My Birthday!

I woke up and quickly realized that there were 4 toddlers in my house this morning. When I volunteered to watch my sister’s kids over the holiday weekend, I didn’t really connect that it was my birthday as well. No worries though. We can still have a great day! I half-hoped that Esteban would get up and let me lay in bed a while, but that didn’t happen.

I get up and get Sebi and Maya’s diapers changed. Then I take Chooch (who is potty training) to the potty while Jayden goes in the toilet. I get them settled in front of the TV and get their milk cups. I put on a pot of coffee and proceed to the bathroom to wash 5 sets of teeth and then I start on breakfast. Everyone is fed by the time Esteban wakes up (finally) and he calls for me to come. I am annoyed but I go and he says Happy Birthday.

Now, I am painfully aware of the fact that I’m not working and we can’t afford lavish presents. But still. Not even a card. But how can I be mad when he cheerfully asks what I want to do today? Anything I want, he proclaims. Not that he requested the day off or anything. He has to go to work in the evening so how can we possibly make plans? We only have a few hours left and somewhere in between, my sister will be coming for her kids. And anyway, I always get upset when he expects me to make plans for my own special day. He knows this.

He offers going out to have breakfast, but I already fed half the house so what difference would that make. Plus, it’s already annoying enough to go out with him and the kids (he gets so mad with their behavior outside the house), let alone go out with four kids. No thanks.

He gets up and offers to make me breakfast so I help him. I like when we work together in the kitchen. It occurs to me that we can’t really make plans because we have no idea when my sister will be coming to pick up the kids. And I don’t want her to think we’re throwing the kids out so I don’t call to ask. We decide to go about our business and when they call, they can meet up with us. So we get everyone ready and I suggest going to Target to look at the after Easter clearance sales. I know, exciting. We’re about to step foot out of the house when my sister calls and says she’s halfway to my house. Is this really happening?

We decide to carry on and have her meet us at Target. When she got there, when we were checking out and then we ran over to Michael’s to check out a craft idea for the kid’s birthday party. Afterwards, my sister suggests lunch and we’re not really in a position to go out to eat, so we are hesitant, but they insist. It’s my birthday afterall. So we go to Olive Garden for the lunch special and somehow we ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money. Now, Esteban and I get into an argument. Great! We all go back to my house and EVERYONE except for me falls asleep.

So on my birthday, I was in Facebook world. Now they know how to throw a party! LOL Anyway, Esteban gets up late and yells at me for not waking him. Is this a bad dream? He rushes off to work. There’s no way I’m cooking dinner on my birthday so I make peanut butter and banana sandwiches for the kids and soon after my sister and her family leave. I gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. I text Esteban. “I’ve never had such a depressing birthday.” It was like any other day.

The Cousin's Easter Celebration

Mari and Serg were in for a crazy busy weekend at the restaurant so I volunteered to take her kids for the weekend. It's the first time they've ever slept anywhere without their parents so we were nervous, but things turned out just fine. We moved the kid's table and chairs inside so that Jayden and Aiden could sit here to dinner and Sebi and Maya could sit in their booster seats. They loved having their own space.
Here is Sebastian watching tv.
On Easter Sunday, we decided to go to the second service. The first would have been too early with 4 kids and the last would have been perfect, but I didn't want to go to the last service. Amazingly, we get there at 9am exactly. I sit down thinking to myself, "I'm Super Mom and Super Titi!" I feel more joy than I can remember feeling in a long time and I'm overtaken by the moment so I bend down to kiss them each, when I realize that I never brushed their teeth or washed their faces. Horrified, I grab a wipe and start to clean them up as best as I could, since not a one of them likes having their faces, particularly their eyes, wiped! Here are my angels. Jayden is still mad about the wipe incident.

We quickly lost control of the situation and the kids become antsy. Maya and Sebi are begging to come out of their strollers and I almost had to sit on Jayden and Aiden to keep them in their seats. But it's Easter Sunday and I'm not losing my temper no matter what happens so I do my best to keep them interested in the service. Thank God for the choir! Because of the large turnout on Easter Sunday, the church holds an outdoor service to accommodate the crowds since the new building is under construction and not ready yet. They set up a large white tent and chairs and we are sitting literally in an area with dirt, covered by mulch. This is usually where the cars park. And before I know it, the kids have discovered sticks and start playing with the dirt and mulch. Esteban was furious, but I pretend as if it's not happening. Atleast they are not causing a scene, I muse to myself! Here's Maya all but sitting in the pile of dirt.

The kid's hands and feet were black with dirt. Ugh. Here's Aiden's feet!

Only adorable Sebi was still clean.

Maya was black with dirt and then she wiped her hands and feet on Esteban's pant legs. Didn't she know he was already mad?

After the service, we cleaned up and took the kids to grab some breakfast. They all had fun picking out muffins and donuts. We then headed to the playground where they forgot all about the goodies and ran off to have a good time.

Sebi was just being too cute!

Even Esteban takes a swing with the boys.

On the way out, the kids ran ahead of us and right into the bounce house. We caved and said 5 minutes, ok! I just vetoed the idea of having a bounce house at the kid's birthday party because last time, Jayden and Maya refused to go in. Oh well. Here's Jayden pushing some poor soul.

After we finally convinced them to come out of the bounce house (Esteban had to literally go in and grab Chooch), we went home and discovered that the Easter bunny had been by and left treats!

The kids were thrilled with their baskets. Eggs and Easter grass were everywhere and everyone was fighting for everyone else's things.

A little blurry, but Maya found a Dora shovel and a bunny noisemaker in her basket!

Jayden didn't care what was in his eggs. He just wanted to open them up in a jiffy and claim the prizes as his own!

After basket mayhem, we took them to the bathroom for a thorough cleaning of hands and feet and left them in their undies to play for a while.

And Jayden and Chooch actually took their naps together. Jayden never wants to sleep with Chooch, so I was thrilled. Of course, Chooch doesn't fool around. When it's time to sleep, it's time to sleep. And Jayden is a major fool arounder. So when I peeked in on them Chooch was in sleep position and Jayden was standing over him with his blanket over his head, pretending to be a ghost. Poor Chooch! Here they are after they finally passed out.

After nap, we had dinner at a friend's house. They have a huge retention pond behind their home, which was completely empty so I took the kids there to play soccer. I was just to nervous to stay in our host's yard since they had a pool, but no pool fence. And it was a pretty tight space. In this large wide open space, there wasn't much that could go wrong, except that everyone was fighting over the volleyball, soccer ball, and tennis ball.

Maya could care less about the sticks. As long as there were sticks and dirt, she was fine!

The evening ended at 9:30 when the kids went to sleep. What a day!