Wedding with the Princesses

One of my friends from work was married this past Saturday. I told Maggie she could go with me and Ruth insisted she join in as well. Ruth asked me for weeks "How much longer until the wedding?". She was so looking forward to going to this wedding. She didn't even know the bride or groom.
It was quite amusing for me to see her anticipation.

Here are Ruth and Maggie with the other two Princesses in attendence... Abby and Loganne.
Loganne shows off her toothless grin.
Abby's adorable face was also full of ice cream.



It was a dessert reception. We had more sugar available to ingest than possible. We were quickly ooohing and ahhhing over the deliciousness of it all. And then we moaned about how we should have shown some restraint. Not likely! :)
Here are a couple other girls from my work. Allison, Suzanne, Cameren & Judi.



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Here's a fun sequence of pictures. Ruth and Maggie were enjoying a taste of the wedding cake together. We were actually trying to leave but couldn't go without tasting cake! They had ingested so much sugar in that hour the "I don't feel so good" whines quickly showed up.
This is what they looked like about 3 minutes after driving away from the church!

PASSED OUT!!

Last Day of School

Oh yeah... today was the last day of school. I had to work so I missed the excitement and my eyes can hardly stay open anymore. Curtis snapped a photo for me this morning.
I like to compare the first day with the last day and see how much they've changed. Today was also "sports day" for Maggie so that explains the soccer shirt.

This was Maggie the night before the first day. She had a great Kindergarten year.
must go to sleep before I type something off the wall! ;)

A New Addition

This is our new puppy. We didn't go looking for a puppy. We didn't ask for a puppy. We didn't even know we needed a puppy. But somehow... he found us, or needed us, or something. I haven't figured it out yet, but I think he's staying.
He showed up last Saturday as I was sitting here blogging my morning away. Curtis even took him for a ride up to camp to see if they wanted to keep him, but no luck.



He has a few names right now that we haven't narrowed down. A few of our options include... Spot (Bennett's suggestion), Buck (another B but too close to Bucky), Black & White (Ruth's offering), BW... (Daddy's). We are quite original and creative around here! Maggie likes to call him Mush because he leaves her alone when she yells that at him. Ruth has taken all week to warm up to his existence but she's finally figured out that he's not going to jump on her and he's not going to bite. He is really sweet and good with the kids. I would think he was well cared for in his early days. He loves to run fast and chase Bennett across the yard.
I'm not sure of his breed, although I'm guessing some hound (he howls) and a big dog. His legs are short and his paws are big. Curt says he'll be ugly when he grows up. Probably.
After chasing Bennett around he likes to sleep. Sometimes he even hides under the van so he doesn't have to fetch and run anymore. Oh yeah, Bucky likes him too.

Follow-up to previous post.

You need to read the post about Ruth (below) before you read this one to make any sense of it all.

After having excused her father from the room last night with promises of talking more "in the morning" Ruth got up ready to talk some more. Once her father parked in the rocker she climbed up in his lap and proceeded to have discussions about her sinful heart. She needed to tell him something. "I lied" and as the conversation went on she confessed having lied about breaking the gingerbread house before Christmas. She really was trying to move it under the table so she and Lydia could eat the candy. Oh really?! "And now I have a clean heart! and I will obey Jesus."
So many months ago...
Do you think she gets it?
:)

A New Creation... a sweet moment

If only we could freeze these moments. Tonight's moment was with Ruth and Bennett. We had stayed late at church for the "Ice Cream Social"... which is merely the AWANA leaders way of getting back at the parents by filling them with sugar at bedtime. After they had each had more than their share of frozen cream covered in sprinkles, chocolate and gummy bears we headed to the local grocery. We were out of milk so it was quite necessary for a peaceful breakfast in the morning. They were hungry. We saw friends. Lydia did not like my choice of buggies/carts (depending on what part of the country you live in). It took us a while. It was after 9 before we ever drove in the driveway. We have a new stray puppy (more on that later). They were still hungry. The sugar lingered. Toothpaste became very interesting to the almost 3 year old. Can't they just go to bed?? Well, conversation also lingered in the tent which houses the 4 year old pictured above and her very intelligent, almost omniscient 7 year old brother. Please be quiet and go to sleep, I pleaded from my spot in front of the blog. Then Ruth pipes up... why did Adam and Eve make us have to die? I realized this conversation needed to continue in the tent and not from the living room, so I got up. Apparently, Bennett had been educating her on the most important doctrinal issues in life. Now mind you, HE will not make an outward expression of faith, but he wants to make sure his sister is taken care of. Anyway, the conversation continued well past 10:30... but who the heck cares! It's eternal! She decided right then she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to be her Saviour. No beating around the bush with her. "I want to pray right now" she says. I told her how happy I was that we would spend eternity together (like she understands eternity) and she wanted to make sure her Grandpa and Grandma Fleisch would be there too! Oh to have the heart and faith of a child. Now, her father doubts her understanding of her sinful heart and needs to continue the conversation... "in the morning" she says. :)She knows she'll sleep well tonight! Praise God for one more little heart.

new photos below...

I finally spent some time on the spring break post.

Death of THE Pillow...

Last night I got home from work late. That's really not so unusual these days. But the girls from Sunday school had a GNO in honor of a new little pink addition to the Dowdy family. We always use new babies as an excuse to go out to eat. It's our only excuse and only opportunity to spend time together, just the girls. This summer we're going to have GNO every other week, it seems. :) Anyway I got home later than normal. But, being Friday night I knew the kids would still be up and probably watching a movie and eating popcorn. The movie was ON but I'm not sure how much watching was happening. There was no popcorn, but there were muffin crumbs and Tootie Fruitie remnants in the kitchen. They were not forsaken children!
MOMMIE'S HOME!!! Came the screams from the almost 3 year old. Ruuufie wake UP! Is Ruth asleep? Leave her alone. No, she's fakin! giggle giggle Then came the onslaught... I need milk, I need a drink, we didn't get our vitamins, I'm hungry, can I have a muffin, can I have more tootie fruities, hold me... CAN I GO POTTY?????
I made it into my beloved duck pjs and fell exhausted onto the couch. I wanna sit here, no me, my turn, I wanna snuggle, no me. I LOVE being the mommy!!
Back to the post...
Lydia's beloved pillow, which has been repaired, restitched, and restuffed many times over the past 3 years has finally seen it's last days. Apparently, she had torn the frill from the edge and in doing so actually torn the fabric. The entire innards were exposed. It was a very sad night. I threw the stuffing away and gave her the shell. In her best two year old attitude she pouted her lips and said something quite unhappily in her squeaky little whine while she threw the shell onto the floor. Hhrumph! I gave her a kiss good night, told her I was sorry her pillow was gone and left the shell on the floor.
This morning she came trapsing from the room with the shell in her grubby little fingers. She loves it after all. Here are a couple pictures from this morning when she first emerged from her room and was still all snuggley and warm and smelled deliciously like a 2 year old. :)

Saturday Morning Musings

I think today is my first "real" Saturday in a very long time. Normally, I get up quietly, sneak through the house in my cutest spandex(which can be frightening for little people), and trip out the back door as I bypass the empty coffee pot. I drive into town for a brief and sometimes unmotivated encounter with the local Curves gals. Then I head back home to find the kids and sometimes their father lounging with their blankets and pillows in front of the latest Saturday morning cartoon. Well, they really don't have Saturday morning cartoons like in my day... but they watch the usual animated Sesame Street, Thomas, Bob. If I'm not sneaking off to Curves it's because we have an appointment somewhere early... like those dreaded Saturday morning birthday parties or the hospital sponsored March of Dimes walk, or some other random weekend activity that keeps us hopping around here.
Today is different. I'm actually "on-call" for work until 1300 today. I decided to stay close to the phone, just in case. Today it's free money but the potential for going in is still pretty great. We've been crazy busy around the very full nest of little ones. In fact, last night I described it as "stupid crazy" because it was Friday night and my fellow coworkers often fall ill late on Friday afternoons. We had two last night. You can't force someone to have a work ethic! Anyway, I digress.
Today is different. I still got up first. I still sneaked through quietly but stayed in my ducky pjs. I filled the coffee pot! Mmmmm Mmmm Good! Kids #1 & #3 snuck (not so sneakily) to the basement to watch a movie. I went down to say hello and take breakfast orders. 1 omelet and 1 scrambled egg. Easy enough. I still had time to get to Curves. Ahh, but the coffee was steaming and the ducks are so comfy... maybe I'll just sit, sip and read a new favorite blog. Then I was motivated to write again. The end of school is approaching fast. Only 5 more days and two of them are half-days. No more schedule. No more daily grind with the friends. No more of a lot of things. But summer brings different noises. The kids will once again learn to play together for hours on end. They will explore the woods again. Bennett will teach Maggie his favorite route through the trails on the 4 wheelers. Ruth will be his best friend again. The oldest two will go to camp and make new friends, learn new activities and hopefully get some more confidence in themselves... away from the comforts of Mom & Dad. Maggie will be fine!
Today I enjoyed listening to the kids oooo and ahhh over their eggs... they were on sale at the local IGA 5 for $5! Someone asked if it was 5 eggs for $5 or 5 dozen. It's the latter. I enjoyed hearing Norah Jones sing in Sesame Street... she is one of my favorites! In fact, Lydia was almost a Nora. I enjoyed snuggling with Lydia and her dead pillow.
I have enjoyed my normal Saturday morning! Good thing for using "on-call" as the excuse to sit and listen.
MMM MMM GOOD!

Maggie Sings Solo

Tonight was the kids' musical at church. Maggie was the one who braved the stage and sang a solo! (Bennett just can't do it?) They did "Life School Musical". It was a very long day for the kids as you can see in the video. They had to sing at 8:30, 11, stayed for the mother/daughter lunch, hair & make-up at 3 and then didn't start singing until almost 7. LONG day for mother's too! :)
Lydia ran random fever today so she was in my lap while I was taking pictures and videoing... so pardon the shakiness, please.
Lydia sneezed in the middle of the song... so here's the rest. Maggie started hamming it up to the mic and made everybody laugh.

She also lost tooth #6 tonight just before the show started. Mrs. Baumgardner pulled it out for her. They didn't want her to have an issue on stage and it was about to fall and already bleeding. Crazy girl!

Bennett's Soccer Season in D-O-N-E!

We had a great season of soccer this spring. The girls didn't make it onto teams because they were alread full, but they were able to squeeze Bennett onto a team at the last minute. It was the same one as our friend Jaelen, and another girl he played with last year. The coach was better and more involved with actually instructing and we saw definite improvement from game to game... which is what you want to see. Plus, they really enjoyed themselves. I know I've uploaded a couple videos of him playing. He made 3 goals (I think). I also took fun pictures of their end of the year party... he was the only boy since the other one didn't get to come. He played it up well as you can see. ;)


Our crazy friend Jaelen! :)

Izzy...
Maggie tries out the cookie... which had black icing. Lovely!!?
Lydia gets cookie too.