Dinner With Kathy

Seeing Kathy is such a rare (and wonderful) treat and tonight we were blessed with a full meal and local entertainment with her and her son. The boys all had the best time playing together at the house while we (Kathy) prepared dinner and all caught up. We had an excellent dinner of ribs and hot dogs and afterwards we joined Kathy and her son on their normal nightly routine of walking to the river and checking out the critters that live around there.  Apparently she has a crawdad trap and previously in the week, half of it broke loose and got stuck. Today, it had floated close enough to reach (with a big stick and wet pants) and it was quite the victory for her to fetch it out of the water. 

There were plenty of ducks and geese roaming about the boat ramp (we weren't graced with the river otters presence or the local turtles) and they didn't seem to care one bit that we were there. The boys were all finding rocks to throw into the water to see which would scatter the most fish and make the biggest splash. 

Even Bug joined in the fun of finding rocks (or more likely, duck poo) to throw into the water and every time her rock actually hit the water she would get all excited and celebrate.

We stayed down there by the river for nearly an hour. The kids had an amazing time together (even though Hyde couldn't remember Kathy's son's name and kept calling him Logan) and it was such a great way to spend our Saturday evening.


I didn't take my pervy camera today because I didn't think we'd be doing anything where I could steal pictures of the kids. I'm grateful I had my pocket camera although the darker it got outside the more my camera struggled to take my preferred shots. Despite all this, I still had a really tough time narrowing down my pictures today meaning I posted them... Here.

Kiss, Axe!

"Kiss, Axe!"
 Evelyn ran up to Alex at the park and wanted
a kiss and a hug from her big brother.

Using the seats and drums

Why wear shoes when it's much more fun
to carry them? She kept kicking off her
 'meow boots' and liked to carry them
around by the handles.

Long night of shopping (3.5 hours ending at 11:30), but now I have a beautifully full fridge filled with healthy foods AND I was able to  complete four Tuna Casseroles (one for our friends who just had a baby, and three for our freezer).  Happiness, is knowing you have healthy food for your family

. 

Boxed Nap

Toy boxes are meant for emptying out and sitting in to watch Blue's Clues... 

or at least that's what my daughter seems to think. 

She's always loved sitting in small boxes. Hampers, toy containers, boxes; it never matters, she just climbs in and just chills in her new little home. 

She stayed in her toy box for the episode of Blue's Clues and was not happy when I took her out to put the toys back in it. 

Very shortly after we picked up Noah both of them zonked out in the car. 

Sun, Sand, and Slide Licker

I still feel ill from the medication they have me on, but I didn't want to let it slow me down so after Noah went home I took the kids to the park to play (and on a selfish note I had library books past due so we had to go anyway). It was a very pleasant surprise to see the big kid section of the park completed so there is something for everyone now. Evelyn has a gated area where everything is close to the ground, and just outside the gate everything is bigger and filled with ladders and fake rocks for the bigger kids to be able to let their wild side out. With the new structure the kids were having so much fun so we stayed longer than I planed and then had to rush through the store to get the ingredients for chinese chicken salad for dinner. Totally worth it.

Playing together with thd sand to make a "really big pile"

Catching Isaac not trying to be in the

picture gets the best pictures of him. He kept 

climbing in and out of the bars near the bridge. 

He thought it was great fun, Evelyn found it scary 

every time the bridge would shimmy and shake 

when he jumped on it.

She may look cute,
 but she's actually giving orders.

Isaac and Alex were running all over playing hide and seek, tag, and whatever else came to mind. It was great to see them getting along so wonderfully (no fighting!).



Evelyn took to slide licking (I was NOT happy about that) and would run circles around the lady bug slide; up the steps, down the slide, and back again (with a short pause at the top of the steps to lick the graffiti).

Having come down the tree trunk slide
she decided it was time to go back up... the wrong way.

Bunnies, Baskets, and Birthdays

Another year, another birthday, and this time Mom's special day fell on Easter (first time ever!). It was really a great treat being able to get the whole family together to hang out, even Grandma and Catherine were able to attend!



All the kids got their own basket, and by random draw had their own colored eggs to find. Most of Evelyn's were found and delivered to her by her cousins, but she did find one of her yellow eggs inside the Dora tent... and then she decided that while she was in there it would be the perfect time open the eggs she already had and to eat the goodies inside them. Namely, the chocolate. She had way more chocolate than any 1 year old ever should have but even though she didn't take a nap, and didn't eat all that much protein, she really was in a great mood.

Although the day started off rocky when we would ask her if she was excited to see everyone (the answer was some form of yes, except for Auntie Lissa-and then it was "no. Scared") she did warm up by the end of the night playing with Melissa and even called out several "bye bye lis lissa. See you later" when we all got in our cars to leave. That was however, not before Auntie Lissa got her chance to terrorize (not really) her by taking her picture when she was throwing a tantrum.

 The party went late (usual for our family) and we got a very rare (although poorly planned) thing: A family picture with EVERYONE in it and smiling. Several working families all coming together at the same is a rare thing and a picture capturing it is indeed special. Thank you very much to Haily: without whom we would of never been able to achieve this special birthday wish.

Busy Day, Time for Pie!

What?! Two posts in one day?! Crazy, I know.

We had a relaxing day and home and ended it at Brookfields for dessert (and food Evelyn would actually eat). I love that she's getting old enough to want to color on the place mats now. It's so much fun to watch her practice her circles and call out letters she recognizes (she was also pointing out the window at our booth pointing to all the big letters-especially the 'R'- on the neon signs outside). 

Evelyn takes her coloring very seriously. She now likes to make sure her whole picture is pretty with color and circles and even points out the letters as she colors over them. 

Finishing my day off with some long anticipated
 berry pie from Brookfields.

That should hold me over for another month or so.
Mmmmm, how I love berry pie!

Plastic Eggs for Sleepy Toes

Having come into a family with older children sometimes I feel like I miss out on some of the fun toddler things there are to do, especially around the (Ick!) consumer holidays. Chick-fil-A does this huge Egg hunt every year that I've heard is really good so I convinced Cliff to wake up with me and the baby and go check it out. I'm glad I went, if for no other reason than seeing Evelyn stare down the cow and walk backwards away from it, even though I will not be attending again.

There were more than enough eggs, and the whole thing is divided by age so that every group gets a fair chance. You would think the adults have never done an egg hunt before because they were the ones collecting (running, shoving, pushing, stealing) the eggs, not the kids-who were all under the age of 2.









Despite that, Evelyn was able to find 6 eggs and was thrilled to find (and eat) a tootsie roll from inside one of them.

We tried to get her to take her nap earlier in the day (during her normal time) but she refused and just sat in her crib and played.

5 hours later and she could run no more.... she literally fell over asleep in the play room.

Mr. Green Fingers

 Today we colored eggs to get them ready for Easter. We won't have the boys for the holiday but I really wanted to be able to dye eggs with them anyway (that's the best part!). I was planning on taking their picture with the eggs, but Kim came early to pick them up, so here is their handy work *sniffle* without them. Towards the end they really wanted to keep adding more colored drops to the dye to make more vibrant colors. Alex also thought that maybe if he held it in the water (yes, turning his fingers very green) they would turn out better then if they were just set in there. Pretty funny and one more thing I wish I could of captured before they left. I didn't have glitter to roll the eggs in like I had hoped, but they still turned out beautiful.

Alex shared his Ring Pop with Evelyn today, I think she approves of this pacifier! 

Yesterday Cliff had to work late and Evelyn didn't get to see him at all so today she wanted to play her favorite game with him....She would climb up onto the couch, carefully get onto the arm rest, and then jump on his back, holding on tight enough to cut circulation, waiting for him to run, rock, or bounce.

 She LOVES to jump on your back like a baby spider monkey. She's not always as sneaky as when she scales the couch; sometimes she just tells you to get down so she can climb on, but hearing her giggle makes it worth it every time.

Doctor Pains

2 weeks of a headache and 2 days of fighting a migraine. I can't take it, thank God for insurance, I'm taking my butt into the doctor to get something better than the Imitrex I'm currently taking (and seems to have no effect).
Unfortunately I can't get in until 2pm (after I have all the kids). Lucky for me, Kim chose to stay home and keep the boys so I only have the 2 babies. The office wasn't thrilled, but it worked out okay. Sometimes, life happens.


To keep Evelyn calm while they were taking my blood pressure (totally freaked her out for some reason) I let her see her picture on my camera (and later take a picture).

She's actually posing for me. You can see Noah sitting in the
background on the chair. Evelyn wanted to be next to me to
make sure I was okay.

Evelyn's picture of me 

Buckling her in just before I took the camera back

Super Shopper

Since we didn't have Noah on Tuesday I knew I wanted to do something with the kids. I was planning on taking them to Funtastic (would of been a 24 dollar excursion) but that morning I got a message from Amy telling us that we were invited to join her and the kids at the Movies. When I gave the boys a choice of Funtastic or the Movies, they chose the movie. This was Evelyn's first time (I was super grateful the theater was outrageously loud) and she did great. Wanted to snuggle and watch the movie until the last 30 minutes when she started falling asleep and decided that she needed get up and play. We watched 'Hop' and everyone really liked it. 

Drinking her breakfast shake waiting for the movie to start. 

After the movies (and naps) we went to the store so I could take advantage of a coupon I found for $1 off pasta that was on sale for $.99 at Bel Air. It took awhile to get all the coupons in but everyone was very nice and after Alex saw what we were getting for our $5.15 he was happy and said it was worth it. 

Bittersweet Goodbye to the Pigs

3 Weeks ago (maybe 4) we told the boys we were getting rid of the pets. They no longer want to take care of them and to be fair to everyone (our noses, the pets, the kids) we decided to find a new home for them where they will be cared for and played with better than we do. 

It's been more difficult that we expected, but we found new owners today and the kids were all really sad about it (even though they knew it was coming). This is the first time the boys pulled the 'guys' out to play with in months (Evelyn played with them almost every day they were in the house). 

Final time getting to hold 'guy'. She always asked for the 'brown one'.

Isaac and Evelyn saying goodbye to their pet Biscuit

I actually was a little sad to see them go (Evelyn started crying hysterically when I let the new owner hold Fortune) but I'm glad they went to a home who really wants them.

Warm Rain

She figured out that she didn't have to come down the slide after climbing up the ladder and to make it even more fun Mama would freak out as she ran around up top playing with her cousins

                                                                                                          Evelyn talking to Drew about throwing the rope.

Playing in the house didn't last too long because there was a stray wasp.

Watching the wasp walk around

Alex used my camera and got Drew to put on one of his best smiles!

Friday/Saturday

Friday I hit up the JBF sale and came home with a great haul for $123. I'm hoping to post a picture of that soon...

That afternoon/evening we were cleaning getting ready for our friends to come on Saturday.

Our friends were from out of state and we haven't seen them in over a year so we were more into catching up then me taking pictures. She's due in June and looks great.
We also had a surprise visit from out of town friends (also pregnant-due any day) and their daughter. She's 1 year younger than Isaac and the three kids were having a GREAT time playing together... so great that when it was time for them to go to lunch their daughter wanted to stay with us. We gladly kept her (and sent them on probably their last solo date for awhile) and after we all ate she snuggled on the couch with Cliff watching Blue's Clues. Would of loved to snap that picture, but she never feels comfortable enough to stay when her parents leave so I wasn't about to jeopardize that. Great day though and I'll make up for it tomorrow when we all head up to the farm.

Updated with that promised picture!

Dun na. Dun na. Sand Shark!

 

Another sunny day with very little homework means we got to search out new parks. Love these kinds of days! I felt like trying out a new park today and since we were unsure how long we'd have Noah we chose one near his house. We found out he LOVES lying in the sand like a little sand shark.  Evelyn would follow the boys all over the park whenever one of them tried to run off and play something else. 

Isaac finally got it and got really fast at it.

 Alex figured out how to spin very quickly down  this thing and promptly taught his brother the secret. They spent most of the time running back up the equipment to swirl down again!

I noticed some plastic coins in the sand and  the boys then took turns burring it and then playing "hot or cold" until they found it again. The game ended when they both forgot where that spot actually was. 

First thing Evelyn saw was this little play area. She ran to it first thing, clasped her hands, and started talking in her sweetest voice telling all the world her beautiful story. Alex was there playing with her and I got him to pose for a moment so I could snap this picture of the two of them.