Four

And just like that, we've hit the four year mark. I wish I could come up with something deep, or even comprehensive, about the young woman that Henrietta is becoming. She is, well, she's Henri. And we love her, and are frustrated by her, and she makes me laugh, and she makes me scream (not my finest parenting moment), and she has the sweetest heart, and she can be totally heartless (I'll have to tell you her take on King Herod's law about infanticide....), and she loves order if it's her version of order, and she's a great helper, and she finally knows all her letters and is this close to reading, her sense of fashion is disastrous (not that I'm one to talk about fashion), she has an insanely good memory and is super observant, she mothers all her dolls and stuffed animals, and my fridge is going to collapse from the weight of all her drawings.
Hen had pretty simple requests this year: a jump rope, supper of rotisserie chicken, and a strawberry cake. She "decorated" the cake by dumping an entire bottle of sprinkles on it, and it was a big hit. We met up with Steve at Chik-fil-A for lunch but otherwise her day was low key. Looking forward to seeing what this next trip around the sun brings for our Sunshine!

She wakes up cheerful in the morning

Steven decorated for her

Birthday waffles and HUGE strawberries. And birthday balloons.

She got her jump rope!!! And a Waldo book. Except she just flipped open a page and said "oh, there's Waldo (flip another page) there's Waldo..." She is scary observant. (I still can't find Waldo...)

And then the kids piled on my bed like they do most mornings so I attempted a birthday photo shoot and of course I was blessed with total cooperation. Not. 

She picked out her outfit (like every day) and I was amused to see it was a birthday themed shirt. 

So many of these would have been perfect if she would just smile. 

I had to keep one hand on Hud for most of this so that he wouldn't be in the frame. Once allowed up, they just wanted to play so there was no nice sibling shot. 

Most of it looked like this

OK, just a few of my little love bug...

He adores his sister, he isn't content unless she's right next to him.And then he just wants to torment her. But it's all done in love. I think. 

Lots of smooches

Happy Birthday!!!!!

No rhyme or reason

The pictures have been random about uploading, and then almost all of them are either of us playing outside (heelllooooo Spring!), or of food we're eating outside (because, again, Spring!). None of the artsy shots of the garden Hen and I (foolishly) put in, the mulching I got done, or the sandbox I made for the kids, but just imagine an uneven raised bed, mulch covering all the plants that might have come up, and this black plastic tub half buried and surrounded by rocks, and you get the gist.My housework has been completely neglected, all the laundry has been line dried (yay!), and our leafs have budded out. It's been a good week :)

Her hair's getting long

Lots of selfies

The occasional sibling affection

Made hot cross buns for the neighbors. It ensures good luck and neighborly relations all year. We have great neighbors already, so it probably wasn't necessary :) But they tasted great!

Easter morning egg hunt

Ignore the classy backdrop of dirty dishes...

I tucked him in and pulled the plug for service

Easter babies!

The weather shield arrived just in time for me to test it out along with my new running jacket in 30 degree and raining weather. I can not wait for this stupid 5k to be done so I can stop having to run struggle whine "train".

Hudson checking himself out in the phone haha

He'd just brushed his teeth and was admiring them

Lest you think he's always "so cute", here's how he is most of the time at home: mid-shriek and temper fit. I especially like that I caught him doing his foot kick thing. 

....and then he moves on to destroying the pantry. This was an especially hard day for both of us as the anticipated chocolate chip cookies didn't get to happen

Just doing her thing

Um.....kind of typical evening actually. They are lucky to have the best dad in the world. 

Hudson making breakfast

Park break on a long walk/run on Saturday. It amazes me how many incredible playgrounds we're surrounded by. I know my kids take it for granted, but I'm very jealous of them. 

Major progress in one winter. She's climbing everything now!

And he still goes headfirst down slides

Still super happy with my BOB. The kids seems to like it a lot more than the old stroller too. I like it even more when Steve's with us because he does the pushing ;) 

Sunday morning

my babies

Painting flowers for playgroup

The boy is beyond obsessed with balls. One of the teens made his little life by playing soccer with him last night :)

Picnicking! Love not having much clean up, and the birds love all the crumbs

Hudson and his fire truck. It's getting lots of mileage :)

There you have it! I'm eagerly anticipating a day off on Saturday at a Ladies Conference at a church in NH (though it will be sad to be inside all day in such nice weather), and then another looooong walk around Cambridge on Sunday after church with the family. We should be getting rain tomorrow so maybe some housework will finally get tackled :)

March Madness

It's finally Spring!!! And spring weather! And also our yard is a mud pit, so we're still not spending much time outside actually playing. But soon! Instead, Steve has started commuting by bike again, so I've had the car. Normally the kids and I go out once a week to shop and do the library. This week we've gone out every single day and I've hated it. Nothing is getting done, the kids need their unstructured play, and I feel so behind my on my (self imposed) tasks. Normal scheduling will resume next week, but in the meantime I've gotten a taste of how other moms live, and it's not for me! So what have we been doing??? Apparently a lot of walks and tackling of each other if the camera is to be believed :)

Tissue paper throwing

Adorable hand-me-down hoodie

Touring old houses

They gave Henri a paper with items to find as we went through. She loved it!

More greenhouses

I think we're going to adopt a cactus. Henri is very fascinated by them. and maybe I won't be able to kill it...

Hudson is finally sitting somewhat quietly through a whole book

I'll have to post the video later, but the boy can dance and run in these slip on, much too big for him, high heeled shoes. He's very pretty.

Dancing

If you can't beat them, let them join. It's time to admit I have created coffee addicts. Instead of having to fight them off my cup, after naptime I brew a fresh pot that's mostly decaf and they get their own (shot)glass.

But inevitably it's gone and then there's sorrow

After haunting Craigslist for a few months I finally got my BOB double jogger!!!! And taking pity on the kids, I also ordered a weather shield that should arrive just when we don't need it anymore. Oh well. We now own three jogging strollers and two kid bike seats....and one car. Clearly we're city folk at this point. 

Spent a Saturday morning learning the basics of calligraphy with pen and ink. So. much. fun! My normal handwriting is atrocious so this is taking a lot of work, but it's a really fun practice. Who knows, maybe I can get good enough to address wedding envelopes for a home business. Hah.

Taught the 2+3's Children's Church this past week and we made finger puppets for the story of Esther. All the kids loved it and were very meticulous.

So, once upon a time there was this super hot guy who married a girl that got, shall we say kindly, chubby. And finally he was sick of her making statements indicating an intention of some day working out whilst sitting on the couch eating chocolate, so he signed them both up for a 5K to be run 7 weeks hence (and yes, I know there are those of you reading this for whom a 5k is the warm up to your every day runs, but as one who is convinced their lungs are going to collapse after a few feet this has been murder!). And every day since they've loaded up the kids (a 15 minute ordeal) and sllllooooooowwwwlllly struggled through the Couch to 5K workout. Well, the hot guy hasn't. He ran a 5k, in the middle of a 6 mile slog, in sub-25minutes this past weekend, so he'll be fine. But the girl could use your prayers. And sympathy. And a chocolate bar when this is over. Thanks. 

That's snow. Not a hill with snow on it, but a hill made all of snow (and sand, obviously). We're never going to see grass again.

Hudson reading to Henri

Hudson's tie to match Henri's dress for Easter

'Ol Faithful has made it to 175K! 

Lamb ear headband

These appeared yesterday. The green nubs should also be flowers, but the groundhog/squirrel/opossum/skunk ate them already

Long walks are still a sure-fire way to make her nap. For all my whining, I really have been enjoying the training (well, parts of it. The non-running parts). Hudson sings to us to keep up the motivation, Henri hounds us until we get out of the house and then critiques our speed (never fast or long enough to suit her). Hudson yells out "car!" every time one approaches to make sure we get over, and apparently the neighbors have become vested in our enterprise because I went out by myself yesterday and got asked if we were having marital problems by a guy a few houses down because we always jog together, lol. 

We have a super busy and exciting weekend coming up with Good Friday, Final Four Saturday, and then Easter!!! My daily "to do" list has been finalized and I start the baking tomorrow morning with Hot Cross Buns and carrot cake. Yuuuummmm!