bye bye, preschool!

jakey graduated preschool! i know for some this is not a big deal, especially when they've been through it a time or two, but this was a big milestone for us, for jake, and we are really enjoying watching who he is becoming. perhaps the saddest part of his graduation was saying goodbye to his teacher of two years, mrs. tetzloff (below, in the pink). she was absolutely phenomenal and i always felt like she had a special place in her heart for jacob.



the graduation ceremony itself was very sweet. the teachers did their bloody best to make sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house by starting it off with a slideshow of the last year played to a song titled, "let them be little." then the kids stood at the front of the chapel and sang songs. it was so sweet, despite jake's absolute inability to stand still. he was all over the place - lounging on the railing, teetering off to the side... i was so mortified that i couldn't worry about being sad! to top it off, i finally make eye contact with him and mouth, "stand still!" and he looks back at me, thinks for a second, cocks his head to the side and signs (yes SIGNS) the letters N O to me.
and looks the other direction.
stinker!
anyway, overall it was such a sweet ceremony and i will miss the school a lot. i plan to send annabelle there in a few years so it's not really goodbye. jake learned so much from his teachers and from preschool and is now getting ready to enter the world of elementary school. this should be interesting. we'll try to keep the signing to a minimum.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Jake!

my little guy just turned five. FIVE. how in the world did that happen? on the one hand he seems so grown up. he's very sweet and concerned with how everyone is doing and feeling, he loves to practice reading and writing, he loves to help out with chores (well, sometimes...) but then i look at him and he's so little still. his "s" sounds are still "eth" sounds, he still falls apart when he doesn't sleep enough or eat quickly enough, he still loves to be rocked and sang to (bless him!)... this is such a neat age. he's getting so independent but still needs us so much. thank God!



for jake's birthday his cousins, stasia and ava, and auntie steph and uncle dustin came to visit. we had a dragon-themed party, by his choice. (frankly i was floored when he didn't say he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine party! he STILL loves to play with his trains!) anyway, we went with dragons, which was a lot of fun. the kids made dragon spoon crafts and we slayed a big dragon cake for everyone to eat.



a little background on this cake...

so last year we did a party with one of jake's best buds, joey. we had a carnival party and jamie (joey's mom) made this insane ferris wheel cake. it was phenomenal. the year before we also had a combined party with him and she and her sister made these beautiful train car pieces of cake. (make sure to click on the links so you can see her gorgeous cakes).

so anyway, this was our first year not doing a party with them and the pressure was on. let's have a fun, unique cake! so i enlisted jamie's help and expertise and we spent about 3 hours making and frosting this stinking cake. oh, and to top it off i had been up until 1am at least EVERY night the week before cutting things for this "simple" dragon craft. now, i chose to do this so i don't meant to sound like i'm complaining, but it did take a ton of time.



friday we are getting all ready for the party, cleaned up, getting the craft stuff together, three hours on the cake, fall into bed about 1am, dead tired. then, as luck would have it, 3am...
"mama, i don't feel very good."
this was the start of a 2-day vomiting spree for my poor little guy. he had a horrible stomach flu and was so sick. it was so sad! we had to cancel the party (mom & prasad had come all the way up for it), throw away the dragon cake and the extra cupcakes...but luckily we were able to have a "re-do" the following weekend. our amazing friends and family put everything aside and made sure to be there for his make-up party! so yes, another three hours on the cake, but worth every minute. jake was so thrilled and had such a terrific time with his cousins, his friends, aunties and uncles, grandma and grandpa... the party was a success and i'm so glad we were able to have one after all that madness.

next year we'll be inviting two friends to the movies. no birthday party!

oh my. it has been quite some time since i've updated this thing. i'm not even sure anyone looks at it anymore! well, if you're out there, things have been fantastic, but incredibly busy. a bit overwhelming at times, but now we are in the middle of spring break and on the downhill slide into summer. i can't wait. over the last few months ben lost his job, ben got a new job (which makes him much happier), i have received a pink slip for my job, we've registered jacob for kindergarten, annabelle is talking up a storm, jacob is learning to read and write...things have been incredible! work has kept me very busy and i will say this again and again, i do not know how full-time working moms do it. i truly don't. i get so overwhelmed by the day-to-day stuff - dishes, laundry, dinner, toys - and i only work 40% of a full-time job. my hat is off to the full-timers. shoot, my entire outfit is off to them. though you really don't want to see that...

annabelle and jake are the sweetest kids around. annabelle has such a fiesty little personality, but she is the most loving child. she is constantly giving kisses and hugs. she will take any chance she can get to plant one on you. she loves everyone. she loves to be "up" with daddy and me, but also grandma, grandpa, jamie ("mamie") and brian ("boo"), maria ("rias")... she has a lot of love to give.


so does the little man. i just went in to tuck jakey in to bed and he was being so sweet and loving. he was holding and rubbing my arm, patting my face, hugging me over and over...just so full of sweetness. i said, "i love my best boy" and he said, "i love my sweet girl." i said, "how did you get to be so sweet?" and he said, "you taught me that, mama." ahhh - melt my heart! but then, to make sure i knew he was still a 4 year-old boy he said, "i smell alien slime." and i secretly hoped it wasn't my breath.

i absolutely love being a mom. i truly have the two best children on this planet.
(someone remind me of this when i'm wrangling two screaming children through target next time...) :)

Cousins

Today Jacob said, "Mama, do you know which cousins I love?" And I said, "Which ones?" And he said, "ALL of them! And I even love all my aunties and uncles!!" And we do. We love them all!

little belles is one!

Then:





Now:



it has already been nearly 3 months since annabelle had her first birthday! we had a small little party in our backyard, which we covered in black and red decorations. mom and prasad, who were up visiting, helped with the kids so i could spend way too much time decorating little ladybug cupcakes for the guests.

i made a separate little cake for annabelle, also decorated as a ladybug, so she could do with it what she pleased. i was putting this cake together, smiling at the memory of jacob and his first birthday cake. i remember him testing the frosting with one finger, realizing it was something not to mess around with, and, wasting no more time, plowing face first into the cake. i am laughing at this as i'm painting annabelle's ladybug cake with red and black frosting. i'm imagining how her chubby little cheeks will look after she nosedives into her carefully decorated cake. i have already mentally dressed her in the full-sleeved bib (courtesy bees) and placed the highchair out in the backyard, where i know we can hose it off afterward. i was ready.

we manage to gather all of our guests around our little bug and sing happy birthday to her. cameras are flashing, kids are grabbing for cupcakes, the wind is blowing the bloody candle out, and annabelle is just taking it all in. i proudly set the long-labored over ladybug cake in front of her and step back, grinning in anticipation of the nosedive.

she looks at me.
she looks at the cake.
she looks back at me.

i'm still grinning, but can feel the corners of my smile starting to sag a bit.

she looks at the cake. she looks at me.

i stop grinning. i point to the cake. "look, annabelle! try it! it's yummy!"

she looks at me and starts to whine. reaches up to me with one arm. pick me up, mama. this isn't fun at all.

i swipe my finger through some icing and try to get a little on her mouth. i'm positive that once she gets a taste of it she'll go nuts.

she turns her mouth down and gets that look. both arms are now reaching toward me.

i see the look building on her face and i can feel all the people waiting around us. waiting, with cameras poised, for that classic 1st birthday cake dive. that cake dive that EVERY kid does.

except for mine.

the frown turns to a yell which i suspect will rapidly become a blood-curdling scream. she pushes the cake away and, red- and black-stained hands turned up, reaches to me again.
get me OUT of here, lady!

my shoulders slump. the crowd lets out a sigh. the baby starts crying. i look around, smiling to all the cameras and grandmas and grandpas and friends.

but then i realize, this is the beauty of family and friends. they don't care about the "perfect birthday shot." (most of them, anyway...) They just want to see this cute, sweet little ladybug enjoy herself on her birthday.
so out she comes, down to the floor, and far away from all the little ladybug cupcakes and decorations. she heads back inside, where she is most happy, and spends the rest of the night laughing and playing and crawling and squealing.
you can't beat that.

fernow

time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking... and don't we all know it. it is already almost halloween (please somebody tell me how that happened), the weather is (finally) turning colder, the days are getting shorter and summer is now so far behind us.

it's about time i wrote about our last trip of the summer, to the fernow cabin in the mountains of flagstaff, arizona.

i have been wanting to write about our trip to arizona for so long. it was so much fun. the 14 hour drive ended up not being as bad as we thought and the time we spent out in the wilderness in that little tiny cabin was unbeatable.

it all started in prescott, a cute little town with a beautiful town square where we managed to get out of the house by lunchtime ... once. you can imagine how easy it is to go anywhere with a group that includes 7 adults, 6 children under the age of 8 and 3 dogs. we were quite the sight.


we did drag the crew through a couple of thrift shops, per tradition, but that was the extent of our adventures in the three days we were in prescott.

after a few days of civilization we were ready for the wilderness. we hauled the gang out to fernow, the old ranger's cabin in the forest. the last time we were there was in 2004 and there were only 2 children along for the ride (3, if you count annika in cat's belly). makenna, who was 3 at the time, nicknamed fernow "the rain cabin" because of a little rainfall we had one day that year. now the name will stick forever, thanks to day after day (and night) of rain. we did manage some sunny days as well, though, and none of us minded the rain too much. we did have to cram ourselves inside the creaky cabin walls a couple of times, but for the most part we dealt with the drizzle and hid on the porch or under the easy-up when necessary.

our days out at fernow started in the late morning with dad's cooking (he makes the best pancakes ever) and would eventually turn into a hike or walk of sorts. this, of course, could only take place after one kid napped, then another would need to nap right when the one woke up, the we would have to spend an hour packing up food, sandwiches, crackers, drinks, fruit... then another hour figuring out where we would go, then, just when 6 people were ready to walk, the other 7 were grabbing a jacket, going to the bathroom, changing a diaper... getting that group out the door was quite the feat! but we managed!

this, naturally, only left us with an hour or two to walk/hike, but we made the best of it. the kids walked for miles (mostly without complaint) and loved taking turns walking the dogs. the most exciting part of any of our walks was finding a "cave" (i use the term loosely) to play in. the kids could spend hours in there. the most amazing thing in all of this is that we had 6 kids, ranging in age from 11 months to almost 9 years, and they ALL managed to play together! annabelle didn't take part in too much of what the others were up to, but the other 5 played all together all the time. it was just wonderful. in fact, i think the 5 of them behaved better than any of us adults!! just kidding. sort of...

anyway, in the late afternoon we would all kind of do our own thing. us little bidwells would usually nap, steph and cat would take the big girls on a walk of sorts, the boys would read their magazines, nap or go accompany the girls on the walk, the littlest kids also napped, and poppo would go for a run. then we would somehow manage to make dinner for 13 people, we would eat and drink by the fire, put the tiniest kids to bed and keep the others up to roast marshmallows and sing campfire songs, accompanied by dad's guitar.


most of the family would trickle off to bed and cat, steph and i would stay up into the wee hours drinking wine, talking and hanging out.


we just had the best time. i can't wait to go again next year, despite anything i may have said in the meantime! :) i loved for the kids to be outdoors constantly and using their imaginations to play all sorts of games all day long. there were no phones, computers or electronics of any kind out there and, really, it was bliss.

and so it is...

we're back in action. i'm back to work, jakey is back to school, ben is back to teaching twice a week on top of working full-time, and annabelle is approaching her first birthday. i feel a little like i'm in the middle of this tornado and if i should stop for a moment and look around, i might realize how crazy everything is around me! i feel like i am skimming the surface of many things, not really finishing anything, and just waiting for a day with some down time to "do it all." HAH!


I'm only working part-time (though I am technically working 3 part-time jobs if you include the photography blog and the realtor blasts) and I have put tutoring on hold for a couple of weeks (thank God!) so I should be able to handle it. There are moms out there who work full-time and have more kids than me. I honestly have no idea how they do it. And I have a lot of help!! my mother-in-law helps a ton when she's over here on tuesdays, and my neighbor down the street is awesome with the kids on wednesdays and thursdays... and still i feel very frazzled!


i also sound like a big, fat complainer. actually i like my job, so far, even though i have yet to meet with students. it's nice to be back on campus and part of that community. i love my daycare options, i'm very lucky with that, and i have always loved being busy. and Lord knows i'm busy. so hopefully i can remember to send out pictures and update this blog every now and again. i'm dying to write about our trip to arizona with the family (such fun!) and other summer outings, but that will happen on one of those "do it all" days. and i'm positive i'll have tons of those :)