Field Trip Friday--B

Last week we learned letter "B". Now, I know I shouldn't choose favorites, but let's face it---some letters of the alphabet are Better than others. There were so many "B" activities that we didn't have time to do them all. We spent the week Bouncing Balls into Buckets, Blowing Bubbles, riding Bikes, going on Bear hunts, Blowing up Balloons, playing with Barbies and Blocks, making Bats, and eating Breakfast food, Bananas, Bagels and Bread with Butter.

For our Field Trip Day, we went to the Big Bounce and then came home to Bake Bread in the shape of Bears.

B pancakes for Breakfast. Rustin is even taking a Bite of his Blue plate.

The Big Bounce (Kassidy Bemoaned the Bright sunlight)

Ready to Bounce: Ryder, Rustin, Kassidy, Kaydence and Kyndall

Lunch Break: Rustin and Ryder with Best Buddy Soren, who joined us for the outing

Kaydence (eating a Banana!), Kyndall and Kassidy

1-2-3 Jump!

Budding Bakers: Kyndall, Ryder, Kassidy, Rustin and Kaydence (the Boys have Blue aprons and the girls have Butterfly aprons---all Birthday gifts from Grandma Wilkinson)

Baking Bedlam (I actually got smart this time and pre-measured all the ingredients into Bowls Beforehand, so they could just scoop and dump)

Building Bears out of Bread dough

A Bedraggled Rustin

Blotchy-faced Kyndall

Da Bears!

Beautiful Kassidy

Bashful and Bright Kaydence

Bedazzling Rustin

Brilliant Kyndall

Big Goof Ryder (who thinks he has to make a silly face every time I take a picture!)

Field Trip Friday--B

The Quints 4th Birthday!

Kyndall, Kassidy, Rustin, Ryder and Kaydence

I am more than two months late, but I am finally posting pictures from the quints birthday! Their birthday fell on Sunday this year, so we went to church in the morning and had a few families over for cake in the evening. They are old enough to really "get" birthdays now, so they were SO excited!

The Fab 5 with their gifts---Five is a very "normal" family size, so the quints birthday is like some families Christmas! (Something I should have thought about before saving all the present wrapping until the last minute :-) )

The present wrapping started out with order and taking turns....

...but quickly evolved into mass chaos!

The quints take a break----All that present un-wrapping can be exhausting!

I made each of the quints their own little mini-cake in their color. In addition to color coding, each of the quints has a symbol that they chose to identify their things when multiple colors are not available. Kassidy--flower, Kaydence--sunshine, Kyndall--heart, Rustin--basketball, Ryder--changes his mind a lot (for his cake it was a monster)

Kassidy, Kaydence, Rustin, Kyndall and Ryder

Happy Birthday to Kassidy!!

Happy Birthday to Kaydence!

Happy Birthday to Rustin!!

Happy Birthday to Kyndall!!

Happy Birthday to Ryder!!

For the rest of the party guests, I made two cakes---a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling (to die for!) and...

Lemon cake with raspberry cream cheese filling

The day following the quints actual birthday, we had their "friend" party. After spending lots of time on Riley and Kaiya's birthday parties this year, I decided to make life easy on myself and have the quints party at the Big Bounce.

We invited all the kids from church who are in their Sunday School classes----there are 21 kids their age, so it was a big group! I was really interested to see what my kids would do at the party. They don't get invited on playdates with other kids very often and they are so used to playing with each other, that I wondered if they would stick together or branch out. To my surprise, none of them stayed together---they all buddied up with someone else.

Kassidy with her friends Paige and Marcy

Kaydence with her friend Emmie

Rustin with his buddy Weston

Kyndall was more of a free spirit, running around by herself---she did join a bunch of other girls watching a movie for a little bit.

Ryder with his pal Andrew

We sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes. I made rainbow cupcakes (pink, purple, yellow for the girls and blue, green, white for the boys) but I was so busy I forgot to take pictures of the inside!

Party Room

Present Time!

Present un-wrapping quickly turned into a free-for-all!

The Party Kids!

The quints with the cute gal that hosted our party at the Big Bounce! It was so much fun, and the best part----I didn't have to get my house ready for a party, or clean up after the 4-year-old invasion!

The Quints 4th Birthday!

Clean it! (New Video!)

This was our family activity this weekend----making a music video in between sessions of Conference. The kids go around singing "Go, clean it! Clean it good!" now, so I hope the message sinks in :-)

Clean it! (New Video!)

Field Trip Friday--M

This week we learned about letter M. Because we had our 4-year check-ups on our field trip day, we had to do more of a Mini-field trip. After we were done with the Miserable shots at the MD's office, we headed to McDonalds for the Midday Meal. I wanted to get the kids a Milkshake to try, but the Milkshake Machine had Mechanical difficulties :-(

After lunch, we headed home to watch a Movie ("Mulan") and eat Marshmallows. The kids thought it was Marvelous!

McDonalds: Kaydence, Ryder, Rustin, Kassidy, Kyndall

Making Merry Munching Mouthfuls of Mini-Meals

Kassidy (Mini-Mother)

Kaydence (Meticulous Maiden)

Rustin (Manly Menace)

Kyndall (Mastermind of Mischievousness)

Ryder (Moody Merrymaker)

Movie Mania---"Mulan"

Marshmallows.....

.....Mmmmmmmm!!

Field Trip Friday--M

4-Year Check-Ups

This week the quints had their 4-year-old well-check Doctor visit. I have been dreading this one a little bit because I knew that they would need several shots to get them Kindergarten-ready and now they are old enough to know that shots are not fun!

Our pediatricians office is really great with doctor visits. We usually meet with two doctors, the girls go in one room and the boys in another. The nurses there have the assembly line down to an art, so we are usually done in an hour or less. Now that the quints are four, I can manage a doctor visit with only one additional helper. We have come so far! In the early days I usually had to bring 3-4 helpers, and we would all parade in with a baby carrier under one arm and a diaper bag on the other.

The appointment went great, and I was once again amazed at the miracle of our situation----we were so blessed to get five perfectly healthy, normal children (plus two). Ryder cried pretty hard when he got his shots, but the other four did great!

Outside the Dr. office.....the sun was a bit bright!

Everyone's second favorite thing about going to the doctor....the fish in the waiting room! (the first favorite it getting from the treasure box when it is over!)

Kyndall, Kaydence and Kassidy---gowned up and ready!

Ryder and Rustin

Here are everyone's 4-year stats (they are all small for their age, but with Jayson and I as parents, that is definitely to be expected----we never planned on having a basketball team):

Kassidy
38 inches tall
31 lbs

Kaydence
36 inches tall
28 lbs

Rustin
37.25 inches tall
32.75 lbs

Kyndall
36.25 inches tall
27 lbs

Ryder
39.5 inches tall
34 lbs


Yay---now we are all ready for Kindergarten!!!

4-Year Check-Ups