March 22 [the wishbone]

For four months I’ve had a turkey furcula sitting in the pot of my kitchen plant.

My Mom placed the wishbone in the plant after Thanksgiving dinner so I wouldn’t forget about it.  It’s not that I haven’t noticed it on occasion over these past few months, but it wasn’t until yesterday that we finally did something about it.  My kids were completely unfamiliar with the old tradition of pulling it apart.  However, once explained Jason was gung-ho about participating and Abigail agreed.  

It was close but Abigail was left with the largest piece of bone and declared the winner – which I believe means she gets her wish granted?  Hum, wonder what she would have wished for.  I’d ask, but then I guess it wouldn’t come true.

Yep, that’s Masterchef Jr. in the background – we’re finally at the finale from last season.

March 21 [lacrosse]

Yesterday was Carly’s first lacrosse game.  She’s been practicing twice a week for a month now and we were excited to get our first lacrosse season officially started.  Wednesday night two of her friends decided to join the team.  Very last minute, but it will be great to have a few friends from church join us for the season.

Someday I’ll have a better zoom on my camera so I can get in a little closer to the action.  But this is Carly running down the middle of field while cradling the ball in her stick.

Carly had a great first game and handled the ball much more than I expected.  Here’s to a fun lacrosse season!

March 20 [keeping it real]

Yesterday was just one of those days.

I spent the morning trying to straighten up the house – did a big load of laundry and even put it away for the kids.  I managed to get the upstairs vacuumed and several rooms picked up.  Katie was super helpful upstairs but when it came to putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher – she refused.  all. day. long.  So she didn’t get privileges  – all. day. long.  She complained that she couldn’t stand.  She complained she couldn’t do it.  She just complained.  She can be stubborn, but her mama can be even more so.  Finally after hours and hours missing out on snacks, playing outside, etc… she finally did her job with a promise to do it the first time she’s asked in the future.  Yay, we’ll see about that.

Abigail texted me during lunch and asked if she could bring a friend home from school.  We’d talked about it the previous day and I was honestly fine with it, but usually something ends up irritating me when friends are over so I’m not one of those moms that encourage frequent playdates – or whatever you call those types of arrangements for teens and tweens.  We have early release on Fridays so the two of them walked in the door at 1pm.  Pretty sure I immediately tensed up.  I could tell Abigail was trying to keep their volume down low so they wouldn’t wake Drew up from his nap, but really how many kids are accustom to having nappers at home – um, very, very few.

My not-so-chipper mood may have been slightly influenced by the fact that Justin had decided to take the day off of work and accept an invitation by some random company to attend the NCAA tournaments in Seattle.  So while I was cleaning, folding, and managing a busy household and five children he was planning to spend the next 12 hours in a suite watching basketball while eating and drinking to his hearts content.  Thinking about it now, it really isn’t a big deal, but there are certainly days I wish I could just take an entire day to myself without a care in the world.  I’m struggling to even find myself a few hours in the next week to run an errand.  I love, love, love my job and wouldn’t want to do ANYTHING else or be surrounded by ANYONE besides my kiddos, but it can be stressful, demanding, and often thankless.  My to-do list is endless.

My carpet installer was supposed to come by “around noon” to fix our tack strip issue.  At 1pm I got a phone call that he’d wrapped up a job late and could be here in 45 minutes.  An hour later, a phone call that he had only moved about 2 miles in the last half hour, but would continue making his way if that was ok.  He arrived at about 2:45pm, spent 5 minutes hammering down the tacks at the entrance to the room and was done.  Say what?  That’s it?  He just spent over 2 hours making his way to my house to spend 5 minutes doing something I could have done.  I felt a tad bit guilty, but he was great about it.  Said he’s been in the business for 30 years because he does what he says he will.  And get this… he’s probably the most famous carpet installer in the world.  Really.  He’s been in all the hootie tootie homes in the NW including Bill Gates.  He was flown out to Chicago to do a job for Oprah.  This guy is no joke.  His resume was unbelievable.  And he spent half his day just to hammer down a few nails in MY house.

After driving the activity day carpool later that afternoon I came home to pick up Jason for baseball practice.  We were 5 minutes late – which is not how I like to roll.  During practice I spent a quiet hour in the car going through emails on my phone and even started a new book.  Abigail texted me and asked if she and her friend could make cookies.  Fresh cookies sure sounded good, but I made sure she understood that she was to do all the dishes and was to clean up all the mess.  Of course she agreed.  And of course the kitchen was still a mess when I got home.  And of course she dragged her feet about cleaning it up.

By now it was 7pm – no one had eaten dinner.  I heated up leftover spinach artichoke dip from a RS dinner the previous evening.  There were a few bowls of cereal eaten.  And a few cookies - Drew helped himself.

This is him shaking his head “no” at me when I asked him to get down off the counter.

The three youngest were in bed by 7:30pm and the girls were banished to their bedroom for the remainder of the night so I could have a quiet evening.  Abigail asked if they could not have a bedtime, and promised they wouldn’t stay up too late.  She still thinks 9:30 or 10 is a privilege so in an effort to be nice I agreed, with a warning that if I hear them it’s immediate lights out.  They did awesome til around 9:43pm, as I type this, when Carly’s rummaging in the laundry room lit my fuse – which upset Abigail – which irritated Carly – which cause them to point fingers, which made me spout off punishments, which basically sealed the day with a nasty little bow and I stopped typing and sent myself to bed.

March 19 [it’s all fun and games until…]

Katie and Drew are good little buddies, but it seems that recently they are getting on each others nerves more often.  Either I’ll hear Drew screaming because Katie isn’t cooperating with his wishes or Katie will be crying because Drew took matters into his own hands and likely threw something at her.  Yesterday they were playing in the small, cramped coat closet.  Apparently Katie wanted out and Drew didn’t want to allow such a thing…

When I let Katie out Drew was crushed

But since he had my attention he decided to show me what fun hiding in the dark closet can be.

Until something caught his attention outside

And then we moved on 

March 18 [7th grade band concert]

Last night was Abigail’s mid-year band concert.  The drive there was lovely.  Yep, just driving to the school is absolutely beautiful.  We passed Snoqualmie Falls, the sun was shining, the trees were in blossom, and Pandora was playing the perfect music.  As we drove along the river near her school I couldn’t help myself; I had to pullover and take a picture of the trees in blossom along the river.

The concert was long – three grades and two jazz bands performed.  Our school has a great music program though (aside from not offering orchestra) and the kids did a great job.

After the concert Abigail and her friends were hanging out near the bake sale and asked to have their picture taken.  I was happy to oblige.  So grateful for good friends like these.

March 17 [2nd grade concert]

Last night was Jason’s second grade concert.  Thankfully, his baseball practice was cancelled because of wet fields so we didn’t have to juggle leaving practice early and changing in the car; however, our evening was still busy with lacrosse practice and youth night so it was just me and him that attended.

He told me where he’d be standing on the risers and I found myself a great spot where I could watch him perform.  As the kids filed into the gym you could watch all of them trying to locate their waving parents out in the audience.  I was one of those waving parents and Jason was sure looking around, but no joke it took several minutes for him to finally spot me.  He kept turning to his neighbor and saying he couldn’t find his Mom.  I wish I could have captured his huge smile when he did finally spot my hand waving through the air.  Love that kid!

I haven’t been too successful posting videos, but I’ll try anyhow…

It was great to see him up there without any reservations and truly having fun with the songs.  Hopefully that will be something he’ll continue to be comfortable with as he gets older.  Cause let’s face it – my little boy is growing up.

March 16 [ground breaking]

When I dismissed the thought to grab a drink for Drew on the way out the door yesterday I was asking for disappointment.  Leaving the house at 1pm, smack during his usual naptime is chancy even with proper provisions. I thought it would be fun to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new elementary school being built in our neighborhood.  I wanted a picture of my two happy kiddos standing in front of the wooded site that may be their future school.  I hoped that although the ceremony would be primarily attended by city and school officials that it would be brief and somewhat exciting for my two youngest.  I expected the same treats and drinks provided at last year’s groundbreaking ceremony for our neighborhood park – I was sadly wrong on all accounts.  We lasted about 20 minutes before Drew became increasing frustrated that I was ignoring his clear sign for a drink and we had to leave.  I didn’t get the picture that I’d hoped for, just this one…

Great Wolf Lodge

At the end of last summer, Justin issued a challenge to read the book of Mormon individually in 6 months with a reward being to take the family to the Great Wolf Lodge – an indoor waterpark/themed hotel.  Clearly Katie and Drew weren’t in on the challenge (just the reward) and Jason was able to read from the Book of Mormon stories (which he did FIVE times).   The fall/winter is such a busy time for our family that I was really impressed with how well the girls stayed on track.  There were some weekends they each had to do some serious catching up, but it ended up being a positive experience for our family.

We decided we’d redeem our reward over President’s Day so Justin would only have to take one day off of work and the kids had the entire week off for mid-winter break.

Drew was excited to get packed up and ready to go.

In typical Fletcher family fashion, food always plays a factor in pretty much any outing.  We planned our drive so we could try Costa Vida in Federal Way for lunch.  I have some friends that claim it’s better than Café Rio so we had to try it for ourselves.  It tasted great and is definitely a close comparison, but our preference still lies with Café Rio.

Our last (and first) visit to the Great Wolf Lodge was in 2009 - six years ago when Jason was the same age as Drew is now.  Taking five kids to a waterpark isn’t at all relaxing for me.  I knew the kids would love it, but for me personally it wasn’t my thing.  I spent most of the time counting heads and making sure no one was drowning and that we hadn’t lost a child.  We were able to check in at 1pm and immediately start using the waterpark.  Each of the kids were issued their very own wolf ears.

Being a family of seven we couldn’t get by with a normal room so we had to upgrade to the Wolf Cabin Suite.  Our room had a cute little “cabin” with three beds in addition to a regular bed and sofa bed in the main room.  For as little time as we spent in the room in didn’t actual matter at all, but still cute I suppose.

The kids took full advantage of the waterpark.  Justin and the three oldest stayed til it closed at 9pm and were there when it opened at 9am the following morning.  I was happy to stay back with anyone that needed a little extra sleep or downtime whenever necessary.

The waterpark has a wavepool, an activity swimming pool, a kiddie play area, a large play structure with two slides, 2 traditional tube slides, a large group tube slide, and the exciting ‘Tornado’ waterslide for the older guests.  Plenty to enjoy.

Drew love, love, LOVED the water.  He is absolutely fearless.  Had no issue getting his face fully submerged.  He was so fun to watch.

Over the course of the two days we had access to the waterpark, Drew probably went down this slide over 100 times.  At first the kids wanted to do it with him, but he had no reservations making the climb and decent completely on his own.

Keeping an eye on Drew was a full-time job.  He moved fast and had no reservations taking off on his own.

Katie was disappointed she couldn’t go on the ‘Tornado’, the largest waterslide.  She was tall enough to do everything else though so long as she had a parent with her.

My favorite part of the day was the 20 minutes I got to sit outside by the hot tub – alone - and enjoy the sunshine.  It wasn’t particularly warm, but the sun felt wonderful and it was great to get out of the crowds and noise of the indoor park.

To avoid overpaying for resort food we brought sandwiches for dinner, homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and lots of snacks to cover anything in between.  Our package included a $25 resort credit so we used that to buy a couple pizzas for lunch on our second day.

Checkout is at 11am, but guests are able to use the waterpark until it closes at 9pm.  Sure that’s great, but the major disadvantage is that you don’t have access to a room to change or shower and with little ones – to nap.   Drew has gotta be our most flexible napper though cause he had no problem laying down in his stroller and taking a nap in the hotel lobby.  He slept for several hours while I watched shows on my iPad.  A win win.

Drew and I hung out in the lobby until Justin dragged the kids away from the park around 7pm so we could head home.  As we drove home Justin predicted that the next Great Wolf visit won’t be until Carly’s in college.  Definitely a fun experience for the kids, but not something we want to do often.  Next time Drew will be old enough to do go on everything on his own.