A day off school....

Last week the kids had a random Thursday off of school. It was a Teacher work day or something, but I always wonder why it couldn't of been on a Friday instead of a Thursday. Any way, I thought we should all get outside and do something fun. I had to take Hayden to pick up his sports goggles from the eye doctor. The petting farm was on the way home, so we decided to stop there. I must say that Hayden was not at all happy about this decision. "I'm 11 years old mom! I'm too big to go to the petting farm! This is going to be soooo boring!" Oh well, he was drug along as well!

Here is Duncan going 'over the rainbow', he loves this slide!Apparently we came at just the right time, these two baby goats were born just 4 days before.
Ashlyn loved the goats, although every time she would feed them her hand would pull back just as their tongues touched her hand and all the food would end up on the ground. I'm not a fan of a wet slimy tongue on my hand either!
Ashlyn LOVED the chickens! She would go after them yelling, "Bauk! Bauk! Bauk!" I tried to keep it to a minimum since the sign read "Don't chase the chickens!"
Here's Morgan with two baby goats that were 2 weeks old.
And Ashlyn had a turn....We all went on a hay ride.....not the best decision for an 8 month pregnant woman. I obviously wasn't thinking when I bought the tickets, and got on the wagon, but as soon as we started moving it hit me: "This was a stupid thing to do!"
Look here, Hayden doesn't seem to me suffering too much! He ended up having a blast at the 'baby petting zoo'!
Farmer Duncan...
Farmer Ashlyn...
We went into their 'tree maze', something we have never done before, and it was a blast! From the outside it looked small and easy, but Ashlyn and I got lost several times. I kept hearing the other kids laughing and running, so at least I knew they were still in there with us!
I think the maze ended up being our favorite part of the whole day! They had little story book characters throughout the maze as well. Here is Hayden and Ashlyn at the witches house with Hansel and Gretel.
I realized I didn't get one photo of Ronan the whole day! Probably because he was always 2 steps ahead of us all! It turned out to be a great Thursday off!

Kid Stories...

My dad always calls asking for a "Kid Story" (something funny or cute the kids have done). Often times I am stumped, and can't think of anything, then as the conversation goes on I end up mentioning something, and my dad will say "That's a kid story! You are just so used to these things happening that you don't even notice them!" Well, this past week I've tried to be more aware of those moments that would qualify as a "Kid Story", and even took pictures of some to go along with it! So dad, this blog is for you!

Last Sat., just 30 minutes before we were supposed to have friends over, Ashlyn locked herself in our room! The lock is one of those turn locks, not a push lock, so you can't just stick something in the hole, it has to actually turn the piece inside. No problem I thought, we have a key to these locks (all the upstairs rooms have the same lock). I told Brian, "Just get the key, you just used it the other night on the bathroom door." "I put the key on the top of our dresser so that the kids wouldn't get it and loose it....the dresser that is in OUR room!" Oops!
Brian then got the tools out and tried to take the handle off (of course Ashlyn is crying at the door the whole time)...oops, the handle fell into the room. Ashlyn was a helper and picked it up and put it back in the hole in the door. Long story short, the handle ended up getting broken, but eventually we were able to open the door!This is poor sad Ashlyn as finally got in! The down side was that we weren't able to shut our door for a few days until Brian got a new handle.
Below is a pitcher of "Yellow Water" that Morgan and Ronan made with my food coloring. Only they put so much in it turned out to be more orange than yellow! They did this in the basement while I was otherwise engaged because they wanted to experiment what yellow water would taste like....

Here is Ashlyn on the table amongst the cereal that she has just dumped out. She wasn't a fan of Rasin Bran, but it sure is fun to play in!This is a story that Brian and I chuckled at, about how things are interpreted. Brian was upstairs in the boys room putting together new dressers for Ronan and Duncan (which were way too complicated to begin with), when he asked Duncan to go get a trash bag from the kitchen to put all the Styrofoam and trash in from the boxes. Duncan, like a good boy ran straight downstairs and retrieved the half full trash bag from the kitchen trash can and brought it up to dad! Brian forgot to mention a NEW bag from under the sink!
OH more fun times at the Mahaffey house! Warning the following story might be more information than you want! Two of our children (they shall remain nameless here) used the bathroom in the basement one right after the other without flushing in between. Well, they both went #2, and used a little too much paper, so.....overflowing toilet here we come! It was pretty bad and covered the whole floor as well! You can't really see it in the photo, but the mat was soaked, and poo poo water everywhere! I made Brian a deal that if he unclogged the toilet, I would wash the floor...yuk!
This one was actually me....going too fast one morning, and the oats ended up all over the floor, because what I need is MORE things to clean up!
The picture below didn't really turn out, but it is SOME of the beautiful artwork that Ashlyn has given us on our walls! I don't know if I'm just blocking it out, but I don't remember my other kids writing on the walls, floors, tables, couches, ect. as much as she does! Of course we had our marks, but this girl is constantly doing it!Again....possibly too much information!!! Ashlyn has been very excited to use the potty lately, and anytime anyone goes to the bathroom (at home or in public), she screams out "PEE PEE ME TOO!" She has not yet actually peed on the potty, but sits there, wipes, flushes it down and claps! I don't want to hinder a child's interest in the potty, so I take her when she asks (unless we are in public, and I don't have another diaper with me, then we get to hear her scream because I won't let her sit on the potty. I'm sure people must think 'what kind of mother WON'T let her child go potty!') Anyway, in the photo below Ashlyn had JUST sat on the potty, and as we are running back to the family room to put a new diaper on.....she pees! AHHHH! So, she is helping me to clean it up!
Some sweet things happened this week as well.....

Duncan got off the bus and came running up to the door where Ashlyn was waiting for him. He comes in and hugs her and says "I love you Ashlyn, you are my best buddy! You wait for me everyday at the door!" and kisses her. For the next 30 min., he continued to stop and hug her and tell her he loved her and they were best buddies! I loved it!!

Brian and Hayden went camping with the Scouts last Friday, and Morgan got to sleep in my bed with me. The kids love it to come in when Brian is gone (which isn't very often), and I loved having the snuggle time.

Ashlyn has finally started to use the word 'yes'. For several weeks, 'no' has been the answer to all questions. She would even nod her head up and down and say 'no' when asked if she wanted something. The kids would have fun with this by asking her "Do you like juice?" "NO." Do you like your baby doll?" "NO." "Are you a girl?" "NO." "Do you want to play outside?" "NO."
Well, she finally figured out 'yes' and the difference between it and 'no'! It's been fun.

Easter Weekend

For Easter Weekend we decided to take a trip to the beach. The kids had spring break the week before Easter, to include Easter Monday, so we thought it would be a good time to go. We left the Thursday before Easter, and planned to come home the Monday after. Unfortunately we missed the good weather while we were there. The weekend before was in the mid-70's, and the weekend after, but while we were there it was 60 degrees and windy, and one day of rain. It was still nice to be away and not unpacking or cleaning, or doing anything around the house!
Thursday night was nice, and we all went out to play in the sand and go for a walk on the beach. With strict instructions that we WOULD NOT be getting in the water! You can see how well that worked out!
This is Ronan running up to Brian to ask if it's ok if he gets his pants a little wet (they are already soaked to the knees):
I couldn't get upset, because after all I KNOW my own children, and I KNEW it would be impossible to be at the beach and NOT get near the water, but it was worth a try!
They had so much fun...Hayden is the only one that has any nerve endings left I think, as he opted NOT to get wet, but fly a kite instead!
Here they are again staying out of the water....
Little Duncan....
Ashlyn wisely chose to stay on dry ground with Brian...
This is just as we arrived to the beach, and Morgan has already got her full length pants up to her hips-how does she do that?
Ashlyn found the forgotten shoes.


On Friday the wind picked up more at the beach, and Morgan and Ashlyn were the only ones brave enough to venture out with Brian to look for shells. Brian said Ashlyn was so cute when she would find them, and she came back with her jacket pockets filled with treasures! There was an indoor pool at the resort, which was great, so some swimming actually took place. We also did miniature golf while we were there and visited a museum all about the treasures found off the coast of Delaware from sunken ships-pretty cool stuff.
On Saturday we dyed some eggs for Easter....

Ashlyn's hands had to be held down while waiting for her egg to dye after the first time when she reached in a grabbed it and dye went all over!
Sunday morning the kids were up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny came. This was the first Easter Ashlyn was really involved-she loved finding the eggs.
So did Ronan...
Ashlyn and her basket.
This picture was taken in March... my parents came out to visit, and my mom bought the girls matching Easter dresses. She also got the boys new matching pants and shirts. I was all so excited to get at photo of all the kids on the beach in their clothes, but the weather was not cooperating, so I thought we wouldn't get a photo at all.....

Then, on our drive back from church Sunday morning (the nearest ward was an hour away, so we had a bit of a drive), Brian found this field off the side of the road and pulled over so I could at least try to get a photo of all the kids together on Easter. Well, it was still cold and a bit windy, so I told the kids "If you just hop out and stand still and smile this will be over so fast!" Ronan was my star that day, and the only child that actually did what I asked. Look at the next few photos, keeping an eye on Ronan and how still he is even when everyone around him was goofing off!
I finally got a photo with everyone looking! Ronan earned a gold star for this, well done!The three boys together....

I wanted one of the girls together, but Ashlyn was DONE and there was no recovering from it, so this is the one and only photo I snapped of them together, and then everyone was back in the car!As we were driving back to the condo we were talking about what we would do the rest of the day. Brian had some major meeting he had to be at in Virginia on Tuesday, and was planning on going into work as soon as we got home on Monday to prepare for it. So I thought 'Why not just drive home today, and then he will have plenty of time to prepare, and the kids can have a day at home before going back to school on Tues.' So, we got home, packed up, and started home. I'm glad we did, it was nice to have a day at home before hitting the routine again!
We really enjoyed the area we stayed at though (it was our first time there), and I think we will go back again at the end of the summer when the weather will be nicer!

Happy Birthday Morgan!!

Morgan was the last of our birthdays this past month. She turned 7 years old! She requested a birthday at home since we were pretty much settled in our new house by then. It was a fun birthday, but I seemed to of left my head somewhere else that day, because I forgot to take pictures! Luckily Hayden grabbed the camera and snatched a few.
This is her blowing out the candles on her Strawberry Shortcake cake:
I have to confess I was feeling like such a slacker mom...this was the first store bought cake she has ever had. I usually love to do fun homemade cakes, but when she showed me the cake that she wanted, I had NO energy to do it. I saw a cake at the grocery store and ordered it. She was so excited and LOVED the store-bought cake! I think I was the only one that was sad about it not being made by mom, which I guess is a good thing! It's just something I like to do (when I'm not pregnant and been unpacking a house I guess).
Morgan is such a wonderful girl. She is my biggest helper with Ashlyn. While the boys help out a lot, she is the one that will change a diaper, get her dressed, do her hair, help brush her teeth, and be her little mother-it's great! Morgan loves animals and the outside world. She has always been my 'outside girl'. At times she is tougher than the boys, she braves the elements without complaints. She loves to read, and her floor is always cover in books (and horses). She desperately wants a pet to take care of, but I just can't commit to that right now.
Morgan loves to paint, and recently had one of her paintings on display at the mall. She loves to play with friends, and is so excited that at our new house, the next door neighbor is a girl her age! She is a star swimmer, and doing well in gymnastics recently too. She loves to try new things, she'll give everything a chance! She is a joy to have at home. We love her dearly. Happy Birthday Morgan!