Trees planted. Check.

Wow.  We got so much done today.  I ventured out with all of the girlies (minus Rachel who was off hanging pj's on a fence.  Don't ask.)  to Al's Garden Center to pick up pansies a plenty and some fruit trees.  I had originally planned to buy wood for our garden beds today also, but when my back hurt as we were leaving Al's, I thought that might be overly ambitious. Sometimes my downfall can be my brainless optimism, but today my caution paid off.  We barely finished planting the trees by 5 pm.

We had fun perusing the many flowers and trees while Lilly rode on my back (with quite the snotty nose, turns out!).  We decided on a 4 in 1 cherry tree, which has 4 varieties grafted onto one tree, and a 5 in 1 Apple Espalier, which is great for growing along our fence in our not quite so big backyard.   And, of course, we couldn't leave without the 30 pansies that some of Chris' coworkers gave us a few months back.  I let the girls choose the colors as Hannah serenaded us with "Little Purple Pansies" . (which used to be "Little Purple Panties" when Rachel was little. )

We came home and dug like crazy through our horrible clay, amended the soil and now we have our beautiful, tiny fruit trees in.  Until those decide to produce (in what, three or four years?), we will distract ourselves with our garden and some berries.  This week's plan?  I am going to get the girls growing some of our veggies from seed and will have them help build our garden beds.  Yes, the spring bug has bitten us.  I am ready to be out of the house and I can't begin to tell you how refreshing it was to hear the birds sing for me as I dug. (even if it was starting to feel a little like "The Birds" when there were 21 of them sitting on the fence watching me.  Spooky stuff.)

Our new addition

Not that I really needed to sell the girls on our new worm bin, but Hannah's excitement doubled (if that's even possible since she was already begging to open the package of worms) when I announced the worms as our new pets.  She can't wait to tell Rachel that mom let them have pets!  Elise, on the other hand, is pretty sure we should eat them.  This surely stems from the wide variety of foods that we feed our kids, including octopus and baby anchovies.  When I told her that we needed to go buy worms, she responded with "Yummy worms?  We eat worms?"  I thought I had succeeded in explaining that we would not be eating the worms when we met up with Chris.  Her first question for Chris was "Daddy eat yummy worms?"  We then came home to a delicious dinner of meatloaf and potatoes.  When I served them up and called everyone for dinner, Elise ran to the kitchen, asking if we were eating worms for dinner.  This was not a "Eww" questions, but an excited request for those much anticipated worms.  I guess we will keep an eye on the worm bin and make sure Elise doesn't break into it to eat all of our new pets.  It would be a shame. And down right disgusting. (No offense to all of you worm eaters out there, right?)

late nighters at the Kang's

Chris: Do you know what time it was when you went to bed last night?

Me: Don't tell me!  It makes me more tired!

Chris: (insert inaudible mumbling)

Me: If you only knew what I was doing last night!  You would think it was totally worth it!

Chris: What was that? (expecting another laundry fairy visit or something)

Me: I made cute wraps to go around the towels in the girls' bathroom! Actually, only one because I kept messing up.  I think it was too late.

Chris: (speechless)

Here is my lovely work of art that has been wandering around my brain for a week or so.  It probably would have turned out better if I had done it during daylight hours when my brain was at least working at 50% capacity, but it also probably would have never been completed if I had waited for that.

  

In addition, below is a treasures that I found at my favorite little Snohomish shop, Joyworks.  The clippy board isn't completely finished as I have to add some pictures that reflect the last two girlies in our family.  (reflecting when I got my digital camera and stopped having a ton of extra pictures around)  Note the basket at the bottom that used to have a bunch of paper in it.  Once I refill (and teach Elise that they paper is to color on, not to tote around the house), the girls will continue to color little pictures for me to display in empty clips.    

Side Note #1: The fabulous St. Cleanliness that came to my house does have a real name.  I highly recommend her.  Her name is Jess and if you want any more info about her, you probably better e-mail me as I don't want to go willy nilly posting her info on here.  Fabulous.

Side Note #2:  I forgot about the Thomas Quiz and I am sure you are all checking regularly for these very important answers.  Here goes.

1. Grey/Black

2. Green

3. Brown

4. Blue

5. you got me there!  I think pink is about it, but is Chris manly enough for a pink toothbrush?

My house glisteneth

I have always balked at the idea of a house cleaner, for a myriad of reasons.  Things like not wanting my kids to think that others will clean all of their messes, the cost, the fact that I feel like I should be doing it all, the cost....I could go on.  

Just like my first pedicure, I will always remember my first house cleaning.  When Chris had his stroke, my sister called  and told me that she realized that she couldn't help a lot, but that she had scheduled a house cleaner to come the day before Chris came home.  House cleaner is not the right word.  Miracle worker?  Yep, that is a lot more accurate.  Imagine my delight when some friends of Chris' from work gave us a gift card for another visit from St. Clean House!  I have put off setting up an appointment because I wanted this at the perfect moment.  Before a big get together?  Hmmm.  Good because  it would save me from a lot of cleaning, but would it last as long as if I did it on an ordinary day?  Yet if I did it on any old day, would anyone get to witness my house being so clean?  Finally, I decided to just do it and today was the day.  Let me just say: Natalie and Kitty, you know the way to a woman's heart.  I love you guys!  Hannah told me, "When I first came upstairs, I couldn't even talk it looked so clean!"  That is pretty much how I felt and proceeded to let the little girls watch a Thomas show while I nursed in my quiet and clean downstairs.  Enjoying the miracle of my house that glisteneth. (Yes, spellcheck, I know that it isn't a real word!)  Maybe I'll take some pictures for you tomorrow, but I am now off to do the laundry.  Is there a St. Launderette? 

Life with a sicky Lilly Lu

Nothing is sadder than watching your children suffer.  Lilly has gotten the whole cold thing that a bunch of us have around her, but she is littler so the cold is bigger.  Overall, she is quite happy for sounding so horrible.  As Hannah came in announcing today, "Lilly lost her voice!"  (It was actually quite cute because she was extremely concerned about the well being of her baby sister and....like we didn't know that she had lost her voice!)  

The big sympathy grabber is when she cries.  At first, it isn't even an audible cry.  Within a few seconds, she gets a voice and lets out these pitiful, hoarse cries.  Very heart-rending and it just makes you want to cuddle her forever. (which is why that is just about all I did today)  To add to her sad cry, part of her sickiness is that she doesn't want me to leave her side.  If I do, the crying begins and I am quickly back in her presence.  This is why not a whole lot got done today around the Kang house.  Actually, considering, a whole heck of a lot got done.  We even had Sarushi for dinner tonight.  (Sarah's version of sushi!)  I am just hoping that she gets better before she gets worse.  Please?

She isn't so fearless afterall

For those of you that know my Hannah, you will be surprised.  For those of you who don't know her, just note that this is very abnormal for her.

Last Monday, we took Chris' mom on a little day trip to Cannon Beach.  It was Rachel's birthday and she wanted to see some starfish , so we tried our best to deliver.  We looked up the low tide time and planned to be there about 2 hours before.  We tromped across the sand to the rockier area, in search of the requested starfish.  The water appeared to be coming in a little instead of going out, but nothing crazy.  At one point we had to walk a little higher to avoid some cold, wet feet, but not where we were running for our life.  This was when Hannah started wigging out.  I have never seen her so frightened and truly afraid that she was going to die and the interesting part was that there was really nothing to be afraid of.  Nobody had gotten a drop of water on them and we were not even close to the water.  I had to go back to the car with her because she was so upset and certain that she was about to die.  

The case of the missing toothbrush

As you all know by now, Elise is head over heels obsessed with a certain little blue train. (no, not the engine that could.)  If you want to be on her good side, as Jacob learned, you bring a train and talk tracks with her.  Because Lilly has been accepted into her world, she is either called Lilly Poop (it was supposed to be Lilly Lu) or Baby Thomas.  We have Thomas "panties" that are always worn backwards because why on earth would any true Thomas fan want the big picture of Thomas on their rear where they can't see it?  We have accepted a Train Table as our new coffee table because her trains get played with so much.  Tonight when she went to bed, a freak out about her lost owl pj's quickly came to an end when she saw a Thomas shirt to wear instead.  My impossible to photograph daughter will sit in front of the camera forever (albeit in her diaper) if she is getting her pictures taken with her train friends.  When she colors or needs to refer to a color, she uses the trains for reference.  This is great if you know all of the trains and their names, but otherwise you might be a little lost in the beginning.  Let's have a little test in honor of the lack of formal schooling that occurred in the Kang house this week.

Rules: No googling.  Post your answers in the comments and I will give you the key on Monday.

1. Elise's favorite goat at Grandma's was Diesel goat.  What color is he?    

2. Elise was angry at Hannah for sitting on her Percy stool.  What color was the stool that caused this mid morning meltdown?

3. Mommy saved the day by suggesting that she sit on the Toby stool instead.  What color was the stool that restored peace at Grandma's?

4. Chris keeps complaining that his toothbrush disappears on a daily basis.  Elise came to me today and said with much irritation, "Daddy took my Thomas toothbrush!"  What color is Chris' toothbrush?

5.  What color of toothbrush can we buy him that won't be connected to some Thomas character, thus preventing anymore thievery on Elise's part?