Fall Fun

Last week was a terrific fall week.  Ellie had two days off from school for EM (formally, and forever, known as MEA).  The weather was also perfect fall weather hovering in the 60s, allowing plenty of outside play and fresh air for the troops.

 

Here's our week and weekend in a nutshell:

 

Ellie, Ava, and Carter love to run from the front door into the grass by the driveway doing gymnastics moves (also known as Ellie cartwheels and the other two jump, twist, or somersault into the grass).  Not to be outdone, Hannah has joined in on the fun.

Her move is to strictly keep running into the grass with maybe a minor jump involved.  But you better well be clapping as she will watch you to make sure you applaud her efforts!

A mid-morning snack.  If I recall correctly, this snack did not need a spoon but you try telling that to Hannah now that she can use utensils!

Thursday morning of the MEA break

Saturday morning, I took the younger three to the MVMOM Halloween party.  You may recall that a few years ago, I was the Special Events Coordinator for the group.  This party fell under my umbrella of planning.  I have to say that I enjoyed attending the party responsiblity-free 10 times more than having to plan the whole thing!  The party was awesome and I so wish Pinterest would have been popular in 2010 as that is where Bethany (the lady who took over the role after me) said she found all her ideas.  Sure beats thinking up ideas on your own!

The kids had fun playing games and winning prizes.

They also made a tissue paper pumpkin.  (And I love Hannah wandering in the background!)

The parade!

My twinkies! 

Ava is dressing as a butterfly this year and Carter is Superman.  Ellie is going to wear a witch costume and Hannah will be whatever fits her in the dress-up box.

Love this girly's attitude!

Sunday was absolutely beautiful and was probably the last day of 2012 in the 70s.  Jake took the twins on their first official bike ride.

Hannah was less than thrilled about being left behind but I'm not sure I can handle riding a bike right now!  And in my efforts to freakishly get rid of things, I sold the bike trailer before Hannah was born so we don't have anything for her to ride in anyway.  Next year, we'll pick up a new trailer for Hannah and #5 to cruise around in.

Hannah was much happier once she started levitating in the driveway.

Actually, this photo is the #1 reason this camera was worth every penny it cost.  Can't beat that shutter speed when capturing moments like this!

The gorgeous fall day was capped off with leaf angels in the yard.

The twinks and Jake had their birthday on Monday.  I still can't believe my little babies are 5 years old!  We are having their party tomorrow night after Grammy and Grampy fly in for the weekend!. This will be the first birthday party for the twins that both sets of grandparents are able to be here for.  We are very excited!

 

In other news, I no longer sleep much.  I have reached the point where I crash, sleep hard, wake up a few hours later, and am unable to go back to sleep.  Not always fun the next day when there are 4 munchkins to care for and I can't just crawl back in bed when I get tired again.  It's a good thing I haven't slept much in the last 5.5 years so I can function while sleep-deprived!  I am at 29 weeks today so only 11 or so more weeks to go.  I had a doctor appointment today to check on #5.  All looks good and an ultrasound confirmed that baby finally did move to a head down position.  I almost asked the doctor for a gender reveal but decided that we've made it this far, we must persevere!  Still no names settled on so it will all be a big surprise for everyone when the day comes (Jake and I included!  Hannah wasn't even a name we'd really discussed so we seem to do well in the moment at coming up with great names.).

 

More to come on the birthdays celebration and our busy weekend.  I'm feeling tired so I better take advantage and get some sleep.

Another Relaxing Weekend

We had another wonderful relaxing weekend this past Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was a rainy, gloomy day that started with us spending the morning in our pajamas, eating a big breakfast of eggs and hashbrowns made by Jake, and watching cartoons.

 

After a small lunch for the little people, we all went to the gym for some kid playtime and adult exercising.  Hannah and I came home after my workout for her nap.  She also found a green marker and turned herself into the Hulk.

Jake took the twins swimming after his workout.  When they got home, it was still raining steadily and was the perfect afternoon for a nap on the couch.

 

Sunday was a perfect fall day.  We stayed home from both the gym and Sunday School because Carter was running a fever and not feeling well.  That afternoon, the twins went outside for a little fresh air and to enjoy the sun.  They love when Daddy puts them in the tree in the front yard!

"Take a picture of me sleeping in the tree."

 

It was another wonderful weekend with plenty of time for rest and relaxation and to still get some things done around the house.  I've been on a fall cleaning binge lately.  Some may call it nesting.  I call it "spring cleaning didn't get past the main level/some things around here haven't been cleaned in our 3 years of living here/I finally have time to get to this stuff with the twins gone 2 afternoons a week/the house isn't getting any bigger but we have to stick a 7th person somewhere in just a few months/it's time to get rid of the unneeded junk taking up space".  Regardless of what you and I may call it, I've been very efficient and effective at getting things done and clearing out a lot of the stuff we don't use around here. 

 

This weekend will be another low-key weekend for us with only a couple things on the agenda.  Then, the triple birthday on Monday!  I still can't believe Ava and Carter will be 5 years old!  And Jake will get to celebrate his last year in the 20s.  It definitely makes life a little easier to have three family members share the same birthday!

Fall 2012 Photo Shoot

One of the stipulations when Jake agreed to buy my DSLR was that I would not put us through family photos with a photographer again for several years.  Jake determined that I could take good enough photos of the children myself and in a few years, we could hire someone again to take photos of the entire family.  Considering that I could have purchased the camera and at least two additional lenses with what we have spent each fall on professional photos since the twins were babies, I agreed.

 

I won't say I wasn't nervous ahead of time with the photo shoot.  I am my worst critic.  I picked out the kids' outfits in August (Old Navy, how I love you!) and bought them in early September (shout out to a sale and a coupon!).  I decided we'd go to Ritter Farm again, the same place we went last year with bc fotos.  I just had to wait for the colors to start to change.  The last weekend of September we were so busy with family events but I knew the colors were about where I wanted them to be.  A look at the weather report revealed that it was going to be cold by the following weekend and I was afraid one big wind would take all the leaves off the trees.  So Tuesday afternoon, about 10 minutes after Ellie got off the bus, I hustled the children into their clothes, fixed everyone's hair, and drove them all to the park.

 

I kept my finger on the shutter button and took 250 photos.  I am pleased to say that I couldn't be much happier with the results.  It was my first time really trying to pose the kids and I did the photo arranging, picture taking, and child wrangling all on my own.  Not bad for 45 minutes of work!

 

Here are some of my faves:

 

I love this last photo because I was trying to get all of them to walk together towards me.  Carter always wants to be the leader so he kept rushing ahead.  Hannah is crying because she wants to be in the front and she's not.  And Ava and Ellie are paused mid-step. 

 

I will put more of my favorite shots up in the days to come.  I didn't want to have a post with 20+ photos in it.  All in all, not a bad photo shoot and aside from the cost of the camera and the prints I want developed, it cost me nothing but a little sanity!

Another Wendorff Wedding and Weekend

 Last week and weekend, Holly and company came back for a visit!

 

In typical one-big-happy-family fashion, we tossed as many of the cousins in the tub as we could.  Amanda didn't feel the babies would be safe, even for a picture, so she took Isabella and Elizabeth to another bathroom for their bath.  I'm not sure what her concern was.  It's not like these 5 get rowdy or anything! ;)

That Friday night, we went to a wedding for another Wendorff cousin.  It was held at the Mayowood Stone Barn in Rochester.  A beautiful place!

Hannah decided she wasn't up for another short wedding ceremony, so she and I hung out at the back of the loft while the ceremony took place.  She was in a much better mood when we got downstairs to the reception and found a goodie bag meant just for her with a snack in it.

The others enjoyed their goodie bags too.

I thought the beautiful stone buildings would make the perfect background to get a picture of my bunch.  Apparently Hannah wasn't interested in participating and we picked up an extra in the form of Olivia! (Can you say ham by the way?!  Look at Olivia in these pictures.  She doesn't enjoy the camera at all!)

A picture of 3 of the 4 Zimmermanns.  I still have no idea where Elizabeth was when we took this photo.  But we weren't concerned that night and she did make it home with the family, so no foul.

Jakey and I

No more full body shots.  It's just not a pleasant sight anymore.  Only 14 long more weeks to go!

The older three will cooperate for their mother.

But this little bugger was more interested in running around and going up and down this little hill.

I did finally corner all four together later though and got a fairly decent picture.

This is right before our night fell apart with a meltdown by Carter and the decision by me to bring the kids home early.  A good choice since I refuse to deal with meltdowns in public and it showed the children I mean what I say.  I have a feeling better behavior will play out at the next family function.

 

Saturday night, we celebrated Grandma Debbie's birthday early.  She's only 29!

There's Elizabeth!  Isn't she a cutie?!  I can't get over how different all the 2011 babies look.  Hannah and Isabella both have blonde hair but very different faces and eye colors.  Bethie has dark hair and dark eyes.  Of course, I failed to get a picture of the 2011 babies again and a picture of all the grandchildren together.  My only consolation in this failure is that in a little over 3 months, any pictures would be inaccurate so I'll try harder next time when they visit and #5 is here.

We had a great time hanging out with family.  We are still trying to convince Holly and Joel to move to Minnesota.  Ava and Olivia love to play together and we have dreams of a dynamic tennis duo.  It's still a work in progress but we won't give up yet!

A Lazy Weekend

We finally had a lazy weekend a few weekends ago (the 22nd and 23rd.  How many weekends ago was that?  I never know how to word it.).  Our September was full of weddings and family events so this was our one weekend with nothing on the calendar.  A big treat when we feel like we are constantly running. 

 

The little girls celebrated by jumping on my bed Saturday morning.

Carter preferred to spend his morning watching sports highlights with Daddy.  He wore his new vampire teeth from a Happy Meal.

The kids were excited to get to spend the afternoon at home riding their bikes and playing outside.

Except Hannah.  She was ready for a nap!

 

It was a very relaxing weekend where we controlled our activities.

 

This past week, Holly, Joel, Olivia, and Elizabeth came back for a visit.  We had loads of fun playing with all the Wendorff cousins.  I will put up all those pictures once I get through them all.  We survived our crazy September!  October is busy too but we do have a few weekends to ourselves.  September's theme was something on every weekend except one.  October's theme seems to be a few weekends of activities, but several activities on each of those weekends.  Fall is going to zip by, the holidays will be here, and then #5 will arrive!  It's a crazy ride we are on!