Two Princesses

I'm on toddler duty this month for co-op, which means I acquire two extra Catherine-aged kids while Seth goes to class. Thankfully the weather finally decided it's spring, so we got to play outside! I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of these two princesses playing together:

Not posed.

They did this themselves.

And let's talk about how Talia is actually five months younger than Catherine.  She's going to be taller than everyone else in her family by the time she's twelve...

Fiesta!

One time, we had a few friends over for a Cuatro de Mayo party (Monday was just too complicated, so we partied a day early). We ate ourselves sick with delicious food and enjoyed some chatting while the kids ran wild. 

Photographic awesomeness:

Craig and his triplets

Emma adores Jon and decided he needed a new look.

This is what he got (she took the picture, too): 

So grateful to have such wonderful friends!

Rocket Day

April was my last month teaching our homeschool co-op. I was so excited for my theme: space! I spent a good portion of my childhood wanting to be an astronaut, so this was my way of passing on the torch to the next generation. If nothing else, they've now eaten astronaut ice cream and watched a video on how to use the toilet in space. Mission accomplished.

For our last day I got the other moms to agree to a Rocket Field Day. We moved our regularly-scheduled co-op (thus the swimming adventure) and planned for a Friday so the big brothers and sisters could be there to participate and help. 

I started off with some games/activities to help them remember what we'd (allegedly) been learning all month. first was a game of Hot Potato where they had to chant the names of the planets in order and the chant we learned to remember them in order (My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Noodles). 

Then I gave each kid a planet (ball) and we measured their relative distances from the sun and each other:

(We kept having to return the sun to her orbit. She was prone to wandering)

Then it was on to the fun stuff: rockets! We started off with your basic stomp rockets:

(Blogger will just not let me flip this one)

Then we moved on to alka seltzer rockets, which was possibly the highlight of the day:

(Seth being very brave and blasting off the rocket in his hand)

Next level--Jon's water rocket launcher, of course. The big boys were all over this one: 

(Blogger is retarded)

We ended with the launch of quite a few model Estes rockets (too busy keeping kids from getting hurt to take pictures). We had some trouble getting a few to launch, but finally had enough success to make the kids happy. And by "success" I mean we lost most of the rockets into the trees and one onto the busy highway. They had as much fun hunting for the rockets as they did watching them blast off! 

Definitely hoping to make this a tradition (and hoping to pick a day with less wind next time)! Only thing that would have made it better would be having my dad (professional model rocket launcher) here to help us out. Next time, Dad!

Swimming?

On the day when we had record-breaking rainfall, we thought it would be fun to add some more water to the mix. Our co-op was postponed (post to come!), so we joined some of our friends at the local YMCA for swimming.

We'll skip over the part where we weren't treated exactly as we were expecting to be.  Apparently some people get into a panic when they see two moms with seven small kids showing up to swim, regardless of the fact that there were two lifeguards and the pool was all of one foot deep...

On to the swimming!

Seth had a bit of a tearful time at the beginning.  Apparently the Y has really strict (stupid) rules about swimming. Since Seth can't float on his back unassisted for three seconds, he wasn't allowed out of the shallow part of the pool without an adult. And since I had to stay with Catherine & Aaron, there was no leaving the shallow end. Never mind the part where the "deep" part was only three feet...  Eventually the other mom and I took to trading off--she would take the older kids in the "deep" part and I had the littles in the shallows. So Seth ended the day happily, thank heaven. And we will not be getting a membership at the Y. Ever. 

Catherine would have stayed in that pool FOREVER.

Even if she was a bit chilly and her size 2T swimsuit bottoms would not stay up for anything...

Aaron LOVED the water.

Can't wait to have my chubby guy in the water this summer!

Dance Party

Let me mention here that there was no music at all during this little activity.

My kids are special like that.

Baltimore Zoo

Thanks to the homeschool grapevine, I found a way to get me & the kids into the zoo for what I thought was $5 total. So when it ended up being completely free, that was even better! We met a couple other homeschooling friends and spent a nice, beautiful day at the zoo. 

Checking out the polar bears

Tristan and Seth lions

This is how Princesses ride in their strollers

And this is how Aarons refuse to nap in their strollers.

I think my kids enjoyed riding the tram as much as they enjoyed seeing the animals.

Me & my freckle-face

We had a great time despite the zoo being pretty seriously under construction. Good news is that things should be pretty awesome when we go again next spring!

Big Sister Helps Out

Sometimes when Aaron wakes up, his big siblings manage to get to him before I do.

And apparently they sometimes steal my camera and document the event:

"What is this light? Is someone coming to rescue me?"

What better way to be woken up than a blinding flash of light directly into your eyes?

Thanks, Catherine!

Aaron's First Easter

It was a bit big on him, but I just had to put Aaron in the same outfit Seth wore on his first Easter.

Aaron (still not sitting up...sigh...):

And my little Seth:

(This can't have been that long ago. It just can't).

Aaron finished the photo shoot by falling over and flailing helplessly until Jon picked him up: 

Happy first Easter, Aaron!

Egg Hunting

After much impatient waiting, it was time for our Easter egg hunt!

We gave Catherine a head start to keep things fair.

Unfortunately, she used her head start to somehow injure herself on the way down the stairs: 

After some Daddy loves, she recovered and the hunt was on! 

Meanwhile, Seth was SO SO SO SO (not) PATIENTLY (not) waiting at the top of the stairs: 

Finally, Dad gave the word and Seth was off: 

And there was much candy for all. Hooray!

Easter Sunday

Got Catherine, lost the boys...

...lost Catherine, gained Seth.

Aaron's a lost cause.

Here's the part where I mention how I lost Catherine's brush and had to do her hair using nothing but my fingers during sacrament meeting. Obviously Easter get-ups are a big priority at our house...

Dyeing Eggs

Time once again for Jon's most cherished family tradition: the dyeing of Easter Eggs. Pretty sure he's participated exactly zero of the eight years we've been married. Which is why we had children--so they can have fun doing awesome things with Mom while Dad plays on the Kindle.

This girl will NOT look at the camera.

Drives me nuts.

This kid only does psychopath smiles for the camera.

Also drives me nuts.

Catherine was much more interested in the decorating this year.

She very meticulously colored every single centimeter of her egg with color.

Seth kept forcing me to perform Rorschach ink-blot tests with his eggs.

"What does this one look like, Mom?"

"Umm...a flower?"

"What about this one?"

"An atomic explosion?"

Aaron was left to fend for himself on the floor, which meant he laid there happily for about three minutes before starting to whine for someone to pick him up. Which was the point when Big Brother Seth saved the day with his "Aaron Picks Carrots" game. 

First, you carefully place one Reese's Pieces-filled carrot bag in each of Aaron's orange cup holders (actually for holding up the arch of toys that he constantly kicks down):

Then, let Aaron pluck out the carrots and wrinkle their plastic-y goodness for as long as he wants.

Repeat. 

(Extra bonus points for sneaking a taste of the candy with your tiny, tiny teeth)

Seth LOVES making Aaron happy. So grateful for his entertainment abilities!

Egg Drop

As part of Seth's school the week of Easter we decided to do an egg drop experiment. I waited until Saturday to do it so Jon could help out. 

Seth had to design his own containers to protect the eggs. We gave him some ideas to get him started and then let him put them together:

He made three containers. Container #1 was just an egg in a tupperware filled with water. #2 was surrounded by wadded up paper in a tupperware. And 3# was in a cup filled with cotton balls: 

First, the eggs had to pass the Catherine Drop: 

(all three survived)

Then they had to survive the playset toss. This eliminated 2 of the 3: 

To Jon & my surprise, it was the water-filled container that survived. 

So we decided to put it to the big test--off the deck: 

Action shot: 

And what do you know? The dang thing survived.

The ULTIMATE test involved Jon throwing the container as high as he could over the asphalt: 

(check out Jon's impressive jumping skills!)

The landing was so hard that the tupperware cracked. Who knows--if it had remained intact, maybe the egg would have survived! So kudos to Seth for fooling Mom & Dad and designing a great egg-drop container. 

Bunny Day

As usual, the Easter Bunny arrived Saturday morning.

And, as usual, he left WAY too much stuff for us:

Somehow (in his rush to get the iPad or Kindle), Seth completely missed the baskets sitting on the table directly at the bottom of the stairs. Eventually Catherine wandered in and noticed, which prompted Seth to investigate: 

Quite pleased with his loot

Yes, my kids totally had candy for breakfast that day.

Aaron did get some Peeps in his basket, but I was cruel and made him eat fruit for breakfast.

Luckily Dusty Crophopper made for an interesting breakfast distraction.

Happy Bunny Day!