March 2022 photo dump

March 2022 a bit of review, that probably only my family appreciates but I like having our life documented in some sort of organized way that isn't just a folder full of photos. So here we go.

Eye Exams, 

We've loved seeing everything bloom over the last year. There are some beautiful Camilla trees with pink and purple flowers, and then there is this one, that looks like hard boiled eggs. Haha, I still like it though. 

Edwin was in a taekwondo class and the boys usually waited patiently on the side when they came with me, 

He loves this bear chair made by uncle Gary. 

One of his top 2 favorite books that he carries everywhere. I love that it's the Armenian version. 

Nature school on a rainy and muddy day. 

The storms were coming on and off. 

He likes finding pictures of his family and babbling about them. 

After our oven kept being delayed, I broke down and bought a small oven at costco. It was totally worth it since we used it for 4 months before our actual oven came. 

Always fun when cousins stop by 

The dog's shifty eyes!

One time I checked the monitor to see if the baby was sleeping and this is what appeared. 

Finishing some language arts curriculum early. 

Patiently waiting at taekwondo

We would go to the park after taekwondo and try to meet up with some friends. This time our friend Hazel joined us. 

Reading Matilda, one of my favorites as a kid. The boys had done the audiobook years before but didn't really remember it. 

Messy little chefs. 

Another Nature school day, although we got there after everyone else left. 

Not sure what he was doing, but that's Charlie for ya. 

He ran away to the dog bed with the apple core and was munching on it. 

They finished their school work early so we got some extra bike and roller blade time. Charlie coached Miles on the roller blades. 

Twins

More sunshine meant more time in the backyard. 

Post swim lessons. 

Piano man. 

Finishing up the tiles!

Isn't is so beautiful?!?!?!

He likes art and draws on the walls more than any of my other kids ever did. 

Preschool 

Walter likes to copy his brothers. Luckily they're pretty great big brothers. 

More springtime blooms in our yard

Big brothers taking care of the baby wile watching Edwin's taekwondo

and then some park time. 

All done, except for some finishing touches, but I won't point those out. 

This was yard clearing progress. 

Walter is clingy when Max gets home from an all-night shift. 

My favorite. 

Library loads

Free ranging, babies and chickens. 

We had lots of fires and burnt lots of yard debris...until a huge branch from that tree fell and destroyed this part of the yard that we worked so hard to clean up. 

Fun things I see when I look at the baby monitor 

Destructo

More springtime

Playing with all the tile scraps in the tile saw. 

Little stinkers were hiding their eggs from us. 

The favorite activity. 

We scored a free castle from our local buy nothing group. We kept it in the living room and enjoyed it a couple months then passed it on. 

So......probably a little weird, but A rat died in our yard and Charlie wanted to dissect it so that's what happened. Max helped him. 

Meanwhile more puppy love. Maisy is popular around here. 

Working on getting the chicken run up around the coop, which was later crushed by a giant branch. sheesh!

We were having campfires almost daily, mostly to burn our yard debris, but also, s'mores.

More nature schooling at our favorite park

 So I mostly photographed Walter since I'm usually chasing him around while my big boys are off doing who-knows-what. Ha! Just kidding. Nature school is always a good time. 

And there was our productive March where we were excited to welcome spring. 

Edwin is 5!

 February 5th 2022 Edwin turned 5!

Our little peacemaker boy turned 5 on February 5th! We were so excited to give this boy all the attention, and he ate it up. 

Edwin is our quiet observer he learns most by listening and only responding when he wants to.

Edwin loves to have 1 or 2 close fiends and does wonderful in small groups. He loved preschool but he would always take a couple hours to "warm up" then he was super chatty and playful. There's nothing wrong with this I love that he is thoughtful about what deserves his attention. 

Way back, pre-covid. Edwin was my little buddy where we would run all the errands and have that one on one time while his big brothers were in school. I didn't know why at the time but every day I would feel like it was such a privilege to spend my days with him. I felt strongly that the time was precious and I needed to soak it up and be grateful for that time we spent together. I could have never guessed what the world would turn into and that our one-on-one time would be changed quicker than expected. 

Granted he loves having all his brothers around and we do figure out times to have one-on-one time and he's happy with that as well. But it was just interesting to know I had those feelings so strong and I have no regrets for how we spent that (shortened) time. 

This boy is strong. And runs SO fast. All the kids in his preschool would talk about how Edwin was the fastest and won every race, but the funny thing is that Edwin didn't care. He never gloated about it, he just enjoyed running with his friends. Another parent pointed out that he thought it was so rare for a child his age to be so humble. I guess I have his older brothers to thank for that, they're always keeping him humble. 😉

Edwin loves doing schoolwork. He's been excited to strat putting letters together and figuring out how to read. It will be a fun school year this year. 

His imagination runs wild and he and Miles are always making up new games and ways to play. 

He is probably the least interested in his baby brother, ha! He rather run with the big kids. I know he loves Walter.

But he sure does love his puppy and I've seen him go to the puppy for snuggles when he's feeling overwhelmed and frustrated which is really one of the main reasons we wanted a puppy. 

For his birthday celebration, we started the day with crepes. A favorite for birthdays around here. 

We went to swim lessons at some point during the day. And then did gifts.

Can you see Edwin in this photo?

And then there is this cake, which needs some explaining. Edwin kept telling me different designs he wanted for a cake so I ended up saying that I would make him a cake and a couple kinds of frosting and he could decorate it however he wanted it. So once it was cake decorating time, he decided he wanted Max to do it but he explained how he wanted it to look. So Max made these frosting people according to Edwin's very detailed specifications. 

Then Edwin decided that the candles needed to be in the people's belly buttons, that's right, belly buttons, nothing more. He thought the belly button candles were funny. Miles gave a little smirk thinking it looked funny and Max and I had a good laugh thinking about the belly button candles ever since. 

He got a little shy with all of us singing to him. 

Anyway, we had wonderful evening and movie night and enjoyed giving Edwin all the birthday love!

Beach Day

February 2022

We had a quick beach field trip in February. Our cousins were heading to Lincoln City to search for glass floats so we jumped in the car to meet them. We got there in the afternoon. And played on the beach for a bit. It was kinda cold but the boys had a great time running around with their cousins and jumping from rock to rock. 

After awhile, Walter was wet and cold and grumpy so I took him up to the car to change and warm up for a bit, when we were walking back it looked like everyone was done because they were all hiking back to the car and Charlie had a decent gash on his leg. It wasn't super deep but it was pretty bloody, and luckily he was so numb he barely felt it. We didn't want to stop playing so after we all got warm dry clothes on, we went to a nearby playground that was a tiny bit more inland so it was less windy. We stayed until it started getting dark. 

Walter borrowed a cool hat from his Auntie. 

Nobody wanted to leave when it was time. The cousins had a campsite so we were tempted to go join them for dinner but I decided I wanted to start the drive home.