Maple

March 2019 Fun

March 25, 2019 by Rebecca Whitehead

We had a very rainy and unusually cool winter, which bled into spring. All the rain made everything green and gorgeous! We didn’t have time for everything on our bucket list this summer, but we did check off quite a few.

Hiking at Casper’s Wilderness Park.

Meredith loved school and begged to go more than two days. On Wednesdays, all the girls stayed for an extra hour and loved doing fun projects with Miss Erica, who is the Queen of Pinterest Projects. Every Wednesday, the girls would groan when I came to pick them up and asked to stay longer.

Samantha and Amelia were jealous of the fruit loop rainbow project Meredith did in her class, so we did it at home.

St. Patrick’s Day chocolate pancake breakfast.

St. Patrick’s Day at school.

Visiting with Great Grandpa!

During one horrible week, the girls were sick with fevers, snot and coughing, all within a few days of each other. Amelia was so sad about going to school by herself… until she got to go on a special Daddy Daughter date for waffles.

Once Samantha was all better, she went on a Daddy Daughter sandwich date.

Helping with treehouse construction.

I am Meredith. Hear me ROAR.

Playing 52 card pick-up.

Building epic block towers and screaming when Monster Baby Eleanor crawled over to destroy the city.

Eleanor’s favorite homemade mac n cheese.

Someone went overboard on the bubbles.

So proud she can stand!

Scooter ride around the neighborhood while sisters were in school.

Tennis practice.

In March, the twins stayed after school for an art class with the 1st grade teacher, Miss Iumi.

Their final cute paintings.

Softball was in full swing, with a practice and game every week. While the girls tolerated practices (mostly because of the tag games they played plus donuts), they alternated between staring off into space and refusing to run after the ball at all during the actual games.

Jake: “Why don’t you run after the ball, Sammy?”

Sammy: “Because someone else will get it.”

They did like trying to hit the ball and running the bases! The first few games, they played the game with no tagging outs, but the last few games, the coaches decided the girls were ready to play for real. The first time Sammy got tagged out, she cried hysterically and refused to play. She sure ran fast the next game though and never got tagged again.

Art and writing projects!

Amelia was no match for this 27-pound baby.

Meredith and her bestie, Maple, at our Tuesday park date.

The girls climbed the tree at the end of our cul-de-sac every day after school.

Sammy the sloth.

Eleanor’s favorite pastime.

Sammy in her natural habitat.

More science and art projects!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: art projects, caspers wilderness park, creek, daddy daughter date, eleanor swings, Great Grandpa, hike, hiking, kindergarten, Maple, March 2019, miss erica, miss iumi's art class, neighborhood, park, preschool, school, schoolwork, scooter ride, softball, spring bucket list, st. patrick's day, tennis, treehouse

Samantha & Amelia’s First Piano Recital

February 12, 2019 by Rebecca Whitehead

In preparation for their first piano recital, Miss Jenny started Samantha and Amelia practicing their two songs in December for their February recital. We were getting pretty sick of hearing Indian Song, Skip to My Lou, Alouette, and When the Saints by the time their recital rolled around!

The recital at the recital hall was planned for a Sunday, but since that interfered with our church start time, I told her we’d be happy to host a recital at our house on a Saturday. There were several families who couldn’t do the Sunday recital either, so we planned the recital with Miss Jenny and the families, with about fifteen people planning on attending to perform and watch. I had planned to borrow chairs from my friend, Phi, whose son, Parker also took lessons from Miss Jenny and was doing the recital hall recital, and Miss Jenny asked everyone to bring some food to our house for after the recital. Things were all set, until two days before the recital, Miss Jenny told me two of the families were sick and didn’t think they would make it, and she was sick as well! The other families didn’t mind postponing, but after hearing the girls practice the same songs for two months, I didn’t think I could listen for another week!

After telling Phi what happened, she generously offered to have a little mini recital at her house the next day since her in-laws were not able to make Parker’s recital a few weeks prior. She put it together totally on the fly and we were so grateful! She had originally planned on hosting us for dinner as well, but Meredith and Eleanor both had colds, so we decided to just come over for the recital while Jake watched the two sick girls at home, and came over at the very end so he could switch me places. It was so nice of Phi and family to host a little recital so the twins could at least play for someone! After all their hard work and talk of the recital, I really wanted them to have a chance to play for an audience other than our family. They were so excited to go to Parker’s house and it was a treat to hear Parker too, who is so talented!

I put together a little “program” and Parker was the MC for the night– such a natural!

It was fun for the girls to see how good they could be if they keep practicing– Parker is amazing!

We had practiced going up to the piano, sitting down correctly and getting hands in position for literally MONTHS, but both girls were on a silly streak and did not do anything we had practiced! Maybe they felt too comfortable being at Parker’s house! I had to bite my tongue at their posture!

The girls had been playing their songs perfectly by memory for weeks at this point, but I think having an audience threw them off just enough to forget what they were doing! It required a lot of me silently repeating to myself, “They are five. They are five. They are five”! They still tried their best and it was the perfect first introduction to performing for an audience for these shy and silly girls!

Amelia was very brave with her poor casted arm.

We had practiced SO many times what to do if she got stuck or couldn’t remember (go back to the beginning of the measure), but I think the pressure got to Amelia and she needed a little help!

I went up to help her a little bit at the end of When the Saints too.

After everyone performed, Maple and Parker gave a special performance of their dragon dance for us, complete with an authentic Vietnamese/Lunar New Year dragon! We clapped along and thought they did AMAZING, especially cute Maple!

Jake arrived at the end to come in and say hi, leaving poor sickling Meredith and Eleanor in the car. Meredith was SO upset to not be able to come in and play with Maple, but Phi had a little “treasure box” that she let everyone pick something out of and Maple sweetly picked out a toy for her. We were so grateful to the Nguyen family for hosting the twins’ first recital! It turned out to be so much more fun with friends.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: alouette, dragon dance, indian song, Maple, Nguyens, parker, piano recital, samantha and amelia's first piano recital, skip to my lou, when the saints

Everyday January

January 10, 2019 by Rebecca Whitehead

Eleanor tried lots of new foods in January! Green beans are not her favorite, but everything else she gobbles up. I’ve been experimenting making baby food in the Instant Pot… she still prefers store-bought pouches because she can feed herself.

GIVE ME THE SPOON.

January alternated between lovely, sunny days and freezing, rainy ones.

We attempted to teach Meredith the concept behind leapfrog.

She decided riding on her sisters was more fun.

Eleanor giggles at her sisters’ antics.

Every night before bed, Meredith asks to give Eleanor a little hug. She’s been begging to let Eleanor sleep in her room too, but that won’t happen for a while.

Rest stop on a hike.

Perfecting magnatile towers.

On one rainy Saturday, Jake took the girls to do crafts at Home Depot. They were proud of their Valentine’s box creations.

Eleanor continued to crawl backwards and even learned to spin around, but still didn’t quite get how to crawl forwards.

The girls created a car for themselves out of a huge box and styrofoam.

Meredith loves to fill the basket in her bike with random toys to bring to the park.

Samantha and Amelia went to Harper’s birthday party at Zoomars and spent almost the entire time feeding and petting every single guinea pig.

We had one week that was straight up torrential downpours every day. After school one day, I announced we were having a read-a-thon. I had to explain what that was a million times, but the girls eventually went along with it. We pulled out all of our bins of books and binge-read picture books all afternoon.

Eleanor’s favorite toys.

Playdate with Maple and Gavin inside on a rainy day!

Wearing one of Maple’s old size 2T sleepers!

We got to meet Amy’s new baby– sweet Carter!

Meredith’s playgroup for 2016 babies. Many of the moms also have 2018 babies like Eleanor, so both toddler and babies have some friends!

Art and projects from school this month:

At teacher conference, Samantha and Amelia’s teachers showed me the little word books they’ve done recently and said how impressed they were by the drawings! I’d say those are pretty detailed for a five-year-old!

We practiced catch and batting to get ready for the upcoming softball season. Hit a home run, Amelia!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2016 babies playgroup, art, baby carter, eleanor 7 months, eleanor eating, gavin, home depot, january 2019, leapfrog, Maple, meredith, meredith and Eleanor, park, softball, zoomars

November Happenings

November 10, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Halloween, Grammy stuck around for a few days and Eleanor took full advantage of all the extra cuddles!

Grammy and girls indulging in their ice cream bar creations at South Swell in San Clemente, right after pizza at Pizza Port.

Meredith started meeting up with a playgroup of other 2016 babies every week. Most of the moms also have a 2018 baby like Eleanor, so in a few years, she’ll have a bunch of friends she’s grown up with!

Amelia and Samantha’s school pictures– first time they’ve looked at the camera for school photos and smiled (sort of).

Fall artwork from kindergarten.

We met up with Lucero, Kennedy and Sebastian at the Spectrum one night to check out the new-fangled play structure and play games at Dave and Busters.

“Bowling!”

Sebastian reached for Amelia’s hand and I almost died. Cuteness!

Meredith requested to ride the ferris wheel with Lucero and Kennedy– I guess they are more fun!

We were so sad to say farewell to our favorite babysitters, twins Charlotte and Claire. We’ve know their family for years and Charlotte and Claire have been the girls’ favorite babysitters of all time. They were a lifesaver during the fall when they came back from school before leaving on their missions, babysitting after school a few days a week for me. Every day, Meredith would wake up from from her nap and ask, “Are Charlotte and Claire coming today! I want to chase Charlotte and Claire!” It was perfect having both of them because one of them would do whatever the twins wanted to do and the other would run around with Meredith. Sometimes they would go out to the park or play games all together. Nice to have options! The girls still ask when when they are coming over to babysit again! Hopefully, they will be able to babysit in a year when they get back, so in the mean time I’ve been placating Meredith by telling her Charlotte and Claire are going to come when they get back from a very long trip!

Charlotte went to Warsaw, Poland and Claire went to Berlin, Germany. It’s the first time these identical twins have been separated by that far of a distance (5 hours!) We still laugh how they are serving in bordering missions. We miss them!

Amelia being silly while waiting for her tennis lesson. She is pretty accurate with her swings!

The twins attended two birthday parties at Pump it Up– a popular choice for kids at school, apparently.

Crazy-eyed Meredith.

Eleanor loves story time before Meredith goes down for her nap.

Maple is always so generous sharing her seaweed snack with Meredith at the park.

A typical crazy Family Home Evening.

Jake worked on refinishing an outdoor table, with Meredith as his crew member. She’s a pretty good sander.

The twins love to show off their Magnatile creations.

Curling hair before a Christmas pajama photo shoot.

Behind the scenes!

The weather was so nice that we spent our mornings going on bike rides or picking flowers at the pocket park.

Meredith’s saying of the month was, “I know my colors!” Even if she had identified the wrong color.

I had to get a few more pictures of Eleanor in her poodle skirt costume before storing the Halloween stuff away.

Eleanor was so chubby and always so hungry that Dr. Young gave us the go-ahead to start solids at 4 months! We waited closer to the 5-month mark to start oatmeal and then vegetables, but she was definitely ready. She was SO happy to finally have something to eat other than liquid!

The twins were at school during Maple’s 3rd birthday party, but Meredith was so excited to go and celebrate with her dear friend. The party was at Maple’s brother, Parker’s, tae kwon do studio and was so fun! The TKD instructors were very engaging with the kids and Maple did some impressive moves! She even cut her cake with a giant sword, which was pretty much the coolest thing Meredith had ever seen.