Riding bikes....

We're trying so hard to enjoy every minute that's left of our summer..... tonight we played outside (in what felt like 145% humidity).

Dude.

I mean, really...where do you start when you've taken a full year away from blogging?  I can't even begin.  This sort of makes me want to not pick up blogging again, because the missing year annoys me and I can't even begin to go back and blog everything that happened.  Sigh.  Alas, I just looked back over the books I made of the blogs from the first years of my babies lives, and I felt really guilty about quitting.  They deserve some kind of memory keeping, right?  (I mean, aside from Instagram, which has been my sole outlet for memory recording this year)  Pictures are great, but they deserve WORDS.  Am I right??
So since I'm a weirdo and can't stand the missing year, let's recap it.
1.  Settled in to our new house, and love it.
2.  Twins finished last year at Alamo Heights United Methodist, and are on to Kinder in the fall.  I'd be way more sad about this if a) Livi didn't have another two years there or b) we weren't getting a HUGE raise by having only one little one to pay for at private preschool.
3.  Twins turned six.  SIX.  What in the ever loving world???  They are mature and worldly and use big people words.  (but still use baby words like "yesternight", which I love)
4.  Livi is almost four, and that blows my mind because I still see a tiny baby when I look at her.  (which I suspect is going to be the case when she is 35)
5...Um, maybe that's it?  So maybe we're not as exciting as I thought.  I guess I'd have blogged sooner if I'd known catching up a full year would take less than forty words. :)

Let's just start where we are.
We just finished tee ball, which Sissy tolerates and Cale LOVES.  Livi likes being at the ball park, but only because of the snow cones.
We're six days into our summer vacation, and we've got lots of plans for fun stuff.  Fun stuff we'll attempt, as long as I'm not comatose from being home all day, every day with these peeps.  I love them, more than anything, but these kids can wear you out, for reals.  We've only been at home without school for six days, and it feels like six months.  It is imperative that I come up with entertainment or else I'm going to be in the loony bin.  Plus, being at home all day means my house is never picked up, ever.  Ever.  That's going to wear on me hard core.  I'm thinking these littles are going to have to have to learn to unload a dishwasher or something.
So there you have it.  I'm going to try to keep blogging, and recording those little moments that turn into our favorite ones.

Red, White and New

This year we celebrated our first July 4 in our new hood.  It was SO fun!  We loved our old neighborhood, but the median age there was about 85.  This neighborhood is chock full of little kids.  The morning started off with a parade/party at the circle.  My kids were too little to bring bikes/scooters, lest they get run off the road by a burly 12 year old.  They were pretty bummed about this, but next year I'm thinking they'll be all over it.  We ate breakfast tacos, and the kiddos played with squirt guns while everyone visited.

We tried to walk in the neighborhood parade, but that lasted all of two streets before everyone started complaining about being hot, sweaty and tired.  (Me included)  The kids couldn't concentrate on the parade because they were fixated on the iced sugar cookies they had seen back at the circle.  Daddy had to go get the car while we sat on a street corner.  We drove back to the circle to collect aforementioned cookies, which no one ate.  Sigh.

Later in the day, some of our friends and family came over to swim and eat.  Shawn and I love fried chicken, but know how horrible it is for us, so we decided that July 4 is going to be our annual "Eat Fried Chicken Day".  We're going to limit it to once a year, so that when July 4 rolls around, we'll be really excited about that chicken.

The littles had the best time in the pool.  The daddies spent their time throwing people (too high for this mommy) all over the pool, which the kiddos loved.  At one point there were waves in the pool about three feet high....it looked like the middle of the ocean.  Hopefully we've started a little tradition for the fourth....

Listen.

I love this kid, and how his mind works.  

He is in a building phase, and loves his Legos the best.  

I have learned what it means to step on a tiny lego piece while walking through his room, and I think the pain may rival the contractions I felt as this baby entered the world. 

The daily threat of stepping on a Lego is SO worth the entertainment it brings him, though.  He really, really loves making something, ANYTHING....but mostly airplanes.

(This makes his Popo proud.)

The first time we got him a lego kit, we were dumbfounded by how easily he could follow the directions (the booklets are sometimes 30+ pages long) to perfection.  

That (along with the attention span it took to complete these little projects) was really impressive.  

At first, he was really worried about the direction booklets getting lost.   He thought he HAD to have the booklet to make something.....but his mommy (being the rule follower she is NOT) explained he could make anything he wanted with the pieces.  

Once he figured this out, a whole new world was opened up....

He works and works and works on something, and tells us all about it with great interest and determination.  

I listen and listen, because I love his little voice, and how much enthusiasm he feels about his creations.

Plus, I just read something online that goes something like this:

"Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what.  If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff while they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff."

Dude.  Convicting, right?  

I'm trying so hard to do that, and it's hard when there are three of them always wanting to be heard.  

So I love the moments like this, when I get one on one time with one of them, and get to hear all about what's in their tiny heart and mind. 

Because really, I desperately want them to tell me the "big" stuff someday.  

Let's hope we're doing something right, and that at least some of the time that happens.

For now, his "big stuff" involves Legos and tiny plastic toys and for that I am grateful. 

Summer Swimmin'....

Since this house has a pool, I was serious about these tiny ones becoming competent swimmers, and FAST.  The twins were already pretty great, but Liv...not so much.  We signed up for swim lessons at the Alamo Heights Pool (which I highly recommend!!) and they loved it!!

Hayden and Cale were in separate classes, and since they divide them by skill level, I had to determine who was doing better at first.  It didn't take long to figure out Sis was in the higher skill group, because my son, (who is a great swimmer, mind you) refused to swim without holding his nose!!  This is sort of my fault, because I'd been letting him swim at home with a mask that covered his nose, and he wasn't used to blowing air out while he swam.  Sissy, on the other hand, happened to have goggles instead of a mask, so she was ahead of him in that aspect.  He got so much better by the end of the two weeks, but then his "non-nose goggles" broke and he's using the old mask.  (Bad mommy)  The big ones got SO MUCH better during the session, and have been blowing us away with their swimming at home.  They can retrieve anything off the bottom of our pool, will jump in from crazy heights, and are now getting into racing each other, which is hilarious because you can totally see that they will be competitive like Shawn and I.  The baby went from using floaties to SWIMMING alone.  This was fabulous, except for the fact that after lessons, she thought she was a big deal and refused to ever wear floaties again, meaning Mommy had to get in EVERY time they got in.  No more reading poolside for me.  She has gotten so much better since lessons were over too.  She is a daredevil, and will swim across the whole pool alone, or imitate her brother and sister jumping off the side.  She cracks us up, because she thinks she can do cannonball, jacknife and "pencil" but all three tricks are identical.
We have loved watching them become swimmers....I know they are WAY ahead of either their Daddy or I at that age.  So fun!