In an effort to make the front of the house look good, we cut some overgrown bushes, hung up some ferns, and did a little painting. Then I realized a bird had built a nest in one of the ferns. I didn’t want to water the babies or scare off the mom, so I just didn’t water the ferns. My mom wasn’t as cautious and simply watered the plant. While she was doing that, she also showed my kids the baby birds. They were in awe. (My plants were thankful.)
Month: May 2019
Someone followed big brother into the iPad area.
Gram found a bird nest when she was watering my ferns and the kids are fascinated by the tiny baby chics.
Want to guess what Ben’s having for dinner?
(It’s chili. This kid loves food.)
Alex and Gram snuck outside for a little alone time.
Sneaky nap struck again.
Gram is a saint. She read this hard-to-read book at least 3 times back-to-back.
Ben wants to do all the things Kaitlyn does so badly..
Wade comes home with the funniest things. Tonight he arrived home with an apple peeler. My kids all love apples. But tonight they thought they were even cooler.
I can always count on Alex to be creative. He knows I love cookies. He knows I love cookie dough. He decided to combine them into a new creation….
One of the reasons I don’t mind Teague cooking is that he is great about cleaning up the kitchen when he is done.
Kaitlyn decided to help me with the packing. At least, I think that’s what she is doing?
Don’t worry. Ben’s got dinner under control.
Somewhere along the way today he lost his shirt and found Kaitlyn’s hairspray (for her ballet days). He’s trouble with a capital T, but we love him to pieces.
The joys of trumpet practice.
It’s a Tuesday.
Knowing our days are numbered at this house, we took full advantage of the gorgeous weekend. We chose not to add any propane to the tank for the pool heater this year, but thankfully today the water was warm. (So even I got in the water.) The kids tried a tandem jump – my favorite to try and photograph. Alex created a new game of noodle baseball with the dive toys. Ben joined me on the big watermelon. I made the kids go back outside later in the day just to take our yearly matching holiday swimsuit picture. It was a perfect Memorial Day.
Happy Memorial Day
Happy Memorial Weekend
We embraced the holiday weekend with several dips in the pool and a sleepover on the third floor of the new house. It took a little figuring to get the the AC on the third floor just right. But the kids were content to play air hockey (thank you previous owners) while the top floor cooled down and then we all watched a movie and conked out!
Madison – faithful companion. She hangs out and is pretty cool with just about anything – until she feels it is okay to return to her nap.
Artist.
These two are wonderful at make-belief.
Baker.
I’m not sure I want to know why he’s so proud of himself.
We met our friends for a quick playdate at the park. Of course, Kaitlyn someone managed an outfit change during the playdate….
Ben and Teague – sharing breakfasts since Ben starting eating real food.
Who are these children and what have they done with my kids?
I am suspicious that Ben has been here recently…
Alex has always struggled with change. He does much better with routines and things that stay predictably the same. It took us quite a few moves to figure this out. Because we were moving locally and everyone was excited about the move, we didn’t expect any hiccups this time. We were wrong. We are already seeing some minor behaviors. One example – Alex got quite annoyed over a minor issue (in our eyes) and decided to run away. Unfortunately, it started pouring very shortly after he packed his bags and ran away to the backyard. I went outside and tried to convince him to come in but he can be quite stubborn. He sat out in the rain under his sleeping bag for a good 20 minutes before he agreed to come inside. (Wonder where he gets that stubbornness from?)
Oh Alex…
Why stop with a single band-aid when you can use multiple?
A backyard playdate.
A backyard playdate.
A little late evening Alexa viewing.
I love when Alex acts like the awesome big brother I know he can be.
This boy gets into everything. One of his current favorite activities is playing in the dog food. At least he has stopped eating the dog food…
Kaitlyn’s last day of preschool was today. She met up with her friends at school and we took pictures and said good-bye to Busy Bee (at least until Ben).
Then we all met back up on the Common later in the afternoon for a graduation ceremony and picnic. Her preschool holds the cutest ceremony/party every spring for the graduates. We have been before but this is the first time we had a graduate. Kaitlyn got her diploma and then the kids all ran wild, danced with bubbles, and got ice cream at Cones on the Common. It was a pretty great afternoon.
Dad got a new (old) tractor.
Dad got a new (old) tractor.
Dad got a new (old) tractor.
Dad got a new (old) tractor.
All of the water bottles in our house have been personally tested by Ben. He can assure you that they work. As to wether they have all been cleaned again after they were tested? That’s a question for another day….
My crazy kids were determined to go swimming today. The temperature did officially reach 80 but the water was no where near that warm. I agreed to be the responsible adult outside but told them I wasn’t going near the water or putting on a swimsuit. They had a blast anyway and I’m glad they are getting so much use out of the pool before we move!
Alex was determined to get Pepper in the pool and it took him quite a while to convince her. The weather didn’t cooperate and we ended up with rain, but he finally got her in the pool – for a second.
These crazies wanted another pool day.
We’ve been in this house a year(ish) and only after we officially put the house on the market do we have a random tree fall (from the Land Trust – meaning from Public Property) onto our property in just the right way to damage the metal fence around the pool. The crazy thing is this happened not during a storm or during high winds. I just looked out the window and happened to see the tree on the fence. Now we have to scramble to find replacement fencing. Fun!
Dressed up for church.
We hadn’t done everything we wanted to our current house, but we have done a lot of work on it. We are happy with what we did and are so excited to move on to our new house. Here are the listing pictures. Fingers crossed that it sells quickly and we can focus all our attention on our new house!
The two-man band.