Uncle Thomas Visit and Beginning of Baseball Season

We finished off cousin time with Emmett and Finn with yet another epic nerf gun fight in our backyard.

It's kind of great, you don't actually hurt anyone with the darts as long as you're shooting from a distance so the requirement is that the shooters stand on the deck and the targets run around down below. 

We then went back inside and there was more shooting with Colt Super Express, our game of choice for their visit. 

The cousins are good buddies, we're very glad that Emmett and Finn can hang with our silly crew. 

We had a belated birthday outing to Wonderscope with Mabel, who wasn't able to make the boys' official birthday party.

Like usual, Patrick was so excited for Mabel to be there and then he ran around and did his own thing most of the time and Eleanor stole his friend. 

Juliet in the maze.

The one picture we got with Patrick. He's into doing thumbs down in pictures these days. Oh Patrick. 

Leaving with Juliet. She likes to hold hands and be carried out. It's a whole thing. 

A lot of things with Juliet are a whole thing.

Fun story: Juliet got a popcorn kernel stuck in her nose the other night. I walked away for a few minutes while she and Eleanor were watching a movie and eating popcorn. I walked back over when Juliet started saying "Ow! Ow!" and I asked her what was wrong. She said "Popcorn in nose!" and I thought nahhh, there's just no way. There was a way. She had a kernel lodged way up there. Fortunately she cooperated with the saline spray I used on her and she's been able to blow here nose since she was an infant, so with a few hard blows out her nose she was able to get it out. I couldn't believe it. She's been eating popcorn for ages, I have no idea why she decided to stick something up her nose. I'm just so glad we didn't have to go to urgent care to get it out. 

Colleen and Kerry made a visit! Look at Juliet's face in this pic. I can't get enough of her pleased but embarrassed face.

It was pretty chilly for much of their visit, I'm relieved that we had nice weather for family pictures. 

Nathan and Bradley took advantage of some downtime to build Bradley's robot hedgehog he got for Christmas. They're a good duo, they had a lot of fun working together. 

Meanwhile, grandma cuddles. 

Juliet was obsessed with her Grandma Colleen. 

Bradley had one of his first baseball games with they were visiting. 

Look at this champ. 

He's already quite the hitter, which isn't a guarantee at this age even with some coach pitching involved.

After Colleen and Kerry left we went down to our lake lot for a gathering with some of our friends. It was the first look at the skid shed for everyone but Daddy and Bradley and we didn't realize how high the loft was - definitely going to need a ladder to get up and down from there from now on. 

Another great Juliet face. She was excited to be on Mike Monahan's shoulders but embarrassed about the fuss we were making over her. 

A look at our future.

Another terrifying look at our future. Bradley got to drive the golf cart a bit while we were at the lake, he was SO proud. 

Back home for a cub scout event. 

They had to blow on little sailboats for a race. They come up with such cute activities for scouts. 

Meanwhile, I had this. She found the helmet that was "just my size!" and insisted on wearing it and taking the hot wheels to the park. 

She was also wearing Eleanor's old water shoes. And attacking pretend bad guys with a stick. 

She's going to kick all the bad guys. I love watching her run. People melt with the cuteness when Juliet is around. 

Dandelions are universally beloved by children. It's pretty fun to have Juliet discovering them.  

Picnic after park time. Juliet loves picnic lunches. 

She's also very okay with public nudity. She ran around for a solid 30 minutes like this before I was able to talk her into putting some clothes back on. Granted, I didn't try all that hard for the first 15 minutes or so. I'm a sucker for nekkie time for cute little toddlers. 

My sweeping helper!

Another trip out to the park. Juliet is lucky her siblings are pretty tolerant of her behavior.

The boys do this thing now where they make high pitched happy sounds whenever they're cuddling and apparently they found each other at school and immediately cuddled with appropriate sound effects. Patrick's sweet teacher sent me a photo. 

Here are a couple Patrick stories. The other morning Patrick saw me putting on makeup and wanted to know what it was. I told him it was eyeliner and he told me he thought it was black blood. This kind of goes along with the next story, where a nice friend dropped off some samples of tea at my house for me to try out. They were in clear plastic sandwich baggies and Patrick wanted to know what they were. I said, "tea!" and he responded, "Tea is made out of mulch? How much are you going to eat?" In all fairness, they did look a bit mulchy. 

Back at baseball with Bradley and Nathan, who helps out as one of the assistant coaches. 

I help out as a member of Bradley's cheer squad. I come to as many games as I can, he's pretty adorable to watch. 

A happy kid after getting a hit and making it to first base. 

His first time playing catcher. 

Pitching. Look at that form!

Patrick had his first game. I might not be the biggest fan of baseball as a sport but I certainly think my boys look adorable in baseball uniforms.

Kindergarten baseball is more my speed. They play 3 innings, each kid gets a turn to bat, and no one can get out and they all get to run around all the bases. Genius. 

Getting a hit!

So cute.

After running all the bases.

Bradley likes to wad of balls of paper and then write things on them. I don't understand it, but he's proud and the other kids are willing to fight to the death over the things so I guess he understands what cool is better than I do. 

Juliet is so loud and feisty most of the time but then she becomes terrified when people start having water fights in her vicinity. 

Addison's friend started splashing people with his water bottle and Juliet freaked out. Unfortunately for her, we all enjoyed her terrified cuddles so maybe we could have done more to halt the actual water fight. 

More cuddles post the terror. She's not cuddly very often, we may have to have a lot of water fights at the lake this summer so I get my snuggles. 

Juliet is very thoughtful though and Meg has her trained at bedtime. If I'm reading to Juliet and Meg comes by, Juliet moves off my lap so Meg can sit in the spot she wants. Ridiculous that the cat has the toddler trained. 

I believe Nathan was at a golf outing this afternoon. It's nice that these things are happening again, I know it's been quite the year for Nathan working from home. 

Then he came home and pushed cute kids on the swing. 

Bradley reading to a younger sibling. 

Eleanor reading to a younger sibling. What sweet kiddos. 

Eleanor also often has to feed a younger sibling as well. Good thing she's a good sport. 

Eleanor and Juliet have this thing now where they like to play in the trunk of Nathan's car. They take a couple stuffed toys in there with them and like for me to shut the trunk and then they scream with delighted terror whenever I knock on the window of the trunk. It was all fun and games until I left Eleanor with Juliet in the trunk (Nathan was home) while I took the boys out for a quick park outing. We ran into friends who wanted to play with Eleanor and I said without thinking, "Oh, I'll just run home and get her out of the trunk!" That required some explanation. Fortunately, the other mom was also familiar with kids who likes to play in trunks of cars. And it's an SUV, you just climb over the seat if you want to get out!

Juliet has a pretty good thing going with these kids. She's going to be so happy with them home all summer. 

She fell asleep on me for the first time ever while I was reading to her for naptime. Beatrix Potter books are sweet but rather boring. 

Matchy cat ear sisters. 

Yep, this is what Juliet does when left unattended. I mean, I do appreciate that she's so excited about games. 

She also pays a little too much attention to what the big kids do when we go to the playground. 

She pays attention to everything and has started yelling at me when we get in the car that she wants to drive and I can sit in the back in her seat. It's a good thing I like feisty kids. 

I was playing board games at home with Bradley so Nathan took the rest of the crew to the park. I love it when they walk along holding hands. 

The next day when I took Juliet on a park outing she decided she needed to wash her feet off with mulch. 

She's pretty hilarious. And I like her songs.

Nathan and Bradley got the rest of our lake gear out of my parents' garage and down to our fancy skid shed. 

Just in time for our 10 year anniversary! We had a fabulous day. I dropped the kids off at school and then came home and passed sweet Juliet off to my dad. Nathan and I started the day with breakfast at Panera.

Then we went down to the lake, where Nathan had sneakily put up decorations when he was there with Bradley the night before. 

Then I got to go golfing for the first time! I loved it. The Linn Valley course was nice!

Fun fact - I asked Nathan if he thought this skirt was a little short for golfing and he was quite emphatic about saying no, it was just fine. Then I saw pictures. Oh well, hopefully I have a few years of short skirts left before I embarrass my children. 

I did okay some of the time. Playing tennis was certainly good prep for being able to tell if my form for golf is correct or not. But I still have a ways to go!

Married 10 years! I would be very happy if a day at the lake was our tradition for our anniversary. 

In the afternoon we took our new double kayak out on the big lake. So much fashion happening in this photo! It was a pretty fabulous day, and the kids were very excited to get to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's that night. Even Juliet!

We had to hurry back in the morning in time for Nathan to take Bradley to a baseball game so I took the rest of the kids out to the park for a picnic lunch. Springtime is meant to be spent outside. 

Sisters!

Juliet was a bit of a tired wreck and was a much better human after she got in a good nap. Grandparent time had been too much fun for a little girl. 

We've had a weird rainy and cold spring. Lots of coats. 

But that doesn't stop a lot of fun happening anyway. It's terrifying how much Juliet looks up to Patrick. 

I mean, I might do my bit to make it more fun to roar and be like Patrick.

Morning cuddles with too many sweeties. 

We got in a first Deanna Rose trip in about a year and a half and we were so excited to go back!

It was just me and Juliet with our MOPS friends. Our wagon was a big hit and I'm relieved Juliet was so happy to have friends in it with her. 

Feeding the goats was so exciting. 

Dry food for older goats was fun too. Juliet was so hyped up the entire time. 

Juliet requested that I take a picture of her in the flower and then was embarrassed to actually take the picture. I adore this face. 

Bridge picture with buddies! Caroline, Aria, Juliet, and Aurora. 

Bath time later that day. It's always a bit more high energy when it's Juliet with Patrick. 

Another embarrassed face. 

Uncle Thomas came for a short visit. Bradley was hyped for all aspects of this visit. 

He brought presents and played Unmatched, Bradley's favorite new board game. What more could you want?

Juliet was also all about her Uncle Thomas and insisted on sitting on his lap while he played the game.

Piggie back rides for a 9 year old is rather impressive.

Piggie back rides for the 2 year old were full of shrieks of glee. 

She insisted that he read to her for bedtime. 

At the park the next day where she screamed at me to push her higher until we terrified a nice grandma who was watching us. Juliet also does this when we're riding bikes. One afternoon she screamed at me to go faster for an entire ride home from school with the kids. She has a need for speed. 

She was terrified of the tunnel slide until about two minutes before I wanted to leave and then she figured out it was the most fun thing ever and we had to stay for another ten minutes of tunnel slide fun.

Uncle Thomas liked to hold Juliet up high and she thought that was the most fun trick ever. Uncle Thomas is so fun. 

Patrick started telling the worst knock-knock jokes at dinner and then he got on a theme where they all ended up being body parts, like belly button and elbow and I don't know what happened but I just started cracking up. Patrick was thrilled to death and we both kind of lost it. 

We followed up dinner with a much anticipated four player game of Unmatched. 

Bradley and I were a team. 

I honestly thought we were going to lose for a good portion of the game but then we were awesome and beat Nathan and Thomas. 

Bradley got to take a winner picture with Thomas. 

I stayed and played more games with my folks and Thomas and Nathan got the cute kid crew home and in bed. 

Eleanor finished her robot that Uncle Thomas gave her and she was so proud. 

Boys had a sleepover.

And the girls did too. 

Bradley had a playdate with his friend Alli from school and I not so sneakily used it as an opportunity to recruit her for a Lego robotics team. 

Eleanor showing off her robot to Uncle Thomas. 

They all got some pretty great quality time with him during his visit. It doesn't hurt that he's all about the STEM activities and so are we. 

We played Cold Super Express with Uncle Thomas. Bradley was a winner yet again. 

And then this is how we said goodbye to Uncle Thomas. Oh Patrick. 

Juliet with a macaron. 

Juliet with a hard-boiled egg she peeled all by herself. She even got it started by herself and yelled at me whenever I tried to get close, so it was 100% done by Juliet. 

She likes to be nekkie and have me help her play chase right before naptime. I'm such a sucker for this. 

Patrick has come a long way in learning how to read this year and read a book to Juliet before bed. 

They tried to have a sleepover in a fort they built but then Patrick came and got us after about a half hour and said that Juliet wouldn't stop kicking him and he wanted her to sleep in her crib. Poor kid. 

I'm such a fan of these kids reading to each other. 

We got a new cooperative board game called Detective Charlie and had a great time trying it out during a Juliet nap. 

I realized that Patrick was probably old enough for Dragonwood so we've been playing a bunch lately. Bradley is also pretty excited to revisit an old favorite. 

And then all of our activities got rained out last Saturday so we made it to a local board game group and they make all of the board games we play look so mellow and easy by comparison. We were there for four hours and played one game of Between Two Cities of Mad King Ludwig. It was fun! But this is exactly why I'm generally a fan of the shorter games. Takes far less time to learn and you can play a few times in the exact same amount of time. 

The next day I took Patrick to a baseball game after church and then we got the girls and joined Nathan and Bradley down at the lake for a Cub Scout event. Patrick's ability to snooze in the car is unparalleled. 

S'mores with Juliet at the end of the event. 

Back to work for Nathan on Monday morning. It's not too much of a surprise that he's in no rush to return to the office. 

Especially when this is a mid-morning work break.

He does a flippy trick with both of the girls that rather terrifies me. They love it so much.

Sweet Sookie. I washed all the sheets and she was desperately grateful. 

Bradley mows our lawn now. This is a very exciting development for all involved!

He's rightfully quite proud of himself. 

He got a special Costco dinner with Nathan after they got his new glasses picked out. My poor kids never eat out, he was ridiculously excited to eat a hotdog in the parking lot and have one of their giant soft serve ice creams.

Meanwhile, Patrick and I played board games and got him geared up for summer vacation themed day at school the next day. 

Apparently Juliet really likes building things now so the girls built a giant Lego tower with Nathan in the basement. 

And I held the final MOPS meeting of the semester! Fun story - I'm supposed to do crafts for some of these meetings and I am not particularly crafty. I had it in my head that I could manage a succulent terrarium craft and made it to Hobby Lobby to buy containers for the succulents ... and then I saw their artificial succulents and adjusted the craft to picking a vase, filling it with rocks, and sticking a fake flower in it. The craft was a hit! We had a 4 year old take our picture at the end and everyone was so happy. I'm so glad I kept things easy. 

The kids had their last day of school today. It was weird and cold and rainy, which kind of fits for this year. But they all loved school and got to go in-person so as a whole, I couldn't be more delighted with how things went. 

Eleanor with some of her classmates. I doubt they wear masks next year, which is too bad. I really enjoyed no one getting sick this year. 

Trying to wake Juliet up after a nap. She pulled the blanket over her face to block out the light. I really enjoy the hour she hangs out in her crib after waking up from her nap but if this is any indication of teenage behavior we are in for it when she has to get up early for school. 

Another girl sleepover. I love how these kids are such good buddies. It's pretty amazing.