Philly

Titi C came with us to spend the day in Philly while she was visiting from Missouri. 

Philadelphia Zoo:

Liberty Bell & walking around town:

(We went to dinner at Jones where Pudge colored this picture. He wanted a picture of his picture with George Washington.)

 Liberty Bell

Irish Memorial:

Penn's Landing

Lazy day

We had hoped to go to the zoo again today but the weather wasn't on our side. Instead, we had a lazy day at home and spent most of the time playing, reading, and doing chores. 

The older boys spent a lot of time building "inventions" with Legos in their room. Little Bear cleaned his up before he came downstairs but Pudge brought a few down to show us. 

Pudge's inventions:

(this one changes the brains of the people attached...)

Pequeño was my little helper most of the day and wanted to hold Cuatro whenever I would let him. 

Cuatro loves the picture frames that are near his changing table. The picture frames are different colors and sizes and each time that we lay him down on the changing pad he smiles at them, coos, and squirms around. It's so adorable!

Pudge learned to ride a bike!

Papa taught Pudge to ride his bike! (With a little help from an old stretched out Moby Wrap)

Pudge has been determined to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels so that he can ride with Little Bear and his friends. 

Less than an hour later and he was riding on his own! However, he hadn't quite figured out stopping and would instead jump/cartwheel onto the grass so Papa needed to stick close.

Cabin Camping

Papa had a few days off from work so we were able to go to the cabin for a little vacation, introduce Monkey to some of the relatives, and celebrate Pequeño's birthday. 

Monday:

When we got to the lake, Grandma was already there waiting for us. She had brought the kids little water squirters and they were ready to try them out immediately. So they quickly changed into bathing suits and hopped in the water to play. She also had a few new rafts this year that they couldn't wait to play with. All three of them were like little fish this time.

(Racing back to shore)

(At 2 weeks postpartum, Mama wasn't able to join in any of the swimming fun and Monkey was too young to test out the lake water just yet. So we had a fun time watching the rest of the family splash around and cuddled up on the dock.) 

(Pequeño is probably the one who loves swimming the most)

(Pudge getting ready to explore in the water)

Little Bear spent a lot of his time jumping off the dock. This is the first year that he's been willingly jumping off because he used to avoid getting his face wet. 

When they got out to eat, the older kids cuddled together "for body heat". 

Pequeño refused to join them

Playing with the bucket of worms

Playing a ring toss type game

Little Bear loved night kayaking

Bedtime: We had brought the tablet so that they could watch a movie to help fall asleep. They were all asleep within minutes however Mama was grateful for it because Cuatro was awake every 45

minutes-an hour until around 5 am (then he slept for almost 2 hours).

Tuesday

Grandma came by early in the morning and took Little Bear kayaking while the little ones slept. A little while later, Papa and Pudge woke up and decided to go fishing since they younger two were both still sleeping.  Once they woke up, we played in the cabin for a while before going down for breakfast. 

Pequeño wanted his "soccer hair" which lasted only until he decided to go swimming shortly after breakfast (because the hair tie fell out in the lake).

When we got downstairs, we found that Little Bear had caught the first fish of the day.

The kids spent the morning swimming and fishing. Then around 11, Pudge, Cuatro and Mama left to go visit Abuelo and Abuela so they could meet Cuatro. We visited with them for a few hours and then needed to drive back home to go to Pudge's gymnastics practice. 

Cuatro slept through most of it. Then we stopped for dinner and drove the almost two hours back to the lake. The kids stayed up late playing together.

Wednesday 

Pequeño's Birthday!

Pequeño was the first to wake up around 5:30 am so we watched Tangled on the tablet. Once the movie was over, Papa woke up and Pequeño decided to lay in the hammock with him where they both fell back asleep.

Once everyone woke up, we had breakfast and the kids immediately ran to go swimming and fishing.

For his birthday, Pequeño got his very own fishing pole. He was so excited that he was jumping up and down and clapping his hands. Papa helped him pick out a lure and helped him cast a few times and then he was ready to fish on his own!

After a little while, the kids and Papa decided that they were going to go swimming. Since we were having Pequeño's party that evening, Mama and Cuatro decided to go visit Mema and Pop-Pop and pick up the party supplies once they all jumped in the lake. 

When we got back, Papa and the boys had built a small campfire.

Playing "memory" with Pudge

Cuatro was not a fan of being set down at any point during the trip

Pudge caught a fish right after Abuela got to the lake and was so excited to show her. 

Putting a fish back 

Abuela and Cuatro

Cousin D thought it was funny to keep grabbing Little Bear's nose.

Birthday cake & ice cream

Cuatro took a quick nap in Cousin D's pack n play

One of Pequeño's birthday gifts was a shark which he named "Sharky" and it instantly became his best buddy. Luckily, Sharky is able to float because his favorite thing was taking his buddy for a swim. 

Grandma and Little Bear went for an evening kayak ride after the party 

Then the kids had a short dance party in the cabin before bed (We had brought our speaker with the lights and glow sticks)

Thursday

Since we had to leave on Thursday, afternoon, the kids wanted to spend as much time as possible fishing and swimming. They had a fun time catching fish in a net using bread as bait.

Some of the fish that they caught:

(The kids were pretending that Sharky was eating the little fish)

   (My boys)

My boys with Cousin D and Grandma