Slip'N'Slidin'

Neely wore pigtails today. When I put them in she reached up and sort of petted one of them and said "Hair, pretty!"
Today was beautiful. Veronica went and bought a Slip'N'Slide, and asked if we wanted to come over. So the kids got their swimsuits on, I slathered them with sunscreen, and we walked over.
They LOVED it.
The babies were huge fans.
Neely liked to stand in it, or sit in it.
Aivree liked to flop around in it wildly, like the fish do when they're on land in the Mario Bros games.
I LOVE this one, even though it's blurry. Neely's telling Aivree something really exciting.
The big kids used it sorta properly, and sometimes just sprinted across. Miraculously not a single child was injured.
When she thought nobody was paying attention, Neely quietly went and got the little raft she'd seen the big kids ride across, and went to stand at the starting line. She stood there contemplating trying it.
Soon Paige came to help, and Cason came to race her. Paige pushed her across and Lily cheered wildly. Neely won by a tiny baby nose.
Then she hung out at the finish line a while.
In other news, this car the kids have has been passed down to them from Alex and Faith, who had it passed down from Colton! So it's been around a while and the color was pretty faded.
I saw someone in a magazine who painted theirs, and I loved it. So I tried the same, and it's pretty much done, except I need to repaint the steering wheel and parts of the tires black again, and touch up a couple of spots. They love it.

Easter Eggs and Goose Eggs

We colored Easter eggs yesterday. Neely didn't pay attention, but the other two had been waiting for it all week.
They were really good at it this year, I think only one egg broke.
Colton and I were working on his math and just watching them. It was pretty entertaining. I especially enjoyed this moment:


He also kept saying "Excellent". I'd never heard him say it before, but he kept saying it during the egg dyeing. He asked Jess "Daddy, are you using the pink?" Jess said "Nope." and Cason goes "EXCELLENT."

Then today we heard a great sermon at church, and then went out to Grammy and Grampy's house for a visit. We had good food and hung out for a couple of hours.
Then we came in for MORE good food and visiting with my side of the family. Then the Easter egg hunt.
And Neely hit her forehead not once, but twice, on the cement, and another time on a metal chair. The first one was a pretty hard crash and she got a nice little goose-egg above her right eyebrow. Mollie said at least all the injuries happened with lots of witnesses, so I shouldn't be in trouble with CPS at least.

Cason Lately....

sleeps in...
...cleans his own room and then poses in it proudly...
...and when his aunt TT leaves our house he yells things out the window at her. Things like: " TT! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MAMA!!!"

Surprise Fort

Last week we took the kids to the park after dinner. We played freeze tag as a family and it was one of the most fun evenings I've had.
One time everyone was frozen except Neely, and of course Jess, who was it. Neely was our only hope, and we called out to her for help. She ran the other way, laughing at us over her shoulder. Totally left us hangin'.
She got what was comin' to her a second later. Ha.
We were laughing so hard, and even got some rare exercise. I love the pic above, of Neely about to be frozen. She kind of seemed to understand that we had to freeze and not move sometimes, but wasn't sure when it was supposed to happen. So she'd just randomly stop running and hold perfectly still, which is when she'd often end up getting caught, like in the pic above.

Grammy and Grampy came by this weekend with a surprise for Cason. Grammy had repainted doll houses for Paige and Lily, so she decided Cason needed something too. They built, and Grammy painted, an AWESOME fort for his superheroes. They unveiled it, and he was obviously happy, but we didn't get to see his usual awesome response to gifts, because I think he wasn't sure what it was for at first.

But once he found out, he was really happy.
The thing is so cool. It has 2 slides, one which leads to the outside, a firepole, and even what Jess calls a multimedia command center on the right side of the bottom floor.
He also got a locking treasure chest, but Neely sort of took it over.
Grammy set guys up along the roof of the fort, so the guys could shoot them down.
It's getting lots of use.

She Wuvs Him

My dad wants the world to know that last week Neely told him "I love you" when he was leaving, and he was the first person she said it to. She actually pronounced it "I wuh-oo", but I knew it was what she was trying to say because Paige and Cason were yelling it to him and she heard them and then tried to yell it to him too.

John

John passed away yesterday. Most people who read this probably knew him, but for those who didn't, he really was such a good guy. It really just hit me today I guess. All this time I kept from getting very sad, because I guess I really thought he was going to beat it. But today I suddenly realized, and I just keep crying on and off, feeling so sad for Jenni and the rest of the family, and just sad myself, too.

He always made me feel so welcome, like I belonged with their family, when Jenni and I were inseparable all through high school. He made fun of me plenty, but it made me feel loved and like a part of the family. Ha. He had mastered the balance between being his kids' friend and still being their dad, and he was always SO involved in their lives. I got lucky being Jenni's friend and playing softball too, because I got to have him as a coach. He laughed at us for being overly emotional when we played, but somehow he teased us without actually making us feel stupid. :)

I hadn't seen him as much the last several years, now that Jenni and I are grown and married with our own families. Of course I regret that now. But I really loved him and I'll miss him. I'm so sorry Jenni, and all the rest of you Bathauers.

Koala Baby

I've managed to get behind again, somehow. There's no real reason, they've been doing plenty I could write about.

Having cute conversations over pancakes in the morning.
Making the playroom look like it belongs to a family of hoarders.
Being koala bears at the park.
Acting out dramatic reunion movie scenes on our walks.
Stopping to get pool lessons from Uncle Dan on the same walk.
Helping me babysit Jenni's sweet girls.
Well, the older two helped.
Haha. Actually Neely DID help, by not getting jealous and upset when I held Payton.

Leaping from the couches and yelling hilarious things on the way down.
And putting glasses on Gia.
Actually it's been a sad week, with all the Bathauers are going through. It's awesome how kids just keep living their happy lives, and brighten sad days. Please keep praying for John and his whole wonderful family.