Layla is growing up!

So, friends, this is my first summer ever where I'm signing my kids up for anything "official" as far as classes and activities go.  I've been (and still am...) a firm believer in start out slow and with very low expectations....haha!  :)  This applies to many areas of life (like birthday parties:  my kids have never had a birthday party with friends/themes/crazy stuff going on, etc.  As far as they know a birthday party is when you get together with family, and cake, and a few presents.  This year Layla went to her first "friend" birthday party, so the jig is up for me in that respect...but she'll make it to 6 years, which was a good run, right??) but for SURE all of the activities parents feel their kids "need" to be in these days.  Um, no.  Nope, nope, nope.  Kids need to be home with stable, calm families more than anything else.

So, Layla has finally made it to the age where she is requesting classes, and I can really see how they would benefit her.  This spring/summer I'm signing her up for three very small classes:
1.  A swimming class with FOSS (expensive, but the best...and swimming is one area I don't want to skimp.  It can be a life or death thing, unlike ballet...ha.  Plus, they let me split the cost over two billing cycles, so that made it possible to budget for) every Tuesday and Thursday night from April 14th to May 7th.  So, I think 8 sessions in all.  She is OVER THE MOON excited for this one.  She asked me to put a calendar on the back of her door so she can check off the days until the class starts.  She is talking about all of the things she will show her new swimming teacher...including how she can hold her breath under water for more than 20 seconds, as she showed us in the bath last week.  Um, yes.  This girl is ready for swimming lessons! :)

2.  A tumbling class for one week at the end of June.  This will take place at a local community center, and was only $35 for 5, 45-minute sessions.  Yes, please!  That's the kind of pricing I want to see!  I was rather discouraged when I started looking because most gymnastics / dance type classes, even for 3-year-olds, were ranging in the $150 zone for the same amount of sessions and time.  Gag.  Seriously, people.  If we all stopped paying this insanity in the name of being like the family next door, we could all afford to do quite a bit more...and be just a bit more relaxed about it.  ;)  So, all that to say, I'm happy to have found this cheaper source of introduction to classes through our local community ed and school system.  This class is kind of like an intro to gymnastics (mostly just the fun parts) and she'll be doing it with one of her friends from church, which is always fun.

3.  A ballet and creative movement class at the end of  July.  Like #2, this class will take place at a local community center in the mornings for one week.  Layla loves to sing and dance and put on shows more than almost anything else.  We have shows daily, and often Finn is conscripted to be the "prince" or "boy dancer" in them as well.  He plays along so nicely.  :)  Ballet is something Layla has mentioned over and over, so I think she will really love this.

I am NOT telling Layla about classes #2 and #3 because she is just awful at waiting.  Frankly, I told her about the swimming lessons waaaaaay too early...2 weeks??  Sigh.  Here is hoping she can contain her excitement for 2 more weeks.  :)

The only other thing I'm going to be on the lookout for, for Layla, is a choir of some sort.  Singing is her thing.  It's constant.  And she's pretty good right now!  She doesn't quite get all of the lyrics right to songs she hears, so that's a constant chuckle for me, but she holds pitch and carries a tune very well (for a 5-year-old...I feel somewhat realistic about this...).

Or maybe I'll look for some sort of choir/musical for when she is a bit older?  I can see her being in choir / plays for sure...but you never know how kids might change as they get older.

For now, she has these three short classes for April/May, June, and July lined up...and then nothing for August.  It's just going to be fun family time for August, at the beach and the pool daily!  Who am I kidding...we'll likely be at the beach or in the pool daily EVERY day this summer.  :)

Man are we excited for SUMMER over here!!

(And if you are wondering about Finn, nope.  He doesn't get to do any formal classes yet.  Still too young and not exactly great at "sticking with something"....haha!  Maaaaaybe next year.  Maybe.  I think by next summer he'll have a year of being in preschool under his belt, so that might help me determine if he's ready or not.  He frankly hasn't shown any real interest in anything, other than swimming, but he's not as "into it" as Layla is.  So we'll see.  He'll likely start off with swimming lessons too, eventually.)

Peek-a-boo

Cora is going crazy on the stairs these days.  She climbed from the bottom to the top of our stairs in about 45 seconds today.

Her favorite things to do lately, in order:

Be outsite

YELL

Eat/nurse  (she's still a major meat eater...so funny to me when my other two hated meat at this age)

Climb stairs

Crawl really fast

Yell out the back door at the kids

Wave

Clap and say "Yaaaaay"

Cora yelling for Layla, who was outside:

Como Zoo with Papa:

Cora waving and clapping. She's BRILLIANT, I tell you. Clearly a gifted child. ;)

The window:

Little Miss "Crawls everywhere super fast."

Her new thing in standing...balancing as she uses her hands to go from object to object, rather than getting down on her knees, crawling over to the second object, etc.  

The big picture window in our living room is becoming a favorite place for Cora, who always wants to be outside.

She was making a really funny face / pose while Layla was kissing her here.

A few Cora notes:

1.  Cora must be going through a major growth spurt right now!  She is eating a TON these days:  she'll nurse on both sides (usually she does just one side at a time), then on top of that eat a bunch of solid foods...repeat for every meal of the day.  It's crazy for her, or for sure not her regular pattern.

2.  She's still in-between two and one naps a day.  She'll take 2 naps a day for 5 days in a row, then take 1 nap a day for 2 days, then back to 2 naps a day, etc.  We don't have a regular pattern yet, so that's a bit hard.  The in-between anything stage is my least favorite.  ;)  When she takes 2 naps a day they are each usually around 1.5 hours (so 3 hours of naps total in the day).  When she takes just 1 nap a day it's still only 1.5 hours.  I know that will get longer when she is for sure set in her 1 nap a day pattern, but still...when she's 1.5 hours short on sleep in the day she seems to have a harder time going down for the night.  So sometimes I still push the 2 naps just so I can have an easier night putting her down.  ;)  There's a big difference between 12.5 hours of total sleep and 14 hours of total sleep in 24 hours, at least for Cora it seems!

3.  However, because I know she CAN function on just one nap a day, I took her out this morning to another BWI meeting.  Today we learned our first back carry!  Hooray!  This was the WHOLE reason I wanted to join BWI for my 3rd kid, and while playing with ring slings and other SSCs has been fun, the holy grail of baby wearing is back wrapping...and I have just arrived, as of today.  ;)  It wasn't as hard as I thought, although it will take some practice for sure.  I'll try to get a few pictures and post them later.  This is the carry I learned with her today:  (Secure high back carry)

A few more church retreat pictures:

Layla and our friend Paul traded hats.  :)

They INSISTED on a picture by the rainbow.

Spring cleaning the garage with Cora:

Last week, when the weather was like late-May, Jonas took Cora out to the garage with him while he was cleaning up.  She loved it, because she adores simply not being in our house. :)

Can you see her on the table back there??

Nice toy, Papa...

Jonas took the 3 bigger kids to a park:

More from when Zoey was here:

Home Depot with Papa:

Last Saturday Jonas took the older two kids to a Home Depot building project for the first time.  The kids had a great time, and Jonas came home only mildly mocking the lame stuff they made and how it was made, so all-in-all a good time was had by everyone! ;)

Here they are painting their book ends.  They would, of course, never hold up books...but they are cute.  :)

How to warm a mother's heart:

3-5 minutes of this in a day can make up for a whole lot of screaming and crying... ;)

Cora is mad at the back door.

This was Cora this morning...she was YELLING at the back door because it kept closing on her after she would push it open.  This child has volume, that's for sure.

SPF Retreat:

Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon we were up in McGregor MN at Covenant Pines Bible Camp.  Our church had a family retreat there, and it was a really great time.  Here are a few photos Renee took, per usual.  I brought my camera and flip camcorder and took...wait for it...ZERO photos or videos.  Sorry! :(  Turns out keeping 3 kids alive, sleeping, and fed up in the wilderness took more of my energy than I planned on.  ;)  

This is a picture of Lisa-hell:  forced group games where adults are doing child games.  Gah.  Thank you, but no, I've done enough of this in education to last me a lifetime.  I had the ticket out of this because I was wearing Cora, but poor Jonas was not so lucky.  His team won "the human knot" though, so I guess it wasn't all bad for him.  ;)

This is a picture of our friends Phil and Paul up front here...but if you look waaaaaaaaaay in the back you'll see me wearing Cora, talking to our friend Don.  I wore Cora in that carrier about 90% of the retreat, and the other 10% Jonas wore her in a different carrier.  I was very, very close to not even going because Cora had been sick the entire week leading up to the retreat, but I threw the dice and it ended up working out fine.  But on the off chance she was still sick we kept her close to us and didn't let her infect anyone else, especially any other kids.  :)

Jonas built the campfire and oversaw the making of smores.  Roaring success.

This was called a "hay ride."  Minus the hay.  Layla is there to the left, sitting next to Anja...and wearing her FULL winter gear because she likes it all.  Finn is wearing the camo vest right by Jonas, also wearing massive mittens.  Ha.  :)  Cora is on J's back.  I was doing yoga at this time...something that never can happen unless Jonas is home, and it's afternoon...so the stars aligned!  :)  Jonas thinks Cora loved it.

The lake was still mostly frozen on top, but the weather was AWESOME.  Just gorgeous.  Sunny, breezy, maybe 60-65 most of the time?  It was heavenly.  We kind of don't know what to do with ourselves here.  It's MN.  It's March.  There is no snow on the ground, and yesterday when we got back from the retreat we went for a walk...and all I wore on top was a short sleeve shirt.  Um...what?  What is GOING ON HERE???  I'll take it.  I should just stop talking about it, obviously, but it's kind of blowing my mind.  Yay global warming?  :)

Finn trying to roast a marshamallow without actually getting close to the hot fire.
Because Finn hates hot.

Finn in childcare, being taken care of by the youth group at this point.  The rest of us were in a sermon session.

Saying cheese for Aunt Renee while eating.

The cutest baby on the retreat.

I'm doing yoga here...but you can only see my butt.  :)  I'm behind the girl in the front of this picture, and wearing the black pants, green and white stripped shirt, and gray hoodie.  Just proof that I was there, and that I did something one time without a baby strapped to me!  (Also, it's now 2 days later and I still hurt from yoga...dang.)

Cora is FILTHY these days...her hands and knees...from crawling all over.  Clearly we need to wash the floors more often, but what can you do about spring dirty in MN?  Nada.  :)

Side note:  Cora got used to being outside as much as she wanted this past weekend.  She is now mad all the time (read: all day, so far) that she can't be outside the same amount anymore.  Her yell, people. Mercy.  

I'll post a few more pictures and hopefully some videos later.  Jonas got some on his phone.

A walk to the park with Papa:

Jonas took all 4 kids to the park yesterday while I got dinner ready.  You guys...the weather around here has been insanely nice for March in MN.  I mean, yesterday I turned the heat off and kept it off all night.  This morning I turned it back on for a few hours, then it went back off again by noon.  On MARCH 10th???  In MN???  What kind of upside-down world is this?  An awesome one, that's for sure.  :)  

So, hello OUTDOORS!  Hello nature!  The Schaefer kids have a lot of crawling-up-the-walls energy to burn off these days.  I'm sure we'll get loads of snow again before "real spring" comes, but until then we're loving life these days.

Princess Anna and Princess Elsa:

Rachael and Zoey are back and staying with us for the week, and Layla and Zoey are making great use of this time to pretend they are in Frozen.  All day.  Every day.  Same outfits.  

Good times!