Eleanor has a new friend who also has a house that backs on the park, just a little way down the path from us. We ran into her and her sisters and played on the frozen creek.
Around this time Patrick decided coats were dumb and only blankets were worthy of warming him as he played outside. It's tough to ride a scooter while simultaneously holding on to your blanket.
Pretending to be giraffes.
She's so lovely. I tried to make her wear a Seahawks shirt for the SuperBowl but she was adamant about not wearing a boy shirt. Nathan put a pink shirt under it and put on two tutus and only then would Eleanor deign to wear the inferior shirt. Girlfriend has some definite opinions about fashion.
In contrast, here is Patrick with his face covered in dirt in his standard outfit of boots, shorts, and a tshirt.
But Eleanor doesn't let fancy clothes hold her back from park fun.
Bradley is such a great big brother. Patrick is his little shadow these days.
Apparently we have hit birthday season and the kids have been having a blast attending a number of parties. Here is Eleanor at her friend's Wellie Wishers themed birthday party. I gave Eleanor an officially licensed, fancy American Girl doll to bring to the party and she mostly carried it around by its hair ...
Eleanor dressed in Wellie Wisher uniform of cute skirt, top, and rain boots and we got a fair bit of commentary from people about how cute she looked.
While we were at the mall (where the party took place) I returned a couple items and while we were walking along a man from a perfume stall called out "Hi, gorgeous! For you!" while holding out a sample for me. I chuckled and said "No thank you." Then Eleanor ran up and grabbed the sample. The girl is not short on self esteem.
But who can blame her? She IS rather gorgeous. I got her a chocolate covered marshmallow for the ride home. Solo girl time is rare for us.
Eleanor has been loving her tap and ballet class, especially since she is with her friend Ava in the class.
However, I fear that friend time may sometimes distract from actual dancing.
They really are good though, Eleanor is pretty excited to learn new moves and we practice dance class at home sometimes and I'll call out position 1, 2, or 3 and have her curtsy and spin around. The teacher said she was very graceful and had excellent coordination, which I try to use as a comfort to me when she falls out of her chair at the kitchen table for no apparent reason.
More party! All three kids went to this play center and had a blast.
Patrick did insist that this was the only possible way to get down.
And Patrick running along the trampoline was very exciting and had lots of flair.
Still inseparable from Bradley.
The whole party crew. We love a good party!
Party trinkets!
Eleanor went to a girl party this past weekend where they braided hair and painted nails and basically made all of Eleanor's dreams come true.
They also played a cute version of musical chairs. Eleanor was very pleased to tie for the win!
And a play date with Bradley's friend Jane. Laundry baskets are always the best of toys.
It's funny, someone asked the other day if Eleanor napped still and I said "No, not really." But I guess that is a false statement when we have so much fun and exciting things going on.
Sometimes even the boys get a little tuckered out. But mostly it's when Daddy is reading to them at bedtime and they are so so tired.
Okay, there are a lot of sleeping Eleanor pictures in this post. What happens is I leave her to play on her own while I get Patrick down for his nap and then I come back downstairs to find a sleeping girl.
Can you find the sleeping Patrick in this photo? He has NOT been a fan of his naps lately and generally messes around a bit until he finally falls asleep.
There has been some quality kitty time this past month.
They are so sweet and tolerate a fair amount of hunt down and love the kitty games by Eleanor and Patrick. Bradley still mostly ignores them. You parent as much as you can but I guess you can't force a kid to become a crazy cat person. Fortunately, Eleanor and Patrick are fully on board.
What weekend reading time looks like for me.
Okay, and sometimes my weekends look like this. It's rough for all involved.
Cuddling Patrick to sleep still mostly doesn't work, despite his earnest requests for snuggles or he will be so lonely.
The pluto stuffed toy had to lick my face a LOT once I got into bed with the boy and there was no sleep to be had for anyone.
Patrick and Eleanor playing with toy dinosaurs:
Patrick: "Where's your mom?"
Eleanor: "We don't know, maybe heaven."
These kids and laundry baskets. I took Bradley to martial arts one evening and came home to find this. Nathan said they were fighting until he gave them books and put them in separate laundry baskets.
Eleanor song: "everyyyybody bites their friends, bites their friends, bites their friends, wheeeeeen it's Halloween!"
Oh my. Can you tell this is quite the impish duo at lunchtime most days?
Playing our favorite guessing game at lunch.
Eleanor had a teddy bear picnic at school a couple weeks ago and her teachers took some nice pictures. She has so much fun at her preschool!
Our church had a "connection night" for parents of kids aged 4-5 and we had a lot of fun telling jokes and doing some science experiments.
Me: "Bradley, maybe don't put your hands in ..."
Oh well, luckily his hands didn't get stained by the food coloring.
We are also so impressed by our elementary school. They had an Olympic games literacy night where in theory we could have learned something but mostly we at cookies and Bradley found Legos and then wouldn't go anywhere else for the rest of the evening.
This kid and Legos. It's an obsession.
Bradley has had a rough bought with a stomach bug following flu and pneumonia treated by antibiotics, so I was rather anxious about how he was doing with his lunch once I sent him back to school. I asked him if he was able to eat his entire lunch and he cheerfully replied "Yeah, and extra too!" I asked where he had gotten extra and he informed me that there were delicious muffins at the cafeteria and he had used his lunch card to get one. I said "But you don't have any money on your lunch card!" (We are more than willing to buy him an occasional school lunch but the boy is so picky he doesn't like most of the options). Bradley then told me that the lunch lady had tried to tell him that the muffin came with a bunch of other food, but he didn't want the other food, he just wanted the muffin. So that's all he got. Basically, the muffin was a dazzling aspect of a meal option for the day and the kindergartner was determined to get the muffin and only the muffin. They send me emails with updates on the account balance on the lunch card and it didn't change from zero after this occurred so heaven bless the kind lunch lady who gave a muffin to the kindergartner who was just a little bit desperate for one.
Bradley has also been on a forts kick at home, which involved using all of my kitchen chairs on a regular basis. This is a double decker one, he was very proud of himself.
Another fort with Eleanor.
Eleanor: "JESUS is the king of everything."
My Aunt Diana is fulfilling her role of supplying ridiculous and exciting items for the children that Nathan and I would never ever buy for them. She sent us a giant candybar, and I do mean giant.
There was great joy among the children and Bradley has been using a giant candy bar as a lure to invite over friends. Smart kid, it's working. I picked him up from school the other day and was surrounded by children asking to come over for the candy bar playdate Bradley was offering for any and all takers.
But when all three kids get together it's just amazing. These were our calm down for bed activities one night when Nathan was gone on a work trip.
Luckily it's not too tough to get them transitioned to bedtime. Reading books in Mommy and Daddy's bed is too cozy and nice.
We sent Daddy a goodnight message because we miss him so much while he's gone.
I came upstairs the other night to find Eleanor had laid out her clothes in anticipation for the next day. I have never done this for myself in front of Eleanor and I never ask her what she's going to wear the next day, she decided to do this all on her own.
I so love everything about her.
Patrick has been helping me with some at home workouts lately. All three of the kids crowding me out of my spot on my yoga mat in order to try to do yoga with me is very funny, although not so great for actual working out.
All three children played Hungry Hippos the other day in a friendly and kind manner.
I'm going to send in this video to the Hungry Hippos people so they can use it in all future marketing. It's a miracle of sharing and kindness!
Eleanor got to be Star of the Week at her preschool last week so we got to take the class stuffed toy around with us and take pictures with it. Eleanor loved it.
She was Star of the Week the week of Valentine's Day and brought this home. It's just so Eleanor. We have been getting my jewelry out a fair bit lately, I didn't realize it was currently her favorite thing to do with me though.
Eleanor takes care of all of us. I dropped Eleanor and Patrick off at a friend's house one morning while I took Bradley to his school for a parent teacher conference. Apparently Patrick ran in and said "Mabel is my best friend!" and Eleanor sighed and said "Patrick, you say that about EVERYONE." We're fortunate to have Eleanor around to make sure everyone keeps thing real.
Daddy keeps things fun. No one can roughhouse as cutely as Daddy can.
Stealing Daddy's food remains a hilarious pastime.
Daddy also helped Bradley create the poster for a Mrs. Valentine's game for Bradley's kindergarten Valentine's party. It's like pin the tail on the donkey, but with lips on a face. It was very cute, the kids loved it.
I was forced to do something somewhat artistic and help Bradley make a Valentine box for his classroom Valentine exchange. He loved what we came up with and I created a volcano out of paper so we're calling it a success.
In a moment of weakness while on a Walgreens run for milk I told Eleanor that we could get stuffed toy mermaids for Valentine's Day but then I returned them and hoped the children would forget about them. I'm so silly sometimes. Eleanor definitely remembered but the good news is they were 50% off after Valentine's Day so it didn't end up being a completely ridiculous purchase. They have been well loved since they have joined our home.
Our dinner for Valentine's Day was a heart pizza from Papa Murphy's. They are geniuses, it was delicious, cheap, themed, and easy. Win win win win!
Bradley snuck downstairs to watch Olympics with me and Nathan that evening and lasted about ten minutes before passing out.
Bradley learned about Super Mario Bros at school and Nathan has been playing it with him a bit. However, it doesn't without Daddy and Bradley was begging for it the other day so I let him pick it as his show for the day. They watched a YouTube video of Super Mario Bros for 45 minutes and would have watched forever if I had let them.
Bradley passed his belt test and is a white belt now!
This means he is out of the little kid class and has been promoted to the next age level. This has been great for a lot of things but Bradley is a bit competitive and is now the youngest in the class instead of the oldest and is adjusting to this.
Old class. So cute. We loved his teacher.
New class. Also cute. We love Bradley blowing kisses at Daddy during class even if it gets him in trouble.
We had cozy time on the weekend and Nathan told the kids that if they got scared during the show they could cuddle with Mommy or Daddy. Patrick said "Daddy!" and ditched his spot by me to go sit with Nathan. Let me tell you how well I took this.
More outside time! There was a bit of discord as all three children built nests in the dirt until Bradley implemented zones. I don't want to brag about my parenting skills, or lack thereof, but I'm a big fan of holding back and seeing if they can figure things out on their own these days. Bradley is a champ.
Our favorite kitty Chewie at the park.
Patrick calls us Mom and Dad now. Ask me how I feel about this.
A video of Patrick playing with a baby the other day. He's such a dear.
More outside time. We like to jump in a big hole. There's a new little tree growing in it, let's hope it survives us.
And piggie back rides from our friend Gracie at the park. We are so lucky to have such nice friends here!
These sweet kids. Patrick has become just an amazing little dude.
Although he still has his moments. This is what happened when I left him unsupervised next to a box of sharpies at church. Oops. You can see how penitent he was.
He and Eleanor play with their food through lunch every day now. I'm fine with it if it's this cute, even if he's eating the cracker he's calling "Mommy."
