I'M BACK!!

Princess party is over and I am back to my normal life. My kitchen is free of princess cups, napkins, and plates. Princess puzzles and decorations have been put away and I feel like I can function again. Hooray!
Let's recap the past oh, I dunno... month? We've been to the park quite a few times. We painted, drew pictures with crayons, went on a walk and played on our swing set. We have been LOVING the movie Toy Story and the boys have been playing Buzz Lightyear most often. The girls have been loving some new dolls Ava got for her birthday.
We've been working on learning our body parts and signing new signs. We've been learning the song "As I Have Loved You" with it's signs.
We have learned a few new silly songs and we've been singing them.
Today we have been playing Army Guys and chasing each other. The girls have been playing with a few necklaces Ava got. They've been cute wearing them around and smiling at themselves in the mirror when I hold them up. Later today we're going to get together all of our Toy Story toys and we're going to draw a mural to play with them on.

Sock it to me!

Today for our art project we colored a four feet tall bulls eye. We taped it to the wall in my living room. We got 100 points for the inner circle, 50 for the middle and 25 for the outer ring. What were we throwing at it? Socks. I pulled the boys underwear /sock drawer out and we threw our arms out. Alex P was great at it and hit the red most of the time. Tyler threw a few times but then settled on retrieving the rocks for us. Kiara held onto a pair of socks I handed her but never threw them. She waved them around a few times. My Alex got silly and started to throw the other things in the drawer, ties, underwear and swimsuits. The boys (of course) thought it was funny when we threw the underwear up in the air and laughed because "it's raining undies!" We had a snowball fight with the socks too. They liked this a lot.
We went to the park today. The kids buried their feet in the wood chips. We had a little incident where it looked like we lost Josh's sandles but thanks heavens we dug enough that we found them again! Phew! We've all ready had to replace one pair this summer.
Alex P. is especially good at making friends at the park and he enjoyed a game of tag with some kids a little older than him. Tyler gave me a heart attack when he started counting while standing at the fire man's pole and I was half way across the playground, but he stopped when I yelled "HANG ON, TY GUY!" The boys brought a ball launcher with them to the playground so I threw it a dozen times for Kiara and she would get it and bring it back to me. A friend of mine just happened to be at the park today so they got to play with her little boy, Cameron today.
And that in a nut-shell is what your kiddos did while you were at work. And ya know, breakfast, nap, lunch and nap ;)

Tickle Race

I don't think I have laughed so much in months as I laughed today. We played a super fun game. It was called 'Tickle Race' The kids ran by me as fast as they could and I tried to tickle them. It was a riot! I had them jump past me, dance past me, and crawl on their tummies past me, all while trying not to be tickled.
Earlier in the day we danced the hokey poky. The kids liked putting their backsides in, especially Alex P and my Alex. I held Ava and moved her parts for her and she was hysterical.
All though most of the day was pleasant, poor Mr. Emmett is teething and was sad. He doesn't return Ava's affection which makes Ava sad whenever she crawls over to him and I have to move him or he starts to cry from her constant hugs and kisses. Poor Ava and her unrequited love.
Bella came to visit today and was loving Josh's kitchen set. She made chicken nuggets for me about a dozen times. Yum!

The boys have been really into tumbling and summersaults lately and we had a little competition today to see who could jump the furthest and do a summersault at the end. Ava and Kiara were interested in this and watched. Ava got into position a couple times and I helped her by flipped her over. I tried to do the same with Kiara but she didn't like it. It was the landing on her bum she didn't like. After the girls went to bed the boys played Buzz Lightyear and jumped around. We watched Baby Signing Time and signed for awhile to each other. After lunch we made some pudding and sang some nursery rhymes. The boys each picked a story and we read until they fell asleep.

Just another Wednesday

Today we pulled all the couch cushions off of the couch and jumped on them on the floor. The joys of jumping over "lava" cannot be described ;)
We went to the park today for about half an hour. The kids begged to go but I was nervous about Ava and Emmett getting rained on so we compromised with a short visit. The kids really enjoyed the playground today. The heat has made the plastic hot on the play ground but the cooler weather today allowed the kids to be able to play without worrying.
Alex P. was very proud of himself. His sisters taught him how to slide down the fire mans pole on the playground and he showed me six, yes-- count them, six-- times how awesome he is. Way to be kid! Chase and my Alex played on the long slide most of the time today. Josh played with the wood chips. Tyler played by himself on the bridge and on the slides. A few times he found a ledge and started 'counting' "EAH! EAH! EAH!" Whoa buddy! Let me put down Ava first, then you can jump.
Ava was a little less possessive of Emmett today. I wonder if she is getting over her great puppy love. It worked out well since Emmett wanted to be held most of the day and normally when that happens Ava wants to be held too, on the same side as Emmett. Today, however, Ava was okay playing with the floor with her brothers. Good.
The boys made watches today. They were pretty cute with them. Chase kept asking me what time it was and I kept telling him "you tell me, kid. You're the one with the watch" He thought that was really funny. Joshie was cute. He kept telling me it was 18, 19, 20 o'clock. Apparently Joshie functions on military time.

Ice Cream and Red Rover

Today was so hot, it seemed like a great day to make some ice cream. We started with 3 bags, some heavy whipping cream, pure cane sugar, and vanilla. We added Oreo bits and extra vanilla to turn one into cookies and cream. We added Reese's chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate syrup and Reese's baking chips to another for some pure deliciousness. The third one we made into rocky road. We added marshmallows, chocolate syrup, almonds and a ribbon of fudge. We added plenty of ice cream salt and ice. We sat down in a circle and took turns shaking until we had ice cream. I have never done this before and I was really happy with the results. The ice cream was seriously great, seriously the best I've ever had, I'm seriously considering never buying store bought ice cream again and just making my own from now on. I'm completely serious. The kids all liked it too. My Alex liked the cookies and cream the best. Joshie liked the Reese's the very best. Alex P. liked the cookies and cream. Bella (who is visiting today) liked "all of ice cream" My fav was the rocky road. I LOVE ICE CREAM!

We went to the park again today. Again? I know. We go everyday it seems like. But hey, they're all happy to go and it keeps my kitchen clean since we're eating there. I love anything that means I have less dishes and sweeping to do. Today we played Red Rover with some other kids we met. Tyler didn't get what he was supposed to be doing so he just mostly followed Alex P. around. Other than that they seemed like they had fun. Of course Bella and Joshie were holding hands the whole time. Cute! We also ran up and down the hill at the park. The kiddos rolled down it. Looked really fun! I wish I could have joined but SOMEONE has to play in the grass with Ava and tickle her little toes.

Frisbee Golf :)

We organized our food storage this weekend and I saved some big ol' boxes to play with today. Kiara climbed on hers and pushed it around. The boys used theirs as a fort, a cage for a puppy (Josh was that puppy), to run around, to crash into and to jump out from behind and scare each other. I taught the kids to do a martial arts kick and tip over the boxes. We had a pretty rocking time.
We took a break from the boxes for baby signing time. Josh had a neat experience on Saturday. We had gone over to Southtowne Mall for the evening. Josh, Ava and I were sitting on a bench waiting for Matt and Alex when we saw a deaf person signing to his friends. We were able to catch the sign for 'shoes' It was pretty neat to have a small window into his world.
After morning nap time we colored some styrofoam plates to use as frisbees. We used our big ol' boxes outside as targets for frolf (frisbee+ golf= frolf). We played a couple rounds. Josh was our over all winner. His best for the three targets was eleven throws. Way to be kid! Tyler was pretty cute doing this. He just threw his little heart out for about 20-25 throws then he marched over and gently set his frisbee in the box. Cute-ness!
We went to the park today since they love it. We've made some friends there last week and the two Alexs were really excited our friends were there today.
IT WAS A GREAT DAY!