Bathtime...

Hannah loves to submerge herself in the bath... I remember loving this too.

Tea...

Hannah has about 4 or 5 tea sets. She got a couple for her birthday party this year and a few from various other gift-giving events. She hasn't been 'into' tea parties until now though. Today she set up her tea party with all of her friends. Secretly I had been wondering when this type of party would happen. Each friend had a tea cup and a saucer and there were teapots for everyone. She was very pleased with herself.

Ladybugs...

We went to the beach again this morning (with a playgroup). It was the perfect day to go to the beach. This weekend was HOT at our house and we had our pool out (& discovered that it has a slow leak in one of the sections) all weekend. The kids jumped and played in the pool and then we went to my parents house for some pool time there too. So we went to the beach this morning to jump in the waves and roll around and cool off some more. 

Ben and Hannah LOVE the beach. They love every part of it, the waves, the sand, the water, the fun, even the seagulls. 

Noah doesn't. 

It might be because we haven't been for the winter because he loves to swim in the tub and jump around in our backyard pool. He was jumping into the pool to us (last fall) but now he doesn't want to put his toes in. He doesn't want to be near the water. 

So today Noah saved ladybugs in the sand. There were lots of bugs in the sand for some reason and lots of ladybugs. He made little holes for them and called them their houses and he picked them up gently (!) without squeezing them to death. He trembled when they crawled on his arm. He is a little scared of flies and bugs and spiders especially, so this was a good step for him. His ladybug activity kept him busy for a long time today... Hopefully someday soon he'll venture into the water with us.

Baseball...

Noah hits the ball! I just missed the hit but he tells you all about it here :)

Pushed in...

One of the kids favorite things to do at my parent's house is to push Grandad in the pool. He just wanders over and secretly looks around  for the kids, bends over to look in the pool and they pounce. Then they push him in and he makes a big deal about it as he tumbles into the water. We (adults) watch and hoot and holler to encourage them to do this. The kids love it!

Concert...

One of my cousins daughter's (with long blonde hair in front on video) is in an a cappella group named Mount View Chamber Singers from Maine. They have been here for a week, signing in different venues around the city. We went to listen to them sing tonight at an art show at the Sacred Heart School in Coronado. The music was breathtaking.

Helper...

We are finally installing the crown moulding in the living room! (It has only been a work in progress since before Noah was born 2 ½ years ago) Ben loves to help out and really likes to help out when there are tools involved. Today he was Daddy’s extra pair of hands while putting up the crown moulding. I had to capture the moment because Ben loves to get all ready like Daddy complete with safety glasses and earmuffs. I just love his chubby cheeks.

Mud...

I went to check on the kids this afternoon because it was getting quite quiet in between the occasional voice shouting. I found them playing in the mud. We hadn’t put away the cooler from Hannah’s birthday party and Ben was filling it up with water. Hannah was carrying it in a watering can to the hole and Noah was shoveling it out of the hole to a dump truck. They all took turns with shovels and filling both dump trucks, filling the holes with water and then dumping the dump trucks out to fill them again. Ben kept digging and actually found something hard, he pried it out and it was a ball. So now he was into finding treasures in the mud hole, so he kept digging and he actually found a toy zebra! Then he and Hannah discussed how they remembered losing the zebra when they were burying toys a while ago. It’s so much fun to be a kid.

Diaper change...

Me (wincing): Ooo Noah that was a big poop!
Noah: Yeah, my poop is like a boulder.
Me: a boulder?
Noah (proudly): Yeah, it was a BIG poop!

Art...

Unguided with tools to create. They know the drill. They love it this way. Freedom.

A helicpoter!

Girl Scouts...

Hannah had her first official Daisy Scout meeting this afternoon. We were a little late and hopefully that won't happen often but it was OK. The girls got to know each other's names tonight and then they worked on a craft. They have to learn the girl scout promise and law for their first pin! Hannah is pretty good at memorizing so I'm sure she won't have any trouble with that. The trouble is remembering to memorize!

Beach...

We joined a playgroup this morning. They met at a park near the beach. We’ve actually been to this park and beach a few times before and were quite disappointed today when we realized that the park structure was taken out. My kids got bored pretty quickly at the playground so we headed to the beach. They jumped in the waves and ran back and forth to the water falling in the sand. They were all giggles and squeals, running back and forth, and so much jumping. It was great fun for them. Noah was not into the beach. He wanted to go back to the blanket. He hung out by the wall and didn’t want to come closer to the water, not even to get his toes wet…funny kid.

Can't wait to get out there

Ben caught air
Jumping waves

Bubbles...

I bought the kids giant bubble wands the other day and decided that today would be a good day to give them to them. We went out front to do it and I couldn't believe how big the bubbles got! They had a lot of fun and we used up all the bubbles that we had. Hannah even went in to get the small bottles that we had...and then used them all up too. These were a hit so we'll be doing it again, for sure!

Birthday pics...

"stick the tail on the donkey"
Hannah and Natalie
Mommy and Hannah
Hannah with Daddy and Mommy
Playing 'tea party' with Natalie, Ben and Jonathan

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Our little girl turned 5 today. How time flies. It really doesn’t feel like she is 5 yet, it feels like Ben just turned 5. Well she’s beautiful and full of life, she loves just about anything. As you’ve been reading about her (& her brothers) for the past 5 years. I remember the day I started staying home (3/18/03), my classroom of students were very stressful, I was never in the classroom because I was always off to be trained or in some workshop. It was so hard to be consistent when they really needed me to be. It was hard on me…and them. Not my fault and well… that is history. I had almost exactly one month to be home alone with Ben before Hannah was born. We had fun together just waiting and getting ready for her arrival.

Today was so special, I woke up early and made her a special breakfast to serve her in bed, Ben woke up and helped a bit, Noah did too. I had them go and pick some flowers for her and unbeknownst to me, they woke her up through the window and she was grumpy! That got me grumpy and it ended up not being the morning I pictured for her. Well the rest of the morning we spent getting ready for the party in the afternoon. Hannah got to do whatever she wanted but we didn’t leave the house.

Guests started getting here right around 3 and Hannah couldn’t believe it, she was so excited to have her friends and family over. It was hard to catch up with her throughout the afternoon! She helped decorate her cupcakes with princess rings (we searched everywhere for princess tiara cupcake tiaras-those are what she really wanted on her cupcakes, but we couldn’t find them). We had games that she didn’t want to play… she just wanted to watch. She had a mound of presents to open and this year (as opposed to last year) she opened each one, one right after the next! She loves all of her presents and can’t wait for tomorrow to play with them all and more! Her friend Natalie stayed much later than anyone else and they played and played some more. Natalie started school this year so we haven’t seen them much, this was a great time for them to get to know each other all over again. ☺

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

Opening present from Mommy

Daddy's present

Birthday girl

Cupcakes

Noah hung out with Dylan (my cousin in the background)

knitting...

Ben and Hannah have been so interested in learning how to knit and sew. I finally found a class where they can learn how to knit (not from me-I'm a b e g i n n e r). They started taking a class once a week at a local store with other kids. The teacher is awesome and so good with them. She had Ben start with a nifty knitter. The class makes little hats for preemie newborns who are in the hospital. He is so good at it the teacher commented that she has never had a student finish a hat in two classes. She thinks he'll finish it next time. Hannah got to start with finger knitting and show her that she knew how to do it. Today she started with 4 finger knitting and she'll be able to move to a nifty knitter next week. Ben and Hannah were a little nervous about the class at first (this is week 3), but then they got the groove of the class and love it. They can't wait to go next week.

Ferry...

We joined our homeschool field trip group today on a ferry ride across the bay. We went with Ben when he was a baby but haven't been since. What a special treat. We started off and the kids weren't really sure what to expect. We put our stuff on the top deck and walked around. We watched as we left the dock and took off towards San Diego. They loved it. We talked about how there wasn't always a bridge to get to Coronado. They were amazed that cars could drive onto the ferry (not this ferry) and it would still float on the bay. I think we'll have to go to the library and find some pictures of it. Ben and Hannah had fun playing with the other boys and girls on the ferry, and they loved being in the front of the boat and watching the water splashing as the boat cut into the water. Noah liked watching the water too but from the holes in the boat (see picture below). After our ride on the ferry we walked to the park for lunch and a bit of fun. It was the perfect day for this trip! We'll definitely go again, maybe Daddy will come with us!

Zoo...

I took the kids to the zoo today, we had a late start but since we have memberships we don’t worry about having to go everywhere when we are there. Today we went to see the polar bears via the skyfari. That was the best way to get to the polar bears today because of how late we were and also because the other route was closed off for construction. We also wanted to see the giraffes but couldn’t find them (again…construction). We stopped by the meerkats and watched them for a long time. The kids didn’t want to leave. While watching the flamingos we saw the newest ducklings swimming in the water. My children love baby animals, actually they love baby humans too. They are drawn to them to watch and hold them.

Pee Wee Sports…

Daddy started taking a class on Tuesday nights and will be getting home after the kids go to sleep so I decided that we needed to do something while he is not here. We found out that our friends are going to a Pee Wee Sports class near their house and that it is free! Even better! So we joined them and they had a blast. The ‘coach’ had them doing just about everything she could think of. They started off doing some t-ball, then moved to kicking the ball, hula hoops, basketball, jump rope and even hockey. There was more but I can’t remember everything they did. It was quick moving so they didn’t get a chance to fool around and get into trouble doing something else. Afterwards we cleaned up and went to the kitchen for a quick snack. The kids really wanted to play together at the park afterwards, so we took them to the playground and they played for about an hour. It was a nice afternoon activity to keep us busy as a temporary one-parent household.

Here are some pictures from the hockey session

Daisies...

Hannah will be 5 years old in about 2 weeks, so we signed up for Girl Scouts. We had our first meeting with the parents and the leaders tonight and it was great. There are 8 girls who are all around her age, 2 of whom she already knows from playgroup. We will have our official 1st Daisy meeting in 2 weeks so until then we wait ☺ Hannah wasn’t too sure about it at first but then she saw all the other girls and quickly changed her mind about it. They are going to have a fun year! Oh and I’m signing myself up to be a leader too ☺ Hannah likes that because she knows that I’ll be there for the meetings. She doesn’t like it when we drop off…actually we’ve never done a ‘drop off’ because none of the kids have felt comfortable with us leaving them to have a class. So this works out just fine.

New words...

Noah has had a vocabulary explosion lately and needs only to be exposed to a new word once before he has it. Lately he has been practicing his new words to master them. “Benjamin”, “captain”, ‘firehouse” over and over and over. One of them isn’t really a word but an expression that is said around here, “gosh darn it”. Noah’s voice is raspy and when he says it, it gives the expression a little bit of cuteness to it.

Water fun…

I went grocery shopping alone this afternoon. The day was rough (we’re working on the house) and I really enjoyed my time away. I had been hoping that the rest of the family could get dinner started but I hadn’t been able to get ahold of them on the phone. So, I rounded the corner to our house and saw why. Corey and the kids were out on the front lawn with the hose. Hannah and Noah were naked and running around while Ben sprayed the hose at them and Daddy. They were having such a blast. All dripping wet and cooled off. Today was particularly hot (mid-upper 90’s) for an April day too so this was extra fun for them.

Cousins...

Noah and Ryan really love playing together. They play nicely....most of the time. Tonight we had a reunion for my childbirth classes and Ryan was here. Noah is very social and has a couple of little friends. Noah and he went from one activity to the next together (digging in the dirt is a favorite). We found them towards the end of the night together on the Pooh car riding around on the patio. Surprisingly they didn't fall off.

Strawberries and saving weeds…

We have some strawberries! There have been a couple of berries getting ready to be eaten by our 3 kids, we’ve just been waiting for just the right time to munch on them. So today was the day. We walked by the 5 strawberries (yes, 5) and decided that they would try them out. Hannah and Noah dove in and Ben almost missed out. They were so quick at eating them and now they are gone. Waiting and watching them grow is part of the fun though, there are a few more green ones growing so we’ll wait again!

I decided that today we would get ready to do some weeding under the palm tree. We haven’t touched that little plot of our garden since we chopped our sunflowers down last fall. So I got the hose and started to water while telling the kids that the water will help loosen the weeds’ roots so that we can get them out of the ground easily. We will actually weed this weekend. Ben and Hannah decided that they didn’t want me to weed and throw away the ones that look like trees (yes, we have weeds that look like trees, that is how long it’s been since we’ve weeded!!). So off they went to save the weeds! I wasn’t going to argue with them about weeding. They wanted to do it and they got a lot of weeds out of the ground.

Strawberries...yum!Ben & Hannah with their weed collections