Laundry around here is big business, literally.  With four kids, I feel like my dirty pile is never ending.  In the summer and on breaks, the kids are really great about helping out, but when they are in school, mom is the laundry attendant on duty.  So, all you moms (and dads) out there~  How do you handle laundry at your house?  Do you do it all in one day or a couple loads each day?  I know that I am not alone buried under this pile o’ laundry.

Funny, I started writing this post last week some time and decided to wait to post it on a day when my brain was sucked dry and no words could be mustered.  Stock piling blog posts really isn’t my thing but on a whim I decided to hold on to it until later.  Later has arrived.  Not because my brain has shriveled to the size of a raisin but instead because my awesome husband saved the (laundry) day.  He built me an organizer/sorter/basket holder thingy.  Isn’t it the coolest??

I am not sure if it will help me actually get the laundry done but it will certainly keep it off the floor 🙂

We found the plans on Ana White’s site.  Beware, this site is addictive…almost as bad as Pinterest!

Happy sorting!

Jennifer

Paige celebrated her eighth birthday on Wednesday. It was a quiet low key kinda birthday. We only have big parties every other year over here at the casa de Wescott.  This is the year of the family party. That’s right.  Mom, Dad, Sam, Alice and Mason.  Did anyone hear me breathe a sigh of relief?  Big friend parties are so much fun and soooo much work for momma.  With four kids, I can only handle the big celebrations every other year.  We also wanted our kids to learn to appreciate the big party.  It comes with lots of love and tons of work.

Sooo, back to our baby Paigie.  She just isn’t a baby any longer.  It is sad.  Seems like just yesterday that I was not so patiently waiting (10 days late) to meet our sweet girl and now she is EIGHT.

Happy Birthday to our special girl. You will always be my baby.  Forever.

We love you to infinity plus infinity 🙂

This boy adores his big sister and she is pretty crazy about him too (most of the time).

After a week off for Winter Break, all my cherubs are healthy and back to school.  Sam missed the week prior to break because he had the flu and strep throat so he actually got two weeks off.  Poor guy 🙂  When we woke up this morning, we were met with about a foot of snow and for a quick second they thought that they might get a snow day! Not the case.

We had a very relaxing break but mixed it up a bit and fit in some fun as well.  We skied, went sledding,  bowled with friends and made a trip to the Denver Zoo.  It was a great week and now Mommy is ready for a break 🙂 Off to work, I go!

I love this picture of Paige.  No matter where her ball went, she always smiled and said Yes!

Have a great Monday!

Jennifer

After a very blizzardy drive to and from Breckenridge to church, we decided to stay closer to home for the rest of the day.  We headed over to the Frisco Adventure Park and found a killer sledding hill.  The best part; we were the only people there.  The second best part; all the 11 and unders are sleeping:)

For some reason that great poem from Shel Silverstein comes to mind whenever my kids get some sort of sickness.

I cannot go to school today, said Little Peggy Ann McKay.

I have the measles and the mumps.

A gash, a rash and purple bumps…….

It was one of my favorites when I was a kid.  Who doesn’t dream of staying home “sick” for just one day.  Lying in bed, reading or watching the television, maybe drinking some soda to calm the tummy.

 

Well, Sam doesn’t.  

The boy loves school. 

And he is sick. For real.  

Influenza AND strep throat.  When he gets sick (which doesn’t happen very often) he gets super sick.  

So, he hasn’t been to school all week.  Most kids would love a week off but not my boy.  He has been so sad all week thinking about what he might be missing:) Evidently, staying in your room all week watching reruns on the Ipad gets old.  Thank goodness, the drugs are kicking in and he is starting to perk up!  

Now he just has all that homework to look forward to.  

Every once in a while, I get to go away, all by my big girl self (all by myself means without a human being under the age of 12 in tow). This past weekend I joined three friends from Colorado Springs on a girls weekend to Crested Butte.  Crested Butte is this gorgeous sleepy little mountain town about 3 1/2 hours away.  We had a blast and it was a perfect weekend for relaxing.  We ate, we drank (way too much), we snowshoed, we sat in the hot tub and we laughed, a lot.  Scott was a champ and stayed home with our four babies.  He had lots of plans for the weekend but Samuel woke up sick on Saturday morning and the rest of the weekend included thermometers, Ibuprofen and bed rest.

Anyway, thanks so much to Victoria, Marnie and Lacey for a fabulous weekend away and many thanks to Scott for holding down the fort at home.

There are a few days a year that I think homeschooling makes sense and Valentine’s Day is one of them 🙂

Oh, who am I kidding!  I love making those homemade cards with the kids, all 80 of them (cards that is).  This year we mostly took the easy route, mainly because I started preparing wayyyyyyyy too late.  I started preparing today.

So, here are the “love” notes we came up with this year.  Despite my lack of planning or forethought, I think they turned out pretty well.

Sam wanted something funny this year.  He is totally not into passing out cards so this was a fun route to take with a fifth grader.  We took Alice’s version from last year and tweeked it.

Alice was on the fence until 2 seconds before she walked out the door this morning.  I gave her a few suggestions and this in the one she finally chose.  They were super easy and turned out really cute.  Another great thing, twisty straws are super cheap.

Paigie knew what she wanted on her Valentine’s Day cards like a month ago.  Pencil grippers.  Pencil grippers?!?!?!?  How do I make that into a clever, crafty card?  Well, after a bit of Pinteresting, I found a perfect saying to go with a pencil and gripper.  She was thrilled.

Last but definitely not least (actually we made his first while the other kids were finishing up homework) is Mason.  Mason’s Valentines were the easiest by far.  Bubbles.  Print off the labels, add names and adhere sticker.  That is my kinda crafty.

So there you have it.  Valentine’s Day 2013, look out!  Again, I really must give all the credit to Pinterest.  There are so many great ideas, just waiting to be found.

One last thing that I have to add.  Our elementary school does not have Valentine’s Day parties. They invite the parents to lunch, pass out their cards, watch a movie and go on about their day.  I like it.  A lot.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours.  May you receive piles of chocolate and may you eat every last morsel.

Good night.

Jennifer

 

Mason and Daddy

Scott took our two girls to their first ever Father Daughter Dance last night.  The night before the big dance I stood outside their room and listened to them discussing the name of the dance.  Is it a Father Daughter Dance or a Daddy Daughter Dance?   They were so excited that they could have gone on forever talking about it. I love those sometimes rare moments when they are being sweet to each other and just talking like best friends.

FDD or DDD? I assured them that they could call it whatever they chose:)

Each of the girls got a new dress, shoes and a hair accessory (Thank you Target).  They both looked darling and were crazy excited to spend the evening with Scott and their friends from school.  Scott came home looking a little dazed and confused. I guess being at a dance full of 5-10 year olds all evening made him a little loopy! After the dance, some of the girls and their dads went out for a treat at our local froyo place.  By the time they made it home, everyone was hyped up on sugar and fun.  Everyone but daddy that is…..he proceeded to sit down and fall asleep:)

Scott refused to haul my big ole’ camera to the dance so all I have are the before pics.

 

Strong, courageous and proud…that’s what little girls are made of.