Weekly post

Some pictures from the past week or so...

Beckett had to get up early and head downtown to get tubes put in his ears, so Grayson and Hunter came over for breakfast one morning. The girls thought it was so fun having their cousins over before school!

We enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and got in as much outside time as we could in the few days of higher temps! We even had a fire pit... in February! We made hot dogs on the fire and toasted marshmallows for s'mores. Avery asked if we could camp out again. I think we'll hold off on that until it's a bit warmer, but we're looking forward to another backyard campout!

This is seriously the only time it's quiet when all the kids are together!

Our little fish Morgan had a great day at swimming lessons last week. She tested and earned a new patch! She has no fear in the pool, which is not necessarily the greatest thing. Ha! 

Ever wonder what to do with all those Amazon boxes??? Well, we get a ton of them because we do the Subscribe and Save monthly shipments. The girls decided to make a boat. We even added a flag, which Avery drew. The next day we turned it into a plane. And now it is set up to do puppet shows.

I'm not sure I want Avery as the lookout -
considering she's looking in the wrong end of the binoculars! Ha!

We got a few new games for Christmas. They are puzzles with math, spelling and rhyming words. The girls will ask endlessly "does boat rhyme with coat?" and "does bed rhyme with head?". I had to put a stop to it one morning because it was just too much!

Avery loves math! I wonder where she gets that from!?! ;)

I took the girls to the mall to check out the Inflatables play place. They had so much fun! They didn't stop moving the whole time we were there. And even better, they were exhausted when we got home and slept so well that night!

It's super nice having a husband that loves food and knows how to cook it! I love food and I can follow a recipe, but... well, no one is asking me to join Top Chef. :)

The kids go to swimming lessons every Sunday morning. I think their favorite part is the "kid wash" -warm showers before/after the lesson.

Family

Avery always requests that we have a "family holding hands" walk when we are all together. She loves looking at our shadows. :) 

Here we are on the way to swimming lessons.

Happy Valentine's Day

The girls picked out cards to give to their special valentine, Daddy.

Of course, Morgan picked out something with a doggy. She drew a picture of Daddy and gave him "crazy hair". Ha!

Avery picked a card with a heart and rainbow, of course! If it had been rainbow leopard, that would have been even more perfect. She drew a picture of her and Daddy hugging. :) And wrote Love, Avery.

Purple Mac-n-Cheese

We've been doing a star chart at home with the girls and they get stars for being good, getting dressed on their own, cleaning up after themselves, etc. They still have not gotten any stars for "not whining" or "going to bed and staying there"... those are works in progress. Anyway, this week, the girls got to pick a toy out for getting a certain number of stars. Avery fell in love with this baby chimp. The chimp has a band on her arm that says her name is Ella. But, Avery decided her name was going to be "Purple Mac-n-Cheese" instead. She cracks me up! Purple is Avery's favorite color and mac-n-cheese is her favorite food. She actually calls this thing "Purple Mac-n-Cheese" like it's a real name. She has taken this thing with her everywhere since we got it. She'll say "mommy, can we bring Purple Mac-n-Cheese with us?" Oh, Avery, so silly!

Paw Patrol

We took the girls to Paw Patrol Live this weekend. They were so excited all week about going. Every day they would ask "Is this Paw Patrol day?" We've been watching Paw Patrol on TV now for the past couple of weeks and PJ Masks is just a memory. :)

Avery requested I put curlers in her hair the night before so she could have fancy hair for the show. She's such a girl! It's funny to me how different Avery and Morgan are about these kind of things. And it's not like we push Avery to be girly and Morgan to be not-so-girly. It just happens.

When I was getting ready in the morning, the girls asked if they could have some make-up, too. So, I gave them a lipstick to play with. I'm thinking a make-up lesson is in their future. Ha! Actually, the first thing they said when they looked in the mirror was "We look like Mama!" (that's what they call my mom).

We got downtown super fast, so we walked down to the river to kill some time. The girls fed some geese and seagulls fruit loops that some other kids had given us.

At the show, they handed out little white pom pons for the kids to use during the show. I tried getting a picture in front of the stage, but the lighting was bad and you can't actually see that it says Paw Patrol. Grayson and Aunt Erin joined us for the show.

Seriously, Morgan is such a goofball! I told her to smile and I got about 7 selfies with her looking like this and zero selfies with her smiling!

The three of us outside the Chicago Theater.

Aunt Erin and Avery selfie - at least Avery smiles! Ha!

Avery thought Daddy should have some hair, so she let him borrow her pompon. :)

The kids really enjoyed the show. I asked Avery what her favorite part was and she said "the entire thing"! The adults thought the show was not worth the outrageous ticket price, but hey - as long as the kids liked it, we're happy. We finished the morning off with lunch at State and Lake Tavern with some friends that live downtown. The restaurant had a special kids menu for the day, probably because of all the Paw Patrol guests they had. The girls were still pretty excited after that and stayed awake the whole way home playing I Spy. But, they did take a great nap once we got home. :)

Hello February

Where did January go?!? The past couple of weeks have been busy, as usual. :)

The girls continue to try to make us laugh with their silly antics every day. Morgan is especially fond of the gross-out type humor - tooting, burping. She thinks she is hilarious! Just another example of silly girls... I hear giggling and "mommy, come look at us". This is what I found. :)

New fashion trend???

We got out and enjoyed a little warmer weather and sunshine a couple weeks ago. We went to the park and even got the girls' bikes out for a ride around the train parking lot near our house. They are getting much better at riding their bikes and braking (definitely a plus!).

We went on a walk looking for puddles

Then we rode bikes around for a long time!

Morgan is our daredevil - always pushing the limits

Then, I said good-bye to my gallbladder. Yep. Fun times. Turns out the pain I had while pregnant was not only due to two babies pushing my insides around in uncomfortable ways, but I actually developed gallstones (unbeknownst to me). Over the past four years, it has started bothering me more, so I finally had it checked out and found out I needed to have my gallbladder removed. The first 24 hours after surgery were seriously un-fun! But, once the CO2 and anesthesia were out of my system, I felt tons better. It still amazes me that you can go into a surgery center at 10AM, get put completely under, have an organ removed, and be home by 2PM.

Before surgery - smiling
(no pictures after surgery - I was not smiling!)

The girls got me a super cute card and flowers

While I was recovering, my parents were helping out with the girls. My dad is a "teaser" as Morgan and Avery always say. I found this "edited" note from school. My dad had change bear to beer. Funny, Papa! But, seriously, they were so much help during the few days after my surgery. I didn't feel like doing much except laying around, and they made the daycare runs and kept the girls entertained!

 

At our house there, there are many "injuries" every day. Most are invisible, but band-aids are requested for everything. We mostly go for the "it has to be bleeding to get a  band-aid" rule. But, sometimes crying wins out and a band-aid is applied to a bruise. The other day both girls fell down and hurt themselves. Apparently, ice packs were needed. :)

The girls started taking rhythmic gymnastics at a nearby gym and are having an absolute blast! They get to do ballet moves with hoops, play with ribbons and balls, jump on a trampoline, do some tumbling, etc. They love watching the gymnastics episode of Dora and this is just like that to them.

This past weekend, we celebrated Papa's birthday at the Wilken's house. Matt smoked a brisket in the Green Egg, which although there were some rough times getting it done, it turned out really tasty and was a big hit! It's always fun when the kiddos all get together. They were so excited that Papa let them help blow out the candles!



We had dropped off some baby toys for new baby boy Duesterhaus who will be making his appearance sometime at the end of May (yay for Brett and Sandi!). Apparently, the girls are never to old for baby toys!