Entertaining the Sickies

Jack, Anna, and Sam were all sick with fevers at some point last week so we did a lot of hanging around the house. Since you can only watch so much tv, we needed some other activities for entertainment in order to get us through the very long days! Here's a summary of some of our more interesting projects. And please excuse the outfits, the lack of outfits, and the ratty hair - remember, they were sick!

First thing we did was make our own crayons (thanks for the idea, Al). We removed the paper, broke up some of the larger crayons, and put them in a mini muffin tin.

Then we watched them melt.

Time to color!

We also finger painted with whipped cream.

Some were more interested in eating it, though.

Another project we attempted included making our own cinnamon pita chips. So easy and so very yummy! First you "paint" the melted butter on the tortilla.

Next, you sprinkle as much cinnamon and sugar on it as you want.

Then you cut it into small chips and bake it.

Once they cool you enjoy them right off the pan.

We also used them as part of our dessert that evening. Dessert nachos: these chips topped with strawberries and drizzled with white chocolate. Mmm!

We've also done a lot of painting and I just thought these pictures were hilarious because they are so indicative of of their personalities:

messy, free-spirited Sam who just mixes the colors on his palate and paints on his face

and neat, organized Jack who plays by the rules and wouldn't dream of mixing the colors.

Just a Little Gem

These children make me laugh!

Night, night!

Isn't this how you put your babies to bed? No? You mean you don't climb in the pack n' play, cover yourself with the baby's blanket, and then sit the baby on your lap? Oh, well that's how Sam does it!

Rice Cereal

We gave Lucy her first taste of rice cereal a couple days ago. Oh my goodness, this girl wanted it! I have never seen a baby so eager to shove that runny stuff in her mouth. As soon as she saw the bowl and spoon she got so excited she almost jumped right out of the Bumbo. Seriously, she even popped the tray off with all of her wiggling around. Once the spoon got close enough to her she would reach out to grab my hand and shove that spoon into her mouth with a force I didn't even know she had! It was hilarious to watch, and she certainly seemed to love her first taste of rice cereal. Oh and yes, she's practically naked under that bib but she had just spit up on her shirt and I didn't see any reason to put on another one just to get it messy again!

Ready and waiting.

See the excitement once she saw the bowl and spoon!

She ate the whole bowl. I call that a success!

Five Months

Our baby girl turned five months old yesterday! I think I can finally say it out loud, she is my easiest baby. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night, she takes great naps, all I have to do it put her in the crib and she usually finds her thumb and goes to sleep without a fuss (sometimes she will cry for a couple minutes). When she's awake, she's happy and smiling, and she doesn't hate her car seat, which means she's a pretty good traveler. She rolled over (back to tummy) a few times last weekend and then this afternoon I went to get her up from a nap and she was on her tummy looking at herself in the mirror, squawking like she does when she's tired of what she's doing. I think her absolute favorite thing to do these days is suck the water out of the (clean) washcloth while taking a bath. All the kids fight over who's going to take a bath with Lucy and Anna loves singing songs to her little sister in the bath tub. Little sister seems to love it! We love this baby girl!

Happy Summer

I just have to brag about my deal here. I bought the outfit that Lucy is wearing back when Anna was a baby. Got it from a local consignment shop, and even though it was new, it was still a great deal for a smocked bubble. A few months ago I was checking out dresses on ebay when I came across a dress in the same pattern, in a 4T, for $15 (and that included shipping)! I couldn't resist that deal, especially when I knew it would be as cute as this:

And here's a little comparison for you...

This is Lucy today (almost 5 months).

And this is Anna at 7 months old.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the great fathers out there, especially this guy. He is the best Daddy to our children. He plays with them and prays with them. He works hard to provide for our family and we can't say thank you enough. We love you!

Also, a special shout out to Grandy and Pop on Father's Day. We love you both so much!

Our Annual Beach Photo Shoot

Every year at the beach we try to have our family pictures taken. Usually there are extra family members with us who have willingly been our photographers in the past. However, this year it was just the six of us. We decided to have the friend of a friend meet us on the beach and try to capture some shots of our family. Our photographer was super patient with us, and thank goodness, because our kids required a significant amount of patience on our part that evening. They were a bit uncooperative, to put it nicely. As you can see it was really windy out on the beach, but I think our photographer did a nice job, considering the subjects he had to work with that evening!