Catch up

I had every intention of keeping this blog up to date but have fallen behind! Here is a summary of some of the things we've been up to since January.

We had enough snow to shut our city down for a few days. It was glorious, letting the kids play in the neighborhood with their friends. We sent them off with walkie talkies and they would check in every couple hours when they needed hot chocolate. Ben built a massive igloo that kept them entertained as well. And yes, Briella did try and ride her bike in the snow. She didn't get very far.

Ben and I usually plan something fun as a family for Valentine's night and then go out on a different night. We thought it would be fun to have a chocolate fountain dinner and expected the kids to be super into it. They weren't. We should have taken into account the amount of sugar that had already been consumed that day. They barely ate anything and we haven't used it since!

The Reptile Man visted Briella's class. When I first walked in, half the class was backed in a corner because they were so scared of the cobra on the ground. Briella buried herself in my lap with every reptile that was brought out. So I was extremely surprised when she was the first to volunteer to help hold the python. Go figure. 

We surprised the kids with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. It was so hard to keep it a secret and so worth it when they screamed in excitement. They were the perfect age for all of it. Avery and James went on all the slides together and Briella was happy just lounging in the wave pool.

Ben's quick thinking saved us from a major disaster. I know that James is probably too old for the tooth fairy but I don't care. I think it's fun for kids to have some magic in their life. We've decided that this will be the last year of it for James though. Anyways, for the first time in our lives we completely forgot and the tooth fairy didn't visit. When it's the weekend, Ben sets out his motion activated game camera to make sure the kids don't get out of bed too early. (Sounds crazy but it totally works). He quickly came up with the excuse that since the camera was on the tooth fairy couldn't go to his room. She didn't want to get caught "on camera". It worked. She wrote a super apologetic note and all was forgiven. 

The kids had two weeks off for Spring Break. We took some of that time and went up to Bremerton to see this darling family. I wish they lived close to us again! The kids all get along so well and are all so fun. 

On another night of Spring Break we had 17 of James's school classmates over for a "late-over" party. They ate a ton of junk food, played tons of games and made more noise than I thought was humanly possible but it solidified our standing as cool parents.

We ended our Spring Break with a trip to my favorite beach - Newport. It was rainy and cold but perfect. We took the kids to Ripley's Believe or Not thinking they would love it. Yeah, not so much. They were totally freaked out. It was almost comical how quickly they would leave a room. We're going back to Newport next weekend and will stay far away from there!

After our disastrous April Fool's prank last year we played it easy this year. We lined up all their stuffed animals to face their respective doors and switched all their school uniforms. So all the girl's clothes were in James's closet and vice versa. We didn't get as good of a reaction as we got last year but it did make us realize that we're done buying stuffed animals. Forever.

We got to watch Jack a lot. The kids absolutely love when we get to keep him for a weekend (after fighting my Mom for him). They don't ever want him to go home and take such good care of him. I don't even mind the massive holes he digs in my backyard.