Here's a video of a spicy eating challenge for Patrick. Ghost pepper salsa! For the record, Bradley was just as brave when he did this challenge a minute earlier but I was too excited and didn't get a video of his great feat. I love that the kids are getting to be adventurous eaters. Makes things fun!
New minivan has new decals so we can recognize our vehicle in a parking lot. Yes, that's a kitty with a pterasaur. A neighbor told me it reminded him of Banksy and he's now my favorite neighbor. Also, fun fact, when Juliet wants to unbuckle herself when the car has stopped she asks, "can I buckle out?" and it's adorable.
Park time with my spunky little buddy. We've been trying to get her to only use her pacifier when she's going to sleep, which has been met with some resistance. The other morning after breakfast she informed me that she was cold and needed her blanket. I handed her the blanket and was then informed that her mouth was cold too. I asked her if a pacifier would warm it up and she said "yes" with a huge smirk on her face.
A playdate with her friend Caroline. It's so nice to have little friends for Juliet, she loves having buddies.
The video! I was sooooo excited because this was try number six and I wasn't sure we were ever going to get the darn tooth out.
He took a nice nap with Nathan during quiet time.
Juliet sometimes builds forts around herself and it's always a mystery to determine whether or not she has a poopy diaper. Hmm hmm, I wonder I wonder.
Cookie Swap Party was fun but crazy. I don't know how many people were there. I think we had 8 families so probably around 40-50 people. Children ate an absurd amount of cookies. We got some games in though!
Nathan and Mike were unintentionally matchy matchy. Adorable.
We had a bit of a cozy morning to start the next day. Juliet loves when Bradley builds her blanket beds or forts.
I like how clingy the cats have gotten now that it's winter, even though most of December was pretty warm. If I have a sherpa on the bed I usually have a cat on top of the covers and a cat under the covers.
We had some leftover celery from stuffing for Thanksgiving so Nathan decided to make a treat for the kids and introduce them to ants on a log.
Some children were bigger fans than others.
Doing okay ...
Why oh why oh why
We tried out a new game called Magic Maze Kids and had a pretty fabulous time learning how to play. I started with Bradley but ended up playing mostly with Patrick. It's been really fun as both Patrick and Eleanor have gotten more excited about some of the new games we've picked up, it's great to have game time with each of the kids.
The incomparable duo playing with play-doh together.
More pictures with Juliet. Let's pretend that this is a happy picture.
Spoiler: she was yelling, "Go away! My Gamma!"
Adding more children to the picture did not improve her disposition.
It says something that all of us just laugh when Juliet screams at everyone. The kids are way too used to it and find it funny and a little cute.
Finally alone with the one she loves.
She's a bit manic, she's a bit much, but she's all ours and we're big fans.
Eleanor and I went to an evening Girl Scout Yule Log event. I can't believe her leader is able to plan activities like this for December and have the weather be in the 60's for the event.
It was a lot of fun, I really enjoy going along on Eleanor's Girl Scout events. If I had known it was fun activities and not just an overdose of nature time I probably would have wanted to do it as a kid.
I came home from Eleanor's event and put on a dress and headed out with Nathan to his fancy holiday party for Burns & McDonnell. We are cute! It was a fun evening although we're in the demographic that complains about the music being too loud and just wants our food and a festive drink and a chair to sit in. Party party!
Patrick was fighting a bad cold at this time so I did the logical thing and took him on a walk. Fresh air is good for you! We did pull him in a wagon the whole time and he was cozy under a warm blanket, which perhaps contributed to him falling asleep.
Family movie time. We actually watched a few Christmas movies this year, as opposed to last year when we watched The Mandalorian leading up to Christmas. I think this is a pic of us watching Elf and then we watched The Santa Claus 1, 2, & 3 over the course of the next couple weeks.
The Christmas play! Please note Juliet in the front right - she promoted herself to the preschool group just in time to get to join in on the Christmas play. Good girl!
Eleanor had quite a large speaking role and she did really well.
Things got pretty cool once the kids started singing Away in the Manger.
Watching The Santa Claus with our resident nudist. The raccoon hat makes it even better.
Still no clothes on. She decided to make herself a cozy bed. She's lucky none of the big kids noticed what she was doing, they wouldn't have touched that blanket again until I washed it.
Out for a park adventure on a beautiful but windy and cold morning.
Finishing up another round of gymnastics. We did take all of the kids to the gymnastics studio over the break for open gym, Juliet was so proud to show off where she did her classes.
And then Uncle Thomas arrived! Oh joy of joys! We're pretty sure my dad caught Patrick's cold (oops) and it hit him pretty hard. So Thomas got to stay at our house for the first two days of his trip in order to avoid germs! Which would have been a genius plan if Juliet hadn't been fighting the same cold and liked to cuddle on her Uncle Thomas while coughing whenever she felt the need.
And she cuddled with him a lot. He got in some good games with Bradley, we had a bunch we were excited to have Thomas check out.
Piggy-back rides! Juliet usually very much prefers girls, it says a lot that she was this excited about Uncle Thomas.
Opening new presents from Uncle Thomas.
Juliet's cool microscope didn't work but Uncle Thomas is sending her a replacement. Phew! He gets the kids really neat STEM toys each year.
He helped Patrick build his new dinosaur themed terrarium.
And I took the kids out to get their second COVID shot the next morning! Fully vaccinated now! Hurray!!! For the record, these kids are pros at shots now. They know not to look and to chat with me in order to be distracted during shot time. Such good kids.
Patrick's new favorite game is Ice Cool. It's a blast to play it with him. There's a ton of smack talk and jumping up and down with excitement.
Juliet is not always the cuddliest but Uncle Thomas got a lot of hugs.
Cuddle time with Daddy?
Until she realized Uncle Thomas might be lonely. This was the evening we decided Juliet might need to be done with naps. We had tried to put her to bed at 8:00 and I discovered her hiding out at the top of our stairs at 10:15 so she could watch us all watching the football game on TV. She was so proud of herself.
We had double visitors for the weekend because Grandma Colleen and Kerry came to visit as well!
The Juliet love for her Grandma Colleen remains a sight to be seen. So sweet.
Juliet was in charge of handing out Christmas gifts.
Grandma with the grandkid crew!
Bedtime stories.
The kids really enjoy craft time whenever Grandma Colleen comes to visit.
Bradley checking out crafts with a smushy Sookie kitty.
We made gingerbread houses while Colleen and Kerry were visiting! It was about 20 minutes of chaos but the kids had a blast and were very proud of their creations.
This is why I'm against kits for this age of kids. They have so much fun loading up graham crackers with frosting and sprinkles and it's yummy to eat.
Juliet mostly ate little bits of candy while I assembled her house for her. She was very pleased with the whole process.
Bradley made a graham cracker shell of a house and piled in an absurd amount of sprinkles. Happy kid.
Eleanor with her little house. She loved going shopping with me for all the building supplies. We got back from Walmart and dumped it all out on the counter and kids went nuts building. So fun!
The whole crew! Sugar high!
Bradley went with me over to my parents to get in a mini Christmas celebration with Uncle Thomas for Saturday afternoon. We played Sagrada, the new game we got for Thomas, and although Thomas won he had a bit of a tumble with his completed board when holding it up for the traditional winner with loser picture at the end of the game.
We had a cozy time for the rest of Grandma Colleen and Kerry's visit.
Kerry was a very good sport and played one of the boys' made up board games.
An extremely accurate picture of how Grandma Colleen and Juliet spent the visit.
After they left we spent the afternoon at the new playground that was mostly done.
The turf wasn't all laid out but the caution tape was gone so we took that as permission to play!
The boys' favorite feature at the playground - a double swing where they could sit and chat about Pokemon.
Then we went back over to my parents' house for another evening with Uncle Thomas and victory of victories - we were able to pull Patrick's second tooth! He opted for the method of tying his tooth to a pillow and tossing the pillow over the bannister.
It took three tries but we were ultimately successful!
Patrick woke up in the morning and couldn't find his money from the tooth fairy under his pillow. Silly boy! I had him go downstairs and when I went up to check, the money was under his other pillow, where he hadn't checked. And the tooth fairy let him keep his tooth. I'm sure the tooth fairy is very busy and forgets little things every now and then, one must have a spirit of understanding and forgiveness when she lets a few little details slide.
We had desserts and party time at our house when Uncle Thomas came over for one last evening before going back to Austin, Texas. Juliet gets so excited when I put her on the island.
The boys may have had the best evening of all, pop a shot basketball was very exciting.
But the best time of all was when they got to go down to the basement with Uncle Thomas and play.
I'm told it was rather like this the entire time and Uncle Thomas is perhaps lucky to have made it out alive.
Fun fact - Juliet has started to get really scared when you read certain books to her, basically anything where someone is unkind or makes a mean face. More books than you think can fall into this category and you have to be very careful about what you read to her leading up to bedtime. One night I read her a cute Jan Brett book, The Trouble with Trolls, where a bunch of trolls are trying to steal a girl's dog as she climbs up a mountain but she tricks them each time and finally she gets her dog back and skis down the mountain and the trolls become cute flowers you see in the spring. Apparently this was terrifying because I went into Eleanor's room to say goodnight after I finished reading to Juliet and a couple minutes into our chat time, a very upset Juliet ran into the room and said "don't want this book in my room!" and tossed in The Trouble with Trolls and started crying a little. From past experience, I know this means she won't settle down anytime soon so I asked her if she wanted to have a sleepover with Eleanor. Instant joy! I was instructed to put the scary book in my room so Eleanor's room would be terror free. Then we turned out the lights and Eleanor went right to sleep - and Juliet stayed up playing until 10PM. She's at the stage where she's a wreck in the evening if she doesn't get a nap but if she does get a nap she stays up until 9 or 10. Ahhhh, toddlers. She's lucky she's cute and we all adore her.
Patrick's terrarium from Uncle Thomas has started to grow a fair amount of grass and he's so proud. He's our gardener, we're going to have to figure out some plants he can take care of in the spring.
It's been a bit of a brotherly love fest as of late.
Juliet gets away with murder. None of the other kids were being carried for long walks when they were this age, especially when a wagon was brought along for them.
The snuggles help a lot - at least she knows to make happy sounds and say things like "I LOVE huggling you!" when she's being a ridiculous human.
More movie time. Absolute joy for Bradley whenever Juliet wants to cuddle him.
The was Christmas Eve - I think it was 68 degrees and we were all in t-shirts for our park outing. Amazing. Who needs a white Christmas??
At the Christmas Eve service at church. We do a family secret Santa leading up to Christmas every year and it was a short one this year, we pick names on the day school gets out for break and then do daily treasure hunts or notes or art projects for our secret buddy until Christmas Eve. It was only three days this year, which was perfect. We did a full week last year and it was a little tough to come up with thoughtful things every day and it was a bit stressful for the kids to do it around school hours. Sometimes less is more and it worked out perfectly this year. Juliet had Patrick, Patrick had Bradley, and Bradley had Juliet. Eleanor had Nathan, Nathan had me, and I had Eleanor. So fun! A favorite bit was Juliet running around for a treasure hunt for Patrick (Nathan and Eleanor had helped her with it quite a bit) shouting on repeat that "it's in my room!" because that is where they had hidden the final clue and candy prize. Juliet isn't exactly sure what's going on the Secret Santa but she certainly loves the excitement and the candy!
The Christmas Eve service was nice, we really love our church.
We got in a family picture after the service because we all looked so nice. Thanks, Patrick ...
Our best picture. So cute!
Then we came home and had each of the kids open one of their Christmas presents. I'm all for splitting up the gifting as much as possible, they certainly enjoy it more that way.
I love Eleanor's face in this picture. She was so excited that Bradley got a new Pokemon stuffed toy.
Patrick got a Dot to Dot book, Eleanor got a new Lego Friends set, and Juliet got a Star Wars book.
Fun fact - I had let her have a sneak peek at this book when Uncle Thomas was visiting and had him read it to her once and then I told her I was putting it away until Christmas and she needed to forget about it. I got yelled at a LOT for this idiotic idea. The other kids always think it's so funny to get to remind me that they know what their gift is going to be, I guess Juliet isn't quite ready for such things.
She made up for lost time and even had my dad read it to her when he came by to drop off some goodies my mom had baked.
We attempted a Bradley and Juliet Christmas sleepover. It did not happen because she is a menace.
Bradley ended up joining Patrick and they got in a boy sleepover. Eleanor was already sleeping in the top bunk because she had graciously offered to give up her bed so Bradley could have the chance to have a sleepover with Juliet. But then Juliet decided he wasn't allowed to have any of the bed so we booted her back to her own room and found a new buddy for Bradley. Oh well. We tried!
The Christmas morning crew!
Then we ate and got ready to open all the rest of the gifts!
Juliet liked her new doll bench although she was quite sure that she could fit on it in a pinch.
Eleanor is in arts and crafts heaven!
And of course, with a warm Christmas afternoon, we had to go outside to the park.
So great the new playground was completed in time for Christmas!
We even had some friends bike by so Nathan got in buddy time with Keith. Hurray Christmas!
We went over to my folks' place for Christmas dinner in the afternoon. Juliet continues to demand cuddles and get them because she's just the cutest.
My very brave parents decided to create a new Christmas tradition and have the kids act out a play. Juliet had a big poop we had to change in the middle and then she got really shy and wouldn't participate unless she was on my lap. But it was ridiculously cute!
I love my coffee shop buddy. And she's really excited about a few of her new Christmas games, which feels like quite the accomplishment because she is certainly the most particular when it comes to these things.
We went through a kick where we decided to not have Juliet nap at all anymore. There have been mixed results, especially when we still try to institute a quiet time and leave her alone in her room with her blanket and pacifier.
She did very well for herself. Nathan was duly impressed when I brought this home.
We finally made it out to look at Christmas lights on the day after Christmas. This was our best year hanging out at the Deanna Rose light show, and all the kids took full advantage of the moon roof on the new minivan. If you look closely you can see Juliet standing on my shoulder so she can look out up above with Eleanor.
More Grandma snuggles. Juliet makes a beeline for her anytime she walks in the door.
It rained a bunch but it was warm so I still had to take the kids outside. I always end up regretting these muddy decisions I make. At least I told the girls to put on rain boots! Even so, everyone had to change from the waist down once we got home.
And fancy evening of fancy evenings! Nathan and I had talked about how we really should take the kids to legitimate restaurants from time to time. It's fun and if you do it right it doesn't have to be too ridiculously expensive. We found out the Red Robin had a family night on Tuesdays so we went. We walked in and there was free face painting so we knew we were set up for success from the get-go!
Everyone but Juliet allowed the lady to do some cool face painting while we waited for a table.
Bradley was reluctant at first but then Juliet told him he should get a Pokemon and the nice face painting lady looked up a Pikachu picture so she could draw one on his hand for him.
Dinner was lots of fun. The kids were so excited and they had gluten free options for Nathan so he didn't have to starve to death. Juliet adamantly refused to look over for this picture but she ate her body weight in fries so she was happy.
The next day we closed out our Christmas movies by watching The Santa Claus 3 and Juliet dazzled us all by her interesting method of holding her popcorn bowl with her feet while she ate.
My parents had each of the older kids come by their house for an afternoon over break, which was so much fun for all involved. Patrick in particular had quite the excellent time and crushed them at Ice Cool, a penguin flicking game he was practicing in preparation for teaching it at a board game class.
The kids all had a blast and wrapped up the evening with shows in the basement.
The video is quite impressive. Poor Patrick.
For the record, this is the same kid who proudly shares the horrific food combinations he makes to gross out the kids around him at lunch at school.
Juliet has been getting more unsupervised playtime because she's pretty good playing around and doing her own thing while I work on my computer for a little bit or do dishes or something. Especially at the art table her independent work can be fairly impressive for a 2 year old!
She only sang one song with the big group but she seemed to enjoy it!
She was definitely the youngest one to have so many lines. I didn't help her practice them at all, no idea how she learned all of this. Way to go, Eleanor!
There are some pretty great jokes here.
Unfortunately, Patrick got a little hyped up and started to do an unplanned solo. Poor Eleanor tried to calm him down but he was really feeling the music. Nathan and I laughed so hard we cried.
Eleanor was Mary, which was a non-speaking role and difficult to really see what she was doing because they were doing the stick figure thing for it. But she was so proud and it was fun to watch! Fun fact - Eleanor and Patrick and I were talking to my friend who was directing the play about what roles the kids would like to have. Eleanor was offered the role of Mary and graciously accepted and then it was Patrick's turn to talk about a role for the play. He said, "Can I be baby Jesus?!" You have to admire the self-confidence it takes to offer oneself for such a role, especially at the age of 6.
The end bit of the play. Patrick was so proud he had been so funny. Oh Patrick.
We played some pump up music and made the magic happen!
Patrick had to alert me that Santa had brought a board game for Juliet that he had seen in my closet. Whoops, silly Santa doubling up on gifts.
We played with the Santa gifts before having breakfast. Juliet's new game was super fun!
Thank you Aunt Anna for Juliet's new favorite toy of all time.
The board game gifts! I think it was 43 or 44 new games. Good thing Nathan got me a new carrier for the games!
Grandpa made a video!
The next morning Eleanor and I got in some girl and game time at Jinkies!
Snoring because she was so so tired.
I took the kids out to the new playground again and decided it was a good chance to call my grandma for a chat. Juliet decided it was a good chance to ignore the boring playground and enjoy the nearby section of dirt.
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