All Fools Parade

 Ryan & I took the kids to the All Fools Parade in Woodinville on Saturday. It's just my style, you can park and walk right up and get seat right away, no crowds, no waiting. 

 The kids were super excited to get candy! 

Parades are tiring, just ask Hadley. 

Swim

 Lauren & Ben started swim lessons again. Lauren LOVES her class.

 Ben is warming up to it. He has fun, but still clings to us for dear life! I accidentally signed him up for the wrong class (kind of not on accident actually, I wanted him to be in at the same time as Lauren so I just signed him up for a class and hoped it work, the description was vague, it just said for babies ages 

6 - 36 months and Ben does fit in that age group!). But anyway, turns out it's more of a baby class and they sing and play water games. Funny thing is, he fits in just fine:) 

 This shot explains it all, the kids are sitting on the side singing humpty dumpty and they are supposed to "fall" in. 

 Look who is sitting on the wall still. 

 Here they walk or crawl on the mat and are supposed to jump off. Ben holds the teacher's hand and then grabs Kevin's hand, at no time is he on his own! 

 But he feels quite wild and is so proud of his "swimming". 

Lauren's class meets at the same time but in the deep end so it's fun because we can see her but we are too far away to be distracting to her. Here she is demonstrating her front float. 

Salesman by day, Furniture Maker by night

 Kevin has been into making furniture lately. He made this nightstand out of the rails from Lauren's crib. 

And he made this entry bench out of the sides of her crib (it was actually Ben's crib too I guess, just Lauren's first.) 

Now he's talking about making a murphy bed...seems crazy but if anyone can do it, he can! 

Love her

 This girl cracks me up, she loves her veggies and it is just never going to seem normal to me. She loves Wednesdays when we get our Full Circle box. She can't wait to open it up and see what is inside and always has to dive into something right away. This week when she opened it she screamed with tons of excitement, "MOM, there are snap peas in here, can I PLEASE have some right now?" 

Fun with C & H

 We got to babysit Carsy & Hads the other day and we were all in heaven. Lauren was Carson's official babysitter. 

 Hadley showed Ben how to do puzzles which is great since his big sis has no interest in doing them! Hads is a puzzle master by the way, she did all 4 puzzles in nothing flat, it's impressive. 

 I love how he's looking at her, she really really LOVES this boy, maybe even more than J.B. :) 

 She is such a good babysitter, even did a little reading with him. 

They all kept begging me to clean the windows (they are a weird bunch) so I let them have at it. It looked better than when they started, but I wouldn't call it "clean". 

Love these 4 crazies!

Shiner

Poor Ben has quite the shiner. He was playing with Daddy last night and he bonked his head on his bed. It must look worse than it feels because he didn't cry much and hasn't complained about it. It sure is painful to look at though! Poor baby. 

A little time with Carsy

 Nana had her first Friday watching Carson today so we had to go steal a little time with him. Ben was really interested in him, which was a first. Of course he kept telling me to put Carson in the seat, not to hold him. 

 All four of the crazies! Can you believe Nana is going to be watching all four of them at a time on Fridays starting in mid April?! We're going to have to bring her lots of wine on Friday nights!

Carson with his biggest fan! Isn't he getting so big? And I know everyone says he looks like his mama (which he does, especially in the eyes)  but I also really think he looks a lot like his dada. Check out our Christmas card from 1980! 

Just Us

 Today the kids and I went to the aquarium, just us. This is a rare thing. We are always going to these places with friends, which is fun, but also hard. Lots of kids to make happy at once. So today, it was just us. And it was great! 

 Lauren was in the mood to sit and listen to every speaker in the place. She cracks me up. I hate this kind of stuff, I never want to sit and listen to the little lectures. She's right there next to the kid with her hand raised. Lauren raised her hand a bunch but never got called on. I was bummed because I was dying to know what she was planning on saying. I was standing off to the side with Ben, who was not at all interested in listening to the speakers!

 About as a tall as the tail fin. 

 Ben pushing her off, isn't he cute. 

Love my little dorks who actually like to pose for pictures like this...just like their mama:) 

She "earned" her shirt!

Lauren has been working on a bedtime behavior chart (no arguing or whining or coming up with a million excuses at bed time). She finally earned her 12 stickers and got to pick her "big" prize. I told her she could have a sleepover, we could do a movie night, or something fun like that. But nope, she wanted a Justin Bieber shirt. We found one and we have one happy girl! She does look pretty cute (and grown up!) in it if I do say so myself. She's "dancing" in the bottom 2 pics:) 

After she earned it I told her that this meant she now knows how to go to bed without arguing and we expect that from now on. She said, "But mom, if I start arguing again I guess we'll just have to start another chart." Oh that girl, she thinks she's so smart. But mama is smarter, I said, "Or we'll just have to start taking away things you love like your new pink Toms and your Justin Bieber shirt." She agreed she'd start going to bed without arguing. So far it's worked but it's only been 2 days...

Tricky Leprechaun

 Thursday morning the kids were pretty thrilled to see that a leprechaun had come in the night. He made quite a mess of the living room, turning pictures upside down and knocking over vases, but he also left treats! 

 He even left a note that explained why there were 3 bags of chocolate instead of 2, one was for Hadley! That leprechaun, he (she) loves Hads so much;) 

The leprechaun also found the last 2 shamrock glow wands at Target and thought they'd be a fun bonus treat. Ben's had already been "glowed" though and he was less than thrilled with the fact that his was broken. We tried convincing him it was glowing, it was just a different color than Lauren's but he's a lot brighter than we give him credit for. He wasn't buying it at all. Though he did suggest it might be the batteries and if we changed them it would work.

Starfall

 Lauren is finally interested in playing on the computer and now she wants to teach Ben how to do it. I love listening to her "teach" him, she is the bossiest teacher I know! 

But of course he loves every second of it!

Fancy Four Year Old!

 Miss Hadley Jane turned 4 yesterday and she had the fanciest party around. Cinderella was on the guest list and she made the party very magical.

 Cinderella is quite the artist and did an amazing job on the kids faces! The birthday girl took this all very seriously, turning 4 is serious business!

 This was Lauren's first time letting someone paint her face, I was proud of her. She looked lovely!

 It was also Ben's first time, he'll pretty much do whatever his big sister does! He was feeling very proud of himself. 

 Birthday girl with her 2 cousins! All three of them are 4 for a few months! 

 An attempt at a group shot with all the fancy ladies. 

 How impressive is that face painting?!

 Cake time! Megan and BZ made a very fancy castle cake, Hadley was very proud to show it to each and every person who entered the house. It was pretty cute. 

 Carson had the time of his life at the party! Isn't he looking so big already?!!!

 This picture cracks me up. The invite said to dress in your fanciest clothes. Ben had nothing but a bow tie so we borrowed the button up and pants from a friend. Both kids thought they needed a scarf to be fancy. I feel like they look like they are going to the theater in New York or something. Too funny, 

This tough guy felt so beyond cool in his get up. He had that darling proud/bashful face on when he came out of his room to show me his outfit, it's priceless.

Thanks for turning 4 Miss Jane and including all of us in your fancy fun! You are hands down, without a doubt our very most favorite person to play with, we talk about you 24 hours a day (well maybe we split the time between you and Carson now) and ALWAYS wish we could play with you more. You are the best dress up partner and our most favorite person to play baby with. You crack us up with always wanting to know what is coming next and what our plans for tomorrow and the next day are. Happy Four Year Old Birthday Hadley Jane! xoxoxo

I blinked...

And she grew up. This girl LOVES to chat on the phone and she really carries the conversation. It's hilarious. She always goes into another room and often closes the door because she needs privacy. Last night she talked to Ryan and Megan. Tonight she talked to Oma & Opa, Nana & Pa, and Aunt Tanya & Abby. And she'd still be talking if I let her, we usually have to take the phone away. Then she goes and listens to Justin Bieber on her i pod. I kid you not, our 4 year old is now a 14 year old, who oddly enough still throws 4 year old fits;)

Tomorrow I register her for kindergarten...sad sigh:(