Ahhhh...

VACATION!  This is the only photo we got of all four of us. 

Lots more happy faces and places...

where these came from, but there's no telling how long it will take me to get through the thousands of pics.  So, this is a start! 

More of the First Day

Remember how annoying it was when you were a kid and your parents were having fun?

This about says it all.

 Animals all over the place at this place.

Feeding ducks and geese and whatnot is old hat for these little people.

 We spent a lot of time with rocks, too. 

I think that was probably his favorite part of the whole trip.

Throwing rocks in the water.

"Exercising."

 Picking out videos. 

Making an ever-loving mess of anything they can get their hands on.

 I told you the animals were all over the place - even the parks - and the kids couldn't get enough of it. 

They couldn't get enough of the pool, either.

One of our favorite times - It's Tulip Time!

Taking care of Bert before we took off for the tulips.

Tully watching his one and only favorite show.  We really need to get another Yo Gabba Gabba dvd 'cause this one is getting old and worn out quick.  (Yes, we have it On Demand, but that's not on "his t.v.")

 Jaisie taking pics of Bert's habitat (one of them, anyway). 

A FIRST!  Tully pointing.

Guess what he's so thrilled about?  Being bad.  I'm not joking.  I told him to stop eating the styrofoam.  He kept doing it.  I told him to stop eating the styrofoam.  He kept doing it and loved that he was still doing it.  I'm pretty sure he knew I couldn't reach it... or him.

  Trying to Embrace it.  These two wouldn't look at the camera at the same time with a normal look on their faces no matter what we bribed them with.

It was so hot outside on this day and guess what she insisted on wearing?!  Jaisie-4.  Momma-1.

At least this one still wears whatever I put him in.

 I did have a few moms comment on how cute she was.  One said I was going to get some amazing pictures.  I told her I wasn't holding my breath for those. 

Taking a five-year-old with a baby brother to the tulip festival is much different than taking one one-year-old.

 We didn't even go near the bouncy things when Jaisie was one.  Having him in there about scared me to death. 

He loved it, of course.

Daddy did have to go rescue him, though, and he was NOT HAPPY about it (Tully not Josh).

 The five-year-old was NOT interested in the flowers in the least.   

In fact, she insisted we were "torturing" her.

She "really wanted to go play" - meaning she wanted to jump in the bouncies and ride rides and do anything other than what we were actually there to do (enjoy the tulips).

  Don't think for a second that the little man isn't just as opinionated as his big sister.  He is.

  This almost looks like it could be a sweet picture of her smelling a flower.  Nope.  She was actually stuck in the mud (due to her insistence on wearing her "flops") and throwing quite a little tantrum about it. 

 He was "hot". 

And thirsty, apparently, since he started tugging on my water bottle screaming "Water!" like we'd stranded him in the Sahara. 

 What's wrong with this picture? 

Yes, that's the five-year-old sitting in the stroller pouting because we made her look at flowers and refusing to walk because her feet were "too dirty" and the one-year-old pushed her all the way out of the fields.  Our little caveman is STRONG and KIND!

She sure got a second wind when she saw that slide, though, of course.

Didn't seem to care so much about the mud between her toes any more when there was a big 'ol pile of hay to play on.

 He played with this do-hickey for a long time while Jaisie played in a sandbox with another little girl and I sat in the shade praying there wasn't some god-awful infectious amoebas attacking them in the water or the sand.   

The grand finale for our little girl.

No doubt it was the highlight of her day.

As we were driving away, she said "I want to do that sky jump thing first tomorrow next time we go back.  Do you guyses hear me?  FIRST!!"

Yes, we hear you.

The little caveman's grand finale.

Pretty sure this was his first pony ride ever, but who could keep track of such things?!

 It's moments like these...

Parties, parks and playdates is the theme of this week's post.

Jaisie has a look that Nany calls "The Jennifer Look" and she mostly busts it out when she's not getting what she wants.

One of her friends had a pizza-making birthday party. 

It was an unusually sunny day here in Oregon, so they took full advantage of it!

I heard a joke, today, during my commute that cracked me up:  "How do you know it's spring in Oregon?"  The rain is warmer.  HA HA HA HA!!!!

Pointing.

Last night, it had been about an hour since we'd tucked Jaisie in when we heard her door creek open and her little feet padding over to the top of the stairs.  "DaddyMommy, I need my iPad.  I just need to do one thing.  I'm not going to get angry like tomorrow (meaning yesterday), but I'm not going to give up."

We let her have it.

For five minutes.  Because who on Earth could argue with that?  After we finished laughing, we wondered how long she'd been up there contemplating and rehearsing her so very well-articulated and rational argument. 

  She's still talking about how she got to bring Caden his Angry Birdies cake. 

  And, see!  We don't have the only four-year-old Angry Birds fanatic on our hands. 

Josh made a point at the party of letting everyone know that this gang of friends is FINE FOR NOW, but he might have a problem with it ten years from now (if she's still the only girl). 

  Cars.  They're all really into matchbox cars (so, Jaisie tells us). 

She also got to open a present her ownself because Caden wasn't able to bring it to her party the week before.  "Erpunza" is now a part of it all.

Two things she REALLY loves about going to other people's homes:  their pets and pianos.

 You can just imagine what her Daddy thinks about this.   

Don't think we'd leave this little ham out.

He's still all about saying "Cheese!" any time anywhere.

We also experienced our very first Tully Tattletale moment.  It was awesome.

We were in the kitchen and they were in the play room when Tully came running in with one little hand holding his head and the other hand pointing into the play room screaming "A.C.!  A.C.!  Owww!  Owww!"  I had to kiss his head and pat his back and get him ice and make Jaisie (a.k.a. what sounds like "A.C.") go sit on the think-and-be-calm stair before he was satisfied.  

Bowling with Josh's employees.

Such a great-looking group and a ton of fun!

Jaisie really took to Josh's boss.  She was sucking up like nobody's business (and we didn't even coach her beforehand). 

Daddy, Tully and Jaisie's play date.

These two are too cute for words together!

Today, after dance class, Jaisie was very excited to tell us all about how the two of them helped the two new girls (twins) learn the routine.

 These two are also too cute for words.   

 More park time (Did I mention we've had some unusually sunny weather?  Can you tell it's a rather big deal up here?)

Jaisie made a new friend at this park named Gracie.  We ended up spending a lot more time there than we'd planned.

Mis - chiev - i - ous!!!!

Back in her favortie dress!  It's amazing this thing ever even gets washed.

Um... yeah...

Easter.  (Sticking the tongue over the front teeth holes is apparently commonplace these days.)

 It seems I totally forgot to do an Easter post. 

Well, here it is.  Early morning opening a gorgeous basket sent from Grandma and Grandpa in Arizona.

 Sugar for breakfast is always a good way to start the day.  Right?! 

We didn't need to give Tully any instruction in egg- hunting.  Once Jaisie started in after noticing the first hidden egg, he was all over it.  The only problem was he found the prize egg - ALL ON HIS OWN!  We never expected that.

Jaisie was not happy about it, to say the least. 

 We learned that, next year, the Easter Bunny will be asked to leave two prize eggs to keep the peace and save our sanity.

 Jaisie spent a LOT of time with this bunny purse she got several years ago from Grandma like she'd never seen it before. 

That's Mammaw in the background of the previous picture.  She's back from Hobbs and the kids are especially LOVING having her here.

Tully takes after his Daddy when it comes to loving brunch.

Speaking of things we totally forgot...

we just realized this week that we failed to register Jaisie for kindergarten.

Here she is making "chicken soup" for everybody to add to their brunch plates.

 Yes, it's a darn good thing she's so smart because kindergarten registration happened back in January.  February was the deadline.  There was a lottery.  We missed it. 

It's all good, though, because she's registered now.  Well, mostly.  Probably not in our preferred sessions and she's wait-listed for the language immersion program, but it could've been worse.  And surely there are others out there with Parenting Problems much larger than our own.

The day Josh finally got the registration all finished up Jaisie came home from Taekwondo and was showing us some of what she learned.  "Ichi!", "Ni!", "San!" (or something like that) and I asked her what she was saying.  She said "That's counting to ten in Japanese, Mommy."  Like, duh?!  How could I not know that?  It was one of the cutest things I 've ever witnessed.

  So, the way I look at it is she can count to ten (and beyond) in English, Spanish and Japanese before kindergarten has even started, what the heckfire would she need a language immersion program for anyway?! 

Oh, and this one!  He's a regular little master manipulator (especially when it comes to Momma).  Yesterday, Nany told him he could have chips after he finished his food.  So, when I came down, he hugged me and gave me a big kiss and said "Momma, chips?"  And started pointing at the cabinet.  Of course, I got him chips.  Then, Nany came in.

He also loves one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba.  It is the one and only show he has ever been interested in.  The thing is he thinks only his Daddy can turn it on. 

Josh comes home from work the other day and Tully comes running straight toward him.  Josh gets this big smile and stretches out his arms to sweep Tully up and give him all kinds of Daddy's-home love when Tully runs right past him screaming "Daddy!  Ya-Ya!  Ya- Ya!" then straight to the t.v. where he pulls up his little chair and puts the dvd in and then sits there... waiting. 

Guess he's still got a few things to learn.

After the hunt, they were counting the eggs to make sure all had been found.  We were missing one.

It took us forever to find it.  Always remember to look up!

What would any event be without an Angry Birdie?  And don't ask me why she's sweeping the lawn.  I can't explain much of the happenings around here any more.  

Wrapping up Jaisie's 5th Birthday! 

We obviously had her fifth birthday pictures taken before she decided to give herself a home makeover.    We also decided that since we now have FIVE sitting-on-the-block pictures we're not going back to that photography studio any more.  The photographers are wondeful and they're very accomodating, but the lighting is odd.  It always makes the kids hair appear reddish and much darker than it really is.  Josh finally figured out why.  Hanging way high up in the rafters - above the photography studio lighting - is a dark red light.  Like I said, odd.  Anyway... here are the answers to this year's birthday interview from our darling little princess (who has taken to telling us, this week,  "I am FIVE YEARS!" every time she wants to do something she isn't normally allowed to do - like play her new Leap Pad in her bed).

1.  What are you most looking forward to on your birthday?

Angry Birdies Cake

2.  What's you favorite color?

Pink!

3.  What's your favortie game?

Play-doh

4.  What's your favorite food?

Eggs & Cheese

5.  What's your favorite book?

Goodnight Goon

6.  What's your favorite t.v. show?

Caillou

7.  What do you want to be when you grow up?

A Spy Kid

8.  Who do you like to do things with?

Daddy!  And Mommy, Tully & Nany.

9.  What do you do for fun?

Friday Night Dance Party!

10.  What do you like most about school?

Painting

 Taken during our annual birthday outing to The Family Fun Center. 

We usually get some of our greatest birthday shots from inside that place, but this year, neither one of us was into lugging around the camera.

So, we skipped it and just took pictures with our phones.

I did manage to pull the camera out for some impromptu park play time pics.

The weather was pretty good (meaning it wasn't raining) and you can't pass a park without playing if it's not raining, right?

Tully's still amazing us with everything considering he's only a year old.

We wouldn't have let Jaisie slide by herself at a year old if somebody paid us actual dollars to let her do it.  No way!  But the boy?

  Well, the boy's in a league of his own!

We also took the promised trip back to the pet store.

She hadn't forgotten.

Oh, how we wished she'd forgotten.

But she hadn't and so here she is picking out her new leopard tortoise.  She named "him" (still too little to tell) "Bert" right there in the store.  This is especially funny to us because if you ask Tully what his name is, he says "Ernie!" 

Guess who got ANOTHER visit from The Tooth Fairy?  No, we weren't any more prepared for it this time, either.  This tooth didn't just jump out, though.  Jaisie and Daddy were playing hide-and-seek and she was hiding under a blanket (holding it still with her teeth) and when he yanked it off of her, the tooth went flying.  You would've thought it was the end of the world.  We called Nany again and she finally calmed down and got excited (Jaisie - not Nany).

Easter morning showing Bert off to Mammaw.  Jaisie was so thrilled with her new pet!

Right up until he pooped on her.  Then... well, let's just say she wasn't so thrilled any more.