Abby's first day of ballet and Ruby's happy return

Ruby excited

While driving around Verona, Ruby was in back seat bouncing up and down in her booster seat saying, "I'm so excited! I'm so excited!" All the kids were talking and making lots of noise and no one was paying attention to Ruby. I asked everyone to listen to Ruby and asked her what she was excited about. She smiled and said, "I'm excited to see Jesus!"

Trivial pursuit at grumpy troll

Chris reads the trivial pursuit question: From where did genus rock, which originated 4000 years ago, fall to earth?

Gavin and Gabriel in unison: OUTER SPACE!

Real answer was the moon.

Wisconsin Friends

Parenting

Parenting has been tough lately. Our boys love playing outside and when we call them in they don't come, hide, run away, and yell at us! It's not good!

Today when I got home from robotics with Gabriel he needed to change clothes, so I watched him go in the house. I came back a few minutes later and he was outside playing in the same clothes. He went in and turned right around. 

Also Gavin and Betsy walked home from school today and stopped at the playground to play first. So they didn't get home until 4:10. And there was a babysitter at home who was worried, but had no idea what to do. 

Bedtimes have been really rough. Gavin and Gabriel seem to be staying up late despite being tucked in and having read. The other night I went to peak at them and Gabriel was still awake reading. It was 10:20 and a school night! They bring apples and string cheese upstairs and I find the cores and wrappers all over. 

Just so many issues. And Kim cox told me tonight that it will get worse. So this is tough! And I have a lot of work ahead of me. 

May the 4th

I missed celebrating May the 4th with my kids! Man! It is so fun to do stuff like that and I love to see their eyes light up when we're having fun and they see me playing along. 

Ruby loves Emma. She read her stories tonight for about an hour. Today Chris and I came home from our date and Ruby was in her poodle skirt/dress sitting on the wood chair in front of the house, holding a Book of Mormon and some scripture-marking crayons just turning pages. 

Betsy reads in the morning in her room because she wakes up the earliest. I still hear her sometimes whispering to Ruby, "Wake up, it's morning." Which is cute and also makes my blood boil a bit. She's into reading and writing "I love you" notes to everyone. 

Abby loves to be in control. If I start singing a song she will usually say, "Stop." And this is also true for a story or something I'm doing, like dancing. And if I, or any of the other family members she says it to, don't stop, she starts screaming. She still often says, "Hold me." 

She loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Miss Mary Mack, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See. And she calls the latter book by its full name. This week we sat down many times to read both of those. One time I started Brown Bear and she said, "Stop. I read it." So I held her in my lap and turned the pages. And she read the whole thing! Including the animal noises we make with the little rhyme/song to read that story. Wow. She also likes me to read Miss Mary Mack and say the line without the last two words, which she then fills in. So cute.

Abby also went poopies on the potty this week. One time, but still! That's amazing. Ruby says she potty-trained Abby. If it's not true yet, it will be. She also laughs socially with everyone. 

This week had two days in the high 80s, which came out of nowhere. So at night our house was quite warm. All the kids slept in just their diaper (except Betsy who just last week started sleeping with underwear!), and went to the bathtub a few times to run cold water over themselves. They were very uncomfortable. How lucky we are to live so comfortably most of the time. It reminded me of the sweaty days in Palo Alto with no air conditioning, a nursing baby, snuggling kids, and 90 degree weather. That was hard. 

One of the hottest weekends in Palo Alto I said we have to get something to help. The air was so still in our apartment and we just dripped sweat all day and night. On Saturday I went to the store and got a fan because I was going crazy. It helped some. That Sunday Bishop Jason Peery asked if he could come over to visit us. He came over in his suit and I felt so embarrassed having him sit in this super hot house. His jacket came off. And he started dripping, too. I had bought ice cream at the store the night before, too, so our kids could have a cool treat in the afternoon. We got it out while he was there and offered him some, too. It was very humbling. 

Gabriel started robotics at school, which he got selected for through a lottery. Gavin didn't get selected, so it's interesting to watch them learn in this situation. Gavin came home and said, "Mom, guess what Gabriel got chosen for?! Robotics! I'm so happy for him!" Later he told me he wished he could do it, too. So sweet that he could choose his reaction to be kind when he felt bummed. Gabriel went to one Robotics meeting after school with Mr. L, who wrote and said Gabriel is a natural leader. 

Gavin had one morning this week where he had to take an extra shower because of an accident. I was upset and short with him, more than I'd like to be. He was ready and leaving and I said good-bye to him. He left out the front door and about two minutes later the door opened and he ran back to me and said smiling, "Didn't you forget something?" He was smiling a huge grin and looked adorable and innocent. I immediately gave him a kiss to send him on his way. I saw how pure his feelings and intent were and felt humbled by that. My kids teach me everything about life and what's important. I couldn't feel more grateful for this time with them. And it's a challenge at the same time. Amazing!

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.