Growing Up

Yesterday was the first time my daughters had the wonderful childhood experience of playing at the neighbors house.  There is a little boy (like 6) and a little girl (3) that live down the street from us.  Sometimes the kids all ride their bikes together.  We always wave to their family when they drive past our house.  The girls have played there once before while I was there, chatting with the mom.  But yesterday, neighbor boy and girl invited Haley and Abby to play, and, for the first time, I watched my daughters walk up the street with their little friends, to play at the neighbors' house.  It made me think about how fun that was when I was a kid.  Asking mom if it was okay, getting the yes, and walking over to play at my friend's house, playing with her toys (way more fun than mine), drinking Capri Suns (we NEVER got those at my house)!  

Needless to say, they came home SO excited.  Neighbor girl let them wear her lipgloss ("it's okay if we got her cold germs").  Neighbor boy has a ladder AND a slide on his bed.  I'm so glad we live in a neighborhood that my kids will be able to have the memories of walking up the street to play with the neighbors.

Let's Go To The Snow:)

All winter Haley and Abby have been dying to go to the snow.  I, personally, I am not a fan of the snow, much less snow with children.  All I could imagine was putting gloves on, taking gloves off.  Putting snowsuits on, having to make potty runs.  Oh, and freezing, freezing, freezing.  But, I finally put my own feelings about the snow aside, and we made the trip to Oakhurst, which is near Yosemite.  It was the perfect place to go because there wasn't snow at our hotel, but there was snow about 15 minutes up the road, plus, it's only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from home, which is pretty doable.  We had some friends who were going to be there as well, which was really fun.

The snow wasn't quite what the girls were expecting (there was some crying about wanting to see "real snow").  It wasn't fluffy and powdery and falling down in big, intricate snowflakes like on the cartoons.  They were able to get over it, though, and have a great time.  Seth didn't seem to mind it so much either, even though the poor kid could hardly move around in his huge snowsuit.  We tried to get in all the snow activities.

We made snow angels:

 

We tromped through the forest:

 

with their friend, Micah

We went sledding:

 

 

with Jadon and Aubrey

There was a snow nap:

 

A snow picnic:

 

  

We didn't make a snowman, because the snow was pretty icey, but we did decorate an abandoned one:

 

And, of course, we made snowballs.  Thankfully, Auntie Dana had a wonderful snowball maker:

 

Of course there were tears (never a shortage of those), a lost boot, nights lacking sleep, and a lot of wet clothes, but it was pretty fun.  I'm glad we did it and am willing to do it again next year:)

Valentines Tea Party

A couple of days ago we had a Valentines tea party, and it turned out to be SO fun.  We invited a bunch of Haley and Abby's friends and they came all dressed up and ready with their best manors.  We had lots of heart shaped food and fun tea cups.

The girls each got a piece of construction paper to decorate as a place mat.

Haley and Auntie Melissa

 

Auntie Laura helped Seth decorate! 

Uncle Nate (declared "the royal prince" by the girls) decorated with the princesses!

After everyone had a place mat and had picked a tea cup, we gathered them onto the couch for a special Valentine story.

(from left to right) Laurel, Abby, Ocean, Selah, Grace, Selva, Aubrey, Maizie, and Haley

back row: Hannah, Josh, Uncle Nate

I was the story reader!

Laurel and Abby, obviously captivated by my amazing delivery of "Giving My Heart To God"!

Selva, Aubrey, Maizie and Haley listening up, all squished together!

After the story, the tea party began.  The girls did amazingly well being polite and sitting nicely together at the tables.  I heard a lot of "please pass the" and "may I please have"!

  

Check out the way "the royal prince" is holding his cup...not his first tea party!

Look for pictures of this on the blog next year, because it was SO fun it will surely be a tradition:)

Old McDonald...kind of!

My Climber

We like to call Seth a little goat, because he always wants to climb to the top of anything he can manage. I have found him on top of the tank of the toilet before (he pushed a stool over to help him get up)! He has taken to carrying around the stool from the girls' bathroom! Today, he figured out how to climb onto the rocking chair in his room, and the chair and ottoman in our living room. Check him out:

If this kid makes it to kindergarten without any broken bones, all glory to God!

Growing Up

Seth is growing up so very much right now. Yesterday he yelled "no" for the first time (oh, dear...here we go)! He's trying to say so many words. I was sort of hoping he would be a bit slow to start talking, since there is already A LOT of talking in my world! Oh well. He also really wants to do what his sisters do.
He only wants to brush his teeth on the stool at the sink, just like the girls! And he's very pleased with himself when he does!

He also really loves to give the girls hugs. In the morning, when we go in their room to get them, he wants to hug them so badly, which sometimes they aren't quite ready for! Oh, here's an adorable moment; the other day when we went to pick the girls up from preschool all the kids where sitting in a big circle playing a game. Seth squirmed to get down, and when I put him down he ran across the room, through the middle of the circle, right to Abby with a big hug. It was just so cute.

Way To Go Haley

I was so proud of Haley today. The girls started ballet class in September, and, towards the end of December, the teacher asked if I could separate the girls (as in, put them in different classes). Today was the first day of Haley's new class and she was very apprehensive. She kept telling me she didn't want to go, and, of course, I don't want to force her to do it if she really doesn't want to, but I was pretty sure she'd enjoy it (she always had fun before). Plus, I think it's so good for her self esteem to do things she's afraid of doing. Anyway, I had to walk her in and put her hand in the teacher's hand, but, she did it. She participated and had fun and was very proud. Hooray, Haley:)