This Week on Instagram

This is from last Friday. Friday is cleaning day at the Krooked Kastle. The kids love it. For reals. Especially the girls. 

Last Friday we had some friends over for Indian food. We are learning about India in school and so we had a little cultural learning night. 

The girl's with their Sassy. Photo bombed.

My Dahling friend, Laura came to share a few of her trinkets from India.

My dad, Grandfather Sir, enjoying the festivities. 

Snuggles, good books, chubby cheeks and toes. That's what good mornings are made of.

Every week it's interesting to see what treasures will come through the wash. Never had a walnut shell before.

This week in the adventures of Jackson...

And moments later he was in the fridge.

Brothers

During school one day Abiah asks, "Mom, is a donkey called an ass?" Never a dull moment.

Spring has sprung in Oregon bringing snow, hail, rain, wind, and bright sun shine all in one hours time. Snack time and art class are the perfect way to enjoy this kind of weather.

This Friday's cleaning day photo op. Never to young to start.

This weekend we have three extras. These two are not usually very good playmates. This lasted a few minutes. We're making slow improvement.

My favorite picture from this week. I started baby sitting this guy when he was around Jackson's age. It was a sweet moment.

Linking up with Life Rearranged!

InstaFriday

I missed a week or two of pictures so this week is a little long. I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum. Also, some of these pictures didn't make it to Instagram so you get a mixture.

My nephew spent the weekend with us and this is what he and Abiah did for two straight days. So much wrestling. 

My talented nephew.

How Miss Hazel does the dishes.

These two. Let me tell ya. They can be the sweetest together and then turn around and beat the crap out of each other. This was a good moment. So I needed to capture it. For my sanity.

Hazel came up with this hair style "all by herself". :)

Tomato soup. Yum!

How do you capture a Jackson?

This picture melts my heart. 

This is taken moments after the one above. Notice the socks and shoes are missing. Rascal. He sure is cute though.

When you rush through a recipe for rolls and think it says divide into two instead of noticing it actually says three you get rolls the size of your palm. And a happy HH.

The never ending trail of hair bands. Grrrr.

They have no idea who Punky Brewster is and yet they match her quite well.

Movie/coloring time. We strap Jackson into his booster seat so he doesn't get into things while he's watching a movie since the tv is on the side of the house that is gated off from him.

School time! We are waiting until the second week of April for Spring Break and we are soooo ready.

Seriously. This child. All. day. long. This time he mutilated the butter and a package of mentos. All within a few minutes time. 

The afore mentioned mentos.

Crawling across the table to beg for a "nat." Pay no heed to the calendar in the background that hasn't been updated since last December. Homeschool fail.

This cutie and I went in for her eye check-up. She's doing really good. We still patch everyday for a few hours but her eyes are getting stronger.

The little man taking a walk at Noni and Poppi's. He had a blast playing in their gated yard. Especially since he got to be with his Poppa. He's pretty fond of his Poppa.

Ah. The Home Depot and the long waits that one is forced to endure when accompanying a loved one who has a project to do. We found ways to entertain ourselves. This girl cracks me up. She has always, since birth, been my most serious child. Getting her to laugh as a baby was so hard. But every once in a while she gets all goofy. I love it. She's the best.

This one has been a huge fan of the word "cozy" lately. When she wants to lay on us it's because we are cozy. If she doesn't want to get up to do her chores it's because she want's to be cozy. This morning she was in bed with me and she wanted me to get her a drink. I grabbed her and snuggled into her neck and told her I didn't want to because she was so cozy. She didn't like that. Apparently cozy only works when she uses it.

This is the house I lived in for 11 years of my life. When we owned it it was painted a lovely slate blueish gray and had a white picket fence. I drove by with my kids the other day and was so sad when I saw they've painted it pistachio. Ugh. Sad day.

In the evenings I've been working out on my new death trap. This Big Guy is my exercise partner encouraging me the whole way through the 15 minutes of pure torture.
Side note: My neighbors slowed way down the other night as they drove by during my exercise. Talk about awkward. At least it was dark out so we didn't make eye contact. Also, we need to get curtains.

Yoga!

I leave you with this treasure. She did this to herself. I'm not sure how but it was certainly funny.

I'm linking up over at Life Rearranged.

InstaFriday

Welcome to week two of pictures from my week! I'm so glad it's Friday and yet it still feels like it is Wednesday. Which makes me excited when I realize it's actually Friday! 

This week started off on a, ummm, slimy and sleepless note. Then it quickly filled with time with friends, lots of school, and the arrival of next year's curriculum and my new toy with which I'm sure to die. This weekend I'm looking forward to seeing all three of my favorite sisters, time with HH, time with nieces and nephews, and the possibility of more projects being accomplished. Sounds like a great weekend to me!

My washing machine before HH fixed it and we cleaned it up. So many loads of laundry have been done this week and it takes way less time than before. I'm a Desperate Housewife turned Happy Housewife. That's the best kind.

What they tried to wear. Well, the Fluffy blonde one still made it out of the house in her miss-matched outfit with mis-matched socks pullled over her leggings and up past her knees. But the "The shorter the dress, the better" Curly haired one had to change. It's official. HH is now monitoring what they wear out of the house. It's starting so early, :)

Pizza night! Friday night is usually pizza night at our house and  we never get tired of it. 

Jackson likes a little pizza with his ranch!

I asked HH to stop and get some ice cream...P.S. If you have a Haggens store near you go right now and buy their rocky road. Seriously. It's the best. Creamy chocolate ice cream (with no soy), chunks of almonds and marshmallows, and a swirls of gooey caramel. The. Best. So you need to go. Now. Really.

Meal planning! The top list is the foods that I had /have in the freezer. The bottom list is the meals we've been eating this week. Under it all is my calendar so I know when to plan easy meals and what events I need to work around.

Every Sunday night I "shop" from my freezer for the week. I bring a bag of the meals I've chosen in from the deep freezer and stack them in my indoor freezer. The month is almost over which means I'm working on my shopping list for next month. This way of cooking is so nice and helpful. Our evenings have been so much more enjoyable because I'm not stuck in the kitchen most of the night.

Jackson wasn't feeling well last Sunday night. These next three photos were taken  between 2:30 and 3 a.m. He was more happy running around playing and he wasn't screaming so I was fine playing with him and enjoying his cuteness. He's so cute with his magna doodle. He concentrates really hard on what he's drawing and loves to show me his work. Even if it's just a tiny dot.

Working on his architectural skillz.

Finally taking a moment to rest. With laser eyes.

Finally getting  some sleep Monday mid-morning.  He's so sweet. Even though he pooped, puked, and peed on me just the day before.

Amelia is in "pretty" school this year and just this last month she's gotten the hang of  writing her letters. Now we are working on writing her name. She is so proud of herself.

I'm linking up with Life Rearranged.