peelosophy

In junior high I transferred from a private all-girl school to a public co-ed school. That is a heck of a transition for a junior high girl!

By God’ grace, I became instant friends with a group of girls, of which most of them also had transferred from all girl schools. We were called The 6-Pack because their were 6 of us and we were inseparable. I don’t know if this name was given to us or if self-proclaimed, but it was junior high – if you had a place or a name where you fit in – it was half the battle.

I’ve been thinking of my junior high 6-pack lately, especially when I stop and realize that we are now a family of 6. Even writing that,  it is crazy to me. Don’t get me wrong, we wanted a big family and I’m from a family of 6 — this should not be that crazy to me!

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At the beginning of the summer, our Thursdays became free all.day.long. (I used to babysit three days a week and now I’m down to two).  I decided we needed to reserve this day for some special excursions.  This was especially the case because JJ is going to summer school and I’d hoped this would give him something fun to look forward to at the end of the week.

I sat down with the boys and explained my idea to them.  We plotted out the Thursdays for the summer and each boy got to pick where we were going to go – they were super excited.  We decided it had to be places we didn’t usually go on the average week.(a.k.a. Larson Park, Warson Woods Park, etc)

So far we’ve gone to the Science Center, the Rocket Park and Kirkwood Park.  The Coaliers have been doing them with us (Sadie is in Summer School with JJ)  and the Olivers joined us for some wet fun at the Rocket Park.

This past Thursday, we went to Kirkwood Park and just when we were leaving we spotted the Kirkwood firetruck watering down some camp kids and we managed to join in fun…how often do you get to do this?!?!

I admit,  I have been lazy with pictures and the ones I do take are on the iPhone, so forgive my poor quality.

Today we had  Make-Your-Own Ants on a Log for snack….

I provided the cut celery, peanut butter, cream cheese and Craisins and the kids went to town making their own snack.

What the picture doesn’t show is when they got creative.  They got out peanuts and red hots for optional toppings.  Yum?

Does everyone always have red hots in their pantry or is it just us????

My sister Katie lives in Colorado with her husband Carl and two girls, Tootie and Brooke. Over the past few months, they’ve probably visited the ER every week with one of them being very sick and the fire department has had to come out a couple of times because of sickness or crazy kid mishaps.

This week it was the fire department, which they are now on a first name basis with them. Brooke (2-1/2) managed to get her finger caught in a Starbucks cup and they couldn’t get it out. I know right?!?! How does that happen and why couldn’t they get it out?!?!

I wasn’t a disposable cup, I tried to find a picture of it on the web but couldn’t. It was a reusable glass cup that had a glass domed lid and a hole for the straw. The hole is where Brooke’s finger got stuck. She put it over her knuckle, Katie and Carl tried several things but they couldn’t get it off.

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My friend, Erin, just started cutting hair and came over to give me and JJ a haircut yesterday.  JJ does not like getting his haircut, and actually last summer he acted like we were beating him when we tried to shave it.

JJ went first and a couple of minutes into it asked me quietly, “Mom. can you get me my glasses?”  I didn’t understand because he doesn’t wear prescription glasses, I clarified with him what he meant and he wanted his sunglasses. I found his sunglasses and he put them on and wore them through the entire haircut, I guess they helped him cope.  We all have our coping mechanisms I guess, Erin and I quietly giggled about it – she said it reminded her of the kid in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler.

Something fun though for all summer playgroupers over here…I asked Erin if she could come over like once a month and do kids haircuts inside during playgroup – and she loved the idea.  Now I just have to swindle a Starbucks barista, and esthetician and work on my kids cleaning machine and all my playgroup dreams will come true.…summer come quick!

For a background on how/why we do Tot School, click here.

It’s been a while since we have done any sort of Tot School!  Now we are slowly coming out of the Emma transition and have been enjoying trying to enjoy the snow and being cooped up inside.  Here’s a little peek at what we’ve been up too…

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For a background on our smoothie adventures you can click here, or search the site for “smoothies”.

I mentioned on my first smoothie post that I embarked our smoothie endeavors because I was given the Montel Healthmaster.

That is the reason for the name of this drink.  I had my most fearless smoothie/ juice testers with me, Henry and George.  They have seemed to be my best testers, I guess because they are younger and more trusting…

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Friends are always amazed when George talks because he doesn’t talk a lot in public.  At home however, he talks a TON.  There are two things he says a lot now which I love.

The first is when I am feeding Emma, he will hand me my breast pad and say, “Here’s your cap mommy, put your cap back on.”  I never thought of them as caps…maybe someone should contact the marketing department of Johnson and Johnson.

The second is when he wants to be held, he says, “Mommy, I want to hold you, I want to hold you.” This is way more refreshing than the demanding “Mommy hold me, hold me”  And I like it when he “does the holding” cause what mom doesn’t want to be held?

For a background on our smoothie adventures you can click here, or search the site for “smoothies”.

I don’t think I would call this one a smoothie, but a smooth drink maybe.  I tweeked the recipe a little so I included the original recipe as well as my revisions.

The kids loved it and said I needed to “keep bananas and peanut butter around all the time so we can always make this one”.

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John suggested I take JJ out to lunch when the other boys are at Kids Day Out on Wednesdays.  I don’t know if it’s because he is the oldest or because he has always been SO independent, but I feel like he never “needs” me as much as the other boys.  And he usually has a play date with Scott over here or over at his house on Wednesdays , so I didn’t know how hot he would be with the idea of hanging out with mom.

I told him a couple of days before and when i picked him up on Wednesday from school, he asked excitedly if today was the day for our “special lunch”.  I was glad he was excited.  I took him to Carl’s Drive-In, which he has never eaten at the restaurant but we have had take-out several times.  For those that don’t know, Carl’s is just a s”stool” restaurant, you walk in either door and there is just counter seating and you can watch them cook your food.

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