Evelyn 4 Year Pictures

Compliments to Erin for the wonderful pictures and creative "interview" idea to remember Evelyn at age 4.

 

 

 

 

Photography Class

No exciting weekends or events in the Elenbaas house for awhile (besides my birthday weekend). For the most part we've stayed at home and taken care of a lot of little projects this winter.

Erin took a one day photography class last weekend. I have no doubt the quality of our pictures will improve. However, there isn't much you can do about the subject matter.

Typical Evelyn: charming, delightful, pleasant, cute, but something sinister going on in there

Typical Jack: Bloody (above his eye this time, several bloody noses lately), bruised, perpetual machine, and shoveling food in his mouth.

Typical boys: hooligans, destructive, naughty (notice the cell phone in Jack's hand - not a toy!)

Typical William: Neat, content, pleasant, but something very sinister going on in there (lately he picks his moments and then tackles and pins Jack without mercy)

The kids are getting excited for our upcoming Florida trip. We bought a plastic pool for the trip and they tested it out in the family room.

Twins are 1 year old

We did it! We survived the first year of twins. Looking back, it was pretty awful for 3 months and has gradually gotten easier since. Erin is a tremendous mother and carried a huge load very well.

Sadly, as 2nd and 3rd children their 1st birthday did not get much fanfare. We squeezed in birthday parties at other family gatherings and the boys missed most of the parties because they were napping or really crabby. On their actual birthday Erin worked all day and had a commitment at night, Jack was constipated, and we didn't do anything to celebrate.

We did make a train cake for their main party.

The boys were a crabby disaster all morning and slept through dinner, so their entire meal was birthday cake and ice cream. No complaints from them, though.

This is what happens when we try to have a photo session with them. Here was an attempt at 1 year old pictures.

First, mild compliance but not much time because they walk away almost instantly.
Next, distraction keeps them calm for another 10-20 seconds.
Then, the enforcer holds them down but things start getting out of control.
Finally, chaos.
And then the good child :)

The Ultimate Christmas Tradition

I have lots of traditions, and the Christmas season is filled with them. I think I have a new favorite. Erin and I made our own family Advent Tree. The tree and pouches are the handiwork of Erin's sewing and creativity skills, and every day of December leading up to Christmas has a Christmas themed family activity.

I hope our kids enjoy it as much as us.
DAY 1: Oops, Advent tree went up too late, we have to make this one up.

DAY 2: Make Christmas cookies together - Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies this time.

DAY 3: Have a sleepover in front of the Christmas tree. Will and Jack missed out this year and I have a feeling Erin will opt for her bed every year. Their loss! Evie and I had a blast.

DAY 4: Go through house and donate unnecessary items to Goodwill.

Pumpkin Carving

Flash back to fall of 2008 and poor little Evelyn was subject to one of Erin's creative ideas.

In the end, Evelyn did not like being a pumpkin at all.

Three years later (last month) Evelyn had nothing to worry about and she happily picked her pumpkin at Papa and Nana's house.

This year William and Jack were subject to Erin's creativity. They actually didn't mind being stuck inside a pumpkin. It may look like they were trying to eat their way out, but really they just liked the taste of fresh pumpkin.

Arizona Trip: Part 2

For the most part, we all hung out at the condo and let the kids play. However, one day we visited Arizona Air Park - a trampoline gym. I had never been to one before but I love trampolines. The air park was even better than I imagined! I figured there would be tons of rules and annoyances. Instead, we had the entire place to ourselves and there were virtually no rules. Also, we only had to pay for Evie. $7 for 2 hours for 5 people is quite a bargain.

The foam pit was great. Even Erin "sky-ed" into the foam pit.

Evie was a crazy girl. By the end, she would run in circles trying to gather speed in preparation for jumping into the foam pit. I timed her last one; she ran around and around for 90 seconds before jumping.
The basketball hoop was my favorite. I always loved dunking on 7' rims. Here I could dunk on regulation rims, and with awesome hang time.

I don't remember when or how I started, but I've been doing flips for a long time. I can confidently flip into water in almost any circumstance and I easily do front flips on trampolines. Evie made me so proud. After seeing me do a few flips, she waltzed up to the edge of the foam pit and did one herself.
Later that afternoon Evie was swimming and casually asked "daddy, want me do a fwip?" I grinned and said sure! She climbed out, walked to the edge and....!!!

That's my girl!

End of Summer

And just like that, summer is gone. It was a great one.

We had torrential rain for about 15 minutes on Saturday. It rained hard enough to wash a significant amount of the beach into the lake.

Will and Jack hung out with their future cottage buddy Ethan. At half their age he's already bigger than them. I'm sure the trio will make many cottage memories.

Washing the boat.
Meal Time
The boys are standing and almost walking. Erin and I can just feel the destruction that is coming.
Princess Evelyn reminds us daily who really runs the house.
Did I mention that we can feel the destruction coming? I'm sure it has only just begun.