Two VS Three

What did I learn from my six days in charge of the two boys? I learned that two toddlers are A LOT less work than three toddlers. And it's not because Viva was the absent toddler. In most ways she's the easiest toddler in the house. She's the least demanding and the most independent (this is good and bad). Generally she doesn't have a strong preference as to food or toys or activities. She's a good sport. Viva is definitely the lowest maintenance child of the three.

So why was it so much easier with two rather than three? You save a lot of energy and time only having two toddlers to care for throughout the day. There's only two toddlers to help get dressed (or encourage to get themselves dressed); there's only two toddlers to help in the bathroom; there's only two toddlers to feed and clean up at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; there's only two toddlers to get in and out of car seats and to keep track of while out of the house; there's only two toddlers to get settled down at nap time; there's only two toddlers to read books to and to play games with; there's only two toddlers to listen to and answer 50+ questions from; there's only two toddlers to tend the owies of; and there's only two toddlers to get ready for bed. By the end of the day you've expanded a lot less energy caring for two toddlers than if you'd been caring for three toddlers. (If the children are more spread out in age, it would be different, but with three little ones there's a lot of hands on care needed throughout the day.)

Nonetheless we have three toddlers and we would not trade in one of them for all the time and energy we'd save. Bentley, Jake and Viva are worth every bit of time and energy that they cost us. I cannot think of anything I'd rather be doing than helping them enjoy and learn each day.

Duty Done

I am officially no longer in charge. The Mom has returned home after six days of playing with three of her cousins in Hawaii. She got back at 5AM this morning.

This doesn't mean that I'm off duty. Toddlers seldom leave an indulgent grandmother alone. There's always some service she can provide them. However, I do not have to answer for their every need any longer.

The Dad returns with The Sister at midnight tonight. I wonder what tales of adventure we will hear from them?

As for the boys' adventures, we spent the last six days playing Wii, shopping at toy stores (mini-monster trucks, puzzles and more rainbow magformers magnets), reading books, watching Dr Who, and playing lots of games (usually Trouble). We had a nice, relaxed time with no major--or minor--problems. I'm not saying we had as grand a time as the travelers, but our turn will come.

Games, Games, Games!

The past half a year (or more?) we have been playing a lot of board games and card games with the kidlets. Bentley has liked games for a couple of years now, but the twins are only just getting the gaming fever. Between Christmas gifts and Bentley's birthday gifts, our game collection is quite large. (And we continue to add to it--if you've any recommendations, let us know!)

What are the toddlers' favorites? Jake still favors his vehicle memory tiles over any other game. It is best to play this game one on one with him, otherwise things can go awry if Bentley finds both fire truck tiles before Jake finds them. Nevertheless we do occasionally play with Bentley. Games are supposed to help teach good sportsmanship.


Jake's second favorite game is Hi Ho the Cherry-O. It's not my favorite game, but it's not all about me, so I play it with them.

Viva loves her Fancy Nancy game. I like it because it's quick. The first one to dress Nancy in all six of her fancy accessories wins. Yes! That's a game I can cheerfully play once a day. (Do not ask me to play it three or four times!)

Viva also likes her Disney Princess Old Maid game. All the children like this game. It features pairs of Disney Princesses (surprise! surprise!) and Ursula, the evil sea witch from the Little Mermaid, as the old maid. The children fight over Ursula. We've tried to explain to them that you LOSE when you have Ursula in your hand at the end of the game, but they have their own version of the game. In their version Ursula rules.

Bentley likes many different games. His favorite is the one he's been most recently introduced to. Some of his new games can be played with all three children, but many of them are too advanced for the twins, so they have to either hand out the cards (which they really like to do) or they partner with an adult.

Two weeks ago his favorite game was Sequence for Kids. Every adult in the house played a game or two with him almost daily. He liked it that much. Then Kara got Animal Bingo for her birthday and that became the preferred game. (Bingo was a big hit with all three children.) Earlier this week I purchased travel Trouble and that's now Bentley's new favorite. Opa and I have to each play with him at least one game every day, and great-grandma is hit up, too.


Bentley enjoys playing all games. He likes to win, of course, but he's usually a good sport about losing a game--as long as he gets a chance to win again soon.

What is my favorite game? I really like CooCoo the Rocking Clown. Viva, Jake, and Bentley don't like this game. I have to force them to play with me. I tell them that if I play their favorite game, they have to play mine once in a while. What is with their lack of like? It's a great game.


There are a few games that I will not play unless cornered. Eric Carle's ABC Game is one such. I loathe that game. It takes a long time to set up (you have to sort two sets of alphabet letters), it takes a long time to play even after I've modified the rules. For some reason Bentley loves this game. (Or does he love torturing adults?!)

All three children like to play Cranium Hullabaloo. There are sixteen or so small colored pads that you randomly place on the floor. The children race from pad to pad following directions given by the game console.


Jake and Bentley like to play Honey Bee Bop. It has a three foot long rod that rolls around the base in a circle. The idea is to jump over the rod every time it approaches you. The boys go wild racing around it. Viva has no interest in this game. (And she's the one who needs practice jumping. She's getting better, but she's no athlete yet.)


Bentley and I like to play Catch the Match. There are 15 cards that each have the same 15 objects on them, but the color schemes vary. The goal is find the one (and only one) matching pair of objects for a pair of cards. I've purchased a few more games by this company. Their games are educational, reasonably priced, and quick to play (a must for adult sanity).

All three toddlers enjoy Blink. It's a card game of speed. Whoever gets rid of their draw pile first wins. You do so by matching the card(s) in your hand to at least one characteristic of a card (color, shape, or count) on the discard piles. I was surprised how quickly both Jake and Viva learned the rules to the game. They aren't competitively fast, but that's mostly because of their small hands. They enjoy the game enough that I purchased a second deck so we could all play together. Kara and I are going to introduce Bentley to SET. Is he ready for it? We'll let you know.

We have a couple of different versions of I Spy games. The games themselves are all right. The card game is Go Fish! and the dice game is similar. The thing I don't like about the I Spy games and books are their lame photos. They are ugly. The doll they've photographed for the games looks like the Sister of Chuckie--creepy, ugly, you know? There are so many beautiful objects to photograph. I'm not sure a single one of their I Spy objects is aesthetically pleasing. What gives with that?

For her birthday (at her suggestion) I gave Kara a wooden Tic Tac Toe game. The first time I played with Bentley he whomped me. I used to be good at the game, but I was having an off day (as in my brain was shut off). Bentley totally enjoyed winning again and again. Since then I've recalled the simple rules for ending every Tic Tac Toe game in a draw, but Bentley doesn't like playing by those rules, so I have to be flexible. When playing games with toddlers it's not whether you win or lose, but how much fun they have.


A few months ago Kara purchased five (?) Hasbro games for $1 each. She bought "Don't Spill the Beans". The game was a dud with toddlers. It's for older children. Next we tried "Don't Break the Ice". That one is a big hit. Viva likes to pound away and take out huge chunks of the ice. You don't want to be the player right after her.

Last Monday night for Family Home Evening Matt and the children tried out a new game, Richard Scarry's Busytown. It's not cheap ($25), but came highly recommended. I think the crew enjoyed the game, but Kara wasn't too happy to find the game pieces missing and the timer broken in her new brand new game. Back to amazon.com it went, but since it's out of stock currently, we're waiting on a new copy. (Matt and the kids had fun substituting toy cars and plastic fruit for the missing game pieces.)

I scoured the photograph files to find photos of game playing and it was slim picking. I guess the photographer isn't much interested in such shots or most of the game playing goes on while he's at work?

Thankful Sunday

Sunday is a good day to count your blessings, don't you think?

I’m thankful for three healthy, wonderful, awesome, beautiful, noisy grandchildren.

I'm thankful that I am able to live with my spouse, daughter, son-in-law, three grandchildren, and mother all under one roof. I don't have to drive here, there, and everywhere trying to help out or just spend time with my loved ones. They are readily available.

I'm thankful it's finally spring in Alaska. (Although those two or three recent snow storms gave me serious doubts!)

I'm thankful for FLOWERS! None are blooming outside yet, but inside we have three hibiscus flowers on one plant in full bloom, a huge beautiful bouquet of cut flowers on the counter (courtesy of my spouse), two blooming African Violet plants, and a starting-to-bloom yellow kalanchoe.

I'm thankful for books. Books, books, books! There are so many wonderful books--educational books, silly books, gorgeously illustrated books, happy books. I am thankful I am literate and that a love of reading was encouraged in my home growing up. Everyone in our household loves books--including the three little ones.

Repeat!: I'm thankful for my three incredible grandchildren--their joy of life makes every day an adventure. I'm very blessed to have my days free to spend with them.

Monster Truck Speed Demons

Recently I purchased the little three Hot Wheels Monster Jam Speed Demons. They are mini monster trucks. They are way cooler than the typical, larger Hot Wheel monster trucks. The boys have been collecting the larger monster trucks for a few months now. B has five, J has four, and V has none.

V has a very low interest in Hot Wheels, Matchbox, and the like. Vehicles?! Whatever. Whenever we give her one she quickly abandons it and it joins the pile of unclaimed (unloved) cars in a plastic shoe box.

Anyway back to the newest acquisitions--mini monster trucks. Why are they so cool? The larger monster trucks sit on extra big wheels and sometimes they have interesting paint jobs--they look like a fierce animal or even a dinosaur--but they don't drive particularly well and they don't fit on the Hot Wheel racing tracks. The mini versions don't just look good, they move on their own--"Pull 'em back; Then let 'em go!" And boy do they go--they take off on a wild ride doing loops and circles and wheelies. It's pretty amazing. They are fun to watch. (The first few runs they are pretty tame, but once the truck is broke in, it goes wild.)

The boys have a great time racing them on the kitchen floor. The only problem is that the trucks tend to drive themselves under the furniture and if they boys don't retrieve them right away, they can be hard to locate at a later time. Bedtime was an all out search party the first two nights the boys owned the trucks. V, as expected, does not play with hers much. It's been parked on the bathroom counter since day 2.

I'm going to look for more of these little gems. In addition to being more fun, they are half the price of the larger monster trucks and they take up less room to store. Now...how do I hunt for more while watching the boys full-time? If they are with me, they will see them and demand them immediately and I want to use them at some future date for incentives. (We sometimes offer Jake an incentive for attending nursery--in fact that's how he earned his new mini monster truck. The other two toddlers also got one because they attended their church classes, too, but they don't need bribes to attend.) I already checked on amazon.com and the prices were triple what the going rate at the local grocery store is. Triple! They would make great party favors for little boys--assuming you were willing to give any of them up. We have a mission for the day! Find the Bat Mobile Speed Demon Monster Truck.




The photos above were taken the first day the toddlers received their monster trucks--notice V is watching and not playing with her new truck. Would she have liked it better if it were pink and had a princess decal on it?

Trip Report from South Dakota

This report was emailed us by Matt who is in South Dakota with Viva. They flew out of Anchorage at 2AMish Wednesday morning. We'll add photos when Matt and Viva return.

FROM MATT:

Day 1: Getting through security? easy. Having MVP Gold? makes getting on flights easy. Everyone comments how cute the little girl is but is curious why her Daddy makes her carry such a huge backpack. fly to Seattle. Apparently I fell asleep first; at least that's what Viva says. That sure made it easy. We both slept until the plane landed in Seattle. Seattle was easy, but no time to use the Board Room as anticipated. Flight to Minneapolis - easy. Viva and I slept much of the way. Flight Attendants were proud of the "panda girl" (she was wearing her panda pajamas). Minneapolis? BIG Airport. Viva is beginning to understand we're not on a flight simulator and that we really are "someplace else". "But where are we Daddy? Are we at Gramma Wicky's house yet?" Almost, just one more plane! We stop for lunch - a yogurt parfait and a chocolate muffin. Mommy calls us, and all is well. Viva gets a good laugh because Daddy apparently sat on part of the chocolate muffin that she devoured. Kind-hearted child tries to wipe it off BEFORE telling Daddy that "something's on your butt." Thank you for wet-wipes.

Small plane to Minneapolis. Smaller than I thought, too. Viva gets the gold treatment from the flight attendant. And she gets the window seat. And she won't share the window with me. If you're familiar with the flight, it can get a little bumpy. Daddy had to fight for his right to a ground reference. Crisis averted just before landing.

Car rental - check, hotel - check, Viva's hair? Nightmare. Yeah - not much I can do there. Get dressed, meet Great Grandpa. They get along well. They swap stories, we have dinner (Viva's kids' menu dinner is bigger than mine), and she impresses with her appetite. A great day, ended with a trip to Wal-Mart for milk, yogurt, and orange juice.

And then it was bedtime.

"I don't wanna sleep here!" "I'm done at the hotel!" "I want MY BED!" These were the shriekings of a 2 year old at 9:30PM. Luckily, princess stories were able to put her to sleep.

And then naptime was over. It was 12:30AM. "I WANT MY BED!!! TAKE ME HOME NOW!!!!" "YOU DRANK ALL THE WATER IN MY CUP!!!!" "READ ME MORE PRINCESS STORIES!!" "Daddy... WAKE UP. Finish the story, PLEASE." After taking out some additional aggression on me, she was pacified and fell asleep.

Day 2:
9:45AM, Sleeping Beauty is still sound asleep. She gets woken up. "We're still here? I'm all done at the hotel. Let's go to Grandpa's house."

Grandpa showed us around the house and yard and washed the blankie for Viva (it had seen to many places that cleaners had not in the last 36 hours), and we headed to IHOP. Viva impressed again with her eating talent, with 3 silver dollar pancakes, half her eggs, and a slice of bacon. After lunch, we played a little longer at Grandpa's then headed over to Hilde Hanson's. Hour long visit there, where Viva entertained, but was not showing off some of her best social skills. "Put your dress down. I want to take a picture." "NO - it's funny when I pull my dress up. Then you can see my UNDERWEAR." And so it went.

Back to Grandpa's. He gives in to Viva's request that he accompany us to Storybook Land. 70 degrees, beautiful afternoon, great park with just a few kids... we had a great time! Viva loved the castle, knew most of the nursery rhymes and stories that went with the motifs and playgrounds, and went slow enough that Grandpa could enjoy it, too. She especially appreciated that they had lots of slides to go down.

Dinner time? Says the waitress, "Does everyone know what they want?" to which the gleeful child responds, "I want NOODLES!" Luckily, they had alfredo noodles. It was a bowl of pasta that would rival what I would normally eat. And this was from the kids menu? She attacked that, then ate most of Grandpa's fries.

7PM. Bedtime for Grandpa - we wore him out today. But not our Viva!

Back to the hotel, we get swimsuits on and head over to the pool. She makes a new friend who is moving to Vancouver tomorrow, and enjoys doing laps in the pool. In an effort to drain whatever energy was remaining in her dad, she decides that we should go back and forth three or four times from the hot tub to the pool. At least it's all indoors. (For what it's worth, the pool here must be about 1/2 the size of the YMCA pool).

Showers, treat time (Orange cream yogurt), 2 books, and she's passed out.

That's the news from Aberdeen!

While the Parents Are Away

The Parents have left town and I am in charge of the boys! Very cool--but it's a lot of pressure, too. What do we do on a staycation (staying at home during your vacation instead of traveling to a pleasure destination) that is as memorable and fun as getting on a plane and escaping Alaska during breakup?

Fortunately toddlers are not as hard to please as adults. They really do enjoy the little things in life. Wednesday--our first day of unsupervised freedom--we started off our at-home party with some bubble wrap stomping (see photo above) and we followed that fun by skipping nap time.

Skipping nap time sounds like it would be great fun--after all the only good reason to skip nap time is if you are too busy having fun to stop and rest. Unfortunately our skipped nap was the result of great-grandma's lame-o dentist. The man cannot keep to a schedule. The office staff told me the appointment would take only 15 minutes. I scheduled a full hour because I've had plenty of recent experience with this man's inability to keep on schedule. He ran an additional 45 minutes late this time--yes, a total of an hour and a half late! I'm glad he's not my dentist. The boys and I were hanging out at Borders book store waiting for great-grandma to phone us. Borders is a favorite store of the boys, but we don't usually hang out there that long.

Thursday was our first full day of freedom. What did we do? First we slept in to make up for the missed nap. Then we went on a hunt for new mini monster trucks (see upcoming post for details on why this toy is worth hunting down). We hit three stores before we found a decent supply.

The boys enjoyed the trip except for the late spring snow storm that covered them in big, fat, wet snowflakes every time we left the truck to go into a store. Bentley does not like getting wet. It offends him greatly. He likes snow well enough, but only when it's on the ground and he has some control over where it goes.

He's outside shoveling snow as I write this. He just came in shrieking because he got his jeans a little wet and he wants new jeans NOW. I told him to wait until he's done shoveling outside. He wasn't pleased with my decision, but he did go back out to shovel more. Opa is with the boys--I have not allowed them outside on their own. They are much too young!

What are our plans for the rest of our parent free period?! I promised the boys they could play Wii every day--after all they are on vacation, too--but, we already hit a glitch with that plan. Bentley threw a tantrum Wednesday night when Opa shut off the Wii after an hour, so Bentley lost his Wii time tonight (Thursday). Jake made his opa promise to not knock him off the platform in fencing.

Opa is taking Friday off work, so we can do something special. What would that be in Anchorage in April when the ground is wet, wet, wet?! I'm sure the boys will have plenty of ideas.

Now Jake is here demanding his Wii time. (I've been interrupted a few times while trying to write this post for tomorrow.) I have to go and get opa moving in that direction. Bentley is being very good about his missed Wii time. He's focusing on watching Dr. Who with opa and then taking a bath in our large tub. Like I said earlier, toddlers are quite happy with the small joys of life. It's a life lesson we older folks could learn from them.

***** ***** ***** *****

Where are the parents you might be wondering? Are they on a romantic getaway? No. They traveled away at the same time, but Kara went west and Matt took Viva east. Kara joined three cousins in Hawaii for a little R&R. Matt took Viva to South Dakota to meet her great-grandfather and her great uncle and to spend a couple of days with her grandma Vicki. Viva is sure to get spoiled--so I have to make sure I do some make-up spoiling here at home with the boys. :-)

An Interview with Viva

Lastly, Miss Viva.

What's your favorite color?  Pink
What's your favorite book?  Princess Books
What's your favorite movie?  Sleeping Beauty
What's your favorite breakfast?  Cereal
What's your favorite lunch?  Corn flakes (yeah, not sure if she was paying attention here... !)
What's your favorite dinner?  Soup
What's your favorite snack?  Jelly Beans
Where's your favorite place to go?  The water park
How old are you?  Two and a half
Who do you like to play with?  Patrick & Cassidy
What's your favorite thing to wear?  Something blue (first I've heard!)
Tell me something about Jesus?  We believe in Jesus Christ!
Anything else you want to say?  I'm a princess.  That's all there is.  The end!

And there you have it.  Notice a pink princess theme?!

An Interview with Jake

Next up?  Mister Jake!  He's in a goofy stage, apparently.  Not all of his answers were on topic!

What's your favorite color: orange (I had to ask twice.  First time he said "the one that blocks people".  Hmmmm.)
Favorite book: Sleeping Bobby
Favorite show: ones with bears
Favorite movie: Toy Story
Favorite Breakfast: chicken sausage
Favorite lunch: Rice
Favorite treat: candy
What do you like to play: with you, Mom (how sweet!)
Where do you like to go in the car?  The french fry place and the pancake place (notice a theme?!)
Do you like church?  Yeeeeeah.  Sometimes I go to nursery and sometimes I don't.
How old are you?  I don't know
What do you know about Jesus?  I don't know
Anything else you want to tell me?  I'm a monkey.  I like magnets.

And there you have it.  A look at the puzzling mind of Jake.

An Interview With Bentley

Bentley and I sat down for a quick talk!

What's your favorite color: yellow, black, & brown
Favorite breakfast: poppyseed muffins & corn flakes
Favorite lunch: chicken nuggets
Favorite story: the Disney story book
Favorite snack: carrots
Who do you like to play with: everyone I see
What's your favorite game: bingo and tic tac toe and sequence
Favorite place to go: the run around mall and the toy store
Tell me something you know about Jesus: he loves us
Anything else? I like peppers.  I like to box on the wii.

And there you have it.  Bentley, according to Bentley.  100% accurate?  I guess that depends on point of view.  I haven't noticed a huge love for chicken nuggets in him, and I'm not so sure he ever boxes on theWii!  But he's entitled to his own opinions, I suppose!

Jake the Photographer

The kids, Jake in particular, are in love with the little Elf camera. I'm sure they'd love the bigger cameras too but we only give them access to the small one! After seeing how they can burn through the battery (when using flash!) I ordered 3 more on Ebay. Now we can click away. New problem? Jake fills up the memory card quicker than I ever did! Among the many pictures of empty rooms, there are also "gems" - so here are some pictures from Jake's week.

A classic. The self portrait. Up close.

3 of Jake's favorite people.

A lovely picture of our Easter bouquets. I'm touched he wanted to immortalize them via picture!

One photographer to another.

One of Jake's biggest fans.

Kids in Two Words

Small people change so quickly! There are many charming quirks the kids have, and a few not so charming one. I decided to sum up (is that possible?) some of what I'm seeing in them lately.

Bentley is: charming & defiant

Bentley CAN be quite charming. He knows how to ask for what he wants nicely. He doesn't always choose to though. He skipped the terrible threes, but sometimes he's a bit of a fearsome four year old. He thinks he's in charge of the world. I think I'm in charge of it too. We're trying to reconcile our difference of opinion...

Jake is: affectionate & crazed.

Jake is very affectionate. And so polite. No thank you, please, and once in a great while even a you're welcome. He gives out hugs and I love yous. But if you make him mad? The veins on his face start to pop, he gets loud, and he starts to act a little wild!

Viva is: helpful & willful.

Genevieve. She's a great helper! She likes to fold laundry. If you ask for help she'll most likely do it, and quickly too. If her brothers are busy trying to convince an adult to get do something for the, she'll often pop up and go do it for them. She's sweet like that. But she has a bit of a willful streak. If she doesn't like what you're saying, when you ask if she understood she'll say "No". With quite the look to go with it.

I love these kids!

Really? This is Spring?!

Yesterday the twins went on an "adventure" walk down to the mailbox with Opa.  We have a long (enough) street and a long (very) driveway, so it makes for a nice little outing.  Yesterday I was thinking it didn't feel much like Spring as the poor kids had to get all bundled up, and there were still piles of snow all over.

Today?  Today I'm thinking that yesterday WAS looking like Spring.  As Bentley said when we hit the road this morning "Mommy!!  It is winter again out there!!".  We had 4 or 5 (?) inches of beautifully fluffy snow today.  Gorgeous to look at, but more fitting for December than for APRIL!

We're ready for green grass, warm sun and long park play days.

A Boy & A Puppy

My Uncle has a new puppy, and the puppy is QUITE cute. We went to visit the puppy, but he was very tired and slept through our whole visit! The kids weren't too impressed one way or another.

A few days later, Uncle Mark brought the puppy over to our place with him when he came to pick up G-Gma for a visit. The puppy was awake! Bentley? Didn't want to touch the dog, but looked at him. Viva? Terrified. Cried! The puppy cornered her, first, and then gnawed on her arm (in a friendly way!) during their second encounter. Jake? He's in love. I think he'd go for one of his own... !

Belated Bunnies

Easter (a bit late!).   Check out our bunnies.  I told them that the Easter bunny brought the ears, so suddenly they were cool.  Bentley didn't take his off all day long!  We had a fun Easter, with conference in the morning and fun up at Grandma Karen and Grandpa Tim's in the afternoon.  Pounds of candy, of course, and happy kids.  They all enjoy the egg hunts, although Viva isn't quite as quick as her brothers yet... :-).  Because it was a conference Sunday we didn't go to church, and the "dress up fun" just didn't happen.  Ah well.

Here's a look back at some past Easters.  They get big quick!

Easter 2009: all dressed up.  They didn't QUITE get Easter egg hunts and all that, but liked the candy!  They didn't want to wear the ears.

Easter 2008 - the twins showed up, Bentley's super cute suit, and Jake modeling the ears:

Easter 2007, when the bunny ears first appear:

Easter 2006, a little Mr. Bentley:

Child at Work!

We put the kids to work before our party last week, vacuuming and cleaning.  It's nice to see them working.  They're all very good at vacuuming (and they enjoy it!).  Not so good with the broom and dust pan yet, but getting better.  They clear the table (with some reminders), and help put away laundry.  Well on their way to becoming productive littler laborers!

Obsession

This is what little boys that love their Wii with passion look like. Those marketing people (or the design people) that sell these gaming systems certainly now how to inspire devoted followees! In case you're wondering, they're engaging in a fencing match in this picture. :-)

Note: they play for less than an hour a week.  One or two days at most.  And yet, even with those limits in place, I think they're becoming quite passionate about their games.  Scary!

A Hidden Skill

Geneveive, it's no secret, is the least athletic of my children.  That's okay with me though.  I'm not incredibly athletic myself (an understatement!).

Opa caught her jumping, on film, the other day.  And doing a good job of it.  I think she's been holding out on me?!

The enticement of bubble wrap is enough to make anyone want to jump, right?!!

Easter Party!

We had an Easter party on Tuesday.  We decorated!

Next, we invited some small children over.  We fed them lunch.

We looked for Easter eggs.

We played with the baby.

And we played some games.  I tried to get a video of those, but I didn't do such a great job.  Ah well.  It was fun.  Thanks for coming over, friends!

Thankful Thursday

It's been a hectic few days.  Next week we're going to do NOTHING!

But, of course, we're grateful to have so many fun things to do.  We've had game nights and Easter parties and bowling trips and our always fun Thursday luncheon.  The boys went to the museum with Daddy.  I went to a movie with my husband.  I watched a movie with a friend!  Bentley helped clean the chapel and run other errands with Matt.  We've been to Kohl's and Costco and Target!  We met a brand new little puppy.  We've visited cousins.  And all this in the last 7 days.

We've kept busy.  And we're grateful to have so many delightful ways to be busy.  We're very lucky.

Welcome, April!