the crisp connection

 so my firstborn turned 4! we just had cake and ice cream with david n des and jan. the big news of the day was hannah's big girl bike, but all those pictures were on des's camera.

 Patrick gave me a wonderful gift basket for doing such a good job having the baby. It had all kinds of neat things in it, new towels, candles, lotion, other things, and, like last time, this amazing chocolate cake mix from williams sonoma, and icing. We used it for Hannah and Patrick's bday. He also remembered to get Caroline's initials engraved on my necklace, to join the rest of the family already there. that was really thoughtful.

 As i've mentioned before, Charlie loves him some dessert! Hannah does too, but she often leaves half on her plate. My son was a much higher sugar tolerance, apparently. And its also much harder to get him to eat his vegetables. we have the most luck while we're preparing the food. like here, they just halved a cucumber and walked around eating it like an apple. But then today, i tried to give him a plate of sliced cucumbers before his sandwich, and he was furious. he's gotten into such a bad habit of refusing to eat, walking around playing, and then just going to bed hungry. he doesnt mind, apparently. but today i decided no more, he needs to actually eat like the rest of us. i had to physically hold him in his chair until he gave up fighting me. while wearing caroline. there's alot of screaming around our house :-)

 i've discovered the wee one will actually take a nap outside. she'll sleep for maybe an hour. as opposed to her 5 min, inside. so as you can imagine, i was excited about it!

 this is also really rare. a happy baby, when she isn't being worn! just chilling with daddy.

 i know the light is bad here, but i wanted you to see her smile!

 so saturday, patrick had to go to work (agriculture doesnt respect our work week!), and he took hannah. Saturday being my cheat day, i decided i wanted biscuits. I really wanted to make and enjoy my breakfast, then get to my long list of saturday chores. i did not want any helpers. but charlie was standing next to me, saying "Big. Helper?" "Big. Helper?" and i thought, i should probably make this a priority. We did it together, and i gave him a pile of dough to make his own. he preferred to mash it with the pastry cutter. All was well and storybook perfect until i put them in the oven. apparently he wanted to eat it right then. I kid you not, he screamed the ENTIRE time they were in the oven. 15 min. He was so angry, I had to hold him away from the oven, or else he'd pull it open. "READY NOW! READY NOW" Over and over again. poor guy. there is only so much i can do to explain why he cant eat them right away. but warm biscuits drizzled with honey makes everything better.

 that's right, we're juicers now. well, the men are. ok, mostly patrick. me, i'd rather just eat my vegetables whole. but if it works for him, i'm all for it.

 2 wks ago we had a sunday school social at a little lake around here. Hannah had her first time on one of those dangerous machines, and patrick had his first time waterskiing. I, unfortunately, had my hands full with my fussybutt baby, and no bathing suit that fit me, so i stayed on the bank. but i definitely will be there next year, because there was tubing too. I love tubing.

 When they mentioned this lake plan, i was really apprehensive about all those kids and water. but i was so impressed by all those daddies and how they played with not only their own, but everybody's. It takes awhile to make friends, but it looks like we'll be here long enough to do so. we're off to a good start, i think. We really enjoy our sunday school class, and being together is crazy with all those kids, but fun!

 Hannah is next to her little friend Emmy, who turned 4 just a few days after Hannah. Her mom, also named Jana, had a baby just a few weeks before me (her fourth). and they just started using the same my fathers world kingergarten curriculum that we're starting.

so last week we were turning off the dirt road from my midwife's house (6 wk postpartum checkup), and we blew a tire. down to the rim, right away. were were nearly 2 hrs away from patricks work, and he only has a pickup anyways. no room for the munchkins. thankfully, the AAA membership we got last summer when i drove to canada alone had yet to expire! they said to wait for a towtruck. But the towtruck only had room for me, not my 3 carseats. eventually we got 2 trucks. hannah and charlie rode by themselves, in the front seat, without carseats. i just kept telling myself, people do this in other countries all the time! Apparently, no men in south central kansas know how to change a tire, because during all that time with my 3 little ones on the side of the highway, not a single person stopped!

 you know those commercials with the dad trying to make an exciting family vacation in the backyard, and the kids wearing their snorkel equipment or something in the baby pool? if you leave the lid off the sandbox and get a good rain, you have a 'beach in a box' right in your backyard. who needs an expensive vacation? :-) (other than me and patrick, that is!)

 the super tasty raspberry mint lemonade patrick and i made for hannah's little birthday party. I peeled the lemons and let them sit (macerate?) in the sugar for a few hours, then poured boiling water over that and let it sit, then strained it, and added ice to that concentrate. then we put raspberries in the blender, added the mint, and presto: restaurant quality!

as part of being more dedicated with preschool, we're doing a craft a week. you might not think that its that hard to do a preschool craft. you'd be surprised! glue, googly eyes, and glitter all over the place. we painted last week (thanks again, brett and jes!), and charlie got to do that for the first time. the question is, what to do with all these things they create?

i think that's enough info from the crisp family for now!