Em's Birthday and other random pictures

On March 29, the kids were invited to Em's house next door for donuts for breakfast for Em's 14th birthday.  She is a sport for letting this be a big day for them- because it was.  A balloon tied to the lamp post outside, they each got a candle in their respective donut, and got to sing to their bestie, Em.

Still eating candy from Em's confirmation.  I don't have any pics of them sitting around the table bc I dragged my butt over there in my pajamas.  Jackie said to me, "Is that what you are wearing over there??"  umm.... yes.

Wednesday evening the older girls had tumbling and Em and Ben and Hill built a foam castle.  Jackie was so jealous she wasn't in on the castle building.

But she felt satisfied that night as we head to Pizza by Eliz that night for Em's birthday celebration. I left my phone in the car and was so bummed because it was such a nice night.  Jackie was very well behaved and ordered a small kid pizza.  This is the restaurant I waited tables at while I was externing for the judge in the summer of 2007?  That was a fun summer.

Thursday afternoon dance class.

The juice squad.  The only person who loves juice as much as Ben is the little Emily.  No joke. 

That day at school was Box Top Day!  Aunt Jeantte hooked up Jax as usual and Jack was able to buy a bunch of random items at the box top shop.  She shared with both Hilly and little Emily and it was so nice.

Wrestling.

Friday morning Drew's mom went to pick up their new puppy, so Drew hung with us before I drove the little kids to preschool.  He fit right in with the crew.

At one point Benny said "Drew. Let me show you the bullets in this book."  It's Thidwick, the Big Hearted Moose" by Dr. Seuss. It's an old book and these Harvard grad hunters are hunting Thidwick for his antlers and it shows them shooting bullets at the moose. Drew goes, "I like guns with bullets!" Drew loves guns and comes by it honestly.  Ben is an expert at picking up on what boys consider "cool."  He said to me today, "Mommy, do you know minecraft? I like minecraft."  No question he has like no clue what it is but he watched a big kid play it on his ipad at the HAC or something.

Friday afternoon, Hilly has her swim lessons, so they swam for about an hour beforehand.

They are both getting so big.

So big, in fact, that I realized I'm done with Ben refusing to put his head under and I signed him up for those Nazi swim lessons Jack had when she was a baby.  Remember those? She just cried and screamed her head off.  Yup. 

Never had to do that with Hill.  She is a fish in water.

This guy? Not so much.

This was his reaction when I told him about the lessons.

Friday night we met up with Lily and Ryan from Jack's class and had pizza with them before St. Ann's musical, Aladdin Jr.

This is a group my kids usually don't hang with so I was a little apprehensive but they were so good and played really well with the other kids.

At the play enjoying ring pops at intermission.  Lily's good friend Kiera came along last minute and Jackie told me she felt excluded.  I can tell you firsthand that there was no intentional excluding going on, so I talked to Jack about how she could have tried to play with them a little more than she did.  Lily totally included her.  She was just tired and feeling bad for herself.

This morning.  While I finished my book and Jim took a shower, Hilly played a game on Jim's phone while Ben and Jack played a shopkins/superheroes blend.  It was so nice.

Jackie is like obsessed with those hand slapping games (like Miss Mary Mack) right now and it is SO ANNOYING.  I beg her to stop singing them sometimes.  Here she is indoctrinating Hilly.  Ben is totally interested even though he pretends he isn't.

And below is a pic from Em's breakfast.  Don't Jack and Em look so cute in their uniforms.  H was dressed for the day, but sweet Benny was still in his PJs.

I found this in Jack's backpack. It says: The luckiest day I ever had was when I got my ears pierced.  First I went to St. Patrick's Church.  Next I went in a taxi.  Last I got my ears pierced.  The pictures are of me, Jax, and Gma watching Jasmine on stage, riding in a yellow cab, and a picture of her sitting on a stool getting her ears pierced.  You never know what is going to stick with kids, and this made me really happy. It really was a special day.