Happy St. Patrick's Day

Shamrock cookies in the making, with the help of my eighth to a quarter Irish Leprechauns.















Kaden wanted to decorate with rainbow sprinkles & Ashlyn dumped about 3 tablespoons of green sprinkles on hers.



















The best part...showing all of us while eating them.

Big Friday

Friday was a big day for Ashlyn & Charlie...


Ashlyn had her first swim lesson which was rather successful considering she cried "mama" during most of the lesson. She was so mad at me when the lesson was done that she held her hand over her face & wouldn't look at me. Later when I asked her if she went swimming all she said was "ya".

We got Charlie "fixed", microchipped and her dewclaws removed all in one shot. She hates the cone & runs into everything. It's going to be a long two weeks for this girl.

Failure as a single parent

So Vaughn was out of town leaving us to fend for ourselves once again. Apparently I don't have this parenting thing down because if I could tell you the mini disasters that happened while he was gone you would wonder what on earth I was doing & who was watching the kids. I only wish I took pictures of everything because it would be much more entertaining than listening to my stories.

We dropped Vaughn off at the airport & then went home to play outside. They look pretty innocent so far but they are plotting against me in their minds.




















When we came inside I went upstairs for maybe 3 - 5 minutes at most. I could hear Kaden & Ashlyn playing and laughing but nothing out of the ordinary. Kaden said "mommy I can't open this can you help me?", so I came down. When I walked down the stairs I found Kaden sitting on the staircase & Ashlyn handing him items out of my makeup bag. Fortunately what he couldn't open was my nail polish. He used my eye liner, mascara, eye shadow, concealer & lip gloss.




















Tuesday Kaden had a preschool field trip at Centennial Farm. It was a lot of fun but when 60+ kids are wearing the same colored shirt it's hard to keep track of which one's yours. Plus it was hot (which I never do well in the heat) & they placed the picnic benches next to mud filled grass. The kids pants, the stroller & all of our shoes were caked with mud. Lots of fun for me when we got home.
















Ashlyn completely passed out on the way home. She looks like I felt. Notice her upside down glasses?




















Kaden didn't nap & when Ashlyn got up she was full of it. I decided I needed a treat so I got to making some banana bread. Apparently it doesn't help to have your child sitting at your feet if you're not paying attention to what they are doing down there! I thought she was just playing with measuring cups but didn't know that she snatched the flour off of the island behind me.



















I decided to get the bread into the oven before cleaning up the mess. Big mistake! Charlie came in and started licking the flour up. Between her and the kids it got everywhere!




















Kaden thought it was so funny to watch Charlie that he started licking up the flour too. He doesn't normally do those types of things...that's Ashlyn's job!















The sad thing is that the day before I actually cleaned the floor under my stove by pulling out the drawer, sweeping, washing...I don't know why I even try sometimes. That evening Ashlyn decided to pull a full box of Capellini off the counter...right before my very eyes. Little pieces of broken pasta everywhere. I was so exhausted it wasn't even funny.

By the time today came around I thought I would be free & clear. Didn't go anywhere, didn't try to do anything, just tried to repair the damage to the house before we picked Vaughn up.

While Ashlyn was napping Kaden & I went outside to throw the ball for Charlie. We have a strict leash law in our complex so I keep Charlie on a 50ft makeshift leash even while playing with her. I misjudged and threw the ball past the leash length only to get yanked off my feet and drug across the grass by a 60 pound dog. I bruised my elbow, got a grass stain on my jeans & worst of all the incident was witnessed by a neighbor.

That's not all...several minutes later Kaden got wrapped up in her leash & has a rope burn from the friction & huge bruises from where it synched around his ankles. It looks awful but surprisingly he didn't complain after I was able to untie him.

Bottom line..............I don't think Vaughn should leave anymore. Apparently I'm not capable.

On Saturday we went to the California Speedway in Fontana to watch Vaughn's brother ride in a real racecar. Kaden was really into the scene for about 15 minutes then decided it was more fun to play with his Nevada cousins.

Kaden posing in front of the track.
Ammon getting ready for his big ride. This was such a cool gift Katie...I think Vaughn was jealous.
And the highlight for the kids was the tailgate party in the back of Vaughn's truck. They had so much fun hanging out together. Can you tell which kid belongs to me?...Hmmm