April showers

Gavin and Gabriel had their spy/cops & robbers birthday party on Saturday. It was fun with kids from the neighborhood and church. 

We gave everyone a spy name. Gavin chose his - Genius. Gabriel chose his - Commander Hansen. 

We started out with getting the donuts stolen from our treat table. The suspects were our family members. I had picked out some incriminating pictures from my phone and printed them in black and white. Then I presented them to the birthday group as the possible suspects of who the birthday bandit was. Chris made a video as well with him dressed in a robber costume cackling and taking donuts. 

The criminals names were

Chris - family napper

Gavin - the dusty outlaw

Gabriel - teenage mutant ninja gabriel

Betsy - the pink monkey

Ruby - rock star

Abigail - blueberry and another one was lily cooper

Gavin & Gabriel - Sam and Frodo

We started the clues around the neighborhood with 2 teams. We got totally rained on in the middle of it, but it let up by the end and was nice the rest of the time. 

I didn't let anyone go upstairs, which was helpful for crowd control. 

We got back from the clues and Chris got in his costume and let them catch him some and try to get him. 

Then we "destroyed the evidence" by eating all the donuts and cupcakes and brownie bites and potstickers and pop. 

Then Chris led the group in two rounds of Werewolf. And it was time to get mugshots, take a loot bag, and skadaddle. 

Afterward there were presents to open and playing the rest of the evening with friends. Oh, and major clean up including on the street where there was silly string and water balloons. 

Overall, a great party. Now I need to get planning Betsy's fairy party. 

Betsy is adorable. She is sharp and reading everything. She comes up with different games to invite Ruby and Abby to. She is very independent. She also has some emotional distress where she cries/screams a lot. I don't know what the source of this is, but it wears on my ears. I try to talk to her about things and it just gets more and more ramped up. I love her, though. She has such a strong sense of being. Tonight I asked her what she would like for her birthday treat. She said a lemon cake. Then also lemon bars. I told her we could probably do at least one of those, but maybe two. And we might be going to the Oregon coast on Saturday with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Wayne, so maybe we could get a treat there. She immediately jumped in with - I want pineapple ice cream! The lemon cake, lemon bars, and pineapple ice cream are good representations of her - yellow and bright, loud, flavorful, energetic, strong, and little tart sometimes, and sweet! She is all of those things and more. 

The boys resist so much of what I try to help them with. They dawdle in the morning and get into conflicts with each other or Betsy. I need to be up there moving things along from the bed, to throwing away diapers, to getting in the shower, getting out of the shower, getting dressed, and then going downstairs, getting their pills, and having breakfast. Once we get to breakfast things are a little more easy for them to do on their own. Which is morning chore and getting out the door with piano if they have time. 

Today was piano. I need to email Jodi to let her know we won't be doing lessons with her next year. It's just so expensive with her. And we are signed up to go with Becca Sivitz, which I think will be a really nice opportunity. I told the boys in the car today that we are going to keep doing piano for years. This was after they were complaining about going to piano. So, the reaction wasn't so positive. Gavin said, I'm going to be a scientist, not the best piano player in the world!

Ruby went to sleep tonight with Baby Ruby, a doll. She really keeps dolls close to her and interacts with them throughout the day. As I was getting up from the bed there was one of the doll's shoes. Ruby grabbed it and gave it to me saying, I don't want to sleep with this stinky shoe around. Funny thing how doll shoes work, they don't get stinky. Sometimes Ruby will be talking and I'll respond. She'll say, Mom, that was only for Emma to hear! She has these random conversations with Emma. Emma is also sometimes hungry or sad or thirsty or tired and Ruby is sure to voice her needs and make sure she is taken care of. 

Abby loves the books Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See? and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Also, Goodnight Moon. A lot of the other books she doesn't stick around for through all the pages and longer text. She also interrupts A LOT. Throughout a book she'll point to pictures and say what they are and will have to say each thing she knows on every page, have me repeat the word she said, and then let us keep reading. 

I've been organizing our garage and just put up some racks to hang bikes, chairs, helmets, and other stuff from. It's looking so nice. Huge improvement and I want to keep installing a few more until everything is off the floor of the garage.