This week Logan has been getting his fishing gear set up. He created the perfect mini tackle box for any occasion. It even passed for being great for a backpacking trip. He bought mini altoid tins and a large altoid tin specifically for storing different kinds of bait. The altoids went to great use as bingo markers.
Logan has been working in his shop like a demon this week. He created space to hang all of our yard equipment, he brought his workbench and miter saw out, he organized his tools, and he hung his hangboard about fifteen feet high so that he had to begin his workout by mantling up to it. He also has been working to create our garden masterpiece. We have a space behind the shop that is about 12' by 25' that we are using to create a little garden sanctuary. He set up a fence (first things first so that this little garden is not ruined by fun loving hands), dug out the space, and created a path out of river rocks.
I am excited to get out there and work with him. The weather wasn't cooperative, but I am sure we will have many future weekends with kids running around in the yard while we get dirty! We have many plans for our backyard this summer. Let the fun begin!
That pretty much sums up our week. I have a few minutes, so if you are interested you may read on to hear some cute stories about what each of our kids are up to.
Evelyn
Logan and I take turns reading The Magic Tree House book series to Evelyn. These are perfect books to read aloud! The books are also enticing Logan and me to take trips to places like Africa and the South American rain forest. Every week I have a day that is just set aside as a mommy day. I spend time with each of the kids individually, and we spend time all together. We have no other plans on this day. Anyway. This week we built a time machine out of the box for our lawn mower. We had a great time and have since visited many of the Magic Tree House destinations.
Evelyn and I are both planners. Every morning when we are eating breakfast she will look up at me and ask, "What's the plan Mom." Then, I will proceed to outline the plan from that point on until Papa comes home (I am a planner and I generally have one. :) If I shortchange her and don't tell her the whole day she will say, "No Mom, I mean the whole plan!" I also like this because it makes me think about the day and figure out what outing we will do, when I will take time with the kids, and when they will play on their own. These things together make for a well balanced day. This is also helpful because often I will include cleaning together before we do a fun activity. I think the kids clean better when they know ahead of time that they will be cleaning. I also think it is helpful to have something fun planned afterwards.
Adalie
Adalie can melt my heart in a second, or she can threaten me with early gray hairs! I have been having a difficult time getting Adalie and Jackson to actually nap now that they are in toddler beds. On Monday I put them into bed and explained that it was time to go to sleep and not time to play. We talked about it for a while and Adalie had the perfect face of innocence as she politely agreed that she would not get up to play. I shut the door and didn't even take a step before I heard her cheery little voice exclaim, "Let's Play!"
Adalie is my cuddler. She will cuddle for hours if you let her! Sometimes she brings me her blanket and asks to lay on my shoulder. She also loves to be rocked while you sing Rock a Bye Baby (who came up with that horrible song???). Adalie has decided that she can read. She will open a book and start turning the pages while she sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Jackson
On Tuesday I was sitting on the couch feeding Maren while the kids were all running around playing together. Jackson kept running over to me and saying, "kiss," then giving me a quick kiss before running off like a wild man to his next new adventure. What a sweet kid! He will also randomly walk up to Maren and rub her head, or bend down and give her a kiss.
Jackson is by far the most interested in his little sister. He constantly wants to hold her, kiss her, rub her head, and take care of her. I love watching the relationships form between all of my kids. What a joy.
Jack can also be the grumpiest one. I can definitely tell if he hasn't had enough milk. I swear this boy runs off of milk! He can out drink (and out eat) Evelyn and Adalie. I don't know where he puts all of the food and all of the milk! He is generally the last one at the table and he eats more than the other two combined (and all three are good eaters!).
Maren
Maren fits right in with our family. She is such a sweet tempered little girl! She is very content and she is giving us more and more of her sweet smiles, and she is quite the little talker lately.
Maren looks just like Evelyn did at this age! I also think that they will have the same color hair. Maren has many of Evelyn's features, but her chin looks just like Adalie's. Also, when she sleeps she looks just like Jackson did at her age. Crazy. She seems to be a good mix of all three of them. This is a good thing since the three of them don't even look like siblings!
Maren is addicted to the sound of rain. We have a white noise maker with 8 different sounds, but rain is the only one that she will accept. The other day I was trying to put her to sleep without it. I held her, I swadled her, I gave her a paci, and I did everything else I could think of. I finally gave up and turned on the rain maker. She stopped crying immediately, yawned, and closed her eyes (this took about 20 seconds). She was asleep in less than a minute.
All of the kids
Adalie and Jackson have been tornado terrors this week! In two days they have emptied my sewing stuff, strewn my ribbons around the house, tried on my mascara, gotten into Logan's fishing box, played in the sink in the bathroom numerous times, written in crayon on the windows, written in crayon on the table (a seperate time), spread frozen corn and peas across the upstairs, spread handsoap in her hair twice (Adalie), poured cereal on the table, spread water all over the kitchen, and emptied their dresser drawers numerous times. Those are the incidents that I can remember. Remember- all this in TWO DAYS. Sometimes I want to admit myself into a mental institution.
I have been wondering about who would go on the potty first. About three weeks ago Adalie went in and went potty! We had a little potty celebration for her and Jackson decided he wanted to try. Not to be oudone by his sister, he sat down and went potty! I can definitely take advantage of this sibling competition.
Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson are known by people in nursery and people in playgroup as the 'book kids.' All three of them are magnetically drawn to books and will sit in a little huddle together around a pile of books for a long time. The weather has finally been nice enough to play outside. I noticed it was particularly quiet out there so I peeked out the window to check it out. All three kids were sitting on the firepit hearth reading books! I am pretty proud of them.
Evelyn, Jack and Addy are very good at taking care of Maren. Sometimes I will come to get her when she is crying only to find that the three kids are huddled around her with her rain machine and her pacifier. I have all three kids cover her with his/her special blanket (the ones that they can't sleep without). I love my kids!
Wow. I kind of rambled on for a long time. I am impressed if you made it this far and didn't just skip to the pictures. All that reading and you only get two pictures. Here they are:
