Wings and Waves water park

 I got to take Adie and Eliza to the Wings and Waves water park in McMinnville yesterday for their friends birthday.  We had so much fun, all of the kids played hard the whole time we were there

      Their good friend Sarah, they miss her this year since they are all in school and we don't see her as much as we use to

 They loved the wave pool, our routine was kind of play in the waves, and when the waves were calm for five minutes I would take one on a big slide, and by the time we were down the waves would be on again. And I would make them sit in the hot tub with me once in a while. Adie did a slide by herself early on in the day and got stuck, I guess she didn't weigh enough.  I could just hear her screaming from the top (not fun, it was the one that is all closed in so it's really dark in there) until she finally wiggled herself loose.  So after that I didn't let them go alone anymore.

 Wiped out after six plus hours of swimming (and climbing a lot of stairs), they didn't talk the whole way home, we rarely go two minutes without them trying to talk over each other!

Ashlynn and Leah (and Trina)

I think we're coming out of a tough month(s?) of these two making my days not very much fun.  I think I'm ready to take down the pac n play I have set up our room specifically for time outs for when Leah hit or kicked me. And Ashlynn seems to have moved out of the most recent phase of disobedience and is back to being pretty fun most of the time (as I write this she is sort of in her make shift bed in the hallway but mostly up and dancing trying to get my attention - I'm ignoring because it's time for her to go to sleep)

The past two weeks they have been making me pretty happy, they seem to be forming a pretty tight bond.

 

 and I just like this one of Trina and Ashlynn so wanted to throw it in here, the girls love their Trina

Randoms

 I walked into A and E getting ready to go and it reminded me of my sisters and I getting ready when we all lived at home

 The girls all love the fun that comes with the Christmas season

 Ashlynn is doing her first swim lessons and having fun. She is really relaxed and confident in the water. Yesterday after the lesson I got in with her and Leah and she started jumping in and swimming almost the width of the pool by herself. Now the problem is keeping her safe because she thinks she's better than she is and will start swimming when I'm not looking, but she doesn't know how to take a breath yet

                                                            Leah in the locker at the Y, I love having the Y to go to in the winter, they girls love swimming and running around in the gym

I'm having to be a little more creative inside with these two now that it's cold and being outside isn't fun for very long, Leah liked her first time finger painting - she kept laughing and saying awesome

Six sounds old

Eliza and Adie had a fun 6th birthday celebrating with some family, it works out well for us that their cousins are their favorite friends

 

 We got them radio controlled cars and they love them.  Leah was pretty funny at first, she didn't know what to think of them

 Birthday dinner sushi again, Leah enjoyed sitting at the counter and eating all of the scraps

More Cider

We had some friends over this weekend to help us finish up our apples, we ended up with over 30 gallons of cider!  We had a blast with everyone.

 

 There were 18 kids here, and we really didn't pay attention to them - I think they had fun being on their own.  I'm pretty sure that's Anya doing a flip on the bed?

 When I didn't notice the kids outside for a while I would go in and find them like this - sitting around reading/singing to the little ones (not what I expected to find)

 Ashlynn and Jacob being ladybug mom and dad - so cute, these two had fun together

 The two oldest boys were impressive, they worked all day - Thank you Kaleb and Noah!