Because We Don't Have Enough Girls

Meet Molly.  

yes, we just might be crazy.

Good Stuff Ahead

I am super excited for two reasons:

1.  I feel my blogging mojo coming back.  I KNOW this has you doing the happy dance.  Right?  I've got all sorts of goodness floating around in my head.  It's about to make it's way to paper and onto your computer screen soon.  I know, it's almost more than you can stand.  You may need to sit down to recover. It's OK.  No one's looking.

2.  Along the lines of #1, my gal pal Jess over at Peanut and Pistachio (if you aren't reading her blog, you should.  Go do it.  Now.) are cooking up something fun.  It's going to involve you, Pinterest and mad creativity.  So get ready to flex your crafty muscles!  It's all coming soon.  Very very soon!

So that's all.  I'm going back to trying to not melt.  Did you know it's like a bazillion degrees outside?  I think I may love my air conditioner right now.  It better stay on my good side.

So until next time, stay cool!

Long Trip Tips Part 2

ON THE ROAD:

1.  Make sure your DVD player works before embarking on a 2 day, 20 hour drive with 4 small children.

That's all I got.

Sigh.

Long Trip Tricks and Other Ways To Keep From Going Crazy

*The Great Room Switch is for the most part complete.  All the big work is done and now it's just the mundane moving junk from one closet to the next and the fun decorating and accessorizing.  Because I'm a bit of a control freak and want things to be *just so*, I'm withholding any "after" pics until we are TOTALLY done.  Sorry.  You're just going to have to be ok with that.  :-)

*********

Now, on to the post at hand!

We are about to embark on our annual trek to visit the inlaws.  From where we are, it's a good 20-21 hour drive.  Thanks to TSA pat-down craziness, insane airline fees and the general loose cannon that my 2 year old can be when cooped up in a small space for a extended period of time, we choose to endure this 20-21 hours on the highway, rather than fly the friendly skies.  Trust me, with us on board it ain't gonna be friendly for too long.  At least in the mini-van we can contain the crazy within our four walls.

So we've been making this drive a long time.  At first it was just hubs and I.  Easy peasy.  A few gas station stops for drinks and Peachies (the ultimate roadtrip candy) and we could drive all night.  But now obviously, it's not so simple.  Along the way we've picked up on a few tricks that make the drive go a little more smoothly (and quickly!) so I thought I'd share them with you.  Please note that the following are things we've found work well when we do them.  You'd think I'd learn my lesson and stick with what works, but I'm kinda scattered and often forget from year to year.  So this list is as much for me as it is for you!

Part ONE:  BEFORE YOU LEAVE:

1.  Do your laundry and start packing the week before.

You do not want to have to dig through this the night before you leave.  Trust me.

I have a really bad habit about waiting to pack until the last minute.  This is ok if it's just me going on a little weekend getaway (wait, has that ever happened??), but when it's 6 of us leaving for nearly 2 weeks, there's just not enough hours in that last day to get it all done.  Since I'm obviously doing laundry all.the.time. I've found it's helpful beginning about a week before to pull out the clothes I know I want to take with us as I come across them in the laundry basket waiting to be folded.  This way we don't wear them again and then have to run a rush load of last minute laundry at midnight the night before we leave.

2.  Pack the kids' clothing in large ziploc baggies a la the Duggar's.  

Baggies of clothes keep the chaos under control and keep hubs from staring at the suitcase in a stupor when you ask him to get the kids dressed.

Did anyone catch the episode where the Duggar's went to NYC, the whole lot of them?  There was a clip of the older girls packing the suitcases and they were talking about how they organize all the kids' clothing according to outfit and then pack them in baggies.  When I saw this a lightbulb went off in my head.  Brilliant!  So now, as I'm pulling clothes out of the clean laundry that I know we want to take, I put them in 2.5 gallon ziplocs and write the name of the owner on the front in sharpie marker.  Later, when we're on our trip, when I tell the older girls to go get dressed, they can go find a baggie with their name on it and help themselves.  I also make sure to put underwear and any hair accessories and socks in each baggie so it's all in one place and easy to match up.


3.  Clean your house before you leave.  

No one wants this waiting for them while they're soaking up the sun.  

I know, I know.  Like you have time for that right?  I'll admit I don't always do this.  But trust me, you will thank yourself later.  There is nothing, nothing like coming home after a looooong trip to a clean house.  Plus it will make it much easier to relax on the beach knowing there's not 12 loads of laundry and a sink full of dishes waiting for you when you get home.

4.  Pack snacks and meals. 

OK, so this is NOT our stash of food for our trip... but it's the only pic of food I had.  You get the idea.  We don't usually take toilet paper with us... although it's not a bad idea now that I think of it...

Growing up I wasn't really allowed to get snacks from gas stations.  It wasn't so much the fact that it's all junk (although it is) as it was just too expensive to buy something every time we stopped.  I got used to my mom loading up the big ice chest and sharing my backseat space with it.  Once I got married, I discovered that I married a guy who was used to living high on the hog when it came to trips.  Which really just meant that we bought drinks and candy when we stopped for gas and never used an ice chest.  And I loved it.  But we discovered quickly that with 6 kids, we're back in the reality of it just not being a wise financial move.  We have fairly routine snack times when we're at home anyway, so when we're on a trip we try to maintain that consistency.  So beforehand I try to pack enough snacks to cover those times plus extra that I allow the girls to manage on their own.  No trip is complete without a few fun treats like Nerds or Gobstoppers.


5.  Put together goodie bags. 


***I searched in vain and could not find any good pic depicting this.  Use your imagination, OK?***


The dreaded "are we there yet?" must be most abhorred question in the English language.  At least by parents who are trapped in a small vehicle with 4 small children and no end of highway in sight.  To fend off the "ennuis" I try to put together little bags of fun stuff I've gathered from the dollar store or the Dollar Spot at Target.  Usually coloring pads, fresh boxes of crayons, small magnadoodles or etch-a-sketches (can you believe they still make these?!), maybe a small doll, silly putty, etc.  We also have small handheld fans for each of the girls so they can have some climate control and we don't have to listen to the incessant whining about being too hot or cold.  In addition to those small things we also usually bring along a new CD of kids' music and a new movie to watch en route.  Which brings me to... 


Part TWO:  ON THE ROAD!  Check back soon for tips on saving your sanity while driving!


My friends, in this season of roadtrips and vacations, have you collected any good tips or tricks for travelling with kids?  I'd love to hear them!


ETA:  As it was lovingly (right M?) pointed out to me in the comments, I clearly have already gone crazy as I stated above that I have 6 kids.  I'm not editing it because I think this slip is HILARIOUS.  It's already been a long summer folks and we're not half done yet.

The Great Room Switch Day 2 and 3 Recap

I am still alive.  Barely.  My poor body is not used to such hard manual labor.  Sniff.  We are slowly making progress.  The problem is that you have to make a mess before you can make it nice.  Right now I feel like I'm living in an episode of Hoarder's.

Painting was very time consuming.  3 rooms + 3 ceilings.  For the record, I was not as opinionated about the ceilings being painted as hubs was.  That was all him.  It looks good though.  I'm glad we did it.  Bonus points for hubs caring.

We had to move the furniture all around to get all the walls.  The Princesses thought this was great fun and I spent most of the second day telling Princess #2 that it was NOT OK to climb up on the top bunk from the back side.  Sigh.  I was really hoping we could unbunk the beds in their new room because I loathe bunkbeds with every fiber of my being.  But alas, I think we have not choice but to keep them bunked.

You can see we ran into issues concerning where to put all of the crap toys that the princesses have.  The closet worked fine for a bit.  I was half tempted to just shut the door and run far away when I saw it.

The living room, although not being painted or changed, became a very stressful place to be.  I'm telling you, I kept waiting for the Hoarder's people to come banging on my door.  Why do we have so much junk?

See what I mean?  This is what happens when home improvement takes over:  things fall apart.  Dishes are unwashed, clothes are dirty, children are ignored.

By day 3 we had removed the Princesses' beds entirely.  And we emptied out the closet.  Unfortunately, most of the crap toys just ended up in the room.

But the closet is cleared.  I'll still have clothes shuffling and toy rearranging to do later, but I'm not planning on doing that right now.  I've got much bigger fish to fry right now.

So, that's it.  Just like the tortoise and the hare.  Slow and steady wins the race.  And lots and lots of patience.  Which has come in handy a few times.  I may or may not have broken a leg off the dresser in Princess #4's room.  I told hubs patience is a virtue.  And I smiled sweetly while he may or may not have  thought a few mean thoughts about me as he nailed the leg back on.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?  Oh and happy birthday hubs!

The Great Room Switch 2011

I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but we live in a relatively small house.  Small for a family of 6 plus one lazy pug.  At the time we purchased the house, we were a new family of 5.  It was by most standards probably too small for us already, but as it was our first foray into home ownership, we took what we could get.  What that really meant was knowing that we are not the "fixer upper" type, we needed a new(ish) house that was move in ready.  And since our budget was small, our house was small too.

But it is our first home, and there's always a bit of sentimentality attached to that, regardless of all the things you grow to hate or wish you could change.

Of course, 2 short years into our journey as homeowners, we were joined by our surprise Princess #4, and suddenly what was too small became downright claustrophobic.  It became a juggling act, to decide where to put things.  And people.

For the past 2 years, the three older Princesses have shared one room, while Princess #4 maintained sole occupancy of the nursery.  It's worked alright, but as toys multiply in the night it was becoming increasingly clear that we needed to find an alternative.  Moving not being an option, nor adding on, we needed to somehow create another room where there was none.

And thus, The Great Room Switch of 2011 was born.

This week, walls will be painted, furniture will be moved and sleeping arrangements will be changed.  And hopefully by the end of 5 very long days, the four Princesses will go to sleep in their "new" bedroom, our former master bedroom.  Our hope is that by moving all four girls into the big room, and us taking one of the smaller rooms, it will free up the third bedroom allowing us to use it as a dedicated office and spare room.

Yes, it is a bit of a sacrifice.  I have my big garden tub and walk-in closet in the master bath.  Not to mention the double sinks.  I'm not looking forward to fighting with hubs over the sink to spit while brushing my teeth.  But it needs to be done.  Besides, it's giving me a good excuse to redecorate my room.  Can't complain about that!

So, for those who might be curious, a few before pics.  Sorry, there's lots.  I plan to document the process and of course take after pics as well.

The Big Princesses' room.  This pic is looking in from the door.  Sorry about the darkness, I am not a photographer!

A look at Princess #3's bed.  When we move the kids out of the crib, we always transition to a mattress on the floor.  Since things have been tight room-wise for awhile, Princess #3 has just always slept on the floor.  She doesn't seem to mind and we don't have to worry about her falling out of bed!

And the girls' closet.  I think this will be my closet when all things are said and done.  We're still deciding where to put that dresser.  The girls really need it for clothes storage, but there's not room in the master closets.  

Up next is the nursery.  This is going to become our office/spare room.  I'm kinda sad to paint over that stripe.  I did that all by myself and I was pretty darn proud of it!

Nursery from another angle.  That dresser was hub's grandmothers and I love it.  I totally want to paint it a cool color and put it in my room.

Princess #4 by her closet.  I think hubs will take over this one.  (He doesn't need as much space as me.  haha)

And finally our room, which will become home to all 4 girls soon.  No comments from the peanut gallery about the mess.  I didn't even pick up for the pictures.  Clothes drying in the corner, laundry waiting to be folded, the computer desk trashed... this is real life folks!

These built in bookshelves are of note.  We're painting all 3 rooms the same gray color.  We wanted a neutral color that wouldn't require repainting if/when we decide to try to sell our house.  So the girls' room will be accented with bright colors.  We're planning to paint the back of each shelf a different color.  I hope it turns out as cute in real life as it does in my head!

And the last wall.  Most of these decorations and such will end up in the office/spare room along with the computer armoire.  We're redoing the color scheme in our bedroom (yellow/gray/aqua - LOVE!) so the red touches won't work anymore.

So that's it!  Unfortunately, taking the before pics is the easy part.  I've got paint under my fingernails, in my hair and between my toes.  We've got about 3 good hours left of painting before we call it a night.  Back to the trenches my friends!  Check back later for progress reports!

The One In Which I Set Fire To The Oven

Disclaimer:  this is NOT my oven.  My fire was not nearly so dramatic.  It makes my story seem more exciting though, doesn't it?

I am really good at holding track records.

Not actual track records, as in, you know, running.  Ha.

But I am quite good at upholding good records.

For example, as a kid, I never got sent to the principal's office.  Perfect student record, check.

As a teen, I never had a cavity.  Perfect dental hygiene record, check.

As an adult, I never have gotten a speeding ticket.  Perfect driving record, check.

And until today, I never set fire to my kitchen.

I guess at least one perfect record had to come to an end.

So, for future reference, if you're broiling fish in a foil covered pan for your family and then later need to broil another filet for your hubs who came home late from work, do NOT use the same foil covered pan you used for the first batch of fish.

The lovely parmesan cheese topping that covered the first batch of fish and melted onto the foil will run a great risk of igniting into flame upon a second trip into the oven.

I'm just sayin.  You know, in case you want to keep your perfect kitchen record in tact.

And if you accidentally find yourself with flames ablaze in your oven, I hope you have a hubs nearby who by some randomness knows to grab the container of salt to douse the flames.  How did he know to do that?  I must have missed that episode of The Cosby Show or something.

It's SUMMER!!!!!

My title belies the sheer horror I feel.

Summer.

24 hours a day.

7 days a week.

for 13 looooooooooong weeks.

I need HELP!

All you super mamas out there help a girl out ok?  I need ideas!  Cheap ideas.  Things to keep the kiddos busy.  I've got the standard wading pool in the backyard.  Of course there's always a movie or two.  But what else?  I need a plan, a specific day by day lay out of what we're going to do.

Or mama's gonna go CRAZY.

Anyone run across some great blogs about this?  I seriously need it all spelled out for me.  Craft projects, reading projects, outdoor projects.

Anything to keep me from hearing, "I'm boooooooored" for the thousandth time.

Please, please, please, please!

Please!

The Difference Between Girls and Boys

Kindergarten farm scenes at the district art show:

Girls:  High probability of rainbows and sunshine.

Boys:  Extreme risk of alien abduction.

Dear Old Man Winter

Thank you for staying far, far away from the first day of Spring.

And for not doing this again:

First day of Spring, 2010

My friends, has Spring sprung for you yet?  I truly hope so!

Today I Held Fresh Life

What a privilege it is to be in the presence of a miracle.

Congratulations Jess and Dave, she is truly a gift from God.

I'm The King Queen Of The World

We've been getting some Radio Flyer action the last couple of days.

Totally loving this weather.  Check out how blue the sky is.  Zero editing here folks.  I don't even pretend to know what to do in photoshop.

So this gift was obviously a home run and I highly highly recommend it for your two year olds (and for yourself, since you'll be the one pushing it.  You want the steering push bar.  Trust me).

And definitely get the Kettler seatbelt and drill yourself some holes in the seat to attach it.  Princess #4 has apparently watched Titantic too many times. 

(ah, there it is.  I know you were wondering where I got this post title from)

In other news, I attempted yet again to pass Princess #1's approval test with a new hairstyle, inspired by the lovely Chelsey at The Paper Mama.  This time I got two thumbs up.  Go figure.  I had to modify Chelsey's instructions a bit as my hair is SO long and thick my bobby pins were running in terror.  

So you all can rest easy now that you know I'm no longer embarrassing my 8 year old.
For now.

We're going to be doing lots of tricycling and looking cool this weekend.
(well, Princess #4 will look cool.)

Whatever you do, I hope you have a fabulous weekend too!

This Sucks

Ask me how much gas you can get for $20 these days...

About 6.25 gallons.

And in a mini van, how full does that get the tank?

About a quarter.

And how long does a quarter tank of gas last us?

About 2-3 days.

Pretty sure my gas budget doesn't cover this.

UPDATE:  In the 3 hours since I first took that picture, the price at the same gas station jumped 6 cents.  Sigh.

My friends, I know we're on the low end here, how high has your gas gone?  Anyone else wishing they lived near a subway system right about now?

All Caught Up

It's catch up day over here at Planet Pink.  Which means while I catch up on laundry and dishes (oh who am I kidding?  I NEVER catch up!), you get to catch up on what's been going on with us lately.  Yay!  Aren't you excited?

Princess #3's excited face ~ circa 2009

We had our little birthday shindig for Princess #4 a couple weekends ago.  I do believe Minnie Mouse would be pleased.

We tried to get a pic of all four princesses together and well, we might as well try to herd cats.

We did manage to get a halfway decent shot of all 6 of us, only because hubs and I were holding the rowdy ones down.

Sheesh, do I look tired or what?  Must work on my "I'm wide awake and happy about it!" look for pictures...

Then last weekend we set out for a little R&R.  A little weekend trip away.  We dumped lovingly left the kids in the care of my aunt and grandma and hubs and I had some uninterrupted down time. 

... which of course included coffee.

And now I'm back at home, surrounded by the aforementioned mountains of laundry and dishes (did I mention our dishwasher decided to crap out on us?  Ask me how fun it is to wash dishes for a family of 6 by hand).  How is it that these things multiply when you're not even home?

So there you are, all caught up.  And I'm still not.  Sigh.  If you don't hear from me for another week, you know what I'm doing...

Ciao!