Eleanor made snickerdoodle cookies for us. Yummy!
Making chocolates in molds has been all the rage lately over at Grandma's house. The kids have made bunnies, monsters, dinosaurs, ballerinas, and even Pokémon!
Springtime has been amazing and we have been getting so much outside time. Here's Bradley helping Eleanor ride in her roller skates.
Could he be any sweeter?
The crew later that day. Juliet gets in on video game afternoons now.
And here she is with our library story time crew. My friend Amy is generally in charge of holding Juliet during both story time and our church groups.
This sleepy cute face. No wonder every fights for a change to hold her and love her. Sometimes it's hard to give her a pacifier at night to help her go back to sleep after she's been fed because she's too busy smiling huge smiles at me.
This is how she wakes up. Is she for real?
The kitties have been suffering a bit with all the baby cuddles. Good thing they aren't shy about seeking out the loves they require.
Recently Meg was so needy I confused her with the baby. Meg said no thanks to riding in the infant car seat.
Patrick with kitties at nap time.
Eleanor decided the kitty needed a cape and I was so proud of my wise daughter (the cape lasted long enough for a picture and then we took it off).
Eleanor stories and songs fill me with joy. And sometimes concern. An Eleanor original from a few weeks ago: You're never going to go to jailllllllll, you're never going to eat peopullllllllll.
There have been enough Layla photos that Google made this for me. I think I need to have it framed and put on Nathan's desk at his office.
It's so fun to have Juliet getting a little bigger. She's still so cuddly but she lives for looking into faces and smiling at everyone, it's just so sweet.
Helping me wake Patrick up from his nap.
We're officially done with Patrick naps as of this month. He still has quiet time in his room and he can fall asleep if he wants to but he was staying awake way too late at night so it was time to end the naps.
But sometimes the naps find him anyway. Poor tired guy!
We recently had Juliet's 2 month well check and she's quite the little thing. 11 lbs and only the 30th percentile!
But she's sturdy and strong and growing well, she's just little.
I love our house so much. The kids love exploring the hill in our backyard so much. Please note that Bradley is wearing his new t-rex helmet just for fun.
Addison comes over and her fan club is always so happy to see her.
Although sometimes the boys decide it's Captain Underpants time and run outside in just their underwear. Addison is super cool about hanging out through some seriously silly business.
Patrick is done with naps but Eleanor still likes to take them on the weekends a fair amount. However, this is one of her last pictures with her security blankets. She stopped sucking her thumb this month and the security blankets went away along with the thumb sucking. It was entirely Eleanor's decision to stop, we're really proud of her for stopping on her own. I painted all her nails and then gave her a mitten to wear on her hand for the first night but that is all I did. She's very proud and happy, especially since we got to go shopping together for a couple celebration toys this past weekend.
Bradley is now 7! He had a fabulous time at his birthday party at the Olathe Community Center swimming pool.
It was Pokémon themed. Shocker!
He was very proud of the pokeball cupcakes he made with Grandma.
And ooh la la, I got to take Juliet swimming for the first time!
She thought the water was cold and didn't last very long but she sure looked cute. The boys helped me pick out her swimsuit at Target the night before and were quite adorable. They picked the frilliest swimsuit they could find for her.
Post birthday video games and naptime for Juliet. So fun but so exhausting.
Bradley is so proud to be 7.
Look at this adorable kid. His wise friends got him a lot of Pokémon gear.
Can you tell Patrick was not supposed to be in this picture?
This is what most of our evenings look like these days. I love it so much.
Juliet loves hanging out with her daddy.
And look at this grinny face!
Eleanor is obsessed with this baby and it's a mutual love affair.
Juliet perks up whenever she hears her voice because she knows she's going to get lots of smiles and eye contact.
Helping with Juliet bathtime.
Cub Scouts is done for the year but the boys got to go on a hike at Ironwoods Park recently.
Patrick is ecstatic about getting to join in on cool kid cub scout outings.
He's in every picture Nathan takes and he's usually within a 3 foot radius of Bradley.
They are quite the duo at all times.
Of course Patrick and Eleanor play together all the time too. Patrick barely survives with me until his siblings get home from school.
Look how big and handsome Bradley is now. This was on his recent field trip to Science City.
Conversation I had with Bradley a few weeks ago:
We were on the way home from school in the car.
Bradley: Can I talk to you alone when we get home?
Me: Sure!
We get home and go up to his room for privacy.
Bradley: Luca says Power Rangers are real! And I got poked in my arm so I'm going to be one now.
Me: ... is this what you wanted to talk to me alone about?
Bradley: Yes.
Love this kid. It turns out he was concerned that Patrick was going to be madly jealous when he found out about his powers and he was correct, the next morning at breakfast when Bradley loudly announced the news and informed Patrick there were no powers left for him Patrick was indeed quite insanely jealous and upset.
I finally figured out what to do with Juliet's hair. Ponytail time!
How ridiculously cute is she?
Eleanor is such a sweet girl and it's so fun having her help out with Juliet.
I also have thoroughly enjoyed this year of pretty constant love notes that I find in her backpack for me.
She's doing so well at school, she's reading quite well and keeps winning good behavior prizes. And then she comes home and makes "books" like this.
Aunt Anna made page 3. I didn't help with this at all, Eleanor did everything, I think she even stapled the pages together on her own.
It's really nice that she enjoys school, that's really all I ask.
The boys are doing well too. Bradley was a bit angsty at school at the beginning of the year but is doing a lot better now when things don't go his way. I credit the constant practice he gets with Patrick at home. There's a lot of love but someone (Patrick) is always in Bradley's business.
Juliet usually looks like this when I have to go pick up the kids from school. It's so sad to wake this up. Next year we're having the kids ride the bus. It's going to make life so much easier and Bradley and Eleanor are beyond excited to get to do it.
Biggest brother and baby sister. Juliet is already crazy about all of her siblings.
Nathan helped Bradley practice riding his bike a couple weekends ago! Bradley did really well. Although he still seems to prefer riding his scooter.
I've been a bit of a maniac when it comes to outside time. Poor Bradley just wanted to look through a book after school and he was nice enough to do it outside when I asked.
We went to Disney on Ice and had an amazing time. Although I somehow thought it was a brilliant idea to get the boys matching t-rex light wands.
Patrick in particular thought a dinosaur sword was the best thing ever and tried to kill all the bubbles that people were blowing through the building. No one was murdered, but there were one or two close calls.
And we got to bring Bradley's friend Lorelei with us because Nathan ended up having a work trip so we had an extra ticket to spare. Lorelei had a rather fabulous time.
Oh Patrick.
Does this seem like a lot of children to bring to an event? It felt like a lot of children.
So cute though.
Patrick was absolutely mesmerized by the show.
And Juliet fussed through most of the first half and finally fell asleep at the end of intermission, thank goodness.
Eleanor got to wear a fancy dress that my mom made her a few years ago.
Grandpa and Patrick! Doesn't Patrick look like sheer sweetness? That's good, because he had to be carried otherwise he would try to run across the street without holding anyone's hand.
Grandma helped take care of the girls and Bradley and we're certain that her job was probably easier than Grandpa's.
With the crew. Patrick had shoved Lorelei out of the way so he could be next to Bradley and she was feeling a bit delicate afterwards. Oh Patrick.
Disney on Ice tires a body out.
I took cute outside pictures of the kids to send to Nathan while he was on his work trip.
Patrick's new favorite shirt is a muscle tee. It suits him.
A few weeks ago Patrick and I were eating a quiet lunch together while the big kids were at school when he gazed deeply into my eyes and said, "Your eyes look like bowling pins." I'm guessing he meant they are dark like bowling balls. While I was writing down his quote in my phone he started chanting, "Mrs. Anne, listen to me!"
I have been loving getting Juliet into some of Eleanor's old baby clothes.
Another Eleanor outfit.
Reading her his Brown Bear book from school.
This is another one of Eleanor's old outfits. And check out that ponytail!
Eyes are definitely looking blue-ish, but we're not sure yet.
My parents came by to help with bedtime while Nathan was away. It was very much appreciated!
Especially when it means you get someone to push you on the swing finally.
Juliet is highly advanced when it comes to her choices in literature.
And Bradley was so pleased to have grandparents and his mom and little sister make it to his 1st grade musical.
I decided to color Juliet's natural mohawk pink in honor of Patrick's 4th birthday party. Juliet did not appreciate the process (we used Eleanor's hair chalk) but the end result was rather cute!
I mean, especially as a girl, how many times in your life do you get to have a mohawk? Might as well make it be a pink one.
We went back to Scheel's again for Patrick's birthday celebration. We had two families join us and we all had a blast.
We had cupcakes in the café.
This boy is so sweet, no one is as good of a host as Patrick is. Whenever people come by our house he is anxious to run and grab them treats and if he knows we're going to meet with friends he wants to bring them candy or cookies and juice and is so happy to share with them. He was a great host for his birthday party too.
Present time!
And then we started on a scavenger hunt that took us to the Ferris Wheel first! Scheel's is so classy, an employee walked up to me while we had our birthday celebration that I didn't warn Scheel's about, we just showed up, and he gave me 15 tokens for the Ferris Wheel and told us to have fun. Super nice.
Our next scavenger hunt clue took us to the shooting range.
And then bowling.
And finally to the fish tank at the main entrance. The grand finale of the party!
And bonus - there was a guy in scuba gear cleaning out the fish tank!
He may have been the highlight of the party.
Eleanor had her first sleepover that night. We had her friend Gabby stay over at our place while her little sister was having her tonsils out. Eleanor was beyond excited and this is what initiated the decision to stop sucking her thumb.
Patrick was so jealous that Eleanor got to have someone sleep in her bed with her so sweet Bradley agreed to sleep in the bottom bunk with him that night. Bradley is just the best little kid.
Bedtime stories were certainly cozy with four kids reading with Nathan.
We've gotten to do some outside meals now that the weather is so nice! However, we discovered that Eleanor has seasonal allergies and our table is generally coated in pollen so I've had to scale back how often we eat outside. How did I figure out Eleanor had allergies? Well, she'd been acting a bit sniffly but I didn't want to give her medicine if I could help it. But then we discovered that allergies can give you nose bleeds and the poor girl had a big nosebleed at 2am one night that drained down the back of her throat which meant she was spitting out blood for about 7 minutes and I decided we were done with this nonsense and put her on some minor allergy med that seem to be keeping things in check for the time being. Poor kid.
Juliet says good night to the kids every night. She's in the middle of this kid pile.
But then she's oh so tired.
As is sweet Eleanor. That's my old dress from a Hawaii trip from when I was 6 that she's wearing.
She wore the dress to school on the day she lost her second tooth. Her teacher sent me a special message to let me know, apparently it's incredibly exciting to lose a tooth at school.
Popsicle weather! And more Gabby time. The poor girl ended up spending quite a bit of time with us, her sister had a little trouble recovering from her surgery.
Patrick got some monster presents from his Grandpa Dan and there was great excitement.
They came in crates and there was a crowbar tool to remove them, doesn't get much cooler than this.
Patrick with another birthday present. Age 4 is going well so far!
And then we played Shadows in the Forest together in Eleanor's closet! Could anything be cooler than a game you play in the dark in your sister's closet?
Bedtime with Juliet.
Bathtime with Juliet!
Tired Juliet.
And this - this is Patrick.
Brother dance party.
Patrick warms my heart whenever he's around the kitties. They've been loving the afternoon sunshine.
Cute brother and sister together!
Juliet is just all smiles these days and we're all so crazy for her.
Neighborhood Easter egg hunt!
Is every Patrick picture something special these days? Yes they are.
Great success!
Patrick was particularly excited about the Easter bunny who made an appearance at the event.
And we bravely dyed Easter eggs with all three big kids at the same time.
They were so cute and it was a lot of fun.
They discovered one of the eggs was cracked.
Wonderful Nathan handling the dying process.
We decided to put all four kids in the bath together. Loads of fun! Although you can tell everyone has been having a good time playing outside, both Bradley and Eleanor have banged up knees and Patrick has a scrape on his face.
Sisters!
On Easter Sunday one child was particularly excited about her outfit thanks to some much desired high heels.
Even our church had an Easter egg hunt. And this was the best kid picture we got ...
The whole family! Note Patrick's sandals - we told him to put on his nice sandals but he loves his monster sandals so much and selected those and we didn't check up on him until we were already on the way to church.
Eating hard boiled eggs together as part of Easter lunch.
Heading out to our backyard when we discovered the Easter bunny had visited our house.
Juliet was not a big fan of her first ride on the swing.
Celebrating candy!
In the spirit of Easter egg hunts, the kids have been making some scavenger hunts for each other lately. Here are a bunch of Eleanor's clues. I love Kindergarten spelling. And they are so cute running around and doing the scavenger hunt, usually whoever put it together is the most excited kid.
More brother bonding. Bradley is at times a saint with the amount he is followed around.
Of course, there are perks. They invented a washcloth game in the bathtub that I didn't have the heart to put a stop to because they were so happy. And they still have all their teeth, so it worked out.
Patrick was really upset when he got out of the bath and Bradley had a special towel so he cried a bunch and then sweet Bradley offered to share the towel. Seriously, this kid is just the best.
Good thing Eleanor isn't left out of the loves. If she sits on the cat tower to do art then Patrick must sit on the cat tower to do art.
And a picture from take your child to work day! I don't know which person in this picture had the most fun.
And to end this blog post. Patrick snuck some plastic toy glasses in his pocket on school picture day and didn't want to give them back to me when I discovered them at drop-off. I told him to keep them in his pocket. Then I got the picture proofs back a week or two later and discovered this gem. Oh Patrick. It was absolutely his best picture of the bunch too, the best smile. This kid is such an imp, it's never boring when he is around!
Patrick:
Patrick has also learned to snap his fingers before either of his older two siblings and has been taking great delight in displaying his newfound talent and innocently asking them if they can snap too. Both Bradley and Eleanor desperately want to be able to snap their fingers and are not okay with this situation, please pray that they will learn how to very soon. This is all because of Captain Underpants. In the book you snap your fingers and Mr. Krupp turns into Captain Underpants. We may have to ban the books until the older children catch up to Patrick's finger snapping skills.
