Month: May 2009

Ruby had a great time at her birthday party.  She loved having so many of her friends around her.  She loved wearing her new sassy shirt and skirt, too.  She even slept in them and has the outfit on today.  Oh, the battles I choose not to fight.  

We had the party at EARTH, PAINT AND FIRE.  The kids painted a piggy bank, then had ice cream and cake, opened presents and went on their way.  It all turned out just fine, but I would have rather had the party at our own house out in the back yard…I just thought we would have been moving by now, so I decided to plan for another place to have the party.  Ruby had fun, so that is what matters most.  

Molly was there, of course.  She loved wearing the apron, though it caused much confusion and a mess at potty time.  Thank goodness I had some old clothes of Mack’s in the back seat to give to a friend.  And thank goodness for Mrs. Mary who took care of the situation completely.  What a mess. 

Katherine, sweet Katherine, was there!  She made two sweet cards for Ruby to bring to the party since she had given her two other presents already!  She is such a good friend to Ruby, and I know we would have had to re-schedule the party if she wasn’t able to be there.  So thankful for the Koester family.

Mark was brave and brought both of his adorable girls to the party, and we were so glad he did!  They are both sweet, yet both as different from one another as they can be.  Ella did great in the potty area!  And you should have seen her pig!  All covered in paint.  

And here is Lily (the blonde) who was in Ruby’s dance class both years they took.  She is such a doll.  Faith is in the green shirt.  She is a sweet, sweet girl, too.  I love her whole family!  We are so thankful for the friends the Lord has given to us and to our kids so far in their life.

This is Kayla working intently on her pig.  She and Ruby have the same birth day!  And they get along so well.  We hope that they get to stay together as they move into the Elementary Department in the Fall since her last name starts with “E.”  Ruby would LOVE that.

Here are the boys of the party…Jed, Mack, and Ben.  Jed is a fire-ball, and we love him.  His mom and I were pregnant at the same time, so they have been friends since before birth!  He was the life of the party.  While the girls sat and painted, he let the balloons go and they got stuck in the ceiling fan!  He cracks us up.  So glad he was there.  And Ben didn’t realize he was invited, so he was hanging out with his dad until Ruby said, “What?  Ben’s not coming to my party?!”  Mrs. Mary made a call and then Ben showed up!  Ruby was glad, but Mack was even more glad.  We are glad Ben was there.

The whole gang painting

The whole gang eating

Ruby got great gifts!  We will be writing our thank you notes once I search this house up and down to find the cute Hello Kitty ones that I bought to go along with the whole theme…they are here somewhere!!!  In this picture she is holding up the cookies that Merrilee gave to her as part of her gift.  She loves those cookies!!  By the way, have I introduced Merrilee to the blog?  I may should ask first, but since I have already mentioned her, let me show you a picture…I like to put faces with names.

Isn’t she cute?!  She is very nice, too.  I like her a lot…which I am sure is so important to Jason, and surely he will ask me what I think very soon…surely.

 

She was showing Katherine her compact and purse that came off of her cake.

Molly HAD a cute orange skirt on when we got there…this is AFTER the apron confusion in the girl’s room.

The DADS — supervising that side of the table  (the side with perfect Annie, Molly with the bathroom incident, Ella with all her paints mixed and Jed who let the balloons go into the ceiling fan!!  They were so helpful!)  Kidding.  Kidding.  So glad they were there!

So, overall, a fun-filled birthday party!  Ruby loved having a party.  She is “officially 5…now that she has had her party.”  

OK, this is a new level of hilarious for me!  Mack drinks a ton of liquid each day.  Last night we had a little party for Ruby, and I gave Mack numerous juice boxes because that is what kept him occupied and sitting down.  Having Mack running around in a Pottery store was much like a bull in a china shop.  Oh my.  Soooo, he was wet from neck to knees this morning in his crib.  (It didn’t help that he unhooked his diaper on one side…don’t ask.)    Immediately after I said, “Oh, no Mack!  You are wet.”  He stood up with a bewildered look and said, “Melmo wet.”  I asked, “Is Elmo wet, too?”  He said, “Melmo wet!”  I picked Elmo up, but he managed to not get wet in the sea that Mack had made in his bed.  I asked Mack who wet his bed?  He said, “Melmo.”  He even went in and told Josh that Elmo wet his bed last night.  It was so very funny.  He says it very emphatically, like he knows we might not be believing his story.

Molly has had an obsession with flip-flops.  Now she will wear almost any kind of flip-flop, but BROWN flip-flops are what she has wanted.  She wears palm tree blue ones, hot pink beach ones, purple ones, clear ones with big jewels on them….not to mention the other types of shoes around here…..

BUT this morning at the park there was a little girl running around.  I spotted them first, then watched for Molly’s eyes to find them, too.  Sure enough, here she comes, “Mama, look at her shoes.  Brown flip-flops.”  I told her that if Ruby wanted to share her $5 that she got from the tooth fairy, then we would go to Old Navy and buy some flip-flops because I would love to have several more shoes lying all around the house for me to put away or for me to help the kids search for when they can only find one.  When Ruby was ready to go, we all walked home so she could get the money and we could pile in the car for the Old Navy!  I seemed to have forgotten that I had not one stitch of make-up on my face or that I had worked out to that silly Jillian’s 30-Day Shred that SAYS it is only 20 minutes long, yet it feels to be an hour long.  (Have I mentioned that I think I am just old?  Things hurt that used to not.  Jumping around the living room like a teenager doesn’t help this sad fact.)  

*****SIDE STORY:  In case you think we are crazy for giving our child $5 from the tooth fairy, think again.  We didn’t.  In line at Wal-Mart the other day, an older lady was so sweet and got to talking to us while we waited to check out.  She asked me if I minded if she gave Ruby $5 for her birthday….after the awkwardness, I said that she could and helped Ruby to say thank you and hug this perfectly nice stranger.  The next day Ruby was eating an ice cream cone and her tooth came out!  Yipee….Josh forgot to put money under her pillow because that is his job you know….so I grabbed the $5 bill and took it upstairs and told him to stick it under her pillow.  I didn’t have a $1 bill.  Ruby went and checked her pillow (she had forgotten, too), and said to me, “MOM!  This is that money the lady gave me at Wal-mart.”  I froze.  Josh saved the day by saying, “Yeah, this looks like the one the lady gave you because it has a 5 on it….What do you want for breakfast?”  It was very funny.  I am glad Ruby wanted to share her birthday money/tooth fairy money so everyone could get some flip-flops.*******

Back to the flip-flops.  I picked Molly’s brown flip-flops up, then helped Mack pick a boy pair of flip-flops out…he has been wearing the girl’s flip-flops around the house.  It’s just not right.  He now has BOY FLIP-FLOPS.  Ruby chose some silver ones.  Cute.  Then, Molly wanted pink ones.  She begged for pink ones as if they were the ones she has always wanted, not the brown ones.  After going back and forth with her, I looked at the sign  “2 for $5 OR $3.50 each”  Well, it just wouldn’t make sense to only get three.  We needed to get four anyway—we’d miss the complete deal of “2 for $5.”  So, somehow Molly got out of there with TWO pair of flip-flops, and one each for Ruby and Mack….with Ruby’s money…..oh my.  I told myself that she does get all the hand-me-downs while Ruby gets the new clothes; that brought peace to my troubled heart.

Then, the kids immediately put on their flip-flops.  Mack has MUCH trouble keeping his on his feet!  It is such fun for me to try and squeeze his chubby, sweaty, block foot into the flip-flop.  He just needs to relax his toes, but he doesn’t.  After I put them on his feet, I say, “Now, you keep these shoes ON.”  He say, ” ‘kay” every time.  “This time I really mean it, Mack.  Try to keep them on.”  ” ‘kay.”  And then he proceeds to walk right out of them.  It could be a very long summer.

 

(This doesn’t even show the ones that are randomly left in the back yard or the ones that are piling up in my car.  Nor does it show the cute ones that I really wanted to pick up at the store just today.  I held back because if I am going to be picking up everyone else’s flip-flops, I will not have time to find my own.)

Mack was funny eating his cupcake(s) the other night.  I just couldn’t quit taking pictures of him…maybe it is because I am trying to eat better.  It isn’t going all that great, but I am trying, so I just used my time admiring how he was eating instead of stuffing my own face.  Do y’all do that?  Watch other people eat the stuff you’d like to be eating?  Though I must say, cupcakes are never my first choice.  I’d much rather go for the nice slab of chocolate cake–you know, the end piece with lots of icing.  Yummmmm…..

“Um, would you like some or are you just gonna keep snapping pictures in my face all night?”

Just wanted to mention that Molly has been so wonderful the past two and a half days (but who is counting?!).  Seriously, I should have mentioned that she was so sweet to Ruby on her birthday in so many ways.  I am proud of her for letting Ruby have her time to shine on her birthday!  That isn’t always easy, but she pampered her and let Ruby feel special.  Just thought I should mention it…..And Molly has told me she loved me about a thousand times in the past couple of days.  She loves me.  How sweet.

And tonight after being away from each other for two and a half hours, Mack kept saying to me, “Wid me”  I didn’t know what he meant at first, but then realized he wanted me to sit down with him.  When I told him I would sit with him, he started telling me to “walk, Mama, walk.”  I think he was saying, ‘hurry up and get over here and sit down with me!’  I sat down with him, and he was happy as could be.  Sweet kiddos.

How can you go wrong with these two places and five kids?  We didn’t.  Molly made it clear from the beginning that she did not want Monkey Joe to talk to her, touch her or even look at her!  I told her that between myself and Mrs. Mary, Monkey Joe wouldn’t get near her (and then I prayed that there would be no dressed-up character at Monkey Joes to scare Molly…).

This was as close to the monkey as we got:

There was a whole lot of this going on:

And after Mack figured out how to get up the slide, (because those “STOP!” signs said something along the lines of mama’s cannot go up the slides because they just can’t)

he had fun, too…..

Though I think he would have preferred that I feed these machines with all my quarters:

These two were so cute on this double-elephant ride…you could see the love coming through as they went round and round and round….

Mack wasn’t so happy about having a group picture on this car though.  He was liking it much better all by himself….

After the Monkey Joes fun, we headed to McDonalds.  It poured down rain while we ate and then the kids went out to the play area.  Can you say dried, sweaty kids (from all the jumping at MJ’s) and then wet, humid, stinky kids in the play area = stinky, smelly kids?  I can say it.  They are my kids.  I rode home with them.

The girls enjoyed the ice cream, obviously….and these things (above) are the Happy Meal toys.  I do not know what they were exactly, but don’t they look like parts of a brain?  Yuck.  I plan to lose these next time we go through the car wash and clean out the car.  (that is, if it EVER stops raining here)

Here Ruby is apologizing to Katherine for squishing all of the roley poley bugs she found.  Ruby said to me, “Well, it’s my birthday and I don’t like Roley Poley’s on my birthday!!”  OK.  Makes sense to me.?  Poor Katherine was just trying to watch them roll around and squirm around…Ruby wanted nothing to do with it.  Right here Katherine is caressing a roley poley bug that “didn’t have a head, but that’s ok.”  

And a group shot of all the smelly, wet  sweet children that allowed Mrs. Mary and I to talk and talk and talk.  Adult conversation is a beautiful thing….especially when you are doing that instead of laundry and cleaning bathrooms.  

We had a very fun time!  There are more pictures, but I don’t think I have the time to post them all.  Besides, she is having a little friend party on Friday night.  Birthdays seem to linger around the Dorminy house.  Is that just normal?  It ends up being each person’s birthday WEEK.

(Here I go again, taking pictures of pictures….)  This is what I was doing five years ago!  Ruby Elizabeth was born weighing 8 lbs, 5 oz.  Sweet little booger that started the process of completely rockin’ my sleep world.  And I remember many things that day…not the least of which are realizing I wanted the medicine before the medicine before the epidural because I am such a wimp with pain, how good the McDonalds smelt while Josh ate it as I crunched ice waiting on Ruby to get here, pushing only thirty minutes, throwing up right after having her, mistaking my feet for the marshmallow man’s feet…who knew you would swell AFTER having the baby?!…BUT the greatest part by far was the second I saw her.  How amazing can child birth be???!!!  Such a miracle.  I can remember her tiny feet and hands, the way she loved laying on her Daddy’s chest each evening to nap, how I had to “coach” her into taking naps that lasted longer than 30 minutes, and how round and chubby her cheeks were from the very beginning.  I am amazed that five years have passed.  Ruby has been a big sister for most of her life.  She was 14 months old when we brought Molly home!  She is a great big sister to both Molly and Mack.  She has a fabulous imagination and is sometimes seen in restaurants using a spoon and fork as people.  They will have a full conversation, sing songs and more.  It’s hilarious.  She doesn’t like stray hairs…and so she doesn’t walk on my bathroom floor.  She will jump from rug to rug instead.  She can spot a hair a mile away and will holler for someone to come and get it.  If it gets on her, watch out.  She falls asleep very quickly and doesn’t suck her thumb or fingers or anything like that.  She is quite the compliant child–compared to Molly and Mack.  Her feelings get hurt easily, so I have to watch how I respond to her.   If she thinks you are laughing at her, she shuts down.  She rarely dresses in regular clothes around the house, but chooses all sorts of dress-up clothes (or less) instead.  She loves wrestling with her Daddy.  She is very competitive, too.  

There’s just a lot of change with her lately.  I think she has grown taller over the past month.  She has lost TWO teeth, turned FIVE YEARS OLD, and starts Kindergarten in just two and a half months.  Now I am not one to get mopey and sad about the little ones gaining independence…I have many times felt like I would never be out of this baby, needy, whiney, stage….but Ruby is my hope.  She is showing me that, clearly, they don’t always stay tiny.  Their needs change.  They can carry on great conversations, too.  I am very excited for her.  She is excited for her, too….all day long she has asked for special treatment because “it’s my birthday!!!”  Tomorrow will be quite a disappointment for her.  

This was her first birthday–she had hand, foot and mouth and something else.  Poor thing.  I guess the obscene amount of gifts made it bearable.  She was walking at 10 months and running by her first birthday.  I would walk around the house holding her hands for months because she never crawled, but wanted to walk and couldn’t yet.  It was tiring!  I can remember clear as yesterday setting her down in the living room with some toys one morning, walking into the kitchen to fix her bottle, then hearing something while I was standing at the sink.  I turned around and there she was in a white onsie with a HUGE grin on her face because she had walked all the way to the kitchen by herself.  That is a great memory.

Here she is on her 5th birthday!  Big difference.  

This is Ruby when she was about 4 months old.  Chubby. Cheeks.

This is her 3rd birthday.  She got her fish, Charlie–the one our cleaning lady (I miss her!!!) killed accidentally.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures.  Molly is screaming her head off (obviously), and Ruby is just looking at her.  So funny.

All of these pictures were taken this evening.  We baked cupcakes and sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  The day started with doughnuts and balloons….sugar, sugar, and more sugar.  My goodness.  I made her run laps around the dining room and living room a little while ago.  She loved it.  I hope it helps with all the extra energy!  But a quick story about this morning…Ruby woke up and was excited to see her “surprise.”  I told her to come with me to see it, but she said that she wanted to wake up Molly so that she could come and see the surprise with her.  It was soooo sweet.  I am so glad that they have each other.

I will post some more tomorrow about our fun time at MONKEY JOES and MCDONALDS with Katherine, Ben and Mrs. Mary.  I have tons of pictures to share.  I also want to include Mack eating his cupcake.  He is so stinkin’ cute!  Ruby had a wonderful day…stay tuned for the details!  I am pooped and can hardly hold my eyes open.  It’s only 7:30 pm.  I am old.

(Molly just walked up and said, “Who is that with the cheeks?”  talking about the 4 month old picture of Ruby.  hahahaha!!)

 

We had a wonderful Sunday!  Josh taught a great lesson from John 15, then we served in the nursery…only had 14 two year olds instead of 18 like last month.  THEN, our friends, the Barsh family, invited us over with the Koester’s for lunch and just hanging out.  It was so much fun!!!  The kids are really growing up.  They just ran off and played and played. (They played so hard that on the way home everyone fell asleep.  Molly put up a fight though and was rambling horribly…”I want to stay at Gigi’s house forever and ever.  I really do.  I want to go home and have my white slobber pillow.  And I, I want, um, I want Ruby to sleep in my bed with me…and I want to stay at Gigi’s house forever…..I want to slobber….”)  The three of us ladies had great conversation with minimum interruptions.  It was really nice.  A great reminder that it is so important to open up our home to our friends.  

Yesterday, I went to a Baby Shower and then spent some time with Ruby at Wal-Mart.  She picked out a tea set and a book with the money that GG sent her in the mail for her birthday!  It was quite a decision, I must say.  She went back and forth between a Tinkerbelle doll, a play phone, an Etch-A-Sketch….and more!  Josh called and urged me to quickly help her make a decision because we had a picnic that afternoon with our Sunday School class.  The picnic was a lot of fun.  In between the little rain showers, the sun would peak out so that the kids could play and play and play….and play some more.  

Here are the kids with the new tea set.  They loved playing together.  We will be giving GG a call after Josh wakes up from his nap to thank her for the money!

Today, however, Ruby got mad at Mack while playing tea party.  She said, “No boys are allowed.  He is gonna mess everything up!”  And sure enough, he was knocking over cups, grabbing things and just overall not being very graceful.  He needs a brother, but I can’t help him with that.

Here are some pictures from our Sunday morning.  We had time to spare, so I wanted at least one picture of all the kids since they were all in red, white and blue.  I was, too!  Josh didn’t get my red shoes in the picture though…I don’t know what he was thinking.  But I must say that I rarely match all three of my kids.  It is just too much pressure.  I sometimes make sure no one matches so that it doesn’t look like I wanted to pull it off but just couldn’t.  We all just do our own thing, usually.  And even Ruby managed to put on her pink shoes instead of her cute red ones that I wanted her to wear.  And Josh, when asked if he was going to wear red, white and blue, asked me “Why?”  I said, “Because we are all wearing red, white and blue.”  He said, “That’s exactly the reason not to then.”  Love him.  Such a rebel.

Wish you could see my red shoes.  Ha!

 

I am just posting two older pictures because I don’t want my floors to be what comes up all weekend on my blog.  We are gearing up for a very, very low-key Memorial Day weekend.  Things have been busy and will be busy again, so we need some down time as a family.  We enjoyed the Outlet Malls last night.  Everybody got a little something, and I found bathroom rugs for the girl’s new bathroom and a pillow for our guest room.  Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Cute Ruby-Doo in one of her many dress-up outfits.

Here’s to lots of sitting and relaxing this weekend!

Smooshed pancakes, drops of syrup…..

A lone goldfish and some crumbs or two or ten….

And this sticky-faced and sicky-handed fellow…

Is it any wonder I find a tribe of ANTS each day in my kitchen?  They can find a feast on my floors any day of the week.  I worked hard on the kitchen this morning….very hard.  And now it is clean.  Just for now anyway.

I even wiped down my refrigerator and got off this purple stuff.  I should have taken “after” pictures to prove myself, but I was too tired.

THE DISASTER AREA PLAYROOM:  before

THE PLAYROOM: after

Ruby was very helpful in the playroom endeavor.  Molly, not so much.  She likes to say, “but my arms are so very tired!!!!!!!!!!!”  If I push her to help she begins flailing her arms around and her body is like she has no bones in it as she lays all around on the floor.  Sometimes it is just easier to leave her out of the whole process.  I know, I know, she has to learn…and she will…eventually.  For now, my sanity is of utmost importance.