Tessa and Annie Turn the Big 0-4

Tessa and Annie are 4 now! Where does the time go?! Granted, they did turn almost 3 months ago. Yikes! I'm a big ol' procrastinator when it comes to this blog lately, and their 4th birthday is one of many, many things I need to catch up on!

Their big day came the day after our big family party celebrating our March girls. They not only happily shared their party with each other, but also with Megan. They had a ton of fun, and were more than happy to wear their new birthday crowns the next day when we picked up the girls from school.

As you can see in these pictures, there are now some distinct differences emerging between these two, both physically and in their personalities. Tessa's gained some height and weight recently, and we found out at their 4-year check-up that the difference is nearly an inch in height and three pounds in weight! Now, don't let this "height" of Tessa's fool you into thinking that she's tall or anything! In fact, I was kind of shocked to discover that they are in the 1st and 2nd percentiles for height! They are still little shrimps after all!

Besides those physical differences, they have been revealing personality differences, too. Though I'm not anxious for them to start preschool next year, I know those personalities will bloom even more at that point as well. Right now, Tessa has been surprising us with how open and friendly she is with other little girls they meet. She's standing out as the one who wants to make friends, while Annie hangs back a bit. They have a few girls they play with at pick-up and drop-off at St. Stephen, and these girls will be in their class when they get to kindergarten. It's cute to watch their friendships grow with the girls they'll be in school with for a long time!

On their actual birthday, we celebrated after dinner with gift-opening and ice cream. We were all a little exhausted from entertaining a large crowd the day before, so we had a low-key evening complete with leftover rainbow cake and rainbow sherbert.

And presents!

Megan and Bridget were especially proud to give Tessa and Annie some hand-made bunkbeds (otherwise known as shoeboxes!), complete with little pillows and blankets they helped sew. (It was a fun little project to make with them while Tessa and Annie were sleeping earlier that week!)

They were all smiles that week for their four-year check-up that coincided with Mary's 18-month check-up...until they all got four shots each! I have never dealt with such crazy crying from so many children at once as I did dragging them back to the car afterwards! I was woefully unprepared for these shots and the effect it would have on these three!

These girls are a handful every day, individually...

(Annie)

(Tessa)

and together!

How do I describe the sweetness that these two exude? I'm remiss at documenting all of the cute little things they say on a daily basis, which is a shame. They have been described as sounding like little chipmunks with their chatter - both high-pitched and hard to understand. I think that's pretty accurate, but I also think that will change with school next year. They still say "ours" as a collective possessive  (ie. "ours teacher is Coach Courtney") and they mispronounce words like little (they say "yittle"). Right now, I enjoy their little baby voices and don't want that to change!

Recently, I had sweetness just swirling around me when I took them to the grocery store with Mary. Tessa and Annie occupied the big part of the shopping cart, and Mary was asleep in the carrier I was wearing. They were so good in the store, especially as I piled groceries under them, around them, and on them. It was a rare pleasant shopping trip! Just as we were in line to check out, we all noticed some rowdy boys running around with toys from the toy aisle, sliding all over the ground and shrieking at the top of their lungs. Annie stood up, surrounded by our food for the week, and announced, loud enough for me and the customers in nearby lanes to hear, "Ooh, those boys are running around and not listening to their mommy. I would never do that to me sweet Mommy!" I appreciated the sentiment, but she is a sweet, sweet liar ;)

Not to be outdone, Tessa had her own cute moment not five minutes later. We had just arrived at the van, unloaded the grocery bags, and created some leg room for the little munchkins in the cart. Tessa spoke up in her cute little chipmunk voice and said, "Oh, Mommy! You still need to unload some groceries!" She was referring to the two of them, and she thought it was so funny, she giggled the whole way home :)

How have four years passed by with these two babies of ours?

Two of a Kind

The two bookends in our family, Megan and Mary, aka Big M and Little M, are not just little look-alikes. They're personalities are so similar, and they really are kindred spirits. Nothing soothes a dramatic, overly tired Megan like Mary wanting to play with her. And nothing makes Mary happier than seeing Megan walk in the door  after school.

They also both love to read!


Mary is very similar to Megan as a baby. She will sit and "read" a pile of books much like Megan did. A clear favorite is still "Goodnight, Gorilla." She can't get enough of this book! She also loves her big picture books full of "first words." I sure wish she would start saying some of those words!

Meanwhile, Big M can't get enough of her books, either. Toward the end of the school year, she finished the Ramona series (at a rate of a book a day!) and they took a lot out of her :) Something tells me these won't be the only shots I get of her fallen asleep while reading a good book!

She's also been caught on camera reading during Matt's baseball games :)

There are very few things Megan loves more than a trip to the bookstore, where she peruses to her heart's content! She reminds me of her Aunt Sara when she gets so lost in a book that she has no idea what's going on around her. We have to call her name a few times before she hazily emerges from her story.

She does put her book down for this little baby, though!

Bridget's Hoops

Bridget's done with her first season of basketball. (Okay, she's been done for a couple of months now. I'm just a bit of a slacker!) She loved it! Truth be told, I don't think she'll be making a career out of basketball, mostly because of her size. She's the shrimpiest, cutest little player you ever did see, with her size 9.5 shoes and all. 

She hasn't quite mastered making a basket, as she still shoots "granny style" and doesn't have the upper body strength to get the ball up to the net the more traditional way. But, she listens to the coach (Matt appreciates that!) and is such a little hustler. She's pretty aggressive on the court, too, despite not being able to score. She will fight to the death for control of the ball, trying to wrench it out of the other players hands. 

All of her best little buddies were on the same team, which helped a lot, too!

What were her sisters doing during her weekly practices and games, though? Well, I'm glad you asked! We were definitely the sideline spectacle at the tightly packed YMCA where she practiced and played games! The twins always packed their "doodads" for these occasions, and Megan worked on her homework. If she was really lucky, she ran to another court to practice her own hoops (more on her basketball later!). And Mary was just...Mary. The girls entertained her with extra basketballs quite a bit, but she escaped on to the court and narrowly missed being hit by wayward  balls on more occasions than I can count!

I love how small all of the girls are in these shots. They had two amazing coaches (both moms of girls on the team) who played college basketball, so they were lucky to get some great coaching from a female perspective. It also helped that there were no boys on the team (no offense to boys, but they can definitely take over a basketball court!).