Buckingham Palace: Three or Four Months in Pictures

Since I'm so far behind, I'm posting several months worth of random pictures. I haven't done as well as in the past of capturing life in pictures or on the blog, but that's just the way it is for us right now. My big goal this summer is "five alive". Just keeping us all going. So far I win! Here's some of what we've been up to in our day-to-day.

We had a girls date to see Cinderella. The girls dressed alike. It was so fun.

We had a really great spring full of fabulous weather.

Will started sitting up and enjoying red solo cups, and everyone else enjoyed his roly poly thighs.

Jake has continued to be a riot. Between pitching epic fits, he keeps me laughing...and on my toes.

Ellie started tracing me in chalk rather than me tracing her. Fun change of pace. Isn't she beautiful?

We went on a family bike ride. If I was a little faster with my phone I could've gotten everyone, but I'm just not that fast. It started out so fun. A split second after this everything derailed. The yellow sign shows that there's a significant hill. This was the first hill Ellie had ridden on since her fall. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, she experienced significant PTSD and cried and walked with her bike almost the whole time. I was pushing Will because we couldn't find all the parts to the bike trailer (we were going to tow Will and Jake). Just around the corner, at the bottom of the scary hill, Buck blew his tire. Jake waffled between screaming for someone to help him and screaming for whomever was helping him to let him pedal all by himself. At one point Buck was pushing Jake's bike and Jake was pushing Will's stroller and tipped him out of it. Fortunately John and Eve did a great job riding out and circling back. Buck and I ended up taking at least 4 or 5 trips from the bottom of this hill back to the car carrying a combination of bikes and screaming children. If you ask the kids about it now, they remember it was awesome, and Jake and Buck saw a beaver swimming! At least we have made wonderful memories!

We had fun with Ellie's preschool class at Papa Bruce's farm. The animals eat Nilla Wafers! It's one of my favorite places in the world, and Jake still talks about it.

Will started gardening and eating salad.

Will turned 5 months and smiled a lot.

Jake played soccer in a diaper and boots. I think now I've got a picture of all of the older 4 in a diaper and boots. So cute.

I went to the grocery store and came home to this. Jake put a tube of diaper rash cream in his hair. You can't tell from the picture, but it was all grey. This was taken after washing several times with Dawn. No luck. Fortunately the next day someone gave me the tip to wash with olive oil and Dawn. Worked like a charm. I can't believe it took 4 kids for this to happen!

I asked Eve to grab some lettuce from the garden for a salad. She was very excited about the task. This is what she delivered. Crazy girl.

Will turned 6 months. I just realized he had the same outfit on for both 5 and 6 month pictures.

We went to surprise Grandma at the airport when she got back from her mission trip in Ukraine. The fountain was really exciting. "Two feet on the floor, kids!" It was so fun to surprise her...and on Eve's birthday!

Jake went pee in the potty and got new underwear! We're still working on training. One day he'll actually get to wear those.

Life with older sisters...

Caught red-handed.

Poor Will. Particularly during school, every time he fell asleep it was time to get in or out of the car. He learned to catch a nap when he could, even if it was on the floor under the table, on top of a toy. I can't get enough of that sweet little face.

Saturday mornings mean sweet time on the porch with just Jake and Daddy. He wakes up earlier than everyone else (except Will sometimes), and yells that he's awake until one of us gets him. Still, it was sweet to come downstairs and find this.