad!  But, case of rum, it's all good, and I know y'all get it, so thank you for putting up with tolerating lovingly accepting these sometimes Emily-heavy posts.  ;o)

We had a lot of laundry to put away that day.  So she helped me gather some hangers for the kids' shirts and then said, "I do.  I hang shirts."

Uh, okay.  So I stood back and watched...

Ahahaha!  Yes!  She totally just put that shirt on a hanger!  Isn't that great?!  ;o)  Yeah, I ain't gonna lie - after that, I totally put that hang-up pile on the floor and just kept handing her hangers.  The girl's gotta earn her keep somehow.  ;oD

The kids got out of school early, yay!  Evie got to wear her LEAP shirt to every day of testing, so as we were walking away from the school, Joshua looked around for a second and then goes, "Evelyn, like, everyone is wearing your shirt!"  Haha, so cool.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon outside.

So we're sitting out on the porch and Matthew said, "Mom!  Watch me, look what I can do!"

And then he hopped on a bike without training wheels and proudly rode around.

Wait... did he just teach himself how to ride a bike???

Dude... I guess so.

(Did I even know that he couldn't before?  No clue, seriously.  :oP)

But check him out!

It was his friend's bike and he said that he just decided to try and see if he could do it the day before, and he did!

I don't know whether it's a good thing that he taught himself, as in, "Check out our child - he taught himself how to ride a bike, he didn't even need us to show him how." Or a not-so-good thing - "Check out our child - he had to teach himself how to ride a bike because we thought he already could..."  :oP  Ahahaha!  Oh well, it's all good.  As soon as Daddy got home from work, he took the training wheels off of Matthew's bike.  :o)

Hi Evelyn!

Emily happily played on the porch for a while, but took off to the playground as soon as she saw Evelyn out there.  :o)

And then she rode a train up and down the street while wielding this stick.

But dude, as soon as she saw Daddy pull up, she ran across the yard to him (is it a yard? the playground? our cul-de-sac? whatever we have out there, haha.)

Then she danced in the bed of the truck while he got his stuff.  :o)

That evening, we all enjoyed some yummy ice cream for dessert.

Her hands were cold from the ice cream, so I guess her socks were the only logical solution.  :oP

Wednesday:

"Look!  They fit!"

Uh, no, those are Matthew's shoes, they don't fit.  Haha, silly girl.

"Look!  I wear Momma's shoes."  Oh dear.  *rolls eyes*

Later, we were watching Team Umizoomi (which is a kids' show she likes to watch that teaches numbers, patterns, and other math stuff) and they were going over a pattern: 

"Bird, Dog, Bird, Dog, Bird... What comes next?"

And I said, "What comes next?  Is it a bird?" And man, I totally thought she was going to correct me and say, "No, it's a dog!"  But nope, she says, "No Momma - Don't talk."  :oO

Lol!  Don't talk?!  I don't know who this girl thinks she is, but that's the last time I try to help her answer the people on TV.  ;o)

The kids got out of school early again, so we got to spend another beautiful afternoon outside.  :o)

Say cheese Evelyn!

Yo Evie - say cheese for my camera too!

Matthew put a few miles on his bike.  :o)

And J took a spin on Matthew's scooter.

Oh - and their newest obsession - Pokemon cards.  Yeah, they have some, and they've played with them before, but last week the Pokemon card craze exploded on the playground.  There was constant trading and battles and giant groups of kids (okay maybe just like 6-8 kids) all gathered around going through binders full of cards.  Joshua even begged us to let him search for a rare "Ancient Mew" card on ebay "...because it's the most powerful card of all!"

Haha, and yes, it took him asking for 3 days, but we finally searched ebay and found this "most powerful" card for only $5, so we let him buy it.  So now, he won't stop begging us to go check the mail.  :oP  Haha.

And Emily thought about riding the scooter.

But then she realized that since the scooter's taller than she is, it might not be the best idea.  :o)

Thursday:

Quick pic of the big girl, still knocking out that LEAP test!  :o)

And goodness, did we get some serious storms that day!  It was getting really ugly right before we were supposed to get the kids from school.  So Emily and I hopped in the car and camped out in front of the school to wait out the storm and be there when they got out.  They all still ended up getting soaked, so we decided early showers and hot cocoa would be a nice solution.

With marshmallows of course.  :o)

Somebody's ready to party!  ;o)

Friday:

This is their "We're happy it's Friday, but it's still too early to be awake"-smile.

Hehe.  :o)

And check out our big boy.

He was looking all handsome, so I had to take a quick pic on the way to school.  :o)

It was sunny but kinda chilly that morning, so Emily was sporting her shades and her blankets.

Emily and I ran to Target and I found this pail in the dollar section that made me laugh...

It says, "Good Moms have messy kitchens, laundry piles, and happy kids."

O.o  Hmmm.

So... does that mean that because my kitchen is clean and the laundry is done, my kids are sad???

Or do our clean clothes mean that I'm not a good mom, but *gasp* a bad mom???  *rolls eyes*

Haha, I know, and yes, these sayings are cute, I'm just having a good laugh.  I searched for the one that said, "Good Moms can have clean kitchens, clean laundry, and happy kids too!"  But it was not to be found.  ;oD  Hehehe. 

See!

Happy kids!!  ;o)  Lol.

Kids who held an epic sword battle in the middle of the street when we got home!

While dinner was cooking, I sat down to enter my coke points on the lap top.  Well, someone was watching...

Haha, yeah, she gathered up my discarded coke lids and started "entering" them on her laptop!  Lol.

Then we took Evelyn to her softball practice.

Sorry these pics aren't that great.  I don't plan to bring out the big lens until we go to her games.  ;o)

But she's having so much fun out there!  She knows that because of extra softball practices, she'll probably have to miss some gymnastics classes soon, and she's completely alright with that.  :o)

Throw it Evie!

Emily kept herself busy chasing ants and then squishing them with her Dora cell phone.

She'd slam her phone down...

Then check to see if she got it.

"I got it!"  Lol.

The boys entertained themselves with their DS games (while J flashed us some leg, hehe.)

:o)

Saturday:

The kids were out roaming the streets early that morning.

Couple of quick pics from the balcony.

I'm not sure who he was planning to attack with that nerf gun, but I hope they made it out alive!  ;o)

Daddy, will you please adjust my do-rag?  It keeps falling off.

That's better!  :oD

Evie had fun playing legos on the front porch with her homies.

Then we took her to a birthday party at a skate rink!

And yes, she got to wear her own skates.  :o)

About half of the girls just jumped out there and took off, and the other half stayed cautiously close to the wall.

Our girl was being cautious.  ;o)

Seriously though, those kids, big one and little ones, were falling all over the place!  I was just cringing every time they hit the floor - eek!  Luckily, Evelyn has some very good friends, and one of them got her to leave the wall and held her hand until she got her skating legs going.  :o)

Before the party was over, she was confidently skating all on her own, not going too fast, but still very happy to be out in the big rink unassisted.  :o)

And then look who joined us!

Matt-dog!

Yeah, Daddy and the boys finished their errands, so they got to enjoy some skating and some birthday cake too.

And why is she laughing, you say?  Probably 'cause those kids were going down like dominoes every other second!  Lol, yeah, the boys kept falling and then they'd grab onto each other as they went, or onto Evie or me!  So then they'd all fall.  :oP  *whew*  Seriously.  I was relieved when they were all back on their own feet.  But they had a lot of fun!  ;o)

The kids were already laying down, having their slumber party, when we finished Emily's bath.  So when she went to tell them good night, she just decided to make herself at home.

Hehe, yeah, she climbed right into that bed with them.  Matthew gave her a pillow and Joshua provided a couple of monitos.  I tried to convince her to go back to her bed, but she said, "I sleep with kids.  Pleeeeease!"  :o1  Well, since it was the weekend, we left her there.  About 30 minutes later, she was fast asleep (awww!) so then we moved her to her bed.

(Oh - and Evie was on the top bunk in this pic.)  :o)

Sunday:

We went to the early Mass again, and again - they needed altar servers!  So Joshua and Evie glady served.  As we were leaving, Father asked Matthew, "So, when are you gonna start serving?  Are you about to make your First Communion?"  And Matthew said, with a big smile on his face, "Yes, in a few weeks."  And Father said, "Excellent!  Well, you can go ahead and start serving now if you want, I'm okay with it!"

Wow - that's kinda cool!  They did lower the age requirement to include 3rd grade now, but yeah, that's a purdy neat invitation.  Matthew's still not too sure if he wants to or not, so we'll see what happens.  ;o)

It was storming while we were in church, so when we got home, it was too wet to play outside.  So yeah, all those midgets were gathered in the library, playing games while Emily serenaded them with a plastic egg (she was singing a song into the empty egg because she liked the loud echo-y sound, hehe.)

But later, the sun came out!

So those fools ran out the door.  :o)

They had a really good time playing with their friends.

And J enjoyed some time on the Wii while Emily snuggled up to her brother for a nap.  :o)

A few minutes later, he beat his Call of Duty game!  Goodness, that didn't take him long.  He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to help Daddy beat it too.  ;oD

So... when we let the kids outside, we gave them this speech:

You can go, but we know it's still wet out there, so be careful!  Don't be jumping in the puddles or digging in the mud, and watch out when you're riding your bike, you don't want to get all wet.

Well, all of Matthew's friends were in the puddles, and I watched him really trying to stay away, so I told him - You can go on over there to play with your friends, and float boats and stuff, but don't get crazy-dirty and don't wear your shoes back into the house.  However, when it was time for them to come in for dinner, we realized that the crowd mentality got to them...  

Evelyn saw Matthew over by the big puddles playing and told him, "Mommy said we can't play over there!"  And he said, "Mommy said we can!"  So she thought that meant it was okay to play in the big puddles, so she did.  And once she did, Matthew thought that it must be okay for him too, so he did.  So yeah, when they came in for dinner, we just had to look away.

They were covered in mud and water and just, ick.  Lol!

And I didn't get a single picture!  Boo!  Sorry. :o/

I was busy with dinner and making plates when Emily came in the kitchen like this saying, "Close my eyes!  Don't look!"

Daddy was having them strip down just inside the front door because they were too filthy to even be in the house, haha!  It was all good, they were having too much fun out there, so they really didn't get in trouble, but yeah, they went straight to the showers. 

"Kids naked?"

No, they're not naked anymore, you can go back in there.  Hehe.  ;o)

Matthew will be making his First Reconciliation on Wednesday, April 24th.  Similar to the felt banners that our other kids made for their First Communions, his class is supposed to decorate and wear felt vests for their day of Reconciliation.  They only have to attach a few things, wanting to keep it simple and all.  So that evening, we worked on his vest, deciding what pictures or symbols he wanted to include and hot gluing them on.  And even though it's not due until April 23rd, we finished it!

Aww, but I can't let you see it yet!  You have to wait for his big day.  But he made some great choices!  :oD

And then we finished off the evening with some ice cream.  :o)

And that was our week!  This week has been good, not too much homework for the kids, but still pretty busy.  And Evie already had to miss gymnastics on Monday for batting practice, but she's happy, so it's all good.  The kids get out of school early on Friday and we'll be heading into Houston for a mini-visit.  And then the kids are on Spring Break next week, so that'll be awesome.  So yep, we're all feeling pretty good.  Hope y'all are having a great week too!  :o)

Laters!