Cousin Visit

Daniel & Wendy and family came to visit us for a little over an entire week in April. Since their Spring Break happened to correspond perfectly with our co-op Spring Break, we were excited for a full week of fun with cousins.

Of course, April ended up being stupidly wet, cold and miserable. So instead of enjoying some hikes and rivers, we went mini-golfing and to the bounce houses. Thankfully the kids did a great job of entertaining themselves. Megan and Catherine were inseparable and could usually be found quietly creating some activity together. Seth still latched onto Jocelyn, although Jason is starting to be more and more fun to play with as well. Elise LOVED Jocelyn! After one particularly fun day, I looked over while cooking dinner and saw this:

Jocelyn obviously has the magic touch!

Mom & Dad Blood were also able to come visit for part of the time. We loved having everyone here to watch Conference together and enjoy Easter. It was supposed to be peak cherry blossom time in DC, so we made big plans to go see it together. Thanks to the chill, the blossoms kept getting pushed back. We decided to go anyway. 

Catherine's face says it all.

This was the first time I've wished I'd brought gloves and not sunscreen. It was cold and windy, all the "favorite" museums were packed (Natural History had a two hour long line outside), and the blossoms weren't quite ready. Also, we didn't even meet up with any of Jon's family members. It was kind of a disaster. 

Seth with Thomas Jefferson

Catherine with the (almost-peak) cherry blossoms

Thankfully we all survived and I think Daniel & Wendy's kids may eventually forgive us.

We spent a lot of time cooking food. Thankfully we had lots of adorable helpers to speed up (?) the process:

In order to fit everyone in, we had all three of our "big" kids sleeping on the floor in our room. I was nervous about how they would do with Jon waking up at 4:45 for seminary, but they slept right through it. 

Everyone piled in for scripture reading

Our kids were devastated when they left to go home. We really need some cousins living next door. 

Aaron

Aaron continues to surprise and amuse us with the things his Aaron-brain comes up with. We've had a few gems recently that I wanted to record.

-We try to encourage chivalry and have a family rule of ladies first. Both Seth and Aaron are highly offended by this practice. In response to a recent reminder of "ladies first," Aaron declared, "NO! MANS FIRST!"

-Aaron has a bit of a perfectionist/anxiety streak, especially when it comes to his writing. For a long time he wouldn't write or draw at all. One day he asked to draw in his journal and spent the next couple of hours drawing. That's how Aaron does things: nothing, then everything all at once.

I'm not pushing the writing at all, but Aaron loves to do workbooks while his siblings do their schoolwork. He has a math brain and blasted through his preschool workbook and has started the K workbook. His only hangup? The writing of the numbers. Anything round is hard for him (there was one assignment that asked him to draw peas on a plate and it was basically the apocalypse). Since most numbers have curves, he struggled with writing until he announced one day that he was going to write "Lego numbers." I was quite confused, having absolutely no idea what Lego numbers were. After some discussion he explained that Lego numbers are basically analog clock numbers: all lines, no curves. Math is going much better now that he can just write Lego 2s and Lego 8s.

-Aaron is still our champion eater. He was the only one brave enough to try a plum for the first time. Catherine, intrigued, asked him how it tasted.

Aaron: "Um, it tastes like strawberries...and plums."
Catherine: "So...it tastes like strawberries?"

Jon still cracks up every time he thinks about that conversation.

He does things his own way and in his own time, but we sure love our Aaron exactly the way he is.

My Kids Discover Filters

I don't have Snapchat on my phone (or anything that would encourage my kids to want to play with my phone). But when Seth started staying home alone, we needed a way for him to contact us if needed. Since we had an old iPhone sitting around the house, we tried to find a messaging service that would work for him to text or call over wifi without a number. After several attempts, Facebook Messenger for Kids ended up being a good, safe fit. Of course, it didn't take long for my kids to find the photo-sharing options and the accompanying filters. I freely admit that it was lots of hilarious fun to be sending and receiving these photos during Aaron's speech appointment!

Seth makes a really cute girl

I can't look at this picture without cracking up.

My very manly daughters.

Elise has the mobster look down pat. 

Because Aaron's puppy dog eyes weren't pathetic enough already...

Uni-Catherine

My favorite thing is that somehow my kids managed to post these to my Facebook under some section I've never used/seen/cared about. A friend messaged me telling me about the adorable posts! Guess it's just a sign of things to come...

Sunday Fun?

Sundays are hard days at our house. By the time church is done and lunch is cooked and cleared, I'm ready for a break. But my kids aren't! We don't do electronics on Sundays, so they want me to entertain them. Jon is either home teaching or working on seminary (or both), so it's just me. 

I used to be really frustrated (when is MY Sabbath?), but I'm trying to change my perspective about Sundays. We've started doing our FHE lesson on Sunday evenings, plus plan for a family activity in the afternoons. I still need a little break, but at least the kids have something to look forward to (like making cinnamon rolls from scratch--a first for all of us!). 

Easter Activities

Easter in March can be quite chilly, but at least the snow melted enough for the kids to find eggs at the neighborhood hunt! I really wish the planners would put a limit to the number of eggs each child can pick up. Two girls snatched eggs right out from under Aaron's grasp. He was actually in the process of bending over to grab them when they ran over. One girl did return an egg in penance, but still... I told my kids they had a limit of 25 eggs. Seth "forgot" to count, but luckily his extras made up for the eggs Aaron and Elise missed out on. 

Cold Easter babies

Obligatory egg decorating picture, featuring totally natural smiles by Jon & Catherine:

Sometimes it's not exactly clear which round, white thing you're supposed to be decorating:

A very Catherine creation:

A hard-boiled egg with a happy face carved in it.

The Seth

Seth is definitely in big kid territory now. After all those years watching the older boys in Primary be generally crazy and disengaged, now I have my very own kid doing the same things. I find it all really amusing (probably because I'm not in Primary anymore and don't have to deal with it). His Primary President send me this one Sunday. Please note the glove. He took to wearing gloves almost constantly for a month or so. Very Michael Jackson.

I'm not the biggest fan of Cub Scouts, but Seth was really excited about the cake decorating for Blue & Gold. The theme was The Olympics, so of course he had to make a swimming cake. I try really hard to make sure my kids are actually the ones making their own stuff (school presentations, artwork, etc.), so I just gave advice where needed! 

Icing a cake: harder than it looks. 

The finished product! 

Cubs has fallen prey to the "everyone is a winner" mindset, so every cake got an award. But Seth got the last award handed out, which was for the "coolest cake." We're calling it First Place.

Attempt 1

After I threatened him.

Part of the entertainment for the night was some skits the boys prepared. Seth got to be the narrator for his skit, which was a perfect role for the boy who is constantly honing his comic skills (usually in class, or during FHE, or some other totally appropriate moment). 

I've always given Seth the same haircut and he's never cared one way or the other. But last haircut he asked for something new. He wanted his hair long on top so he could spike it. Of course, that meant we needed to invest in hair gel. A quick Facebook survey made it clear that Gorilla Snot gel is the strongest stuff out there. I thought Seth would be excited by the name. Nope. "I am NOT putting Gorilla Snot in my hair!" He eventually gave in, but has decided that hair gel in general is the enemy. We'll see if he wants to keep his long hair next time around!

Snow (Finally)

Maryland has a boom and bust cycle with snow. Every few years we'll get a crazy storm, followed by a couple years of pitiful snowfall. I was sure that this winter would be a good one with lots of snow. Unfortunately, instead of snow we got bitter, bitter cold and windstorms. Not fun for anyone. 

Thankfully February and March gave us some Nor'easters! Three, to be exact. One was just wind, but we got some snow out of the others. If the weather had been colder we would have had a lot more accumulation, but it basically snowed for a day or two and then melted right away. At least my kids got to play in something!

Catherine woke up at 7 am and went straight outside.

Catherine's snowman.

The rest of those kids are just posers. 

Another snow day! This is the beginning of the big one.

Elise is still not sold on snow in general. 

Peak snow.

As a former Minnesotan, Timmy was highly offended by our complete shutdown for the snow. This is basically summer weather in Minnesota. 

I think we all knew who to blame when the snow melted but the weather stayed miserably cold and dreary for another month. That Elsa is the worst:

Peking Acrobats

Every year we get a flier with educational plays being held during the year. Trying to pick which ones to go to is so hard! Thankfully tickets are cheap and my kids (generally) do really well during the show. I was really excited about this one: The Peking Acrobats! 

The big(gish) kids all seated and ready for the show.

This one mostly flopped around on my lap during the show.

I'm just grateful she didn't make me take her out!

I was skeptical at first, but ended up highly impressed with the show. I think the turning point was the spinning plates number. It was all so perfect that I was sure the plates were actually attached and they were just fooling us all. But as the girls walked offstage I saw a plate hit the curtain and fall. Suddenly the whole thing became much, much more impressive! I'm sure mistakes aren't what performers want, but I think it makes the audience realize how difficult these acrobatics really are! We will definitely be going again in the future. 

The Catherine

When Catherine was four I chopped all her hair off. She loved it and I loved not having the hair brushing battles. Ever since then, she's asked for short hair all the time. I finally gave in and chopped it again. It ended up much shorter than what I planned, but she LOVES it:

Post haircut

All ready for church!

I told her she looked like a flapper girl. She loved that idea until Seth started calling her "flapper" all the time. Now she's highly offended by the title. 

I still prefer her hair long, but I think the short and sassy cut fits her personality!

We're in the stage where teeth seem to be falling out every week.  Catherine generally handles tooth extraction on her own, but will occasionally call in Seth or Dad for some help. She lost this one during the day and made me send Jon a picture:

Of course, Elise was not to be left out of the fun, 

so she sent Daddy a picture of her with an empty bag:

He was very impressed.

Catherine is still my artist: always creating some new project. She's also our entomologist, constantly hunting for bugs. She may have dug up my newly planted broccoli seeds in her zeal to find worms. Favorites right now include Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Elephant & Piggie, and the movie Matilda. 

I'm currently one of the Activity Day leaders in our ward. As we were planning for the new batch of girls, I realized that Catherine is really close to being next in line. I can't believe she's going to be eight next year! In my mind she's still in kindergarten...

Elise Antics

It's really, really easy to get work done with Elise there to help.

At least she chose to perch on my left arm that time...

Potty training...ugh. Catherine starting potty training just before turning two. It was no fun. When Elise (Catherine Again) started showing signs around the same age, I resigned myself to my fate and gave it a try for a few weeks. She was thrilled by the whole process!

Watching "Tiger" (Daniel Tiger) on the iPad while she sits.

Eventually she would climb down to get a better view (and usually pee on the floor).

Potty training means nakedness.

And nakedness means naked gymnastic routines.

We had some successes, but it was mostly a failure. A big, messy failure. After I had to steam clean the entire upstairs hallway, I decided she needs more time. She'll ask occasionally to go potty, but usually only to get out of sacrament meeting...

One day she fell asleep on my shoulder. This NEVER happens. I can't even get her to sit on my lap to read books: she's always climbing or jumping or running. It was so nice to have a little snuggle time with my wild one. 

She was considering giving up her naps for a few months. She'd take naps a couple times a week and be fine. But then she starting doing things like falling asleep on the couch. Now we're back to napping and all is well again. Hopefully she keeps it up for a little while!

Her language use has really been growing by leaps and bounds. Our favorite Elise phrase is, "NO! Mine do it!" We hear this one a lot. Very similar to Catherine's favorite phrase at this age: "I do it myself!" 

Her siblings love that she pronounces "sleep" as "beep." "Elise, you wanna go beep?"

She still wakes up once a night most nights, which is rough with Jon getting up for seminary at 4:45 am. I think she's just trained him to go in for a nightly visit: he just needs to break the habit. My proof is that whenever I hear her first and go in to cover her up, she looks at me and says, "Daddy?" I'll explain that Daddy is sleeping and that she needs to go back to bed. But, inevitably, she'll be awake again until she gets her Daddy visit. Perks of being the favorite parent, I guess. 

Good thing she's so adorable...