Previous year Sunflowers for Wishes: 2013 2012 2011 2010

Apparently, I didn’t manage to blog our trip last year, even though I know we went. I have one picture in my 365 project but I remember it being REALLY hot and crowded so I don’t think I took many photos.

This year was not at all crowded and only a little bit hot. I took a ton of pictures.

Key lime & chocolate brownie batter

Lavender honey

Peppermint stick

We started the week playing outside without coats and ended it turning the heat back on in every room. WTH MARCH?

Sunday:

As much I love my baby, I do not want him in my bed at 8 am

Really fast slide

Playing in the creek with friends

Monday:

Morning smiles

Shoping smiles

ALL THE SHARPIES ARE SO EXCITING

Tuesday:

I dumped everything out to sort and then lost all my motivation

Thank God for Tuesday naps

More exhausted children suffering from DST

Wednesday:

Babies with stitches get to pick their own favorite wrap for uppies

They also get popsicles and trophies

Clearly he’s feeling better

Thursday:

Time to get used to the view from the OB’s office, kid

Super excited to discover the toy car bin

Not my best picture, but I love my poor damaged baby

Friday:

NAPPY NEWBORN. I stole her.

Nappy toddler. He’s sleeping, even though his eyes are creepily open.

I love her piano lesson room

Saturday:

Ice cream in the freezing cold. FREE ice cream, tho.

Linc doesn’t care how cold it is.

Nothing but the best for my family

We might have a snow day tomorrow. I’m secretly hoping we do, because I took a nap this afternoon and now I’m not tired. Plus I’m buying used baby clothes online through a flash sale and need to stay up until she posts the cute shoes. Don’t judge me, this is totally normal. I swear.

On Sunday morning, we participated in the Mystic Pirate Invasion. We did it last year too and the kids had a blast, Maybe next year I will plan ahead and find them pirate costumes that fit instead of cobbling together dress up from the last 4 years. They got a ton of treasure (candy + beads + plastic gem stones) and I got my 10,000 steps. Linc was strapped to my back (in our pirate/kraken themed carrier, obvs) the whole time, his pirate outfit went mostly unnoticed.

Look! Linc is in a picture!

Scary pirate faces.

Caroline felt is was VERY important that puppy come with us. The child-sized baby carrier was supposed to just be a toy but now it means I don’t end up carrying around the thing she insisted we bring and then loses/drops/wants me to hold. TOTALLY worth $30.

After we ran home and switched to regular person clothes, we headed to WeLiKit ice cream for their 25th anniversary celebration. A friend told me about the ice cream stand over the summer and I have to agree it is some of the BEST ice cream I’ve ever had. And what can be better than a waffle cone that is so fresh it’s still soft and warm when you eat it? It was a tiny bit on the chilly side for ice cream, but the kids did so much running around and general shenaniganery they were plenty warm.

Watching the waffle cone making. Obviously an ice cream stand is the best place to also buy beef.

Indian pudding, my new favorite flavor. It’s molasses and corn meal and if you think that sounds gross we can’t be friends.

p.s. They also sell clam fritters and chowder. Does it sound like the perfect place or what?!

And because I was so happy to be outside after a week of rain, I talked Caroline into playing model for a few minutes. I bought a set of Lightroom presets from Mastin Labs. They’re based on film (remember film????) and while I’m not going to switch over to ALL Mastin, all the time they are gorgeous. I love what they do to greens and shadows. The ones in her tutu were taken in the parking lot of Scotland town hall. The rest were in my yard.

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Pretend today is Sunday instead of Monday and this isn’t super late. Except that if it was Sunday I wouldn’t be getting this nice 60 minutes of quiet to watch Dateline repeats and blog because my baby decided sleeping was stupid and we spent the whole day outside trying to wear him (and the big kids) out. So just forgive me for being late.

Sunday:

It’s a whole set for playing while moms take photos

We agreed that painting pumpkins was OK even though TECHNICALLY it wasn’t October yet

Someone was really sure he didn’t need a nap last Sunday too

Monday:

ONCE AGAIN, not sleeping during assigned sleeping times

Checklist for the next house: Climbing Tree

This is why Linc still has his own room

Tuesday:

rain OH SO YOU WERE TIRED? I’M SHOCKED.

Yesssssssssss

Real Life Babywearing: Toddler lies on the floor next to my $350 wrap

Wednesday:

They like the rain because they love umbrellas

At least the cat like the new rug

Their relationship summarized in one photo

Thursday:

I’m sort of trying to sell some wraps, but I hate selling wraps so I’m not doing a great job.

That face is because he wants to be in the pool with the big kids (swim lessons)

So, I did some stuff to my hair.

Friday:

Brutus crashed our playgroup

This color with his eyes = A++++

Someone seems to have left my snack smushed on the couch.

Saturday:

LOOK AT THAT BABY PRETENDING HE IS A BIG KID SILLY BABY

We found a Pinkberry

Sleep! That’s where I’m a protractor! (Most random kid’s meal toy ever.)

My computer just decided NOW would be an ideal time to start acting up, so I’m going to go bang my head against a wall and moan. Seems like the best use of my time. I would really like it if things could just be NORMAL and BORING and AVERAGE for the rest of the week. Boring sounds really nice right now.

Three kids is a lot of kids. I mean, it’s not A LOT of kids. 15 is a lot of kids. But three kids is more kids than I have hands or eyes, so the logistics of taking them out in public can be difficult.  It’s actually not so bad, since I can keep one kid literally tied to my body at all times, especially when we’re out doing things and it’s not really safe to just leave him on the floor. If it were up to me, that’s where he would hang out most of the time, since he’s pretty entertained by ceiling fans and smiling and I can smile at him from the couch.

But the two bigger ones still expect me to be Fun Mom who Does All The Things, so last weekend we went and Did All The Things. Since they have the attention span of gnats I managed to fit all the fun into just one warm, beautiful Saturday so we could stay home and do nothing on the colder, less beautiful Sunday. I like to pretend I am Supermom but I can only keep it up for like, 4 hours. Then I turn into regular old fed-up, impatient, tired mom.

Luckily it really was a gorgeous day and I did not collapse after climbing the giant hill to the apple trees and I even managed to bring my camera, which is the thing that I have been letting go in the name of sanity. But it was really fun to do fall things AND take pictures.

Please enjoy some pictures.

That’s Mohegan Sun, the casino. We take people there when they visit.

This thing fires water bottles at big targets. Evan would have spent every dollar I own doing it all day.

I hate corn mazes, but Evan took charge and actually lead the way through. There was another mom with a 4 year old who walked with us and even she was impressed.

There is still corn all over my house from this corn pit