3/22/16

Liz turns eight!

This post is kinda old. Liz is a leap year baby and so she finally had her actual real 8th birthday on February 29th! We decided to throw her a birthday party fit for an eight year old and it was awesome. We got a bounce house for the day, ate hot dogs, and made cotton candy. The upside of all the little kids having hand, foot, and mouth? We all got to play together! So, if you're wondering about all the spots on the kids faces, don't worry, they're all better now, and they got to bounce in a bounce house. 
I'd say Pippa and Maggie were in the bounce house the longest, but at the end the bigger kids really loved it.
Charlie never got comfortable enough to actually jump. This kid. Afraid of nothing, and then afraid of everything.
Presents!!!
Boys playing a game

3/1/16

Games and Cousins

We are a game playing family. Not like, ALL the time, but every once in a while we totally binge game play. One of the reasons that we don't play all the time is because of kids. They love to play with you and mess up all of your boards and game pieces, whatever game you play, there is always something for the kids to mess up. Which is sweet that they want to play with you, but also annoying because now you don't know which cards are yours or not. Anyways, we decided to get Charlie some fun games to play so that we could have game nights that he could partake in. I kind of got a little obsessed and constantly was looking up kids games that Charlie could play and would enjoy, and that I would enjoy too. We have tried some Candy Land and games like that but Charlie just doesn't have the attention span for that, but we did find some that he definitely enjoys playing and can play to the end. The first game we got was the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game and it was a hit. Super simple but also pretty fun for kids (pretty boring for parents, but whatever). Then I discovered HABA games and I want to buy all of them! We decided to give Charlie games for presents instead of toys, because he doesn't need any more toys. For his birthday we got him Knuckling Knights Game and he absolutely loves it! He picks this one out the most and it is pretty enjoyable for both parties(this is the game in the pictures). The gameplay is simple but pretty exciting when the knights come tumbling out of the tower, plus he is introduced to rolling the dice. The game is marked for older kids, but as long as an adult is playing, younger kids can play it with no problem. He was also given The Little Orchard Game and this one is fun too. We lose a lot, but it's a cooperative game so we all lose together! We also got Spot It Junior but he's not really into that yet. HABA does have games for younger kids, like Pip's age, but we haven't gotten her any yet, but I have a few picked out for when we do.
Anyways, we now play games quite often with him and he really enjoys it. We also have our cousins over and bake things, it's another winter activity that I am very fond of :)
Pip still tries to play with us, but she's usually pacified with snacks
Space Charlie
Checking himself out

2/24/16

Life lately

We are on day four of our quarantine and Andy left this morning for a 48 hour shift. I'm not super looking forward to these next two days, but I'm going to try and stay productive and have some fun with the kiddos. It has been pretty nice weather so walks are nice and our I'm so grateful for our backyard. Pippa is on the mend and she seems to be back to her normal self, which is awesome because she was pretty cranky for a few days.
At least we have some fun coming up this weekend, Auntie Liz is coming to stay with us and we are celebrating her 8th birthday! She was born on leap year, so it's pretty exciting that we get to celebrate her real birth date. Yay Liz!
These photos are from weeks ago when the snow was still melting and it was cold.
Peek-a-boo with daddy is the best.
All the snow is melted now and yesterday we were even working outside in our t-shirts!

2/23/16

Trip to Tonasket

The last weekend of January we took a drive up to Tonasket to visit Andy's sister for the weekend. During our trip we decided to take the kids skiing! I really was not expecting it to go well, seeing as it can get very emotional when you try to get Charlie to do something he doesn't want to do. And he definitely didn't want to ski. Actually, it was just the renting of the skis and boots that was the issue. After he settled down for a few hours he actually went down the hill a few times! The bunny hill, but still! I was very impressed and can't wait to try again. 
Getting ready to leave :)
Auntie Liz is the best. Seriously.
This was right after the renting of the said boots and skis. Notice Charlie is not happy. At all.
Andy and Charlie going down the hill!
I mean, look at that smile!
I think this was when we told him to clean up his toys :|