Lounging on the couch with the kids

It's so nice to have help here again. My parents are here now and having the extra sets of hands really gives us a chance to do some things we don't often get to do...like the photo above of us all lounging on the couch after breakfast one morning.  Usually, there is just too much do to to ever get to all sit down at the same time.  The mornings are always a whirlwind of making breakfast, feeding Ella, unloading and re-loading the dishwasher, making coffee & iced tea, getting the kids dressed and Chloë off to school (3 days a week), cleaning up after breakfast, vacuuming, etc.   I know I need to try to "let things go" more often so we can all sit and relax together.  There is just ALWAYS something that needs to be done.  

A couple pics of Grandpa and his girls:  

Chloë showing Grandpa some artwork she made at preschool

Grandpa & Ella (who is attempting to eat her fists)

We gave Owen & Eli a huge GeoTrax train set for their birthday.  BEST birthday bargain ever!  Craigslist!!   Well, they already had a GeoTrax set with a train but we bought a HUGE box of additional tracks, trains, remotes, bridges, a clock tower, etc for $30 on Craigslist.  Such an amazing deal--and I know I can re-sell the entire thing on Craigslist for at least $100 down the road if I want to.  Gotta love Craigslist...especially for kids' toys... it's almost silly to buy new for a lot of the things they play with.  

Luckily, Myke has the mind of an engineer (choo-choo!) and put all the tracks together in one big set-up (no directions).  It's a HUGE layout and takes up the entire play room floor.  The kids all just LOVE it, especially the boys are are really into "Choo-choo's" right now.