Elinore woke up this morning and the first words were: mom, my birthday is soon! She is SO excited for her upcoming birthday and her first birthday party with some friends from school.

Hatchimals Aren't for Playing With

Elinore has been collecting and loving all things Hatchimals for about a year or so now.  She's gets them for gifts; she saves her money and buys her own and watches YouTube videos to learn more about them.  We even play a Hatchimal card and board game. 

Last night Elinore told me, Hatchimals aren't for playing with.  They are for looking at, organizing and for setting up.

A New Years Eve to Remember

For the past few years we've enjoyed hosting some of our local friends for New Years Eve.  We play games, eat great food and talk the night away.  This year was no different, except that around 10:30PM there was a loud pop, and the house went DARK!

The wind had been howling terribly for much of the night, so it really wasn't super surprising, until we looked outside and all but 1 other house around us still had power. 

Candles were lit immediately, Caden was EXCITED and on top of that part.  And Keith got the generator hooked up and plugged in some work lights from the garage to light up the dinning room and turn the TV on for the ball drop. 

We all gathered around the TV minutes before the ball drop, and the crowd of kids were on the floor near the power strip and extension cords running power from the generator, when one of the girls fell to the side as the 10 second count down begin and knocked the power out, again!

We laughed and celebrated anyway.  And the fun continued until about 2AM.

The girls went to bed hesitantly just after midnight, not loving the dark.  Ruth fell asleep in my lap and Elinore slept in our bed. 

By morning, both girls were in our bed scared of the dark, and the power didn't return until about 9AM new years day.

Our friends were great and text us that morning with offers of bathrooms and showers and power if needed, but fortunately it was restored for us. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I asked all 4 kiddos this question today.

Caleb wants to be a police officer.
Caden wants to join the circus.
Elinore doesn't want to do anything.
Ruth wants to be a surgery doctor or a baby doctor.

Long Underwear

Keith took the girls to see Santa come to town last night. I asked Elinore about it this morning as she changed clothes and she says she changed her long and her short underwear. 🤣

Happy Mother's Day 2018!

Wrinkles

Elinore drew this in Grandma Barb's Mother's Day card.  She said the extra lines were her wrinkles.

152

Elinore has a favorite number. 152.

Anytime you ask for a number of anything it is 152.

These are the days of...

These are the days of:

• Pre-teen angst
• Potty training
• Busy work schedules
• Ballet
• Swim lessons
• Cub Scouts
• ROCK Group
• Sunday morning church
• Family time
• Family movies nights
• Family game nights
• Adventures with older kids and toddler with grandma
• Reading books
• Working out

Barn Kitties

We have welcomed two kittens into the Haynes place. They are barn cats and will stay outside, but the kids love them!

Their names are Diamond and Butterscotch.

Flowers

Elinore picked little clover flowers out in the yard the other night.

She brought them in to me as a gift and told me: "Since I wasn't at your wedding, I wanted to bring you these mom."

First Day of School 2017

Caden, grade 5
Caleb, grade 5
Elinore, preschool

Decorated Bandaids

Elinore had a spill in the parking lot on the way into the dentist office today.  Poor girl, skinned knees again.

She's afraid of bandaids.  So we got into the office after a few hugs and me carrying her the rest of the way.  Ruth was suddenly handed over to big brother Caden since I had been carrying a shoeless Ruth.

We got some wet paper towels and cleaner her up. Ruth panicked with brothers while we were in the bathroom.  We made it through the teeth cleaning with only a little crying through it after the ordeal.

When we got home I finally talked her into a bandaid, but then she was upset because we only had plain ones.  So I colored her hearts and butterflies! But I could only use one bandaid no more for the others.

I get it kid. I don't like bandaids either, and I probably wouldn't have used one on myself.

Cavity Free

There may be a lot of things that slip through the cracks in my busy crazy house of 7, but today the teeth weren't one of them.  I took all four kiddos to the dentist at 9 am this morning and they were ALL CAVITY FREE!

Slices

Tonight in the car, Elinore asked me if bugs poop.  I said yes.  Then she asked me if bugs have slices on their butts like we do to go poop.

Always a hoot!

Trees

Elinore just asked me if our living room ceiling fan worked the trees.  She asked because she said when she turned it off, the trees stopped blowing.

:)

Be Nice

Elinore had a rough night. She continued to refuse to get into bed at bedtime and had a few time outs.  She was teary when I finally got her into bed.  We started to talk about what happened and what we could do different along with I'm sorry and I forgive yous.

That's when she told me she just wishes she could be me sometimes.  "Why?" I asked.  Because I want people to know I'm nice too.

And my mama heart melted in love for this child and hear heart. 

We talked about she is kind often, and we are all mean sometimes, myself included.  (Her brothers give me constant reminders of how mean I am there!  Us mean moms!  ;) )

I told her if she wants people to thinks she's nice to make choices that are nice and things will take care of themselves.

<3

This morning Elinore wanted to play witch.  She wasn't being very kind and she was furious she couldn't hold her broom and her stuff.  She is a witch and needed a broom to fly of course.

Then, she needed a pot to stir her potions and such.  We didn't have a big enough one so she told Grandma she needed to help make one.  Grandma wasn't so sure about that creation, but Elinore reassured her we had lots of wood in the basement to build it with.

No pot was built.

My name is...

Since Elinore started preschool this past fall, she's been consisten in wanting to be called Elinore, NOT Ellie.  She says her name is Elinore and that is what she wants to be called.  I'm working on it, and am doing it more for her!

It all started when I asked how she wanted to be known in preschool.  She insisted it be Elinore and a few months later, still remind me if I screw it up.

I kind of LOVE that she wants it to be Elinore.  :)

Pee Issues

Recently I had gone downstairs to scoop the litter boxes for the cats, when I found what looked to be a crazy amount of pee covering the whole top of one of the boxes.  After a phone call to Keith and the boys it was quickly confessed, Caden peed in the littler box. 

Cleaning litter boxes isn't exactly fun, let along when it is your kid's pee in there!




I was hole alone with the girls one night and Elinore asked me why she has to sit down to pee.  She said, daddy doesn't, and she can just pee like Daddy does.

WHOA!  Sit down girl!