Random February

Almost every weekend in February was rained out, which meant softball games were cancelled and we had to find alternate ideas of things to do inside, which are not plentiful around here! Home Depot craft to the rescue.

So much rain this month!

Group hug!

Every day, Meredith asks when Eleanor can share her room. I’m not sure how Eleanor feels about that.

Samantha had her yearly eye appointment and her eyes are looking good.

Another rainy day project… the twins made a car, complete with steering wheel out of a box and styrofoam.

Post-bath silliness.

Hey, sis.

After four weeks, Amelia got her cast off! Her arm wasn’t completely healed, so she wore a brace we could take on and off for another two weeks. Amelia was so happy that itchy thing was off of her.

Organizing Jake’s coin collection.

The girls were torturing playing peekaboo with Eleanor.

Back at the school’s fundraiser during the fall, I won a silent auction item of a pizza party for Samantha and six of her friends with Miss Holly. We planned it for the half-day before President’s Day weekend and the party was a blast! I thought Miss Holly was just bringing pizza for Samantha, Amelia, and the friends Samantha chose for her party, and thought that was pretty brave. But Miss Holly actually had them MAKE the pizzas. I can barely handle making pizza with our three, let alone eight kindergarteners/preschoolers. Miss Holly is a pro and everything was so organized and ran seamlessly. The kids even made dessert pizzas afterwards. Miss Holly told me that now she understands how Samantha must be at home— Samantha is usually so quiet and reserved at school that her teachers never believe me when I tell them how rambunctious and silly she is at home. At the pizza party, Samantha and her friend, Emily, were dancing like crazy to the music Miss Holly put on and were being super silly. Miss Holly said it was fun to see Samantha come out of her shell!

Amelia felt lucky to be one of the friends Samantha invited to the party.

My friends, Venus and Debi, came to visit Eleanor and she just ate up all the attention.

Eleanor presided over our sushi feast.

Park day with Maple.

On the hunt for poor rollie pollies who would die from the elements, neglected in the cage Meredith put them in.

Unicorn sighting.

Explorers on a voyage around our neighborhood.

Meredith with her rolly pollies and her new dog.

Meredith in her natural habitat– photos from Aunt Sarah when she came to visit.

Giganto-baby.

I came downstairs to find the girls had attacked Eleanor with hairbows.

HELP ME.

Eleanor had been crawling backwards since December and every day, we tried to encourage her forward with no luck. We figured out that some of her footie pajamas were so tight around her chubby thighs that her mobility was restricted! She seemed to do a little bit better naked, but still didn’t crawl for real until a few days after her 8-month birthday.

 

Typical 4th kid… Eleanor crawled for the first time and no one was around to see it!! Lots of chaos going on in the background, courtesy of the twins. I walked in and thought, “Hey, how did you get over here?!” and then realized she must have crawled!

Lots of love,

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Everyday January

Eleanor tried lots of new foods in January! Green beans are not her favorite, but everything else she gobbles up. I’ve been experimenting making baby food in the Instant Pot… she still prefers store-bought pouches because she can feed herself.

GIVE ME THE SPOON.

 

 

January alternated between lovely, sunny days and freezing, rainy ones.

We attempted to teach Meredith the concept behind leapfrog.

She decided riding on her sisters was more fun.

Eleanor giggles at her sisters’ antics.

Every night before bed, Meredith asks to give Eleanor a little hug. She’s been begging to let Eleanor sleep in her room too, but that won’t happen for a while.

Rest stop on a hike.

Perfecting magnatile towers.

On one rainy Saturday, Jake took the girls to do crafts at Home Depot. They were proud of their Valentine’s box creations.

Eleanor continued to crawl backwards and even learned to spin around, but still didn’t quite get how to crawl forwards.

The girls created a car for themselves out of a huge box and styrofoam.

Meredith loves to fill the basket in her bike with random toys to bring to the park.

Samantha and Amelia went to Harper’s birthday party at Zoomars and spent almost the entire time feeding and petting every single guinea pig.

We had one week that was straight up torrential downpours every day. After school one day, I announced we were having a read-a-thon. I had to explain what that was a million times, but the girls eventually went along with it. We pulled out all of our bins of books and binge-read picture books all afternoon.

Eleanor’s favorite toys.

Playdate with Maple and Gavin inside on a rainy day!

Wearing one of Maple’s old size 2T sleepers!

We got to meet Amy’s new baby– sweet Carter!

Meredith’s playgroup for 2016 babies. Many of the moms also have 2018 babies like Eleanor, so both toddler and babies have some friends!

Art and projects from school this month:

At teacher conference, Samantha and Amelia’s teachers showed me the little word books they’ve done recently and said how impressed they were by the drawings! I’d say those are pretty detailed for a five-year-old!

 

We practiced catch and batting to get ready for the upcoming softball season. Hit a home run, Amelia!

 

Lots of love,

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Beach Cruisers, Tanks, and August Adventures

In August, the girls checked off quite a few items from their summer bucket list, and then some.

$2 movie matinee with a probably $20 ridiculously enormous bucket of popcorn:

Biking on the boardwalk in Newport Beach, riding the Balboa ferry and playing games at the Balboa Fun Zone:

Beach cruisin’

    


Sunburned and exhausted!

Once again, the twins picked out everyone’s outfits for church.

Outfit change and after church bike ride.

There was some kind of safety fair going on at the park and the girls had a blast checking out the fire trucks, police car, and an army tank.

 

Ready to report for duty.

It’s not summer without an outdoor concert.

Daredevils at the skate park:

Jake and the girls ran into Parker and Maple at Home Depot!

The kids made some cute bookends!

In case you’re wondering where pictures of Eleanor and I are on these outings, there are none! Jake took the girls on pretty much every one of outings the entire summer, giving Eleanor and I some much needed peace and quiet on the weekends!

All of our babies get baby acne around 6 weeks, and Eleanor was no exception 🙁

  

Most of our kids complained about tummy time, but Eleanor hardly seemed to care we were forcing her to strengthen those neck muscles!

 

Hanging out with her favorite baby friend.

  

Meredith loved meeting Marisa and being cuddled for hours!

        

Contemplating the meaning of life…

Hmmmm…interesting…

Lots of love,

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Preschool Golf Ball Drop and Life In Between

To end their first year of preschool, the girls participated in their first golf ball drop as part of a fundraiser for their school. Friends and family purchased golf balls in their names and were entered in a raffle to win cash. The night of the fundraiser, a helicopter dropped all the purchased golf balls onto the golf course, and whichever ones were closest to the designated hole, won the cash prizes. We didn’t win, but, as promised, all the kids were amazed with the helicopter and all those balls! Leading up to the golf ball drop, we were all very curious as to how it was all going to work. How did they label all those balls? How close would the helicopter get? What if there was a tie? We were intrigued!

As the suspense built up, Samantha and Amelia had a blast running around the green with Ella and some of their preschool friends (and, subsequently, annoying all the golfers who were so unfortunate to be there that night). They thought it was funny to see their friends in a context outside of school! After the golf ball drop, the school hosted dinner at the golf course and all the kids ran around the green with the dads watching (i.e. they were completely unsupervised). It was a unique and fun way to spend the evening, although trying to have a conversation while keeping Samantha, Amelia and Ella away from the fire pits after they finished their dinner in only two minutes, on top of keeping an overtired Meredith at bay, was not exactly relaxing.

SO excited.

Everyone cheered as the helicopter hovered, golf balls rained down from the sky and then bounced all over the place, like little ping pong balls.

Run, kids, run!

And the winner is… Gabriel’s mom from Amelia’s class!

I wish I could get the girls to clean up this fast at home. When asked to pick up all the golf balls, the kids didn’t hesitate!

Meredith thought she could run away with a little souvenir.

In between preschool days, we alternate between playing, biking and scootering at the local parks, going to to the library, hanging out at the local pools and splash pads, and feeding the geese at the lake. Meredith is in the dreaded stage between one and two naps, but the majority of the time, she still really needs that morning nap, so we only have about an hour and a half or so to get out in the morning after she wakes up and before returning home for lunch. It’s a tight schedule, but it’s nice for the twins and I to have some alone time while she’s napping and hang out at home without having to rush off anywhere. The twins are in a golden stage of being capable of spending hours coloring, doing crafts, playing tea party, picnic and school pretty much on their own, with the occasional intervention from me when things start to go south.

Meredith is up; time to hit the lake!

Meredith wanted to keep all the bird seed to herself.

The twins love to live on the edge by climbing on the SECOND closest rocks to the water, after I told them not to climb on the rocks right next to the edge.

On typical Saturdays, either Jake or I take the girls to their yoga/ballet class and then we either all meet up with Meredith, or the twins go with Dad on their own for a quick outing. With our move, they’ve been spending a good amount of time at Home Depot lately and on a supply trip, they stopped in for one of the workshops. The girls constructed a mini tic tac toe game and were proud to display their handiwork when they got home!

Nice hammering skills, Amelia.

 

 

We love Sendero park on Sunday afternoons. There are these wavy concrete structures that circle the park and the girls spend the entire time running up and down, pretty much ignoring the actual playground.  I think that’s Amelia in the background attempting to somersault on the concrete. Ouch.

Monkey Amelia.

On any given outing, I usually end up with a stroller full of leaves and bouquets of flowers the girls collect for me. Heaven forbid I don’t put them in a glass of water as soon as I get home… they always notice if I’ve forgotten one of their flowers!

The girls always receive compliments on their bike riding and are really getting the hang of it!

Lots of love,

 

 

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