Our Busy Birthday Week

Birthday week (Ben's on the 3rd and mine on the 8th) provided a very busy agenda for the kids.  Let's take a look at it, shall we?

[x] Broke Lily's dresser.  Then decided that since it was broken they might as well throw out every. single. piece. of. clothing.  It also smelled INCREDIBLE when I walked in to discover this.  Turns out that they had gotten their hands on my microscopic bath beads.  They were dispersed in her sheets, carpet, and in the clothing scattered all over her room.  LOTS of vacuuming followed.
[x] Tore down the "E" on her wall and renamed herself Lily "Jan."
[x] Cried endlessly.  As in I probably got a grand total of a whole hour each day without tears being shed.
[x] When I comforted then I must have looked like a fabulous punching bag.
[x] Drew on the walls with pen.
[x] Begged and screamed to go outside until we went outside and then they begged and screamed to go back inside.
[x] Requested specific food each meal (FINALLY!  THEY'LL EAT!!!) and then refused to eat any of it.

UGH.

By the end of the week I was ready to die/throw in the towel/eat a lifetime supply of chocolate.

BUT....

Sometimes fabulous things start happening. 

The night before my birthday we decided to go on a random walk around the neighborhood.  We went a way we've never been before.  At one point Ben asked me if we should take the long way or the short way.  Since the kids were so happy (and quiet) in the stroller I thought we should do the long walk.  What luck!  Ben and I started talking about how nice it would be to have some crape myrtles in our yard.  Then Ben said, "Do you know what would be awesome?  If someone let us cut off a branch and we could try planting them.  Do you know if you can do that?"  I had no idea.  Lo and behold we turned around a corner a couple of minutes later and WABAM!  Someone was trimming down their crape myrtles in the exact color Ben said he'd like to have them in.  They were throwing the excess away.  They saw us staring at them with our jaws dropped and they introduced themselves.  And of course they let us take as many branches as we wanted.  We stuck them in a bucket of water and found out that, lo and behold, you can start a tree from just a branch.  Happy birthday to me!

On Ben's birthday (a Sunday) we had just finished watching Legacy (a movie about the Mormon pioneers) and The Testament (a movie about Christ's life) when it was time to put the babies in bed.  Every night Lily asks for snuggles after we say family prayer so one of us will stay with her for a couple of minutes and then say goodnight.  That night Lily melted us with what she said: "Mommy, tonight I want to snuggle with Jesus."

Then on my birthday I neglected all housework and sat on the couch with the kids as we watched Tangled.  When Rapunzel talked about how it was her birthday Lily said, "It's not 'Punzel's' birthday!  It's Mommy's Birthday!"

Every now and then I have those weeks where everything is as crazy as a Johnny Depp movie.  Sometimes I wonder if I actually will laugh at this sometime or just try to erase it from my memory.  But it seems like when I have these rare weeks, I also get the really great gold nuggets from the kids that last forever. 

For example, sometimes when you've just about had it after dinner, take your kids outside and hand them a hose.  It'll be worth it: