Henderson Castle Date Night

One thing I have to say after you have kids is that it's important to make time for you and your spouse to date.  Even if its an hour or two at a coffee shop it's so important that you have that time together.  Yeah, when the kids are small the dates are few and far between, but make sure that they still happen.  This was our big fancy date night.  We've been saving up favors for this one!  :)  My awesome friend Tricia watched the kids (who were already in bed) while we went out and had ourselves a fancy date.  The roads weren't fabulous, but we forged on anyway and had a great time.  This is usually outside our price range but a little splurging and help from Groupon helped make this night fun!  We got their 11 course french tasting menu and I was stuffed at the end. I was a little worried that we were going to go home hungry because often times at fancy places they give you such small portions that 11 courses really only equalled the size of an appetizer... but that definitely was not the case here.  I even tried snail and frog leg!  Both delicious.  :)  It was nice just having time to talk, in quiet, and eat our meals together while they were hot the first time.  It was honestly a bit of a big sigh when we got there because we had been going going going for so long the fact that we actually got on this date night was a miracle.  It felt nice to get all dressed up and kind of feel like I wasn't a mother of three small children for a few hours.  Don't get me wrong I love being a Momma, but it isn't the only thing I identify with.  Despite the bad weather the night was great and the food was amazing.  Unfortunately my stomach did revolt a bit at the very end of our meal, but we did get to finish everything and made it home safely... when we got home Tricia had cleaned our entire place and left us presents!  Best. Sitter. Ever.  The kids also stayed down so she had quite the quiet evening (double score!)  Until next time Love...

At the beginning of the night

First three courses... salad, bread and amuse bouche

Fourth course: lobster bisque (my favorite course)

(5th) His appetizer: frog legs

My appetizer: escargot 

(6th) My main: beef tenderloin

His main: Roasted Rabbit

Seven was a palet cleansing sorbet and this was the eighth: baked brie

Nineth: Flourless chocolate cake with Godiva dipped strawberry

10th was coffee/tea and 11th was a petit four (cheesecake)

Before all the food started to come

My champion

At the end... happily stuffed 

Home! 

Our presents from the sitter.  We got chocolates :)

Dude got this cool soccerball reading light that charges by sitting on this 'grass' and dino book.  Goose got a hoodie sweater and this dino book

Snores with her hat

JVG

Comprehensive

Part of being able to continue as a doctoral student is passing a comprehensive.  From what I understand it is a couple hour oral exam from a board of experts on the subject in which you are hoping to write your thesis on.  There is a paper that needs to be written as long as a presentation on what your project is so far.  From that they ask you things pertaining to your research and what you know about physics.  Sounds terrible to me.  Gaetan had his the Monday after the crazy week helping my sister, so I think the word 'fried' doesn't even touch how he was feeling.  He did great though.  The presentation looked awesome and his paper was much longer than it needed to be.  They told him that he didn't pass, but it was because they thought that he didn't have enough research to back all the theory he had.  No worries though, he will get another chance in a few months... and I'm sure that the circumstances and situations before his comprehensive will be much less stressful.  They really liked his project and what his thesis will be on and really the only thing they said was holding him back was not enough results... which, in time, will come.  :)  We are extremely proud of Papa and all his hard work.  You are kicking butt and taking names and are truly amazing.

The man, all dressed like a boss getting ready for his presentation

Have to keep with making treats for special occasions!

JVG

Boys day out, Girls day in

As I mentioned before during one of the snow days Gaetan took the boys out for lunch and to see the second Hobbit.  That meant that Dude, Goose, Norah and Joni stayed home with me.  Which was no big deal.  I'm used to our kids and Joni is 7 so she wasn't difficult at all.  While the boys were out we had some fun snacks and while Norah napped we did our nails.  Even Dude wanted his toe nails painted!  We then did our hair (nothing fancy, but just french braids for Joni and a hairshtyle for Goose) and watched Carebears (Joni's pick) and Busytown Mysteries (the crazies pick).  It was honestly really relaxing in the midst of all the crazy that is having 7 kids running around!





JVG

Helping my sister out

Let me begin with, I love my sister.  She has been going through a bit of a rough patch over the past few years, which ultimately caused her to move back up to Michigan to my parents with her four children.  Not easy.  She had to get a job which involves her not being home when the kids get home from school, so my parents watch them during that time.  My parents wanted to visit my brother, Jon, and his wife Megan and their new little son, Daniel in Kansas for a week.  Which caused a dilemma of what Holly's kids were going to do while they were gone.  She asked if we could help watch them and that wasn't a big deal at all.  We were more than happy to help out.  However, the week didn't go nearly as we had envisioned.

Dude riding on the same fire truck that my brother LOVED as a kid

Norah ripped Gaetan's pants in a major way

The plan was that we were going to stay at Mom and Dad's for the week (since they were going to be gone and we weren't driving back and forth each day) and they were going to leave on Tuesday, which meant that we didn't have to be there until Tuesday afternoon before Justus (her oldest) got home.  However, as stated in a previous post we got snowed in there Sunday to Monday in which they had a snow day, and it was looking like they were going to have one on Tuesday as well.  So Monday Dad and I tried to pick the best time of day go back to Kalamazoo and grab all the stuff that we were going to need for the week.  And boy, am I glad that he drove because it was SO WINDY you couldn't see the person in front of you.  So, we stayed there again Monday night because I knew that we were going to be watching her kids all day Tuesday, instead of just after school.  

I was right.  Holly headed off to work in the morning and Mom and Dad took off sometime late morning.  That meant that Gaetan and I were now responsible for watching SEVEN kids.... We needed to go grocery shopping because Mom and Dad didn't stock up before they left and Gaetan needed to work on his comprehensive paper so I was going to take all of them to the store with me, until I realized that our mini-van wasn't big enough for all the people... which is insane.  So, I learned something right then and there... I had an upper limit on how many kids I could handle.  I always joke that I would adopt the world, but if you have to take more than one vehicle to the grocery store because your crew doesn't fit in one?  That's to many.  The boys ended up staying home and playing the Wii while Gaetan worked and I took the girls to the store.  That part wasn't so bad because I'm used to having 3.  However, the bad weather had seemed to make people out and about stupid and even worse in the store.  Needless to say by the time I got home and unloaded the groceries I was pretty fried.  Gaetan volunteered to take the older boys out to a movie (less to watch) and also because they had been asking him for about a month now to go see the second Hobbit movie.  So, pretty much as soon as I had a semi grasp on the situation they left to catch their movie and grab some lunch.  ::whew::

The rest of the week wasn't so bad because they had school so it just our kids in the morning time... and after having all the kids having just ours seemed like a dream.  While we were there I cooked and cleaned up after everybody, which is no small thing!  They would leave early in the morning for school but leave everything they had out for breakfast, which sure, I suppose i could leave it out all day and have her clean it up when she got home, but then it would be out all day and in my way.  I would make them snack after school and then dinner and then clean up after all that.  I seriously think that i would run the dishwasher about three times a day!  Needless to say I was exhausted after that week.  And poor Gaetan had to get work done for his comprehensive amongst all this crazy.  

Sweet girly

Having a funny photo shoot in the morning

I think this sums these two up in one shot

Yup, she's not wearing pants... typical

It seemed so quiet in the morning with just our kids.  And yes, she is wearing an oven mitt on her foot

Weeks like this make me even more thankful for the family and situation that I am in.  I'm really glad that we could help my sister out and even though her situation sucks and that's why she's back, I'm glad that she stood up for herself and did what was best for her children.  That week opened my eyes to a lot of things and also helped solidify some truths I already knew.  It was also really good to come home and be in our own space.

JVG

Kids dresser

When we were getting ready to have Dude we bought this wonderful changing table that attached to a dresser... and when you where done with the changing table you had this nice dresser.  We have been using it ever since (and are still using it for Norah) but the bottom drawer had taken a beating.  You can imagine having small ones thinking that climbing INTO the drawer is a whole lot of fun (which it is) but it causes them to break.  Anyhoo, after just trying to fix it over and over again we decided that the crazies needed their own dresser in their room, so that's what we did.  We got one and they helped assemble it, which they thought was AWESOME.  Its pretty adorbs (yup, I'm trying out a shorthand version of adorable) seeing a 2 year old yield a hammer and screw driver... and her 4 year old brother showing her where she needs to hammer and encouraging her while she does it.  All in all... great success and they love that they share this dresser together in their room.  :)

She got excited and was trying out their bunk bed first

Lucy being a helper and making sure he had all the tools he needed

Go girly go!

Finishing touches on the drawers

Pretty proud of themselves

Looks good in their room!

JVG

Norah's 9 mo check up

I can't believe that our sweet little babe is already 9 months (well, by now she's 10...) She is so smiley and sweet all the time (unless she is tired or hungry, but you can't really blame her for that) and is smart.  You can tell that she is always thinking and is determined to get what she wants!  She stands by herself and has quite the sense of humor.  She loves playing with big brother and sister (who love her) but gets frustrated more easily than the other two did.  I think she sees them and wants to do what they're doing and she lets us know!  She weighed in at 23 lbs 4 oz, she's 2'4 and her dome was 17.7 in.  I think that she is still our biggest out of the three but is slimming down with all the moving around that she's doing.  I think that she will be walking at 11 months, just like the crazies, because she walks around the table already while holding on.  She is wonderful at eating baby food and table food, which she prefers when everybody is eating together.  She is strong strong strong and stubborn.  I see both aspects of the crazies in her, but at the same time she is totally her own being.  Love you see Norasaurus.

She was walking around the table

Sweet stinker face

We call this her stinker face.

She loves to play with this balloon and chase it around

Being sweet and giving Papa the snugs.  Yes, those are her feet by her hand... yes, she is bent in half

I will never get tired of looking at that toothy grin

Stinker face because she was playing with the blinds

Oh, you know, just climbing on chairs and such

Big girl standing up!

Admiring Goose's jewelry

JVG

Stupid effing COLD!!!

I know that a lot of people aren't thrilled with the weather as of late... yes, I understand that it is ridiculously cold out and that the snow is inconvenient for all you jerks out there that can't figure out that going slower would help immensely... but, today, I had it.  As you know I had been away for the weekend and Gaetan was busy with the kids and not home a lot either... so there wasn't a lot of laundry or dishwashing being done.  So... a few days ago when I wanted to wash some clothes our washing machine wouldn't work.  It happened before I left and there was some build up on part of the pipes, which got cleaned and we were good to go.  But, because of the way our place is set up (being on the end and the way that our unit is facing) our washing machine pipes are directly in the wind and they were frozen solid.  Annoying.  What's even more annoying was the complex's solution... just put a space heater in there for a couple of days and hopefully it will thaw out the pipes... really?  And they wanted us to keep the door open to our place... which would be basically pouring our our heat through that uninsulated wall.  The reason why we keep our door shut is because it's really cold in that room and the machines are loud!  I'm not sure about you, but having 3 small children, one in CLOTH DIAPERS, makes for a lot of laundry and fast.  And their solution didn't really seem like it was going to be fixing the solution anytime soon.  Irritated.  On top of that yesterday our pipes to our sink froze so while I was trying to do dishes from dinner everything backed up.  The maintenance guy came out and tried to unclog it but said that he was going to have to have somebody come out the next morning and fix it.  turns out there wasn't really a clog of food but of ice.  Gaetan and I just poured boiling water down the drain a few times and wouldn't you know, the problem was fixed.  So, at least we fixed the sink but the washer was still an issue...

Today, to say the least, was the most frustrating day I've had in a long time.  Excluding outside people from our family, this was the worst.  I don't know what is going on with our kids but Tristan and Lucy couldn't get their crap together to save themselves.  They would constantly pick on each other and whine and cry over THE DUMBEST things.  Norah, was a sweet heart, of course, which did help.  But, I have never just wanted to get out of the house and not come back until they where either asleep or guaranteed better.  So, Gaetan so graciously let me go to capo class tonight which was exactly what I needed.  We were supposed to go up to my parents to help with their phones and so that I could go to symphonette.  I didn't go to KPhil on Monday because everything was shut down and it just wasn't safe to leave... but we didn't go to Caledonia today because the roads were so terrible still!  There was a semi that was turned 180 in the ditch on 131 right by our place, that another semi pretty much just ran into... we saw a garbage truck in the ditch and Spartan (my dad's work) posted that all truck drivers should stay off of 131 if they could help it... which is saying a lot for a trucking company to say that!

Anyhoo, back to the day.  So... while I'm at capo Gaetan said that the washer was working and he was going to do a load.  Turns out the pipe to the machine was thawed out but the drain wasn't so we flooded our place.  Awesome.  On top of that it flooded our neighbors living room (through the wall).  Double awesome.  So Kim comes over to tell us that she and Chase are leaving because their furnace has been acting strangely and it smelled like burning... so basically, she was warning us that her place might burn down in the middle of the night.  Triple awesome.  We did get the washing machine thing figured out so all our appliances work now but it was such a hassle and it seemed like it was just one thing on top of another thing.  I am so glad that this day is over.

JVG

Meanwhile in Michigan...

Even though I was having a wild adventure on the other side of the country I was thankful that Gaetan kept me updated on what the crazies were up to with pictures.  I would've lost my mind if I had left all the kids at home!  So after they had dropped me off at the airport they stopped and got some breakfast quickly at McD which, they weren't impressed with.  Which isn't a bad thing! They had to get back because Gaetan had to tutor, in which the crazies went with.  But apparently on the way back there was this terrible accident which caused them to shut down I-94 going both ways for 10 miles and it was shut down for a few hours.  A lot of semi's collided along with 40 other cars... it was the white out condition that happened to us on the way down.  Surprisingly minimal casualties but scary nonetheless.  The crazies apparently were great the entire time I was gone but he kept them really busy.  They did the tutoring thing, went to Barnes and Noble, then went out for sushi and then back to Barnes and Noble until they came home and went to bed.

Their breakfast... they enjoyed the sunrise though!

The next morning they had swim class and then went to a lego thing at the library.  Came home for a nap and then back to the library again.  I guess if they spent any amount of time at home they started asking for Norah and Momma, so he just had them on the go go go!  I was fortunate enough to be able to skype or facetime with them every night so that helped this Momma out... and Norah really appreciated it too.  When she would hear their voices she would light up and start laughing.

He looks like such a little man!

Their new reading nook 

They played hard

I guess he had gotten them up and then he just climbed back onto the couch and went back to sleep

They got new gloves and hats... Dude got Yoda and Lucy got Love and Peace

Saturday they went to Caledonia because Gaetan was helping a friend out with their math.  The crazies went to the coffee shop there and got to have steamers, which they thought were really fancy!  They went to my parents for pizza and beer since Holly and her kids were going out for the night to watch a play.  It was a nice quiet evening with my parents, just like the way it used to be.  They stayed there for the night and then left in the morning to come get me!  They cleaned up the house because they said that Momma would like to come home to a clean place.  Sweet kiddos.  And it was nice to come home
and be with them period.

Hanging out with the cousins

Big girl with her Jones Soda

JVG