Updates

We'll start with the youngest and move towards the oldest.

Mr. Ethan is 6 months old!  He can sit up, still spits up, can roll over at will, likes to screech, loves his sisters, likes being outside (hooray), and has started baby food.  He also has two teeth!  And it looks like this boy may be a rough teether :(

He's a joy.  By the way, here's what you do when your six months old :)  He was SO proud of himself.

Miss Kate is 4 years old!  She loves to pretend, still loves books, likes to swing on the glider, (is currently "snitching" my carrots), loves her sister and brother, but also enjoys her personal time.

She's also a great helper.

Miss Anna is almost 6 years old!

She enjoys playing with her sister and brother, still loves school, is a great helper with Ethan, is getting better all the time with reading and writing, also likes to swing, and probably can't wait until she doesn't have to go to school each day this summer (although I don't think she quite realizes that kindergarten is coming to an end).  I don't think I mentioned this back when we had Anna's teacher conference, but her teacher mentioned that it's obvious that Anna loves her family, especially her sister and brother :)

I enjoyed this past weekend with my family, although the weather could have cooperated a bit better.  Friday was beautiful and I tried to get as much done outside as I could with all three kiddos at home, but didn't get quite as much as I'd have hoped.  Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and the next several days are all supposed to be overcast and/or rainy.  I'm a bit bummed about this, mostly because it means I can't get out and work in the garden; I still have corn and squashed to plant!  Oh, well.  The rain will help all of the other things we already have planted.

Matt also enjoyed having a long weekend, but also hoped for better weather.  At least he got to play with all of the kiddos some indoors, and play with his nerf guns with Anna for awhile :) 

It's amazing that the only thing we did outside of our house/yard this past weekend was to go to church, and nobody started to get tired of each other until Monday afternoon.  At that point the girls needed some time apart, or at least some fresh air, so I took them outside in the drizzly weather to just walk around the yard. 

Birthday Party!

Sunday afternoon we hosted Kate's birthday party.  Kate specifically requested a princess tea party this year.  If you would have told me 6 years ago that I'd have a daughter who would want a princess tea party and that I would actually put forth the effort to host one of these, I'd have laughed at you.  How parenting has changed me!

In spite of a quick thunderstorm towards the beginning of the party that forced me to alter my outdoor plans, things went well.  No one broke any fancy dishes, only one kid cried (and it wasn't Kate), and there were plenty of extra desserts for our family to continue eating for several days.

A big thanks goes out to my parents who took time out of their busy retirement schedules (literally) and came down to help out from Saturday through Monday.  Without them this party wouldn't have happened, or Matt and I would have gotten a lot less sleep :)

A big thanks also goes out to the awesome dads who ran around with the kids when the sun came out (and put them up on the tree stump).

To Iowa and back

Friday Matt picked Anna up from school after lunch and we all headed to Waterloo, Iowa, to celebrate Matt's grandparents' 50th anniversary and to have the chance to reconnect with all of the Mischnick family.

 
Although it was a whirlwind trip in which we saw the family for less than 24 hours, we had a nice time.  Our kids did GREAT with the traveling; Ethan even slept pretty well at the hotel.  Our kids, Ethan included, enjoyed playing in the hotel pool on Friday evening.  Ethan also enjoyed getting to meet his Mischnick Grandparents!

Saturday all of the cousins did very well at the nursing home while Matt and his sisters were able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Boehm.

 

Then we grabbed some lunches on the way to a park and played around there for a few hours before everyone had to go their separate ways.

FYI ...back row: Mark (8), Seth (6, almost 7), Jonah, (8), Nate (6)
          front row: Claire (20 months), Julia (23 months), Ethan (5 1/2 months), Anna (5), Kate (4), Ruth (3)

It would be nice for all of us to be able to see each other for longer and/or more often, but we'll take these little, memorable visits when we can get them :)

On a side note, this was the first time the girls shared a bed while staying at a hotel.  This is how Kate was sleeping in the morning; it was NOT how we put Kate to bed.  Poor Anna was getting squished out of the bed ...

Sweet Kate is 4!

Our sweet Kate is officially 4 years old!  Her birthday was a special day, in spite of the fact that she started coming down with a cold on Wednesday.  We had to wake her up on Thursday morning so that there would be enough time to celebrate as a family before Anna and Matt had to leave.  She opened her gifts, ate a couple of birthday muffins, and started looking for 4's all before Matt and Anna had to leave.

We had our last Bible Study of the school year so I brought along some cupcakes for Kate and her friends to have while us ladies enjoyed a relaxing brunch.

Kate played with her presents all afternoon until Anna came home from school.

Kate chose to have macaroni and cheese and tomatoes for her birthday dinner, and then we had more cupcakes for dessert :)

We ended the day with some good family time in the backyard.  The girls ran around; Ethan and I hung out on a blanket; Matt (and his daughters) played with some of his new nerf guns :) All in all, a good day, even if Kate was at the beginnings of a cold.
 

Gearing up for a few big days

We have a few big days coming up in our house: Kate's birthday (!), a quick trip to Iowa to see Matt's family, and then Kate's birthday party.  It'll be a whirlwind so I've been trying to do all I can to prepare in advance.

It was nice that we had a relatively open weekend last weekend so Anna and I did a bunch of errands on Saturday morning and then we tried to work on the ever-present to do list the rest of the day.

Mother's Day was nice.  Everyone got me cards and I got another tree this year :)  I think this is my third Mother's Day in a row with a new tree; this year it was a honeycrisp apple tree to replace the one that we lost last year in a wind storm.  One of these years when all of our fruit trees are mature enough to have a good year, I may regret the fact that we have as many as we do.  There shouldn't be any infants or toddlers at that point, so theoretically I'll have a bit more time and energy to deal with them all :)

For the most part things are good here.  Anna had a mild cold for a few days and Kate seems to have caught it, too.  Both girls are thoroughly enjoying the nice weather we've been having.  After the long winter, it's still such a blessing to have some beautiful days.

Ethan had a couple of rough nights recently and we're hoping/assuming that it was teething pain because as soon as he got some pain reliever in his system, he slept MUCH better.  He's such a smiley kid who really loves people and action going on around him.

Matt and I are tired at the end of every day, (and sometimes at the start) but usually it's a good tired.  Matt's been able to bike to work twice a week now for a few months and I've been able to get in a bike ride every week or so.  Hooray for exercise!

Now it's time to hide some 4's for the birthday girl ...

Adam's visit

My brother, Adam, came last Thursday evening to spend the weekend with us.  Good times were had by all :)

We had picked this particular weekend because Anna didn't have school on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday was my "preparation day", with lots of cleaning and a few last minute errands.  I even took all three kids to Olbrich Gardens for a little while before the rain was supposed to start.  I'm so glad I did because Anna literally ran the entire time!

The girls have been asking me for ages to take them to the Children's Museum, but I'm not ready to have all three kids there by myself so I promised them that we could go when Uncle Adam was in town.  Friday morning after Ethan's nap we headed downtown.  I'm SO glad I haven't tried to take the kids there by myself.  With the rainy day, the place was packed, and of course the girls wanted to do different things.  So Adam and I split the girls up and then would trade every once in awhile.  Ethan hung out in the Moby wrap.  We went out to lunch and then came back to them museum for awhile.

Apparently we tired Adam out a bit because he took a nap when we got back to our house :)

Saturday morning we went to a random science experiment event where the girls made butter, boats, telephones, and a marshmallow catapult, plus Matt discovered a cool community machine shop.

We had thought to go someplace again on Saturday afternoon, but the sun came out finally (!) so we were able to stay in the neighborhood.  Adam and I took the girls to the park and then just played outside the rest of the day until we grilled for dinner.

Sunday was church and then the girls wanted to take Adam back to Olbrich Gardens in the afternoon.

The visit ended with Anna, Kate, and Adam playing chase around the yard for a long time on Sunday evening.

Like I said, good times.  It was great for the girls, and Ethan of course, to see their uncle and also good for Matt and I to have a chance to reconnect with Adam.

In other news, Ethan can roll over now from his back to his tummy, but he doesn't do it very often yet.  Kate and I realized that he could on Monday when we left him in a room on his back and he was on his tummy when we went back in.  Also, he's started babbling.  More so than when the girls were babies, Ethan seems to have a few fussy days before his little brain makes a big leap.  It's happened several times now so I think we can call it a pattern.  On Monday and Tuesday he was a cranky little guy who wasn't happy being alone and wasn't sleeping much during the day.  I chalked it up to recovering from the weekend until last night when he all of a sudden started babbling, and hasn't stopped since.  Silly boy.

Also, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  On the way home from school on Tuesday, Anna asked me why we hadn't done anything for her teacher.  Well, our life is a bit chaotic at times and I hadn't planned on doing anything, to be honest.  When we got home, Kate threw a fit about something and went to her bed to cry while Ethan and I went to his room so I could feed him.  When I finally came to the kitchen 20 minutes later, Anna had made this card for her teacher.  What a sweet kid we have on our hands!  (Her teacher told me she almost cried when Anna gave it to her :)

Kate is gearing up for her birthday next week.  At times it's hard to believe that she's almost 4, but most of the time she acts older than 3 anyway so maybe being 4 won't be too different for her.

Changes

The biggest change in the last week here has been the weather ... finally!  Last Friday Anna came out of school saying "Mom, did you know it's 70 degrees?!?!"  We had a beautiful weekend and then a very warm start to our week.  Now we're supposed to get back to reality and have some cooler, rainy days again.  But that's okay with me as long as it doesn't last too long.

Because of the arrival of spring, our family's daily routines are changing.  Friday afternoon we uncovered the sandbox.  Matt (who had come home early that day) and I didn't hear anything from the two of them for almost 2 hours; they had SO much fun!  And got very, very dirty :)  Saturday they spent another hour or two playing in the sand, and then again on Sunday as well.  I'd forgotten how much fun sand play can be for them.

When either girl would get tired of the sand (which didn't happen very often), they'd head over to the swingset and the girls would then swing for a half hour or so.  They had so much fun going as high as they possibly could, with Kate on the glider and Anna on the swing.  I think this is the first year they've really enjoyed the swingset together.

Not only did the girls enjoy the outdoors, we're working with Ethan to like it, too.  I think by yesterday he was finally figuring out that being outdoors is pretty cool :)  This poor winter baby hasn't spent too much time just enjoying the fresh air, so the change in scenery really tired him out at first.  We could tell that his little baby body was a bit overstimulated after 45 minutes or an hour and then he'd just have to go inside for a bit.  I'd never thought about how tiring all the sights, sounds, smells, and touches can really be.

Matt and I were finally able to get some of the garden planted over the weekend, too.  We got potatoes, onions, peas, beets, and broccoli put in on Sunday, with help from Kate and Anna.  Now we just need a little bit of rain to help it all grow.

Saturday Mr. Ethan turned 5 months old!  Happy boy :)

I also stopped feeding Ethan at night.  We had a few cues that he was finally over this stage of life and so decided to roll with it.  He doesn't exactly "sleep through", but will go back to sleep pretty easily if we give him the pacifier.  Hooray for better sleep for Mommy!

Ethan also can sit up!  He's been working really hard on this skill for the last few days and now can do it on his own for a few minutes at a time.  Life will only be more fun for him now :)

And happy birthday to Matt!  We had a wonderful time celebrating as a family on Tuesday.  The girls were thrilled to be able to find gifts for him, make cards, hide 35s, and of course eat pumpkin cake :)

And finally, last Thursday evening Anna had her Kindergarten music program.  Fun times were had by all.