Parentheticals

 What happened this week? Yesterday we had a game night at Caitlin and Sal's. It was really fun! The kids were very good watching a movie and barely interrupted us at all, and we got to play Battle Sheep and Treasure Island and Tricksters. They were all really fun, especially Treasure Island, which we'd never heard of but was a really fun cooperative-competitive pirate game. Earlier that day, Mike and Rea went shopping for toys to fill a box for Operation Christmas Child. They got some very cute stuff; the toddler boy who gets it should be very happy. Before that , Rea had gone to visit Max with Grandma Sheila and Papa Mike. They had Jimmy John's and played Sushi Go and she had a great time and was really happy she went. Today at church, Rea taught her first Young Women's lesson! She said it went great! She spent a lot of time this week preparing, and we're so glad it went well for her. Friday Mike and Alison watched The Man Who Knew Too Little for their date. That...

For Rea's date night we bought mint ice cream, and had mint ice cream and watched an episode of my little ponies. Since then, we have been eating mint ice cream every so often, because - hey! mint ice cream. Sara read a book for the first time this week, so we had a goal day party for her. She wanted brownies, so Alison made us a batch, and then we played games together. and ate mint ice cream. On Wednesday Mike finished his dragon game up and entered it into the game competition. He hasn't heard anything back yet, but even if he doesn't win, it was a fun contest. The outdoor preschool is going well. Alison decided to hold it on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: there is a ward playgroup that meets on Wednesdays, and on Fridays they already have a preschool group. They had a different family join every day this week (which the kids really enjoyed). They managed to stay outside for about 5 hours each day without the kids whining (which was the goal). The kids had a l...

This week Alison is proud of getting the family outside a lot. We hit our "4+ hours a day outside" on most days, which was fun. Mostly she took the kids to the wilderness park, but on Friday they joined our ward's play group at the neighborhood park. There was a great turn-out, and Alison and the kids had a fun time. Everyone is enjoying the nice weather. We did take one day off of being outside, because Sara got a stomach bug and was up in the night throwing up. The girls got to watch movies on Wednesday and rest, and Rea tried to convince Sara that being sick was very fun. Sara did not agree. Then Rea was up Friday night throwing up and spent Saturday laying around listening to the audio book of "The Secret Garden." ( Libri Vox is so cool.) We reminded her of how fun being sick was. She was not impressed. Timmy hit another milestone this week: he has begun shrieking as a major form of communication. It's an annoying stage, and we hope that he gets thr...

Alison and the kids went to the zoo TWICE this week. The first time, on Tuesday, was for a goal day party, and they met Grandma Julie and Aunt Becky and Cousin Ellie there for a fun time. Thursday Uncle Chauncey finished school, so he went with Becky and Ellie again, and they invited Grandma Julie, who invited us. We had a great time both days. Tuesday they were setting up the dinosaurs (Zoorasic Park 2 this summer!), and Rea was excited to see them on Thursday, but they were all covered up until opening day. Now Rea wants to go this upcoming Friday for the dinosaurs. On Wednesday we had a Board Game Design Group of Sandy meetup. There were five people there, and we played two games: Polynesia and Zodiac Dice. It went pretty well. The girls had a babysitter and had a lot of fun as well. On Thursday we ate dinner in the front yard. As we ate the heady scent of the lilac flowers made us think about edible flowers. We looked up the edibility of lilacs, and found that lilac jelly is a ...

This week we were still sick.  Timmy's pinkeye finally cleared up today, but he had the sniffles last night and during their naps both girls were coughing, so we might be starting again. Timmy is getting pretty good at sitting up and moving around and being happy on the ground. He is especially happy outside, and when he's not tired or hungry he'll play happily inside unless his diaper is wet; then he always cries for Mommy. He is also now crawling around the ground foraging for food. I estimate that he is at least as smart as any given dog in the world. (Alison remarks that this may be, but he is far less obedient than many dogs.) Sara has decided to rename him to Pigger (See Amy's blog for more info.) Sara has been saying wonderful things to us this week. We were talking about Rea's stomach problems (more on that later) and said that we were going to put her on a wheat free diet to see if that helped her. Sara chimed in with "Let's have muffins!...