March Fun

We enjoyed some unusually warm weather in March, so we took advantage of our Botanica membership and spent some time there with Gianna and Amy.

Claire, Melanie and Gianna

Making some music together!

Amelia, ladybug tamer extraordinaire!

We attempted (in vain) to get a picture of the three older girls.

Melanie was trying to keep the sun out of her eyes...

...which led Gianna to think she was supposed to hold her arm that way as well.

Amy recently told me Gianna will still do that for pictures.  I guess Melanie devised a new photo pose!

Amelia is a bit of a rough one. 

Melanie is very patient with all the wrestling her littlest sister inflicts upon her, and often encourages it.

Don't let that face fool you!

Here's another "post within a post" about some time we spent at Spring Creek.

This time we went out to help plant potatoes on St. Patrick's Day.

Festive feet for planting potatoes!

 Melanie's first ride on the tractor

She and Gramps even made up a song to sing while driving the tractor to get some dirt for the garden.
"Row, row, row your tractor

Gently down the road!

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Now we'll pick up some cows!"

(This song is immediately followed by intense fits of giggles.  You know, because it's so hilarious.  Really, it is.  I'm glad it adds to their memory though, and that they can have so much silly fun with their grandparents.)

 Evening out the soil

 Our littlest big helper, getting the seed potatoes out of the bag.

 Making holes for the potatoes

 One in every hole

 This picture really is pitiful, especially if you can see the dirty tears streaming down her face.  When it came time to cover the first bed of potatoes, Claire was engaged elsewhere (playing? bathroom break?  I don't remember what) and when she came back all of the potatoes had been covered.  Needless to say, she was heartbroken.  Fortunately for her, she has a wonderful Grams who uncovered some potatoes so Claire could cover them back up.  We also made sure she was present when it was time to cover the second bed of potatoes to avoid any further meltdowns.

 She obviously recovered pretty quickly.

 Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to get a picture of a sweet sibling kiss at just the right moment?

 Burying the potatoes

 Claire's first ride in the tractor

Now that's one pooped little potato planter!

 Unlike her mother, Melanie does not have exceedingly ticklish feet.  In fact, they aren't ticklish at all really.  She has developed an affinity for asking my mom to rub her feet and rub her (grandma's) fingers between her (Melanie's) toes.  Gives me the willies just thinking about it!

 Claire, on the other hand, does have ticklish feet.  She likes being tickled though, and doesn't want to feel left out, so she often sits in on the fun.

 Baby bunnies in one of Matt's parents' gardens!

The girls were very excited to get to see this when we went to visit the chickens one evening.

 Silly girlies!

Drawing with the chalk instead of trying to eat it?

She's getting so big!

Outside Time

We officially had the hottest summer on record in Kansas this year, and our girls outdoor playtime has suffered because of it.  I was just not willing to suffer through the 100+ degree heat while holding a wiggling 6 month old so that Melanie and Claire could run around and get stinky while I grew impatient.  There, the secret is out.  I'm a bit of a selfish wimp, and I'll openly admit it from the comfort of my 78 degree basement.

All that being said, when temperatures finally dropped below the century mark (actually, closer to below 90) I became more willing to let the girls have some afternoon outdoor time to burn off some of their pent up energy.  I'd wait until late afternoon so that our time outside would be drawing to a close right around when Matt comes home from work because 1. It gives the girls a visual cue that out outdoor play time is almost over  2. He'll often spend a bit of time outside with us before we head in for dinner and  3. It's really cute to watch them jump up and down squealing "Daddy's home!  Daddy's home!"

Here are some pictures I snapped on a couple different occasions.

Hide and seek is a popular game, even if the girls always hide in the same 3 spots each time.

Amelia and I generally hang out on a picnic blanket with a few toys while the two big girls run around like little crazies.

Of course the toys lose their allure and the baby has to go exploring on her own after a bit.

Taking a break to come visit baby sister

Daddy's home!

Flying baby time!

Ring around the rosy

 One of Claire's favorite things to play outside is pretending to save the baby bear that is stuck in our tree, a la Wonder Pets.  She holds a stick in the air and counts to five, the baby bear jumps onto the stick and is once again safe on the ground.  We can't go inside without saving the bear.  It's simply not allowed.  Meltdowns ensue if mom tries to speed over this vital task.

Time to go make dinner

And finally, here's a smelly, sweaty girl that needs a new diaper to remind you that playing outside with little girls isn't all fun games, giggles and soft late afternoon lighting.

Hope you're enjoying the cooler weather!

Quiet Entertainment

It's tough to beat crayons and coloring books for some quiet entertainment around here.

I'm excited for all the back-to-school sales so I can restock our art supplies on the cheap!

Time with Claire

Mashing up bananas for some banana bread

 Melanie has been going to summer camp each weekday morning for the last two weeks, and it has given me a wonderful opportunity to spend more time focused on Claire.  I often feel like she's the one that gets the least attention being in the middle, since Melanie is better at speaking up when she wants/needs something and Amelia makes it very clear when she needs my attention as well.

 Claire is such a happy, content girl that she just goes with the flow most of the time, unless she's super tired or teething (Which has been a bit of an issue recently.  Darn 2-year molars.)  You don't really know if something is bothering Claire until she melts down, and then it's a challenge to figure out what the problem is.

I've really enjoyed this time with Claire (and Amelia too, but she's pretty laid back in the mornings).  We've been able to chat while running errands (Melanie makes it tough for Claire to get a word in when she's with us).  We've played games, done puzzles and colored, and last week we made banana bread and Claire got to do all the helping herself without sharing the mashing, dumping and stirring duties with her big sister for once.  Don't get me wrong, she really loves doing things with Melanie, but it was fun to hear how excited she was when she told Melanie she had helped make banana bread while Melanie was at camp.  I hope I can make a more focused effort to give each of the girls some undivided quality time with me each week.  They deserve it, and I need it to be able to remember their sweet little personalities as they grow, because it won't be long before they're teenagers, and we all know what that does to a child's sweet personality, don't we? ;)

Pretty Painted Nails

 In an attempt to send Mother Nature a memo that we were tired of the dreary, cold weather in May I decided to paint the older girls nails one rainy day.  This was Claire's first time getting her nails done.  She was excited to get to join Melanie in this fun girlhood rite of passage.  While the time we spent waiting for their nails to dry nearly gave me a heart attack several times due to Claire's lack of understanding when it comes to the "don't touch anything until I say it's OK" aspect of things, we still had fun.  They each picked their paint color, and were quite pleased with the results, even asking for touch-ups over the next week.

These two sure are a lot of fun!