the crisp connection

 so last weekend, i got the most amazing mothers day gift of a day in the big city of wichita, with friends. friends! i can honestly say i don't know if i've ever done that. i've tried to make friends, but when you move so much, stay busy having babies, etc, i just haven't "hung out with friends" much. But this was wonderful. A pedicure (which is a yearly event, approximately!), lunch at jasons deli, and target. all in one day! thank you patrick! and my friends. So, patrick stayed very busy, taking the kids fishing. quite the undertaking. we've decided perhaps ours are a little too young. but i think they had fun!

 our temperatures have been all over the place for the last few months, we had 2 days that were upper 90s, 100+. So, we broke out the baby pool. It was fun, getting kind of small for both my kids, though!

 this is charlies bathing suit from last year. its 12 mos. i was hoping it might finally fit by now!

 bedhead, anyone?

 patricks cousin denton graduated from highschool, and they held his party on their farm. only 20 mos, but i tell you what, don't get between a boy and his tractor! :-)

 this is my toddler after a long, hot day. ok, it was actually only noon. but it sure seemed like a long day. he just wasn't in a photo op mood!

Things are going well in the Crisp household. We've gotten through 2 full wks of babysitting fulltime, and i feel much more confident than i did. I remember a  few years ago when i did my "day in my life" post. i think i felt busy then. its a good thing you grow into things. if you had told me then what my life would look like now. . . Although sometimes I would like to sleep in, stay in our pyjamas at least until 9, my personality does work better being busy and productive. So being forced to be ready for the day by 8 is good, most of the time :-). We're done with breakfast by 8.30, and the kids (there are 5 now) play in the living room while i clean up and do any urgent business. Then we often head out to the porch for story time on the swing. The two big girls and I read, and the 3 toddlers play. We head down to the basement for circle time, get our blanket out and sit on the floor and do silly preschool things that they love. Then the 2 older ones and I sit at the table and work on a few pages out of their books. Well thats the idea, but the other ones always choose then to fuss and squawk and bite each other :-). And also all climb on my (ever shrinking) lap at the same time. But we get through it. Then my youngest charge leaves for the day, and the rest of us eat lunch. During quiet time, I do lunch clean up, get some work done on the computer, and some house work if i'm lucky. After quiet time we do a fun activity like puzzles, games, or painting. Then we often go outside to play, and/or work on supper prep. I do my grocery shopping in the evening now, and housework, well, whenever i can. I am working for 6 more weeks, so hopefully we'll have a really good routine down before the baby.

The midwife is coming for our home visit this Saturday. I dont' know if its because its the third, because we haven't found out what it is, because i simply don't have time to think about it. But i dont' think it seems all that real to me just yet. The pregnancy part does, just not the going to have a new infant in the family part! Patrick is staying very busy, he's been working on the yard every weekend, it looks so good! He crushed his finger between two 70lb boulders in the process of making a border for the flowerbeds, and broke it. There was also quite the gash, so we went and got him stitched up and all that, too. He's getting more involved in choir/worship at our church, and is starting a mens bible study. very exciting. i sort of started teaching someone the violin, too. You know the options must be limited if he asked me: i don't even have one, and i haven't really played in years. but we'll see how it goes.

Kids are doing so well, I know charlie is really growing up because he's started throwing tantrums :-). If i hadn't done this before, I'd be really worried. When he gets so mad that he's arching his back and nearly throwing himself out of my arms. But he's such a sweet boy, and learning words all the time. (Go, car, shoe, boot, hat, cup, ball, cow, down, choo choo, bowl, mommy, daddy, Hannah, Hadley, August are just a few). Hannah is growing in so many different ways as well. She can write most of her letters without help, and numbers as well. She is retaining alot of what I tell her. (preface: remember that we have no problem at all with "brainwashing" our kids. we feel that's actually our purpose as their parents). Today we were talking about my taking maternity leave, to rest. Hannah asked if Daddy was too. I said no, he has to work. She says very seriously, yes, Daddy has to work to make money. Lots of money. To give it all away to other people. (this is something we are recently really trying to practice, not just preach). Then she turns to Mia, the older girl, and says, do you do that too? And Mia says yep, we give all our money away to the people at the bank. I didn't know whether to laugh because it was so cute, or cry because I'm so touched by whats happening in Hannah's little heart!