July 13

Chris got up with Caleb and Daisy this morning, and before I had even gotten out of bed, they were off on a bike ride. Our birthday gift to Caleb was a tag-along bike like the one he rode during our visit to Iowa. Caleb was itching to try it out, so today was the day. Chris had Daisy up in front in the bike seat and Caleb behind on the tag-along, and they were all pleased with the result.

After their bike ride, I took the kids to church while Chris stayed home to work on replacing some light switches and electrical outlets. Of course, Lily chose that time to have a diaper blowout in her car seat. The girl hasn't had a blowout in at least six months, but it happened today.

It was awful.

 Poop was everywhere.

We were already nearly twenty minutes late to church, and then I had to decide whether to attempt to clean up the mess at the car, or try to carry my baby (who was oozing poop) into church while also corralling the two older children. I ended up deciding to take her in, because a Toyota Camry with three car seats across the back really has no safe option for cleaning up a blowout of this caliber. But I was so distracted by the poop and the big kids that I inadvertently left my car keys sitting on the trunk of my (unlocked) car. Oops.

Chris would not have been pleased.

Thanks to some really kind people, we got into church, got the diaper situation cleaned up, and got the kids into their classrooms. I grabbed a well-earned cup of coffee and slunk into church, 35 minutes late. Last week, church was over half empty. Today? EVERY SINGLE ROW WAS FULL. I had to do the church walk of shame all the way up to the third row. 

*sigh*

By the time we got home from church, I was worn out. We fed the kids, put Lily down for a nap, and turned on a movie for the big kids. They chose Star Wars, Episode IV, and both Caleb and Daisy were transfixed for every single minute of it. The only thing that distracted them was the bowl full of cherry tomatoes I brought in from our garden. My children - my children! - fought over those tomatoes, and gobbled them all up!

Star Wars + cherry tomatoes = win?

This boy is focused on the movie!

They really paid attention, too, because at dinner, Daisy was able to tell us about the plot and characters. It was pretty impressive.

Also impressive? 

How excited this girl was when I gave her a few Veggie Straws. 

Can you believe she'll be one next week?

How big is Lily? 

SOOOOO big!

Daisy's funny face.

Caleb's happy, post-Star Wars face.

Also happy? We have 70% of our baseboards installed now! Hooray for progress!

July 12

The kids have been waiting all week for Chris to make them peanut butter banana chocolate chip pancakes, and today was the big day. Chris won my everlasting love when, as he prepared to make the pancakes, he asked me, "Do you want me to wear Lily on my back, so that she can see what I'm doing?"

Uh, YES?

I wrapped Lily onto Chris' back, and they were a pancake-making pair!

Cute, huh?

This afternoon, Chris needed to work on some wiring issues in the house, so I took all three children with me to Target and both grocery stores we visit regularly.

Target didn't have any of the giant shopping carts - none! - so I wore Lily in the ring sling, pushed Daisy in the cart, and let Caleb walk alongside me. We had the same setup at our second stop, too. Thankfully, at our last stop they had a double kids' cart, so Caleb and Daisy could both ride.

It was exhausting. 

EXHAUSTING. 

But really? The kids rocked it. Caleb never once complained about walking or slowed down or got distracted; no one fussed; no one whined about wanting things. He chose good gifts for his friends, and didn't fuss when we didn't get anything for him. Everywhere we went, people commented on what darling children I had. They held doors for me, returned my cart for me, and generally smiled at us. I was so thankful and proud that, though my children can often behave like crazy little gremlins, they usually save that behavior for private situations. In public, they normally know exactly how to behave, and for that I am so, so grateful.

After shopping, we had just under an hour to put the groceries away, get the kids fed, put Lily down for a nap, wrap a birthday gift, and head to a party. Luckily, Chris was able to help me, and we arrived at the party a mere thirty minutes late. Not too shabby, I say!

I was thankful that

1. It was a pool party on a hot summer day.

2. I didn't have Lily with me, too. (Chris stayed home and worked on wiring while she napped.)

3. Caleb is basically self-sufficient in pools at this point.

In fact, minutes after we arrived, I realized I couldn't find Caleb. Finally, I found him - still clothed! - in the shallow end of the pool. It didn't even cross his mind that he might need adult supervision! My cautious little boy! Aside from the fact that pool safety is kind of a big deal, I was really proud of his independence and gumption as he swam around the pool in his clothes.

In the picture above, you can see Caleb jumping in. Daisy, meanwhile, never got beyond the steps of the pool. (See her there? That's as wet as she got.)

Caleb, however, was a master jumper. Look at him go!

He's flying!

After swimming, both kids got to eat real birthday cake. Needless to say, it was their favorite day ever.

We arrived home to find that Lily was awake and Chris had prepared dinner. What a good man he is! He also had some cell phone pictures of Lily playing under the table.

I love how proud she is of herself!

Hey there, cutie pie!

After dinner, I finally switched Caleb's car seat back to forward-facing. When we drove to visit my grandparents, we turned him rear-facing so that all three kids could watch the DVD player together. He loved it so much that he asked to stay rear-facing! We kept him that way for a few weeks, but since he's five, and quickly approaching his car seat's rear-facing weight limit, and since it was really awkward to get him in and out of the seat, I finally decided to switch him back.

Lily helped!

She's a pro at car seats!

July 11

UPDATED with pictures of Lily in Chris' office!
Item #9 on Caleb's summer to-do list was "Visit Daddy at work and have lunch with him".

Today was the day!

For Father's Day, I gave Chris a new tie, with a matching tie for Caleb and hair bows for the girls. When I told Caleb that we were going to see Daddy at work, he immediately wanted to put on  his "work shirt" and tie. After much wheedling, I convinced Daisy to wear a darling flowered dress. Once she had it on, she twirled and asked Caleb, "Do I look pretty?" He replied, "You look like a worker person. You can be my co-worker!"

Lily was napping (don't even get me started on naptime today. That girl is trying to kill me!), so I didn't get pictures of her dressed up to visit Daddy at work, but Caleb and Daisy were just adorable.

Seriously. 

(Yes, Caleb has a golf club in his hand)

They were so excited to be dressed up and going to see Daddy!

We'd been talking about visiting him for a while, and occasionally I'd hear Daisy chattering to Caleb about offices. She thinks she knows a lot about offices, and she was excited to see Daddy's office.

My sweet little darlings.

Lily woke up from her nap right before it was time for us to go, and we had a lovely visit and lunch with Chris. By the time we dropped him back off at work, all three children were asleep in the back seat. They slept the whole way home, which was lovely, except that then they were awake when we got home. No rest for this weary mama!

Here are a few pictures of Lily in Chris' office:

She was clearly unimpressed. Or maybe she was just overwhelmed by the chaotic mess  of paperwork strewn across Chris' desk?

Future banker?

Maybe not.

Much later, we waited on the front porch for Chris to get home.

Lily ate chalk, and crawled around in chalk, but did not write with chalk.

This girl.

I'm almost ready to sell her to the circus. At least she's sleeping through the night now. And she's cute. Let's hope that's enough.

July 10

As I entered the date for today's post, I accidentally typed July 190. How accurate - it feels as if this month has been 190 days long! Two days of birthday celebrations for Caleb + Lily being impossible for at least one nap a day for the past week = I am worn out! But as I type, Daisy and Lily are asleep, and Caleb is almost there. I'm done in the kitchen for the night, and I'm hoping to get to bed early. I think we all need a good night's sleep to reset our brains!

Today was a stay-in-our-jammies-til-noon kind of day. 

Except for Lily. That girl likes to get dressed.

After breakfast, I found her in her favorite spot: hiding under the kitchen table. She had found an empty water bottle from last night's baseball game and, seated atop Caleb's cape, she was quite pleased with herself.

When it was time to put Lily down for her first nap of the day, Caleb and Daisy asked what they always do anytime I announce that I'm going to put Lily down. "Can we watch something?"

75% of the time, I tell them no.  This was one of those times, and when I left Lily's room after nursing her and rocking her to sleep, I was happy with my choice.

This is what I found: 

Caleb and Daisy had pulled out some folding chairs that Aunt Maggie gave us, set up a new/old step stool from our neighbor as a table, and arranged "breakfast" on the table. They had two babies in the extra chairs, and everyone had a large block as a plate.

It was the cutest thing ever, and it made me so happy that I chose to leave them to their own devices instead of letting them watch TV!

Not cute was an hour later, when they decided to pretend that Luke Skywalker and Padme Amidala were having a birthday party, and they needed to find gifts for them. I was working feverishly in the kitchen, so I didn't notice that they took every book off their bookshelves and every toy out of the toy boxes and even some of their clothes and piled them in the front room. By the time I realized what they were doing, they had amassed a sizeable collection of "gifts" for Luke and Padme. They had also created a colossal mess.

So it goes.

July 9

Happy birthday to my sweet boy Caleb! Four was a rough year for us, but we made it through and I can already tell that five is going to be so much better!

We celebrated last night with birthday cake and presents with the family. At 6:40 this morning, Caleb woke up to balloons in his doorway:

(I'm no fool; I was sound asleep when this happened. Luckily, Chris was prepared with the camera and took a picture for me.)

Caleb informed me later that at first, he thought the balloons were "villains in my doorway, but I ran through them."

Then, Caleb, Daisy, and even Lily had birthday  cake for breakfast. 

(Judging by the piece on the blue plate in the foreground, so did Chris!)

Lily was a jerk about her morning nap (side note: she slept through the night last night, and the night before. She just hates me for one nap a day, apparently?), but instead of fighting to make her sleep, I loaded the kids in the car and we went hunting for birthday cakes.

Our goal was five cakes for Caleb's fifth birthday. 

(Side note: Chris' 33rd birthday is in a few weeks, and we are seriously considering attempting to find 33 cakes in one afternoon. Are we insane? Possibly.)

Cake #1

The party hats were Caleb's idea. He was worried that we weren't really supposed to be there, because it was a synagogue and it was a weekday and he thought we were only supposed to go to church on Sundays. That poor boy is so worried about doing the right thing!

Cake #2, outside an historic church and cemetery. Caleb still has his party hat, but Daisy has ditched hers.

Cake #3, at an auto museum. Lily was getting tired of the whole thing, so I had to give her my car keys to keep her still. Caleb has party hat in hand, but not on his head.

Caleb was super-excited about this old car in front of the museum. 

Lily was mildly interested.

Daisy was nowhere to be found.

Daisy?

Funny boy.

Cake #4, at the Butterfly house. Our whole cake-hunting expedition only took an hour and a half, but everyone was hungry, hence the apples in Lily and Daisy's hands. Lily may only have two bottom teeth, but she's learning how to put those things to good use!

After cake #4, we had a picnic in the park and played on the playground for a little while. Then we headed home, where Lily settled in for a three-hour nap. Knowing we had the baseball game ahead of us, I tried to get the big kids to nap. They were not interested.

Then I pulled out my big bargaining chip: "Do you want to nap with me in my big bed?"

I didn't think it would work, but it totally did. The only problem was that Caleb and Daisy both wanted me to snuggle them, which is kind of challenging. Eventually we figured out an acceptable snuggling arrangement, and all three of us napped for two hours, snuggled up in the big bed.

It was beautiful.

My well-rested five-year-old!

Then Chris got home from work, and we were off to Star Wars night at Busch Stadium!

Cake #5, at Busch Stadium.

We loved our bleacher seats at the last game we attended, but by the time I tried to buy tickets to this game, there were no more bleacher seats available. Boo. We ended up in the nosebleed seats, which were just fine. We had a stunning view of the stadium!

Caleb and Daisy spent a lot of time covering their ears.

Lily didn't mind the noise.

We headed down to see Fredbird, and Caleb and Daisy were the last kids in line to get to see him.

(We bought three tickets to the game, since Lily and Daisy don't need them yet. Three tickets = three shirts; we chose size medium for Chris, small for me, and youth medium for Caleb. Oops. Daisy thought there would be a shirt for her! So Daisy wore Caleb's shirt, and Caleb wore mine, and no one had a shirt that fit. But they make lovely dresses!)

While we were looking for Fredbird, we also found Darth Vader! 

We had to wait in a long line to see him, and Caleb was excited. Then it was our turn, and he was super-shy.

After a few seconds, Caleb warmed up, even giving Darth Vader a high five. We wandered around, looking fruitlessly for more characters, and eventually left sometime after 8:00. Now we're all pooped, and the kids got to bed two hours past bedtime. I'm done with celebrating and late nights for a while!

July 8

We started celebrating Caleb's 5th birthday a day early, eating cake and ice cream with the family.

In the morning, the kids made birthday crowns. Caleb wanted to make his own crown, so Daisy made crowns for Lily and Chris, whose birthday is at the end of the month.

Lily was desperate to do what the big kids were doing, so I gave her a scrap of paper and some crayons, and she actually colored!

Meanwhile, Caleb colored little index-card notes for everyone, and instructed me to write, "Thank you for celebrating with me!" on every single one. He wanted to put each note in a box and wrap it for the people coming over, but I nixed that idea.

We also made a trip out to the Dollar Store, where we picked up paper plates, napkins, balloons, and party hats (at Caleb's request).

At lunchtime today, Caleb and Daisy were talking while they ate. Caleb told Daisy, "When the tornado sirens went off yesterday, I was a little afraid at first." (It was the monthly test of the sirens.)

Daisy replied, "Don't worry, brother. I will protect you. Remember, the Lord says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you."

And then I died from the joy and delight of hearing my children encourage each other with the Word.

When celebration time finally came around after dinner, the kids were so excited! 

Daisy was excited about our matching party hats, so we took this selfie.

Caleb was being a bird. I love Chris' dad wearing a party hat in the background.

Even Lily wore a party hat!

Caleb was pumped about his cake; he requested a round, chocolate cake, with white icing and Superman on top. What the boy wants, the boy gets! I think he really wanted a bakery-style cake with Superman drawn in the icing, but ain't nobody got time for that. Also, ain't nobody interested in eating all of that red and blue food coloring. When I told him that we could top the cake with a real Superman that he could play with later, he was sold.

The cake itself was a chocolate quinoa cake, with buttercream frosting. I thought it was pretty good!

We had a hard time lighting the candles outside, but eventually we got most of them lit long enough to sing "Happy Birthday".

This girl was happy to be eating cake!

So was this girl!

I love how prim and proper Daisy looks as she uses a fork and a spoon to eat her cake.

Grandmother and Grandad brought presents for the girls, too, and Lily really liked the maracas.

Can you see Caleb's face peeking through the card from my mom?

And there it is - Caleb's last picture as a four-year-old.

He's pretty excited to be five! He asked me today if his voice would change when he turned five, but I assured him that he had about ten more years before he would deal with that. Funny boy. We are blessed to have him!