Some Wonderful Montana Babysitters

It was such a blessing to leave our boys in such wonderful care while we were taking our anniversary trip to New Orleans. Jason and Amy were amazingly competent, creative caretakers. They planned lots of fun activities for the four boys and did well refereeing, diverting, and redirecting when necessary. :)

They spent some time at home, doing fun things like playing with blocks,

splashing in the water table,

and building tall towers.

Aunt Amy helped Ian draw a hopscotch board, and they played a few games together.

Ian and Ryan seemed to enjoy teaching the Montana Schleichers a game our family likes to play -- "Are You Sleeping, Mr. Bear?" -- a game that involves sneaking up on the "sleeping bear" who then turns around and tries to catch people before they reach a designated spot. I think that the Montana Schleichers enjoyed it, too!

Aunt Amy taught Ian a fun new game that involved the person who was "it" calling out a color that everyone else had to touch -- and then return back "home" before being tagged. Ian really, really liked this game.

Uncle Jason was very good at reading stories to our boys in the way that they like it -- all cuddled into bed together!

Each morning, Jason and Amy gave the boys small gifts from us. We hoped they would be fun for the boys and provide them with comfort, if necessary. Thankfully, the boys liked the presents but didn't really seem to miss us. Ian would chat happily on the phone when we called a few times, but he and Ryan were generally very content with their "surrogate parents." Amy and Jason told us that a few times Ian provided special comfort to Ryan when he was sad. It made us feel good to leave our boys in Amy & Jason's care, and we didn't worry about them a single bit!

We gave Jason and Amy the task of taking Ian to swimming lessons one morning. They even got some pictures and videos of him swimming,

and they brought snack for the three littlest "cheerleaders"  to enjoy while supporting Ian.

Later that day, Jason and Amy took the boys to Meyer Park, where they all had a great time. They shared a funny story about Ian befriending a boy and continually racing him up the stairs to the slide. Then Ian would yell, "I beat you up!" if he had arrived to the top before the other boy. The other boy's mom wasn't sure what to think of the comment at first. :)

Ian's High Five magazine from Grammy & Papa arrived in the mail. After reading our boys the magazine from cover to cover, Aunt Amy helped Ian to do one of the suggested activities of "charming snakes." I was most impressed that Amy could find everything that they needed for the activity in someone else's house! She had Ian cut the "snakes" of tissue paper and draw faces on each of them.

Then, Ian rubbed a balloon on his head to get some static electricity and used the static to "charm" the "snakes."

The next day, Jason and Amy bravely attempted a trip to the zoo with all four boys. It's about 45 minutes away from our house, and the toddlers don't particularly like to stay in their strollers for long periods of time. But they all seemed to love the experience and managed to leave the zoo before any super major tantrums.

the meerkats

imitating a meerkat

Jason and Amy asked Ian to hold Ryan's hand at a certain point when he didn't want to be in the stroller. Ian took this job very seriously. :)

monkeying around

eating lunch

what a good-looking group!

On their way out, they stopped to listen to a zookeeper who was talking about an armadillo running around in a plastic swimming pool.

Either later that day or the last day (I can't remember what Jason and Amy told us :)), everyone enjoyed some time outside in the water. Ian got to play with his new Slip 'n' Slide,

and Ian tried to entertain the twins with some more water table antics (Ryan, meanwhile, has already seen all of these tricks ...).

Thank you so much, Jason and Amy, for giving us the gift of time together! Thank you for loving our (not-always-so) sweet boys with patience, care, and understanding. We know you had the tough end of the deal with watching kiddos in someone else's home and city (and at the end of your vacation time), but thank you so much for doing it! We'd definitely be up for doing a kid-swap again sometime ... maybe this time at YOUR house so we get the tougher deal! :) Love you guys!