Amphibian Catchers and other fun

Veggies and Michael's look. He played soldiers with his green beans and peas for 15 minutes before I decided that serving 2 courses (veggies first, dinner after veggies gone) was not going to work. Another parenthood ploy down.

Nicole has become quite the outdoor adventurer. She came in the other day and said "look mom" putting this frog right in front of my face. I was TOTALLY not expecting that! The poor frog was let go and then chased quite a bit outside until Jim let it go somewhere the kids could not reach. I'm sure the frog was traumatized for life. I have some video of this below.

Jacob made into a "pirate" by Nicole. He is so fun! He tries rocking himself in a chair by banging his head backwards to get the chair going.

Nicole went to a princess party. She doesn't have any disney princess dresses because she doesn't like to dress up, so she wore her prettiest dress and a necklace and she felt on top of the world, especially when I let her have a spray of Love Spell and put braids in her hair.

On Thursday, Nicole went to preschool dressed and shod like a normal child. She returned home with her shoes looking like this. How did I miss the stage from functioning shoes to what I'm sure the teachers were thinking went under the lawn mower? Apparently not only boys can wear clothes quickly and thoroughly.

Nicole has not only shown her prowess with helpless, slow amphibians, but also with quick ones. She caught this lizard while exploring the wilds of our backyard. I was so happy for her and she LOVED the lizard! Michael was excited too and I think wanted some of the attention, so about 5 minutes after they let the lizard go, I heard a knock on our back door. Michael was holding something in his hands with excitement and I figured it was another worm or something. Instead, my son was holding with joy and pride...the molted shell of a cicada. It was so hard not to giggle, he was so proud of "catching" something (even if it wasn't even alive, or even a dead bug). Michael is such a sweetheart, he even obeyed when I told him to let it go :-)

Helping & Aging

Instead of taking my three filthy bedlamites straight to the bath after meals, we have started letting them help clean the kitchen now that they don't get as messy at mealtimes.

After clearing, they both LOVE using "elbow grease" to clean the table. Although Michael sometimes gets carried away and tries washing Jacob, I love having their help!

At Nicole's preschool today, they had a Mother's Day presentation and snack. After a few darling songs and poems, the kids gave their moms this laminated mother's day gift of questions they answered about their mother. I sighed and giggled through it. The scariest thing was that Nicole was only three years off on the age. Time flies while life happens I guess, and I am so blessed with such a cute little girl to make me laugh even though I'm getting older :-)

Kite Fly Fishing, Spring BBQ and Walking!

We had a barbecue with some friends at Jordan Lake. The picnic areas are right by a sandy beach area and playground. I love the views from this point.After discovering we had no string on our kite, but remembering we had a fishing pole in the trunk, we invented Kite Fly Fishing. It worked remarkably well...Until the kite discovered the inevitable tree. So we lost a little line, but it was okay. The kids loved having a turn with the pole. Michael did drop it once and so Jim had to race after his escaping fishing pole...but it was great!After the kite excitement had worn down a little, the kids wanted to explore the shoreline. They were wet and sandy by the time they came back and when we went home a certain young energetic boy was so dirty he had to ride home with only a Huggies to his name.

Nicole and Anna always have so much fun together. I loved watching them roll in the grass, even though there were no hills to roll down. They have endless energy (or maybe it was the soda).Food is the one sure way to get the kids to the table! We had a great time catching up with our friends and enjoying the amazing weather. Jim's mom Kathryn came to spend a few weeks with us and it was fun to have her here and share a fun bbq with her as well. Nicole is a great helper with Jacob and has been trying to teach him to walk!

Mostly, though, she just gives him love and laughs.

We got a frog pool and the boys were enjoying it while Nicole was at preschool. Michael loved poking the frog's eyes to see if it was real. I practically passed out trying to blow the whole thing up. Good thing I'm blonde. hehe.

Later in the afternoon when Michael went out yet again to swim with the "fwoggy" (he was actually on his 5th outfit of the day at that point) it started to lightly rain. Michael knocked on the door, all concerned that he would get wet. Trying not to laugh, I suggested that he take an umbrella. So here he is, in between dipping in the pool, keeping safe from the rain.

Jacob finally started walking! He walks half of the time, knee walks a fourth of the time, and crawls the other fourth. I love seeing him walk and seeing how much funner life is for him as a biped.

Here is a video of some bug Nicole brought in the other day as well as Jacob walking. Notice the help his brother and sister are. It's a wonder he ever walked.