When I say I need a break, this isn't what I mean.

Those of you who know us know this last week has been a bit difficult.
One week ago today our older daughter broke her left radius.  She had a minor disagreement with a scooter about which direction they should head in.  As of today, she has the purple fiberglass badge of honor.
Not to be outdone by his sister, her frenemy one grade above her busted his right arm in football practice on Tuesday.  Just like any other male, he had to injured worse...so that led to a surgery to put three pins in his elbow and two nights in the hospital.  She missed one day of school.  He's missing a week.
Thus our fall schedule suddenly has cleared up quite a bit.  Now we have a lot more single driver nights, and our weekends pretty much open.  Especially since the other middle boy decided to drop cross country, realizing running three hours plus a week was a bit much on top of his six hours a week of ballet, finding time to practice his cello, and his three "advanced" classes.  It seems all of them have had stark reminders of their mere mortalness recently.

What has come out of this is seeing how our oldest son has matured.  We can trust him to make a meal for his siblings if we're tied up.  We can trust him with checking homework and bedtime stories.  We haven't had to nag him (too much) about his own homework.  He's even gotten up early to take the bus to school because he knew we were in up to our limit.  He pulled his weight as a full fledged member of the team.
No, it's not a permanent thing.  He's still a kid, and will be allowed a breather now everything is sort-of-back to normal.  He still disappears to friends houses, wants to stay up all night playing on STEAM instead of planning school projects, and avoids "regular" chores like folding laundry and loading the dishwasher like the plague. These moments of amazing maturity are just those, moments....but I like what I see when I see these glimpses of the adult he is becoming.

The "babies" have survived..but are really glad to have mom back.  I suspect I won't have a moment alone for at least a week, but that's okay.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy Birthday to the middle child.

He is now eleven.  Eleven.

He is in 5th grade, which with our older two boys was the year of permanent male PMS.

His feet are bigger than mine, by a full size...and he's still growing.

His clothes are a mix of large/x-large boys and men's small.  Kind of like where he is in life.  Bridging that point between kid and young adult.   

He is far and away my most optimistic and energetic child.  I'm so glad he found sports as a safe way to take risks.  He loves to ride bikes, hike, play football, watch t.v. standing on his head. That last one has stopped within the last year.  He's starting to care about what's socially acceptable.

He still sees girls as people and playmates,  and not "girls."  unless they are his sisters.

He loves to cook, and still likes to help.  He does a lot of the prep work for dinners these days.  

He is funny, and goofy, and spends a lot of time in his own head. 

He is my sunshine.  

He has a lot to look forward to.

Happy Birthday son.  May this year be the best yet.

  

Cupcakes and ballet shoes.

Sometimes, not being organized has it's price.  One of those times was yesterday, when I enrolled princess D in ballet.
Since the place they prefer us to buy their shoes/leotards,etc. is up North, I thought I'd be efficient by taking her with me since the ballet school was on the way.  We flew in and out of the school, thanks to the efficiency of the registrar.  Next step, leotard and convertible tights.  It shouldn't take too long at 10am on a weekday.
An hour later...."Why can't I find this place.  I thought it was right off the highway."
The poor girl was restless, hungry and bored.
So we stopped at SugarMomma's in Briarcliff for a snack.  She chose an enormous filled cupcake, topped with fudge and a chocolate covered strawberry.  I had Roasterie chocolate-coffee blend and a blueberry muffin.  We both decided enough was enough and headed back home.

On the way home it dawned on me why I couldn't find the place.  I was one exit too far South.
An hour & a bunch of gas wasted, because of a scatty memory and leaving my phone at home.
Sometimes I do leave my phone behind on purpose.  This was not one of them.
If I had my phone, I could have called Mr. Man.
If I had my phone, I could have looked up the Dance Shoppe address.
If I had my phone, I would have had free GPS.
How did our parents ever find the ten million places we needed to be without cell phones?

After lunch, we went back.  Just a couple exits past the bakery where we had our snack.
At least I had a fun snack date with my daughter.

Turning 39 and other fun stuff.

Last Friday was my birthday!  I had a fabulous lunch with my hubby at Freebirds, and redid my home office in the butler's pantry.  It was a great day.  In the evening, we tried to take the kids out to Jason's Deli for dinner and shop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.....while not a total kidaster, it still managed to get several of them declared digital free for Saturday.  Below is some of the fun stuff that ensued from that decision.

On Saturday the youngest three had to take baths three times!  Now my bathroom looks like a pigpen it has so much mud in it.  Why?  What could they possibly do to get that dirty?

Saturday morning:

"Hey Ms. P.  Where ya going with that dirt?"

"Up to my room to build a slug habitat."

"Uh, no.  back outside with that.  You may build your habitat outdoors and away from my garden."

"okay."

A little later:

"What is that, and why is my porch covered in mud?"

"We're having a birthday party for roly polies."

All rightie then.

And of course, since it cleared 90...

"Mom, can we play with the hose?"

It's amazing what kids think of to do when they are unplugged.