Catch up!

Here are a few short stories of things that have happened over the last few weeks!


Diane's Birthday!

January 16th was Diane's birthday!  We celebrated by having a party at her twin brother, Uncle Dave's, house. The kids had fun with their cousins, the food was delicious and we even managed to get a picture of Diane with ALL the grandkids.  Sarah and Kristine took the pictures while I tried to get Joel to look at the camera.  I am not sure who took this picture, but it wasn't me!  While we were there I looked through a scrap book Grandma Mary had made for Uncle Dave.  There was a family tree in there and it was fun to see it.

Kristine, Ellie, Karoline, Vincent, Maggie, Grandma Diane, Cecilia, Keith, Millie, and Joel

Diane's family tree

A Shopping Trip

A few weeks ago I need to make a big shopping trip to get ready for Cecilia's birthday party.  My plan was to leave first thing in the morning for Costco and get there right when they opened at 10am.  Then we could be home in time for naps.  That day it was really warm out, near 60 degrees.  When I opened the door for the boys to walk to the truck they took off running and playing in the yard.  Then they found mud puddles to jump in and before I knew it we were playing in the yucky barn, sand box, the slides and the swings.  I quickly gave up on my pipe dream of getting to Costco early.  It isn't very often you can play outside in January and not freeze.

Joel

Vincent

Cecilia "What do you mean I can't eat sand?!"

After lunch we headed to Costco, about an hour drive, and I figured Joel would nap.  He didn't, but the other two did.  Shopping with three kids is getting to be more difficult because Cecilia is not happy being in the pouch and she is not happy sitting still in the cart either.  Actually she can escape from the cart even if she is strapped in.  The nice thing about Costco is that the carts hold two kids in the front.  Which leaves 1 kid without a place to ride.  Joel LOVES to ride in the back of the shopping cart with all the groceries piled up around him.  You can only see his little eyes sticking out above the groceries.  People probably think we are torturing him, but Joel truly love being smooshed.

Joel's silly face

Cecilia loving the swing

While we were shopping you could hear the rain pouring down outside.  It was bad!  Luckily by the time we checked out the rain had stopped.  We ran to the truck and I let the kids play in the back of the truck (we have a topper on our truck bed) while I began to load groceries into the truck.  I had the cart about 1/2 empty when it started pouring again!  I was wet, the groceries were soaked, the kids didn't want to leave the back of the truck, I got soaked, I got the kids loaded in the truck and I looked like a drowned rat.  We had our groceries and Vince's favorite milk (he thinks Costco milk tastes like marshmallows) and that was all that matter!





The Bouncy House


Our bouncy house was put away in December because we needed room for the train, plus it has many small holes and I was tired of trying to keep the think inflated.  The boys convinced me to get the bouncy house out for a couple days a few weeks ago.  We started with just the base of it and we had a lot of fun with that for awhile.  There are large holes in it for the top portion to sit in, but when the top isn't on it it makes the perfect place for children to sit.  Cecilia kept getting stuck in them and she did not find it as funny as the rest of us did!

Bouncing around

Vincent stuck in a hole

Cecilia a little worried that she is stuck

Joel relaxing in a hole

All 3 kids stuck!  Took this with the panoramic option on my phone, I think that is why Vincent looks like he has 3 or 4 legs!

Once we put the top on the bouncy house it made for some interesting times.  Vincent was coming up with new gymnastic tricks.  Joel can climb faster than before and was trying some of Vincent's gymnastic tricks.  Cecilia was mad that she wasn't big enough to climb with her brothers and was throwing fits if I didn't help her.  The kids wanted me to climb in the bouncy with them and I did, but it just meant they had something else to climb on inside the bouncy.  If you didn't know, I am a human jungle gym!

Cecilia having fun with Joel

Cecilia loving the bouncy

Happy Joel!

Giggly Cecilia