It's a Girl Thing

Caroline was invited to birthday party at "Its a Girl Thing," and WOW was this her cup of tea. They got to dress up, complete with all of the accessories. They had their hair done with butterfly clips and glitter. They had their own fashion show with a makeshift runway, and played lots of girly games. They even had a tea party at the end! I am sure that tonight she is dreaming many sweet girly glitter-filled dreams, and that tomorrow I am going to have to push my styling abilities to the limit when she will no doubt ask me to redo her hairdo!

Super Swimmer Seth

Seth, not to be outdone by his big brother, wanted to show off his swimming speed. I told him that I would be videotaping him, and I have to say, he really gave quite a performance. In this clip, I love how he is so focused on his speed, so intense, he has no time to take a breath. (Maybe we should have him talk to Uncle Aaron about this!) His teacher said that he is a very smooth and strong swimmer, listens well and is progressing nicely. Way to go, Seth!

On the way home from swimming lessons, the kids wanted me to tell them stories about when I was a child. I told a couple, but then I was having a little nostalgic moment, remembering when my dad would tell me stories of when he was a young boy. So I launched into the story my dad used to tell about meeting up with a skunk, and told it with such enthusiasm that the kids asked me to tell it again a few times. They also started telling stories about when they were "little," which made me giggle.

Another cute moment from today...I hosted Evan's playgroup today, and those two year olds had a great time together. When it was time to go, and all the kiddos were putting on their shoes and coats, I told Evan to say goodbye to his friends. He said, "Bye Friends!," and proceeded to hug and kiss everyone, even petting some on the head. That set off an avalanche of hugs and kisses between all of them that had to have lasted a couple of minutes. It was all so sweet, and if I wasn't so caught up in the moment and just soaking it in, I would have grabbed my camera and video'd it. Hopefully next week we'll have a repeat, and I'll have something to make you smile. :)

First Grade Friends

Seth is a pretty happy boy. He has friends in his class that he has known for a long time as well as some new ones that he really has been enjoying getting to know. A number of them are in his boy scout troop. Its been fun watching him develop socially.

After school, Patrick came over. Wow...the ground they covered in the couple of hours they were together! They played a rousing game of hide and seek, including Henry, Caroline and even Evan. They played in our fort under the basement stairs. They played video games. They tested each other on math facts (!). And they played a game Seth made up of launching a missile dart up and down the stairs, with rules, points and everything. Totally boy.

Evan's favorite word

This little boy...he likes to keep us busy. He'll walk right over and say, " 'mon!", grab one of our fingers, and off we go! And he says this ALL THE TIME. Which, of course, means, "Come on, I have to show you something." Or, "Come on, I want to play Ring around the Rosie." Or, "Come on, we need to go outside." Just to warn you, he does this with EVERYONE, so just be prepared to be on your feet if you come to visit.

Sweet Caroline

One of my favorite Caroline stories...We had our favorite babysitter over and Caroline was so excited that she made a special picture for her. Kelsey fawned over it. Later, when Kelsey was tucking Caroline into bed, Caroline told Kelsey, "Don't forget to take your picture home!" Kelsey replied, "Don't worry, I'll definitely bring it home. Its so beautiful that I am going to hang it in my bedroom!" Caroline contemplated that for a moment, and looking puzzled, she asked Kelsey, "You have a refrigerator in your bedroom?!!!"
(After all, where else would a you hang a picture? :) )

Here comes trouble!

Every Wednesday morning, Evan and his almost two-year-old buddies get together for a little pow-wow. Fortunately, there's only 4 to 5 of them at a time, which is just perfect for this age. It is fun to watch them now. They are just getting to that age where they are moving from solitary play to more interactive play, doing lots of fun stuff together like the ever popular "stomp on the mat holding your favorite toy" game (pictured), and plenty of Ring Around the Rosie.

Evan's brothers and sister have trained him to come fast with a kiss if they've hurt themselves. (They find it very funny, and will even pretend to have an injury just so he'll come running.) He's carried this empathetic quality over to his playgroup, and perhaps because of the larger number of tumbles and falls in a 2 year old group, is kept very busy consoling with sweet kisses.

A Future Michael Phelps?

The kids have been taking swimming lessons for about a year now. They really have been progressing so nicely, in part due to individual attention they have been getting. There have been times for each of the kids that they have only had two kids in the class! That's the case with Henry right now. To build their endurance and speed, Coach Jeremy has been having them race a lot lately. Henry might be following in his Uncle Bill's footsteps...he loves racing, and is interested in joining the swim team next year! Click on the arrow to see one of his first races in class.

Caroline's Big Sleepover

Caroline has been begging me to let her sleepover at a friend's house. She'll have a playdate with a friend, and literally every time she comes home, she has been scheming to sleepover. She is also a little jealous of her family members that get to share a room. She says its "no fair" that mommy and daddy share a room, Henry and Seth share, and she and Evan have to have their own rooms.

So I suggested that she have a sleepover in the boys' room last night (being that the kids didn't have school the next day because of parent-teacher conferences). She was thrilled! She talked about it, to EVERYONE, all day. She even mentioned it to the checkout lady at Jewel. She was so excited to use her new princess sleeping bag, and snuggled right between her brothers. Ofcourse, when I put them to bed, they were a little wired, to say the least. I was listening outside their door when they were talking to eachother before they went to sleep. Henry was being all "big-brotherly," reading to her, and assuring Caroline that if she got scared, she could wake him up. :) I thought they would never settle down. But they did. When all was quiet, finally, I had to sneak in to take another picture. (I love looking at them when they are sleeping!) Seth had crawled back into his bed, smart boy!

They've already asked if they could do it again, tonight!

Addendum: I'm such a softie...they had another sleepover, in Caroline's room this time!