Reunion!

Last weekend we traveled up to stay with Jeff's 'rents & join in the fun at their family reunion.

Since Jeff has Saturday morning classes all summer long, we missed the Friday evening festivities.  But we made it for the Saturday afternoon bash at Jeff's aunt's house!  The kids did AWESOME socializing.  They are quite shy & still in stranger-danger mode.  So we are working on making them be a little more social!  They were minimally scared of "strangers."  Let tons of people pick them up, take them places, like to go see the cows.  I LOVED watching little 3 year old Makenna take Livi by the hand saying "Come slide with me..." & watching the 2 of them toddle off!  They napped on the 2 hour drive there & hung in like troopers staying up way past bedtime!  It was great to see everyone!  The food was yummy as always.  We had a great time!  Can't wait to do it again in 2 years! 

Checking out the toys & the playhouse

 Addie, Logan & Hayden cooking

 Hayden & the mama goat

 Awww....

 Then they found the water!  It was a big hit with all the kids all night long!

 The best I was able to get of the 3 of them.

 Eating.... or not so much...

 Wagon rides!  Olivia, Addie & Hayden

 Kingston wanted to pull.

 Hayden taking Addie & Livi for a ride

The kids ran & played....

 ....while the adults played some interesting games. 
The siblings & spouses playing the "Not So Newlywed Game!"

 And Families face off in our own version of "Minute to Win It!"

 Sunday we lunched & just hung out in Grandma & Grandpas back yard.  We took wagon rides around the yard for just a short time... because this was one HEAVY LOAD!!

 Ready for naps on the way home

 But all smiles after another fun weekend!

(Hayden, our climber, took a serious face dive off of a patio chair foot rest onto the concrete patio, hence the big red welt.  He hit hard, the ground shook!  A few tears.  No major damage.)

Father's Day Gift- Early!

After watching this as an audio book on my co-worker Mary's phone (& laughing my butt off!) I bought this in paper version for Jeff for Father's Day.  Figured Mr. Mom could use a chuckle.  Well it came in the mail today & he got to it first.  So he got it as an early gift.  I think its funnier to actually hear it rather than just read it.  So here for your pleasure, compliments of Youtube is the reading of the book "Go the Fok to Sleep" by Adam Mansbach & Ricardo Cortés.

WARNING:  This is NOT for kids.  And if you have strong negative feelings against the "f" word, please, please do not watch.  Its definately inappropriate, but I'm sorry, its funny.  If you are living the new parent life, or can remember those days of desperately trying to get your kids to "Go the __ to sleep" you may find the humor. 

Boys vs Girls & 19 months!

My household is a little experiment right now.  Raising 3 toddlers.  Same parents.  Same timeframe.  Same age.  They eat the same food.  Live in the same house.  Sleep in the same room.  Same same same.  But different genders.  And its amazing right now to watch the little girl-ness or little boy-ness develop.  Can't say that stuff isn't inborn.

The boys are all about balls & trucks.  Shootin' hoops.  Driving cars.  Vroom all of the time.  Cars, Cars Cars!  They tackle each other.  Excuse me, Jeff says its not a tackle, its a take-down.  Like come up from behind, wrap their arms around the others chest & intentionally throw them to the ground while fighting over a toy, takedown.  Boys!

While Livi is becoming SUCH a girl.  She always wants to hang with mama.  Loves to sit & read & learn.  I promise we don't single her out to teach her all of these things, she prefers learning to playing.  She "bla bla bla bla" babbles ALL DAY LONG!  She knows SO incredibley much she amazes me daily & once she really gets a handle on this talking thing, I'm afraid she will never shut up!  No seriously, I'm afraid!  She can now also show you where her chin, elbow, face, hands & occasionally her knees are in addition to all the others she knows.  And her favorite pasttime is to point them out on a doll, then on herself, then on her mama all while I name them for her.  She knows her colors, well sort of.  Pink, blue & green.  {Our house has been color coded since day 1.  Hayden=blue, Olivia=pink, Logan=green.  You can lay out 3 sippy cups & say "Livi go get Logan's milk" & she will 99% of the time bring you the green one.  Same with their lovie blankets.  She can put them away in the correct crib.  In the boys' defense, they have them down pretty much too.  Hayden more than Logan.  And they all enjoy handing out the right cup to the right kid all day long!}  I'm trying to always say "Go get Logan's GREEN cup" & maybe in a few weeks I'll just try saying "Green cup" to see if anyone puts that all together or not.  Occasionally Liv & Hayden will refuse to drink from anything but their correct color cup!  She knows where the potty is (they all do) but she will sometimes point to her butt when I say "Where does Livi go potty."  And if you ask her if she has a stinky butt, she will go find a diaper.  (Honestly if it was JUST her I would think about talking potty training, during the daytime at least.)  She knows where we wash our hands & will show you HOW to wash her hands.  She knows where mommy & daddy go night-night.  And can get my favorite pillow if I ask her where mommy's "lovie" is.  She picks up on everything in an instant.  She is starting to do more immitating of sounds & has repeated lots of words, though they are not officially in her vocab as of yet.  {All while the boys are vroom-vroom-vrooooming... down the hallway!}

Boys will be Boys;  Girls will be Girls.

And though at this stage, Livi seems to lead the pack in the smarts category, they are all learning SO much.  Its so nice just to say "What should mommy wear today?  Lets go find her some clothes." & watch 3 tots, toddling right into my bedroom.  Our tantrums for the most part have been a little bit more manageable.  As I think we are getting a little better at communicating with eachother.  Hayden is still the worst & has the hardest time changing his attitude & bouncing back.  Logan definately still the most easy going. 

But at 19 months, boys or girls, they are ornery either way.....

CiRcUs!

The Optimist Club here in town sponsored the CIRCUS to come to town!  Amazingly I was off work.  So we were able to take the kids to see their 1st circus tonight!  Since it was outdoors & set up in the Middle School sports field, we were thrilled that the 100 degree weather took a break & we had perfect weather.  We got there early to get a front row seat (& thank goodness because it was open bleachers for seats & it would have been a disaster & someone would have surely broke their neck had we sat anywhere else!)  We went sans stroller & used the kids' backpacks for the first time.  The show started at 7 & lasted almost 2 hours!  So by the time we went to bed, it was almost 1.5 hours past our normal bedtime.  Hayden had a few tantrums because we wouldn't let him climb the bleachers.  And Livi had one major outburst at the end, I think just because she was tired.  Hayden tried to mooch a snowcone off one of our neighbors.  Livi tried to eat the other neighbor's popcorn that fell on the floor.  And Logan dropped all his fruitsnacks on the floor & ate them anyways.  Otherwise, it went very well.  Meaning, we didn't feel like we were the circus by the time we left!

Hayden (too busy to look at the camera!)

Olivia

Logan

There were ladies who did all the twirly-whirly stuff on the roaps & the rings.

Jugglers, clowns & a hula-hoop artist.

There was a puppy show & a dancing elephant (which I think was my favorite!) 

Tigers!

And Lions!

Livi watching the clown sell balloons at intermission.  What's not pictured is her parents being thankful their kids aren't old enough to beg for expensive "junk" souvenirs yet!

But their FAVORITE part by far was the motorcycles in the cage!  Vroom....!!!!

Logan went to get a closer look.

We had a great time!

Impromptu Zoo

11am on Monday morning, Jeff's summer schedule changed.  Meaning he no longer had class at 2:30 & we found ourselves with a full Monday with zero committments!  We knew we had to get moving fast if we wanted to do something fun or nap time would hit & then it would be too late.  So we threw ourselves together & jumped in the van for what turned out to be a pretty much perfect little Monday.

Since it was a scalding 100 degrees we opted to hit up the Air Conditioning at the Children's Museum. 

We unloaded kids & rolled into the Museum's front doors only to find out, its not open to the public on Mondays!  What?!  So we loaded 3 kids BACK into the car & decided since we were already down town & had ourselves psyched up for a fun day, we'd brave the zoo!  We were not ideally "packed" for the zoo.  We had our 3 single strollers (& stroller clips), which we were nervous about, but it worked out fine & we fit everywhere we went.  Luckily we had sunscreen along.  We went ahead & bought a pass (only have to go 3 more times between now & March for it to pay for itself!)  Stayed for a few hours, mostly did the indoor stuff & had a great time!

One of these days I promise I will be brave & let them out of their strollers.  I'm just worried about how 3 toddlers can turn into 3 terrors oh so fast!

Lunch!

Hayden INSISTED on fries with ketchup.  He was a disaster.  Thanks for this one GG, pretty sure this is your doing!

 But their favorite part was the goats!

 Baby :)

 Hayden checking out the newborn baby goat

 Livi loved them.  I mean giggled like a school girl.  Squeeled with glee.  Ran up to them.  Petted them.  LOVED THEM!

Then they took a LONG afternoon nap.  We're talking, being loud & encouraging the boys to finally wake up after 3 hours long nap.  Livi was up earlier.  It was still HOT out & we knew we needed something to burn energy or we'd be up late tonight with such a long, late nap.  So Liv & I hit up the dollar store in search of a little pool.  Rarely do I get to take one kid out somewhere alone.  So I let her roam the store & explore.  She tried to break her neck climbing to sit on a STACK of 5 toddler chairs.  She cleared off a 7 foot gap on the bottom shelf of the toy aisle.  And snuck up to the checkout with a pack full of balls that I had not intended on buying.  {Think of the mess with 3 toddlers roaming!}

We spent the evening splashing in the *cold* pool {and mom & dad wound down with a much needed adult beverage!}

Hayden jumped right in!  And had fun bouncing on the edge of the blow up pool!

 Logan had fun too!

 Livi:  Not so sure!  She is going through this scared of water, even scared of baths stage. 

 Then the boys went for a drive.

 While Livi discovered the slide.  She LOVES slides. 

 Slidin' on the belly feet first!

 Very surprisingly, by the end of the evening she was having the most fun!  The water was COLD & it wasn't so hot by this point.  But she was splashing away & sticking her face in the water (without parental encouragment). 

 While the boys were still driving...

 ... or off roading!

 We even ate supper outside.  Which made after supper clean up such a breeze!  (Think Logan will ever grow a neck??)

Perfect Summer Monday!!