Best invention e.v.e.r.

Check this out, this is my before:
Yes, it's a big pile of mismatched, orphan socks. (And, yes, this is the second time I have placed this picture on my blog. It's my blog, and I can do what I want!)

But wait: (Drum roll please)
Now I own these:
http://www.sockpro.com/sockpro.htm

Oh yes, the sockpro. A veritable life saver for those of us with twelve feet in our homes. It looks like this: Is that not the best thing ever? Your socks go in together, come out together, and can even be put away together! Entire evenings have just opened up for me. *sigh*.

That's my update for tonight. Stay tuned for lots of pictures involving baseball, birthdays, and babies. (kids really, but that didn't go with the alliteration...)

The hamster dance.

Connor has been getting an allowance for a few years now. What that means is that when we remember, we give him a few bucks to put in his bank. He has a bank that breaks up immediate spending money, donating money, and saving money into three separate places for him. He's been putting money into his saving place the entire time, and never spent a dime. He counted it the other day, and had just over $60.00. Pretty impressive I think! He would have had more had I not taken some for coffee money, but I digress.

Anyhoo, he decided he wanted to buy a hamster with this money. Originally he was going for a $100.00 Lego set, not sure what changed his mind. Maybe he figured the hamster would be an even bigger way to make a mess. Of course, 1200 legos would do the trick too....

He picked out a hamster and a cage. This cage in fact. Cool, no? He played with the hamster for a bit, and went off to bed. The next day he was full of hamster joy at church. Then came Monday.... (suspenseful music cue here...) Some time during Sunday night, a curious cat came into Connor's room and knocked the entire cage, yes the Crittertrail X, onto the floor. Lo and behold, one less hamster. We looked for a bit, with no luck. (Not only is it a hamster, but it's a dwarf hamster. It's like as big as the foot of a one year old. Not that I measured or anything... no way). My poor son went off to school so disappointed. I stayed home with Siobhan that day because she was sick, and I turned the house upside down. It turns out hamsters are really good hiders.

Tuesday we went to the store to find a new hamster, having given up hope on the old one. After a few let downs we did find a good one. New hamster in old cage, all was right in the world again. On Wednesday we brought the hamster in for "share" (What hamster hasn't dreamed of going to a first grade classroom, really?)

Wednesday night was interesting (suspenseful music....) At about 9:30 that night wihle I was checking out facebook doing some important computer work, I heard the most freaky, high pitched, scared scream I've ever heard. There was Al pointing at the stairs saying "hamster, hamster, hamster...." Yup, he's great with the beasts. The original hamster had returned to us. Oh good. Now we have two hamsters. Great. I am so happy. I scooped up that one and we made a temporary cage for it. She was filthy and starving, but she had survived.... (I'm hearing Gloria Gainer here...)

Today I ran out and got another cage. Now each kid has a hamster in their bedroom. Awesome, just what I always wanted....

Consider yourself warned.

This too could happen to you when you have more children than hands. You could realize that. although you need to drag your still sleeping children out of bed at 7:30 on school days, they pop out of bed at 5:45 on weekends. You could also realize that you are all too happy to sacrifice your values of 'not too much TV' to get 'just a little more sleep' as you allow that box in the corner to babysit your children in the morning. While you are sacrificing your values catching up on sleep, you may also realize that your children have decided to be helpful and make their own breakfast. In so doing, there is now milk and cereal all over the floor, counters, and couches. But still, it was worth the extra ten minutes of sleep. When you wake up, your four year old may ask to paint. Of course you want to encourage this artistic experimentation, so you set her up with paints and brushes. Now you also notice that the paint cabinet is full of (now blue) barbie doll clothing, so you go ahead and clean that up. While you are cleaning, the one year old decides that she too would like to paint. (Thankfully the seven year old is downstairs erasing brain cells in front of the ninja turtles watching educational programming on TV, and doesn't get involved in the painting). As you come back from cleaning up the barbies, you will notice that your one year old is now covered in every color paint there is. So, you take her and bring her to the shower, where your husband is showering. She gleefully joins him in the shower. So, you return back to cleaning up barbie, and overseeing the painting. You notice a few red and blue footprints into the bathroom, so you clean those up (along with the offending feet). After a few hours of painting, she's finally done, and she goes ahead to clean up. You, in the meantime, have gone downstairs to fix more breakfast (and clean the first breakfast up) and left the painting oversight to your husband.

As you go up to put the kids to bed, you notice that the bathroom looks like a art festival crime scene, with paint all over the vanity, doors, walls, and floor. You ask your husband about this and he says, "Yeah, I thought I noticed that earlier". You tell your four year old to clean it up, and notice she's enjoying it. You certainly don't want that, so you tell her to just go to bed. You also tell her she can't paint for two weeks. As she asks you what that means, you wish you had said two years. After you tuck everyone in you get the laundry, which looks like this:
Yes, that is a mountain of socks. In fact, that is a mountain of unmatched socks. This is how I spend evenings now, matching socks.

This, boys and girls, is what can happen when you have more children than hands.
'

huh.

Aisling ate dinner tonight wearing an inner tube. An inner tube like from our pool. She had it around her waist for all of dinner. Each time she had to get up, she moved her arms and head as though she was swimming. It was weird. (And a tad silly). The other day, she was walking around in one winter boot telling everyone she had broken her leg. She's got an imagination, that one!

Vermont Maple Festival!

We went to the Vermont Maple Festival yesterday. It's one of my favorite things for a few reasons. First of all, I really love maple syrup. I htink it's a requirement of living here. Also, the maple festival marks the start of spring for me. Yeah, yeah, I know it's been spring for over a month, but this is Vermont people!

We had a great time. We started the day with the annual pancake breakfast. There was a great little band with fiddles and guitars and a guy playing the spoons. The kids LOVED that, and Aisling discovered her dress was great for twirling! Next we headed out to a craft fair at the high school. This was a little dissapointing. We were looking forward to doing some Christmas shopping, but we really didn't find much. We also had a bunch of stuff with us, and it was hard to navigate. We had Wyatt and his wheelchair. (It's just too much for him to walk all day). We also had the baby in the Ergo carrier. Then we had the wagon for the biggers. It's an extremely long day, and Aisling still gets a bit tired. We also had it for Siobhan so she could sit in the wagon and see better. This is our wagon. However, ours also has this attachable trailer on it. So, when you have insane amounts of children (and things) like us, you can drag it all behind you. This is actually really convieneint for things like the diaper bag, the kid bag (which had water, and cameras, and sunblock) and things we bought. But, we were like the shriners in a parade.
Annoying small people that just keep coming.After the craft fair we went on some carnival rides. This was great, but so super hot. Then we went to our annual meal with our friends. Between all of us and our children we realized we were 11 people! (And only four adults! I bet you wish you were there too!)

Finally with some sugar on snow, maple cotton candy, and maple creemees, we were on our way home!

The ice princess

The matching sister on the carousel

Argh

Also, Here's a quick picture of Siobhan and her walker: She's making some great strides!

Not in chronological order.

I noticed I haven't updated this in a while. I also notice I've been falling asleep on the couch every single night right after putting the kids to bed. Sad. At any rate, I have a lot to update.

First let's talk about cub scouts. Connor participated in the Pinewood Derby. The first three kids from each den get to move on and go to the district finals. (Connor has four kids in his den. Bummer for that fourth kids, eh?) Connor came in second place, and off we went. The district Derby was a pretty cool event, but it was extremely loud and busy. What seemed like over 100 boys and their siblings packed into a very small concrete building. It was a tad overwhelming. (And when I say tad I mean I was trying hard not to have a temper tantrum along with the kids). Connor did extremely well. He held himself together like a champ. His car was also quite fast. They did not give us the rundown, but watching times I'd wager a guess that he was in the top five. Not enough to move him onward, but enough to be proud of himself. He left with a medal and a patch. Good day.

(Connor came in first in this round!)

(Aisling played outside during the races.)

Then of course, there was St. Patrick's day. Even amongst the anxiety of taking the baby to the hospital, we managed to make a few leprechaun traps. Still no leprechauns captured this year, but not for lack of trying. Those little buggers are pretty tricky. They did, however, leave the kids some chocolate coins and a necklace kit. They also turned a few things green, like cereal milk.
Aisling and I went to the town Easter egg hunt. It was for kids under age 6, so she was very excited to have her own special time.

Easter was a blast as always. I love getting the kids dressed up! (Although they only stay clean for milliseconds...) We took them to Sears for portraits, which was interesting at best. I think this particular clerk was unprepared for the storm which is the Frugoli clan. Oh well, they're not awful. We also has our annual Easter Egg hunt. We had eight kids participate this year, which meant I was up filling 80 Easter eggs! The kids had a blast, and we found all the eggs! (Unlike last year where we found some a few days later!) This year it was bitterly cold, so some eggs were, let's just say, hidden quite easily (and quickly).(The children's choir singing on Easter)

(8 1/2 egg hunters =83 eggs for Heather to fill and hide!)

The baby is just changing every day, as babies do. She's crawling all over the place now, and working on walking. She's absolutely hysterical and loves to make her siblings laugh. She also has a mind of her own and has no shame about going in for the kill when manhandled too much. I think she'll survive this big family with no problem at all!

Lastly, we finally took down the baby cradle. I cannot believe that the kids were all small enough to sleep in there!


*Phew* That's it for now. Hopefully I'll update more often!

Mommy's little helper.

You'll not be seeing any photographic updates of the children anytime soon, oh no. So, if you're here just for that, I suggest coming back in a week or two (or a month...). Our camera has gone to the big photo development lab in the sky. How, you ask? Well, a certain four year old is quite the helper. See, Aisling is the middle child. And, as such, one of her survival techniques in this crazy family is to be the pleasing, helpful, and all around wonderful child. (Minus the crazy tantrums, but we'll just chock that up to the Irish/Italian blending). The other day she took the camera to take pictures of her room which was, of all things, CLEAN! She brought the camera back down and it was wet. Al decided (after hesitation I'm sure) to ask why the camera was wet. (Had she washed her hands and gotten it wet? Had she gotten a drink and gotten it wet?) The answer was that she had washed it. (How utterly helpful...). And how did you wash it? Al wants to know of course. (or, does he...) Did you wipe it with a baby wipe? A washcloth? Oh no, of course not. She took the camera and submerged it into a sink full of water. Of course, when one washes things, one needs soap. So, clearly the purple foaming soap is perfect for washing cameras, dontcha think? The camera left this little session cleaner, shinier, and wetter. Sadly water and digital cameras do not mix well. So, we are without our pocket sized camera. We do have a larger camera, but it's a pain to use. It is, however, dry.