. best .97 cents ever .

it's HOT outside!  and i was trying to find a cheap and easy activity that we could do outside to keep cool without putting on swimsuits and going through all of that craziness with 4 little ones.  look what i found for 97 cents each ...

if we had nothing else to do, they'd play with these water bottles for HOURS!  we're trying to learn not to squirt faces and our main activity with them is to paint the fence ...

. boxed 'em up .

it's always the simple things that make kids happy.  we buy toys and make tons of plans, but it always ends up being the silliest things that occupy them for hours ...

a box.  who knew?!?

. i stepped out of the room .

and then we cleaned up.

. easter projects .

i think i have an obsession with handprint art.  :)

. happy spring .

yes, i'm still open.  apparently this blog gets the back burner!  sorry.

these kids keep me busy, all day, with the exception of the 2 hours they crash and burn.  seriously, we play so hard all morning that they are asking me to take a nap by 1:00. 

since is spring and super close to easter, we've been doing a lot of this ...

they get VERY excited when i bring out the eggs to play with and we work very hard at matching colors and recognizing colors.  they know the rules though .. no eggs in the mouth, no throwing eggs, no eggs on the floor.  and they do really good at following the rules.

L did NOT want to play with the eggs that day, but she usually dives in!  she is definitely finding her place.

we play with the eggs probably every day.  one day, i hid them outside and let them find them.  one day we washed them.  one day we hid them inside.  they like to roll them all over.  and i even put 2 pieces of pasta in them one day and let them shake them.  there are endless possibilities when it comes to plastic eggs!

. sweet friends .

. st. patrick's day craft .

yes, i now have green peas all over my house.  but they turned out really cute.

. busy day .

i had a busy day planned, but i think this was the favorite thing we did ...

we NEVER play in the front, but it was so nice out and the backyard was muddy, so we tried it.  i worry because our driveway is so steep that they'll get going and not be able to stop until they face the concrete, but we attempted a "no run" rule and they still had the best time.  here is one instance, however, where they "forgot" not to run.  M was chasing B.   and i think he liked it.  :)

i then attempted a group picture.  here is a sequence of them i got.  i didn't get one where everyone was looking with their eyes open, but i think between the 5, there is at least one good one of each kid.

. trampoline .

the babies get on the trampoline every single day.  it's probably their favorite thing to do.  here are some shots from this mornings play time ...

these kids are SO MUCH FUN.  they are growing so fast and learning even faster.  our favorite thing right now is singing "God our Father" before every meal and snack and it makes my heart smile when they parents tell me that they now sing it at their dinner table b/c their sweet baby insists on it.  :) 

. march activities .

we are having even more fun now that the babies are older and can do a whole lot more.  my passion for taking care of kids comes from the reactions i get when i teach them something.  i LOVE seeing their little faces learn new things. 

i decided to start doing things for each month, such as ...
*march sensory tub ... filled with green lentils and has gold coins, along with 4 leaf clovers in it.
*march playdoh ... green with gold glitter
*one week we will do all rainbow activities
*and st. patty's day is already planned with tons of fun things.

here is something we are now doing for each month as well ...

how cute is that?!?!  i have a theme for each month, march being "spring", so you'll see these more often.  i'll get up a picture of our playdoh and sensory tub soon.  right now, we spend our days playing outside and thoroughly enjoying the weather before it gets hot!!

. thankful for the weather .

the weather has been beautiful this week and we've been in and out every single day.  they have loved it. 

they were playing with dirt and rolly-pollies.  is that what they're called?

this boy always has his tongue out!  :)

. sweet baby L .

this girl keeps me laughing.  they all do.  L walked around with these sunglasses on for a good 30 minutes that day.  of course, she has a set of keys in her hand.  that's the favorite toy around here.

. valentine fun .

so, valentine's day was not all that i wanted it to be.  my daughter got sick with the flu that day and was in quaratine while the other kiddos were here so we didn't get to do all i had planned.  {note: she got sick that day.  we didn't know she was sick and none of the other kids got it, thank goodness.}

here are some pictures to highlight our day ...

yummy cupcakes from B's mom. 

i had a bowl of little hearts and some heart shape silicone things (why can i not think of what they are called?!?!) ... anyways, they had a blast sorting the hearts and putting on in each spot. 

that day we also played with valentine blocks and conversation hearts.  we had heart shape waffles for breakfast and the cute little heart cupcakes for snack.  it so wasn't what i hoped for, but with a sick kiddo, everything changed!!!

. v is for valentine .

we spent a whole day where we talked about the letter "V" for valentine.  the kids had so much fun coloring, painting, gluing, and anything else we could find.

. we're not getting sick! .

my oldest daughter has the flu and this is how we're preventing getting it ourselves.  it'll work, right?!  i tried to get the babies to put them on their mouths, but they insisted that they were hats.  hilarious!