Love note

Ben likes to write notes on his board for us. He wrote this one for Jon today:

If you can't see it, it says: Im gun a love you forever right daddy well I am Im gun a love you forever.

He melts my heart!

Wordless Wednesday: Part 1

Part two: (color, shade and previous tattoo upgrade) in 2 weeks!

Don't drink the water

Having four kids is a lot of fun. Its tiring, but fun. However, we are in a rough time for Ben and Sam. Zach and Ellie still take two naps a day. Ellie can sometimes skip her morning nap, but gets really cranky right around lunch time. Zach can sometimes sleep in his car seat (or on me), but he wont sleep long and it takes many minutes of crankiness until he falls asleep.

That means we are home a lot more than they would like. It wasn't so bad when it was cold outside, but now that its summer, they want to go places. They get plenty of back yard time, but its just not the same as hanging out at the park with their friends.

Jon has agreed to let me hire a friends daughter to babysit the babies once a week so I can take the big boys out for some play time. We started this week and headed to the beach. It was so HOT! I was surprised that the beach actually wasn't that crowded. The boys had a blast. They splashed (mostly me), they attempted a sand castle, they ran, they played and Sam drank half of Lake Erie. I asked him if it tasted good and it didn't. I told him not to keep drinking it and he did. His punishment-----he threw up from 8:30pm until 2am. To be fair we do have some sick family and friends so I don't know for sure that it was the lake, but a friends daughter also got sick after drinking the water so I'm guessing that was the problem.

It was great to have some time with my big boys and let them do something they wanted to do with my complete attention. I'm looking forward to a summer full of play dates with my two little men.

Wordless Wednesday: 2 cool dudes

Typical

We went to the park last week. For the first 10 minutes they ignored the playground and did this:

The Color Run

Today was Cleveland's first annual Color Run. Its a 5k "run" with 4 color stops along the way. At each color stop people throw powdery paint on you. At the end of the race you are covered with yellow, green, blue and orange paint. However, in your race bag, you are given your own bag of paint for the finish line. Every 15minutes or so, runners that have just finished gather in a crowd and throw their paint bags (which include every color of the rainbow) in the air resulting in a huge paint cloud and you walking away with paint in places you just don't want paint!

The before shot:

Ellie and Zach kept back a safe distance with Gram while the big boys hung out with their friends Layla and Aeylen (and Bailey of course).

After:

It went through our shoes and socks and shirts and other stuff!

The ride home:

It was their first race so it was slightly unorganized. Parking was a joke and we had more waiting around especially at the beginning than anyone would have liked, but we still had a good time. I've never been so happy to have a shower!

Swing time

They love to swing.

Wordless Wednesday: Little readers

Ben or Ted?

Ben or Unabomber???

Zoo time

Jon was on vacation last week. We filled the week with a trip to the West Side Market, the library, Zoo, back yard projects, sprinkler time, picnics and play grounds. As always, the week flew by. The boys were very sad to see that dad went back to work today. Here are some zoo highlights:

Ellie was very excited to see all the animals:

Ben has become very excited about reading. When we would go up to a new animal, instead of looking at the animal, he would check the sign.

Silly boys.

In order to avoid Sam having a total meltdown, I got to take the tram up the crazy hill with the boys while Jon pushed the babies.

I think they had fun!

Meet the Trucks

Every year in June, Lakewood Park hosts Meet the Trucks. Trucks of all kinds gather for kids to climb on, honk horns and explore. This year I was helping out the Lakewood Division of Youth promote foster care and adoption so I didn't get to see the boys on everything, but I got to hang out with Ellie and Zach who looked cute and attracted a few people to our table for some information. Here are some of the highlights Jon captured:

Wordless Wednesday: No etiquette

We normally don't allow our kids to eat with feet on the table!

Water fight

It was really hot on Memorial Day, like 90+ degrees. What better way to stay cool than with water guns and sprinkler?

Daddy took a lot of abuse and the boys loved every second of it.

Sam was not a fan of being squirted.

Zach was too tired for all that craziness.

Aunt Corrie wasn't.

Cute Ellie.