April showers

I really don't mind a slightly rainy spring.  If we didn't have rainy days, I would get nothing done inside the house.  As it is, I'm down to one room left on my spring cleaning list, plus washing windows.  Woot woot.

They do get a smidge stir crazy so we all went out during a gentle rain.  

They thought it was great fun. 

 Until they both tripped and got their hands/clothes muddy and suddenly the world was ending and they needed to wash their hands.  *Sigh*  I'm raising a bunch of city slickers.  

Sometimes I'm pretty sure they aren't listening at all when I'm reading library books... then they "read" them to each other and they repeat every detail.  

 Little squishy is fond of garbage cans.  This bathroom has a pocket door that she can open by herself. 

 Finally a sunny day!

 Life is good when you've got green grass, bare feet, and a cozy quilt.

 The girls and Bob requested a Zelda cake for his birthday.  Sooooo.... I attempted to make a shield and the "tri-forrest" symbol with colorflow icing.  I've never done colorflow before and I didn't plan far enough ahead so it didn't turn out very well at all.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  

I had one nap to work on it so I didn't have time to let the outlines dry before switching colors...and the colors bled. Then I put it together waaay to late at night.  The buttercream consistency was off for piping and my clever leaf border ended up looking like random blobs of frosting.  When BOTH of my shields broke I threw up my hands and said forget it, shoved the broken pieces on the cake and called it a night. *Sigh*  It was a cool cake in theory.   

They didn't mind the imperfections. 

 It's a miracle!  They are playing outside without me!  Haha.  One of them is not very independent and the other one I don't really trust on her own.

We had communion on Saturday and the older girls got to go to the farm for the evening.  I took them over after lunch so Cadence could play too.  The cows were very shy and Emmy was afraid of tractors (even the ones parked in the shed) and Cecily kept telling me that I could go home now.  Ha. 

Cadence got to come to church with us so I did not have a quiet, peaceful communion experience.  We spent our time in the baby room with Shelly and Gideon and we did not get the giggles.  

 Sunday was the Easter program.  Cecily did good.  I think.  I was out with Cadence so I sort of saw most of it.  I'm just glad she's not terrified.  

It would be nice to be able to walk across the room without stepping on something.

Picking dandelions in the cemetery.

 I love walks!

Spring is my favorite.
Blessings.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

It's been busy, and also quiet around here.  

We've had some cold dreary days so every once in a while I'll pull out a "craft."  These were sun-catcher kits.

 Look Mom, we're wearing Samantha's hats!

So my box of sewing pins was strangely empty one evening... and of course Emmy couldn't remember what she had done with them.  Argh!  Since Cadence is mobile and puts everything in her mouth and I have no desire to step on a pin!  I found most of them the next day in the bottom of my sewing machine.  *sigh*  There's a small hole near the needle plate.... busy little bee.  I'm just glad they didn't do any damage.  

Little squishy can crawl!  And loves cords and eating paper.  I'm tired. 

I want my water taller and bigger! 

 Playing with watercolors.

 She doesn't stay where I set her down anymore.  

Last week Bob took the day off and we went on a mini stay-cation.   I don't love hotels, hotels with small children are miserable, short trips with small children are hardly worth the stress off packing everything up, and there are lots of things in the area we've never gone to.  So we had a really fun day and all got plenty of sleep in our own beds.  
Our first stop was the new(ish) children's museum. It was really cool and we kept having to make them move on to the other activities- they would have stayed at the farm all morning.   

She was trying to tell me something- or trying to figure out how to get to the second level. 

Cadence was really unsure about the sow.  Emmy loved milking the cow, until she fell off the stool.  

Bob enjoyed the sand... hehe. 

The river downstairs... Emmy wanted the frogs to sit on the lily pad. 

Cecily wanted all the fish. 

They all liked the balls. 

And back up to the haymow. 

We got McDonald's for lunch and went home in hopes that the youngest two would take naps.  Didn't happen, of course.  So we spent the late afternoon at Bass Pro checking out the fish and the boats. 

 Getting in a little target practice.

And eating supper.  They could hardly eat they were so busy looking at all the fish on the walls and ceiling. 

Then we all went swimming at 5 Points.  I forgot to put Cadence's swimsuit in the bag soooo.... she had to go without.  She wasn't too sad, in fact she was happier to be at the pool that she's ever been. Squishy.  

And then we came home and they were goofing around and broke their piggy bank. 

 I wasn't looking and Bob slipped her a cupcake.  She wasn't sad.

I had a dentist appointment to get my cavities filled.  Woot.  Cecily is relieved.
She went to her last story hour this week.  *Sniff*  She's growing up so fast.  Haha.  
So busy.  sigh. And so obsessed with the garbage cans.

Daddy snuck her up to the top bunk... silly girl. 

They wanted to play in the sandbox one relatively nice day.  Little squishy tried to eat some sand... she was unimpressed and wanted out again.  Also, our sandboxtire is really not big enough for three.  

 On Saturday Mom and Shelly and I took the girls to Disney on Ice.  It was delightful.  We made it with five minutes to spare before it started.  Ha.  Cecily was on the edge of her seat, and Emmy sat there with a rapt look on her face the whole time.  My favorite part was the aerial act in Tangled, and of course just watching good ice skating.  Shelly bought some outrageously priced cotton candy which came with a crown, so of course Grandma had to get a second bag of cotton candy so we could have two crowns.  Haha.   They wouldn't put them on for a picture for me. 

Cadence had her 9 month checkup today.  She's 19 pounds and has another ear infection.  Second ear infection for our family- this isn't supposed to happen to breastfed babies!  I usually bring things for the older girls to do while we're there (and also threaten them within an inch of their lives lecture them on how they will behave before we get there) so they are pretty good.  Today though, Doctor B was complimenting Cecily on how well she was doing her sticker puzzle and how smart she was, "Emmy's not as smart as me."  Ayiyiyi.  
Blessings.

In like a lion

Almost halfway through March already!  I'm slacking on blogging.  My average time between posting has increased about 4 days with each successive kid.  They might be longer now, and they have more pictures, so there's that.  

Cecily loooooves tape.  One day she made a girl out of Popsicle sticks and wanted her to have clothes, so I put my paper doll skills to use.  Or something.  Emmy wanted one too, of course.  

Cadence was stuck in reverse for a while.  Mostly she just sits and gets mad when something was out of reach. 

It's not stone soup, it's nut soup.  I prefer to avoid using the alcohol burners for lab whenever possible.  (open flame, teenagers, church kitchen.... nope)  

FFA sold strawberries as a fundraiser and I bought a bunch and made two batches of jam.  The girls were very excited because we had finished out last jar and they pronounced our other options offensive on their "Peter jelly and butter."  How is peach jam bad?  Or Oregon Marionberry?  (Seriously, marionberry is the best jam ever, and Kroger has it!  woot woot!)

I felt like milkshakes one night.  Cadence approved. 

Saturday evening we went to the soup supper.  I was supposed to bring pies... I confess that the filling for the cherry pie I brought came straight from a can.  I am ashamed of myself and I will do better next time.   (long story involving poor planning on my part...)

Sunday evening we went to the farm for pizza, not for my Mom's birthday.  The girls and Jack have a hard time sharing Grandpa and Grandma sometimes, and they think Jakey needs to come back and live at Grandma Kathy's house again.  

Yay for windy spring weather.  Or something.  There were tornado warnings Tuesday night and we I am paranoid so we woke the girls up and hung out in the basement for a while.  Octonauts for Cecily and Emmy; a little light reading for Cadence.  (Cadence was wide awake for at least another hour, ugh).  

 Some modern dance going on since the toys were picked up.  In the dark, because Emmy said so.

 Enjoying a break in the wind.

 We like outside.

Happy baby and little miss piggy tails. 

 Bob stuck her in front of the kitchen cabinets and she tried to make off with a jar of peanuts.

 I made a batch of homemade ice cream.  We were discussing Thermodynamics in chemistry this week, and thermo is boring.  And confusing.  And ice cream makes everything better, especially homemade ice cream with sprinkles!  (It's also a great visual for heat transfer and latent heat) I passed around a small bag of mix inside a bag of ice and salt, but churned the rest of it with the ice cream maker.   

 We went to potluck at Brent and Janelle's that evening.  Sliders and appetizers- I took salad skewers, caprese and wedge. I took a picture because they looked so pretty and fancy.  

 We played some fun games.  I think Linkee is my new favorite trivia type game.  Haha. So we were winning, and had to leave to pick up the girls and they were still playing.... The clues I had heard were Eskimo, Peck, and Bob got Air as we walked out the door.  I figured out the link about halfway to the van and Bob said I should go back in... so I opened the door, said, "it's KISS," and shut the door again.  So basically we won.   :)

The girls were having a great time at Kenna's house, but we had to get up early-ish the next morning to help Matt and Lena move.  Shelly and I hung out with all the kids at her house and the men did the hard work.  Or maybe, Shelly and I did the hard work.  Gideon has been clingy, Cadence has been clingy, Cecily and Emmy are territorial and don't like to share, and poor Jack was stuck in the middle. Also, three of them had drippy runny noses.  They were all crying/fussing in this picture.

 So we did what any beleaguered babysitters would do- Shaun the Sheep to the rescue.  Although, it didn't really help with the two fussy little babies.   

 It was pretty much a three ring circus getting all five kids into our vehicles to go to the new house for lunch.  Our three crazies were mostly good eating lunch.  Mostly.  

Today we went to Elise's wedding.  It was a good day.  A little bit crazy, but good.  My parents weren't there and the girls were very confused.  I got all teary when she walked in- the last of my generation of Washington girls to get married.  We stopped at the condos afterward and said hello to Grandma and Pearl... then Bob took Cecily and Emmy home and I went to the reception.  There were a lot of people there, so Cadence and I had to wait a while.  She was pretty good, but she was pretty much done (she shrieks like a nazgul!) and we still weren't through the line so Kandace and Carli took her.  I skipped the food and we still didn't make it home until 5.  
Where's Cadence? Peek-a-boo!  

And now I am really tired and I really hope the girls sleep in and we get snowed in tomorrow. (Both are highly unlikely.)
Blessings.