Weekly Recap: Spy exhibit, painted piggies, and first night in the crib!

Look at me.... remembering the weekly recap two weeks in a row! Maybe this will actually work. ;)

Asher started indoor soccer this week. Evan has done a few different sports over the years, but this is Asher's first time to do something. He was super excited and he did great!

(Terrible, super blurry phone picture:)


Thumbs up from Ellie:


Apparently knee pads are an important accessory for science quizzes. Who knew?


First toe painting of the season. I did mine in the evening after the kids were in bed and it was the first thing Ellie noticed when we got up in the morning. She was totally offended that I would paint  my nails without her, so we had to remedy that right away. Please excuse my terrible painting job. Toddler toes are hard to paint!!



We took another field trip to the Pacific Science Center this week for the opening of their Spy exhibit. It was really cool! It was a display of tons of spy equipment from throughout the decades. The boys loved it, of course.

They made serious spy faces in all the pictures...




...well, except for this one.


We also visited the dinosaurs before we left the science center.





You know it's a good outing when everyone falls asleep on the drive home.
 

(As you can see, Ellie has learned how to unbuckle her chest buckle and REFUSES to keep it on. I've tried EVERYTHING! Any suggestions??)

We also had the Pinewood Derby this week. (More on that to come!)


We moved Aria out of our room and into her crib this week! We originally planned to put her in Ellie's room. Makes sense, right? Boys' room and girls' room. As the move became more of a reality though, I realized there was no way I was leaving Aria in a room alone with Ellie! Ellie would never purposely hurt Aria, but she loves on her baby sister in a way that most two-year-olds would and I have to keep an eye on her!

Anyway, this required major room and furniture changes, which we finally got around to completing on Saturday. Evan and Ellie share a room now and Asher sleeps with Aria. Ellie is a bit of a stinker and Evan reported this morning, "That was AWEFUL!", but really it wasn't. Less than an hour after bedtime, everyone but Ellie was asleep, and she followed suit not long after that. Tonight, it only took 45 minutes.

As for Aria, she did GREAT! She slept better in the crib than she has in the bassinet for the past few weeks. Hooray!



At church today, I got called to be the first counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I'm a littler nervous and overwhelmed by the idea of this calling, but I'm also really excited!

Last, but not least, I keep meaning to share this cute video of Ellie singing to Aria. I'm cheating a little because it's not from this week, but that's ok. :) I didn't want to get any closer because I didn't want Ellie to know I was watching her. You can still hear her loud and clear, though! lol

Three Months!

Little miss Aria is already three months old. I can't believe how quickly time flies when it comes to babies!



We sure are enjoying this cute girl. She has turned into such a sweet, good, easy baby (much to mommy's relief!)... not to mention totally adorable! ;)



She is all smiles lately, which has been so fun. She loves her siblings and always has smiles for them.



This month Aria has.....

....found her tongue (which makes her a slobbery mess all the time)





...discovered her hands (which she puts in her mouth any chance she gets now).



...learned to roll over!

....has learned how to "talk". I thought this was so cute that she was talking to her toy:

...and has gotten pretty good at reaching for things. This is the look of concentration that accompanies her attempts to reach something (in this case, her toes). :)





Aria weighs about 11 lbs. now (we've used the bathroom scale to determine this, so it's not an exact measurement) and is wearing 3-6 month clothes.



After looking back at baby photos of the other kids, we've realized that she is basically a blue-eyed version of baby Asher.



She sure brings joy to our family. Happy three months, sweet girl!

Weekly Recap

I've decided to try doing a weekly recap of what we've been up to every week. I'm hoping it will help me to not get behind in blogging, but I'm also hoping that it will help me to blog more of the every day stuff that we're up to. We'll see how it works out!

So, this past week....

Ben and I went on a date to a stake marriage conference. It was full of good info and it was really nice for us to get out on a date! I'm sure lucky to have snagged this one. ;)

 



We had some really great (warm!) weather this week, so we made it a point to get out of the house a bit.



Aria was unimpressed by the glorious sunshine.



The blossoms have even come out this week!



I must have gotten a bit of the spring cleaning fever because I suddenly decided to reorganize my entire kitchen the other day!



Because the weather was so nice, we made a spur of the moment decision to visit the zoo this week.



Evan loooooooves wolves and was really excited to see these guys out and about.

In s

Hiding in a cave at the penguin exhibit. (Asher insisted I take their picture.)



Peacock!



In school this week, Evan is reading Alice In Wonderland and Asher is reading Clara and the Bookwagon. We are learning about the fall of ancient Rome in history, and in science, we've been learning about measuring length, volume, weight and mass. The boys "raced" blocks of ice in the tub (on huge, one small) to feel the difference in mass.



Even Ellie got in on the measuring action. She came up to me like this and said, "Mom, how tall I am? 30 seconds?"



Evan picked out a game to buy this week and chose Monopoly. I hadn't played Monopoly since I was a kid! The boys sure got into it and our game lasted two days!



Those are the highlights for this past week! There are a few things about Aria that I didn't include, but I'm hoping to do a "3 months" post for her, so you'll see them soon (hopefully).

Keeping the toddler busy

It's always a challenge to find something that will hold Ellie's interest for an extended period of time. Something besides Dora the Explorer, anyway. In order for our morning homeschool lessons to go smoothly, it's essential to have her occupied (proof is in this post). As a result, I have scoured the internet (aka: searched Pinterest) for ideas and have actually had some success lately in keeping her busy long enough to get some homeschool lessons done with the boys.

Watercolors were a big hit, although she was more interested in painting with the water rather than the color. Whatever floats her boat and keeps her happy!



Playing in the sink is always a favorite. The floor was SOAKED afterwords, but some quick towel cleanup was worth the time she spent happily playing!



I saw this idea online and thought it was a great way for her to practice her fine motor skills.



I thought I was being super mom... having my toddler practice important and educational skills while teaching lessons to the boys at the same time. Well, what started as a neat and tidy practice of fine motor skills, quickly evolved to this:



At least it kept her busy.

Pipe cleaners in the colander bought me a decent amount of time.



Connect four without any rules.



This one was by far the coolest.... dropping vinegar (colored with food coloring) into baking soda. She LOVED this one and played with it forever. The only problem was that the boys were so interested in it too... it was hard to keep them focused on their school work!

What we've been up to...

I've been better at blogging lately and hopfully that lasts! For now, here's a catch up post about what we've been up to for the past month (ish).

The boys and I went to see The Piano Guys at The Paramount in Seattle. It was an awesome concert and lots of fun to spend some time with my boys. Kudos to Ben for staying home with Aria and attempting a bottle!









Ellie had her very first dentist appointment and did awesome! The boys got check ups, too. They give them sunglasses because of the bright light. ;)









We are officially binkey free! Yay!! (P.S. Look at those lashes!!)



I set Aria on the bed while I went to the bathroom. When I came back out, these two were keeping her company. :)



A very grainy pic of me and my girls. <3 p=""> 



We took a field trip to the Science Center the other day because they were having "Polar Science Weekend". I was worried the kids would find it boring, especially when we walked in and saw that it was just a bunch of booths with scientists to talk to. Boy was I wrong! The boys went to EVERY booth and listened to EVERY scientist's spiel. They were soaking up knowledge like little sponges and couldn't get enough! From the salinity of the sea to how glaciers move to the migration patterns of narwhals... they were totally fascinated.



Ellie touching a penguin.



The boys being narwhals.





Ellie loved this snowmobile.



Butterflies!







I took this same picture of Ellie a year and a half ago. My, how she's grown!



The Science Center is right next to the Space Needle, so we had a good view of that, too.



The weather has been getting a little warmer so last week, when we finally got some sun, we decided to have a picnic lunch/hike.





Aria was not exited about the hike.



Aaaaand that pretty much brings us up to date! Hopefully I'll actually be a regular poster again! ;)