last week was not great.. just not good – in fact i really thought i was going to lose my mind.  with the bad “weather” ..  we had only TWO days of school last week… i had sooo much work to do and just could not get it done – i try to just work on MWF during the school day so we have a balanced family life.. well, i am really quite busy and only having three work days in the past month - i was near insanity!!!  especially when MOST of the days the schools have been closed, a delay would have been more than appropriate.. and then random fever and sickness.. gosh.. finally I stayed up until 2am one night and got caught up and could relax about the kids being home and losing work days..

so, for most of the week ALL the kids were home – ALL DAY.. i tried to come up with non-tv/movie things to do.. we did potato stamp painting, made color wheels, played lots of dolls and legos, squeezed lots of oranges for fresh juice, lots of cooking – made potstickers one day – OMG sooo great.. recipe here… kids loved and helped with assembly..

here’s abby stamping away.. with the triangle.. which obviously Cooper is waiting patiently to steal..

my in-laws sent this AWESOME juicer.. here abby is juicing oranges while emily waits for her turn “emmies turrrrrn”..  we ran through the oranges by Wednesday, so we moved on to lemons for some yummy lemonade.. well the kids were like “um.. it’s not my favorite”.. i kept putting more sugar in.. and it really was pretty tart… finally i wrote my father-in-law and said “apparently I need a recipe for lemonade”.. his response.. “add water”.. OMG, freakin’ dork!!!   we had enough lemon starter for TWO pitchers of lemonade.. it was really good too!!!

then.. in search of some new recipes – i saw a potstickers recipe on rachel ray..  if you know me, you know letting go of control has always been an issue.. allowing the kids to help with this type of activity is hard for me because i want to have it done perfectly.. I’ve found, if i have my camera – it helps me deal with the situation like a normal non-control freak person!  here is abby getting ready to close her first wonton wrapper.. (note the pink tent in the background – see we tried everything to get through the week!!)

the finished product.. emily ate THREE.. the kids loved them.. and never would have eaten if they hadn’t been part of making them

now.. on to the nice weekend…

then on Saturday we took a spontaneous trip to South Carolina to hang out with my family.. what a gorgeous day.. 63 degrees.. we went to a park and just let all our kids run and play.. the sun felt soooo great.. the kids were just smiling from ear to ear..

the kite is nice and all, but there was no wind – so the kids just ran and pulled the kite along for a bit..

I LOVE THIS PICTURE..

here is hoping for more of the awesome weekend weather.. soooooon!