Juliet has some adorable quirks. Being naughty is one of them.
She loves socks and will rub surfaces with them. It's fine with clean socks but a little icky with dirty ones. She loves opening up containers and taking items in and out of them, I'm hoping we can channel this into some natural tidiness if I play my cards right!!? She might have a first word, she yells something that sort of sounds like "hi" at us when we're saying hi to her. Sometimes. When she's in the mood. She's still not walking but is getting close, she grabs my hands and likes me to walk her up and down stairs.
But mostly she likes to climb things and yells at people until she gets what she wants.
It's a nonstop job tending to Juliet these days. You never know what she's going to get into if you turn around for a minute.
Patrick and Eleanor have been doing performances on our fireplace stage again. Always a stellar show!
This cute boy. I can't believe he's almost 8. We're so crazy about our Bradley boy.
I have some news, I've been asked to be the coordinator for my church MOPS group next year! I believe the exact manner in which I was asked was something like this, "Would you consider being the MOPS coordinator next year? I think you would enjoy it! Also, I have no other options of people to ask." I mean, it's hard to be humble when you are so sought over, but I manage it somehow.
Juliet and Patrick accompanied me as I helped chaperone Eleanor's 1st grade field trip to Paradise Park. I don't know that Juliet was prepared for how popular she would be.
I was sort of able to help. Juliet marauded.
She was eager to get in on all the big kid activities.
Eleanor's very nice classmate Malia happily kept offering Juliet colored pencils.
Eleanor, Cate, and Ellie.
Grandma helped chaperone too! Patrick really enjoyed the snack lesson.
I placed Juliet in baby jail during this station, she would not stop being naughty and trying to break into the teacher area. The 1st graders thought this was hilarious.
A key aspect of the field trip was every 1st grader begging to hold Juliet. The baby got passed around a bit.
She was a good sport. But it was a lot, even for a baby that loves attention.
Another station, another round of Patrick being front and center. He mostly behaved himself but it's tricky that he's taller that some of the 1st graders so I had to tell a couple of the people there that he wasn't actually in elementary school yet, this was my 4 year old son.
There was a face painting station and it was a hit! Here are Eleanor and her friend Izze.
Eleanor and Landree.
I became the teacher's favorite chaperone when I took it upon myself to take any kids who wanted to outside to run around, even though it was a little chilly. Here's Patrick by the fishing station.
Grandma with all three grandchildren that came on the field trip! Lucky Grandma!
Juliet partied hard on this field trip and passed out hard on the bus ride home.
We did our weekly dinner with grandparents that evening and we've started taking pictures of the winners with the losers after we play a game. Guess who was the winner and who lost?
Standard bedtime reading time.
Juliet continues to be Bradley's best helper when it comes to unloading the dishwasher.
Bradley and Patrick are basically inseparable these days. There's a fair amount of squabbling but there is so much adoration.
Eleanor and I went to Sam's Club to sell Girl Scout Cookies a few weeks ago. It was rather chilly. Can you find the Eleanor in this picture?
Meanwhile, Bradley got to go roller skating for the first time at his friend Cherry's birthday party. He did really well!
Then we got to have our neighbor Addison over for a sleep over that night! There was so much joy. We watched Honey I Blew Up the Baby and Patrick could not stop jumping around in excitement.
Playing a Scooby-Doo game with Addison.
Bradley had an awards ceremony for Cub Scouts and he was one of the few who got to read a line at the event. He did a great job!
Juliet is so cute! She loves all the outside time she's getting these days.
She's so cute and naughty. Here she is untying my shoe laces. She is unrepentant.
She likes to raid the cupboards in our bathroom while Nathan and I take showers and get ready in the morning. This particular morning she found a cough drop and was insistent that she needed to keep shoving it into Patrick's mouth. He was a good sport.
Sighhhhhh. So naughty.
Playing with her Eleanor. She loves all her siblings but has been particularly attached to Eleanor lately.
Playing with Patrick's friend Mabel.
Outside time! She loves our platform swing.
Climbing trees with Patrick.
This is how we waited for the big kids to come home from school.
And. I don't know what this is. Sometimes it's important to not ask too many questions.
Juliet discovered Patrick's belly button and was insistent that it must be booped.
Making friends with the neighborhood kitty Chewy.
Fun story, shortly after this photo was taken Patrick fell out of this tree. He cried a bunch and then immediately went back over and started climbing it again.
Playground time! Little did we know we wouldn't even get to play on these in another couple weeks due to coronavirus.
In an act of fantastic parenting, I chucked my one year old baby down a slide even though I had to pry her little hands loose from the death grip she had at the top. I was so sure she would love it, she had loved all slides prior to this! She was not a fan, especially when she was scooped up by her four year old brother at the bottom and he grabbed her and ran around the playground holding her. Oops.
Weekend breakfast crew!
Eleanor with friends at Bradley's final basketball game of the season.
Nathan left for a work trip to England and so I took the kids to church on my own.
So, fun church story. Kids did this adorable program after the church service where we have lunch and learn about a biblical principle. Bradley and Patrick volunteer to act out a scene in front of the group, we have a blast. Then they pass out kindness mason jars, one per family, which we are to decorate and have decide as a family a few acts of kindness from the papers inside the jar that we can do for others in the coming weeks. My darling children insist on having their own mason jars, one per kid, because they don't want to have to share decorating fun for the outside of the jars, that's resulting in a lot of fights. I have this thing about stuff entering my house. Needless stuff. It's never ending, my island counter is constantly filled up with art projects and school assignments, and I was rather displeased that my children couldn't share a kindness mason jar and we were getting two extra. So I may have given the kids quite the lecture on the way home from church and told them if they insisted on bringing extra stuff home we had to get rid of stuff and by the way, instead of sharing kindness duties as a family they now had to do all the kindness tasks independently. The kids cried when I told them the part about their extra kindness tasks. Ahhhh, parenting. It's just the best.
Things mellowed out after we got home from church and spent basically the rest of the day outside.
Juliet with her 5th grade neighbor girl fan club: Penelope and Addison.
It was such a nice afternoon, kids played with chalk, bubbles, and rode bikes.
And matches. Yes, I let my kids play with matches. Do you see the judgment I'm getting from Addison?
Honestly we were really careful about it and I think it was really good for the kids to see what it takes to light a match and how careful you need to be about them. Bradley wouldn't come near them but Patrick managed to light one and singed his fingers a bit. Then Bradley really didn't want to be involved. Eleanor lit one and Addison did too. The house is still standing, we didn't burn it down, it was a very good activity for all involved.
We also made it over to Eleanor's friend Naomi's house to check out their new zipline.
It was awesome, everyone loved it!
It's so fun to be around Juliet these days. She certainly fits in with all the big kids. So much personality.
Sigh. Yep, this is certainly one of my kids right here.
Meanwhile, Nathan in England!
Eleanor specifically asked for a picture of him in a telephone booth.
Juliet was hoping we could mail her to Daddy so she could be with him.
I told Nathan that I heard baseball hats were very American and he and his coworker Lane were not blending in at all. They had a great time though.
Apparently we did too. Poor Patrick still falls asleep a lot of afternoons, he goes so hard.
Outside time with a baby!
We finally got Patrick a new helmet so he wouldn't have to wear a girl one anymore. He looks so cute.
And I took the kids to a fancy Chick-fil-A dinner one night because that's what you do when Daddy is gone on a long work trip.
Juliet and a lucky kitty!
Harry Potter Patrick. How stinkin' adorable is this kid?
Okay, this kid too. Juliet loves swings.
She also loves ladders and climbing. She's not even walking yet, why is she doing this to me?
This ended up being the favorite activity at the park. Just up and down the treacherous stairs.
Nathan came back from England and he brought the one thing I had requested - Cadbury eggs!
We did a taste comparison between the English Cadbury eggs and the American ones. It turns out there's quite a difference! The English ones are bigger and less sweet and the filling is more solid. We decided we liked the English chocolate the American filling the best.
Our candy haul. Well done, Nathan.
The kids had another sleepover the next night. Nathan and I had a school event to go to so Bradley and Patrick decided to sleep in the bottom bunk together.
And then I had to explain the creepy devil glass to a concerned Bradley in the morning when he unloaded the dishwasher. This was an awkward conversation for all involved. I think the sex talk might be more fun than explaining the term bastard.
Over at Naomi's house again. She and her sisters built a teepee. It's always something exciting over there.
Nathan took the boys out to play catch and Patrick and Eleanor ended up in a leaf pile together.
Cuddling with a cute baby after a nice round of catch. We're pretty sure Bradley's baseball season is cancelled for this year. It's okay though, playing catch in the park is pretty great too.
Girls playing on Juliet's panda bear toy.
I've started letting Juliet feed herself. It's going medium well. We really need to try to get her to wear a bib again. I've given up on so many things with baby #4.
Bradley got one field trip this year. He had a couple more scheduled, but coronavirus cancels everything. At least Grandpa got to come along as a chaperone! They had a blast at a nearby nature center.
Nathan's favorite evening activity. Playing on his phone while Bradley cuddles up on him reading a book. This got broken up about two minutes later when the baby decided to join the part and sat on Bradley and tried to steal his book.
Oh, who has the best smiles when he is naughty and photo bombing a picture he isn't supposed to be in?
Juliet is all about her daddy these days. Nathan and I were talking about how most of our kids were pretty obsessed with him from age 1-2. It's the age where I need lots of breaks because the kids are constantly getting into things and trying to kill themselves and Nathan has loads of cute fun games he plays with them. The daddy obsession is very real and very adorable.
Don't worry, I pinched those buns.
Eleanor had a spirit week at school leading up to Spring Break and she was ecstatic to match both her teacher Ms. Weibel and a friend when all three of them dressed up as Junie B. Jones for dress as your favorite literary character day.
But because our spring break plans were cancelled, he still got to have a playdate with Mabel after preschool that afternoon. Apparently it had all been a lot for a little guy, he turned on a book on tape and fell asleep on the coach in the basement during the playdate.
And we're glad Eleanor's school had the 1st grade musical scheduled for the day before spring break so she got it in. She had a line and did so well!
This is how I got to watch the musical. So cuddly.
The theme of the musical was The Planets.
Poor Bradley is lucky he ever gets any reading in with his fan club constantly begging for love and attention.
I took the kids out for apology donuts the next morning because we were supposed to be on a spring break trip but were home instead. It's rather tricky to get a good photo with four kids.
We'll call this good!
Nathan went by Walmart for some food and it was crazy how all the food was gone. For the record, we can still go to grocery stores during the quarantine. I don't know what all the hoarders are doing with their loads of food.
We decided to push up Bradley's birthday party to get it in before official quarantine hit us. He helped Nathan plan a Pokémon themed scavenger hunt.
We went out for a final brunch before all the restaurants closed. Pinstripes! Chocolate fondue fountain is why these kids all think brunch is the best of all the meals. I'm with them!
Juliet loved it.
And Bradley's birthday party turned out to be a hit. Here he is playing video games with his friend Holden and Holden's little brother Graham.
The youngest brother adored Juliet.
There was a piñata!
And Pokémon themed cupcakes that Bradley helped his grandma make.
The entire crew! It looks like a lot but it was just three friends and their siblings.
We watched a Pokémon movie on the couch.
Bradley was so excited about his gifts.
And here are the pictures from the scavenger hunt! We were supposed to do this outside but it snowed a bit earlier in the day so we nixed that and decided inside was the way to go. Nathan is a genius and had the kids follow clues and then he pulled up a virtual Pokémon on his phone for a picture for them.
They found a total of 19 Pokémon. It was awesome.
Birthday themed!
Juliet even got in on a bit of the scavenger hunt.
It was a great little party and I'm so relieved we got it in. Patrick may have to celebrate his birthday in the middle of the summer, we definitely won't be able to go out anywhere in the middle of April.
Juliet is loving having the kids home all day.
Stealing a toy from her big brother.
More practicing eating on her own. Can you tell she thinks she's hilarious?
She's been getting in a ton of time in Eleanor's room.
Both the girls love it. So sweet.
Oh Bradley. Such a joyful goofball.
The kids decided to make a fort for their latest sleepover.
Juliet thought this was awesome, but she still likes climbing the ladder the best.
Inside the fort. Note sweet Bradley in the corner, trying to read a book.
Snuggled in hard on her daddy. We love these baby cuddles so much.
The baby has a few opinions these days and yells at us when we take choking hazards away from her.
Fortunately it's not too tough to get back into her good graces.
The baby fan club helps her when she wants to walk or kick at a basketball.
They're so excited about her standing up on her own and getting close to walking, it's so fun to see them enjoy her as much as we do.
Do you see the little hand poking out the side of the laundry basket? Juliet liked climbing on trapped Eleanor.
The key to Bradley's heart is cuddles. It's so sweet when Patrick or Eleanor agree to a cuddle session, it makes Bradley so so happy.
Bradley is insane and jumped off these playground rock wall on repeat. He even got Patrick to do it with him.
One last round on the swings at the playground. It may be a while before we get to do this again.
Girl time! We love it!
Eleanor lost her 6th tooth while eating popcorn with me and Nathan on the couch while the boys were on a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She was so proud and enjoyed when I fluttered down the hall and did my best tooth fairy impression while slipping a dollar under her pillow.
The joy on this baby's face whenever she knows she's being naughty. Oh dear.
We got a new keyboard and the kids have been enjoying it a bunch!
Juliet enjoys that she is just tall enough to bang on the keys.
Eleanor helping Juliet walk.
Bradley helping Juliet walk. Poor Bradley. He did a really good job. The baby is just very particular.
We're really grateful for our good supply of books now that we're largely stuck at home. Bradley is a Calvin & Hobbes fan and really enjoys how naughty Calvin is and that he can watch TV whenever he wants.
Eleanor is happy that we have a good supply of unicorn books. She likes to read this one to me!
We had a rather exciting end to our spring break when I had an ovarian cyst rupture this past Monday. In the morning I suddenly had a lot of stomach pain and passed out. We got my dad over here to take care of the kids while Nathan rushed me to the ER. The hospital had a goon squad of nurses stationed outside to make sure no one with coronavirus symptoms wandered in and they got a little panicky when we approached and made me declare my symptoms and took my temperature before admitting me. Nathan wasn't allowed inside. They took an ultrasound and discovered the ovarian cyst and sent me home. I was feeling great the first day or two after this but am now not feeling too hot, which is rather inconvenient as I am suddenly homeschooling three kids while taking care of a needy, teething one year old. Fortunately, my kids are smart and my standards are low so it hasn't been too terrible.
Bradley gave me much needed cuddles when I finally got home from the ER and the poor kid actually fell asleep. It's been ages since I've had Bradley nap with me, I love that he's almost 8 and still loves to cuddle.
The kitties helped cuddle me too.
Patrick eating his Cadbury egg dessert that night.
Here's a Patrick story if there ever was one. This kid is obsessed with candy. Halloween and Easter are always hard for him because if there's candy in the house he is rather desperate to eat it. In preparation for Cadbury eggs Nathan was going to bring back from England I had purchased a bunch of American ones so we could do a taste comparison when he got home. Patrick always wants to take treats in his school snack and I always say no. It's supposed to be healthy, it's snack, he can have a little dessert after lunch most days. Well he couldn't stand it and I always have him back his own snack so this little stinker climbed onto our counter in order to get into our treat cupboard and packed a Cadbury egg in his snack. He did this twice! Only when I posted something to Facebook about all the Cadbury eggs that Nathan brought back from England did one of his preschool teachers comment that she knew Patrick loved them because he was bringing them in as his snack each day. What? This was news to me! Patrick's face when I asked him about this information was amazing. Caught! We told him not to do it anymore without permission and gave him three mini eggs to bring in and share with his teachers. He was so happy. Oh this kid. They also commented that they loved how he would scoop out all of the inside to eat first and would then eat the chocolate. Yeah, that's Patrick. I couldn't believe he was so sneaky, he's never done anything like this before. Apparently for candy he can keep a secret!
Eleanor showing off her dessert. She's our pie girl, this makes her Grandma Kathy very happy and she's been keeping Eleanor in good supply.
More piggie back rides. Lucky Patrick!
I was very grateful to be home and reading to the kids for bedtime after my medical scare. Nothing like a health scare to get your perspectives in order! Happy family time matters so much.
And with that, spring break was over and we started our version of homeschool. It wouldn't be too bad if not for a baby who likes to be in the middle of things.
We've started on online piano lessons for Bradley and Eleanor during this time at home! I'm very excited about them, we can easily find the 30 minutes to do a new lesson and practice with all our newfound time at home. A typical day looks like this now:
7:30 - Wake up
8:00 - Breakfast
8:30 - Older three kids work through rotations of piano lessons, writing/math practice, and entertaining Juliet. The latter is key to education, we've tried to do piano lessons with Juliet around and it's a disaster.
10:00 - Cosmic Kids Yoga video (they do themed videos like Frozen and Pokémon, it's very cute)
10:30 - Magic School Bus (science class!)
11:00 - Lunch
11:30 - Quiet time/turns on Messenger Kids/reading with Mommy.
2:00 - Outside (yes, over three hours of outside time on nice days. It's springtime, gotta be outside!)
5:30 - Dinner
6:00 - Back outside
7:00 - Get ready for bed, read with Nathan
8:00 - Bedtime
Bradley has given up on shirts at this time. It's pretty cute, although he's cold and has to go around with a blanket most mornings. Here he is working on a journal prompt.
Patrick loves homeschool. He writes his name and draws for his journal prompt. We're also working on writing his numbers, writing the word Daddy, and practicing drawing hearts.
Pokemon themed yoga. It's great for getting some wiggles out on these chilly mornings.
Patrick's job is to do the laundry and it's always a bit of an experience to watch him do it.
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