Field Trips

If you follow me on social media then you know I went out of town last weekend. But I can't blog about that until I get all the pictures from my friends. (Hint hint, Kanien!) So until then, we'll have to make due with all the other stuff that's gone on this week, like laundry and cleaning and visiting teaching and helping a friend with a project, and a school read-a-thon carnival.

And two field trips.

Yep! One of the best things about having all kids in school now is that I'm free to go on any field trip I want. Woo-hoo!

On Tuesday I joined Tess's class on the annual Kindergarten field trip to Wea Creek Orchard and then up to the Battlefield Monument. Tess was so excited about me coming, which was really sweet. She's my favorite daughter. Here's the obligatory bus selfie.

The weather was AMAZING. A little cool, but sunny and fall-like. Just perfect. At the orchard we got to ride in a wagon pulled by a tractor and see all the apple orchards, corn fields, pumpkin fields, and soybean fields. The kids were quite excited by a few of the huge white pumpkins growing.

We learned about bees and how they help around the farm and how they dance to give directions. Then we got to taste several of the different kinds of apples grown on the farm. (But not the Honey Crisp apples - those are the money apples.) My favorite was the Mollie's Delicious - so yummy. Then the kids got to pick two of their very own apples, which was very, VERY exciting.

Here's my little group. These kiddos were so cute and funny!

Here's the whole class, with their cute teacher Miss Lenhardt. She's such a great Kindergarten teacher! (I can't believe she'll be my family's last!) Getting a bunch of five year olds to hold still for a picture is about as hard as you could imagine.

Then we went up to the Battlefield Monument, where we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather. And took another class picture.

We went on a nature scavenger hunt, and then the kids ran around and played, climbing on stumps and generally making a ruckus. (But it was okay since we were outside - perfect field trip for these kids!)

While they were playing a big gust of wind came up and knocked a branch out of a tree. It wasn't huge, so when it hit some of the kids we didn't think anything of it. None claimed to be hurt. But wouldn't you know it, Joclyn (the little girl with the pink bow in my group) turned out to have a tiny scratch on her head. She claimed it didn't hurt, but she kinda freaked out a bit when she got blood on her hands. It was just a little bit, but still. Much tears and sadness. We got her cleaned up and all her friends gave her hugs and she was as good as new!

We then went on a nature hike with a fun guide; you could tell she really loved her job. You could tell the kids were wearing out, but they hung in there and behaved. For the most part.

Here's Tess petting an ex-groundhog. The nature guide had a bag full of ex-animals, which fascinated the kids!

We finally made it back to the school and I got to take Tess home about an hour early. She was quite thrilled with this!

***********

Today I got to go on a field trip I have been wanted to go on FOREVER: the Feast of the Hunter's Moon. It's this big festival held every year and we've just never been. It's usually on Conference weekend, and the few weekends it hasn't been on those dates it's been raining A LOT. Also, it's quite pricey to get in and then you have to pay to eat and there's lots of stuff to buy... you get the idea. Just not prime Madsen activity material.

But going with a bunch of 4th graders and only having to pay $5? Yes please.

Surprisingly, Josh was really excited to have me come. (We've been butting heads a lot lately. Sometimes it's hard to be the mom of a 4th grade boy. I'm sure it's even hard to actually be a 4th grade boy!)

As per usual, it was a rainy and dreary day. BECAUSE IT IS EVERY YEAR for the Feast. No, really. It's kind of a running joke at the school, only no one's laughing. Instead, they're telling the kids to take off their shoes when they get back to the school so they don't track mud everywhere. No, really.

So the feast celebrates and reenacts scenes of life from the 1700's in our area. Think a lot of French, British, and Native American traders and craftsmen. It was really pretty interesting and fun.

There was a cook fire at just about every tent - we came home smelling like fire. It was actually perfect and cozy for the weather! Here's Josh with Austin and River, who were in our group. Those two other boys gave me a run for my money!

Here's Kierstin and Josh in a wigwam. (Which was surprisingly water tight and warm!) Kierstin is in our ward and was also in our group. She and Josh agreed that the Feast kinda reminded them of Nauvoo. (And it was! In a historical reenactment sense.)

As mentioned, it was quite wet and muddy. I bought these boots at Costco last month and they were PERFECT! (And cute. Good purchase!)

It was fun to go around and talk to the "sutlers" (settlers) actors. You could tell they really enjoyed what they did and they had a lot of fun teaching the kids and showing them their crafts, muskets, etc.

You can't really tell from this picture, but the boys are all shaking hands with a bear pelt. They got a big kick out of it!

There were fifers around, too, which was fun to listen to.

Those muskets were heavy! The boys were disappointed they only shot blanks. Bummer.

These were some of our favorites - they are entertainers. They had puppets and this cool sea diorama and even played songs on the bells. We got lucky and got to spent quite a lot of one-on-one time with them.

This guy was quite the character. He held little patience for fools (i.e. silly 4th grade boys) and even swore once while quoting something his great grandfather used to say. (Nothing too terrible - just another word for pee.) The boys were a little stunned at first and then LOVED his man. I'm not really for swearing, but in this case it was perfect.

The kids were in love with the river. (The festival was right next to it.) It was all I could do to keep them away from the dang thing. After much lecturing and promise-extracting, we wandered along the edge for a bit at the end. Much to Austin and River's dismay, no one got wet.

We got back to the school around 1:45, and once again I was able to take a child home early. Josh was so excited! It was cute. So we decided to get a treat. Josh chose Gigi's Cupcakes. It was really hard for him to choose, but he finally did and then we took our cupcakes - plus one for Lance - down to Lance's office to surprise him. I don't think Lance's reaction when Josh walked into his office was big enough for Josh. (I should have texted him to make sure he made a big to-do. Oh well.) The cupcakes were okay - certainly overpriced. I think Josh was a little disappointed. But I figure that's the kind of lesson everyone has to learn in life, right? (Which is why I didn't fight him too much when he chose this treat.) We enjoyed a few minutes with Lance and then headed home, where we beat Spencer by a good 10 minutes, which please Josh to no end.

Now I'm on the couch, exhausted from the day. The kids have been fighting and freaking out a lot because I think they're tired from the walk to the school we took last night. But they've finally calmed down. And dinner - in Papa John's form - will arrive at 6pm.

That's my kind of feast.

Cole Rocks

No, literally.

This morning I pulled Cole's hoodie out of the closet and let out a little "What the...?" Because his hoodie was a lot heavier than normal.

So I checked the pockets and found these.

Yeah, those are rocks. Lots of rocks.

After school, Josh and I decided to weigh the rocks just for fun. Yep. There were just shy of 1.5 pounds of rocks in Cole's pockets.

I still have no idea why they were in there. He refuses to even admit he put them there. Despite my assurances that he's not in trouble, I'm just curious. Nope.

Cole is something of an enigma. (As are most seven year old boys, right?)

Bedtime Surprise

Each night I sit at the head of Cole's bed and read to him as he putters around the room. (He is not one to sit and listen to a story, but he will wander and listen.)

Last Thursday found me in my customary spot. As I sat reading it started to feel like my bum was getting sweaty. I know. Gross. But then I realized Hey, wait a minute. I'm not hot. At all.

So I stood up and realized that it was not me that was wet, but the bed.

Erlack.

Cole swore up and down that he did not have an accident the night before. But the very light yellow stain and the empty water bottle on his nightstand told a different story.

Fortunately, Lance was around to help strip the bed and put on fresh bedding. I put the water bottle in the kitchen and proclaimed it exiled from the bedroom from that time forth.

Just before I got into the shower Josh came into our bedroom to complain about something. (Every time that kid opened his mouth that evening it was to complain. It had been a long evening.) Lacking all sympathy I said "Well, at least you didn't sit in pee tonight". I'm pretty sure he was already out the door by then, but I felt justified in my comment.

In fact, I kinda wished this had happened earlier in the day so I could have used that line more often. "Oh, you think you've got it bad? I'm the one who sat in pee!" "Come complain to me once you've sat in some pee, okay?"

As I got into the shower I got to thinking. I was PRETTY SURE we were passed the pee-on-mom stage by now. But obviously I am wrong. Then I realized that for the first few years of my life I sat in pee all the time. (I didn't care, but still.) And then once I had kids I sat in pee and other bodily fluids all the time. (Maybe not sat, but got them on me all the time one way or another.) And apparently this phase was not over.

So, with that logic, there was only a 20ish year period of my life when I was NOT sitting in pee.

*sigh*

I bounced these ideas off of Lance, who wisely kept his thoughts to himself as I chewed this over out loud.

The mom job is hard. And gross. And FULL of surprises. Let's just hope we grow out of some of these surprises sooner rather than later.

Happy 10th Birthday, Josh!

On Monday Josh turned the big one-oh. How in the world did we both survive a full decade? There are/were times I was pretty sure one of us wasn't going to make it.

We started Monday morning with birthday pancakes. Josh has never been accused of being a morning person.

I barely got him to let me take a picture.
Me: No picture, no pancakes.
Josh: FINE.

He woke up to find a new bike - something any 10 year old boy would be excited to find, right? Especially when they actually chose the bike? Yeah, no, he decided he didn't want the bike anymore. I decided I didn't like his attitude anymore, but instead of saying that just said "Well, sorry. We'll just give the bike to Cole then." He then liked the bike.

That day I pulled him out of school to have lunch with Lance and I. He chose Subway and I think he really enjoyed the attention. It's fun and something of a rare treat to see one of our kids one-on-one. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of us there!

That afternoon he tried to learn how to ride the bike. He didn't want me to help but he did and then I couldn't do anything right and IT WAS ALL MY FAULT. Much weeping and wailing. Oh, and he decided he didn't want a birthday dinner out. I told him that was not negotiable because in this family, Mom doesn't cook on birthdays. (And never will. Even when they move out. It's my thing.) He persisted. NO ONE WOULD EAT DINNER. I told him that would not go over well, and suggested he go downstairs to cool off and think things over.

He cooled off. He thought things over. He still didn't want to go out. Fine. I told him I'd just choose. No way! Then he decided he'd let us all vote. Then he decided he didn't want us to vote, he'd just choose Noodles & Company, which was fine with the rest of us. Could've done without the drama and whining, though!

We got home and he got to open a few more presents. (He had opened one that morning that had a new "cool" hoodie.) ((I obviously don't know cool, but he does and chose that hoodie at Target.)) He didn't get too much else because: bike. Which he didn't seem to get, but that's more a kid thing than a Josh thing, right?

He got some of his favorite gum.

And some Mad Libs he said he wanted.

And a new playground ball. Which he had held, one week before, while we were at Target and declared "I would love this ball! I would take it to school to use at recess!" Yes, look at that face. That is the face he makes for pretty much ANY PRESENT EVER. First he hates it. Then he whines about it. Then he leaves it alone, and then he loves it. Christmas morning is a joy. (He has taken the ball the school every day since and declared it Awesome.) This whole gift thing is getting easier to get used to; I expect it now and know the drill. Still doesn't make it any fun.

Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie provided the bike helmet. They're so awesome!

That night he learned how to ride the bike. He still has issues getting on and off, but he's getting better. Life wasn't so bad.

Fast forward to last night. See, this year was a friend party year for Josh. Only, he didn't really want to invite any friends to a party. Well, that's not right. He had grand party plans in his mind but only wanted to invite like 3 kids. I explained to him that I was not willing to go to all the work, effort, and expense of one of my awesome parties if he was only inviting 3 kids. It wasn't worth it. So we negotiated, and instead of a big friend party he had 4 friends come over for a sleepover.

Josh also does not like to make choices right now. It is seriously like pulling teeth. Oh, he has very definite opinions about things, but he won't tell you about them until after it's too late. It drives me nuts.

Anywho, after asking and asking and asking about what the invitation should look like, I made this one:

To my surprise he didn't want many changes. Then we moved on to dessert. I gave him lots of options. He didn't like them. I asked him for ideas. He didn't want to give any. Finally, I told him if he didn't tell me before I went to the grocery store I would just make and buy whatever I wanted. He finally deigned to tell me that he wanted M&M Snickerdoodle Bars. So I made those.

They were delicious - the boys ate all of them! (They should be - they have a ton of sugar and butter.)

The friends he invited were all a bit older than him - 11 and 12 years old. I was a little worried about this, but he seemed to have a grand time with them. I think he just really, really wishes he were older. The funny thing is, he and Spencer have really been having issues lately, but then Josh invited boys over who are just like Spencer in that middle school sort of way. Fine line between love and hate and all that.

So his friends made it over and we were all off to Get Air, a local trampoline park. I think they all had a really great time. No one would hold still for pictures!

Tess felt sad she had to play by herself in the 46" and shorter area. Poor kiddo - she's a shrimp. I'm seriously wondering if she's just gonna be a shorty for the rest of her life.

They played dodge ball for quite a while.

And then there was a dance contest! Two of the boys one free passes for their dancing, Tess won a pass because she's so dang cute, and Josh got one because it was his birthday.

After Get Air we feasted on Little Ceasar's pizza. I didn't notice this while taking the pictures, but Cole and Tess progressively steal the show in each one!

Josh finally got to blow out candles and open presents.

It was very exciting!

Apparently this was a very funny inside joke between him and his bff Justin. (a.k.a. Justin Madsen)

That night they played outside with flashlights, played computer games, watched movies, and generally made a racket until midnight when I finally told them it was time for lights out. It took them another 20 minutes to calm down. And then they were up at 6:30am, making more racket! Good heavens, boys are noisy! But, they were all very well behaved and good to have over. Josh chooses good friends. Josh says he had a great time and even thanked me for letting him have a sleepover, so I guess it was worth it!

Oh Josh. What to say about you and your ripe old age of 10?

Josh is going through this phase right now where he won't answer questions. You can be looking directly into his eyes, ask him a question, and he'll just glaze over and then startle and get very offended when you raise your voice.

This is all an act.

Which makes it very hard to have patience.

He's also going through that preteen boy drama phase: very little patience, extreme moodiness, extreme emotions all over the place, crying over little things, and generally just hard to live with. (Spencer went through the same thing. It's a party over here!)

This, too, makes it hard to have patience.

That said, Josh can also be a really awesome kid. Like, Super Awesome. He has this great sense of humor that I just love. He'll often play with Tess and Cole, which makes him a superhero in their eyes. He can be a great helper when he wants to be, and can be really quite responsible when it comes to school and such. Josh is a really good friend, both loyal and kind and always ready for adventure. He's good at art, even though he's trying to hide that talent right now. He can be great at doing chores, when he wants to. (Ha!) And when things are important he knows what to do and how to behave.

What I'm saying is, he's just a really great kid. And although he's going through a bit of a rough patch phase-wise right now, I am just so, so glad he's mine.

I sure love you, Joshie!

New Blog Book - Finally!

Remember earlier this year when I lamented and cried and weeped and wailed and gnashed my teeth because Blurb stopped offering their blog-to-book option?

I do. It was heartbreaking.

After lots of research on the internet, I gave up. There were a few options out there, but they were either way more expensive than Blurb or didn't have great reviews or were very limited in what I could do with them as far as customizing my book. I then decided to try to manually put my blog into Blurb to make a book. No dice. Uploading the text was a nightmare, and I would have had to upload all the pictures individually. (Like, looking on my blog, seeing what pictures were associated with which post, then finding those pictures on my server, and then uploading them.)

Ain't nobody got time for that.

And then a few weeks ago I decided to do a Google search for blog-to-book again. That's when I discovered Into Real Pages. They were relatively new, but had good reviews and fairly reasonable prices. For some reason I just had a good feeling about them, so I decided to give them a try.

My book arrived yesterday:

My basement is currently brimming with boys, ages 7-12, so I don't have much time. Or much hearing left. (More on all of that later...) So here's a quick pros and cons list for Into Real Pages.

Pros:

• Great physical quality - the binding is good, the paper is heavy, and the printing looks great. 
• Super easy to upload my blog - far easier than Blurb, in fact. You can give it a specific time frame for which posts you want to upload. (Something Blurb desperately lacked and drove me crazy!)
• It takes a while for the book to render, but you can click an option to have the site email you once it's done. Awesome.
• Easy-to-use interface. If you want to go in and change post content or add/remove pictures to a post, you can do that on their site after you've already uploaded your posts. (For example, I had a missing image on a post. I went to the already uploaded post, removed the broken image, done.)
• You can create a book in an hour or two. With Blurb it would take me more than a week because I would customize everything and the software was always crashing. Drove me nuts.
• Great looking templates - they're simple and modern looking, and seem to use space well. I love the little page accents, such as the page numbers.
• Pricing was decent - they offer some great coupons. I spent $108 total for a portrait-sized hardbound book, which was pretty much the same as my Blurb books.
• It only took 11 days to receive my book. Since this company is based in the Netherlands, I'm assuming the book was printed and shipped from there. Less than 2 weeks isn't bad! 

Cons:

• You can't customize your book. You can make your own cover (which I was too lazy to do!), but you have no control over page layout. As I mentioned above, this makes things WAY faster. On the other hand, I really wish I could have a bit of control on some of the picture sizes and text layout. Sometimes I love to have a full page bleed for some of my favotire photos from the year. (I'm looking at the website right now and it says there's customization; perhaps they've updated things, perhaps what they consider customization is different from what I consider customization! I'll be doing another book soon, so I'll look into this.)
• Because of the lack of customization I could only do 6 months of blog posts instead of a full year. This will obviously cost me more in the long run. (Although with my lack of blogging lately it could end up being the same since I'll need fewer pages in each book!)
• The picture quality is just not a good/crisp as Blurb's was. (Although I just looked at some of my old Blurb books, and the difference is minimal.) I suspect this is the same no matter what service you use, though, since they're pulling the pictures from your blog.
• The options for book size aren't the same as Blurb, so now my books are different sizes. Not really their fault, but kind of annoying. (I think this is because the website is based in the Netherlands, and European standard book sizes vary a bit from ours.)

Overall:

I am really quite pleased with this book! It looks great and is really high quality. I will definitely be using Into Real Pages again.

A Real Person

After spending an hour fighting over reviewing sweet lady algebra with Spencer, I feel the need to express something to my children.

So - Madsen kids. Madsen kids who are reading this in the future. Pay attention. This is important. (Hands out of pants, Cole.)

I am a person.

A real person. With a working brain. Just like you!

No really!

In fact, I used to be a lot like you. Probably more like you than you would care to imagine. But I know, I know, it's hard to believe. Right now to you I'm just mom, the one who cooks and cleans and probably yells a bit more than she should.

And despite what you think now - and I know for a fact that Spencer and Josh do, because they have both told me in no uncertain terms - I am not an idiot. Cole and Tess, don't look so smug - give yourself a few years and you'll be telling me the same thing. It's inevitable; the circle of life and all that.

And I'm not truly offended. I get it. It's what kids do. I used to think my parents were idiots, too.

Except they weren't.

And I'm not.

I was actually pretty brainy in school. That was my thing. In school there are all sorts of groups: athletes, smokers, artists, band geeks, what-have-you. My thing was academics. I got good grades.

Not just good grades. Great grades. I graduated in the top 10% of my class of 800+ in high school. (Actually, more like the top 2%, but who's counting?) (Me. I am.) And I took the hard classes, AP and honors and all that. And then I went to BYU and graduated with close to a 4.0 GPA. (Those dang calculus and chemistry classes my freshman year!!) And BYU, while no Harvard or Yale (thank goodness) has pretty high academic standards. It's no diploma mill.

I don't claim to be a genius. Far from it. I had to work tooth and nail for those grades - hours of studying, no procrastinating, training my brain to take in that information. I earned every grade I got.

And then I married your father and started working. At a real job. As in, a career. Full time employment, salary, benefits, the whole nine yards. Your mother worked at the biggest advertising agency in Salt Lake City. (I know, it's no New York or Chicago, but it was something.) Adulting at its finest.

And then we decided to have kids. And part of that plan was for me to stop working and to stay at home because why have kids and then pay someone else to raise them?

I want to drive this point home as well - so pay attention. I chose to stay home. I chose to give up my career. I didn't cave in to pressure from the church or from family. I didn't decide to be a stay at home mom because I wasn't smart or driven enough to have a career. I became a mom because I sincerely wanted to.

So. I totally get that none of this will matter or compute to you right now. Or for at least the next 8-15 years. But some day - hopefully before you have children of your own - you'll read this post and realize that maybe, just maybe, your mom is a real person. Not a dummy. Not a maid. Not a chauffeur. A real person who gave up everything the world holds important for you. And would do it all again.

Polite Bite

Last weekend I went to a Stake Relief Society conference that had all sorts of interesting classes to take. One of my favorites was on nutrition and trying to get your family to eat healthy. It was taught by a real dietitian, who had all sorts of great suggestions and ideas, and made me feel more confident about what I was already doing with my kids.

For example, my kids have been getting more and more picky over the past 18 months. Actually, it's Josh being super picky, Cole and Tess are just following. Spencer is actually starting to grow up a little and is willing to try some new things. Not all, but some. Anyways, I do not believe in catering meals to one person, unless it's that person's birthday. (And in that case, it's their birthday and hey, let's go out to eat and celebrate!) I also do not believe in eating 'kid' food for dinner. Not a huge fan of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, corn dogs, that sort of thing. So I make what I want to eat and always make sure to have a ton of fruits and veggies or other things as sides so the kids have lots of options to choose from. And they can choose to eat or not; it's up to them.

According to the dietitian, that's exactly what I'm supposed to do. In her words, I'm in charge of where, when, and what we eat. From that the kids get to choose what and how much (or little) to eat. (True story: Josh has gone to bed with a growling tummy more than once because he refused to eat ANYTHING at the dinner table. And refused carrots, apples, or bananas, which are anytime snacks around here. That boy is stubborn.) Oh my word, I needed that little parenting win that morning! Sometimes I feel like I really do not know what I'm doing in the mom department, and hearing - from a trained professional - that I'm actually doing something right was just what I needed!

The dietitian also introduced the concept of a "Polite Bite" - basically, the kids need to at least take one little bite of the new food. They don't have to eat it all, just try it. I'd been trying this for years with no luck, but knew that for some reason Tess and Cole would love the phrase "Polite Bite". I was right - they've been trying new things, with minor success. I'll take it.

Usually I just put a tiny bite of whatever I want them to try on their plate, but tonight I took it a step further and put it in these little ramekins. (It's Butternut Squash with Cumin Couscous, in case you're wondering, and it's one of my favorite meals. So. Good.)

No one liked it, but I didn't feel the rage I usually do when they won't even try it and make gagging noises. Yes, that's a thing in our house. Growl.

I also made this watermelon and feta salad that was OUT OF THIS WORLD. But I didn't ask them to take a polite bite because I knew they wouldn't like it and why waste it on them? It's a very adult salad, and apparently I am the only adult in the house. (Lookin' at you, Lance.)

I also thought I'd take a picture of our dinner table. See? I add so many things as sides so they have lots of choices. Granted, I'm sure they wish the sides were french fries or chocolate cake, but that's why I'm the mom and cook and they are not. I was extra nice this time and let them have bread and peanut butter, which they liked. (I only do that for my more exotic meals. This African-based dish? Yes. Spaghetti? No.)

For the past couple of years cooking has become a real chore, which is sad because I used to enjoy it so much! I think it's because when the kids were little and fewer in number it didn't bother me when I'd cook and one or two didn't want to eat. But spending an hour making dinner and having three or four out of six people not eat? That's a pretty big disappointment. What's the incentive to cook when no one wants to eat and all you hear is complaining and fake gagging noises?

But now I kind of feel things changing again. Hopefully I'll start enjoying it again and the kids will actually start eating more than just their polite bites!