It was the first week of Spring and I am loving it! I didn't get this post up yesterday because we were busy walking to the park and having a BBQ picnic- I'd say it was worth it! Let the season of fun begin!

This week was our Evelyn week. We FINALLY decided to celebrate her birthday (2-19) with a party for her and her friends. We had one planned for the actual week of her birthday, but then Maren was born, and then my parents were here, and then Rachel's mom was here.... Well, the big day finally came, and what a day it was!

Rachel went all out for this. The theme was farytales, and she had it all figured out, from the decorations to the games to the cake. Evelyn had five of her good friends over and they started out by making crowns which were labled with their fairytale name (Sir Jack, Lady Evelyn, etc.) This was a huge improvement over silly party hats and helped to set the stage for everything else. It was a good party and everybody had fun.

One of the funny/tragic moments of the party happened with the pinata. After the kids poked around for a while it became obvious that we were going to be there all day if things continued as they were. That's when I stepped up to bat. Well, I must have overestimated the strength of our little pinata (as well as the kids hitting it), because one good solid wack totally obliterated it. Like, seriously, there was nothing left of that poor pinata. Also, the blow was hard enough that it split open most of the boxes of Nerds candies that were inside of it, so when it broke there was a litteral explosion of Nerds. It was cool. The kids went running and started picking up candy like their lives depended on it (there were other things besides Nerds).

Except for Jack. Jack wanted the Nerds. So he found a Nerds box and slowly started picking the little candies off the floor, one by one. It took him a while, but finally he had filled up most of his box. He was obvioiusly very proud of his accomplishment and very happy to have a whole box of Nerds to himself. He ran over to Rachel to show her, saying "Look, look." Just when Rachel looked, however, tragedy struck. The bottom fell out of the box and all the candies went rolling accross the floor. He was crestfallen...but only for a minute. Thankfully, Jackson is only 2 and has a short attention span. Rachel acted quickly by pointing out some Hershey's Kisses for him to go after. I think the Nerds were totally forgotten by the time he was about half way to the Kisses. We swept up the Nerds, and everyone was happy.

...Including a very chocolate-covered Jackson.

Another funny moment during the party was during the game "pin the fire on the dragon." (Obviously a spin-off of the donkey game, but more fairy-tailish). Well, when it was Evelyn's turn, she removed her blindfold only to see that she had put the fire right on top of the dragon's head. She suddenly became very distressed and started saying "Get it off! Get it off! It is going to burn the nice dragon!" Rachel and I were too busy laughing to do much about the unfortunate dragon, so Evelyn decided to take action and remove the offending flame herself. Whew! Disaster averted...barely.

After all of Evelyn's friends went home we hurried and cleaned everything up and got ready for the next party that we were to have... that night! We had invited some friends and a couple of Japanese exchange students over for a BBQ and camp-fire in our back yard. This was also a lot of fun and I think everyone had a good time. We did steaks on the grill and roasted hot dogs and s'mores over the fire. One of the big highlights was the makeshift shooting range I had set up in the shop for use with my air pistols. I know- it sound a little adolescent. Well- we had teenagers there, as well as Japanese students who had never been allowed to even touch anything resembling a real weapon (by law), and it became the feature of the night. After it got dark we sat around the fire for a long time until they had to go. It was a success, and I think it was only the first of many, many backyard gatherings we will have this summer.

Here's Evelyn, ready for the big event!

Evelyn and Rachel spent a long time getting ready for this party. Here, Evelyn proudly displays the ill-fated pinata that she decorated.

Our house was filled with royalty.

The cake. Evelyn and Rachel had fun decorating this. I think it was very impressive.

Rachel made little booklets of "The Paper Bag Princess" to include with each of the kid's party-favor bags.

Lady Evelyn

Lady Adalie.

Me and Maren, before we whacked the snot out of Evelyn's pinata.

The back-yard campfire party.

It's been another good week for us, which is saying something since this was the first week since Maren was born that we didn't have family staying with us the whole time. I know, it's crazy. Maren is over 5 weeks old, and we are just barely weaning ourselves off the constant help from others. We have been spoiled.

So, how did we do? Well, thanks to Rachel's Super-Jedi-Knight-Power-Rangers-Xena-Warrior-Princess-Mothering Skills, we did Great! Really, there isn't a whole lot more to say. Life is fun. We are just living it and loving it. We love the spring time. My job is going better than anybody ever could have hoped it would. Rachel is able to get out of the house frequently to be social and stuff. We have really good kids who *mostly* listen to what we say. Our cars still run (knock on wood). Oh- and our microwave finally got fixed.

We're happy.

...And we now know once and for all how reliant we are on the microwave.

Our activity of the week was going to the annual Sportsman's Expo in Spokane! This was cool. It was this giant gathering of red necks who were all decked out in camoflauge talking about guns and antlers and stuff. There was constant bugling and quacking from the vendors selling their game calls. There were live bears. There were lots of booths with hunting and fishing videos showing. There were demonstrations. There were men (and women) who still smelled like the animals they hunted (you know what that means, right?). This was an awesome place, and there were litterally hundreds upon hundreds of people who showed up for the event. Matt, you should have been there.

And then there was us, with our Cadillac of a stroller which comfortably seats all four of our children, slowly making our way through it all. Man, it was great! The best part was listening to people comment about us in hushed voices that weren't quite hushed enough. Some people, however, don't even try to be discrete. One woman pointed her finger right at us, and bellowed in a loud voice "Look! They have four of those things!  We have six, but we have four adults." By "those things" I'm not sure if she was referring to us, our children, or our stroller, but either way I love this!

I've said it before, and I'll say it over and over again...I love my life!

Here's Rachel. The kids thought this wall was the coolest thing.

Here's me and Addy looking at the live bears.

The other day Rachel was looking in on the kids while they were playing on the top bunk of Evelyn's bed. Suddenly, out of nowhere and without warning, Jackson grabbed hold of Addy's head with both hands in a vice-like grip. It looked like he was going to hurtle her over the edge of the bed, sending her face-first into ground a good 5 feet below. Addy looked terrified. Rachel was about to save the day by diving into the room for a hero-style rescue when she saw Jackson make his move. He bent down with his face, gently kissed the top of Addy's head, and sweetly said "there you go" before letting her go. They then resumed playing as normal.

I love our kids.

As far as our activities for the week go, I couldn't really tell you. This week has been a marathon for me with work, so I really wasn't home all that much. Actually, I worked the same amount as I normally do. The reason it seemed long was because we had Study Club over the weekend. Let me just say, I love study club! These weekends get me so pumped up about my job. The stuff we do during these weekends is the reason I got into dentistry in the first place, and it is just downright COOL.

But...It also means I didn't get to spend a lot of time at home. As far as I know, Rachel is starting to get out more regularly now. Grandma Almond is still here and it has been nice having her to help and provide good company for Rach and the kids- especially on a week when I was pretty much absent. It is also looking like Spring is here to stay in Northern Idaho, and we have enjoyed some beautiful days lately. The kids are having fun discovering the joys of a backyard, and Rachel is having fun discovering the joys of a fence.

We live a good life.

 Here's some of the outside play we have had. It has been beautiful! Addy hasn't seemed to have this figured out yet though-- I think she will still put her snow clothes on to go outside even when it is summer time.

 Grandma Almond gave this chalk board to Evelyn for her birthday. As a part of the gift, they decorated the edges with flowers and jewels and stuff.


Also, this week I put the climbing wall up. Our kids love it! Evelyn has become quite the pro.

Okay, okay, I know I have been a slacker lately. Thankfully, Rachel did our last post and put up a ton of pictures. Suffice it to say that we are doing very well. Maren is working her way into our family and has, so far, managed to survive the affections of our three other children (if only barely). When it comes to taking care of her, Jackson is by far the most interested of the three and he does a very good job of cuddling and soothing her. This is a good thing since he ensures ample opportunity by "pointing out" (aka: gouging) her eyes, nose, tongue, and belly. We have had to step in and rescue our "Little M" on multiple occasions. Once, while I was reading a book, I looked up to see Addy teaching her how to wrestle. Unfortunately, our Addy could probably stand her ground against a grizley bear in a fight, so when it comes to a newborn I'm afraid that Maren stood no chance. Addy was just setting up for a WWF style body slam when I steped in with some timely intervention.

But despite the loving attention from her siblings, Maren remains a pretty mellow baby. In that respect, she reminds me of Evelyn when she was little (Addy and Jack, on the other hand, were more like two little monsters who had taken too much caffeine). Marin is doing crazy well sleeping at night, allowing Rachel to get more sleep than any of our other kids did at this point.

We have also enjoyed having the pleasant company and help from Wendy (Grandma Almond) this past week. It has been fun having her around, and the kids hardly even noticed when Rachel and I escaped a couple of times to go on some short "mini-dates" (for now, Marin's eating schedule prevents us from getting out for very long). Having Grandma around has also helped Rachel to get out of the house a lot more, allowing her to resume a little bit of her active lifestyle after the brief hiatus imposed by Maren's birth.

As for me, I have to say that things don't really seem to have changed much. This is probably because I go to work during the day, and we have had constant visitors at night time and on the weekends ever since Maren was born. With so much other activity going on, it is hard to guage the amount of change, if any, that Maren is having on my day-to-day. I do want to put a little plug in here about my work- I am loving it and I am doing an awesome job (if I do say so myself). Enough said.

One more thing- I like tax returns!

Here are some pictures:

First, the many faces of Maren.

The Dr. Suess Crew! 

Grandma painted Addy's face