Splash Park

Yesterday we met up at a splash park with cousins Jacob and Karoly to play in the water. It turns out we picked a perfect day to do it--the cooler weather we'd been having let up and we had a beautiful sunny afternoon there to play. It took the boys quite a bit of time to warm up to the idea of getting sprayed randomly from all directions, but when it was time to leave we had to use cookies to bribe the boys into getting back into the car. We will definitely be going back!

 After crying for 20 minutes on the way to the park, Aaron fell asleep minutes before parking the car. 

 Matthew was more interested in the playground at first.

 Daniel tries out the climbing wall.

 Matthew and Jacob try to collect water from under the big ball.

 Karoly, looking awfully cute. 

 Climbing the sea serpent.

 The shirt has come off...we're ready for some serious play.

 Finally getting into the water.

 Matthew climbs a whale.

 Not so afraid of getting wet anymore.

What a fun day!

PS. This post only took 45 minutes to write, being interrupted about 35 times. I think I will go back to writing late at night after everyone is sleeping.

One week down

It's now been one week of us "on our own," and honestly it hasn't been too bad. We've had lots of help and lots of fun things happening, so the time has passed pretty quickly and mostly painlessly. Grandma came to visit yesterday and the boys had fun showing her everything they've been up to lately. It was a nice low-key day.

 Aaron and Matthew help Adam rock to sleep.

 Grandma and Daniel read the comics.

 Matthew likes to paint...or make "tea" with the rinse water.

 Adam gets tired out from all the fun.

 We move to the back yard to try out some new bubble tools. Daniel finds that this pipe works best.

 Matthew tries to decide which bubble wand to use.

 Aaron watches the bubbles float by.

 Still using that pipe. We may have to have a chat with this guy...

All tuckered out, Matthew takes a break in Adam's swing with Saggy.

Baby Adam comes to visit

Yesterday was a big day....Auntie Karen and baby Adam came to visit! Adam took his first plane ride from the East Coast and will be staying with us till next Friday. It will be a fun time for us to have another adult in the house, and fun for Auntie Karen to have a little break, too! We have lots of fun things planned for while they're here--hopefully we'll remember to take pictures often!

 Daniel and our friend Emily did a great job welcoming Karen home. (Daniel drew the robot. He is big on robots.)

 Late night snack. No trip to Seattle is complete without late night Dick's burgers.

 Meet Adam!

 At seven weeks, he is already a charmer...

 and a bit suspicious of Auntie Michele.

 What a sweetheart. 

And, another sweetheart sent flowers yesterday. Awww...

8 months

Yesterday was Aaron's eighth month birthday. He has grown so much in the past month! He has almost completely let go of the army crawl in favor of standard hands-and-knees crawling (which I appreciate since a couple other boys in the house still have lots to learn about keeping dirt outside...), and has been spending most of his days pulling himself up to standing and starting to scoot around furniture. He is still our pickiest eater, and loves to make me feel needed by crying anytime he catches a glimpse of me when I'm not holding him. He is very loved by his brothers, although Matthew prefers when Aaron keeps his hands off of him or his things ("no baby touch chair! no baby touch truck!"). Daniel likes to help Aaron stand, and is excited to let everyone know when Aaron learns something new.

Here's Aaron's eight month in pictures:

 Aaron's favorite hangout: the bottom shelf of a side table.

 Practicing his standing skills...

and his sleeping skills.

 Back on his shelf. He climbs up on one end, crawls to the other end, eases himself down as gently as he can, then does the whole thing over again.

 Aaron celebrated his eighth month birthday with his first try at a mum-mum cracker.

 He appeared to both love and hate it at the same time.

 In the end, love won out. Hooray for finding something he likes to eat!

Always watching his brothers.

This month brought his first two teeth! 

He is determined to get what he wants.

Showing some love to his lovey, Rocky.

We can't believe how much he's grown!

Super play structure

Saturday night was rough for Matthew, and Sunday was rough for everyone. We did have a nice visit with Nana and Papa today after Mass, but I didn't end up getting to take any pictures of the fun that was had. So, instead of getting into the details of the cranky parts of our day, I thought I would post about the fun new toy in our yard that was made possible by Nana and Papa.

If you've been reading this lately, you've heard mention and seen bits and pieces of the new play structure in our yard. We were a bit reluctant to add such a huge piece of equipment into our tiny yard, but with two super-active kiddos and one chomping-at-the-bit baby we finally gave in and said goodbye to our mostly empty yard and hello to hours of new fun for the boys. And, as it turns out, the structure really doesn't use up too much of the yard. In fact, it sits mostly on the back part of the yard that is usually just dirt since the neighbors' trees don't allow for any sunlight or rain to get in there. We'd been eying this model from Costco for awhile, planning on having it built before Chris left for Minnesota as a fun distraction for the boys, and it turns out we got it just in time: our Costco had the last one in the state (other than the floor model, which we would've had to take apart and reassemble ourselves). So, last weekend was set aside as a work weekend and the boys got to help Daddy, Papa, Uncle Ian, and Uncle Victor put together the structure. The four men worked till midnight the first day, and Daddy and Papa finished it up from 10-5 the next day. They must really love these boys to work so hard for them!

Matthew unpacks wood pieces while Daniel reads off the codes to Uncle Victor and Papa.

 Organizing the pieces.

 Uncle Ian, Daddy and Papa get some help from Jacob, Daniel and Matthew.

Sometime after 10 pm, the part one of the roof goes up.

It fits!

Back to work! Part two of the roof isn't going to build itself!

Day two: Daniel gets to try out the rings.

If you ask which part of the play structure is his favorite, he'll say the whole thing...but it's clear the rings/bar get more attention from Daniel than anything else right now.

 Finished! The boys check it out.

 Matthew loves to climb up top. Getting down is another story.

 Looking awfully ragamuffin-ish, the big boys enjoy their dinner in their new playhouse.

Great job, guys! Thank you Nana and Papa for this wonderful addition to the back yard. Hours of fun will be had here...