6/19/11 - Eva Turns 6

Eva is now a big 6-year-old.  I can hardly believe it!  She had planned the details of her birthday party months in advance.  She wanted a horse theme just like last year, complete with “Pin the tail on the donkey” and the same cake design: toy horses running across a green meadow under a blue sky.  I was kind of surprised that she wanted the same theme two years in a row, but I guess I should take it as a compliment that the last party was so enjoyable she wanted to repeat it.   

 

She changed it up a bit by choosing a “cowgirl” design for plates and napkins, and we got bandanas and sheriff badges for all the kids.  Eva wore a pink cowgirl hat and boots for the big day.  The weather turned out to be beautiful for her party, so we had a BBQ while the kids ran around the backyard to their hearts’ content. 

 

Aunt Barocha Graduates

Eva’s 6^th birthday fell on the same day as Aunt Barocha’s high school graduation, so we postponed her party a week and drove down to watch Barocha walk down the aisle with cap and gown.  It was a small graduating class of about 20 kids, so they each had a slide show and a table with photos of them through the years.  

 

After the ceremony Grandma and Grandpa had a cake for Eva waiting at home.  We sang “Happy Birthday” and let her blow out the candle for a small family birthday celebration before Barocha’s friends arrived for her graduation party.   

 

Grandma and Grandpa have a friend’s sheep grazing their five acres now, which helps keep the field clear.  Eva and Amanda had a blast hand-feeding the sheep and imitating their “baaas” as they bleated to one another.   

 

The Cows Say "Mooo!"

The moms in our small group from church have started getting together on Thursday mornings.  It’s a time of fellowship and accountability, when we share our joys and our struggles, what God is teaching us, and have a chance to pray for one another.   We feed the kids and then send them off to play while the moms eat and chat. 

 

This week Patti suggested we all take the kids to a family-owned Organic Dairy farm in Boring.  They’re part of the Organic Valley co-op and offer tours for free.   Eva seemed a big confused at first that there were only cows, and asked where sheep and chickens were.  I told her she could see those at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, but this was a dairy farm which meant only cows.  They showed us how the cows get a “shower” before milking, the milking machines and tanks, and let the kids visit the young calves in their pens.   Bethany was braver than I expected, reaching out to pet a frolicking calf and giggling at its antics. 

 

The kids got to pet a calf that was just an hour old, and the moms got to try our hand at milking.   The cows were gentle and seemed to love the attention, and the kids were absolutely enthralled.  At the end, every child got to sample some fresh milk and cheese, sit in the tractor for a photo op, and take home a goodie bag with a coloring book, tattoos and coupons. 

Preschooler

At almost 4, Amanda has stopped taking naps.  The last few times we tried she ended up lying in bed quietly talking to herself and playing with her little toy animals, so I decided she was ready to give them up.   It’s a bittersweet milestone, but Eva certainly enjoys having Amanda to play with in the afternoon instead of trying to occupy herself until her sisters wake up.   She gets crankier in the evenings, but she falls asleep much more easily at bedtime and is waking at night far less frequently. 

 

Lately the girls have been wanting to watch video clips and slideshows of when they were babies.  Amanda has picked up on “when I was a little baby, I used to…” mantra, and loves to explain how much of a big girl she is now compared to then.  She sees Eva writing and drawing and tries to imitate her, but she’s got her own creative flair and pushes back against her big sister if Eva tries to tell her she’s “doing it wrong.” 

Girly Girl

Bethany is such a little girly girl.  She loves to try on shoes, put a headband in her hair for a “crown” like Amanda, and play dress-up.  She’ll bring me a fairy dress out of the dress-up box and say “Eh! Eh!” until I put her in it.  She may not be able to talk, but she’s very emphatic about what she wants. 

 

One of her favorite things is to grab her sisters’ hands and play “Ring-around-a-rosy”.   She’ll grab Eva or Amanda’s hands and they’ll twirl in a circle as fast as they can until inertia takes over and someone falls down.   Bethany loves to dance, and kept trying to climb on the stage to join them when she saw her sisters dancing ballet up there.   

 

She may not be two yet, but Bethany is getting into everything and no drawer, cabinet or shelf is safe. In the past couple of days, she’s emptied the contents of the salt shaker and Eva’s water bottle all over the floor, eaten a stick of chap stick, drawn all over Amanda’s picture, dumped out the bathroom trash, and pulled a snowy pile of Kleenex out of the box.

Little Lost Sheep

Eva and Amanda’s ballet classes are done for the summer, so they bade farewell with an adorable performance of “The Little Lost Sheep”.   Adapted from the parable Jesus told in Luke chapter 15, it featured a little lamb who wanders away from the flock while chasing a butterfly.  The shepherdess searches high and low and finally finds the little lost lamb, joyfully bringing it home. 

 

Eva and the other 5 and 6-year-olds played the sheep, dutifully following the movements of the shepherdess (since they’re still to young to remember all the dance steps).  Amanda and her little friends (ages 3 and 4) were flowers and were supposed to follow the dance steps of the butterfly, but they were having too much fun doing impromptu twirls and waving at their parents in the audience.   The older girls played the parts of the butterfly, shepherdess and snowflakes.   It was absolutely adorable! 

Grandpa Gordon's 80th Birthday

Near the end of May, Aunt Nanci, Aunt Laura and Uncle Larry flew up to visit and celebrate Grandpa Gordon’s 80^th Birthday.  Uncle Mark and cousin Riley (8) came with him, and we had a great family reunion.  We took Grandpa Gordon to see Multnomah Falls and then had a birthday dinner at Clyde’s Prime Rib in Portland, complete with two cakes (one regular, one gluten-free). 

 

We missed having Uncle Gary, Allen, Haden and Uncle Dennis and Kent, but Laura had made life-size stick puppets of all the missing people’s faces so they wouldn’t miss out on our “family portrait”.  J  We hadn’t had that many of Dave’s family together in one place since Grandma Geri’s funeral, and it was the first time Grandpa Gordon had ever visited us in Oregon, so it was a special treat for us and we had a wonderful time.

 

Great Wolf Lodge

Aunt Laura and Malcolm invited us to meet his daughter Anna and her family at Great Wolf Lodge that weekend, so we drove up to Washington for an overnight trip.  We had never been there before – it’s an enormous indoor water park attached to a hotel with tons of activities for the kids.  The girls absolutely loved it.  The water park was a balmy 85 degrees and they could splash and play to their hearts’ content.  Even Bethany got brave and started to run in the little rippling waves that chased her toes from the wave tank.  We had to call it a day around nap time, but it was a great experience and I know they’ll want to go back again when they’re a bit older. 

 

Warming Up

It’s finally starting to get warm enough to go barefoot occasionally, so the girls begged me to paint their toenails with glitter polish. Of course, Bethany immediately wanted her toes painted as well (she gets excited about anything girly), so I know have three girls with sparkly toes, waiting for warm weather that will stay.   Lately it’s been one day warm, a few days chilly and rainy, and one day warm again.  It means I’ve had to get out some of the summer clothes but can’t put away the winter clothes, so the closets are a little overcrowded as we wait for the weather to finally make up its mind.  I heard a joke that said you know you’re an Oregonian if you know the four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.  That’s almost too true to be funny.  

 

The summer weather may be long in coming, but our summer schedule is already getting started.  The church has stopped offering childcare on Sunday nights, so our Little Church group will likely start taking turns meeting in each others’ homes.   The library is launching its summer reading program next week, complete with the weekly performances the kids look forward to all year.  I hear the reptile guy and juggler are coming back this year, which will thrill the girls.  The local community college is offering swim lessons, and the Farmer’s Market is back in full swing. 

No More Crib

We’re having an exchange student stay with us for the month of July.  Her name is Maria and she’s from the Basque country in Spain.  We wanted to give Maria her own room, so we dismantled Bethany’s crib and put her mattress on the floor in Eva and Amanda’s room.  She loves the novelty of being able to crawl out of bed by herself, but cries when she discovers that her newfound freedom is short lived and she’s still expected to stay in bed and take a nap.   The black-out curtains have been helpful since it’s light out until almost 10pm right now, but she still waking in the early morning hours to crawl in bed with Mommy. 

Mom Jeans

Bethany is almost weaned now.  She only nurses a little before bed and if she wakes during the night, which means I’ve been making the switch to wearing non-nursing clothes during the day.   For the first two girls, I was pregnant again by the time they were 18 months old, so this is the first time I’ve weaned and not had to switch back to maternity clothes.   It’s been strange to realize how few “normal” clothes I had left.  After finally getting rid of my old Ben Bridge work clothes, I was left with mostly T-shirts and jeans, most of which didn’t fit that well after three kids.  Where are Stacey and Clinton when you really need them?   Oh, well…at least I have a good excuse to go clearance shopping.      

Clean Up

Lately, getting the girls to pick their toys and messes has been like pulling teeth.  I hate nagging and I know it’s important for them to learn how to follow instructions the first time, not depend on me to remind them, or wait for me to get angry.   This week I finally stumbled on an idea that seems to work great with no nagging.  I set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the mess) and tell them they have until the timer dings to put away all their toys.  When time is up, I come through with a plastic garbage bag and fill it with anything that’s been left out, and it stays in the garage for 24 hours.  The next day, I bring out the bag, dump it out on the floor and set the timer again.  Anything not picked up by the time it dings goes back in the bag and out to the garage.  This seems to be especially effective with Amanda, who has a tendency to get easily distracted and gets really upset when a favorite toy has to be confiscated for awhile.