Are we having fun yet?: we love being outside

We did a ton of fun stuff today. I'm surprised it all happened on a cleaning day, but it worked. The big kids are getting into a routine that Monday is a cleaning day. It's ok because they have FHE/treats to look forward to. But we still had a ton of fun, AND I got the basics done. aka the floor ready for a crawling child.

We made a huge tent in the playroom and they brought all their coloring books and crayons in to work on in there.

We went for a walk to splash in the puddles. They were super silly and giggly about this. T went running through and totally splashed a trash can next to a puddle. For some reason that was absolutely hysterical and they said "Ew trash can" at every trash can (trash night was that night) we passed and laughed so hard they could hardly walk straight. T laughed the hardest. And got completely soaked, even though he was covered in rain gear. When we got home and tried to pull his sopping boots off he said to me "They went swimming mom. I need help getting them off" Then he could barely pull back hard enough because he thought it was so funny. I think part of it was extreme fatigue from staying up until 10:15 last night and it was a walk that ended at 5:45 that night so he was also very hungry. When I put him to bed at 7:30, he asked for me to leave the music off because it would keep him up. Maybe that was the reason he was in his room awake for two hours last night. Who knows. I don't get it. Although W did comment that T was talking and being silly during the "marching music", so she couldn't sleep.

W may finally have her own stuffed animal. Aunt Samantha sent her a purple dolphin home with Jim and W loves it. It's very purple, soft and sparkly. But then again, she loved Pez, but T took it over the next day. We'll see what happens tomorrow. T already took it from her "to protect it from getting dirty" when she was sitting at the table with it. He's jealous.

We also put together an experiment to collect and measure rain and record the measurement. They are pretty excited. The next one they want to do is grow an onion in a jar. That was on the opposite. We page. T helped me experiment with vinegar as glass cleaner since Papa put in dish soap in the glass cleaner bottle. J told me, but didn't tell T, so when I said it was time to clean the bathrooms, T went in to do his job and we had concentrated dish soap on the mirrors. Vinegar did wonders and even worked as a cleaner of the hand prints. Good thing because I had forgotten and didn't buy any at the store. We'll see what happens when the sun comes out in 4 months. I don't know how streak free it is, but now it looks good.

W and T are starting to include E in their play a bit. It was nice out so I put E in the playpen for a bit to be outside while they played. So they push the playpen around to include him. He likes the change in scenery. Then they started "painting" him with their kid rake and broom like they were painting their tree. No thanks. But later W wrapped E up in her blanket. He laughed hysterically so W kept playing with him and he loved it as much as she did.

E loves to pull off his bibs. As soon as I put it on him, he pulls on it until it comes off. Then he is immensely pleased with his skills.

I think he also might know to go to the kitchen already for food. We were playing nicely in his room together when he crawled out of the room. He doesn't usually like to be left alone and likes to keep me in sight. But I didn't follow him, so he went looking for me and stopped at the refrigerator. He was head butting the fridge when I walked in. I think the head butt is "I need something" to him. He head butts my leg when he is hungry, tired, poopy or who knows what. So I fed him lunch early and he was one happy baby.

I think E melted Papa's heart. He heard him at the front door getting ready to leave for work and crawled pretty fast to get to him. E was excited to catch him.

E did his first long time standing hand free Friday. In the tub. What kid learns to stand independently in the tub??!! It was pretty crazy.

We went to plant trees at a local nursery that keeps the natural fauna growing and healthy along the freeway for a church service project. We had a three hour shift. I was completely prepared to leave after 1 hour and let the other families without kids keep things moving. But amazingly T and W lasted 2.5 hours!! I was amazed. I guess our kids do more than we think they can. J kept rotating jobs with them, which I think made a huge difference. Plus, what kid doesn't like digging in the dirt. T told me later that he "helped Tai's dad because he was having a hard time in the dirt, so I helped him with the shovel". They liked doing their part. They scooped dirt into the pots that we prepped the trees for. We packed it down. They also unloaded trees off the cart and carried them down the isle to be put in their growing spot. Then they pulled apart buckets so the buckets would be ready for stacking. They helped a bit digging in the big dirt pile.

The part that made me laugh and enjoy the most was W giving T crustys. T just wanted to play tug of war with mommy with the buckets, but W grasped the concept of placing the buckets neatly in rows so others could easily collect them for their next tree. T would pull them apart, then stack them back up again. W would go behind him when his attention was on the next Mommy-T tug of war and unstack the bucket and place it correctly. She was kind of really annoyed that she had to do this. Reminds me of what I do with cleaning at home at times.

Or maybe that wasn't my favorite part. Maybe the part was T and W laughing hysterically going up and down the isles carrying the plants to place them. They thought it was sooo funny to do this. Not sure why, but their laughter made me smile.

We just had a really good time being outside and working together.

After the service project we went jumped in the car to visit the coast for possibly the last razor clam season for a long time. When we left, the weather forecast said the wind was 2 mph. Perfect! It had changed dramatically by the time we got there, so we spent a bunch of time inside the car playing jump around the car. T remembered the last time the wave came in farther than we anticipated and J was a bit slow picking T up when that happened. T wanted nothing to do with getting anywhere near the wet sand. So we went digging in the sand. I also found some sand dollars whole. That is always fun for me! We listened to the Thomas sound track CD the whole drive, round trip. I truly could shoot that CD now.

We just had a lot of fun being together outside. It was a fabulous end to the week.

Oh yeah. Dolphiny is soon to be T's. J told W that when he was a kid he had a stuffed dolphin that was grey that he named dolphiny. W loved it and named hers the same. T wanted it about 5 days after she got it. It is currently being "borrowed" by T. W said T could borrow it because he likes playing with it so much. He brought it to church today. People commented on how purple it was. Didn't bother him. He likes Dolphiny. Sigh.

This week we also have a couple of fabulous sunny days. My mood has improved significantly. It was to get us ready for the next week of rain. i'll take it. We walked to school both days this week. It was so, so refreshing to hear the stillness of the air that happens in the morning and hear the birds sing. Our flowers are starting to bloom. Spring is here! We went to the park a bunch. It was lovely, lovely, lovely.

E peeking at me through the stair railing. What I see when I descend to do laundry

T invented this game when he was about 18 months old with Mina. He wants us to capture his feet or tickle his feet when we walk down the stairs. He is still doing it!

Papa playing sleeping slug with the big kids. They wanted to play with him, but he wasn't really in the mood to play wild with them one tiring day. It looks a lot like praying to mecca to me, but whatever

W creating. This is a position I often find her in while working hard on art work

They are bonding against their common enemy, E. They barricaded themselves in one chair surrounded by 3 stools so he couldn't touch them with his wet hands while they were eating lunch. They actually ate all of lunch squished like this. Normally this much touching illicits fights, but not when there is a common good result I guess.

W singing happy Bday to tucker in his "special underwear" He has the huge sheet wrapped like special underwear, whatever that means.

T trying to help E get out of his crib right before church

A position I often see T in. On the floor, usually laying on his side playing trucks running over a "bump bump" multiple times

They are playing "laying in the sun" Their heat source of laying in the sun is the heater vent underneath them

E loves looking outside

And loves seeing Mommy

One of T's things to do while getting dressed lately. I need to get them ready a full 15 minutes earlier to let this play out. Upside down shirt and pants he calls it. His legs are in the arms and the pants on the head

E is tall enough to play the piano now!!

W's first three d creation. Beads, glue, q tips and torn paper

First day it is "warm enough" to play outside without a jacket. They ate snack in the rhody bush. Pez is nearby

"This flower is purple like me! We match!"

For those who can't see the ground under all that snow. Spring is starting to creep toward you

Ummm. T hasn't fallen asleep eating in a long time, but here we go again. I guess he had turned around to ask for more food, but I didn't hear him because he fell asleep. He was jerking when I took this picture. This was two days after staying up until 10:15

E's yelling voice. His first day outside in the playpen I cut logs while he was in there

W just enjoying E. She wrapped him up in the blanket and snuggled him. He loved it and laughed a ton. Very sweet memory

"I don't know what happened. I was minding my own business when all these apple bubbles appeared on me.... T was playing nicely while he let W put apple bubbles on him in the bath. This is the end result

snack in the tree with froggy and meow meow (water bottles) hanging

W told Papa when he got home from work that "we went to the temple to take pictures and that was IT!" It was a little cold and they couldn't relax to smile normal because they were too cold. Hopefully they get married in the summer otherwise all their wedding pics will look like this.

The boys playing a very nice duet. They are actually pretty good sounding. No pounding, just nice music

Well. E looks good. The other two were holding on to him

T was way too cold

E on the way to the beach

E watching Papa create a hood from a sweatshirt. It was really windy and cold

their duet

W drew about 15 or so pics of flowers, flowers with sun, flowers with sun, sky, dirt, puddles and rain drops. I'm pretty impressed with her artwork. Way better than mine

E in the car at the beach

It was so cold, they opted to do this instead of dig in the sand

Reading books in the car in E's carseat with dolphiny under his arm. We were parked on the beach

Ummmmmmm ... the shovel broke. What made me laugh was T staring at it and trying to put it together for a few minutes before standing up and laughing at it