Fun with Nellie, Annie, and DJ

Honest moment: Eddie might be addicted to playing Mario on the Wii and the kids' most frequent fight is whose turn it is on the iPad or Kevin's old-school Gameboy. 

Now that that's clear, I can mention how awesomely creative they can be and how much fun they have together. Nellie is quite the activities director. Annie lends a lot of creative logistical support and DJ goes along with whatever they make him do. 

In the last couple of weeks, Nellie finished a hunting board game she's been working on (DJ won). She described it as a prototype and is planning to make a larger version on poster board. 

The three of them put on a puppet show complete with a homemade stage and puppets, lighting, and a sound system (karaoke machine). Sorry about the poor-quality picture--I had to use a screenshot from a video.

This weekend, they wrote and performed a play at my mom's house. There is rarely a boring moment around here!

The program

The play

The story board

Mary Cate is 2!

In my "happy birthday Mary Cate" post, I commented that she's equal parts sugar and spice. I'm not actually sure that's true. It might be more like 40-60 or 30-70. Mary is a girl who walks around hugging us and saying, "I love you so much," and, "I want to snuggle you." She cares lovingly for her dolls and adores her family. Then she'll scream and push a sibling in the face for invading her personal space. Mary perfected her stink-eye at an early age, which she uses with anyone who tries to talk to her in public. But she's so darn cute, they keep trying. She just recently started talking to Ms. Jentz, who she's known since birth and seen almost every day because we share a classroom. My dad almost had a heart attack from shock this weekend when Mary let him help her with her sweatshirt.

Anyway, she's got a mind of her own and I have little fear that she'll ever be pushed around or be someone's doormat!

Mary's favorite word is "no," to the extent that she often has to backtrack because she responds before she realizes she was offered something nice, like a gummy bear or opportunity to watch Daniel Tiger. The older kids have a great time with this. ("Mary, can you say no?" "NO." "Mary, do you love to say no?" "NO." And so on.)

She also loves her blanket ("hee-hee"), mac and cheese, ice cream, baby dolls, and her family. Her favorite color is blue (I think it's the only one she knows), her favorite shows are Daniel Tiger, Thomas, and Sesame Street, and she loves to read books, sing, and pretend to talk on the phone.

Mary Cate celebrated her birthday while we were camping, which was...different. I didn't want to bring many presents because of the dirt. Her cake was an arrangement of Hostess cupcakes. She was pretty excited about having a birthday and usually told people she was turning five. We asked what kind of presents she was hoping for and she said, "Um, I don't know...blue?"

Tonight (two days later) we got an ice cream cake to share with Grandma Lisa. I tried to bring her a piece of cake while singing Happy Birthday and she literally ran away from me yelling, "NO!" until we got to the part of the song where we sang her name--then she smiled and said, "Oh." She still wouldn't blow out the candles, though.

Mary Cate has some spice in her soul, that's for sure, but you probably need some as the youngest of five! We can't wait to see what's in store for her in the next year.

The "cake"

Little mommy

Mary loved to swing us in the hammock

I gave her a bin to use as a table, but she wanted to sit on it

Our camping neighbors were up partying until 1:00 am. Did I feel bad about giving my child a xylophone for her birthday at 7:30 in the morning? No. No I did not.