how to survive a rainy week

So we are super bored around here. It has been raining and cold all week and we have been inside way too much. Mary sent the girls a rainy day survival pack, it has lots of crayons and Paint. Violet loves to paint and color but Claire really loves to finger paint. It's even more fun if you get to be nakie while you paint because then you get to do body art too.

our little "butting" artist. ok now you know how bored I am I am making up unfunny puns :)
what?

Also, since Peter doesn't get home till 7 it has been a real struggle to get dinner made without a big fight, a tantrum and some destruction, so I decided we needed something cool to keep in the kitchen to keep the girls entertained while I made dinner. A little plastic tote filled with play sand and some sand toys and cars and animals and little plastic jewels and bugs and you've got an indoor sandbox! I know you think I may be insane but the girls are pretty good about keeping the sand in the box and they loved it! They sat for 45 minutes straight while I made dinner.

I buried a bunch of stuff in the sand and the girls had so much fun finding everything. Claire found an elephant!

Also on thursday we got to sneak over to the cider mill after preschool with Olivia and Rachel. There were baby goats born that morning and they were so precious! My camera was at home so maybe Rachel will share some pictures on her blog later. The girls had a blast and of course we had some donuts. We left just as the rain started and a field trip of preschoolers showed up. Just in time! So we are surviving our boring rainy season, but we are really anxious for some sunny weather! Hope you all are well. We are ready to count down to August when everyone will be here.

Oh kids

The girls have been having bedtime at the same time the past couple of weeks and we usually have a quiet show going on the mini dvd player to help keep them quiet while they fall asleep. Well Claire fell asleep right away and I went to check on Violet. She had the light on, and was standing in Claire's crib watching the show! Claire slept through the whole thing.

I cannot believe that our little Sam is 3 now. I was pregnant with him when we moved to Houston and to think we've been here over 3 years now, that seems like a long time. Around Christmas time the boys got really into dinosaurs. For Sam's birthday we went to the Dino museum and they both got model dinosaur bones.

We opted out of the traditional cake route for Sam'e birthday and went with blueberry muffins instead. He's not really a cake guy, and that is okay, we really didn't need a big birthday cake to eat up.

We had a great time with the Flynn family. Our kids really took to Kya, especially Sam.

Allison and Kya got along really well, as well as 8 month olds can get along. They are very cute.

Kya and her buddy Sam, he is such a softy when it comes to babies.

That is about all we've been up to. The boys are taking swimming lessons and Wesley loves them! Sam is a little more leary of the water, but hopefully he will get it someday. Growing up in Washington we never really HAD to learn how to swim because honestly I never really remember going to a pool. But here, swimming is the thing to do in the sweltering summer sunshine. So we learn to swim. I wish I could swim. It looks really fun, and it is good exercise too!

What a cutie :)

Kya is starting young :)