My love/hate relationship with creative play

One of the many reasons I love having the children home is that they can have lots of time for uninterrupted free play.  I love them having TIME to play- really play.  HOWEVER- it destroys the house.  Just tonight as I walked upstairs I saw the playroom entrance barricaded...again.  Why do they keep doing this?  Is it not fun to play on the toys where they go?

When I went to ask Tucker to clean the playroom I found him in Julia's bathroom causing mischief (or being creative- depending on how you see it).

And yes, I LOVE the things they build with the MagnaTiles- and they do use them every.single.day-

But then they knock whatever they built down and every day I see this for the rest of the day-

If I ask them to clean it up they inevitably start building something again and beg me to keep them out.  :)

Then today when I went to find Charlie- the hallway was blocked- why is the table from Julia's room HERE?

Ladies, I appreciate your need to get out...but the hallway?

Charlie came and "fed" many of the babies and then decided he better have lunch with them himself. 

 



Madam, you look like you've had enough- time to go!

 I'll go ahead and finish up where you left off.  :)

I know that all too soon there won't be anybody little living here to mess up my house.  What a sad day that will be.  Thank you, Lord, for this mess and the babies who make it!

*****UPDATE*****

As I was typing that last post "Thomas and James" here poured a whole bag of pretzels out in the kitchen.  

Don't worry- I'm training up my children.  :)   Lucky for me, they think cleaning pretzels is almost as fun as pouring them-

I'm just going to assume he's eating one off the table.  :)

Those dimples mean that Mommy won't stay mad at all his antics.  :)

I love those Irish eyes a smilin'!

Circle of Friends

We've come a long way (although my hair is the same!)

Alpha Gams- Troy State University- 1999- after the homecoming football game.
Backrow: Lori Lee, Amy, Donna, Front Row: Jacqueline, Shelley, Jill


I'm recovering from a whirlwind weekend of Alpha Gamma Delta sisterhood! I had the privilege of hosting five of my favorite college friends this weekend and we had a blast. Here we are picking Shelley and Jill (from Louisiana) up from the airport. Jacqueline and Kelly drove in from Florida and Tennessee respectively. Shana, of course, lives here.
We went immediately to Che Lulu in Mountainbrook for a late dinner and we laughed all night!
Then we went to Billy's and listened to a band. The band was playing songs from the 90s which was great b/c it brought back so many memories!
Here's Shelley and Jill.
We stayed up 'till 3:00 talking and then slept in and had a late brunch. Kelly had driven in that morning to complete our party.
We shopped all afternoon and then went to sips and strokes where we sipped wine (or in my case Sprite) and painted for FOUR hours. Our other sister Joy was able to meet up with us then.

Here we are. It's Jacqueline, Shana, me, Jill, Kelly, Shelley and Joy.
(Jac will start a blog soon- Kelly says she has no time!) And our "beautiful" paintings. None of us are hanging these in our homes. The backgrounds were ridiculous. But it was a funny adventure nonetheless. We stayed up again after painting laughing and talking until 3 a.m. again and then slept in the next day. Kelly and Jac had to leave Sunday after lunch. That night Shelley, Jill, Shana and I went to see The Women and ate dinner outside. I don't recommend the movie- they tried too hard and it didn't work. Anyway we stayed up talking again Sunday night and then Jill and Shelly flew home this morning. Thank you guys so much for coming- I love you and had a blast!!! The absolute real hero of the weekend, however, is my sweet husband. I feel like I was on vacation too because I basically didn't see my family the whole time. He took them to the YMCA, the zoo, the park. He fed them, bathed them and put them to bed. Since some of the girls slept in Julia's room, she and Marky shared his twin bed. It was so precious- they giggled for a while and then would pass out. They slept great and the first night we put her back in her big girl bed she cried for Marky.

Gym Day

Friday we had our first "home school P.E." day. It went well- they do relays, kickball, and dodge ball (how politically incorrect) with the younger elementary kids. Here is Marky with his buddies John Paul and Joseph. They were running around and got lots of energy out!
Julia and the other babies just watched. This is her and her buddy Ann Marie. If you look in the background- the yellow chubby tummy is my prego belly. Holly, this is probably the only pregnancy picture I'm putting on here (if I can help it). : )

Put me in coach!

Well- I'm officially a soccer mom! Tonight was our first ever adventure into the world of kiddie sports and let me say- we had a blast! Marky has been talking about playing soccer for months- he's been wearing his gear around the house and practicing in the backyard and tonight his dream came true and he got to meet his team. Doesn't he look big? What happened to his baby face?
And look at his cute coach! Coach Daddy!

They ran around like crazy- all the kids were so sweet and I'm so glad they got all their energy out! I bet he will sleep like a log tonight!
Here's the team doing their drills. Marky is the youngest on the team- but not the smallest.
Julia occupied herself as best she could by eating many peanut butter crackers and raisins.
Then she got her energy out on the playground with the other "little" siblings. Here she is all worn out on the rock wall. What an awesome day!

We're back!!!

We are back from the beach! We went to St. George Island and had the best time. It was your cliche American vacation. We played in the sand and ocean all day, swam in the pool in the afternoons, found sea shells, and ate big yummy dinners. At night the grown ups watched movies, worked puzzles, played poker, played trivial pursuit, played the Wii (I'm not a video game fan- but playing sports on the Wii is fun stuff). Marky learned to boogie board and the water in the ocean was PERFECT. Here we are at a big steak dinner prepared by grandpa (to the right)- the other folks are my sister-in-law and her husband and son- her baby girl was already in bed. Here's Marc with his mom and sister. Aren't they a pretty family?
Julia loved her cousin Noah and tackled him any time he sat still. She's a tough cookie.
Marky would have stayed at the beach all day every day if we had let him. This pic was taken one night after dinner when we went out looking for crabs. He insisted on taking off his shirt and running in the water.
Grandpa also brought us metal detectors to find treasures- here is Marc using one while Julia uses her shovel to imitate daddy. She walked right beside him the whole time.

Vacation all I ever wanted....

Well we are back and I must say we had a great time! This is the 7th time we've gone to the Alabama State Bar convention and this year was my favorite. It was so nice to have time with just Marky. Usually when we swim Julia latches onto Daddy like a koala bear and he can't really play with our big boy. This trip was all about Marky- we threw him back and forth in the pool, let him skip naps and stay up late to watch fireworks, let him drink sprite two times (a REAL treat), and just get some one-on-0ne time where he didn't have to "wait for the baby". I LOVE that picture above where he is adoring his daddy.
Here we are at family fun night on the beach. He had a sword painted on his face if you are wondering.
He got to climb the rock wall (with daddy cheering him on). He also did a bunch of carnival games. They had a mullet toss for the whole group and I told big Marc to get in and win the thing- and he did! We won a crystal vase- he beat over 70 people.
A big highlight of the trip was Shelley coming over for the day with her babies. Here is Ella, Streed, Marky and on the towel baby Nathan (who was an angel and slept on that towel while we played in the pool). They were having icecream and Streed and Marky had made airplanes.
Here's the crew at the beach. Marky and Streed hadn't seen each other in over a year or so and they picked up right where they left off- they get along really well! Meanwhile back at BB's.......

Julia was having the time of her life- this was her first time to be kept by herself at BB and Poppy's. She found herself a nice reading nook.
And she got to swim everyday with BB- and I'm sure she played with whatever she wanted and ate whatever she wanted.
When we swung through Mobile we had a little birthday party for BB. Happy Birthday BB we love you!!!!