Spring Break and Such

We had such a great spring break this year! I loved having all my babies with me all day and having no carline pick-ups, no afternoon activities, no afternoon homework sessions, and beautiful weather to top it all off!! 

This sweet thing didn't know it was Spring Break but she had a great week too!  

We kicked off spring break by letting Emily and Hannah have a "spend the night party."  They already share a room, but they both thought it would be sooo fun to sleep in the same bed one night. Hannah still has a rail on her twin bed so we thought that would be the safest.:)  They talked for awhile, but then Emily went to sleep, Hannah eventually went to sleep and they both slept all night. They started asking when they could do it again the very next morning.  

On Saturday (this was the first Saturday of Spring Break and the day before Easter) mom and I were going to get pedicures and we decided to bring Emily and Hannah along to get their toes and fingernails painted.  They had never been to the nail salon before and they were SO excited to be there! 

It took them about 15 minutes to get started on painting the girls' nails.  They both sat in the chairs and waited very patiently, but by the time their toes and fingernails were in the drying stage Hannah had reached her threshold.  She was bored and could not sit still.  She accidentally messed up one of her fingers within 1 minute of having it painted. Emily was sitting very carefully and not touching anything and you can see from the picture below that Hannah was done with sitting still and ready to get up.  Ha! 

Mimi and Papa came over Easter weekend and Papa got lots of snuggles with sweet Abby.  

Emily had been working on some art projects earlier in the day (her absolute favorite thing to do) and had some scrap pieces of construction paper she was going to throw away.  Mimi had the idea to have the kids help cut them up and have a confetti dance party after dinner that night.  She didn't tell the girls what they were going to do with all the little pieces of paper and they were so surprised when she started throwing paper all over the room while they were dancing to music! Fun Mimi!:) 

Hannah still asks to hold Abby all the time and gets offended when I say "not right now."  

Bert and Stanley went to play golf one afternoon and Hannah came up to me and asked me when they were going to be back from playing "Goof ball."  I wasn't planning on correcting her because it was too cute, but Emily corrected her right away.:) Oh well!  

Emily was a big help to me being home this week. She is really good at keeping Abby awake for me when I am trying to let her have some awake time. She just sits beside her and talks or sings to her.  

When Abby had just turned 3 weeks old Emily and I had this conversation...

Emily - Did she just grow ears?!?!

Me - No??

Emily - I haven't seen them before.

These kids keep us laughing fore sure. :)  

Our first Watts family selfie.  3 out of 4 smiling kiddos is not bad.  

Abby's last feeding of the day is usually sometime between 10 and 12 at night and I often wake her up for that last feeding before I put her down for the night.  She and her Daddy often like to take a nap together on the couch while they wait for her last feeding.  

One night at dinner last week I asked everyone where they would go if they could go anywhere in the world. 

Hannah - "Ingles!"

Emily - "Kayley's house or Emily's (Dickerson) house"

Both good choices but we need to broaden their horizons at some point.:)  

One afternoon Abby started getting fussy while laying on her playmat.  Claire laid down beside her and then both of the other girls joined too.  They were talking to her and trying to calm her down.  

Emily made this at school back in March.  I thought it was precious and so true.  

We made these graham cracker cool whip treats (just put cool whip in between two graham crackers and then put them in the freezer for a couple hours and they're ready to eat) one afternoon and the girls loved them.  My Nanie loved these and often had them in her freezer.  I can't make them without thinking and talking about her.  It makes me happy.  

We played A LOT of Chutes and Ladders over spring break.  Emily and Hannah have gotten good at playing it and won fair and square many times over the week.  Claire is still a bit of a wild card.  If she's in the mood to play she'll sit there spin the spinner and move her person where I tell her to, if she's not in the mood she'll fling all the people all over the place and that is a quick way to get her sisters riled up.

One afternoon I went into Hannah and Emily's room and found that Hannah had done some artwork on her headboard during nap time.  When I said "Hannah, you know you're only supposed to draw on paper, why did you do that?!"  She replied with "Because I liked it."  Thankfully it turned out she used a black crayon and it wiped right off.  

Claire is often speaking in complete sentences and she has lots of opinions and isn't afraid to let us know what they are.  Emily was very similar to this, although I would probably say Claire is talking even more than Emily was at this age.  Claire has started stuttering some over the last couple weeks. Emily did this too at almost the exact same age...down to the month.  I talked to the doctor about it when Emily did it and they said it was nothing to worry about, that she was just having a language burst and her brain was working faster than she could get the words out.  They said she would outgrow it in a month or two and she did.  Claire usually just stutters with the first word of a sentence and she gets louder each time she says the word; by the time she has said the word 3 times she is literally yelling.  She will sometimes repeat a word 6 times or so before she gets the rest of the sentence out, but she doesn't really seemed bothered by it at all and we just wait patiently on her to finish what she is saying and don't acknowledge the stuttering.  She's definitely not doing it with everything she says....maybe 20 percent of the time.  

I got some movie time snuggles with my big girls while Abby was napping one morning.  

There is something so beautiful about a curled up sweet, sleeping newborn.  

Emily was SO excited about April Fools day this year.  She spent a lot of the day on March 31st trying to think about jokes for people.  She even made a chart....she had each of her family members' name in the top of each column with a list of jokes to tell that person under it.  I'm telling you...she was sooo excited!  Most all of her jokes went a little something like this...

Emily - "Daddy, you don't have any hair on your head?!?!"  

Bert - Would gasp and pretend to be very upset by this "Are you serious?!?!"  

Emily - Would burst out laughing and say "April fools!!!"  

It was super cute!  She even had a joke for Abby.  Her April Fools joke for Abby was "Someone drank your bottle!"  She was very careful to do it when Abby was awake.  She thought it was hilarious even though Abby gave her a blank stare. 

Bert also had a little fun with April Fools this year.  After dinner he brought out this plate covered with aluminum foil and told the girls that we had brownies for dessert.  They were super excited!  He set the plate down and then uncovered it for them to find these brown E's instead of brownies.  We had to explain it to Emily and I don't think Hannah and Claire ever got it.  It sounds pretty mean especially when you throw in that Bert was doubled over laughing at his own joke, but we had a campfire outside with smores and fort sleepover planned for that evening so the girls didn't think a thing about it.  They were too excited about everything else going on.:)  

To wrap up spring break Bert had the idea to build a fire, have smores and build a fort and let the girls sleep in their sleeping bags out in the playroom with him for the night.  I thought it was a GREAT idea and was super excited because I knew how excited the girls would be.  

We all had fun making smores and sitting by the fire. Claire's face was literally covered in chocolate and marshmallow when she finished her smore and she didn't mind one bit.  

Before we headed in Bert read their nightly Bible story to the girls by the fire.  

Abby stayed snuggled up against me and seemed to enjoy her nap!  

Emily and Hannah helped their Daddy build the fort and get everything set up for their "campout" in the playroom.  They were so so excited!  

They all had flashlights, sleeping bags, the girls had their lovies and they were ready to go!  Bert could have let them sleep in the playroom by themselves, but it was so much more fun for their Daddy to spend the night with them.  Hannah of course stayed up the longest, but she finally gave up the fight and everyone slept all night.  

It was a fun spring break and I was sad to see it go! Looking forward to making more memories like these in all our spring breaks to come!