update for Daddy

Quote of the day:
At breakfast (Saturday special breakfast, Cinnamon toast, the GOOD kind):
Sophia: I am five, I am half of ten, in five more years I will be ten
Me: yes, and in five years, you, Bella will be 8, and you, Tobin, will be 6, and I will be 40 years old.
Sophia: (her eyes get SO big, and her jaw drops): Wow, 40?! That is SO many years. What a wonderful blessing from God!!
(I laughed so hard at her dramatic reaction and words that I almost fell out of my chair, and she was SO serious too).

Event of the day:
Preparing for their bedtime, I got my work out clothes on. It was only about 6:45 or so. I was going to try to do my 10 minute warm up with them awake and then put them down and do my 12-minute workout. Instead, they wanted to join me. I decided we could all warm up together, then Tobin would go down and I would do the actual kettle bell swings with the girls doing their 'work out' too. The warm-up consists of squats, kettle bell rotations around the head, and then a type of push up that I forget the name of, but it is WAY easier than a push up. You do these three things, 10 reps each and just keep going for 10 minutes. The girls got right next to me on the wall and did squats, which made me laugh. They got a ball each as their Kettle bell and did circles around their head, and did whatever they wanted for the push up thing. By set two of all this Tobin was completely into it. I kid you not, the boy did 8 squats in a row without falling and smiling and concentrating the whole time. Granted, he has a lot shorter distance to go, but this was so funny to watch. The girls did do great during my swings too, doing their own thing. After it was time to get in bed, Sophia said: 'whew, that was a good work out'.

Pics of what we are up to:

 The new little school area. Sophia does some handwriting (though it looks like she is doing math). Yes I know you are not supposed to do handwriting up on your knees, but oh well. Bella does some pattern blocks.

 Tobin, who is walking everywhere and into everything, loves to climb up on the couch. And he loves to stand on it to, which we are training him not to do! I think he is getting it. Really he just likes to climb up there, crawl back and forth, and just sit back. Then the girls join him.

 Tobin says: enough sitting still. move over girls!

Tea party prep:

 Sophia chose a black spinny dress and a headscarf. Bella chose to wear a headscarf as a skirt underneath a long Vietnamese outfit.

 I promised the girls that if it was rainy and cool we would have hot chocolate. No shocker, it was rainy and cool. Of all of our 'tea parties' to date, we have not yet had real tea to drink.

The tea parties always involve, dress up, invite a stuffed animal, put on a little make up, drink, eat, tell a story or read something, and then a major craft. Today we were making birthday cards for two friends. They loved this!

I let the girls get Tobin up from his nap. This is what I found. Which Coker kid is really sucking their thumb? You should guess Bella, since she would if I let her, but if you guessed Tobin you are right. The girls were pretending. Silly kids. Tobin sleeps with 'bear bear' and 'baa baa', but prefers 'baa baa'. Here as he grins you can actually see he has some cheek bones behind his plumpness.

 I let the girls play in the front yard in the rain for a little bit. This is not very culturally appropriate. But there are not really many people out and about in the rain to tell me how horrible this is. This pic is through our laundry room screen door. This is one of my favorite features of this new apartment. David came up with this design/idea on his own.

 We do have a bit of yard clean up to do. That is what the girls were helping with.

 They got out their new umbrellas and then I came up with the tent idea, but I forgot that because this was a play tent, there are actually holes in the top. Bella was done pretty quick, and Sophia didn't want to stay out alone. When I went out to collect stuff, a lady that works in the office that we see everyday said: 'its raining'. What she meant was: 'what are you thinking letting your kids stay out in the rain like that.'.

We made pizza in the afternoon and the girls watched 'The sword in the Stone' in Chinese.
Tomorrow we will help celebrate a few friends' birthdays and if the sun comes out, we may swim! We do miss you daddy!