May 7

Today was a busy, busy day.

Caleb had a baseball game at the same time that he was supposed to have swim lessons.

Meanwhile, I had six Mommy and Me mini photo sessions scheduled. 

Plus grocery shopping and all the other stuff that happens on Saturday.

Two of my sessions were during Caleb's baseball game, but I managed to finish up in time to catch the end of his game. Luckily, Chris' mom came to help Chris with the little ones during the game. I was told that Caleb did great, and even scored two runs! His team ended up winning 14-5.

The ball field had a nice playground, but no shade anywhere, which was disappointing on a hot day as it neared noon. (All of these pictures are straight out of camera; I have so much other photo editing to do right now that I just don't want to spend the time to edit my personal photos.)

When I arrived, Lily and Daisy were having so much fun on the playground!

Lily was also excited that she and Grandmother had matching hats.

I mean, really. Are these two cute, or what?

I love this!

Lily was so snuggly and cute!

After the game, we finally corralled everyone into the van. Daisy's cheeks were rosy from the heat and her hair was wild from the wind, and I couldn't resist a taking a picture. 

This girl really is a force of nature. I sure do love her. I believe she may be a wildflower!

In the afternoon, I had a few more photo sessions. Just as I was finishing a session, a big thunderstorm rolled it. Unfortunately, it meant that my last three sessions of the evening were cancelled. Fortunately, that meant that after the storms cleared and once the kids were bathed and in their jammies, I was free to join Chris and the kids on a family bike ride.

This time, Lily went up front, and Eli and Daisy rode in the trailer. They had so much fun together, but he lacks the trunk control to keep himself upright when he's buckled in. We'll have to work on that. Still, we all had so much fun, and it was the perfect end to a hectic day.

May 6

After last night's vomiting, Caleb was pretty much fine today. His stomach was still sensitive, but the worst was over. It was a good thing, too, because Daisy had her five-year well child check at the doctor. All of the kids came with us for the appointment, which is never my preference, but it was fine.

I apologize for the poorly lit picture and for Daisy's scowly face, but I love her outfit of the day. It's a new dress from Grandmother, white tights, and her new high heeled sandals from Grandma. She doesn't look happy, but I can promise you that Daisy felt like hot stuff in this outfit.

Her doctor appointment went perfectly. At five years old, Daisy is 42.5 inches tall (50th percentile) and 37 pounds (28th percentile). She is doing everything she's supposed to do, and is the picture of health.

I also weighed the other kids. Last week at his 15-month checkup, Eli was 20 pounds, 13 ounces. Today, Lily weighed 27 pounds, and Caleb weighed 52.

We got ready to head home from the doctor, but it was 10:30 and it was so nice out that we decided to stop at a park on the way. And then I realized that lunch might be nice, so we grabbed some McDonald's and went to a park we'd only been to once or twice before. We had the whole place to ourselves, and it was so much fun!

Caleb discovered and photographed this awesome caterpillar: 

We Googled it, and it's some sort of moth.

Here are my happy children: 

I can't even begin to express how much I love this picture. Eli may not be walking yet, but he can get all over a playground. Unfortunately, this one had a dark green rubberized surface that absorbed the sun's heat, so poor Eli would crawl 2 or 3 feet, then sit up and rub his hands and cry because the surface was burning them. Luckily, the play structure was shaded and he was able to climb all the way to the top, and even go down the slides!

We went home for naps, and Caleb and Daisy again said they wanted to take naps, but ended up talking for an hour while I put Lily and Eli down. Finally I told them that they obviously weren't napping, and made them leave their room so we could do school. While I was working with Daisy on reading (we just started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons), this happened:

He was sound asleep on the couch, lying on top of Barbie clothes and a hard plastic Spider Man, using a rain poncho as a blanket.

The poor kid was still feeling miserable. Luckily, there was no more vomit. My poor boy!

May 5

Today was a MOPS, preschool, and speech club day, so I don't have a ton of pictures.

I can tell you, though, that we didn't do much today. After we finally got home, Caleb and Daisy both complained of belly aches and said they wanted to take naps. 

I think Daisy might have been exaggerating,

but Caleb was serious:

The poor boy slept all afternoon, and ate nothing at dinner. 

I left my camera sitting on the kitchen table, and Eli snapped his first selfie. I call this "Self Portrait with a Silicone Banana".

Everything seemed fine, and then at 10 pm Caleb got up because he wanted a drink of water. He sat in the kitchen and Chris and I chatted with him. Suddenly, he got up and vomited into the trash can. Poor baby.

I was really proud that he made it in the trash can, though!

May 4

Oh goodness, I've gotten behind with the blog again. Today was Daisy's 5th birthday. We celebrated with the family last night, but we still did some fun things today.

I always like to decorate the kids' doors with balloons on their birthday, and Daisy remembered this tradition. Days ago, she matter-of-factly informed me that she would like five purple balloons hanging from her door on her birthday. I love that our traditions are now something the kids just expect!

Chris was awake this morning when Daisy got up, so he captured her with the balloons.

She got to bed late last night, and was being a bit ... difficult... about going through the door.

Later, Eli showed me a new trick.

What? Can't you tell what he did?

How about now?

He stood unassisted for the first time! He was so proud of himself! The boy will be walking soon!

It was a lovely morning, so I took the kiddos out to scout locations for some photo shoots I have coming up. While we were out, we happened to come upon a field of daisies.

On Daisy's birthday.

It was providence.

So we pulled the van over and all got out for Daisy's five-year pictures.

Note to self: do not leaves chairs unattended. Eli will climb them.

The light was definitely not ideal; I would have loved to come back to this field later in the evening! Still, we did the best we could.

Daisy was delighted by the field of daisies. Please notice her pink tights and white, high-heeled sandals. The girl is fancy.

While I took pictures, Eli crawled all over the place, Lily picked flowers, and Caleb found two opossums!

This girl. At five years old, I hold firm to the old nursery rhyme to describe her:

There was a little girl

who had a little curl

right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good

she was very, very good

and when she was bad

she was horrid.

My Daisy is spunky, sharp, and sweet. When she is well-rested and happy, she is the sweetest, most thoughtful, most helpful child ever. 

There are other times, too.

But the good outweighs the bad, and I know that this girl will one day move mountains. She is strong, and she is confident, and she is mine.

Happy birthday, sweet Daisy!

After our little photo shoot, we loaded into the van to head home for lunch and naps. But as we left the park, I spotted some lovely purple flowers off in the distance. I had to check them out, to see if they could work as a location for photos! There was a hiking trail down to the flowers, so I decided the kids and I could make it. 

As I unloaded them, I realized that Daisy had those darned high heeled sandals on. There was no way she could hike in those. By then I had committed to checking out the flowers, though, so I improvised a solution. 

Yep. My newly five year old in the Ergo on my back, and Eli in the ring sling on my front. Caleb and Lily walked, and we dominated that hiking trail!

The flowers were lovely, but ended up not being a suitable location for a photo shoot. We kept on hiking, though. It was actually kind of fun, except that I was carrying nearly 60 pounds of children.

Don't let Daisy's face fool you; she was thrilled to be in the Ergo! She was just grouchy and tired. Finally, we made it back to the van and headed home for lunch. Daisy really could have used a nap, but Chris had already planned to take the afternoon off to take Daisy out on a birthday adventure. They had planned to go kayaking, but it was so windy that the kayak rental people weren't sending people out on the lake. 

Instead, they did the same thing they did last year for Daisy's birthday:

Bowling and milk shakes.

I love this!

They got home in time for dinner, and after dinner we headed up to the YMCA for Caleb's swim lessons. The little ones swam with Chris while I worked out, and afterward I snuggled my girls up with warm towels.

They were so cute I couldn't resist snapping a selfie.

After swimming was over, the kids changed into their jammies for the ride home. Daisy looked so funny that I had to take a picture:

She's wearing her new Star Wars jammies (a gift from Caleb, in case you were wondering) and her too-big high heels because "they are easy to put on". She is so funny.

And before bed, one last birthday tradition: 

Happy birthday, Daisy!

May 3

Daisy turns five years old tomorrow.

Exactly five years ago, at right about this time, I was on the phone with my midwife, telling her it was time for her to come. Daisy was born 3 hours later.

Due to a variety of factors, we ended up celebrating her birthday today. First, I brought treats in to her preschool class: yogurt topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, and chocolate chips.

Daisy ate two of them.

Also, I promise I brush her hair and ask her to let me put it up or style it in some way. My girl loves to be wild and free.

My mom watched the other kids while I was at Daisy's school, and we all came back together at lunch time.

After lunch and naps, this sweet moment happened: 

Caleb was working on school at the kitchen table, and Eli kept swiping Caleb's pencil. Finally, I brought Eli his own paper and some crayons, and he happily scribbled all over his paper. Then Daisy joined him and showed him how to take his coloring up a notch.

Meanwhile, I prepared for Daisy's birthday celebration. I am a firm believer in keeping most birthdays simple, with a blow-out bash on milestone birthdays. This year, we invited our families over for birthday cake. Daisy asked for a pink cake with pink icing, so I ended up making a strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream icing. She also chose strawberry ice cream and requested that we all wear pink to the party. 

That girl.

In addition to the cake, we had gluten-free funfetti cupcakes with chocolate or strawberry icing. 

(Do you see brand-new baby Daisy in the picture frame? That frame is one of my favorite things we do for family birthdays.)

And her pink cake! 

Daisy was really happy about this cake. I think it helped that I made it two days ahead of time; she saw it sitting in the refrigerator and grew more and more excited.

Time to blow out the candles! I think she was covering her ears because she was pretending that the singing was too loud. Clearly she's actually enjoying it.

One of Daisy's favorite birthday gifts was this Elsa doll from her Grandmother. It sings "Let it Go", and has a microphone to go with it. Daisy was enamored of this thing.

After all the presents were opened, everyone tramped off to the woods behind the house to see Caleb and Daisy's "Secret Hideout".

Everyone except this little stinker, that is. She asked if she could have a second cupcake, and I told her yes and didn't think much more of it. Fifteen minutes later, she was still sitting quietly at the table, all by herself, finishing her cupcake.

Sweet Lily must have really enjoyed her cupcake!

And then it was time for everyone to leave, and bathtime and bedtime for the kiddos. I remembered to take a few pictures of Daisy's last moments as a four-year-old, though. 

Holding up five fingers, because she will be five tomorrow! And of course Elsa is in the picture.

Her last picture as a four-year-old! Happy early birthday, Daisy!

May 2

Today was chilly, gray, and gloomy, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm in a bit of a funk. I'm feeling overwhelmed with all we have going on, and I probably should have stayed home and cleaned house and done laundry. But instead I met my friend Amber and her five children at the Garden, and it was just what I needed.

The weather was not ideal Garden weather, but they've recently opened a new indoor children's area. It ended up being the perfect spot for us to spend the whole morning. The only thing it was missing was a coffee bar! After an hour and a half, we decided to move the children on to the Climatron.

The kids were all lined up, looking over the bridge, when Amber and I noticed that they made a rainbow. It's one of the fun parts of having so many children between us! (OK, so actually, those are all Amber's children, with one of mine thrown in. You can always count on Caleb to bring the red!)

How many children can you fit in a hollowed-out tree trunk? 

Seven. The answer is seven. You can just barely see Mary's smile in the upper left, and Daisy is way back in the shadow. Eli was wrapped on my back in one of Amber's seriously dreamy wraps, and Catherine was off exploring, but those two would have probably fit, as well.

It is becoming nearly impossible to get all of our children in one picture. This is still only seven of them, but seeing them all lined up with the brightly colored onions in the background was too tempting. 

I thought maybe I could at least get all four of mine in there, but somehow I missed a Daisy and gained a Gussie. Close enough.

Eli really liked the water, too. I think he and Edie were conspiring about how to get in it.

And then my two little helpers pushed the BOB all the way out for me.

When we parted ways with Amber and Co., Lily decided to push the BOB from the entrance to the van. She didn't want any help pushing, but I had to secretly steer for her since she can't see over the handlebars. Otherwise, she did a great job!

May1

What? May? Springtime is nearly over, and it's almost summer! We are nearly finished with our first semester of home schooling! Let me tell you, people: I am so ready to kick back and enjoy a lazy summer. The level of burnout I feel right now is akin to what I felt as a student, and later as a high school teacher. I am done. Except that there is still so much to do, and somehow my responsibilities as a mother and as a homemaker (and now as a budding businessperson, with my tiny little photography business) never seem to take a break. Oh well. I am going to imagine that summer will come and involve lounging and playing all day, with no responsibilities at all, and maybe even with a cocktail in my hand. 

And a hammock. Definitely a hammock.

(It doesn't matter that our house has no place suitable for a real hammock to hang. In my dream, it exists.)

We went to church this morning, and I even wore a dress. But we were fifteen minutes late, Caleb wore an Oregon Ducks t-shirt and pants that were two inches two short, and something about the whole process of getting them into and out of their classrooms left me feeling frazzled and overwhelmed. Then we made our customary after-church Costco run, and the stress was even greater. Eli fell asleep in the van on the way home, and then his naps for the rest of the day were ruined. We were supposed to go to small group, but Chris and I decided we just needed to stay home.

After dinner I was so done, so I retreated to my big bed. Of course, my children can never allow me to be in bed alone, so each of them separately snuck into my bed and stole some snuggles:

Bedtime reading looked like this:

I am so lucky to have such a good man as my partner in this parenting thing. I can't imagine how hard it is for women who don't have husbands like mine.

Right after I snapped the photo above, Daisy insisted I take a picture of her chalk creation in the driveway. 

She was very proud. Do you see that it's a blonde-haired, red-eyed, happy woman with a striped shirt and high heels? Fancy stuff here.