official photo time ...

I have about 75 photos like this, which I now have to choose 

from for a photo on my living room wall!

we all remember back when I got my nice camera ...

and how I vowed to do my own pics to make it worth the price ...

well, here we are five years later!!!

the kids have grown - both in stature and in their loathing of being the subjects of photos.

sigh.

how did I manage to do this?

me, the wanna-be photographer!

me, the mom who sees the beautiful family portraits online and gushes

and gets excited for the possibilities of poses and places to do pics with her own little brood!

I have, indeed, stuck to my vow ...

we have not stepped foot in a studio since 2008 (before the camera)!

and, I have lots of adorable pics from my little photo shoots -

mostly of the very young and individual, but even a few of all four have managed to thrill me!

this hasn't happened for a few years now, though.

and days like today - when I end up coming home with four cranky kids,

wishing I could throw my own little tantrum - these are the days I seriously question my vow.

I guess I get what I get and I won't throw a fit.

the photos meant for the wall may never get there ...

and the random ones that amaze me will!

for today, I share the reality of "picture day" in our family ...

and I'll wonder how many of those "perfect" pics online have grumbling kids

and immensely frustrated parent photographers behind them!

FYI ...

put this together today!!

what is "I'm going to home school"

I thought of this idea earlier while driving ...

it was one of those ideas I just had to follow through with!

hey, I feel clever, let me have my moment! 

that's right - call me crazy, ridiculous, insane, whatever ya like ... but we're gonna try this again!!!

the boys are coming home next year to be educated along with Annicka - I'm praying that the difference between K12 and a local charter will make it doable this time around!

for the time being, Zoey will continue to attend a special day preschool class - and they're

opening one up much closer to where we live, which I'm very excited about!!!

little pool fun, part 1

so you remember the story of me buying the pool, but not being able to inflate it - so using Zoey's tiny pool! there are so many pics, I've decided to break it into at least two posts!!! here we go ...

 what a good big sister, blowing it up for them!!

everyone is so excited!!

all four can fit!  haha!!!!

having some fun with the hose!

she loves it!!!

the water war has begun!

Jericho has fled, Liam's got the girls ... I love this pic - all those smiles!!!

the girls fight back ...

splash!

Zoey is having a blast!

telling mama something - I think peace has been declared!

my girls!  CHEESE!

look at that sweet face boy!

big sissy found much joy in splashing Zoey!

good thing Zoey didn't mind!

and how many pics does it take to get an "ok" one?  well ...

 so there is part 1, more pics to come soon!!

p.s. it's June and school is nearly done - yahoooooo!!!!!

sad news from the tadpole tank ...

it is with sadness I post this today ...
on March 9 we discovered all the little eggs our african dwarf frogs laid - as of May 24 we had lost them all.

we were doing so well, I was so proud to see them growing and especially to see one become my itsy bitsy frog!!  I took this pic last week ...

on Friday (May 23) I found that nearly all our tadpoles were dead - it was so weird and I still don't know what happened?  I had changed their water (a few days prior), but this was nothing I hadn't done before (usually one or two would die after a water change).  I had found the light out one day, but quickly got a new one on them.  There were weird bugs in their water (my friend calls them rice bugs) - I found bugs in their water ever morning, they were likely attracted to the light.  So any one of those three things may have had something to do with it??  anyway, there were only four left ...

(that's four, there's a reflection)

I took this pic Friday night, by then we were down to just these two!

I was at my friend's house all day Saturday, doing a yard sale!  When I came home that night, I found my last two little guys had gone belly up!!  so sad.  it was a fun adventure and I just feel a bit bad and hope it wasn't something I did or could have prevented!  rip little tadpoles!

on a stormy night ...

the kids begged me to let them play outside.

no, I'm serious.

a storm was coming on suddenly and I think a few drops had even fallen from the sky.

but they sort of insisted and I figured, eh - why not?

so they ran around like little hooligans!

chasing each other.

screaching.

laughing.

Zoey was doing her own thing!

I think I sat her here for a time out?!

 goodness look at those allergy shiners!

I took many photos of the sky!

at first, just because it looked so cool ... but just after going outside I thought 

of something - an idea struck me!  so I really starting snapping pics!

 

what was the idea?

well, I've been working on Zoey's room - 

one of my projects was going to be a painting saying 

"you make me happy when skies are gray"

(to go with the "you are my sunshine" painting I was also working on)

anyway, I though a nice photo art piece might be cool - 

so I went with it and aimed to get a good pic of the gray skies!!!

here's what I came up with for her wall:

sneak peek ...

 my four blessings!!!

so, last week I found a little pool on sale - by little I mean bigger than a baby pool

(like the one pictured) but still small!  I was so excited, as we've had some hot weather - so

I went ahead and bought it!  later that afternoon the kids wanted to test it

out ... but before we even began to pump it up, the pump got broken - accidentally!

soooo ...

Zoey's little "baby pool" was our back up!

I got lots of pics!

this outdoor play & water makes great opportunities for photos!

so, this is just a sneak peek - more to come soon!!

flashback friday ...

Annicka's fillings!

I'm sad to say that dentist appointment day (during spring break)

resulted in finding out that three out of the four kids had at least one cavity!

Liam lucks out, again!!!

(I just think it's funny that my little blue eyed child seems to defy some of

the family genetics so far - like being the only one who doesn't wear glasses!  lol)

 I was not thrilled with this finding! 

see it?

 see it now?

 now I know you see it!

yes folks, that is a black widow spider!

I found this after carrying this outdoor toy through my house ...

through my house!!!

I am not a fan of spiders, so after discovering it I was trying to hatch a plan

to get it off this thing so I could stomp it out!

Annicka came over and as we stood there debating the best way to go about this

murder, my neighbor noticed us and walked over.

she saw it.  she grabbed a short stick.  she squashed it.

case closed.

that plan was a no go in my world, as I'm sure that spider would have ran up

that tiny stick and onto me ... and the whole neighborhood would have known about it!!!

shudder!

 it was just too cute finding that the boys decided to share a bed this night!

 Zoey doesn't really cuddle, not usually anyway, but I would still title these "snuggle bugs"!

just chillin on the couch together, all cuddled up and cute!

 last week (monday) Jericho had his two fillings filled!

this was a first for him, Annicka is usually our cavity kid - and it's fine

I share this, she doesn't mind at all ... frankly if she did perhaps her teeth would

be better taken care of and she wouldn't have had three cavities!

in her defense, even when she was little she had a lot - 

they said her teeth were very tight in the back which lends to more cavities!

and she actually hadn't had any in a few years!!!

needless to say, I am trying to be more vigilant about regular brushing for all the kids!

Jericho is a bit more of a nervous/wiggly dentist patient ...

so we gave the laughing gas a shot - frankly if that was "relaxed" for him,

I would hate to know how he would be without it!

lol, he wasn't that bad ...

but he was still a bit wiggly and even said "ow" several times!

 just a girl and her bestie!!

 she is doing the sign & sound for bird!!!

I love that she notices the little sounds around us when we are outdoors!

 the "card" that came with my breakfast in bed, a day early for mother's day!

I have to say - that simple sentence spoke a lot to me.

we've had a tough couple weeks (including this week, after this card) and my

lovely beauties tend to vent their emotions with words, I have

no idea where they get that from (ahem, me - ME!).

anyway, words can definitely hurt.

so reading "we all really love you" was very sweet and it sort of reminded me

that even when their words are saying otherwise, they really do

love me - they are just upset with the situation and/or want to be in control.

I definitely have my work cut out for me.

my children are very bright and they each have a mind of their own.

they are each passionate about their own views.

I love them each so very much and I am seeing some areas where the "reigns"

definitely need to be brought in, a lot!

pray for me!!