The Girls in February

Ever had her first soccer practice, and she loved it:

Her second soccer game went much better than the first. She ran around with a smile plastered on her face and had a great time.

Jim and I were thrilled to see her having fun. I'd say by March the excitement (particularly about games) was petering, but it was a good experience overall. Amera took this family pic at one of the games:

After we returned from Ever's second game, Jim started painting the playset. Ever went out to help him. Mostly she just chatted with him. Eventually I found them like this, making up an elaborate story about how Ever was abducted and taken to Africa and Jim rescued her. 

Ever earned a movie (I think we watched Minions) for good behavior, and we spent the night on the couch. It was kind of like a birthday-slumber-party redo. It was nice for me to have a reason to go to sleep at 9:30 P.M. Missy in the morning: 

In other sleeping news, after putting one of the other girls to bed one night, I came downstairs and found Jim and Tyna passed out like this:

Random shot of Bear:

There is nothing cuter than siblings playing together and loving each other. Hearing them giggling is my flave. Sisters:

Wrenzy sure looks up to her big sister. She's Ever's little parrot these days.

Their "Choose the Right" duet was a nice sister moment, even though they could only remember one phrase of the song:

Susan threw Luc an amazing Star Wars-themed birthday party. The cutest Jedi:

Fighting the Storm Troopers (represented by the white balloons):

The kids got to take turns fighting a real-life Storm Trooper (played by a new guy in our ward who festively agreed to don his costume and take beatings). Ever was too scared, but she finally went at the end when Kara agreed to fight with her:

Then all the kids joined in and beat him up together. Apparently Ever wasn't so into it that she couldn't stop to pose for a picture:

Birthday cake:

The cake was particularly enjoyed by this one, who won the messy-eating contest:

I was supposed to work on Valentine's Day (as it was a Tuesday), but our sitter was sick. That meant I got to give the big girls a special breakfast of (ostensibly heart-shaped) pancakes with Nutella:

 

Meanwhile, Tyna had a really fun hair day:

We'd been enjoying lots of rain, but the following Saturday was supposed to be pretty clear. We loaded up the car in search of a place to do our family run, but it started raining as we drove. I checked the forecast for all the cities in the area (Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar), and it looked as if our run were doomed - it was going to rain everywhere. Jim parked in a neighborhood in Carlsbad, and we started getting ready to go. I was inclined to abort on account of the rain, but Jim said we should go. And thank goodness we did. The rain stopped, and we had a lovely run. 

At one point Ever began singing "Jingle Bells," and Wrenzy joined in the best she could:

A woman who was outside her house across the street from us commented that she has a granddaughter who's still singing "Jingle Bells," too.

We found a bunch of honeysuckles for the girls to enjoy:

They got out of the stroller to participate more fully in the harvest. I tried to explain to Wren the art of sucking the nectar from the bottom, but she began just shoving whole flowers into her mouth:

The big girls walked/ran the final stretch:

Jim spotted the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, which had been erected by some private citizen on the edge of his property by the road:

Jim subsequently identified a toppled-over Dorothy, thanks to her red shoes:

Tyna was happy as always during the ride:

We got everyone and everything loaded back into the car. Then as I was buckling my seat belt, the rain returned, hard:

It was like the run and we were MFEO (made for each other).

The next day at church, Tyna concluded her sacrament meeting experience like this:

Nanny started trying to visit us on Thursday afternoons. She's a good sport (playing the never-ending Frozen matching game here):

That morning Ever and Wren had dragged downstairs into the living room every blanket in the house that they could reach. Later Ever got really tired and snugged up:

Meanwhile, Wrenzy donned a hat she found. The girl likes hats:

The following Saturday, we ran in a neighborhood that had a little park. We let the girls play for a bit. Bear went down the slide like a rag doll and actually seemed to catch air sometimes. Catching air became Ever's goal, but she never succeeded:

Bear Bear is a good cleaner. One day we were loading up to take Ever to school, and Bear wouldn't come until she'd finished putting away the matching game with which she'd been playing. Another day she took out all the tupperware. When she was done, I asked her to put it away. She did a great job piling it all in the drawer; she was just dismayed when she couldn't get the drawer to close:

Tyna has the funniest sumo smile. Resting face:

Sumo:

Again, resting face:

Normal smile:

Sumo smile:

The Bumbo became obsolete because Tyna began trying to thrash her way out of it:

It was all fun and games until she really fell out.

After I took the photos above, Wrenzy came over to Tyna and gave her a toy monkey, so sweetly:

Wrenzy hugged Tyna:

Then Wrenzy took it back:

One Sunday afternoon, a tired Wrenzy sang "Hallelujah" while eating string cheese:

The next afternoon she kept singing to herself a very repetitive song apparently called "Bakaloomay":

I will end February with the most terrifying selfie a child (Wrenzo) has ever taken: