April Vacation 2014 Part 2

The rest of vacation week was nice and relaxing.  The snow is mostly gone, so we are able to get outside and play. James continues to be the caregiver for Audrey and thinks that she likes to be fed;)  Audrey has is getting her molars in before most of her front teeth which has made her a bit cranky.  Grammy came for a visit, we built a robot and Noah & James found their fire chief sweatshirts from Chief Brown.

April Vacation 2014 Part 1: Portland Visit

Wow, it has been a while!  I try not to let things go this long, but we have had some frustrating internet problems that, I hope, are now worked out:)  At the beginning of April vacation week Ben had an appointment south, so we decided to take the family and have a fun day visiting "our old home in the city" as our kids refer to Portland.  We started at Mackworth Island which wasn't super warm, but it was low tide so we were able to do some exploring while getting exercise and having lunch at the pet cemetery.  Our next stop was Willard Beach where all three boys put their feet in the water!  James threw a stick out a little too far into the ocean, then proceeded to try and ask each dog that ran by to swim out and get it for him:)  Audrey LOVED the sand and happily crawled around at the playground... maybe we will be able to take her to the beach this summer.  When Ben was this age we couldn't stop him from continually eating the sand, so beach going wasn't super pleasant. Overall it was just a really great family day exploring nature!

Easter Fun 2014

Happy Easter!  We had a fantastic weekend filled with fun, friends and eventually sun!  This top picture is of James's latest dress-up creation... a spoon, construction, cowboy spider:)  We had friends over for a big Easter party with egg dyeing, an egg hunt, and some very brief outdoor egg games due to the frigid temperatures and wind.  Despite the weather, we still persisted and had our first BBQ of the season! 

All three kids worked very hard on coloring pictures to hang on their doors for the easter bunny to see... they were pretty thrilled that he left a paw print on each one for them. We had just a wonderful low-key family day on Easter Sunday.  The kids had a ball because the day basically consisted of them eating chocolate for 2 out of the 3 meals that day... I think we will play things differently next year;) Audrey even had her first Cadbury egg. She started eating it with the wrapper on and screamed when Gabe took the shiny wrapping off... note the tears on her face... once she finally took a bite the world was a better place;) After church, we spent most of the day putting together legos from the easter bunny and playing with the rocket out back.  We also were able to try out our new patio set thanks to the clearance/last year's rejects section of our local Walmart.  We took a few attempts at a family photo... if only Noah had opened his eyes;)

Spring?

It looks like spring is on it's way!  (I will forget that this morning we had an inch of snow and it didn't get above 24 degrees today with a whipping wind...) The snow has been melting very quickly and has even left some bare spots in our yard!  As a result, we have been hard at work putting together all of the items we have collected over the last few months for outdoor play.  The first up was this climbing dome shaped structure (I am sure it has an official name, I just don't know it;)).  James helped me finish it during nap time the other day and he hasn't gotten off of it since.  He says that he is a spider and is really quite good at climbing and hanging.  Noah is a bit more cautious and prefers to be a monkey.  Ben, mercifully, is not quite tall enough to climb... I am sure that he is only a few months away from being able to do so, but that gives us a few months reprieve... He is, however, very happy to hang and swing from the bottom wrung and loves to pretend to be a trapped animal inside... maybe that live trap did leave an impression.  This picture is showing off the princess dress he has been wearing for a few days now. An official sure sign of spring  is that the kids are running around with no socks... yes, there is still a lot of snow on the ground... they play a game to see who can stand in the snow the longest before jumping off and screaming at how cold their feet are.... I eventually did convince them to wear sandals;)  Most excitingly we were finally able to take down the last of the Christmas decorations!  The garland and extension cords finally came unburied from the snow!

Last weekend we attended a kids Easter celebration at church where the kids were able to participate in lots of fun activities.  Everyone's favorite memory was when James went to throw the whipped cream plate at the "fox" and threw it so hard it went up into the air and landed on his head! 

Noah has been working very hard on his reading both at school and at home.  He is getting so good that all of his siblings like to sit around and listen to him read his "books from school"... even Audrey!

This bottom picture is not quite as cruel as it looks;)  I was in the office and Gabe was playing with the kids (Ben included) in the front room.  I heard Ben say (in a calm, quite voice), "Help please, need some help please".  I walked into the bathroom/laundry room and had to turn right around and walk back out because I was laughing so hard.  Gabe walked in just behind me and said, "Ben, I'll tell you what, I will help you, but first I am going to take your picture".  This made Ben pretty mad and he started screaming.  What he is stuck in is our cloth diaper/"accident"/pee underwear/all things gross bucket.  Apparently he was mad that I had taken something away and he tried to stand on it to try and reach higher... I think he learned his lesson;)  He looks at this picture now, laughs and says, "I stuck, I so funny, hahaha".

Audrey's Birthday Party Weekend

Audrey had a fun birthday weekend complete with a rainbow party.  She was very excited for her cake, but seemed to prefer licking the plate instead. It took some help from her brothers to show her just how to eat the cake;) We ended the night with a pajama premier of Frozen for the grandparents (and Gabe).  It was a great weekend, thanks to everyone who made the trip!