Weekend Randoms

We had one last big snowstorm in March this year.  And it was a doozy.  But that didn't deter Jack, who would live outside on a permanent basis if I would let him.  He is certainly his happiest in the outdoors.

 

 

And what else does he love?  His balance bike that he received almost one year ago, on his 2nd birthday.  That boy can sure ride it well.  In fact, we will likely skip training wheels entirely with him when we upgrade Jack to a bigger bike.

 

Yes, he even rides it in the snow.  In the snow ...

 

 

James bundled up for the occasion and came outside to join us.

The biggest sister and the biggest brother in our family:

This little girl is so photogenic.  All I have to say is "smile" and she automatically takes a great picture.

The girls and Ainsley, our next door neighbor.  She moved in at the end of summer last year and the girls have been inseparable ever since.

 

 

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Case in point.  Ainsley probably spends more time at our house than she does at her own house.

 



 

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Sophia received the game, Life Jr., for her birthday so Steve played with them one night.  Sophia was rather serious about her moves each time.

 

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Our little man:



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Sophia is not allowed to pick James up by herself, so she spends quite a bit of time just laying with him.

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Sophia, posing at her Easter party at school.  The bags that they made for the Easter egg hunt turned out so cute!

 

 

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Jack loves (with every beat of his heart) chainsaws and cutting wood/trees ... so much so that he will be having a "lumberjack" themed birthday party next month.

 

Here he is with his daddy's chain saw.  Don't worry -- the chain had been removed.

 



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Samantha started a bean plant from seed in school.  Once the four seeds sprouted in a bag with a wet paper towel, the kids planted them in a small cup and watched them grow.  When they were about four inches tall, they were allowed to bring them home.  We continued to let it grow in the cup for about a week and then, while some of her classmates never really did anything with their plants at home, Samantha transplanted hers and we have watched it grow into a huge plant in my kitchen window.

The transplant:

One of the many beans on the plant:

And what did she do with the first bean that she harvested?  Well, she took it into class for Show and Tell one week!  Needless to say, her teacher and fellow classmates were pretty impressed.

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I love how closely the girls work together.  Here Samantha is helping Sophia get started without training wheels.  It didn't take long before Sophia mastered it by herself though.

 

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As a fun activity one day, I set Jack up with a cookie sheet and a bunch of skittles.  Then, I had him work to separate all of the colors into piles.  Jack knows all of his colors by name now, but this was good practice for him to learn all about sorting.

And, in true 'Jack fashion,' he had to sample a few!

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Jack's New Bedroom

When we found out that we would be having a fourth little one to add to our family, Steve and I immediately began discussing the bedroom arrangements in our house.  We went back and forth, playing out various scenarios and ultimately decided that the girls would continue to share their (large) bedroom upstairs and that Jack would be the one to move from his upstairs bedroom to the spare bedroom in the basement. 

There was no rush though.  Especially knowing that James would be sleeping in our room for the first couple of months anyway.

We still discussed it with Jack.  We talked about it for a couple of months leading up to the big day and Jack was extremely excited.

Finally the day had come!  Steve finished up some trim work in Jack's new room and then dismantled the spare bed that had been in there.  Then, they hung a few pictures and set to work transporting Jack's twin bed from his old room to his new room.

And then Jack did the cutest thing -- he used his sacred tool box and made no less than about 10 trips from the upstairs to the basement, moving each and every little thing that he deemed important.  Then he set them out, one by one, in selected spots. 

Among those important items?  Two chainsaw magazines and his camo bear from Grandma (the one that she had purchased for him but never had the chance to give to him personally before she passed away). 

Sitting in his new bedroom:

So far, Jack has spent the last four nights in his room with absolutely no problems.  Once he is down for bed (around 8 pm), he stays in bed all night until about 6:15 am or so.  At that point, I am up and moving around the kitchen.  He does have a bathroom down there that he can use -- if he needs to -- but once he wakes up, he just comes upstairs with his blanket and uses the bathroom up here.  All in all, we couldn't have expected an easier transition.

Growing Up ...

I sat down to feed James the other day and I started thinking about how fast my "little ones" are growing up, right before my eyes.  Each year, they get so excited to turn another year older -- oh, how they talk about their birthday for months before it actually arrives.  And me?  Sometimes I can't help wishing that time would stand still for a little while.  Just long enough to truly celebrate a milestone before another one happens.

Samantha

I attended Samantha's Parent-Teacher Conference a couple of weeks ago and she is absolutely thriving in school.  In fact, I was even bold enough to ask her teacher if she was being challenged enough.  She flies through her homework with little to no help from me and is at the top of her class in all of her school subjects.  She is averaging 14.7 / 15 on her weekly spelling tests, she has a 95% in reading and reading comprehension, and a 94% in math.  Yup, there is no doubt in my mind now that we made the right decision last year in starting her in 1st grade a little earlier than most.  Sure, she will graduate from high school at the age of 17, but I can't imagine now having held her back in her education.  She would have only become bored.

Putting together a series of dinosaurs from a book that Papa bought for her:

Sophia

Sophia learned to ride without training wheels last month!  It took her almost no time at all, as Steve simply removed them and encouraged her to ride down the hill in the back yard.  After a couple of trips down the hill, she had it mastered.  It makes sense now that I think about it ... that is, you learn to balance really quickly when you are going down a hill.  More so than when you are trying to balance on a level plane, like a driveway.  Within a day, this girl was riding like a champ and we often have to ask her to slow down when we go for a walk because we can't keep up with her.

Also, she has begun reading!  She knows all of her letter sounds and is using phonics to put them together to read short stories.  She is going to be more than ready for kindergarten in the Fall!


Jack

Jack has been potty-trained during the day (and even during afternoon naps) for months now.  We were still struggling with nighttime wetting though, so we continued to have him wear a bedtime diaper each night.  Sometimes he would wake up dry and other times, he would be wet.  There was no consistency.  But, I didn't push it.  I knew that boys just developed differently than girls (my girls trained at night at the same time as they were daytime-trained).

After a complete week of waking up dry each morning, I suggested that he pack away his nighttime diapers for Baby James.  Oh, how excited he was!

Stuffing them in a bag:

Handing one to Baby James (ha ha ha!!!):

All ready to be put away in the closet!

Since then, we did have a week of regression.  I'm not sure what caused it, but we seem to be back on track again.  I am so proud of him (and he is even more proud of himself!).


James

I seem to say it over and over again: James is such a good baby.  He smiles all the time, he rarely seems to cry (only when his basic needs are not met) and simply goes with the flow as the baby of a family that is forever 'on the go' these days. 

We seem to be on a decent schedule now for nighttime and this makes for a better, more well-rested momma.  I have moved him out of our room now and he is consistently sleeping from about 9 pm to 3 am (sometimes even longer), awake for a diaper change and feeding, and often goes back to sleep until 6-7 am ... just in time to get ready to take the girls to school.

Yes, I am certainly proud of each of my children and their individual personalities and accomplishments.  I make it habit to tell them that too.  And often. 

Momma is so proud of them.

Mommy's New Kitchen Helper

For quite some time, Sophia has been (and still is, to some extent) my little kitchen helper.  She is the first one to volunteer the second that she sees me move my mixer into place on the kitchen counter.  She is the first one offering to help with decorations for each and every party that I host.  She is truly my little "Martha Stewart," and I love that about her. 

In fact, I knew that that would be one of the things that I would miss once she started school.  My little kitchen sidekick would not be as readily available anymore.

So, you can imagine my happiness when Jack stepped up to the plate and began offering to help me in the mornings.  He's more "rough and tough" -- everything that encompasses BOY -- but he has a soft spot for helping his momma.  And, if I'm being honest, I'm sure that it has a little something to do with the excitement over yet another machine to use ... my stand mixer. 

So, on Friday morning, while the girls were at school, Jack set to work helping me make some banana muffins.

I gave him many tasks, but his favorite job was peeling the overly-ripe bananas and watching the mixer mash them up in the batter.

And when the batter was mixed, he graciously insisted on stirring it a little himself.  That boy has an arm of steel.  No job is too taxing for him.

Making sure that it was just right.

I just love this little one-on-one time with him.  And I know that he craves it too. 

With the summer season right around the corner, I won't have quite as much time to devote to each of the kids, individually.  So, I am constantly trying to make the most of these days right now by splitting my time.  Sometimes I will only take one (or two) of the kids with me on an errand.  Other times, I will work on a project that only involves the girls.  Or maybe the boys and I will be the only ones to go on a walk.  It takes a little planning on my part (with a great deal of help from Steve), but I can honestly say that it's working.  I never want the kids to look back on their childhood and feel as though I didn't have enough time for them because I was always busy with a baby.  I will always make time for them ...

Easter 2016

The day before Easter, we went down to the subdivision park for our annual Easter Egg Hunt.  As usual, the weather was downright cold -- in fact, we woke up to a complete blanket of frost all over our lawn.  That didn't stop us though!

We donned our boots, gloves and winter coats and set out with our bags/baskets.

Sophia's only care in the world was to try and find a golden egg.  (There were six of them hidden throughout the park and if you found one, you were able to choose a special prize.  Last year, Sam found one and Sophia did not.  This made for a disappointed little sister that vowed to find one for sure this year.  And she did!!!). 

Lots of eggs were hidden in the sand.

My three little egg hunters.  Maybe next year, Jimmy will be able to participate.

Taking time out for a quick snack after hunting for eggs:

Once we arrived back home, the kids wasted no time opening their eggs and collecting the candy that was inside.

 

 

 

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Later that day, as is our annual tradition, we colored eggs.  It is safe to say that we pretty much have this down to a complete science and we rarely have any accidents/spilling of dye/broken eggs, etc.

 

Even Jack, who is not the most gentle toddler in the world, was careful with his eggs.

 

 

Lest anyone think that I was not present for this family activity, I jumped in for a quick photo.  

 

 

 

And Jimmy was sitting casually over on the sidelines enjoying some plastic eggs so that he, too, could get in the holiday spirit.

 

 

 

Steve noticed him sitting over by himself and suggested that our little one, all fat and full from his feeding just moments before, should get in on the action.

 

Yup, somehow he managed to get a little dye on himself.  How?  I'm not sure.  But it's a good thing that we stripped him down ahead of time. 

 

 

The kids then headed off for their showers before meeting back up in the dining room to set up their Easter baskets and a snack for the Easter Bunny.

 





 

 

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Later that night, with everyone tucked into bed -- Jimmy included -- the Easter Bunny arrived and filled their baskets with goodies, munched on a bit of carrot and celery and then was kind enough to leave a note letting the kids know exactly how many eggs were hidden around the house.

 

Hmmmm ... 90 eggs.  Perfect, as this allowed me to be able to say that each of the three kids (Jimmy not included, of course!) was able to find 30 eggs to put in their basket.  And after that, they were to help whoever did not have a full 30 eggs.  No fighting and no tears. 

 

Well done, Momma.  Well done.

 

{I may even make this same suggestion to the Easter Bunny next year ... and all of the Easters to come.}

 

Finding an egg on the door handle:

There were two golden eggs and a bumblebee egg -- one for each of the kids to find.

And what was inside?  Not the traditional coin or piece of candy.  There was a whole dollar in each one!

 

 Opening all of her eggs and separating the coins from the candy:

 

 

Jack knew exactly what he was doing this year.

 





 

 

And the Easter baskets?  The Easter Bunny certainly did a great job this year.

 

Opening a new container of bath drops for the bath tub.  The drops color the water and Jack gets the biggest kick out of choosing his color for the tub each and every night.

 

 

The girls loved everything in their baskets, but the most favorite, treasured items were definitely the bathing suits for their American Girl dolls.