GO Outside

Last week had it's rough spots but ended with a great weekend. On Tuesday night Quinn was up all night, uncomfortable, whining, wiggling and crying and she and Isabella tag-teamed being up and down throughout the night into the wee hours of the morning. When my alarm went off at 6am, I knew that no one was getting up or going anywhere. Quinn had just settled into a seemingly comfortable sleep, Isabella was still sniffling and whining and I just wanted to hibernate. We had a slow morning on the couch. Isabella ate her lunch that was packed and ready for school, for breakfast and miraculously Quinn seemed to feel just fine after a couple of hours. Lesson #8902 in parenting: when your child is up all night in supposedly the worst pain ever, by morning they will be perfectly fine, albeit exhausted.

By noon, we needed some fresh air so Isabella instigated some driveway bike riding and chicken visiting.

Genivieve bought Isabella this adorable pram for her 1st birthday. It was her first "big girl" toy and I remember her pushing her little baby dolls around in it. Then the handle broke, we fixed it, it broke, we packed it away, fixed it again, broke it again...you get the idea.
Well, four years later we just screwed the entire thing together so there is no way it's coming apart now. Quinn has adopted it as her own (as she's adopted every baby related toy in our house...) and is now rarely without it. Always a naked baby and her stroller. And girl can move with that stroller! 

Okay, so after seeing this photo, I guess the stroller could still potentially come apart again. I didn't realize she was catching air with it.

On Saturday we went to the GO Outside festival in Roanoke. It took a good two hours for the kids to warm up to the idea and the crowd but once that short (ha!) adjustment period was over, we had a great time. Quinn was willing to try anything. The Bounch house, the slack line, the other kid stations-she was game. This little two year old had to show her big brother and sister the ropes.

Ryan and the kids took the "Recess Pledge," promising to take breaks during the day to go outside and exercise. Keen was sponsoring the event, so the guy who set them up with the chalkboard was talking about the best part of a school day being recess, and how much fun it is to have all that time outside. Guess he hasn't visited a public school recently...But I didn't burst his bubble. They had to draw something that they would want to do if they could take an outside break during the day.

Ryan drew a dude hiking on a mountain (he must remember recess being really long) and Isabella drew herself (who knew she was such a square?) walking on the slack line.
Declan drew an "S" and Quinn scribbled in the corner...

And then we spun a wheel and won a cute little Keen shoe keychain. This event was all about the little things.

Such as:

 Crazy mountain biker man doing absolutely insane things with his bike.

 Ironically, our kids finally warmed up to the whole idea once they saw another kid eating a snow cone. They coyly asked if they could get one and then BOOM...they were ready to go.

 Little girl in Big glasses. I love how entitled she is. When the sun is in her face, no matter where we are, she doesn't hesitate to reach towards my face and say "I need you glasses mommy, the sun is in my way!"

This bridge did nothing but cause me great anxiety. Do you see the size of those gaps!?  Rest assured, as I was snapping, Ryan was mere inches from their bodies.  And then we quickly left the bridge.

The highlight of the trip was definitly the slack line. The kids were addicted. We watched the 'professionals' do absolutely amazing things, then the kids literally, could not be pulled away.

By the time evening approached, the kids were ready to crash, so we had dinner and headed home just as the sun was going down along with six little eyes in the backseat.
Soaking up this weather before the cold keeps us in, makes weekends like this one so enjoyable. As we were driving, I looked back at three chatterboxes in the backseat (one in particular stands out, ahem-Quinn) and said to Ryan "can you believe that we have three talking children?" He kind of laughed and said "well, yes, I can totally believe it." But this is new. With each addition of a talking, conversational child we have a tiny baby to balance it out. Now we have these three fully formed personalities that make us laugh (and cry) and give us more joy than anything else on this earth. All three of them, each in their own way: the epitomy of joy.