Just fun.

Great morning-girls were in better moods today-sleep can do that! Running around and having fun. I made some pancakes, and who doesn't love that for breakfast. After getting the little ones settled and the big ones hyped up for time with Grandma, Jenny & I went to the outlet for a little while with the babies. Got a few deals for the kiddos and nice to get some time to chill with the little ones and do some adult type stuff like shopping. Without fighting. Jane has pretty much reached the age where she's got to be in a really good mood or have lots of incentives to do a much shopping-and with 2 kids--I find that I don't have much attention left for the actual shopping. Any opportunity to go without is awesome.

Typical day...

Today was probably a pretty normal day when you get 4 kids under the age of 4 together at once! Kids running around like crazy, learning to share, feeding and holding babies, the occasional tantrum from the older girls, and some yummy breakfast casserole. Barely contained chaos. And I'm sure it's only going to get better since two of them mostly just sleep and eat right now-they don't move unless we move them! We didn't make it out of the house before it was time for Averie's nap. So attempted to put her down (she was less than thrilled), Gram D & Arlyn took a nap, and the rest of us watched the Jungle book. Got out to a little art show in Howell, kids got a balloon puppy, and then some ice cream. Park after that--pretty chilly outside today, but they needed to run off a little energy. Feels like fall or something. Not sure we really had summer yet! By the time we got home from that Averie was done with a capital D. Managed to get some food into everyone and we went home. Jane was ready for bed early since she didn't have a nap either.

Weekend at Gram D's

Jenny brought the girls down for the weekend to hang out at Gram Deb's house. Tonight's activity-music in the park in Howell. Crazyface Averie would rather have visited a huge field where she could run free. Jane was a dancing machine. Nice evening... Much better than the day--during which Jane hacked a piece of her hair off when I was vacuuming in the basement. :( Not horrible looking, I suppose, but horrible that it happened! You can kind of see the 'long bangs' in this photo. I guess she gets her first haircut soon--get it all evened out a little bit.

Afternoon at the Park

Decided to make something of the nice day and went to Kensington for a little while. Got some chicken nuggets and camped out on the blanket by the playground stuff. Just a beautiful afternoon, and no mosquitos here! Cutie pie girls...

Visit to the lake

We surprised G&G Carlson--all the great grandkids at once. Photo has Penny (3 months), Collin (6months), Ian (2yrs), and Jane (3.5 yrs). Beautiful hot summer weekend. Pretty fun pulling off such a fun surprise, and the kids had fun.

cupcake love

Thought we'd make some cupcakes-just for funzies this afternoon. Mike was actually pretty excited to come home to cupcakes as well! And yes, that IS frosting all over her face. We made some mini ones for her...

Cottage

Just a beautiful weekend at the cottage. All sorts of craziness with two toddlers running all over and two babies. Fun stuff. Wonderful weather, finally felt like summer, although I can't believe it's already August. It was great to catch up with everyone, and Jane had so much fun. Once she warmed up, she was all over everyone, and we got a break-she got lots of books, tickle time, and fun with Mike's cousins. She and Averie also did just awesome playing together.