April Showers

We have enjoyed a beautiful spring.  We try to play outside every day, rain or shine.  The boys actually love the rainy days...they are amazing worm (and recently, slug) finders!

Here is our clan with a few neighbors...Clayton (8), Carter (5), and Caleb (1)...this is the regular scene in our front yard!

The boys with Clayton and Carter.

Clayton loves to help with the babies.  Of course, the babies love it too!

The twins actually working together...Declan is the master 'pusher' and Xander is enjoying the ride!

We love going to the park...I am learning that the small, gated community parks are the best way for me to keep track of everyone!

I'm sure if the boys had asked me...'mom, can we turn on the water and cover ourselves with mud' I would have definitely said 'no!'...yet, somehow, here they are!

The boys enjoy climbing our tree.  Well, they can't exactly climb it, but they like standing on it.

Declan fell off a little slide in the backyard...which normally wouldn't have been a big deal, except our backyard is dirt and rocks!

Happy Easter

We had a very busy Easter...3 huge Easter egg hunts.  I really think the boys have more candy than they did at Halloween!  Easton is still the reigning egg-finder.  We trained him well and he has exceeded our expectations! Cache is content to find a few eggs and eat them immediately.  The twins were a lost cause, but by the third egg hunt, they actually gathered 5-6 eggs each.

The highlight of Easter for the twins was walking around the house with buckets on their heads.  

As always, the boys loved dying eggs.  When Easton was 1 he dumped a whole set of egg dye all over our counters and hardwood floor.  Ever since, egg dying has been a highly supervised activity!

Washington DC Kite Festival

One of our favorite events in DC is the kite festival.  Everyone brings a kite and gathers around from the Washington Monument to the Capital.  There are professional competitions, but mainly amateurs like us.  Basically you try to establish your own 10 feet of space and cross your fingers that your kite flies and doesn't get tangled in anyone else's kite (unfortunately, these two things can be quite challenging!).  

Here is the beginning of our adventure.  We decided to take the metro downtown for added excitement.

Next stop, picnic lunch on the Mall (another term used for downtown around the monuments).

The babies were happy tangling up the kite strings.

Occasionally, they even brought us a crashed kite!

Easton was our main kite flyer...kite flying is something that brings pure joy and satisfaction to a kid!

The guys admiring their kite...it finally attained one of the highest positions in the sky!

Easton's kite is the smallest speck in the sky.

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A view of the of the chaos...

Cache decided that flying kites was too frustrating, so David decided to fly Cache instead...

Declan enjoyed himself thoroughly.  He grabbed an apple, a nice place on the blanket, and enjoyed the kite flying properly!

After a good afternoon of flying, we packed up for our adventure back home!

March Madness

Here is our own version of March madness...

I have lost one of the twins before and found them between the storm door and the front door (both of which were closed).  They love to play with the front door.

If there is anything remotely worth climbing, Declan and Xander have climbed it.

Since Declan was hogging the car ramp, Xander found another way to play...

The cupboards are frequently emptied and filled with new contents!

Xander turns everything into a cell phone.  

Ooops.  I put the wrong baby to bed first this time!

Cache and Olivia playing 'nap'.  Olivia is a 2 year old friend we watch every Mon-Wed morning in exchange for tuition at Easton's preschool.   

Cache and Olivia playing 'vet'.  We got out all the stuffed animals and medical supplies and I'm proud to report all the animals passed their exams!

Declan enjoying the pile of stuffed animals...

Cache made me a special lego man today (all the yellow pieces are heads!)

We went on a walk this morning after a semi-rainy evening.  We found lots of worms on the sidewalk trying to make their way back to the dirt before drying out.  We poured our water on many of them and brought a few home.  Cache said, 'Mom, we are heroes. We saved the worms lives!'  Easton and Cache made a home for the worms on our porch and played with them for an hour.

I finally made a traditional St. Patricks dinner.  Corned beef (cooked in beer!), cabbage, carrots, green jello,  and pretzel rolls.

Let's just say this morning was really busy.  I was trying to make bread and right after I added the second batch of flour, one of the kids had an emergency and I guess I didn't lock the lid all the way before I ran off to help.  When I came back a minute later, this is what I found!

Thanks to our camera-man, Easton, we can now capture more moments of insanity.  Cache is acting as my pillow, I am acting as Xander's pillow, and Declan is just to be our blanket!

This is what you call a handful of kids...even then, Xander was left out!