Suddenly Six!: Mother's Day and everything else!

I took green muffins out of the oven the other day and realized I've become the mom I vowed I'd never be.

I'm hiding vegetables in my children's food.

Chocolate chip, banana, spinach muffins.
Magic muffins.
And yes, my children loved them.

I know, it's a bit annoying. I annoy myself, but I
JUST
CAN'T
STOP!!!
It's like a new challenge...what vegetable can I hide today?!

Sometimes I look at Evie and gasp because suddenly she is a little GIRL.

Not a baby. Not a toddler, but a chatty girl who giggles with her friends and steals my phone to talk to Grandma by herself in another room.

Her gal pals

She wants her hair to grow long and insists that her chipped nail polish be redone.

She twirls in her dresses.

She wants to try on my rings.

She even had her first dentist appointment and told the dentist she, "was pleased to meet her."

Don’t get me wrong, she is still very much a child, with her sudden emotional meltdowns and bursts of undirected frustration,

grump

but she is a beautiful girl now.

Recently she was invited to her first sleepover. Yes, I know three years old is young to sleepover, and I never thought I’d ever be ok with it. But the family who invited her is one we’ve known for a decade and their five year old daughter and Evie get along wonderfully; so after talking to Evie about it, we allowed her to go. She even got to go to the zoo.

We fully expected to get a phone call at 11 pm that night…but we didn’t until the next morning! When John picked Evie up, he found her jumping happily on their trampoline. When she realized he was coming to pick her up, she turned her back towards him and pretended not see him. Miss Independent already.

Ok, wait...just had to share this as I was sifting through pictures..

Levi at 14 months

Evie at about 14 months
Ok, these two are siblings for sure...

The boys are growing too.

Future wedding slide show picture

SO little Caleb who’s been pushing that wheeled cart all over the kitchen, finally let it go one day and started walking. He was so proud when he took his first little steps, and John, Amanda and I cheered him on in the living room. Levi looked on with curiosity (and jealousy, I think). He decided that next day to take some steps too.

Now we have two walking boys, so.... that means shoes! Luckily with all the amazing hand me downs, we have plenty on shoes to go around; but now we have four pairs of feet to find shoes for, which takes getting out of the house that much longer! And, we now have shoes all over the house along with all the miscellaneous socks!

We've been trying to be out and about as much as we can to soak up these gorgeous spring days.

I took the Evie and Levi to the tulip farm one sunny Friday morning. I'm excited to take all the boys someday, maybe next year. But for now, Evie and Levi had a blast.

Farmer Lee

Haha

Flower girl

My little man

Speaking of amazing weather, mother’s day was this past weekend and wow, was it just perfect. My mom arrived from Chicago on May 4 and is here for almost the whole month!

Grandma's here!

It was special to spend the weekend with her; I don’t think I’ve spent a mother’s day with her in a decade.

There was much to do. Evie had a mother’s day performance at her preschool where she proudly sang “I’m a little tea pot” and gave me a lovely little painted paper teapot of my own.

"Tip me over and pour me out!"

Happy Mother's day!

I have to say that I was “that mom” who teared up watching my baby girl on stage.

So happy with Grammie

On Saturday we attended a princess tea at my mother in law's church. Evie's two cousins came too. Needless to say, the girls loved all the sparkles and magic.