Typical Tuesday

It's a typical Tuesday here at the Van Horn house. Are you excited to witness it? Yea, I thought so...

First things first, I'm up nice and early to make it to the gym.

When I get home it's a crazy zoo trying to get Drama and Pooh Bear off to school and Mark to work {his hair is the hardest to do}. I try to get a shower in, bathe the Boss and Bea, and get the Boss to preschool by 9:30. Sorry no photographic evidence of this part of the day.

Bea and I drop the Boss off at Ms. Cathie's Preschool and spend some quality time together running errands. We hit Walgreens, the gas station, the Library and then helped in Pooh Bears class tutoring math. Bea's awesome at fractions.

Home for a quick snack. Peanut butter and the biggest apple I have ever seen {seriously it was as big as Bea's head}.

Then back to pick up the Boss from Ms. Cathie's. Buddy likes to come with us.

Today she came home with a plastic Easter egg. Last week she came home with a real live goldfish named "Belle".

Back home to eat lunch and practice counting to 20. We had to take off our shoes and Buddy helped with the counting.

After nap/quiet time, Pooh Bear arrives home from school and it's snack and homework time (Drama has service club and is still at school).

Newest requested snack = green smoothies. Seriously, they watch me put the spinach, carrots and special "greens" powder in the blender with the fruit and oj but they still love it and slurp it down. We made extra for Drama and stashed it in the freezer until she got home.

Dinner is always a fun affair.

{yes, she did poke herself 3.56 seconds after I took this photo}

The after dinner entertainment is always exciting... someone usually ends up injured. That's one fat lip sister.

Jammies, check. Brushed teeth, check. Reading books, check.

Finding a hole in your jammies and laughing because it's super silly, check and check.

The Boss insisted in having her jammies altered to fix the hole problem and then she channeled my Grandma with the "waste not, want not" mentality. New slippers, check!

It's all in a day's work...

Resourceful

I'm not 100% certain but I bet this was Bea's handiwork.

You Could Probably Skip this Whole Post and Just Look at the Picture...

Can it already be July 21st? 

Seriously? 

Where did the summer go?

I was contemplating catching up on all of my blog posting since I haven't posted about pooh bear's birthday...or drama's birthday...or other things (that I can't recall right now)...But I can only find two of my camera cards and pooh bear's and drama's birthday's are on the card I can't find...

Of course.

{Warning - several mega run on sentences follow, in which I attempt to explain why I am a lame blogger}


I also have to say that because picking up part time employment, raising four {ahem, high maintenance, ahem} children, pretending to be an adequate wife, finding fulfilling/educational/enriching activities for said children during the summer {Dora counts, right?}, being the best ever Webelos Den Mother {ha}, and keeping up on the housework {oh, wait, I don't really do that last one}
....because all of this left me with oodles of extra time, I have decided to train for and theoretically run a half marathon. 
That's right, I have officially lost my mind.
 Thursday mornings are my "long run", that is today if you are keeping track at home, and I have worked my way up to 9.5 miles and I am wondering how I will ever make it to 13.1 miles...by August 27. That's the date of the race by the way {haha, race, what a funny word, not at all what I will be doing. Survival, that's what I'll be attempting. So really that's the date of "Attempted Survival"}  If you want to take a moment that morning and offer a prayer {or two} that I don't keel over and die somewhere on the side of the overly hill course in Alpine. I would appreciate it. 


Anyway...
Me=Crazy Lady
Crazy Lady likes to use a lot of .... and {} in her post.


Yes, you should stop reading now, if you haven't already... and {}.


And as a reward for sticking with me through what I can only assume is a side effect of severe sleep deprivation, here is a photo, which is why you come here to begin with right? 


From Bea's birthday party, which I would really like to post... right now...but I'm so tired...5 am is very early...

She very much enjoyed dropping her ice cream onto her tray. She didn't eat it or her cupcake, just the red homemade butter cream frosting. But it was fun to play with.

Can't a Girl Get a Break?

Seriously, as if cracking my iPhone screen right down the middle wasn't enough...

Curse You Fake Spring...

I am now cursing the fake spring like weather we had two weeks ago. 

Bea's new favorite word and place to be is "outside."

Of course, the last two weeks have been rainy and snowy and COLD.

It, apparently, doesn't matter to these folks. 

We just get all bundled up, snow boots, hats, gloves, coats, and head out.

These were taken on March 20, 2011. . . the high was 39 degrees that day.

{And now that The Boss and Bea have watched me 

post these pictures guess where they want to go.......}

An Ode to Spring

Yesterday was a be.a.u.ti.ful day.

I mean, seriously, can I order a couple more of those please?

Doing their required reading, outside, with Popsicles in their hands, I scored some serious mom bonus points with that.

We have not soaked up enough vitamin D this winter.

Popsicle deliciousness.

{When the Boss decided she didn't want her Popsicle anymore, 

I did NOT hand it to Bea and let her finish it.}

These poor cabin fever babies were devastated when they had to come in for dinner.

lil' Elvis

The hardest thing about going back to work is that I don't remember to take pictures every day and look for those "blogging" moments. You know the wacky little things that my kids do that ya' all love to read about...They still do plenty of wacky things that make me laugh but part of my brain has been allocated to work and I think it took over my brain's blogging space. 

But, this morning I didn't have to go to Drama's class to help in math because they were having a test. {lil' Elvis, The Boss & I go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays and "help" in Drama's math class. I'm not sure how much help I am with those two in tow and Drama informs me that they can be annoying sometimes, but her teacher thinks we are helping. So, we keep comin' back.} Anyway, we decided to play in our jammies for a little while. And so, when lil' Elvis was running around, my blogging brain kicked in and I took these super cute pictures just for you. Okay not just for you but I figured I could share.

 You're Welcome.

This is her new thing, unzipping her jammies, even if they have a snap at the top.

I love bed heads!

She loves to read. "Go Away Big Green Monster!"

{As a matter of fact, as I try to type this now she is sitting on my lap and we are reading one of her favorite books, "Neighborhood Animals."}

Another Slice of Life

Wednesday, January 26, 2011, just before dinner time

What happens when an 18 month old, sitting at your kitchen counter, keeping you company whilst you cook dinner decides that something looks particularly yummy?

Why she climbs up onto the counter, pulls the bowl containing said particular yummy thing over and scoops up a bite, of course...

Serious Fun Times 4

Friday January 21, 2011, Continued

My previous post was about what happens when one almost 3 year old plays in the water soluble packing peanuts. Since I love math, and my Dad used to say, "Life is a story problem," here is a real life story problem for your enjoyment.

A train leaves the station traveling north at 40 mph {oh, wait, wrong story problem}.

One small living room contains one large box and one small box of water soluble packing peanuts. It also contains one smallish 3 year old girl. After said girl's nap her 2 older sisters arrive home from school and one younger sister wakes from her nap. Determine, using Chaos Theory, how large of a mess can and will be created.

Items of note:

Drama is laying on her back, top half inside the box and lower half outside as if she were working on a fine automobile. Pooh Bear is the project manager...

Bea's not sure what is going on, however, she is L.O.v.I.n.G. every minute of the chaos...

The Boss decided that sharing {in this particular instance} is way fun. The sharing of one's toys has yet to become a pattern. She has also changed out of gymnastics gear and into princess gear...

 

This Is What Serious Fun Looks Like

Two boxes from Soap.com arrived on our doorstep right after we got home from gymnastics class. (The Huggies came in the giant box)...

Apparently their "water soluble packing peanuts" are an unadvertised bonus. At first she was "helping" me clean up the few that puffed out of the box when we took the goods out. She then "helped" a few more peanuts out of the box....

The Boss played in them until nap time. Even then I had to promise her they would be right where she left them if she took a nap...

Sometimes I Just Can't Get a "Head"....

Life is so crazy right now. It's hard to keep up with everything that's going on and still make my bed and clean my room. This morning when Bea climbed up on the bar stool for the 8 hundredth time, I thought she was just being naughty. But apparently Polly needed a drink of apple juice.......

 Seriously, How am I supposed to get anything done if I am fishing heads out of juice all day. That's going to be my new metaphor for the crazy things that happen around here. For example, "Polly's heads in the juice again!" I like it. And I give you all permission to use it as often as needed. You can even put a bad word in front if the situation warrants it. Just make sure that if you are around children you say the bad word in your head! ;)

And to think I almost dumped Polly out and washed her off before I took pictures. Then you would have missed this little slice of crazy.
That would have been sad for you.