Happy St Patrick's Day

My kids have learned to embrace St. Patrick's day, not only because school makes it fun, but because they know I love it too. We have fun and we like to celebrate. 

Today was a good day. We started with a green breakfast and kids well decked out thanks to treats from Grannie. 

I even managed to visit with Max and Ellie at school today. I haven't done it much this year, but we all enjoy it when I do.  All of second grade made traps for leprechauns. 

After school they played and we had a dinner celebration with a nice cake. 

A little piece of childhood gone

Today, for the first time, Max and Ellie and Clair are all in their own rooms. I wanted them to have the room space, but I also know that the closeness that Max and Ellie had will be gone or dwindling. They were caught giggling together morning and night often. That will be no more, now that they have their own spaces. 

They both approaches this milestone with cautious excitement. They both handled bedtime like pros! And they both fell asleep very reasonably. It will be interesting to see what they have to say in the morning and how that goes. 

I hope to still find them giggling together, playing and scheming. I hope they invite each other in close for fun times. 

Max is especially excited to have toys in his own room, his own space, privacy he said to me. 

Ellie is excited to be able to read in her bed at night. But she also wants more lights in her bedroom. Max got the big nightlight. 

I love them both. Watching them grow is exciting, and yet, I will also mourn the departure from babyhood. 

Ellie the writer

Ellie is a really great writer. She has written great stories since prekindergarten. Once in a while I find things that are exceptionally fun for me. This was one of them that really made me smile. So many good things she has planned for herself at age 8. I find this very mature and encouraging. I pray that 100 for my Ellie Bean is just like she has planned!

A little soccer

I Max liked the idea of playing a sport again this spring so we decided to do a short trial of soccer. The first couple weeks he was excited. As it's dragging on he's less excited. I heard him telling the coaches he won't be here next week. I decided I better snap some photos of his 2016 short soccer adventure. He seems to have fun as they make up cute games here. They are currently playing little fox and I will get dales to play sharks and Minows soon. 

Warming up 

Dinner with the cousins

Over the past six months we have started a tradition of having the kids over for dinner at least once a month if not more. All the kids are really starting to enjoy this and count on this. It's a shame they're moving. My kids will surely miss this time. I snapped a photo of the five of them sitting at dinner the other night. They were enjoying their spaghetti and chicken.

They are all getting to an age where they play nicely together. Erica loves to watch Claire and Claire loves her time with "Erikaka."

Errands

I've done a good job of allowing the kids to stay home and play while I take care of errands alone much of their lives. Because of this they truly don't enjoy running errands, especially Ellie. Max can be convinced sometimes. And, Clair is the exception as she just loves running around and seeing the world. 

Yesterday I decided to bring Max and Ellie with me to grocery shop despite their protest largely because David was so busy with a big house project and couldn't mediate fights and respond to needs. They weren't pleased but once I to the car they were good spirited. 

I decided to treat them to something they rarely get if they behaved and they did. We all stopped st Starbucks and I got them frappochinos! They were so pyhsched. Best faces all day! Too bad it's a love a sugar, but still love these moments. I was grouchy and stressed out with everything going on so this was my good moment of the day. 

Clair loves her Legos!

Clair will spend hours playing with her Lego diploma since we expanded the set at Christmas. She creates whole stories and worlds for all the little figures we have lying around the toy shelves from the frogs, to smurfs, her fairies, and many more. 

I captured this photo mid play last week and think of it as a real picture capture of her childhood.