Katt-a-blog: Beach Bums!

Brian's Grandpa visited for 5 days from St. Louis, so we braved a trip to Galveston to take the kids to the beach. They had seen plenty of episodes of Dora or Max and Ruby going to the beach, so they had their hopes up to see lots of crabs, dolphins, sharks, mermaids, and octopuses. They weren't disappointed, both Brian and his Grandpa found shells with little hermit crabs in them (and thankfully this time, no one put them in their mouth - Jacob did this the last time I took him to Galveston when he was about 18 months old). Annie did eat her fair share of sand, so that was super fun trying to keep it out of her mouth and constantly running her down to the beach to get her dipped off, only for her to be covered again in about 5 minutes. Jacob LOVED the water and the waves, he wanted to be out there the whole time with Brian. Gwyn liked to dig, and enjoyed walking down to the edge of the water and then turning around and running away when a wave came in...she didn't want to get her feet wet! Here are a few pictures from the day, we had a great time!

Oh, and Brian was super proud of his deep hole he dug, just wide enough for his arm/leg to fit down there...this is the last picture before we packed up and headed home, you can tell Annie had enough!

I think Brian's Grandpa had fun with the kids, Annie warmed right up to him, and the kids had him playing hide and seek within about 30 minutes of his arrival, so needless to say, he had a very active weekend with us! I had gone to lay Annie down for a nap, only to come down to find Grandpa scrunched up behind a couch playing hide and seek with Jacob and Gwyn. I asked the kids what they were doing and they said it was their time to count like they just did this everyday with him. Jacob and Gwyn had him reading books to them, serving him dinner from their kitchen, playing Batman house, and Dr Jacob and Nurse Gwyn were doctoring him right up! Rick came in for the weekend as well, and the guys went to the Cardinals and Astros game on Monday night.

Jacob was surprisingly content with just wearing a shirt to match the guys and staying home with us, instead of going to the game with them.

I took the kids to a friends house for a playdate this week, where she had a tea party set up for the kids. The girls sat at the fancy tables and the boys sat at the big table. Gwyn picked a seat out right away that had Minnie mouse on it, and then got upset when Addison sat down because she wanted to sit with Jacob. It was pretty cute, Gwyn actually cut her little muffin with a knife and fork and drank her apple juice out of a little cup. I dressed them all up and they all looked so cute!

Annie took part in the fun too, but after she grabbed the napkin that Gwyn had laid everything out on and pulled everything off the table, she got quarntined to play with the baby toys:

School starts tomorrow for the kids, Jacob will be in Pre-K and go four days / week, and Gwyn will be in the 2 1/2 yr old class and go two days / week. We went up to their school today, they had an open house so that the kids could see the rooms, and both the kids are pretty excited. Each room has a painting station, craft table, dress up area, kitchen, tools, tons of toys, reading centers, blocks, puzzles, games, etc. They will both get to go to Motor (gym), music and Chapel each week. I just hope whenever they see each other, that they are fine to part ways, Gwyn usually has a meltdown at church when she sees Jacob on the playground because she wants to go in his class.

The other night Gwyn was walking around in her dress up shoes and talking on her fake cell phone. I said, "who are you talking to?" She said, "I'm calling a knight to come rescue the princess." She then said she was the princess. Oh, how the times have a changed! If a princess is in need of rescue, she just needs to flip open her cell phone and call a knight and let him know!

Here are a few random pictures from this week:

This one is before bed one night, they really are the cutest kids! Gwyn told me this week that Jacob was her best friend and Jacob said that Annie and Gwyn were his best friends even though he thought you were only supposed to have one best friend. I told him you could have more than one. One night, when I had to put them all to bed by myself, I let Jacob and Gwyn watch one episode of a show (so they had to agree on one, or they couldn't watch any) while I gave Annie her bottle and put her to sleep. Gwyn immediately said Little Bear, which is Jacob's favorite. I told Jacob how nice that was that Gwyn wanted to watch what he liked, and he said tomorrow when he got to choose, he was going to choose Dora...he gets it!!! How sweet!

Annie loves her some finger foods, she pretty much wants to eat whatever we are having which usually makes for a big mess because she just shovels food by the handful into her mouth...I'm guessing about 30% get in and the rest is either in her highchair or on the floor.

Before heading to church on Sunday:

You can barely tell in this picture, but all three kids are in a sideways-turned pack-n-play. We had this set up for Annie to sleep in while Brian's Grandpa and Rick were here, so for 5 days, this bed provided constant entertainment for the kids, who turned it into a house and a jail among other things.