Sunday's 13 (doesn't have the ring of Thursday's 13, eh?)

 1. Having Ana and Elena both in soccer is killing me.  How do you do it Megan?  How?!?!?  And in a month swim team starts which will mean 3 HOURS every night of practice M-F, split between my kids.  Good thing it only lasts a month and a half or I may die.  Elena sure is cute in her soccer uniform though, and Ana's team is undefeated so far!

 2. Ana was playing with Sebastian's hair before church.  He didn't get to keep his mohawk, we're mean, eh?

 3. Elena's to-do list.  The first item is Fold towels.  So cute. 

4. Nicolas has realized that Elena and Isabel and Sebastian all sleep together every night.  (Sebastian is scared of the dark and came in our room every night, so we let him sleep with his sisters and that has helped a lot--helped so that Leo and I aren't woken up!)  And now when we tell the kids to go to bed, he follows his brothers and sisters and climbs up there with them.  He's pretty insistent.  But we usually don't let him stay.  Last night we did though.  It was so funny, he went to the bookshelf, grabbed a book and took it with him (on non-school nights we usually let the kids take a book to bed with them).  He was really good, despite being the last one to fall asleep.  When I checked him on him, he was just thumbing through his book.  Silly monkey.

5. Nicolas LOVES Sebastian's balance bike.  We bought Sebastian a new bike at a garage sale. It has training wheels, but he's not strong enough to pedal it yet.  Anyway, we let Nicolas sit on the balance bike--that's all he could do at first.  And he WOULD NOT get off.  He just sat there for 30 minutes.  He now manages to inch along on tiptoes.  He "rides" it for an hour at a time.  And yells frantically if anyone else tries to ride it.  He has also added "ike! ike!" (Bike! Bike!) to his vocabulary.

6.  Okay, another Nicolas story.  Sorry, he's just so adorable.  I love it!!  He started this week running and kicking a little soccer ball.  I mean, he kicked balls all the time before, but now he can run, kick it and keep running, and keep kicking it.  Our friends told us to videotape it because the footage will be great for news stories when he's the next Leo Messi.  Hee. Hee.  He spends almost all day playing with balls, and has played with the little basketball hoop we have more in one week than Sebastian has in an entire year.  So funny how different they are.  Sebastian is going to be our artist.  I've had two or three people comment to me at church how they're amazed at how well Sebastian colors.  I need to post some of his drawings, eh? 

7.  On Friday, Leo and I spent the whole morning doing yard work.  Then I spent the afternoon baking these beauties. And Leo continued working in the yard.  The chocolate cake has pastry cream in the middle.  And it's a cream cheese cranberry-raspberry tart.  So good!  I love baking.  Why can't we have cake and pies every night for dinner?  Then I wouldn't have the mental agony of deciding what to cook and then having to make it.  It would be a pleasure instead.

8. Friday night, we had five families and the missionaries over for a hot dog roast.  It was beautiful weather.  And it was so much fun.  The older kids all disappeared to play games in the front yard.  The younger kids all played on the playground and ate a bajillion roasted marshmellows.  I sat and talked and ate.  Love it.  :)  One of the best parts: Isabel coming out in her black velvet cloak (yes, she has one) and standing by the fire in the dark. She just needed a pot of bubbling brew to complete the spooky look. We were all laughing pretty hard.

9.  I made up the muslin for Isabel's dress last night.  It consists of four patterns pieced together.  It worked beautifully.  I can't wait to start sewing tomorrow!

10.  While we still haven't bought a new couch for the living room--I found the perfect one last week and they never replied to me at all! And I emailed 14 mins after it was listed on Craigslist. Ruff!--I had Leo and all the men at our house on Friday night move the desk and piano for me to make room for the couch.  I assured them that it was NOT my intention to have a party just so I could have my furniture moved, but I don't think they believed me.  There was some comment said about scheming women.  Anyway, I really only thought of that afterwards, but oh well.  However, Leo thought we should have left the piano where it was, and now I'm starting to think he was right.  Maybe we'll have to have another party. ;)

11.  About 3 weeks ago, I had Leo make me gallery shelves for our living room.  I then stained them only to find that the color (antique Walnut) was not right--too light.  So then I bought mahogany and put that on over it hoping to darken it without going too red.  It was really red. And Leo tried to help me stain two, only he's never painted anything before and didn't realize you can't have drips.  So that needed sanding.  I called my Mom and made her look at pictures of my living room, because by this point the 2 hour project promised by Ana White had taken, well, three weeks and I was considering just painting them black.  Much faster and easier than sanding and re-staining right?  But she confirmed what I already thought--it needed to be stained.  And she told me it was oak already in my living room--I thought oak was lighter?  Anyway, I went to Home Depot where there was way more options of stain, and found Mission Oak--it matches perfect.  My mom is a genius!  And last night I sanded them all down.  Elena helped me without even being asked.  She's a really good worker.   :)  Hopefully, by next weekend I'll have them up on the wall, and pictures to show you all.  Although, now I'll have to track down some picture frames and paint those black.

12.  I found dark chocolate Cadbury mini-eggs at Target.  One more reason to love Target!!!

13.  I must end now to start the last session of conference.  Adios!