My regular Thursday post was delayed because blogger.com wouldn't let me upload pictures yesterday. I've got them up now though:
I love that Liv is getting big enough already for the big girls to include her sometimes. They were having a tea party and had four mugs, so instead of getting a stuffed animal to have the fourth they got Liv.
We spent most of Memorial Day playing in the yard. The girls found this frog hiding under my strawberry plants and played with it for a long time.

Cecilia's school has three farewell events for the kids. The first was a farewell park day/picnic. Their families were allowed to come for this event, so that means Tess got to go and make friends! She wasted no time and had a good sized following by the end:
They actually had a merry-go-round at this park and I was sitting there wondering why they don't have more of these when I found out: if you spin them fast enough, little children go flying off without warning!
We moved on to the swings after this realization. The lady pushing is Mrs. Heeley. Tia will definitely miss her next year!!

Here is Becca before her First Communion with her "George Washington" hair. That's what she called it. And she hated it and made me promise not to show anyone if she let me take a picture. Oh well, what are mom's for if not to provide your children with lots of topics for their future therapists, right?
Here is everyone else ready to go to church:


Future dentist maybe?

First Communion.

Today was Becca's First Communion. She looked beautiful!!

I had every intention of slacking off this week and not putting a post up, but was told in no uncertain terms that people (who shall remain nameless) were looking forward to a Thursday post and would be disappointed if there wasn't one. So, here ya go!!

The girls were playing outside after a rainstorm the other day and found several worms. They picked one up and made it a house and named it Princess:




Liv didn't take part in the worm fun, but she enjoyed her first Popsicle the other day:
She has also recently discovered that she likes to be upside down. She does this on the couch by herself and then laughs and laughs. Also while you're holding her she tries to toss herself into the upside down position. (This is especially fun when you are not expecting it and almost drop her):

Tess goes to a new gym for gymnastics where she is terrified of the coach that helps out. The only way I can get her to participate in the slightest is to do the "tricks" with Liv first. Tess sees that Liv likes it and then Tess is willing to try. I think this is where Liv got her love of being upside down.

Becca passed her First Communion test on Sat that we have been studying for and dreading, for several months. Yay!!

Not much else going on here this week, so til next week...

This was a very low key week for us. We just hung out at home for the whole weekend. Winter made a brief return visit on Sat night and Sun morning when we got a little bit more snow. We've had more than enough winter so we were all content to stay inside and not "enjoy" that weather. This is how we pass the time on a low key weekend!

Becca decided she wanted to help me bathe the "babies" one night this week. Surprisingly she did a really good job and didn't make a bigger mess like I expected her to.

Liv is at the stage where she kinda scootches around just far enough to get random bits of paper and small toys in her mouth. Anything that might be a choking hazard really grabs her attention! Someone has to have an eye on her at all times!! This is a perfect job for Cecilia and it makes her feel very grown up when you ask her to do it!

Tess loves playing with this book. It is one that you are supposed to practice tying, snapping, buttoning, zipping, etc. But Tess loves it because she thinks it is to wear. She had that "shoe" on for a while that night and later she tried to get the shirt on the next page on too. I wanted to get a picture but she was too tangled and upset to make her wait while I ran up to get the camera. You'll just have to use your imagination!


Liv has been "rolling her R's" for a couple weeks now, but I had been unable to get it on video before this. I just find it very amusing so I had to share. She does it before she gets worked up to a real cry.


Matt was trying to recreate the top pic of Cecilia (from Jun '03) with Liv. The top one is one of our all time fav pics of our girls, so when he saw Liv sitting like this playing with the Baby Born he had to try.

Til next week...

Kalahari

Matt had to attend the WI Association of Orthodontics meeting this week at an indoor waterpark in the WI Dells, so the girls and I tagged along. We had fun, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that he would be in the conference all day long and I would have four kids in a pool by my self. No one drowned! Yay!! Becca and Tia got frustrated though because they had to stay in the shallow area with the little two where I could reach them. I got one of those disposable water cameras for the trip so the quality of these pics is pretty bad...







(These pics were all taken in the couple of hours that Matt was able to play the day before the conference. I didn't get any while I was alone the next day.)


We have had a few really beautiful days here, so we have been enjoying as much time outdoors as possible. I bought a couple of swings to hang from one of the trees in our front yard. And Cecilia says she wants to learn to play baseball so she and Matt spent some time playing catch.





I guess that's all for this week, here's the random pics...



Liv loves to help play the DS. She thinks the stylus is a great teething toy.
I am loving Becca being old enough to read bedtime stories!!

Saturday it snowed all day long but that didn't phase the girls one bit. They still thought it would be a fantastic idea to camp in our backyard. They thought because they had sleeping bags they would be plenty warm enough. I had to use my mom-veto power, but in my defense, I did compromise and let them camp in the living room floor instead.


Tess and Tia and I bought some carrot, watermelon and pea seeds and some tomato and strawberry plants to put in our yard this week, but we still get below freezing every night so I have to bring our "babies" in after the girls go to bed. The guy at the nursery said it is usually safe to put them into the ground shortly after Mother's Day. (Have I mentioned yet how much I love WI weather?!?) Tess is LOVING spring! From the moment she gets up until I drag her kicking and screaming into the house for lunch/nap, and again until I drag her back in for dinner she is outside. She has figured out how to pedal the bike in the picture this week, but it is too tall for her to get on all by herself. She loves watering the plants and she likes to push her babies around in a stroller.

I guess that's all for this week. A couple random pictures from the week:

Tia update: She learned all about gardens this week at school. They planted seeds and opened a "plant shop". She says her favorite thing this week was the pizza party they had Wednesday though.
O update: She has started to realize that if she pushes really hard with her feet when she's on her belly she can move toward things on the floor. Crawling is just around the corner! She also started saying "Mamammmmmmmmmmm" when she is hungry!

Becca update: She got in trouble at school again on Wednesday which she blamed on Tia keeping her up all night talking the night before. So they no longer share a room. Trying to eliminate all of a seven year old's excuses is like trying to get rid of sand at the beach.

Translation of 2nd video (just in case you didn't catch it): "You are my sunshine, when you don't wake me up...when I go nappy you never wake me up." I swear those are NOT the words I taught her!

Two weeks in a row!

This picture says it all! It was warm enough here to go to the park!! Liv got to play in the sand box for the first time. She thought it was very tasty. When I asked Tess if she would like to go to the park, she didn't know what a park was! Winter is waaaay too long.




Matt and I were so excited about the good weather we went out and bought bikes for ourselves with our tax refund! Of course with four kids we also had to buy this trailer and a little "hitchhiker" for Cecilia. (I will put up a pic of her and Matt soon...they are too cute on it!) Our whole plan hinged on Becca being able to ride solo. (She's been getting better so our plan was not that far fetched!) About four houses down the road Becca jumped off her still rolling bike into the grass and scratched her hand. That was the end of our family bike ride. No amount of bribery, threats or coercion could get that kid back on her bike that day. (we tried!) Matt and Cecilia kept going though and ended up having a great trip to the park together.


Random pics:


Here is Becca trying to escape one of Livvy's very enthusiastic kisses.




I believe Tess has officially entered the "terrible twos". This picture was taken immediately after her attempt to bite one of her sisters was thwarted. Although I don't really remember the last time she wasn't making an evil face. I was blaming it on teething for awhile but I'm not buying it anymore...


Here she is playing with Pup. Pup lets her do whatever she wants to her so they still get along great!





'Til next week...