Labor Weekend

We took the Labor Day weekend off, relaxed, and played at the park. However, during all that relaxing, we finally found the bunk bed arrangement we wanted for the girls - at a good price. So bunk beds and mattresses were ordered. I've been telling Mike that once we made the move to bunk beds, I wanted to paint the kids' room. It was a newborn yellow color, perfect for a baby nursery. Except ... there are no babies in there anymore!

We didn't have plans last weekend, so we doubled down, made a team game plan with the kids, and got their room painted a lovely shade of smoked turquoise. We emptied a few things out on Friday night. Saturday morning was the big move and a lot of wall prep - washing, patching, sanding, etc. We got the first coat up during naptime. We let each of the girls paint a little V on the wall before Mike finished rolling it. They loved to be part of the painting! Quinn stood in the doorway for almost 20 minutes, just watching me trim and Mike follow me with the roller. She was really intrigued by the whole process!

Little painters

Since the room wasn't finished by bedtime, we had a family sleepover in the basement on Saturday night. We brought the girls' mattresses down and Dec got the pack and play. Once they were settled in, we painted the second coat. The late evening lighting wasn't the best - but we made it work. And it was worth it -  because everything was dry in the morning.

On Sunday morning, we hit our stride - aided by the 90s Pop Hits station on Pandora. We "amazed" the kids with our outstanding duet on Everything I Do, I Do It For You (formative years in the 90s. Knew every word, thank you very much!). Dec totally rocked out to Backstreet Boys (that's my baby!), Quinn was partial to Spin Doctors (she has good taste), and Fiona, as always, prefers Spice Girls (she makes Auntie proud). By D's naptime, all the furniture was back in the right spot. 

When your beds are in the living room,
you may as well watch cartoons from them

We haven't hung anything other than the curtains. We'll wait until all the new furniture is in place before we put holes in the fancy turquoise walls! The bunk beds came this week and hopefully Ben and Uncle Kyle will help with assembly over the weekend. The girls are super excited for their new beds - and a little more room when they sleep. 

Overall, we were so impressed with how well the kids did with the chaos and busyness of the weekend. They are so proud to have a new big kid room - and they gave us so much hope around getting some other projects done around the house. A little teamwork, a well-timed trip to the park, and some 90s pop go a long way in the V house!

No Labor Weekend

For the Labor Day holiday last weekend, we very much decided to not labor! Mike was on call and we were all fans of a slower, quieter schedule for the long weekend. We typically don't go north for the long holiday weekends that bookmark the summer - as the traffic is simply unbearable. Any fun we have is cancelled out by the stress of the drive.

But just because we didn't go north doesn't mean we didn't have fun! We explored a new park on Saturday afternoon, had friends over on Sunday to jump in the trampoline and grill out, went to another park on Monday - and finally talked Fiona into watching Monsters, Inc. We had a fun little family viewing party where we watched about half of the movie. And then we finished it this weekend. Fiona was delighted to discover that it was not as deathly scary as she had imagined it would be. We were delighted to discover that she did not find it as deathly scary as she imagined she would. Monsters coming out of the closet. Child with vivid imagination. It was a risky move!

It was just the right amount of busy to be fun, while being quiet enough to let us charge our batteries a bit. Because now through the end of October tends be light on the relaxation and heavy on the fall fun activities!

Princess Ice Cream Birthday

Observing the party

In July, I picked the date for the girls' joint birthday party ... the Saturday at the end of the first week of school. It sounded innocent enough. And you guys, no one told me that it was a bad idea!!! Luckily the girls made it easy on me. They wanted a make your own ice cream sundae bar and princess cupcakes. (Secret party theme: sugar!!!!!)

The morning of party day started out rainy, but cleared up enough for the afternoon. We occasionally partied in sprinkles - but it was at least cooler than the very hot birthday party Declan had. We had a great time with grandparents, auntie, cousins, and lots and lots of friends. I think we had around 20 kids running around the back yard.

Bugs' friend Makai ended up staying until almost bedtime because they were having so much fun. When Makai's mom and I wanted to take a picture of them, Fiona told us to stop, grabbed Makai's arm, pulled it around her shoulder, and then smiled for the picture. Help us! It was equally parts super cute and terrifying!

Her pose with Makai. I die.

The guest room bed is still filled with unopened presents (if you are reading and haven't received a thank you yet, know that we are grateful. We just don't know for what). One of the highlights of the present opening so far has been the influx of new art supplies. When you finally receive your thank you note, you may notice that it was written with one of the brand new gel pens!

[If you are reading and thinking, rats, we gave them art supplies - our thought is exactly the opposite. Art supplies are pretty consumable and we go through a lot of them. We are delighted at the new supply! And Mike is "excited" to be drafted into a redesign of the dining room for a better art supply storage system! The blondes will be happy that the answer to the reasonable question of "can we use watercolors?" will not be follow by a "no, because it will take me too long to get them out."]

Even though throwing a party at the end of a crazy week was a bit hectic, it was a great way to celebrate the blondes with some of our favorite people. And more importantly, the lovely birthday ladies had fun and felt very loved.

This Guy

Don't think that the blondes are the only ones growing up at rapid pace. Little brother refuses to be left behind and has logged some major accomplishments in the last couple weeks. Who needs school?!?! He's still got lots to do.

• His tennis shoes were getting tight so I looked in the bag from C and found an old school pair of Adidas soccer shoes. Dec loves them. But even better ... daddy has the same(ish) shoes!!!! Mind blown. He will only wear his soccer shoes now and expects Mike to do the same.
• I was holding him a few days ago, glanced in the mirror, and wondered where all that leg came from. A quick walk to our growth chart confirmed - he's grown an inch since his birthday!!!
• Declan and I got a little extra time together on Thursday as Ms. A closed early. We were sitting at the table having snack and he started making a face. I asked him if he needed to poop and he said he did. And asked to go in the potty. And THEN HE DID! It's a tiny step. He will ask to try once in a while. We aren't pushing him. But it was still a big deal!
• On Friday, Declan said "buh-bye, nookie" and we pulled the final "plug" from bedtime. Compared to when I pulled Fiona's plug, there was a lot less crying and drama. It was decidedly quieter. There was, however, much more bed jumping and throwing of crib contents at Quinn. 

There are moments when he is SO big. He carries on complex conversations (for a 2-year-old) and always wants to know what is going on. He's the family clown and delights in making us laugh. But then there are moments like naptime today, when he will still snuggle with me ... and I can pretend, for a minute or two, that there's a tiny bit of baby left in there.

School Daze

We are [almost] two weeks into this new gig of two school-agers. And, since you are never too old to learn new things (mom and dad, I'm looking at you and a smartphone!), here are a few things we've learned since the blondes headed to the classroom.

It's hard to be the little bro. Declan asks almost daily when he will get a "pack-pack" and go to school too. So we've started calling our cars the "mommy bus" and the "daddy bus" and the little dude sorta thinks that maybe he's not completely getting the short stick. But he's definitely not completely convinced!

When a stack of papers comes home in the backpack, you look through them before the kids go to bed. Or you may find yourselves going through magazines and cutting out red objects for the class poster while the Kindergartner snoozes away.

Quinn takes about two weeks to get fully used to a new environment. We have successfully transitioned from sobbing/screaming/clinging to death stare at anyone who dares speak to her to smiles at drop off. Thank goodness!

School stamina takes a while to build up. Bugs started soccer on Tuesday evenings. It's incredible to watch our baby (whom they told us may never walk) run around the soccer field. However, school - plus the hour that she has to get up before the sibs to do her flush - wear on a girl. She's wiped out at the end of the day. It's hard to run around a field for an hour when you are exhausted.

Quinn now thinks her name is officially "Quinn V." The blondes were working on thank you notes from their birthday party tonight and whenever I asked her to sign her name, she wrote Quinn V. She also really enjoys the free range on art supplies in the classroom!

Overall, everyone loves their new (or old) landing spots and we are adjusting to the new routine. But we are not going to complain about the long weekend ahead!