bubbles, balls and burritos

Just more updates of what we've been up to lately. Jessie was off of school last week for Spring Break. She has become skilled at farming herself out to various Aunts & Uncles and Grammy and Grampy's houses during her vacations for sleepovers. Thankfully, they are willing to except her "maybe since I am out of school this week we could plan a sleepover," invitations. So Tuesday J spent the night at Gram & Grampy's house then came home to repack the overnight bag and took off with Aunt Lauren to stay with her and Uncle Dan. I think their chocolate lab Simon was a huge perk. Jessie loves to play with him and ditched an outing with Lauren Wednesday night to stay home with Uncle Dan and Simon. I know Jessie had a great time but we missed her at home. She really is a good big sister and helper around the house, even though it goes to her head sometimes and she gets bossy. Reminds me of someone I know personally ;) who also has 2 younger brothers and used to do the exact same things.

Anyway, Thursday we met Lauren and Jessie at the Children's Museum for an afternoon of fun. Dave had to take off from there to get to work and we stayed for a couple more hours. The highlights of the museum were;
the bubble making contraptions (Toby's fav)
the water zone (Logan's fav)
and the tennis ball 'roller coaster' Jessie called it- her favorite
Toby also liked the microscope they had set up. He spent at least 10 minutes there by himself and would have stayed longer if we weren't all hungry and wanted to go. Aunt Lauren helped make each kid a corn husk doll and pretend pizzas. Thanks Lauren for suggesting such a fun place to go on your and J's time out of school. I couldn't have stayed after Dave left without you!





















































After the museum we needed food pronto so we ate at Lauren's favorite Mexican place for lunch. the kids had tacos and quesadillas, and Lauren and I had burritos with their special orange salsa. It was SO yummy. By the time we had eaten and got back into the car we were all tired. I had 4 sleeping kids by the time we got home. good times.

Happy Birthday Logan!

This sweet boy is 3 today!
It's only 10:30 AM and he's had a great day so far. We got up, dressed and fed and walked Jessie to school. We went on a nature walk on the way home and picked up some flowers, sticks and pine cone birthday treasures. Logan really loves the 101 Dalmatians movie he got at his birthday party at my parents on Monday. He talks about Cruella and the puppies with a scrunched up naughty face all the time now. He wanted to watch it first thing when we got home so I let him- hence my time to post this now. J is at school, Toby is at Grammy's house for a sleepover, and baby Syd is sleeping, so it's basically just me and the Coop all morning for his birthday. He's enjoying the one on one time and won't stop talking. ;)

Here's Logan this morning after our walk wearing one of his birthday shirts from Toby. He likes it because it has tools on it and says, "Daddy's Big Helper (will work for cookies)." Totally true in Coop's case. This boy is a candy and sweets bloodhound. If he is up in the morning too early before everyone else he will inevitably find that last bit of holiday candy we've been rationing or the half-used bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard. I'm now in the habit of looking over the kitchen counters each night to make sure there is nothing out that I don't want eaten by Logan (and Toby for that matter)- like the Ziploc bag of cookies I made for a friend. If I hadn't put those up and away he would have eaten several this morning. It is not uncommon for him to ask for candy or gum first thing in the morning- drives me crazy! So Logan is in heaven this morning after I actually said YES when he asked to eat the leftover birthday cake in the fridge. You only turn 3 once right?!

Right now he is watching 101 Dalmatians, but he will bolt up and run to the kitchen for a sneak of cake. He scoops up the frosting with his finger and ceremoniously licks every bit off then runs back to his blanket fort to watch the movie.

This boy loves villians! I'm not sure if I should be worried yet. In our house full of superheroes he is the boy that always talks about Joker, "Dark Vader," witches in general (probably from Fairy Tales), Cruella DeVil, even "naughty King Noah" from the scriptures. When playing superheroes with Toby or Jessie he is usually the bad guy. He has perfected the furrowed brow, snarl the upper lip, evil eye look. He also loves to wrestle and get physical with Daddy. He is so stubborn and won't have things any other way once he has his mind set on something. For example, if he wants to pour his own "nice warm milk" into the sipper cup and put it into the microwave, he will throw a huge, loud tantrum right there on the floor if you don't respect his request to do it himself! He loves to cook and do dishes with Mommy in the kitchen. Potty training is on the horizon (YEAH!) because he is learning what it feels like to have to pee and doesn't like being messy. Getting dressed in the morning is becoming easier for Coop and Mommy because he can almost do it all by himself- even sandals.Some of Logan's favorites right now are:
"nice warm milk" (all the time!)
This Disney story book- he'll carry it all over the house and stop to read it on the floor
wrestling with Dad
race cars
all playdough toys- like Octopus above he got from Dan/Lauren for his b-day
it's been out at least 8 times today
riding bikes and scooters
playing with his friends Niah and Milo at the park
warm showers- day and night