Back in the Swing of Things

I've been quiet on the blog posting. I finally feel better and should resume my normal posting. Here's some advice: don't get a kidney infection ever, but if you do, don't do it on St. Patrick's day in the middle of spring break. Totally bad timing.

Anyway, I started feeling better last Wednesday and sat down with Grant to do a little drawing. (G was getting pretty bored with Aidan gone, all the neighbor kids gone and he had exhausted his game time for the day).

We drew this together:



Grant added the title and designed by logo.
"Give love to others". What a good little boy.

Aidan made it home from Mexico on Sunday and had a great time! Brooklyn came with pizzas and we had a family dinner to welcome him home. He was so glad to be back and eat "normal" food again. I got an ice cream cake for the occasion.

See:



How cute is this?

So it's back to school, lunches, homework, choir practices and the general chaos of the Thornhill household.                    

                                                     I love those Thornhill/Ehret boys.

Spring Break Busted

So, I had the great idea of taking off on Friday and Monday in order to spend time with G and Stephen and enjoy a little time off. G went with his Dad on Friday night and I planned a Wine and Palette night with Stephen. You know, the places you go and an artist teaches you how to paint a picture?

That went well.

Sort of.

We did not remotely paint what the instructor told us to. Stephen decided to paint choice phrases about his wife on his canvas. I quickly painted over them. He looked around and realized he was the only guy in the place and quickly made friends with everyone on our aisle and the one across from us.



Here we are happy and ready to paint.




This is right before Stephen veered off course. Way off course.



This is his "finished" product...after about 20 paint
overs by me. I'll admit, he made it a good time for himself.



This is my ugly "finished" product. This is what happens
when you are constantly looking over your shoulder at
your husband's painting to see if it's "appropriate" or not.
Really, the ugliness has nothing to do with his distractions. I simply
suck at painting. This looks like Jelly Fish on acid.


We went home to a deflated me and a very happy husband. I woke up later that night very sick and ended up in the ER on Sunday with a kidney infection. Needless to say, I spent the entire break and then some in bed. The whole time. It was terrible. G was a little trooper and looked after me along with Stephen and now I'm on the mend, totally bummed out I missed out on a vacation with G.

Spring Break Kick Off

The Thornhill/Ehret kids are on spring break.

All of them. Aidan, Grant, Brooklyn and Jaxon.

I consider Jaxon a part of the family and Brooklyn has been staying with us as well for a few days.

Our house is overrun with kids. They run all over the house. They eat a lot of food. They make a lot of messes.

I love them, though.

And my husband who is home with them ALL DAY. I've not been able to take much time off work, but did manage the take a four day weekend this week. Judging by Stephen's demeanor when I get home, I may want to re-think that time off.....

Just kidding. I'm thrilled to spend time with everyone. Since Stephen was pooped out after only ONE day of the break, I suggested they all go to the zoo yesterday, thinking the kids would be worn out.




The kids. Clearly not wearing out.



But wait. It DID work. FYI- We have bunk beds
and this pull out couch for the boys. Instead of sleeping
on the bunk beds or even on the couch in a reasonable manner,
they sleep horizontally at the very edge right next
to each other. I'm at a loss, but isn't so sweet. Love those boys!

This and That

I reviewed some recent pictures that I have failed to post, so here's some of random happenings around the Thornhill household.

Look. It's Pacman. I finally got excited about a game
Grant could download on his Kindle. For FREE!
But...trying to play Pacman without a joystick (hi, I'm old)
is way too hard. I couldn't make it past the first level. Neither could
Grant.

It's been awhile since I took one of these shots with
Grant. He's usually too busy to spend time with his
"Mom". Last night Stephen and Aidan spent a few minutes
alone and I jumped at the chance to wrangle my boy in for
some "Mommy" time. He's getting so big. He's been quite witty lately, too.
He says some of the funniest things at very random times. His own
personality is starting to develop and I really love hanging out with
him because you never know what he might say.

Okay, so I already know Stephen will not be pleased with
me posting this, but I just had to. (The family is so over me taking photos
of every moment, especially the embarrassing ones)
He suffered from a 24 hours stint of
hiccups (which still makes me laugh..I know. I'm a mean awful wife
for laughing at my husband's clear painful annoyance). Anyway, after trying
numerous remedies to make them stop, he finally tried the advice of an old
high school friend who said to eat a spoonful of peanut butter slowly resting it on your tongue.
and....it WORKED. So weird.

This is my attempt at a make-up picture since I'm such a
awful mean wife who makes fun of her hiccuping husband.
See, I'm nice.
Most of the time.





Today was crazy hair day at Grant's school.
It is also the last day of school before TWO weeks
of Spring Break bliss.



My Mathematician in the Chaos

The days lately are flying by. Our house has been a revolving door for the neighbors. Kids in and out constantly. Sword fighting, basketball playing, xbox competitions and Kindle mania.

I live in a house full of boys.

Boys are messy.

So is the dog.
>
But, I have a great husband who tries to make it look like boys aren't messy and dogs aren't hairy.

Anyway, Grant had a tough day yesterday (I won't go into detail, but his little heart was broken) so we decided to load up and go to Dave and Buster's to mend the broken heart. We arrived in full force and the boys were off. And I mean off. They ran off. With their charged cards. We would see them from time to time as they ran to other games. About 45 minutes into our venture Kristie calls and wants to know how we're coming on Aidan's project.

What?

A project?

So off we go to find and Aidan and sure enough, there is a project due. Tomorrow. That will be presented on STAGE. So we asked what is the project about?

We get no real response. Other than there is some word he's supposed to write about and illustrate.

What is the word, Aidan?

No idea.

Stephen jumped into action, we ran out of Dave and Buster's and hauled to Target for poster board and fishing line and markers......and, after a few phone calls, Stephen finally found out the word.

CRYPTIC

Needless to say, last night was not enjoyable for any of us. well, maybe the 45 minutes of pre-project bliss.

Right in the middle of this chaos, I get a text from Mrs. Grizzle (G's teacher) that he is being honored at the school assembly for mathematics tomorrow.

What?

So, I asked Grant: Are you getting an award tomorrow?

Yes.

This prompted me into a lecture on ADVANCE NOTICE from both boys. We all know what a planner I am and this last minute notification will NOT work for Mama Bear, as Stephen would say.

The boy genius

Two awards, not just one. I was so surprised.

Grant insisted Mrs. Grizzle take a photo of both of us
holding his awards. Oh, and, he was character kid of the
week as well for service. I love my little over
achiever!