A Few Last Things from February + the Beginning of March

One of the nice things about Missy's starting school is that she writes us lots of sweet notes now. This one doesn't display her best penmanship, but it sure is sweet.

It's taped to the door leading from the garage to the house. Jim says the "nevr ending love" part gets him every time. Note: Ever was under the impression that someone told her "are" is spelled "era," so she kept spelling it that way. I think she's finally learned the correct spelling.

We tried to watch the Olympics most nights that it was on. Unfortunately our bunny ears on the roof don't do very well with NBC, so a lot of the times it was like this:

The biggers found a new position in which to relax.

Tiny continues to love bath time.

The girls often bring books into our room in the morning and beg us to read to them. Sometimes even on work/school days, we oblige.

We've had very little precipitation this winter, but it hailed once. The playground was covered with white, but Jim tells me the untrained eye won't be able to tell from this picture:

Tiny was in the playroom while I was busy in the kitchen. She came in like this (glasses from the ever-popular doctor set Grandpa Kringel gave us).

Jim's longtime home teachee, Scott Meppen, had a gig with his band at the Sunset Market, so we went to support him and have some FHE fun. Wrenzy's dancing was a highlight. 

Ever also enjoyed the music, although in a more subdued fashion.

We walked up and down the market and then let the girls spend some time in a bouncy house/slide thing that they passionately loved. When we tore them away, I tried to put Wrenzy's shoes on and discovered, when it got on my hands, that there was poop on her shoes and on the front tire of the stroller. We figured we ran over it, and then it got on her shoes when she was sitting on the front of the stroller and her shoes hit the tire. It made me so enraged about dog people and how incredibly inconsiderate so many of them are. Maybe that's not fair. But people let their dogs poop all over and don't clean up after them. They take dogs to places they don't belong, and they assume everyone else loves their dogs and wants to be near them. Grrr. Jim dealt with the cleanup of the stroller and shoes, which was very nice. I was still so angry, though.

Sometimes I put the biggers to bed in their own beds, and they end up like this:

When Wrenzonymous doesn't behave or won't settle down, she gets kicked into the pack n' play. The afternoon after the above picture was taken, she napped in the pack n' play and was inexplicably discovered like this:

She spent that night in the pack n' play, too. The following morning, Ever joined her. We found them like this:

Sunday walk/ride:

I took this picture only because Tiny's bedhead is really enviable:

The day before we left for Florida, Anna asked if Ever could come over to work on a leprechaun project with Leela. They were either supposed to build a leprechaun trap or decorate a picture of a rainbow. It was due the day after we got back, so Ever's had to be done before we left. I was thrown by the proposition that the girls do a joint project since that was not in the instructions. (Such a rule-follower I am.) It never would have occurred to me to have them work on one together. I'd been planning on whipping out the rainbow thing that night, but I let Ever go to Leela's instead of help with laundry and pack. At first it appeared I'd made a bad choice, as I got a text from Anna saying she was questioning the girls' dedication to catching leprechauns. She included this picture:

Eventually, however, they got to it. 

For the final touch, Anna and Leela put it on a tray and placed gold coins all around it. I'm told their class voted theirs as the only trap that was likely to catch a leprechaun. Ever's first successful group project is in the books.

Black Mountain Open Space Park

On Saturday, February 24, we did a hike at Black Mountain Open Space Park. It wasn't quite as lovely as the time we went before because it was sunny instead of misty and cloudy. But we got out.

This guy was waiting for a friend and some wind to show up so he could paraglide.

We wanted to get to the summit of this hill where the radio towers (?) were. The direct route had a gate across it with a sign saying people weren't allowed to pass because they're trying to regrow vegetation or something. We didn't understand, since we would just be walking on the wide trail, but I really didn't want to go that way because rule-breaking is really hard for me. We tried to go around another way but couldn't figure out how to get there. So Jim had his way, and we passed that do-not-pass sign (as did others after us, which made me feel better).

At the top, Tiny kept stepping onto this thing and falling off, over and over and over. The one time I tried to film her, she didn't really make it up and actually tumbled off. Whoops.

On the way down, we saw a ton of paragliders and got to see one take off. If that weren't a really dangerous sport, I'd be highly interested.

Tired Tiny fell asleep on the way down.

Thousand Steps Beach

On President's Day, I took the girls up to Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna Beach to meet Tatum, Tess, and Rue Hawkins. They're living in Redondo Beach now, back from a few years in Shanghai. Laguna is about halfway between our houses. Ever remembers Tess and Rue from the couple of times we've seen them over the last few years, and she was so excited about getting together. She even wrote Tess a note on the car ride up saying she was excited to see her. Of course she was scared and shy when we got there, but she eventually warmed up.

The weather, however, did not. I checked the forecast the night before and suggested some alternative plans, but Tatum wanted to stick with the beach. My girls and I were dressed in warm clothes and were still really cold. Tatum and her girls were in swimsuits, and I have no idea how they survived. It was freezing, but it's a very pretty spot.

Hundreds of stairs lead from the street down to the beach (hence the name), and a really nice lady who was doing the stairs for exercise carried most of my stuff down when she saw me struggling with all the kids and junk. Super nice.

Once my kids started interacting with Tatum's they had fun looking for treasures (or sharp objects) in the sand.

Wrenzy's always showing a little crackage.

So many girls.

Tiny spent most of the time throwing things away. She'd find garbage and other throw-away-able items like plant debris and head off to the garbage can, where she'd stay for a long time, searching the immediate vicinity for other items to toss.

Once, she ended up going super far from us and clearly had no idea where we were. She didn't care at all, though. She's the minuscule speck in the middle here:

She just plopped down and hung out in the sand. I finally retrieved her.

Wrenzy cuddled up with Tatum and Rue.

Tess wanted to check out some rocks at the end of the beach before leaving. Ever had to go, too, even though by that point I really just needed to get the little people home. Tess and Ever:

I had to run to the store on the way home to grab a couple of things for dinner. (I had soup in the crock pot.) The girls passed out in the car. When we got to the Sprouts parking lot, Tiny was nearly impossible to wake up. A car alarm was going off a few feet away, and I was touching her (unbuckling her and trying to remove her sweater) and talking to her. Nothing.

First Half of February: Girls, Girls, Girls

I took Wrenzy to the dentist for the first time. With Ever, I took her to our regular dentist, she wouldn't open her mouth, and they gave us a referral to the pediatric dentist. I expected to do the same thing with Wren, but she actually let the big-person dentist and hygienist do the whole exam and cleaning. She was amazing.

Tiny joined her in the chair and was very good, so the hygienist allowed it.

Leela and Ever, matching in pink, had a play date, and we busted out the fancy tea set that was bequeathed to us by a ward member.

I took the girls to the park one day after school and realized I need to do that more often. Dinner just always causes problems.

Leela joined a Girl Scout troop in Carlsbad in the fall. Ever went door-to-door with her to sell cookies and even helped at a cookie booth without being a member. She was really into cookie selling and wanted to join, so I signed her up. I felt like a really great mom when I managed (in the nick of time) to get her uniform and iron on the initial patches before her first official meeting.

Cookie selling is better when you're in the outfit.

I took Ever on a date, and Jim took Wren. Naturally Ever and I hit Baskin Robbins.

Getting Ever (and others) ready in the morning and getting out the door has been HARD. I need to remember to blog about that later. Except for early-start Wednesday, it's just BASE in the morning (Before and After School Enrichment), so she doesn't have to be on time. The only problem is that the back gate by the BASE building closes at 8:15 (as does the front gate). If I don't get her there in time, I have to park by the front of the school, get everybody out, check in at the office, and walk with the crew across campus to BASE. It's a time-suck. Also sometimes I don't have everyone clothed or shoed. One morning, Ever offered to carry Tiny, who was just in footie jammies. Tiny is not always super accepting of her sisters' advances, but she was into it that day. Man, were they cute!

I took the littles out for a walk on Valentine's Day. They had to take turns on the vehicle, so that's always a little difficult.

They ate outside after we got home. Tiny does exaggerated mouth movements sometimes - like her o's are serious o's. I caught a bit of that:

After naps, Wrenzy ate a rose petal, and then we made festive cookies. I was a pretty fun mom that day.

We had Pizza Hut for dinner, but the candles and rose petals made it fancy.

Cookies for dessert, along with the fancy chocolate-covered strawberries Jim traditionally gets for me (and now for the girls).

Then the girls got to watch a show. Only one was fully clothed.

The tent from Coco lives on, although it's on its last legs.

Saturday I took all the girls up the street for a picnic by the tennis courts. Ever and Wren rode bikes. Quite the tough gang:

Jim got home from a meeting while we were there, so he joined us for some Duck, Duck, Goose on the grass on the other side of the street. Then there was fighting over the trike, and he ended up driving one or both of the littles home. Back at the ranch were harmony and reading: