Fun with Ty

Ty and his friend Tate came down to play with the girls while I was cooking dinner.  Jillian and Bridget went downstairs to get in the dress-up bins with Ty and Tate.  Later when I went to see what they were doing I saw the guys were totally into the dress up too.  The girls thought it was hilarious and I'm sure very entertaining. 

Finding Hands

Tor has found his hands! He now spends much of his time cramming them into his mouth. It's actually been kind of nice because he preoccupies (self-soothes?) himself this way for a while. If this is any indication of the future, he typically puts his right hand in his mouth (as opposed to what this photo shows).

Jillian's Preschool Graduation

Jillian is now a preschool graduate! She had her graduation ceremony tonight, and lots of family came to watch. She and her classmates performed in the Calvary Community Church sanctuary, doing lots of songs with sign language. Jillian had a big smile the entire time. At the end, she said her full name and received a medal to wear. The teachers also showed a slideshow of all the kids, including saying what they wanted to be when they grew up (Jillian said "A Teacher"). After it was over, everyone had cookies and punch in the foyer, where Jillian, Adam and Bridget ran wild with all of the other kids, while Tor snoozed. Jillian was very excited about the whole event. Now she's really looking forward to Kindergarten!

This photo shows Jillian in her pretty yellow dress with her teacher Mrs. Cathcart.

VB Weekend

The volleyball team played in Seattle this weekend and on Saturday Rielee was there to play with Jillian and Bridget.  This was one attempt of many to get a picture of them with Torion.  Jillian was being silly and smiling with her eyes closed.  Bridget only wanted to look at Torion and Torion was fascinated by all that was going on around him.  He watched the action on the volleyball court for a long time before he was worn out from all the attention and took a nap.  The volleyball team did an awesome job and ended up second overall in this prestigious tournament.

Talking Boy

Tor loves to talk! When he's in a good mood, like when he's been fed, and laying down or in his bouncy seat, he'll look us right in the eyes and try to say something. Usually it will just be something like "ooh" or "ahh", and he'll really work himself up to say it. And once he does, he'll get a big smile on his face, like this shows.

Pre-school bike ride

The children brought their bikes to pre-school Friday.  They had a track set up in the parking lot where they could ride in circles.  Jillian did very well without having training wheels and she just learned to ride without them a short while ago.  Some kids brought scooters too.  After riding they had snacks outside and celebrated one of the children's birthday. 

Jillian is very compassionate towards Sophie.  The other day I told her how Sophie would wander up to the neighbors when she was let outside her fence and wouldn't come back.  I told her about our plan to disguise Papa and have him hide behind a tree before she crossed the neighbor's driveway so she too frightened to go there again.  Jillian said that she didn't want Sophie to be scared like that.  Friday when she asked if the plan worked, I had to tell her that we tried and for some reason Sophie wouldn't go up to the neighbors.  She replied that Sophie didn't go to the neighbors as she had a talk with Sophie and told her not to go there.  We can call her the dog whisperer now.

Rielee Fun

Jillian has been asking for a peanut butter pie lately so Jillian and Bridged helped make one.  Jillian stirred and stirred while Bridget kept trying to sneak her finger into the bowl.  Then they had a great time licking the bowl clean.

Next was school which Jillian hasn't done for awhile because of the nice weather and she did fine.  Now Bridget will do school every day at the same time with Papa doing "Starfall" on the computer and working on a letter of the alphabet each day.  Afterwards when I asked what sound A says, she would say apple.  She is so excited to get a small reward like Jillian when she works hard.

The highlight of the day was when Rielee came to visit.  They played with everything and did everything from the play fort to dolls to jeeps and scooters.  This time they found the dress-up bins and wore these outfits the rest of the time.  They kept saying they were going to put on a show but they ended up being shy and hiding behind a tree.  Rielee got to stay for dinner which Jillian was so excited about.  When Rielee went home in the evening they were exhausted and it was soon snack time and bed.

Finally Slip-n-Slide

Jillian has been asking for the slip-n-slide every nice day but it wasn't that warm until Friday.  So Papa set it up and she was ready to go running fast and sliding down fast.  She made so many trips up the hill to go over and over while Bridget was content to sit and watch in the warm pool.

Finally Jillian convinced Bridget to try it.  She went once and only once and then back to the warm pool.

When Jillian got too cold she would join Bridget in the warm pool.  Their game was jumping in the pool and trying to splash all the water out.  They were pretty successful at that.

Pre-School Mother's Day Tea

The Mother's went early to the classroom where their children gave them a make-over and put flowers in their hair before the tea.  All the Mother's looked so pretty.

The children sang a song for the Tea and while they were lined up in front, Jillian and her friend Emma shared a joke or something and were trying not to laugh out loud.

This is part of the group that were singing a song with hand motions.  You can see how challenging that is with a group of 5 year olds.  Jillian did a great job though following the teacher!
After the song Jillian joined Mommy, Bridget and me at the table where we enjoyed some tea and goodies.

Thursday, kinda nice

It was cloudy and cool in the morning Thursday so the girls wanted to do bead projects.  I gave Bridget a pipe cleaner to string beads so they wouldn't slip off.  At the beginning she would put one on and then take it off or hold the pipe cleaner by one end and try to put the bead on the other end which was nearly impossible.  But she is persistent and kept working until she could do it easily and made this bracelet and was very happy with herself.  In fact, Jillian wants to do the same thing for her friends the next time we get the beads out.

I played the "Wicked Stepmother" and ordered the girls to clean up their tree house and they pretended to be scared.  They got busy right away but it didn't last too long before they were back to playing in it.

It did get warm enough in the afternoon to get out the sprinkler. Ty was watching them and they finally got him to jump over the sprinkler, so brave of him!  Bridget didn't want to run through the sprinkler at first but finally she did get enough courage to run through the middle.
 

Fun with the Cousins

After school Tierney came to play with the girls.  First they started at the Play Fort and Jillian showed Tierney the tricks on the swing that Brock had showed her yesterday.  One was swinging sideways so you ran into the bushes and the other was swinging standing up.  Yikes!  They did the climbing wall and Jillian only needed some help at the top.  Bridget tried a couple of steps.

The day before Papa had given the girls rides on the lawn tractor and Jillian steered.  Today Tierney had them ride in the wagon behind the tractor and they rode for a long time.  They asked for the bumpy areas as they were the most fun.

Brock and his friend Kyle were here and entertained the girls out front on the basketball court for a long time and even set up the small hoop for them.  Then when Daddy joined them he made a chalk racetrack for Bridget and Jillian to ride their scooters and drew figures inside .  Staying on the track was a challenge for Bridget but Jillian scared us all for how fast she would go, jumping off just before she hit the rocks or car.

Today I let Sophie out of her fenced yard when the girls were playing in the sandbox.  Sophie joined them in the sandbox and proceeded to dig holes all over like she does at the beach.  The girls were burying things for her to find.  Sophie and the girls had lots of fun playing together.  A very busy day all around and I'm sure bedtime was easy.

Spiders and Hammock

The first time outdoors the girls saw this group of baby spiders that had just hatched.  It was cute because they were crawling all over and making a small webs.  The girls were fascinated.

Papa had just put up the hammock and it was the hit of the day.  Jillian loves to swing up high.  When Bridget first got on and I started to swing them, Bridget didn't want any part of that and got off.  Later on though she went as high as anyone.  Here they're giving Brock and ride. 

They had a great time with Brock.  Later they spent a lot of time in the Pirate fort riding the zip lines.  Jillian stated that she had so much fun with Brock.

This is Jillian's "Ocean Frieze" as she called it.  I'm not sure where she got that term and if she was referring to art or science.  At Bedtime Ty came so he got the pleasure of reading to the girls.  Later when I checked he was sound asleep and so were the girls-the earliest they have been asleep all year.  Way to go Ty!