The Easter crew.
Nathan gets credit for helping the kids plant some corn and a few other plants in our backyard. We'll see if any survive, I don't think anyone remembered to water them. The kids certainly enjoyed the planting process though.
Sister reading time.
Patrick and Lauren.
Patrick and Mabel.
Patrick and Julia.
Patrick and Caroline. Yes, all girls at this party. We invited a boy but he couldn't come. Patrick didn't seem to mind, it was such a fun crew!
Nathan took the older three out on a cub scout scavenger hunt one afternoon.
It was great fun and they got popsicles at the end!
Sweet sisters reading together.
I think this picture took place on my birthday ... I guess it was the day before Father's Day at least. Nathan is training up the kids on massaging him. They love and he does too, so I guess it works.
Sweet kids playing a game Bradley created.
Happy hula Eleanor on her birthday!
She even did a little dance for us!
My baking helpers while I made some whipped cream.
We had a super fun picnic with Addison one afternoon.
Chewie loves!
How pretty is Eleanor?
How pretty and naughty is this little gypsy baby? She kept pulling this dress down in order to run around naked so she only wore it once.
Reading buddies.
Juliet generally has a gleam in her eye.
Dump truck play time.
On 4th of July weekend we went to Heritage Park over in Olathe and tried out a new inflatable kayak at the lake.
The kids were beyond adorable in their new life jackets.
Nathan was a champ getting everything inflated and ready to go.
We went out on the water ... and Juliet RAGED when I wouldn't let her go swimming.
Fortunately, it didn't really matter because we could only be on the water for about 20 minutes because it turned out a storm was coming.
I got to have the three happy children with me. Fun!
We beat the storm when leaving and got the baby to bed and then ditched her with loving grandparents in the morning so we could try again with the big kids.
Round 2 went much better and we had a blast. Patrick is so handsome.
Nathan with the boys.
My turn with boy crew!
In a shocking turn of events, all of the children "accidentally" fell in the water and had to swim in to shore. So much fun for the morning of 4th of July.
We came home and got the baby back and then headed out for an afternoon parade down in Stilwell. We parked right by a corn field so I had the kids take a Children of the Corn themed picture.
It was very sunny and hot so we used our umbrellas for shade.
Parade crew!
Eleanor was fancy and put on makeup for the big event. They threw out a bunch of candy, which was highly questionable during a pandemic, but the kids loved it. Oh well. We didn't get sick so I guess it was fine.
Then the big kids did sparklers with Daddy when we got home.
I guess the baby got to do a little too. Great parenting.
Nathan had been jealous of all of Eleanor's brunch dates with me so he got in on one.
Eleanor is delighted to go out to brunch with any of her many fans.
Girl bubble bath time!
Juliet is at "that phase" when going out to playgrounds and I have pretty constant heart attacks.
Hmm, I wonder why Juliet loves Bradley so much?
So proud of herself for being on Daddy when Mommy wants her.
Juliet adores my mom right now. To the point she cries and pushes me away whenever I try to hold her if Grandma is around.
I try to get Juliet to kiss me and she always refuses. But then my mom shows up and it's a smooch fest.
Like, seriously a lot of smooches.
The boys started tennis lessons with their friends Levi and Noah. It's been great, they've learned a bunch! Bradley almost won one of the little games they play during practice but got out at the last minute. He threw his racket in disgust ... so I hollered at him but I am not so secretly thrilled that he feels so strongly about tennis! The coach had him sit out for a minute and he was pouting so I walked over and talked to him. It was great parenting, I said, "Hey, you can't throw your racket ... but all the really great tennis players do the same thing. I'll show you videos later." It perked him right up. Parent of the year.
Also great parenting was letting Patrick and Levi see how high they could climb in a tree at the tennis court. They were so proud.
Future tennis player Juliet!
Juliet found a puddle in the back of our basketball hoop and had about the best morning ever playing in it until it had all been absorbed into her clothing.
She then kept on doing this and cracking up as she looked between her legs at me. This might be my new favorite picture of her.
Babies need dirt. So happy.
Uncle Daniel, Aunt Stephanie, and cousin Katie visited from Boston. It was a love fest.
Juliet and Katie had so much fun together.
They followed each other around everywhere.
Katie liked to sit on Juliet which was cute but also required some rescuing since Katie has about 10 pounds on little Juliet.
Uncle Daniel has never had such an admiring audience when he plays video games.
Katie kept hugging Juliet and making kissy sounds towards her.
Katie loved our platform swing. We went very slow with two little kiddos on the swing.
They loved it so much.
My favorite quiet time activity lately has been reading books next to Bradley on my bed. So cozy.
Taking Juliet to the park. Baby menace.
The babies loved hanging out at the pool together.
With grandparents!
We made a Hurt's Donuts run one morning and it was delicious fun.
Girls fighting over Grandma's lap. Grandma was very popular.
Juliet "helps" kids during piano practice sessions and they are very good sports about it.
I love it when Juliet is in pigtails.
Bradley helping her with a scooter ride.
Bradley decided to draw a Mario jumping into a question block and did a pretty amazing job.
I've made a bit of a monster out of Juliet because she knows where the popsicles are and I've let her get her own a few times.
It's adorable ... but they're in the same drawer where I keep the breakfast sausages that I give her for most breakfasts. She screams at me when I shut the drawer without giving her a popsicle and yells "popco!"
She also likes to go down the slide head first. This kid.
Patrick set up a pretty awesome reading spot for himself outside the other day.
Swim crew. People generally gets oohs and awws from people whenever they see her. So cute.
I told Patrick to hold her and maybe people would think the baby was smiling in this picture instead of crying. But it still kind of looks like crying.
I signed up Eleanor for an outdoor dance class led by our former neighbor girl and we walked Mabel over because she was in the class too. Patrick helped walk everyone over and so I asked if a boy could join the dance class. They said yes and Patrick was the only boy there but he was so happy, it was very cute.
More time with cousin Katie. It's funny, no matter how many toys we had out she and Juliet always seemed to go for the same one.
Katie usually has a fairly solemn face so we were very proud when we got some big smiles out of her.
Katie is only 6 weeks older than Juliet but she is in the 90th percentile while Juliet is in about the 10th.
Giving Juliet a ride in the cozy coupe. Hi, Aunt Stephanie!
Porch buddies.
Bradley got in a ton of video game time with his Uncle Daniel while he was here. This was his face when I told him he got to go over to see Uncle Daniel again that afternoon. Fun story, after Uncle Daniel left Bradley was feeling lovey towards me (because I had just let him play games on the tablet) so he told me I was his 3rd favorite person. I asked who I was behind and he said Uncle Daniel and Uncle Thomas. He hasn't even seen Uncle Thomas since Thanksgiving! Apparently the rankings are entirely based upon who is the most helpful when it comes to playing video games. Honestly I think I'm ranked too high upon these standards and I need to be down a few more notches, he's way too happy about the amount of summer game time he's gotten.
Stephanie and cute Katie at the pool!
Baby roughhousing!
Juliet can be a bit of a hazard during evening reading time.
We need more children on Grandma in these pictures. Lucky Grandma!
Oh yes, just a bit of Uncle Daniel love.
It's good they left when they did, because things got extremely naughty after they left.
It's hard to tell, but Juliet also covered herself in blue chalk. Including her face.
I called her Braveheart.
Then we took off her diaper again because she was acting like she wanted to go back in the pool, but instead she wandered around the yard naked and plopped herself down in the middle of Eleanor and Addison's game of tic tac toe.
Patrick's face adequately sums up what we were all feeling.
She's lucky she's so cute and very responsible about brushing her own teeth.
I love chasing Juliet and hearing her laugh.
Bradley and Eleanor went to an amazing art camp at Wolf Creek. They were there with their friend Olivia. Her little brother Charlie is the best part of this picture, apparently this is the face he made when his mom told him the older kids should be the only ones in the picture.
We bought a lake lot down in Linn Valley! Patrick got to go down with Nathan to get it all set up after we signed the papers.
They even had lunch together at the Lake Shop! Patrick's lunch looks suspiciously like ice cream.
It was a lot of work for a little guy.
Then Grandma Colleen and Kerry got to come visit for the weekend.
We got in some good outdoor time despite the heat.
I'm told Juliet was a great help during board games.
Kerry got nice cuddles too.
Reading to Juliet is squirmy fun.
They even got to come check out our new lake lot with us! On the way down there I told Eleanor there was super scary looking, dangerous playground equipment that looked like it might be haunted. She was so excited to get to play on it.
Being cozy on the couch after coming home. It was a very exciting morning at the lake.
Juliet is hilariously naughty when we read books sometimes and hits the books in order to get a reaction out of me.
Sometimes reading to Juliet is just the best.
And a group picture to end the trip!
Uncle Daniel had promised to catch some extra Pokemon for Bradley if he made a list of what he wanted and good news, Bradley was up to the task.
And then we headed back down to the lake to spend our first night there!
If you look closely in my lap in the picture below, you can see a prostrate Juliet who is screaming with much righteous indignation. Apparently kayaks still aren't her thing.
The view from our lake lot! If you look closely at the water you can see four little dots which are the big kids and Daddy swimming.
Meanwhile I was with a very angsty baby.
So we tossed her in the lake. She was still angry, but at least she was distracted.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to get her swim suit before tossing her in. So it was bare baby bum and life jacket. We're already the classy people at the lake!
We had a delicious BBQ dinner at the Lake Shop!
And good news, Juliet perked up considerably once we broke out the marshmallows for s'mores.
S'mores crew with RV in the background.
Me with a marshmallow face boy.
I don't even know how many marshmallows this baby ate.
S'mores with our lake view in the background.
Getting ready for bed in the RV. Juliet really liked Eleanor's bunk.
The kids were so excited to watch our first movie in the RV - That Darn Cat! They laughed and they jumped around so much it rocked the RV.
Getting Juliet to sleep was somewhat challenging. She was so excited. She did better than we expected though, only woke up a couple times and went right back to sleep.
Breakfast of champions.
Juliet has started mimicking Patrick, which is terrifying when he's doing things like whacking a tree with a stick.
Chewie was so happy to get all the attention he so richly deserves.
Oh Juliet. She knew what she was doing and thought she was hilarious.
Eleanor and I got to go on a girl scout scavenger hunt in a nearby park!
It was so fun. Her troop is pretty amazing.
And best of all, we made ice cream in a bag at the end. A delicious way to end the event!
She even did a little dance for us!
My baking helpers while I made some whipped cream.
The boys started tennis lessons with their friends Levi and Noah. It's been great, they've learned a bunch! Bradley almost won one of the little games they play during practice but got out at the last minute. He threw his racket in disgust ... so I hollered at him but I am not so secretly thrilled that he feels so strongly about tennis! The coach had him sit out for a minute and he was pouting so I walked over and talked to him. It was great parenting, I said, "Hey, you can't throw your racket ... but all the really great tennis players do the same thing. I'll show you videos later." It perked him right up. Parent of the year.
Bradley and Eleanor went to an amazing art camp at Wolf Creek. They were there with their friend Olivia. Her little brother Charlie is the best part of this picture, apparently this is the face he made when his mom told him the older kids should be the only ones in the picture.
Sometimes reading to Juliet is just the best.
Followed by a baby sleepover. Actually it ended up being a big kid sleepover on the floor of Eleanor's room, but Juliet was very eager to be involved.
