family hide 'n seek

So, our current favorite pastime just might be hide 'n seek. The promise of a fun game sure helps get plates cleaned, table cleared, teeth brushed, and pjs on.

R was GIDDY with joy at the prospect of escondidas after dinner. He ran upstairs and even brushed his teeth on his own!

Papi loves to startle the kiddos when they find him and they love being scared out of their wits for a moment. I love that O loves to hide with me. He's superb at staying super quiet for quite some time waiting for the seekers to find us.

The kiddos are also starting to find great hiding places themselves--rather than just being in plain view and hiding their face, which they used to consider good hiding. It's wonderful to have time to do this from time to time instead of our evenings just spent doing all the evening things to prepare for bed. Even we get to be kids for a bit every once in awhile.

stories

What a wonderful thing to share with our kiddos!

mounted patrol

The Vassariños' school was closed for the teachers to go to an early education workshop. So, the Teddy Bear room moms did a fantastic job setting up a class outing to visit the mounted patrol unit and feed the horses. 

They had a blast!

In the tack room. 

Sylvia was the bold one to go first. 

Love. 

O was a little timid and couldn't quite get close enough. 

Double love. 

We tried again together with mami. R was a great photographer!

Petting in mami's arms worked better. S captured this moment, but was more focused on the horse than mami and O. 

Triple love!

The whole gang. O isn't in the pic because he was mad that mami couldn't put him on top of this horse to 'ride'.

fireside

R has really enjoyed helping make fires in our fireplace on the chilly days this winter. The kids love looking for sticks and crinkling the paper to get it going. As we sat by the fire, D decided to read Don Quixote to the kiddos and R climbed right up in his lap. R watched the fire and listened to the strange story and seemed entranced by it all. I adored the sweet moment. Much to D's enjoyment, the next time we built a fire, R asked D to read again from the big book. And they snuggled again by the fire. These are the precious moments.

self portraits

big sis

S still loves to take care of her brothers. And now that O wants to play with his sibs all the time and do what they're doing, they've turned into quite a team.

R has shown much more interest and proclivity to reading than S. So, I was super pleased when she led her bros to listen to her 'read' a story. I mean, really. Does it get any better than this???

self portraits