Vegetables

I've been holding off writing this post because I'm nervous I will jinx it.

My kids love vegetables...shhhhhh. Ok, maybe love is a strong word. They like vegetables. And I love that they like vegetables.

I feel like one of those moms on the commercials that is serving their kids chef boyardee and not wanting them to find out that their are vegetables in the ravioli. If you're not sure what I'm referring to check it out.
Chef Boyardee

Our vegetables are not hidden in ravioli or a secret snack, they are just plain, old, healthy, beautiful colored vegetables. I'm feeling a little proud of my wee ones.

We discovered some delicious sweet peppers at Sam's Club.I buy two huge bags of them every week! I usually eat 2 a day and Dan munches on them as well.

 They are such a beautiful color. Oh, and they are so good.

 Not only are they munching on sweet peppers these days but they are eating broccoli. Not just one bite but a whole serving. My mom is probably not believing me. I started buying two big bunches of broccoli each week. Between the 5 of us that eat it, I probably eat the least amount of it. I have never enjoyed broccoli but I'm working on it, sprinkle a little bit of parmesan on it and I can manage to get down a few pieces.

Dan has stayed true to himself and even makes eating broccoli fun. Yes, eating broccoli is fun at the Rude house. Before taking each bite of broccoli they look to their daddy and ask, "What's in my tree daddy?" To which he responds something like, "there is a huge raccoon in your tree, eat it!" " There is a hippo in your tree, eat it!" "There is a whole family of birds in your tree, eat them!" This is followed by a big bite of broccoli and tummy rumbling laughter. 

 Myla munched down two of these on this particular day.

 We are working on healthy habits here.

 Titan even joins in the veggie party. He just seems to enjoy food. He can't eat any bites and I have to watch him closely but he likes the flavor and sucking on it.

 My youngest two sweet boys.

 Did I mention they make their faces orange?

 The sweetest face.

 We talk about how vegetables will make them strong. And,

VOILA!

 It works. Check out these guns.

 I thought that this shirt was appropriate since I'm feeding them vegetables.

 My happy 4 year old Quinton.

So, here it is. Vegetables. Don't jinx me.

I'm pretty excited about having more than just fruit lovers. I'm so thankful for Dan. He has a gift, a unique ability to make broccoli fun. Healthy habits happening at the Rude house! I'm blessed to have to many sweet mouths to fill up with vegetables!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Nothing beats a Tuesday.
Nothing beats a new kite from Aunt Amber.
Nothing beats a Tuesday + a new kite.

Tuesday is our full, uninterrupted family day. I love Tuesdays. I love having a day in the middle of the week when everyone else is working to just be together. We try not to fill our Tuesdays with too many plans so that there is always time to enjoy each other. I love that, especially since the weather is getting warmer. There are so many things that are just more fun with an extra pair of hands and EVERYTHING, and I do mean EVERYTHING is more fun with Daddy around.

My sister-in-law Amber Rude gave us a new kite the other day. The excitement of a new kite alone was fun but nothing beats a kite with Lightening McQueen plastered on it.
It was so cool. There was just enough wind to get it going. Quinn, Rex and Myla all took turns flying it, chasing it, trying to catch it as it was falling to the ground. Dan did a lot of running getting it into the air, Titan and I cheered them on!

We grew up flying kites every year on Easter. I don't remember many other days during the year that we would fly them but I remember Easter afternoon we would go out with our friends and fly kites after church and brunch. Myla lost interest in kite flying the quickest. She, Titan and I resorted to the beloved swings where both of them soaked in the undivided pushing and not having to share the swings with the big boys. 

She's pointing to the swings, a girl on a mission.

A post would not be complete without huge smiles from my littlest. He brightens the world by just being.

Now if I could just capture these natural happy smiles on my three oldest I would be a happy momma. All I have to do to make Ty smile like this is say a silly word and he cracks up.  
So here's to Tuesday's. The best day of the week here at the Rude house. Gearing up for another fabulous one tomorrow. Nothing beats a Daddy day!

Aunt Kelly

A weekend with AUNT KELLY!

This has been a much anticipated trip for my kids. They have been anxiously waiting, asking, packing and getting ready to go visit Aunt Kel. Friday morning was one of the longest mornings of my life. We were leaving around 1pm so that meant that I had almost 6 hours to distract them. There were even tears, "why can't we leave for Aunt Kelly's now?" And 2 and 4 year olds don't understand that Aunt Kelly has to work till 5.

After finally making it to 1pm, driving 4 hours and 20 minutes (without stopping), we arrived in the wonderful city of Madison for a fun filled weekend.

Any house not there own is always WAY more exciting. The spiderman table cloth that Kel had bought for our visit was the first thing they saw and that was just the beginning. She had fun movies (they just enjoyed looking at all the cases), Dr Seuss books, she had a pull up bar (lots of hanging on that), she had a yoga mat that acted as our flying carpet for the weekend, she has carpeted stairs that they enjoyed sliding down, a huge exercise ball (what kid wouldn't have fun with a huge exercise ball?), a large trunk that was our treasure chest and we borrowed some wooden spoons for playing pirates. Not only does she have a fun house, she also had two great parks, a coffee shop and a fabulous zoo.

Saturday morning, after a 6:15 wake up call (thank you boys of mine), we enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast and headed off to their fabulous FREE zoo. The Des Moines Zoo should take notes from the Madison Zoo.

It turned out to be the perfect day for wandering around the zoo, sunny, warm, beautiful.
Me and my gang.The Madison Zoo was perfect for my little ones. They had fun animals to keep their attention, a train ride, a fun kids park and Aunt Kelly was with us, what could be better. My two favorite blue eyed girls.Checking out the Polar Bear.A few of the highlights included, lots of different monkeys, lions, tigers, polar bear, brown bear, flamingos, alligators, giraffes, camels, rhinos, seals, otters, huge turtles. So many fun animals to see.Rex being stubborn and refusing to look at me.Playing in the cool kids area.Titan enjoyed munching on the zoo map.Next was snack time on the train.And snack continued on the bench.Trying out the different heads.I'm not sure why Myla is making this face but it is perfect!Quinton's hair is fitting to be the lion.Another good monkey face.Kelly got a little nervous when we walked by the much anticipated Rhinos and they were not there at the beginning, luckily we looped back around and they were out enjoying their lunch. They were so awesome! Quite regularly when we talk to Kel on the phone Quinn asks about the rhinos so we were very relieved that they were finally out to see.I would not want to meet one of these guys out of the cage....eeeekkkkk. My kids enjoying the park. It was a wonderful weekend. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing sister who loves me and my kids so much. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Before you look at these next few pictures I must explain....

I was determined to not have to stop on the way to or from Madison. I was successful. 4 hours and 20 minutes both directions and my kids were champions. You see, since I was by myself with all 4 of my kids, it would have required a very long stop to get them all out of the car, taken into the bathroom and buckled back into the car. So, I chose pull-up. Put them all in pull-ups, set their water cup, a couple of different kinds of snacks in zip lock bags at their reach (stuck two pilllows between the back two carseats and put their snacks in between them), I was able to reach Titan if needed and whoever was sitting behind me. The big kids did fabulous. They all took a little nap both ways and then enjoyed all their little bags of snacks.

Titan did fabulous as well. On the way there he enjoyed a self fed baby food and some breast milk in the sippy cup. On the way home, he still was very content but decided to squeeze the baby food all over himself, the enjoyed many, many baby teething cookies. As you look at these next few pictures, don't judge. I survived the car ride with 4 happy children, even if Titan ate a few too many cookies.

This is what my little man looked like when we got home.... Dan thought he puked on himself.He looks awfully happy and proud of his mess if you ask me!It was everywhere!They were all in desperate need of a bath when we got home!Daddy welcomed us with excited hugs and kisses and listened attentively as my kids gave him a play by play by play by play by play of all the exciting things we did with Aunt Kelly!

I'm not sure Kelly's house has recovered after my 4 children but we sure had a great trip!

Confetti

"Confetti" is all over our yard these days.

The huge tree behind our house is raining little leaves ALL OVER MY YARD!!!We call it "Confetti," and it has provided much entertainment for us lately. There are literally piles of these little leaves everywhere. Naturally, the only thing to do with millions of little leaves is to grab a pile of them, and throw them up in the air while shouting, "CONFETTI." It became war!
Everyone had leaves in their hair, on their clothes, in their clothes, EVERYWHERE!Rex was the #1 fan of Confetti! He and I battled for a long time. Titan watched on looking precious as always. He loves my phone. Children are so funny, I can give him all the old phones that we have and he still lunges for the real thing. How do they know the difference?He seems pleased with himself. I don't let him play with my phone... but I wanted to capture his sweet face before I took it away.Every few weeks I have to oil up Myla's head. Her scalp gets so dry. So on days when we are just hanging at home I oil her up! Lucky for her, all the leaves and dirt just stuck in there!Days when we are not leaving the house are days when I pull out the character shirts. A friend of ours gave us some Toy Story shirts and a princess shirt and they LOVE them. They are a little big and faded but perfect for bringing huge smiles and they fly around our house saying, "To infinity and beyond."I love my Rexy!Ty is taking care of Myla's purse while we play. What a guy!Most nights lately are bath nights and tonight it was completely necessary. Myla still had leaves stuck to her head. Quinn didn't nap today and the other 3 woke up around 3:30, way too early for them. The nice thing about that is that everyone was sleeping by 8:30 tonight and now I'm anxiously awaiting Dan to be home from a few days in Texas tomorrow. I always sleep better when he comes home. I'm sure there will be lots of chasing Daddy with confetti when he gets home. I'm blessed to have such fabulous children to throw confetti at!