Let's play catch-up!

All of these pictures are from several weeks ago that I just got around to putting on the computer.

Ever since it got warm outside, Skylar and Grey have been wanting to go outside to ride their bikes.  Since Grey can't reach the ground on his yet, he is still on the trike with the push bar for parents, but Skylar has been cruisin' around on her scooter bike.  I love this bike- it has a low center of gravity and no pedals, so she pushes herself off the ground.  She can get super fast on this thing and has never once fallen!  We have several neighbors with younger kids and they all gather in the cul-de-sac in the evenings to ride all of their various bikes, scooters, cars, etc.

 During all of Skylar's soccer games, Grey imagined himself playing his own little soccer games off on the sidelines.  I didn't really notice until I went through all of the pictures, but I'm seeing a trend here:

 Evidently he needs to stick his tongue out of the side of his mouth to play soccer??

 We met up with Nikki and her kiddos at the new park at Hagen-Stone and I loved it.  It was about 90 that day, so super hot, but the kids had a blast and the playground has all kids of fun stuff!

 Wes was a little angry about the heat, but enjoyed a few snuggles from Nik.

 Skylar and Izzy ran around and played the entire time together. 

 We also went to a few birthday parties, one of which was Ava's.  Her friend from school.  Her other friend Aaron was also there, so Skylar was in hog-heaven. 

 I love watching their expressions when they see their friends opening presents.  Skylar loves to pick out presents for her friends now and gets so excited when she watches them open gifts. 

 Her school year is over now and she keepts telling me that we need to invite Aaron and Ava and all of her other school friends over to her house to play.  I keep telling her we can definitely do that… as soon as she helps me clean first.  

 And here is Wes… from a few weeks ago. He's very intense… 

 And, Skylar has to be in all of the pictures I take of him. :)

 I think he's finally getting used to having someone in his face at all times.  Skylar and Grey both are aggressive showers of their love. 

 And, we had to take some pictures of Sammy as well.  

 And… if anyone is interested in a dog… Sammy is available.  Seriously.  She needs lots of love and a fenced in yard. 

The Lazy Spring

You can really tell that it is springtime around here.  There are buggies galore, the kids are loving riding their bikes in the street with our neighbor's kids, and I find little mushed up dandelion weeds in the bottom of the washer every time I wash a load of the kids clothes. 

Oh, and we seem to have a nest of birds living in the top of our chimney.  You can hear them flapping their wings against the spout and it makes a really loud vibrating sound.  Grey is terrified of that sound, but pretends to be a brave boy when he hears the birds chirping. As he inches closer to mama's lap. 

Skylar loves finding caterpillars and routinely I find them in my house.  She will tell me after the fact that she brought one in and put it in one of my plants so it could be her pet. I can't ever seem to find them on the plant though, but have found them (some dead and some alive) on the floor when I sweep.

 And this little guy was fun to see- this was a strawberry plant that I planted last year that never grew.  I have been a little lazy and just left the planter sitting on the porch all winter and guess who surprised us a few weeks ago!  Now, if only I knew what to do with it now…

Sometimes it does pay to be lazy!

Our garden

After our gardening adventures last summer, Skylar and I have been wanting to do a garden of our own.  However, we tried to plant a few things in the ground last year and they all died.  We have very little space that gets good sunlight thanks to all of the trees in our yard, and there is nothing but red clay there.  So, we got a raised garden system at Home Depot the other week and put it together.  

The kids had a blast playing in the dirt before we put the plants/seeds in.  Grey still asks to go outside in the dirt, just about everyday. 

When Grey saw this picture of himself, the started giggling and wanted me to show it to him over and over again.  He would laugh and say dirty hair time and again. 

Being new to this whole gardening thing, I wasn't sure what was the best way to grow things, so I got a couple of starter plants and a few packets of seeds.  Two of the three plants are still looking good and growing bigger.  One looks about dead.  Grey broke a few stems on it after we got it in the ground.

Skylar planted the carrots and she's really excited to see those grow.  Please, oh please, grow little carrots!

Proof!

At Skylar's soccer game the other day, she scored her first goal! It was so unexpected, that I didn't even think to try to capture it on film, but I did get a few photos of her. This is her sitting on the team blanket. The boys in front were really excited to get their picture taken!

When it was her turn to play, Sophia and her started out by holding hands again, but with just a little direction, they were both off trying to kick the ball!

Here's Skylar getting ready to kick it off. She then followed the kick by chasing after the ball!

Look at my girl go! She did great, even after the taller dark-haired boy pushed her down once to get the ball. Yes, yes he is on her team. Sigh. They are so young to start that.

She was so proud of herself too!

Easter

Ken's grandparents, brother and sister-in-law came up for the Easter weekend and the kids were so excited. They love to spend time with all of them.

They got to shoot a BB gun with Dad and Bill:

Ken got his first gun when he was three, so I guess we are a little behind. Going to be even further behind…

They got to eat popsicles (their new favorite obsession) on the deck:

And the adults got to spend some quality time with floppy head. I mean Wes.

They got to "fish" in the lake. Grey's idea of fishing involves throwing lots of corn into the lake. Skylar likes to look for worms and reel in the fish after Papa catches them.

And they got to see the horses and pony.

It was a great weekend!

Easter fun

This year, Aaron's mom and I were in charge of the Easter party at Skylar's school. She took care of most of the food and I did Easter egg rice krispy treats with little m&m's hidden inside and handprint lambs for a craft. The kids liked their "surprise" inside the rice krispy eggs. Afterwards the kids did a little Easter egg hunt. So cute!

On Saturday, we went to my granny's church where they played games and had an Easter egg hunt. Grey got to go out first since he was younger, but he only got to the first little section before he bigger kids started out (1-4 range). Needless to say, he only got three eggs! Skylar did a little better with 7 eggs and they both were proud of themselves.