Play Day

Today was a really fun day. Matt and I took care of all of our chores last night so there wasn't any house work for me in the morning. I used the extra time to play legos with Ava and Kiara before nap time. They really enjoy them. Ava likes to clean up so her favorite part is taking the blocks one at a time and putting them away. I really, really hope she keeps the loving to clean up habit. When I'm old maybe she'll come clean for me.
Once the babies were asleep we played the boys' favorite game, tickle race. They had a blast running from me. I chased them and thew them into the air and on the couches. They love it!
We went to go get Alex early so we would have time to play on the playground. The playground is pretty old school. Rocks, a giant metal swing set and one of those dome climbers. They mostly play with the climber. They squeeze in and out of it calling it their club house.
On the walk back to the parking lot after dropping of my Mister Alex Alex P. asked me if we could sing a song since my Alex is always singing when we leave the classroom. The song we came up with is this... "Oh here we go together, together, together, oh here we go together to our big ugly awesome van. There's Ava and Joshie and Alex P and Tyler and Kiara and Bella. Oh here we go together to our big ugly awesome van."
Kiara has a knack for music all ready. It really amazes me how much she sings and how well she can catch a tune since she is so young. This morning she was singing me "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" At our house we give each other a high five every time we sing the word 'Sunbeam' in that song and Kiara was waving her arms like crazy as she sang. So cute!
When we got home from school we played with the kitchen set taking turns making each other peanut butter sandwiches out of the felt food I made for Josh's last birthday. They were silly adding pineapple, lettuce, etc to the sandwiches.
We ate eggs, carrot sticks, and toast for lunch today. I used cookie cutters on the toast so the girls ate butterflies and the boys ate dinosaurs. They always like it when I do that and they just gobbled it up so fast we had tons of time for outside today. Our chicks are completely grown up and we're getting our first eggs from them now. The kids all talked about how the chickens weren't babies anymore and how they were grown up chickens, "not kid chickens anymore" Josh kept saying.
We played ball outside today and the kids played in the sand box. I pushed them on the swing set for awhile until Ava crawled over to my legs and demanded to be picked up. Kiara was cute watching the chickens and ducks while I fed them.
Oh-- we found a dead bird of some sort that had fallen out of our neighbors apple tree. Just FYI in case your darling child has a sudden curiosity about death.

Honey, I'm home!!

We're back! Today we didn't do much of anything. We played, talked and ATE! The kids all missed each other and spent most of the day catching up on games of Spiderman and Buzz. We played a fun chasing game this morning where in I ran an oatmeal covered Ava around chasing the boys threatening to have Ava give them a hug. They giggled and ran away from her.
We talked about the beach for awhile. Josh told everyone about the big boat. I explained the glass bottom boat we went on in Cabo. Alex P. told me about Grandma's house and Bella told me about the circus and the horses there.
We ate and ate today :D They polished off all the snacks we had left from the trip. Kiara loved the Mexican candy and got mad at me when I wouldn't let her have anymore.
Our trip was SO much fun. I love the beaches there. Swimming in the ocean was amazing. We defiantly want to spend more time down there. Cabo has whale watching from December- March so maybe we'll head back down there in a few years. My favorite place was Puerto Vallarta. We snorkeled, ate at a beach front cafe with only sand for floor and bought jewelry from locals walking up and down the beach. WONDERFUL! The ocean was perfect temperature and our kids just sat and played in the sand while we soaked up the sun.

TGIF

Jammie Friday Yippie! Today was jam jam day. The kids love to watch movies in our jammies. Last night we bought The Chipmunks The Squeal and they watched it today. Alex P decided he was Alvin. He made My Alex be Theodore and Joshie be "the fat one with the green sweater" aka Simon. They took turns counting each other in and dancing and singing. Ava and I were the girl chipmunks. We danced and sang with our silly high pitched voices. We played chipmunks for almost two hours. They were having so much fun.
The kids were getting a little crazy so we made an art project today. We usually don't make one on Fridays but we needed a distraction today. I took styrofoam cups and colored two black dots on the bottom then the kids colored them pink. I took string and tied on their... Piggy Masks. They squealed and oinked. I told them about how pigs run away when the farmer tries to catch them and they took turns chasing each other with a net. They were really cute. The cutest thing I've seen snorting.
They loved lunch today. I made some home made chili with grated cheese on top. Every single one of them asked for seconds. Yea! I love it when they're good eaters!
I'm off to go read some stories and settle them down for a nap.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Our art project today was making some little star necklaces to sing Twinkle Twinkle with. The kids were cute spinning, holding their stars and singing. We sang Twinkle Twinkle in lots of silly voices like Opera, country twang, and like a snake adding a long sssssss to every other word. The kids laughed when we were cars and vroomed to the tune.
Emmett was all smiles during lunch today. He was so cute with bananas all over his little chin.
Kiara tripped and bonked her head today looked at me with big sad eyes and a pouted lips and whispered "ouchie" Heartbreakingly Cute!!
Chase brought his sword today and as soon as my boys saw it they had to go and grab theirs too. I normally don't let them have their swords out while daycare kids are here since that just seems like I'm asking for trouble. The sword fight that followed was pretty funny. They were trying really hard not to hurt each other-- Result: minimal feelings hurt. Thank goodness!
Ty guy and Alex Parkin have been gone for a few days on vacation. Seems quiet here without all the shouts of "BUZZ LIGHTYEAR! TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!"
We're headed outside before they lay down for nap. Hopefully I can get some more of our camping stuff put away during nap time today. Wouldn't it be nice if my house was livable again?

Ink a dink

Ink a dink
A bottle of ink
The cork fell out
And you stink

Did you ever play this game when you were a kid?
We've been playing it today. We sit in a circle and put our feet in. Then I touch one foot per word of the rhyme. The foot that is touched on the word 'stink' is out. It goes around and around until there is only one foot left-- THE WINNER! I can remember playing this a lot with the kids at the day care I was in as a kid.
Today we're going to watch a movie for Fun Friday. I'm also going to ask the kids if they want to play doggies or kittens. If they do I thought it would be fun to run some crape paper down from the table to make a cage.

The Cookie Secret

I'm going to blab my mouth and tell you all the secret-- we each had a cookie BEFORE we ate our lunch. I know. The kids were in shock. Dessert first?!? We made home made yummy cookies this morning and the kiddos had been eying them since the second they left the oven. I could see them salivating anytime they glanced towards the goodies.
So there the kids were, all of them sitting at the table, hands nice and clean and chit chatting to each other about the snakes (spaghetti) we were about to eat. I leaned in close and whispered "Can you guys keep a secret?" Their eyes got big and they nodded. "There is a rule that says grown ups can't give you little kids treats until they've eaten all of their lunch but for today only I thought we could sneak a cookie before we eat." Alex P was seriously grinning from ear to ear. My Alex was nodding and Joshie, Ty Guy and Kiara were just staring at me like 'did she say cookie? I heard the word cookie.' I made a big show of looking around and had the kids look around to make sure no other grown ups were watching. I made them promise to keep it a secret then I let them pick one off of the (now cooled down) pan. They were so cute! The rest of the time during lunch they talked about their secret.