Church Service

We regularly make it to church.  With twins and bigs who don't remember how to dress themselves this is normally quite the feat.  We even manage to be within five minutes most days.  There are thankfully several twin families at the church and we all kind of sit together.  We are all forgiving and just excited to see each other that it is fun! Sometimes we use the twins to help settle disputes.  A and GMan both love their brothers and if fighting the chance to hold one in church is the best.  Typically we end up something like this:

We also have had a fairly easy week this past week. After the birthday celebrations this is a relief.  This coming week will be VBS for the bigs so hopefully Chris can work everything out with just the littles.

Birthday Celebrations

May is birthday month for us as it contains A and Chris birthdays.  We did A birthday stuff the weekend after she got out of school and went to the butterfly house and St. Louis Carousel in Faust Park.  It was a lot of fun and the twins weren't quite sure what to think of the carousel.  M thought it fun while Big E wasn't so sure.  The next day A and I ran (and walked while she whined a fair bit) a 5k.  A and GMan also did the 1/4 mile kids run which they enjoyed.  We also got to go around the zoo and do a scavenger hunt which earned each of them a backpack.  We will be doing the run again next year. :)

This week Chris put together a bench for our table and it is going well.  We need to paint it and get it all finished but it is currently functional.  We also did Chris's birthday and had friends over to make red velvet cake.  

Here are some pictures from the fun. 

After the race as the babies wore these around the zoo.  A lady with a deathly hallows symbol braved talking to us (along with several other people) and commented on "HOW CUTE!" they were -- especially as there were two of them. 

Before the race at the starting line. A was impressed by the HUGE american flag of the United States of America. 

We parked and had to walk a bit

Swinging -- Big E really likes swinging

On the Carousel

A and I were the only ones on horses who went up and down

M is not so sure about the swing.  

Happy 6th B'Day A!

Working on sitting up in a chair

We played dominoes and had Red Velvet Cake for Chris. 

Tummy Time with twins.  They may be a bit more identical than we originally thought. 

Strawberries

We managed to grow a strawberry. We got the carboys from with and Chris cut them up. We added the dirt and planned some plants. After a bit of rain and sunshine we have a strawberry. The kids were super excited about it, but not excited enough to try it unfortunately. I'm secretly hoping that if they help grow food they will be more interested in eating the food and veggies.

Recently Chris introduced the kids to computer video games. It is now all they talk about it seems. However, it will be good times for them as they are here with this summer with the twins. 

Everyone is doing well per the pediatrician. Big E is the only one in the >50 percentile and he's in the 80th or something like that so he's definitely earning his nickname. Both are rolling over if they don't think anyone is watching. Both are quite interactive these days and able to tell time without knowing how to read a clock. Both are adamant that Mom gets home from work around 330 and that bedtime is between 645 & 7. Having had 2 kids who are still up 2 hours past being put in bed this is a novel concept for us.

A is a big 6 now and it's having a lot of fun being out of school. The last bit was tough on everyone. She isn't sure about 1st grade as she has the mystery teacher and she doesn't know everyone in her class yet! She did quite well in kindergarten and was actually the only one for her class to get to go to first grade this last quarter. She loved that.

G loves his big sister and is torn between being a big kid and a baby. He's getting better but we need to remember that he's only 3.

However, it is getting close to bed time so I'm being called to go for prayers and tucking in, again.

Almond-Honey yum

I've stopped trying to categorize if I make a bread, a cake, a muffin, or some thing else. Since the kids call everything I put in the oven "yum" I'll go with that.

1 C Butter
1 C honey
1 C almond butter
4 eggs
2/3 C Tapioca
2/3 C millet
2/3 C brown rice
1 1/3 C oats
2 tsp baking soda
1 TBS gum

Cream butter. Add honey and cream some more. Add almond butter and cream even more. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Slowly add the dry stuff then portion into containers to bake @ 350°F.

This is the first recipe in a while that I haven't had cinnamon or vanilla in, but Chris says they will be yummy. They went into the muffin cups well so that's always a plus. I'll update with a picture, though it won't be much different than a lot of other pictures.

Family Egg Hunt

Me + Younger Bro + Dad

Dad + Big E

Dad + M

G displaying his finds

A showing off her golden egg.

G finding eggs

A & G ready for the egg hunt

All the kids of my cousins ready to go find 200 eggs.

Yard Work (Again)

It has finally dried out enough here to finish the swing set.  We set it in place and Chris finished it over the weekend. Then amazingly both kids wanted to do nothing but play on it.  Today when A came home from school the first thing she did was put on her mud shoes to go play.  The kids and I helped some. A couple of girls who live in an adjacent back yard noticed A out (and they go to school with her) and asked her and GMan to come play.  The kids jumped the two fences between our yard and theirs and played for HOURs both Saturday and again Sunday.  It is nice to meet a few more faces in the neighborhood.  If the kids were to walk on foot it would be about a quarter mile walk.  GMan is surprisingly adept at jumping fences we found out which surprised us since A is more of the climber than he is.

Yard Work

This past week Chris+ kids have worked really hard to get a spot in our yard leveled enough for a swing set. Chris has been putting in a French drain of sorts in the middle of what we call "the river" when it rains. We had a lot of lava rock in the front that we wanted to dispose of so he's dug up the back yard to bury the rock. Now we need it to be dry enough to actually level the ground out, but today they started putting the main section together. GMan is super excited that he will get a swing set. He's been asking about it since it was delivered a few weeks ago. We now have slightly fewer rocks in the front flower beds so hopefully we can put in some new plants and things in the coming weeks.

We also started some container gardens. We put strawberries in them so hopefully they will grow. We repurposed some carboys from work into plastic containers. They should be good so hopefully the plants will grow. A says she loves strawberries so hopefully they will be eaten.

Other than that the twins are getting big. A goes back to school after spring break and has decided that being a mom is hard work. She'll just keep her baby doll for now. 😃