Diana was the only other kid brave enough to touch the iguana last week. She was good and just used one finger to "pet" it.
Last year this tree died thanks to me spraying weeds at the base with weed killer. Apparently that can kill the tree too. We waited until spring to be sure it was dead and then Jim took it out while the boys helped. They would pull a rope (from a very safe distance) to make sure each limb would fall on our grass, not over the fence into the neighbor's pool.
Then they would drag the limb and use shears to cut it into smaller pieces. I love watching them working hard and learning new skills.
The neighbor, who I'm sure had been eyeing the process with trepidation the entire time, offered to help when it was finally time to cut the top of the tree off. Jim made the appropriate notches and then the boys helped the neighbor pull and the tree fell perfectly onto our yard. Jim used a hack saw the entire time and said it was as good a workout as surfing :)
We went to an Irish restaurant where they had a St Patrick's day celebration going on with a band, dancers, bagpipes, etc. The kids played their own version of corn hole with several other kids while we waited to be seated. They gave us a half hour wait time, then extended it another half hour when we checked then. So after watching the band and dancers and playing around, we just went home and had some good old spaghetti. We felt good about the money we saved :)
The kids all piled up to watch a movie on a Saturday night.
Diana ready for church. It was one of those days (which seem to frequently occur on Sundays)!
Jacob's Kindergarten class made leprechaun traps, and Jake was so excited to share how his glittery box full of gold coins and "pom poms for a nap" would lure a leprechaun in, then the wood stick propping open the box had a shiny gold bell attached to the top. When the leprechaun pulled the bell, the stick would fall and the box would close.
We had primary voting this week and it was great to be able to participate.
I watched the Truehafts this week and it was great to see their imaginations and ideas as they ran all over the house and yard.
I've been taking the lizards out a bunch. Flare roams her cage restlessly when she wants to get out and play. The other day after being on the back porch for a long time, she tried squeezing behind a big rock and almost got stuck, silly girl.
Jake has volunteered to feed Boo at nights and Nicole is more than happy to let him have one of her jobs. Jacob loves it when Boo eats from his hand.
All ready for St Patrick's Day! We had Lucky Charms for breakfast as opposed to our normal oatmeal and their behavior really reflected the sugar highs and lows. I think next time we will make the sugar cereal the desert after dinner!
Diana was exhausted after a big day at preschool and playing. I would add the caption: "Peace on earth goodwill to men." The calm after her awake hours of energy and motion is appreciated very much by my pregnant self!
My back isn't what it used to be so Jim took some time off Friday to catch up on all the stuff I've had to stop doing. One of the things was getting the garden finished planting with some more strawberries. We are doing tomatoes, peppers and onions in the garden along with a ton of strawberries. We have other spots in the yard for squash, zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelon because they would each gladly take over an entire garden bed with their enormous leaves or vines. I mulched around the strawberries and look forward to the different varieties.
While at Lowes getting the strawberries, we looked around. Jim has wanted to do something about the eroding topsoil of the back. Last year we put down pine straw, but when fall came we had to rake all that straw, plus leaves, plus straw from our pine trees! We didn't want the weeds and thorny vines back though. So Jim, who has a master plan for how the yard will look in a few years, decided to add a bunch of evergreen shade friendly bushes of different sizes.
We strategically placed the plants in the yard and we look forward to how they will help the yard. We still need to do more to stop the erosion, but this will help as the plants grow and their mulch and roots help. We figure in 10 years it will look great haha
Nicole and Michael took an art class on Saturday to make owls with acrylic paint. They LOVED it!
Michael kept forgetting to tap water from his paintbrush after getting it wet so there were water lines, but it was fun watching his ideas. The model paintings they had hung up were cute, friendly owls, but he definitely had his own ideas about how owls are night predators and painted accordingly :)
Nicole made a cupcake owl. She listened to the instructor and learned so much.
Finished artwork!
Despite the full covering of the smock, Michael was covered in paint from head to toe when we left. In his defense, it wasn't his fault that while they were taking a group picture a girl standing behind him tripped and planted her slightly damp painting on his head as he sat in the front row. Just his luck I guess :)
No comments:
Post a Comment