Some quotes from my children:
Juliet singing a song to herself at Target: You don't want to eat us we have bones! We are yuck yuck we taste baaaaad!
I blame the Princess in Black books for that one. They have a discussion about how the Princess in Black tastes bad when the monster bunnies want to eat her. I blame Patrick for the next one.
Juliet likes to sing a particular line of an Encanto song on repeat because it has a key word in it but she can't get in trouble for saying it when it's in this particular reference: BUT, under the surface!
Sighhhh. Why is potty talk so hilarious even at three years old?
And finally - I am very much trying to have my children become strong, capable adults and the fact that Bradley is now 10 means he should be able to do many if not most of his standard daily tasks on his own. I had him check himself in for an eye doctor appointment earlier this week, I really want him to take care of his business. One morning at breakfast he was struggling to get a bowl down that was a little high for him so I asked, "is there perhaps a tool for that?" Meaning he should go get a stool. Instead he looked at me with a little grin and said, "... you?" So I laughed a bunch and got him a bowl. He was so proud of himself.
We had a nice visit from Colleen and Kerry and Tina to start off the month!
Poor Nathan. It's a good thing we love how much she loves the grandkids.
Bradley was laughing hysterically, apparently my best pictures of these two are when they are fighting.
Pretty flowers!
We're hoping to get to see Tina again in November for an Idaho Thanksgiving with family. Fingers crossed everything works out!
And we got to play a bunch of new games! Dragon Parks has been a big favorite. If you don't have enough sheep to feed your dragons then some of your visitors go missing ... Bradley highly enjoys this element of the game.
I've been plugging away filming board game videos in the basement with my dad. Sometimes Sookie gets lonely and Dad has to hold her while we film, which is only a little bit ridiculous.
Along with potty-training, Juliet has realized she is good at changing her own clothes and sometimes I get to see up to four outfits per day. She'll be in her room for a while and come out in something new and fancy. Getting on tights all by herself was particularly impressive, although she was disappointed when I suggested she put a skirt on over these before going out in public.
Our sweet neighbor Natalie Goldman had a big Girl Scout event as part of her Gold Award and we got to go to her synagogue and learn about Judaism. Juliet made a friend at this and rained down terror.
Playing with muck at the creek the next day. Ewwwww. She was so happy!
I thought maybe Bradley would want to do it too as a bit of an unofficial sport since he's down to just basketball but he was so-so on the idea. Although he had a lot of fun the evening we went to the climbing gym!
I'm way less comfortable with bouldering - climbing without harnesses. But the mats underneath are very padded and the kids had a blast climbing up and over the wall on repeat.
Bradley and Luca had to take a rest. We love Luca, he's such a fun and nice buddy.
A nice picture of the crew at the end.
My favorite picture of the crew at the end.
Then a couple days later we had to take poor Eleanor in for an appointment to get an allergy prick test.
Turns out she's allergic to a lot of things. They tried a hard sell on their allergy shots but I think we can manage with what we've been doing and knowing a bit more of what we need to look out for and which specific months will be the worst for her. I also want to rip out all of our carpet but that may take a while to figure out and get done.
The entire outing was rather rough, especially the news that she was slightly allergic to cats. So on the drive home I got the girls the absolute largest blizzards ever. Juliet thought this was an excellent solution.
And this was our response to Eleanor's cat allergy. More cat cuddles! Honestly, she's been around the cats since birth and has been fine. It's a pretty minor allergy compared to the seasonal ones and we're not going to do anything insane like not be around cats as a result of this information!
I was feeling sick on the weekend and as a result couldn't go to things so like a normal person, I went on a cleaning rampage. Juliet was delighted to discover a pair of beautiful princess snow boots as a result of this and has been wearing them everywhere!
I recovered enough to go to a Royals game on Sunday. After volunteering during Sunday School.
It was warm and incredibly windy at the game. Every time the fountains would turn on the wind would spray the cold water at least 60 feet back towards people standing on the path and you would hear lots of screams because the water was very cold. Hilarious until it happened to you. Brr!
Girl squad at our seats!
I got in lots of cuddles with cute Bradley. This was a cub scout event, I think we got discounted tickets because we came with cub scouts.
The most important part of the game - treats!
Eleanor got bored and a little whiny about halfway through the first inning so I finally got out messenger kids on my phone and let her take pictures and try to call all her friends to tell them where she was. That helped morale considerably.
So did ice cream!
Please note the boys' pose in front of the statue.
Family picture!
We made it until the 8th inning before we went home. Half the children made it through the car ride without a nap.
Nathan was very tired and took a long nap after we got back and I took the kids out for a park outing, because I can't help myself when it's in the 70's.
Juliet and my dad have continued their routine of Monday outings and there has been much joy now that Deanna Rose is open and they can resume their visits.
Juliet discovered this shirt and insisted on wearing it, so I sent a picture to my brother Thomas. He got it in China about 10 years ago and now each of my children has worn it. Pretty neat!
She also discovered a UC Santa Cruz shirt and insisted on putting it on, so I sent the photo to Diana. Lots of outfit changes from the fancy girl!
And then ... I felt so terrible for the 5th day in a row and couldn't believe I couldn't shake this dumb headache and I was so tired. I was about to pick the kids up from school and have a friend over for Eleanor and I figured I better take an at-home Covid test just to be sure. Positive! Oops. I called the friend's mom and cancelled things with literally five minutes to spare and went on the got the kids. Everyone got tested that night and Nathan and Eleanor tested positive as well, negative for everyone else.
So poor Patrick had a rather understated birthday the next day. My parents dropped off the birthday ice cream cake he had made with my mom the previous weekend and we opened presents but Nathan and I still felt pretty wrecked so the decision for the kids to get to have a lot of tablet and screen time that evening was good for all involved.
The cake was super cute and delicious though!
And we suspect that if the cats could give us Covid permanently they would. So many happy cuddles from the kitties while we were sick.
Easter morning!
And then we had a wonderful, relaxed morning full of board games and family time.
I even had Juliet put on her adorable Easter dress we got during our mid-winter break trip! It's from an Oklahoma Cracker Barrel. Hilarious. But so pretty!
Each child had gotten a game so there were four new games to play.
All of the games were so fun! Not a dud in the bunch!
I had everyone dress up a little bit for Easter, which meant sweaters for the boys and dresses for the girls.
This is the sweater Patrick decided was ideal for Easter ...
Family Easter picture! Yep, that's about right.
We had rescheduled Patrick's birthday party because he ended up having a soccer game at the time I had originally scheduled it. But then we caught Covid and I was very concerned that we were going to have to reschedule the party yet again. Luckily, our final day of official quarantine was Easter Sunday and we were able to have his party the next day as planned. The kids didn't have school that Monday or Tuesday which was fantastic for party purposes. In an abundance of caution Nathan and I wore masks to the party just to be sure we were safe.
We ended up having 31 kids at the party. I finally got to count when they lined up for the wagon ride. It was chilly but sunny at Deanna Rose and it wasn't at all crowded because of the cold weather and because it was a Monday and most schools were in session.
Patrick with his haul of presents. He was so so happy.
Pretending to be a butler at dinner. We played the make a face game when Colleen and Kerry and Tina were visiting and Patrick made this snooty face on repeat and no one could guess what it was and finally he shouted out "butler!" and now we ask for his butler face on a semi-regular basis.
I cuddled a tired boy to sleep that night and as you can see, I had some kitty assistance in this task. Patrick generally goes hard all day and then falls asleep as soon as the lights are out and we sing a couple bedtime songs to him. It had been a big and exciting party day for our sweet 7 year old.
We got a zoo trip in the next day! I finally got a membership again, it had been at least four years since we had had one. This was Juliet's first trip to the zoo!
We went with Emmett and Finn and my dad, this was our picture with the gang of kids!
This was perhaps my favorite picture of the day and got the most enthusiastic response when I asked the boys to pose for it. I said, "act like the orangutan defeated you in battle" and they were on it!
Juliet made friends with the statue.
Cute Patrick and Eleanor. It was cold but nice and again, this was a Tuesday in-service day for our school so most schools were in session and the zoo was pretty empty.
Emmett and Bradley have been really good buddies on these trips, it's been really fun to see them hang out. Bradley LOVED having Emmett and Finn visit because my parents discovered that the boys behaved better whenever they had a cousin to hang out with so Bradley and Patrick in particular were over at Grandma and Grandpa's house pretty much every evening to play video games and hang out with cousins.
Merry-go-round! We got the zoo membership with unlimited rides so we had a blast riding the merry-go-round on repeat.
Me by my buddy for the ride.
Naughty Patrick showing a bird his snacks through the glass and then eating them himself. The bird was so willing to give Cheez-its a try.
Grandpa at the end of the day with the crew of grandkids. Check out the three on the left - Patrick fits in well with the cousin goofballs. My poor mom couldn't come because she had Covid at this point. We're sure it was from us but we have no idea how she got it - my dad was the one that was around us a fair amount leading up to when we tested positive. It's a mystery!
Followed by cousin tablet time at the grandparents' house! I'm told this was perhaps the best day ever.
Eleanor was still technically on Covid protocol at school that Wednesday so I decided to keep her home one more day and rest ... by going rock-climbing with her cousin Finn, as we had promised we would take him before we got covid and all our plans got scrambled.
Eleanor climbed at least 40 feet up the main wall to start the outing, which was very impressive. Poor Finn had to wait on me filling out some paperwork so he could climb.
I had run out and gotten Eleanor some new athletic clothes after our previous climbing session because I realized her shirt kept riding up and then I looked at the size on the shirt she had been wearing and discovered her only athletic shirt she owned was a 5t ... for reference Juliet is a 3t or 4t these days. Athleta was having a sale so I got her very fancy clothes and she was beyond thrilled and looked cool and comfy for her latest climbing adventure.
Finn takes rock climbing classes in Boston so he was a natural trying out all the new climbing routes at ROKC!
Cool Eleanor!
I was really glad Eleanor got in some time with Finn without her brothers around, it's definitely a very loud and boy heavy love fest when it's all the boys together and she and Finn had a much quieter time but it was a lot of fun. Although it did seem to give her pause when we went into a shop after climbing and he proudly burped his ABCs.
Bouldering! It's not exactly a small climb to do without a harness.
The upside-down bouldering option. Oh my!
Eleanor really likes posing for pictures while climbing and I really like taking pictures so it works out great!
We went to get Eleanor official climbing gear and we had to stop by Scheel's to get her harness so we stopped by and got Emmett on the way so he could have a fun time with the crew.
Scheel's staff are amazing and they gave us free tokens for the Ferris Wheel and then came over and started up the shooting game for us for free.
We paid for our own bowling. It was fun although I clearly never take my kids bowling and Eleanor had a bit of a learning curve to catch up to the boys.
Ferris Wheel. No one wanted to ride with me!!! And they all rode in a seat completely on their own, which I thought was pretty funny. Independence is key! This was like the air safari ride at the zoo. Emmett and Bradley were really proud that they could ride together without an adult and as soon as Eleanor found out they were going on their own she couldn't wait to ditch me and Juliet so she could ride on her own as well. I kept yelling that I missed her and I hoped she was okay from about four chairs back and I think that contributed to some of the joy of independence.
The next day was spent at a parent lunch event at the school where I got to sit outside and have lunch with each of my kids over the course of two hours. It was fun but it was very windy and hot and Juliet got sunburned (oops).
The point of the lunch where Juliet ran around with a stake type stick she found and Patrick decided this was a photo face. I've given up on a number of aspects of parenting.
We went over to my folks' house for games that evening which was nice. I love it when Eleanor wants to get in on the action!
Then I spent the next morning suffering through sports. Outdoor sports are dumb if they aren't like tennis and get cancelled if we're slightly cold or uncomfortable or maybe a bit of a drizzle has started and our sport won't work properly. Soccer happens in all conditions.
Fortunately some Bradley cuddles helped perk me up! And Patrick loves it and has so much fun, this helps a ton as well.
I feel like Nathan gets left out on a fair number of these fun family outings so I'm glad he was able to go to the zoo with the whole crew!
Again - the unlimited rides pass is key to our enjoyment of the zoo.
We actually made it to a few programs this time at the zoo, including the feeding of the Lorikeets!
And the kids went in to the new area where you can pet stingrays.
Bradley and I opted out but Patrick made it his life mission to pet as many as possible and was living his best life in there.
The girls found a cool tiger statue.
Riding together on the train!
Eleanor tied her sweatshirt around the two of them and said she was buckling them in and Juliet beyond loved it. I'm so glad they love each other so much.
Then we went home and got our game on! Bandido is our new favorite cooperative game, all three of the big kids love it.
And Juliet has finally figured out that if she asks me to play a game with her it's pretty much a guarantee that I'll drop whatever I'm doing to go play a game with her - especially if it's Busytown Eye Found it!
Meanwhile, Nathan ran an errand down to Linn Valley to pick up some gear from our skid shed and he brought Eleanor along for company. They fit in a quick session of mini golf before coming home!
Nathan and I got to go out on a date to a Japanese BBQ restaurant and had the neighbor girls babysit the kids, which everyone enjoyed thoroughly. We watched our final episode of Serengeti and I definitely got enough cuddles between Eleanor and Juliet and Meg!
Juliet kept shoving Meg off Mommy lap space so Eleanor was delighted to offer up her own lap space for a love-starved kitty.
The next day Juliet went to Deanna Rose with her grandpa and I was so sure she would nap but she didn't ... except she almost did at dinner.
I was very unsure of how it would go and it turned out the basics were very easy, getting over the height stuff was much more of the issue at first. Jumping out to belay down from 25 ft up feels very scary the first time or two!
We took Eleanor's friend Lorelei with us so she could try out rock climbing and it was also very handy because she took some cute pictures of me and Eleanor together as well.
Eleanor had a blast coaching Lorelei on how to rock climb. Lorelei went home raving about the experience and I'm pretty sure she would come back with us anytime.
Eleanor never misses a good posing opportunity.
Good thing she's cute. Look at lucky Layla!
Juliet woke up in the night a week or so ago and I had trouble getting back to sleep after getting her back in bed. So when Eleanor came in to my room in the morning for cuddles, we both fell back asleep. And Juliet joined us and zonked out too. Nathan got a picture.
I finally managed to wake myself up and get out from the middle but the girls were so cozy they slumbered on. It's a miracle we make it to school on time some days.
My brother and sister-in-law came to visit again so Katie joined in on the final MOPS outing to Deanna Rose.
Swinging together with Grandpa!
Juliet had a lovely time been ferried around in the wagon with the combined help of Katie and Caroline.
Cute trio of girls on one of the bench swings!
Checking out goats together. It was a gorgeous day to be there.
And they all fit in the new wagon we got!
Juliet loves our platform swing.
The next day was take your child to work day - Nathan had the girls with him for the first bit of the morning while I took the boys to a doctor's appointment. Fun fact - they now do a blood test for kids when they turn 10 to check cholesterol levels and such. Bradley started to get really worried and overreact to this news and I told him it was basically like a shot, but not even as bad, and just don't look and he'll be fine. The doctor asked if he wanted to discuss it further and I really didn't want to because he had enough information and talking about it at all was going to make him upset so I said, "we operate under a conceal, don't feel policy for these type of things" and she laughed a lot at my Frozen reference. It worked, by the way. You just don't look at the needle or anything else on the tray when they come in for the procedure. He was 100% fine for the blood draw and loved getting to tell everyone why he had a bandaid on his finger. 
Nathan with his cute crew at work. I left with Juliet after this and took her to Half Price Books to kill time while the big kids went to a science program with Daddy that took about an hour. In that time I managed to purchase a box worth of books for $70 so we all had a lovely morning.
And congratulations to Nathan for getting one of his best friends to not only work at his company, but to have a desk about 10 feet from where his office is. We love the Rutherfords and I drove the kids to Price Chopper after the event to meet up with Annie and have lunch. It was loud, it was fun, it was chaos.
Then I drove Tina to the airport, Nathan said goodbye to Colleen and Kerry, and we resume standard behavior around the house which is apparently Juliet pulling this facial expression while we try to watch an episode of Serengeti. The kids have loved the show, it's a really neat nature documentary that's basically Meerkat Manor but with a bunch of different African animals. We spent most of the show hoping various baby animals wouldn't die tragically.
And that evening I took it upon myself to take all the big kids and Bradley's friend Luca rock climbing. Eleanor had been talking about going back ever since she went to a birthday party at ROKC and I looked it up and there's a bunch of levels of climbing teams she could do and I'm thrilled to death to have a sport that she likes.
Patrick in action!
He did sort of bump his way down the wall here I guess ... didn't seem to bother him!
Eleanor looks good climbing up on these walls!
Patrick and Juliet were being incredibly loud that evening and I love nice weather so much because I booted them outside and they instantly were having a blast exploring the back hill and playing on the swing together.
He had to wave the candles out instead of blowing them out because even though he was negative for Covid we figured the fewer germs the better.
Bradley was a lovely help while his parents were battling Covid fatigue and helped read to Juliet at night.
I still wasn't feeling too hot the day before Easter so a delighted Bradley also got to fill in on some Easter bunny duties.
Nathan was feeling good and had officially finished his quarantine so he went with the boys to Walmart for last minute party favors and cupcakes for Patrick's friend birthday party which was going to be the next day at Deanna Rose.
And if you're thinking to yourself, "this looks like a lot of kids were at the party" yes, yes there were a ton of kids at the party. I don't actually know how many I invited, it was his entire class and three sports teams. There was quite a bit of overlap between the three groups but it was still a ton of people. But I'm all for kids having at least a few big blowout parties with a lot of people so this was the time and the place to do it!
Patrick and Mabel! Their love remains strong. Mabel made a very cute birthday card with a picture of her and Patrick on it but apparently it was a second draft because the original card was a picture of him on one knee proposing to her. Which he would have loved as a card, but her mom decided she should probably make it more friendship oriented. Ah, these sweet kids. They were playing wedding at the playground at the school a couple months ago and it consisted of them asking each other if they were ready to be married and Patrick falling down on the ground and fainting over and over again. Classy.
The birthday kids split into three or four groups and ran all over Deanna Rose. Emmett and Finn were even there, much to Bradley's delight! Awesome that their visit coincided with the birthday party.
Juliet trying the same thing, although the bird had wised up by this point.
Meanwhile, Patrick is literally skipping around the field during the game.
We had a rare free Saturday afternoon so after Nathan took Patrick took a baseball practice immediately following soccer (it's really good he likes sports so much) we had a family trip to the zoo. Nathan had not been since four years ago and the whole family has been loving watching Serengeti together so it was definitely time to seize the moment and go!
I left her with Nathan so Eleanor and I could go rock climbing together! Finally!
She also climbs REALLY high! I got 40 feet up on the 50 foot wall and chickened out for the last 10 feet even though it would have been really easy to climb. It feels really uncomfortably high for your first few times up there.
And in support of the rock climbing sport, Nathan installed a pull-up bar on Eleanor's door so she can work on upper-body strength. Eleanor has a camp coming up right after school ends and I don't know how she's going to manage climbing so many days in a row, I was quite sore after just my one day of climbing!
Eleanor finished up her music theater class, which was fun but we're also really happy about more time for rock climbing now! She was one of just a few girls who got a solo for one of the songs they performed for the little family performance session at the end of the class. Her bit is at the very end of the song. She did so well!
I'll be very happy about many aspects of school being out for summer. Juliet still takes occasional naps and either I have to wake her up for the drive to get kids from school or she falls asleep somewhere along the ride. She's very scary when she wakes up from naps, it's kind of like waking up a bear.
Katie got a bit of a bad virus and we haven't seen her much on this particular visit. Juliet loves Ethan, he's so squishy and adorable at six months old. We were at Costco recently and Juliet was chattering about how she loved babies so much ... except boy babies. Blech! I asked her about baby Ethan and was informed that he was the only exception and she liked him very much. Phew!
Bonus info - Patrick had so much fun eating donuts and fried food for lunch that the next morning he ran into our room yelling "I need to throw up!" He went into the bathroom and had an enormous poop but because he said he still felt bad and had said the words "throw up" I let him stay home from school the next day and he and Juliet had a fabulous day watching Ponyo and playing around outside together. Sighhhhh. Ah well. He already knows how to read and do some math. I guess he can miss school here and there and be okay.
