Project 52: May 24-30

 

Sunday Snapshot:

They are all getting so big now...it used to be (and still many times is) a scene when we hold the camera and snap our finger and smile and tell them to say cheese, and try to position them all then run away so our hands aren't in the pictures, and tell them to stop looking down, and keep holding that smile until the others smile too, and on and on ....but this Sunday snapshot they just all sat there and looked and smiled.  Colt was perfectly seated (and even look at his sisters' hands on his little shoulders!!)  It was far too easy and pierced my heart as a reminder how this crazy life we have with these crazy little toddlers will soon be a distant memory.

Sunday evening we went on a family walk to the park, as usual.  Raelynn was on an overnight at Grandma and Tank's house.  We had a lot of fun collecting acorns and listening to them 'ker-plunk' and also finding a bunch of little air soft balls.  I later took them all and buried them in our sand box at home so the kids could find them

she did this all on her own...

Monday was Memorial Day! We had a picnic at our neighborhood park with our church.

they asked to all get in....and they were all so happy! It didn't look very comfortable to me, but they rode all the way home like this!

The kids were given squirt guns and water shooters at the picnic to take home and enjoy water play.  We had so much fun! We started off just the kids playing and then of course they wanted to shoot mama, too.  So it was full on war boys vs. girls with water bucket fill up stations placed around the yard.  I think Brent and I had the most fun! :)

Once the kids were drenched, we decided we should put bathing suits on.  And when we didn't want to get wet anymore, we had them to 'target practice'....

That evening we went to Wendy's for a free frosty! I didn't hear about it until near bed time, but we can always make time for a free frosty:) 



This week we made kool-aid popsicles.....Colt thoroughly enjoyed them...

Elliana moved into her "big grill" bed (as she says) this week.  Raelynn knows to get up when it is an 8 or a 4 on her digital clock, but Elliana was always stuck in her crib.  It has been so nice to have her in a bed that she can get out on her own.  Raelynn tells her it is time to get up and Elliana will rush out and say "It's a 4!!! It's time to get up!!!" with SUCH enthusiasm, as if she knew it all on her own.  The best is when she says that and it is in the morning when it is an 8:)  It's also really nice to be able to cuddle up with her while she is laying in her bed and not bend over the crib bar!

 

And of course if I'm taking a picture of Elliana in her bed, her siblings have to jump in and join the fun!! So glad they did, because these pictures turned out so well.  And it instantly reminded me of her first week home when we had the three kids lay on a blanket in their jammies and take pictures. (which was the very first project 52 post because I started this when Elliana joined our family!)

always have to have one with silly faces!

Colt has learned to go down the stairs facing forward this week.  He is pretty stubborn about going back to his old ways of sliding down on his tummy.  He thinks he is such a big boy doing it like this!

He also has entered the shoe stage that all the kids have gone through.  His obsession right now is currently only the princess shoes....so we decided we need to get our boys some dress up boots!

 


We had a play date with our friends this week.  We have not pulled out the larger pool yet, so it was a tight squeeze in the crab! Everyone enjoyed popsicles!

 



silly faces!

 

Raelynn loved feeding baby Karis

 

Our church youth group had a fundraiser this week at Chick-Fil-A so it was a great opportunity to go out to dinner and have wonderful fellowship again.  Someone ended up with an extra milkshake so they gave it to my kids...

 

 

My tot school posts are lacking because we really haven't been doing anything official for a while now.  We didn't do much when it was great weather because the kids wanted to play outside and I was all for that! So as I said before, Raelynn and I have been doing workbooks after the other kids go to nap.  The workbooks are super basic and mostly just review for her.  What is new for her is writing! She loves learning to write her numbers and letters.  She has been able to write her name for a long time, but her letters were not always correctly formed. I remember the first time she wrote her name and I had never showed her how.  Now that she has been taught the right way she is really excelling at it and enjoys it very much.  She loves writing letters down and will 'interpret' what it says to me.  It's neat to see the progression of her awareness of print. 

We have been doing one number per day.  This is one of her papers she did as a review for 1-5.

 

Saturday we ate a big lunch late in the day.  I had also gone to the fruit market that day and loaded up on great fruit deals.  So, for dinner we had fruit kabobs!  The kids loved it and it was very time consuming.  I need to make a mental note to have this for snack sometime because it was a great activity for them!

I think he missed his mouth....

helmets!

such concentration