illguthlife: Week Seven: Several Birthday Parties

My girls are still obsessed with the Hulk. They've progressed to being able to point to Bruce Banner and say "Hulk, Hulk, Hulk." But we actually watched my wedding video more than The Avengers this week. The girls will point to the TV and ask, "Daddy?" And then I say, "do you want to watch the Daddy movie." They nod their heads and I turn it on for them. They love to see their Daddy.

Of course we've done a lot more than just watch the wedding video over and over and over. (But we did do that A LOT) Here's the run down.

We had our movie night on Wednesday night this week because we had plans for every other night. We watched Enchanted the girls loved the songs. They also loved the Mother's cookies that we had for our treat. (They each pooped pink the next day.)

My cousin Melissa slept over on Thursday. This is the third year that her, Hillary and I have had a sleepover during UEA weekend. Melissa remarked that I have more kids every time she sleeps over. (First year I was pregnant with the twins, second year the twins were almost 1, and this year we had Derrick too) Melissa was great and watched the kids for me while I ran some errands. We had so much fun with her that I forgot to take any pictures.

On Friday we went to Ogden to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. We were the first to arrive and the kids had fun having the run of my in-laws tiny rental cottage. (It really is a cottage)

Soon cousins arrived and the girls shrieked with delight. They started jumping up and down and running around. So we sent them outside to play.

We had dinner. The girls were supposed to be eating at the coffee table, but they wanted to be big kids like their cousins.

Derrick was happy at the table. He is sitting so well. I don't have to worry about him tipping over anymore.

After dinner we went to the Tree House Museum in Ogden. I knew the girls would be running around having tons of fun and I did not want to slow them down by lugging around Derrick. So I bought this little umbrella stroller to keep him in.

Well, I was all ready to pay for our admission when the ticket lady told me I could park my stroller by the door because they didn't allow strollers in the museum. That was a HUGE DEAL BREAKER! I was ready to take my kids and leave when she told me that. When she saw that I was serious she asked me if there was a medical reason that I needed my kid in a stroller. I told her, "Um, only that he weighs 20 lbs and I have toddler twins to chase around." She allowed me to take the stroller in "just this once."

I'm glad she let us in because the girls really did have a great time. They probably could have spent the whole 2 hours in each area.

They loved the little play house. They had so much fun taking everything out of the fridge and setting the table. And Charlotte insisted on putting everything back before we moved on.

The other favorite place was a little hospital nursery. Here is a picture of Charlotte and Lydia and their cousins Oakley and Annalynn. These 4 cousins were all born within the same 12 months.

The girls loved "weighing" the babies.

And they made sure all the babies were back in bed before we moved on.

Then they played in the music room.

They loved that they could touch EVERYTHING.

Derrick actually fell asleep while we were playing. It would have been impossible to carry him around without the stroller. After we'd been there almost 2 hours he woke up and needed a bottle which was in the car. I asked the girls if they were ready to go and they stopped what they were doing and started walking down the stairs toward the exit. Sometimes I seriously have the best kids!

We went back to my in-laws house. Brandon's dad hadn't come to the party because he was working on building his house. He was home by now and so was Brandon's grandpa who had been helping him. He and Derrick met for the first time.

The girls played with Legos.

Everyone arrived and we had cake and ice cream. We were also celebrating Annalynn's first birthday. The girls ate mostly ice cream. I'm thinking we're just going to have ice cream cakes for their birthday next week.

On Saturday night we went to yet another birthday party. My friend Debbie celebrated her 60th birthday, and her family threw her a surprise party. During nap times and evenings I put together a photo book for her (its on facebook if you are interested). Debbie was one of my young women leaders and a great friend. I was so happy I could be there for her party. And I got to see a lot of my friends from the good old 5th ward.

The girls loved the party too. Lydia has started collecting the confetti on tables at parties. Last week she had a whole cup full of "Happy Anniversary" confetti. This week she collected all the star shaped confetti.

The girls had taken really late naps on Saturday. So when we got home from the party they were still wide awake. I let them stay up and they watched my wedding video about 20 times while I cleaned up the apartment for Sunday. They went to bed around 11:00 pm.

Despite the late bedtime they were up early on Sunday. I mentioned to Charlotte that we were going to church and she could go to nursery. Immediately she wanted to get dressed. Then she put on boots. She kept asking "church? church?" I told her it was only 8:50 am and that church wouldn't start until 1:00. She wasn't very happy about that.

When we finally did go to church she and Lydia were very good during Sacrament meeting. As soon as the closing prayer was over they made a beeline for the door. They zipped right down the hall and made it to nursery before the leaders were there. I think they've missed playing with the toys. After church we had dinner and then I took the kids on a long walk with the jogger. I gave Charlotte this weed/flower and she loved it!

Today I woke up with a major weekend hang over. I was very grumpy. We ALL took 2 hour naps and then the day was much better. We even went out to play in the leaves for a little while.

Derrick loved the leaves. He is such a good sitter. Charlotte and Lydia never really sat. They would always fall over and start scooting. Derrick is just content to sit and play with everything.