Well I guess 6 hours of Lego clean up wasn’t a total waste of time.

I mean, it was a total waste of MY time, but watching the kids renew their interest in the legos gave me some satisfaction.

But it also made me realize what a state of disarray the rest of the toys were in.

Some days Aaron will ask me over 20 times where something is and all I can say is, “It’s somewhere in the house, it will show up eventually.”

For months we have been shoving toys in the bins randomly. As a result no one can find anything or play with the toys the way they were intended.

So I spend the better part of 2 days (which made the Lego project look like kid’s stuff, hahahaha!) shlepping to IKEA, re-sorting and paring down the basement.

The point of no return…

And the final reveal….

Toy bins have been reorganized and labeled with pictures so even my non-readers have no excuse when it’s clean up time!

Perhaps I should now introduce a nightly clean up time…

Here is how I wasted six hours of my life over the past two days, never to be had again…

We have enough legos to fill 10 baskets to the brim! Before this they were in completely unorganized in random bins, mixed in with other small toys, taking up all the space on our counter tops.

Now they are separated by people, wheels, odd pieces, small flats, large flats, small bricks and large bricks. It still looks like a mess but the boys were very happy to find all their missing pieces today!

When Adam walked in on me painstakingly separating tiny flats from bricks, he said, “You realize one of the twins is going to dump these or Ben is going to pull the whole thing down in a fit of rage?”

Yes, I do Adam, but the other alternative still seemed worse…

We were stuck in the suburbs last week on a gorgeous Monday morning and ended up at this gem of a park in Glenview.

Little Bear is located very close to the Kohl’s Children’s Museum in the Glen.

It’s set up with a big trellised circle walk way in the middle with swing benches all around.

Each corner has something different to play with.

A hedge maze.

A sand pit.

A splash pad.

A castle themed playground.

There are other cool features too, like a garden and a story set up in segments so that you had to walk to each page to read the story.

I really liked how it was completely fenced in, and that they had bathrooms right outside the playground to anyone who needs them.

Everyone loved it and asked if they could come back again soon! Well done, Glenview!

On Friday I realized my Mother, who arrived October 1st, was leaving in a short three days. Felt like she just arrived this visit and already she was leaving!

As usual, she tirelessly washed dishes and clothes, then found other projects like raking leaves and deep cleaning the stroller. She did this all while adoring our four snotty, bratty but somehow also irresistibly charming children.

She has the wisdom and age to know these are all just stages they are going through and even has the grace to laugh off their preferences for other family members when it suits them.

Still she found time to connect with all of them in their own ways.

As for me, it was nice to have an adult around to chat to during the day, especially one with who knows me inside and out, someone who enjoys quite a few of the same things I do.

Until next time Mom!

After substituting for one of Jack’s games last year and having quite a fun time, Adam decided this year to up the ante and coach Jack’s team.

Coaching is a lot more work than you realize, and I have a new appreciation to all those parents who volunteer their time to do it.

Having said that, Adam is still really enjoying it.

He has a great team of boys with a lot of talent, which makes it all very pleasurable. His so far unbeaten record helps too.

And best of all, he gets to spend more time with his favorite team member…

The tooth fairy strikes again, but who knows for how much longer.

Now that Jack is eight, he was very suspicious of this decoder and clues…

He still enjoyed the chase to find his money, but I’d better be careful I don’t leave anything incriminating out in the future!

Last night the twins had the pleasure of being ring bearer’s for their long time sitter, Anjelica.

Rehearsal

They were suppose to walk with the cutie pie next to them but she refused to hold their hands, even though they were both down with it. And so it starts.

The twins played their parts perfectly. I was pleased and surprised that they were able to follow the instructions and remember them two days later at the actual wedding.

In fact, taking the kids to something like this, as hard as it is, (I spent most of my time walking back and forth to the bathroom, they did not appreciate the long car rides both ways or having to sit in their seats for hours eating and listening to the adults talk. Oh, and at the end of the evening Aaron puked all over Sam) it was really worth it.

Jack surprised me with his interest in social skills and how adventurous he was, trying all the new appetizers and giving the thumbs up for most of them. Shrimp cocktail, lobster salad, caprese toasts. I didn’t get him to eat the lamb chops but Ben did!

First of hopefully many good times together over drinks, in fancy dress. Probably won’t be Shirley Temples and OJ, though…

We were very lucky to have my Mom here. Yep, Anjelica even invited her to the wedding. Japo couldn’t wait to see her grandkids down the aisle!

Overall it was an amazing night. The wedding was perfection. Every single detail. Perfect dress, perfect venue, perfect food, perfect flowers, perfect priest service, perfect speeches, perfect parents hosting and most importantly -the perfect couple.

Sam was enamored by Anjelica’s beauty (he is used to having her around in the clothes he covered with his sticky hands) that he tried to follow her around the entire wedding. Every time he saw her he would jump with glee.

We were so happy and humbled to be asked to join in this special day!

Spoke to soon about not being allergic…

When we meet all the new people at the temple we just joined, they are going to think my husband beats me…

On a last minute decision, we headed up to Harvest Time Orchards for our annual apple picking adventure.

Frankly lately I’ve wanted to do less with the kids.

I’m tired of trying to get them to conform to the rules and regulations of the civilized world.

I’m tired of the dirty looks from strangers.

I’m tired of feeling anxious every second. Vigilantly turning my head and counting to four over and over again, making sure they are all still there. I’m nervous one will be out of my sight for just one second, and in that second get run over by a car, stolen, hurt, lost, or any number of other insane thoughts I have that keep me awake at night.

So I was really weary today. Especially since it was the only weekend we could do it, and afterwards we had a soccer game and pizza party afterwards.

Over scheduling small children is the death of fun.

But Adam said, “Lets to it!”.

It reminds him of apple picking with his grandparents when he was a kid.

Reliving a happy family memory should never denied.

Because of the short notice, only the Pasquiers were able to join us…

Once it was all said and done, I was glad we made the effort.

Even though I got the first bee sting in my life…

Pleased to know I’m not allergic!

And Aaron thought it was a good idea to sample all the apples he picked, so when we went to load his apples in the car we discovered a little bite in each one…

And there was a lot of crying, including one particularly rough patch with Ben where a stranger, who was an Occupational Therapist, came up and asked how she could help. I guess it’s obvious to some people what’s going on in our lives. The rest of the people in the vicinity just gawked.

This was at the little playground they have. It’s a cute area where you can wait with the kids while one of the adults sits in the incredibly long line for donuts.

Hours of entertainment from four hay bales that form a square.

Tractor tires filled with sand.

Rolling down the hill.

Turkeys, Goats, and a pig with an option to feed.

I think the best part of the day was watching the boys interact with each other, electronic free.

And then, after the long wait, the donuts arrived…

And now that we are back home, time to start searching the internet for apple recipes!