Monday afternoon Ann, our neighbor friend from grade school, and her sister Tina came over with their kids. Tina lives in California and comes back twice a year. The kids played in the pool and sandpile. Phillip is almost exactly 2 years to the day older then Kolbe so it is fun to see what kinds of things Kolbe will be doing 2 years from now.The kids LOVE the piano. They "play" it several times a day. Get out the earplugs! Libby was dancing as she played. At one point all 5 were entertaining us with their music. Tuesday we had more kids over. Tom, dad's "little brother," came over with his son, Casey. Casey is just a couple of months older than Joseph. The 3 big kids got to go out to lunch and me and the 3 little ones had lunch at home. The twins started saying "Shannon" while I was feeding them, so it was worth staying home.

In the afternoon the kids played in their pool for a while and Jennifer, another neighborhood friend, and her little girl Ryan came over to play too. Ryan is a couple weeks younger than the twins.

Kolbe has been trying to be a huge help with the twins, although he wants to lift/carry/move them a lot. They don't weigh much less than he does. :)

Today we have had a little rain so we weren't able to go feed the ducks/play at the park. Maybe tomorrow.

Suzanne and the kids are here!!! Grandpa set up the old tent for them to play in. 10 busy little hands in the sandbox! Grandpa even put up a beach umbrella so his precious little grandbabies would be shaded from the sun :)
This was the lunch arrangement.
On the agenda for this afternoon: kiddie pool in the backyard. Fun Fun!

A couple of weeks ago Allyssa came over for the weekend. We fed the ducks and the kids played at the park. We went early so the ducks were STARVING! Several people we know happened to show up at the park playground at the same time coincidentally. The kids seemed to have a good time together!

Playing around in the backyard!

Kolbe's Birthday Party!!!

This present is as big as he is. I think it was an articulated truck full of hot wheels cars. Kolbe got some books, trucks, clothes, a big wheel, sleeping bag, bubbles, a ball, AND...Yum, yum, GUM! Since Kolbe is 4 we are trying gum again. After a few gum incidents gum was banned until age 3, then 3.5, then 4. So we'll see if this time the gum can stay in the mouth and out of hair, carseats, pockets, etc! He got about 15 packs from Gma B and he is burning right through them. So far he has taken the gum out twice and Libby has snatched it up both times and immediately swallowed it. Here is the cake Kolbe aided in designing. He helped make a sketch of a construction site and told me where to put the vehicles.
After Kolbe blew out his candles the kids played with the vehicles and moved them around in the "dirt" - oreo cookies.
The kids had a ton of fun playing together at the party. They played on the swingset, pulled each other around in the wagon, rode trikes, and squirted each other with water guns.

Jeff has been moving all of the things out of his classroom. Somewhere he got a hold of a dreidel pinata. Yes a dreidel pinata. You know there is a large population of Jewish Mexican children that need dreidel pinatas. HA! Jeff stuffed it with candy and the kids took a couple of whacks. They could have cared less that it was a dreidel, but some of the adults did a double take. Allyssa grabed whatever she could, Kolbe picked out only the smarties, Addison picked up one piece and started to eat it, and Libby picked up a piece for her bag then a piece for Addison's bag, then another piece for her bag and so on.

Amazing how much fun kids can have from 25 cent water guns and a second-hand dreidel pinata.