What we have been doing. Sort of.

 We have been pretty busy.  For us.  Which means last week we had 2 activities a day and Mitzi came to visit.  And we had dentist appointments.  I'm telling you.  It has been C.R.A.Z.Y!  But, all of that for another post.  This is just catch up from the pictures prior to last week's adventures.  Which I really don't have many pictures of.  But, Mitzi does, so I have that going for me.  Which is nice.

 I decided quite impromptuishly during the first week of June that we were officially on summer vacation.  Yeah! Which means I have a list of activities my children will ideally complete each day prior to tv watching or video game playing.  Though, they are free to play all day outside if they so choose.  Because: Summer.  Turns out, it is pretty hot here, so even if they want to play outside, it is really hard to get through even an hour without becoming drenched in sweat.  But, the days do go by pretty quickly.  They read a lot, play a lot, fight more than usual, watch more tv than usual, but overall, we have a pretty good time together.

 One of our family activities is dancing in the kitchen.  One evening, John channeled his inner Gene Kelly.  Particularly fitting as one of his middle names is Eugene.

 We purchased a cabinet in order to keep our outdoor activities more organized.  Actually, just so that we could close the door on the mess and appear more organized.  Molly and John immediately took up residence and were pretty disappointed to discover towels and kinetic sand in their former beds. But, to give them a sense of normalcy, there is not organization whatsoever.  Just like their actual room.  Which also has a door that I can shut often.

 At the end of May, the kids and Eric took part in the Gate to Gate run activities at Eglin.  Molly ran a half mile, and the boys each ran a mile.  This was the week after their illnesses, so we did not expect super fast times.  But, I'm always impressed with their endurance.  And Dom actually came in pretty early in his group.  Definitely faster than I would have completed the same distance.  Oh, and Eric won the inaugural 10K event.  Also in a faster time than I would have completed the same distance. (Note: There is a lovely picture of all the Buschelman runners and John...but, it must be on Eric's phone and I do not have it currently at my fingertips).  This is Eric's second win in an event.  Coincidentally, the first was an inaugural 5K for our church back in Ohio.  He likes to be the first of the firsts. 

 When Molly's Godfather, Jeff, visited at the beginning of April he brought several gifts for the kids and for John's Birthday.  One of which was this Bobby Hat.  One morning, John rediscovered it and was just walking around the house in it.  I didn't get a picture of that, but I did get Molly during her turn.  It got a lot of wear that day.  I don't remember if it was Dom or Will wearing it while reading the Narnia series.  Maybe both.

 On Memorial Day we headed down to Orlando again to visit Universal.  This time around, we were going to try out all of the other rides we'd skipped on our previous trip/pilgrimage to Hogwarts.  My great scheme was that we would go the day after everyone elses day off.  No crowds, right?  Turns out I was wrong.  Something we realized immediately as we saw the first wait time of 55 minutes.  We were told that a lot of people from Europe were now visiting.  Something Eric confirmed as many people complimented or sneered at his Tottenham jersey.  Though the compliments on his new cap were appropriately Universal.

 But, you know where there was no lines?  The ball factory in the kids area.  We spent a really fun hour there as the kids ran around and shot balls across the room.  I wish I could have seen John as he entered his little version of heaven.  But, I was having a mommy timeout brought on from having to wait in a line for longer than 20 minutes.  I am the worst. 

 My sons waiting for the Hogwarts Express.  Eric's favorite ride I might add.  He enjoyed speaking to some British visitors who commented that Kings Cross Station in Orlando is much cleaner than London's version.  We helped make it more authentic by spilling a coke on the floor.  You're Welcome.

 By the afternoon, we were all smiles.  We were on our way to Islands of Adventure which is the park I prefer.  It has Hogsmeade and Seuss Landing.  And Jurassic Park.  And a fun raft ride that Will and Molly and I got soaked on.  After which, Will gave me the ultimate compliment: "Mom, when we come back, I'm just going to do what you want to do because you pick the best rides"

It started to pour rain about 7, which shut down all the outdoor rides.  We lucked out and a gentleman gave us his speedy pass so we could bypass the 55 minute line for one last ride: Despicable Me's Minion Mayhem. It's a movie that gives you the sense of movement and your chairs do move a bit (many rides are this way at Universal). I got terribly motion sick which lasted the rest of the evening.  On the other hand, all of my children loved it (I had my eyes shut for most of it, but would hear their gales of laughter and want to know what I'd missed...which just made me more sick).  They rode it twice in a row thanks to the child swap program.  Molly and Will utilized this option always and got in 17 rides during the day.  Dom is much more leery about the rides.  I'm pretty sure he wants to make sure no one dies the first go round before he gives it a shot.

 Side story: He was pretty mad at Eric for making him go on the Jurassic Park ride that had a nasty drop at the end.  But, the rest of it was so neat and calm, I really wanted him to experience it.  I mean, you get to go through the gates of Jurassic Park as the music swells.  I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but that was pretty incredible.  I rode it initially with Molly and Will and it was fun to hear Molly's commentary throughout about the dinosaurs.  At one point as we entered the restricted area where raptors escaped she observed that she didn't think we were suppose to be in there, and despite my assurances that the dinosaurs were not real, she was pretty sure at least one or two might be.

At any rate, I convinced Dom to try Despicable Me the first time and it was fun to see how excited he was and proud that he conquered a little of his fear.   We'll see how our final trip this Fall goes.  I just hope there are no lines.  Life, much like my patience, is too short to be waiting in a line for more than 20 minutes.

They are getting smarter

In general, I'm able to see a few steps ahead of the boys.  Molly has been a mystery for a while.  But, I have generally always been able to outwit my sons.  Until this morning.

Mitzi is coming to visit.  Which means I get the delusion that we can make the house presentable for a guest.  Which means I makes lists of chores to do.  Which means my children run and hide.

Once I smoked them out, I asked them to do a few minor things.  Dom, my firstborn, the son I loved so much that I welcomed three more children knowing all would be wonderful, looked me in the eyes and told me: "No".  Now, because I had already had coffee with a little irish cream, my initial reaction was not to tear his head off.  Instead, I looked at him and said: "Do it" in that way that he knew that my second reaction would quite likely be to tear his head off.  He headed off to his task, but I couldn't just leave well enough alone.  Instead, I doubled down and said, "You know what?  Every time you tell me "no", I'm going to just say "no" to the next thing you ask for". I know, I'm a genius.  This little plan was fool proof.  Or so I thought.  Dom gets a little smile on his face and asks if he can play the Wii.  Something I would never let them do in the morning under normal circumstances.  I believe he saw the fear in my eyes because then he doubled down and asked if he could have candy.  Will is in on it at this point.  Asking for the moon and explaining that I had said I would say 'No' to their next requests...but, now they are in the clear. 

I amend my original threat to saying no to requests that I would normally say 'yes' to.  Ha Ha! I have won!...wrong.  Dom immediately asks to work on the Kahn Academy website.  Will is asking to unload the dishwasher...(which had already been done)

Time to up my Irish Cream in the coffee....

When it gets hard having 4 kids...

I will get the question from time to time: How do you do it? Is it hard having 4 kids? I use to smile and say it was great and list off all the ways my life is more simple with 4 than 1 or 2.  Then I had someone get sick, so then my new answer became it is easy until someone gets sick.  It gets hard not only because I am caring for the ill child while maintaining some semblance of normalcy for the well children (though I have sort of just given in to letting everyone watch tv all day), but because I am worried more than usual if I am doing the right thing.

A couple of years ago when I was pregnant and Eric was deployed, Molly got a nasty stomach bug (though, come to think of it...are there any 'nice' stomach bugs?).  I learned a lot of valuable lessons on how to deal with that.  Most people know the "BART" diet (bananas, apples, rice, and toast).  I also learned that the real danger is dehydration.  However, what I did not know is that even more than a sip of water can lead to your child throwing up because their stomach lining is so inflamed.  I learned that the hard way as Molly would gulp a cup of water because she was so thirsty, and then immediately lose it on the kitchen floor.  Even just a drink would do this.  We had to wait 15 minutes between sips to see if she would keep it down.  15 minutes.  That is a quarter of an hour.  For a 3-year-old...who is thirsty.

So, luckily, a few weeks ago as some stomach virus rampaged through my kids' bodies, I knew a bit how to combat it.  Also, luckily, I had saltines and gatorade in my house so I did not need to run to the store.  Probably their Jedi tricks helped a bit, too: "You do not need to throw up all over the couch"

The series of events went like this:
Day 1: Molly gets sick
Day 2:  John gets sick (on me)
Day 3:  Day of rest when I mistakenly think it has passed
Day 4:  Molly gets sick again and I start washing sheets and wiping door knobs
Day 5:  Dom gets sick
Day 6:  John gets sick again
Day 7:  Will gets sick
Day 8:  Eric leaves for TDY and Molly is sick again (and again and again and again) and Will is really sick and I re-wash all sheets and clothes and scrub their bathrom
Day 9 Will is crying because his head hurts, his stomach hurts, but he is hungry. That was the scariest point for me.  Will is my stoic son and rarely shows much emotion.  So when he does, I know it is serious and not just to be shrugged off.  Luckily, a couple hours, sips of water, and saltines later, he was feeling much better.  He even ate a bowl of rice, which happens to be his favorite meal.

By Day 10, everyone was keeping everything down.  They were still not 100% for a few more days, but it was way better than it had been.

That was hard.

William's First Communion

 I have some intention to organize photos and give a succinct blog post for various family events.  And then, at a certain point (generally while avoiding the situation in the kitchen) I just give up and look through all the pictures I can find, pick the ones I like, and figure I'll tell the back story as I go along. Originally, I had a lot of pictures for this post (I still do), but I realized that I could actually make this just about Will's First Communion weekend and keep the rest for a future post.  Which will come at some point before the post that will come immediately after that one.

 A few weeks ago we celebrated Will's First Communion.  In Florida fashion and due to the fact that we do not have a whole lot of room, we rented a beach house in Destin to host the family that was able to make the trip.  This has worked out so well, that we will most likely do it again next year despite the fact we have no 1st Communions coming up.  Just let us know if you want in!

 One might think that when one is not hosting in one's own home, one does not have a whole lot of prep.  One would be incorrect in this assumption.  Not only does one feel a need to get one's home in some sort of presentable order for the small amount of time everyone will be there, one has to pack for themselves, their children, and in an attempt to avoid the tourist prices of Destin, one's entire kitchen.  At least it felt like I packed the entire kitchen.  Turned out, I didn't, since I still needed to go to the store a couple of times.  I did delegate packing to my children a bit.  This has always had mixed results.  Dom once did not pack pajamas, and this time, Will did not pack shorts.  But, as we were on the beach and swimming trunks resemble shorts adequately...this did not really pose a problem.  Now, packing for a trip is tricky enough without the resident 2-year-old following along and unpacking everything (perhaps this is what happened to Will's shorts?), so, I put Will in charge of his entertainment.  Worked pretty well, except I wasted valuable time watching them interact and taking pictures here and there.  At any rate, we made it to the beach house eventually, and had a marvelous time.

 Living hundreds of miles away from grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins means that it is a very rare occurrence to have family at sports events.  Dom and Will were so excited that they had a baseball game on the weekend everyone was in town and practiced extra hours on their hitting to up their chances of making it to base when they had a solid fan base.  Their hard work paid off and each had success at bat.  Unfortunately, Will's double turned into an out due to miscommunication and the fact he had not had a hit in 6 games.  But, it was a beautiful hit.  Fortunately, Dom scored the winning run in our first victory of the season (that came during our last game).  As we comforted Will for his out and miss-called final strike (he'd actually tipped the ball, but the ump didn't hear it), Dom regaled everyone over and over and over and over again on his great at-bats.  It is a tricky thing to navigate comforting one and celebrating the other.  But, the situation provided a wonderful life lesson.  And, for Dom, a wonderful childhood memory. 

Anecdote: As we were driving back and talking about the game, Dom wanted to know if his hit and winning run helped Will feel better.  Will replied: Actually, having Peter in the dugout made me feel better.  We are very glad that Peter made the trip to be here for Will's First Communion.  They have a special friendship that I hope continues over the years.

 We spent the rest of the day relaxing and going to the pool gearing up for the next day.  Will had been placed as the first to receive Holy Communion.  He was very nervous and we practiced with him, he was ready, but he could not muster much of a smile before Mass. 

 Or during Mass:

 Once Mass was over (and he did a perfect job in receiving Communion), and he could hang out with his boys, Will relaxed a great deal.

 He started to crack a bit of a smile with his Godparents, Megan and Stephen, who made the trip with Cousin Zachary. He loves talking to Uncle Stephen about all things Mario.  Think Dom with sports, that is Will with Mario.

 And then Molly got into the mix and he basically was laughing the rest of the day. 

 Eric leads the boys into the parking lot.  Trouble...oh, no wait, Molly isn't with them.

 We stopped at Publix to pick up the celebratory cake and a few other items that I left in my kitchen.  I just wanted a picture of these two next to small palm trees.  They are giants! 

 Molly already changed before we got back and John was asleep...so no family picture on the big day, but I got one with the older three...Molly kind of forced her way in.

 I do love his smile. 

 After a late lunch, we packed up and headed to the beach.  Where I got my one picture of Zachary.  Poor guy was sick for a good portion of the trip.  But, I think he enjoyed the beach.

 John eventually woke up and quickly became absorbed in the golf game that Grandpa was watching.  I mean, there was a ball involved...so...And I took the opportunity to get a profile pic, that I have every intention to use to get a silhouette picture.  And I will, because I always follow through on these things.  I even know exactly where I will put it.  Actually, I want to get silhouettes of all the kids at this point in their lives.  Just wanted to share that.  Now keep me accountable.

 I love pictures of people looking out to sea. This is particularly great for kids since you don't need to get them all looking at the same place and forcing smiles.

 I might even get around to printing this.  I actually have a frame for it.  I just need to find some other pictures and print them, too.  Maybe when Mitzi comes to town I will do this.  Or not.  It's okay.

 We finally broke out the cake after polishing off some leftovers.  I know it looks tiny. That's because it is tiny.  But, we were all so stuffed, that I think everyone got as much as they wanted.  Maybe not Peter, he was pretty concerned about the size of the cake.  But, he got over it, because he is an awesome kid.  We finished out the evening with cards and a walk on the beach.

It was a really wonderful weekend and we are so glad that so many people came for Will's First Communion.  Even if a small virus was left behind as a souvenir.  But, that is for another post.