hide and go seek

Jolee has this thing...where she likes to hide inside things.  

She's always liked putting things on her head and crawling inside things...and has been doing this since I can remember.

Note:

Exhibit A:  

This was when she was barely 3 years old.  I was running permits at the Department of Permitting and Planning and while waiting our turn, Jolee got antsy.  And spent half her time running in circles around all the chairs in the waiting room and climbing ONTO everything with a horizontal surface.  

Including this book shelf.

Exhibit B:

This was also at Gymboree.  She kept crawling inside and asking us to put the rings on top of her to close it up.  Apparently, claustrophobic, she is not.

Exhibit C:

This was while driving.  She claims she was cold...but I think it was a combination of cold and tiredness.  

 And Exhibit D:

Again, at Gymboree, since this place has TONS of things for kids to play on, in and under.

When all else fails, walk around with a bucket on your head, I always say!  

Needless to say, she's actually a pretty darn good hide and go seeker.

And teaching her little brother the tricks of her trade as well, it seems.

If she can stay awake, that is...

boys and their cars

Even in sleep...he cannot be without his cars.  

playing with food

I'm thinking she's ready for Kindergarten.

anna turns 7!

Our Anna Banana turned 7 on April 25th.  

I cannot believe how fast time seems to fly by!  And how fast our kids are growing up!

Since Anna's birthday falls on a weekday, we saved the actual celebration for the weekend, but couldn't not acknowledge her birthday on the actual day, could we?

 This crown, I believe, she received at school...I think?

 And in case you were unaware...she has been BEGGING us to buy her a fishing rod for months.  Possibly years, even.  She finally got her wish on her birthday!

She was SO very thrilled with her new Shakespere fishing rod and tackle box set.

 And then on Saturday, we hit the beach and pool with cousins to celebrate for real.

And by beach, I really mean tide pool.  With it being low tide, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and catch some fish and hermit crabs!

 Ezra, Luke and Anna trying to catch some fish.

 Ezra wielding 2 nets on the edge of the reef.

Not sure if it helped or not...

 Among all the weird creatures we've discovered tide pooling, this has got the be the weirdest!

It's a crab with some sea weed growing right onto its shell!!  How crazy is that?!

 Such a beautiful day to be out near the ocean!

 The tide pooling gang...

 And after tide pooling, we cruised over to my sister Airi's house to continue the festivities with some pool time.  Or, hot tub time since it seems ALL the kids crowded into the hot tub while the pool next to it remained empty.  

 Daddy was grill master (as usual) and BBQ'd up some yummy steaks for us!

 Lots and lots of kids on the trampoline while waiting for dinner.  

 Rather than make a big cake, I made cupcakes for the little cousins.

SO much easier to eat, with way less clean-up!

 Anna getting shy about blowing out the candles.  

Little does she know that she will get more help than she probably wants from her cousins in blowing out all 7 candles!

And in typical Anna fashion, she licked the frosting off clean...and then told me she's full.

Ugh, next time, I'll just give her a huge bowl of frosting and stick a candle in it, rather than make 48 cupcakes!

Anyway, happy birthday to our Anna Banana (not her real middle name)!

We love you so much and are so proud of the girl you are!!

fishies and birdies and ladybugs

On my jogging days, I have to get creative with keeping these kids occupied.  40 minutes of just siting in a stroller while I run can get pretty boring for these kids...even with an iPhone to keep them entertained!

So, I'll try and "bribe" them with some fish and bird feeding for after my run.

I'll often pack our bread ends and this is what Jolee and Kaden will throw into the water and at the birds.

Both of which love bread and tend to flock towards us.  

 How's that smile on Kaden, huh?

As you can see, Jolee sometimes gets distracted by her own hunger and ends up eating the bread instead of feeding it to the fish!  Much to the fish and birds dismay, I'm sure.

 On this particular day, we ate lunch at Sam's Club and while we were eating, a cute baby ladybug flew onto our table and I managed to catch it!  It crawled onto my arm and Kaden kept saying "ew" which is his go-to word for any kind of bug.

Jojo, however, loved it and wanted to play with it on her arm.

Unfortunately, the ladybug got smart and flew away before any overeager 4 year-olds could get their little hands on it.

our teeny tiny pool

On days that I don't feel like taking the little ones to the big pool...but don't want them cooped up inside all day, I usually bust out the tiny kiddie pool we bought last summer.  It's so very tiny, and has a slow leak in it and therefore, doesn't stay inflated too long.  But, for a couple of water babies...this is enough.

 It usually starts out like this.

They bring in the bucket and I let them play with the hose.  They splash around and spray each other...

 ...and slowly start bringing in more toys...

 ...and even more toys...

...until there are so many toys, you can't even see the pool underneath it!

At which point, their pool time is over and they're ready to go back inside the house.

The End.

swimming with cousins

With Summer nearing, it's getting hotter and hotter!

Saturdays are the perfect days to hit the water-whether beach or pool!

And since pool happens to be the closest body of water nearby...today was a pool day.

Oh, and our cousins came too, so the more the merrier!

 Kaden doesn't like anything on his face or head.  Which makes this picture all the more miraculous!

He yanked it off mere seconds after I snapped this picture.  But I got it! : )

Since Jolee is still a little afraid of the water, she spent most of the time either on the pool steps or playing with the bucket on the pool deck.

 Since Daddy was able to join us, Kaden spent most of the time in the water with Daddy.  

He doesn't like the boogie board either.  He fussed and got off mere seconds after I snapped this pic as well.

Sheesh, this kid is a lot of work!

But since these monkeys had lots of fun swimming and playing around, it was all well worth it!  

With Summer almost upon us...here's to many more pool and beach days in the near future!