It was very entertaining to watch the boy’s play with Jacob’s new flippers.  Isaac spent most of the day using them as paddles on his hands while riding his tube.  Jacob tried them for a short period and decided today wasn’t the day to learn (water guns were way more exciting).  Israel or should I say “Scuba Steve”, (lol) swam around the pool like a wild shark amusing us girls (Piper, Violet & I)

“Live and Learn” – Israel spent some time trying to help Jacob figure out how to use these large plastic creatures, but as always in the end, Jacob wanted to do it his way.

* Daddy’s Girls  *

I have been so happy to have one of my bestest friends back in the Good Ole USA.  We have enjoyed a lot of time together at the pool, yapping and watching the babies splash around in the water (I believe she is on a mission to have the darkest tan back in her hometown of England…lol).

Daddy and Piper playing with baby Olivia:  It was a lot of pleasure to watch these three twirl around the pool.  Israel is so fantastic with babies, you can tell he is very sincere when he’s with them.

Fun Close Ups:  I had to add these last few photo’s.  I couldn’t leave out “Posing Princess Piper” and “Wild Lady Violet” and last but not least  Isaac and his enormous goggles – Classic!

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The fun continued on Saturday.  We meet the Hewitsons, Thompsons, Farleys and many others at Jeronimoes to celebrate Conner’s forth birthday.  We have been to a few different jumpy gyms but this one was pretty fun.  It wasn’t crowded with overage kids and there was plenty of inflatables to pick from to keep even the pickiest of the bunch having fun.  Piper had a great time sliding and jumping with all her buddies.  There was enough even for the little kids that I wished later on (for a few short minutes) that I had brought Violet as well.

After an afternoon nap and recharge we were invited to dinner with the Hewitsons and Farleys.  This is where we were introduced to the toy of the summer.  I will likely hear about this marvelous contraption until I purchase it, and then I will continue to hear about it.  Michelle had mentioned to me in the past, and even showed me a picture of it, but seeing it in action certainly is better than a still any day.  The Extreme Coaster is what it is called.  Pretty cool toy – they need an adult version as well.  Piper took right to playing with it and certainly didn’t want to share once she started.  Next time we need to get two of them side-by-side and takes bets on how goes farther or faster.  Even Violet wanted in on the action so after she climbed the ramp we would put her in the car and let her ride it down just like the bigger kids.  I thought it might scare her or she might fall out but that wasn’t the case.  Violet loved it.  Even without the car to ride down she would climb to the top and scoot down the ramp on her bottom – all the same to her.  I didn’t get any video or photos but Paul took a few for me on his new toy:

Sunday came to quick as well.  We were supposed to meet the Farleys at the Zoo but ended up sleeping in too late and had plans in the afternoon with the Sways.  I didn’t remember to set my clock forward and hour to mark the end of daylight savings time and awoke to a message from Paul letting me know the were at the Zoo.  Sorry we missed you guys.  Once we finally go up Piper and Violet both were excited to see Zack and Kerri and their new little doggy, Princess – rightly named coming to our house.  We turned the afternoon into a cookout complete with sunshine, burgers, dogs, and fries.  The kids, and the dogs, wore themselves out – and us in the process.  Hard to believe the weekend has passed so quickly.  I guess after being mostly cooped up while it has been cold, wet, or both, any chance to play in the sun seems to fly by.

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Piper especially got some time to play in the backyard.  Solo time at that.  She asked if she could go out to play with her princess castle and dump trucks.  The weather was nice, the gate was shut, I had no reason why she couldn’t.  I didn’t think she would stay out for long, particularly on her own, but she suprised me by playing for about an hour.  I peaked out several times and even ventured out onto the deck to listen to her tell various imaginary people to do various tasks – I think the princess thing might be getting to her head – pretty soon we are all just going to be servants with tasks to perform – as long as someone else gets laundry I will be happy.  She even had on her Snow White dress which remained remarkably clean – likely due to the fact that her servants were doing all the work.

Later on Saturday we met a bunch of friends at the park.  This was a first for us and a rare treat.  Typcially we get to see one friend or another but seldom so many at the same time.  We met up at Pinckneyville Park, in a particular corner that doesn’t get to busy.  The kids played hard on the fortress of a playground and in particular on a tall, long, enclosed circular yellow slide.  They would all get in at the top and go down as a large mass.  Only did it a few times but it certainly looked like fun.

After a couple of hours playing we headed home only to learn that another friend, Kristen and Angel, were down the hill at another playground at the same time.  Everyone had the same idea thanks to the great weather.

Michelle and Zana, both with cameras captured a good shot of all the kids just before everyone left.

From left to right, back to front we have:  Whitley, Conner, Eli, Piper, Patrick, Joshua, Riley, and Violet.  What a great weekend!!!

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Saturday was an early start as we went over to the Thompson’s for another playdate.  This time though we got to see Ansley and her new sister Calli as well, a rare treat for the girls indeed.  I know Piper enjoyed the company because she talked about it for the remainder of the day once we left post lunch (thanks Zana!!!).  Her and Whitley get along great and have seen much of each other recently but playing with Ansley outside of school is rare and it was good to see the three of them hang out and have fun.  There was even a time when the three of them went up stairs and played in Whitley’s room – amazingly there seemed to be no conflict, no musical dress swapping and no real drama to speak of.  The other three, Riley, Violet, and Calli played downstairs with each other.  It is fun to watch as they are significantly different in age and the interaction varies from actual playing, to tug of war over something, to chasing, to wrestling, to trying to do what the older girls are doing, wash-rinse-repeat.

Sunday started with a favorite of Piper’s and something we can only blame ourselves for introducing her to – Donuts and Chocolate Milk.  She doesn’t get them often, but would eat them every day if we let her.  Both of the girls had a few donut holes and half a donut each before we set out to meet Whitley and Riley at the Zoo.  We were dressed for the cold as it started in the thirties but quickly warmed to something more comfortable.  Even the girls, once we started walking around took off their jackets, well at least while they were in the sun.  We have been to the Zoo countless times but this was the first where I didn’t bring a stroller for Violet.  She would have probably stayed in it just fine but the time has come for her to be given the chance to walk around with the others.  Surprisingly she wasn’t so rough to keep track of.  Having the older girls to follow, and Riley to hang out with, she for the most part mosied along with everyone.  Every now and then, she required some course corrections and thought it a great game to go the complete opposite way of that which daddy was wanted her to go.  By lunch time Piper was pretty fussy, having fallen earlier, she never quite recovered – not that she was hurt – the fall just changed her mood and it never really got better.  We rode the train, the highlight for all them all.  According to Piper, the train was our destination from the moment we arrived.  She sat with Whitley and had a great time.  On the way out we stopped by the playground for a few to burn off the rest of the energy reserves and headed home.  My reward was a pair of three hour naps and a Venti Caffè Latte from Starbucks – well worth it.

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Saturday was a play date with the Thompson’s and girls spent the afternoon playing at their house.  The main game was obviously “I want to be <insert princess name here>” dressup where each of the girls picked an outfit and various accessories, chased each other around, grouped up and chased Violet and Riley, got bored with dressup and played with toys.  At some point Zana turned on some music, I think she said it was Hewy Lewis, a favorite of Whitley’s rock and roll selection, and all the kids started dancing.  I wish one of us would have had a camera to catch a few pictures of them dancing together.  All in all Saturday was a lot of fun.

After a good Saturday playing with the girls I was a little bit anxious about Sunday.  I offered to let Whitely come over and play with Piper for the day.  This was the first time we had ever had any other kids over to play without the parents there as well.  I was hoping that we had been around Whitley enough times to understand how to manage her and Piper should the time come.  It ended up being a pretty great day.  The girls played, even included Violet in much of their fun.  Dressup was a priority, as were puzzles and Candy Land, all of which were enjoyed several times.  I think the favorite though for bothh of them was what Piper calls “the lot of princess puzzle” which is actually a short game where each player rolls the die, moves a princess around the bored looking to land on her images (vs. the other princesses).  The first princess to collect all the appropriate accessories, a purse, flowers, and a crown, gets to go to the ball.  The game is fast and fun and after a few times around is easy to put on autopilot.

An interesting part of the day was quite time.  A typical quite time for Piper, and I think for Whitley as well, includes getting into bed with a book and perhaps a quite toy.  At worst she will get some peaceful rest for about an hour.  While at best she will, by some miracle, fall asleep and truly wash away all the grumpiness a three year old collects between morning and lunch time.  I decided to try putting the two of them into Piper’s bed with a few rules of “try to be quite, don’t talk loud, and don’t get out of the bed”.  This seemed to go okay for about fifteen minutes at which point I had to get them back into bed, take away the toys, settle them down and try again.  On the forth or seventh time doing this, I don’t really recall how many times I went up there, every three or four minutes it seemed like, I finally separated them and put Piper in our bed and left Whitley in Piper’s.  They both did eventually fall asleep, even if only for short while.

Zana came to get Whitley in the afternoon and I learned later that she received a strict talking to about making Whitley leave.  Piper informed us as well that Whitley would be coming over every Sunday until she turned four.  I am not sure what happens around turning four, maybe that is when they start to drive or go hang out with boys or something.  I guess we will be informed when the time comes.

I was able to get a pair of pictures from my phone of the girls dressed up and pretending to be lady bugs.  Not great quality but the real camera is still MIA.

I can say that taking care of three is about as hard as two.  Maybe after having the two, adding any number past that doesn’t really add a lot of work over top of what is already being done.  (I am sure there is a tipping point but three was not it).  Not looking for a third but it is good to know that we can handle the extra company – I do wonder though how it would be with boys or a mix of boys and girls around the same age.

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