Arms dealer

Don't mess with Granger Ave.  We have our own resident arms dealer.  Everyone is packing heat.

Cleaning the fridge

Kids will do ANYTHING to stall when it's bedtime.

Vivie @ gymnastics!

Vivie does gymnastics and dance right now and loves them both!  Here she is at the end of one of her gym sessions.  She can do the balance beam, some tumbling, and a wall hand stand!

Stroller Coaster

No one was injured in the filming of this video

Pistachios

Vivie loves pistachios.  But they can sometimes be persistent about staying in their shells.  Broke out the nut cracker one day and she went to work!

The girls and Daddy

Hot!

Something seems wrong with this picture, right?!  Why are Pip and Viv in the sprinklers and there are not even leaves on the trees yet?  Because it was really hot!  Hit up in to the 80s and they simply could NOT restrain themselves from bringing out the suits and pretending it was summer!

Blanket games

We were trying to fold up some blankets and voila!  A game developed.  

Attack Meg!

Meg is coming out of her shell, all of a sudden seeing herself as one of the big kids!  She's wathcing their play and figuring out where she can fit in.  On this day she was laughing and running into Viv and Pip whenever they'd hide in their blankets.  Attack-a-boo!

Messy, Messy, Messy!

Meg is not interested in you spoon feeding her anything anymore, thank you very much.  She'll grab the soon right out of your hand if you even try.  Here she had chucked the soon and used her fingers for the yogurt instead.  Good times.

Five leaf "clover"

Ok, Phil says this isn't a clover.  But I think we are so close to St. Patty's Day we should call it one anyway.  Pip decided he should get two wishes for it.  I agree!

Sick

Feels like Meg's been sick for an eternity.  Started with a virus over MLK day that required a steroid and nebulizer (in the pedi).  She rebounded but kept suffering between new bugs of every sort and teething.  Just after Mom left she began sleeping through the night again and finally cut her two middle top teeth.  I thought we were over the hump!

Then we heard all but 3 kids (inlcuding Meg) were sick at school.  Next day only Meg and another tot remained.  Apparently a nasty strain of Hand-Foot-Mouth was going around.  Finally Meg succumbed ... and it was awful.  Huge blisters on her wrists, thumbs, face, and bum.  Poor thing was getting a constant supply of Motrim and Tylenol for 4 days straight.

I think we turned a corner Saturday and we're 100% today.  Immune System 545 - Germs 0.   That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

Mud presents

Pip and Bridget were outside playing for a while one evening.  As it began to get dark they rang the doorbell and very excitedly watched from the corners of the house as I opened the door to find their "mud present".  We are oh-so frighteningly close to flaming bags of dog poo here.

Busy in the woods

I am so glad we ended up with a bit of woods in our yard.  I don't know what childhood would be like without a place to dig, explore, and build stuff.  Here is the trio doing all three.

Playstation Misery

I think we can all agree that this will be one will will look back at and laugh.  Getting the hang of the controller is not easy.  Despite wanting to make it work so badly, Pip can't make his Indiana Jones escape the lurking crocodiles in the river.  He goes from happy, to focused, to absolutely hysterical crying in about 3 seconds.

Meg sits still ... for a minute

All Meg wants to do is walk.  She rarely ever sits still unless strapped down or sleeping.  Here is a rare video showing that she can actually relax for a spell.  Ok, maybe only a minute, but still, it did happen.

Photos by Pip

Some more pics captured by Pip on the camera:

Snowball battle!

Pip and Phil engaged in an epic snowball battle.

Not even grandpa was spared!  Grammie, Meg and I were happily safe inside.  But Vivie decided to brave it and enter the mix!

Tea time!

Another happy Thirsty Thursday at the Balas house.  Grace mentioned she likes tea, so we got out my fancy tea-cups, gave each girl a necklace and had tea.  They all chose vanilla caramel but only Grace liked it!!