Nature Walk

To get out of the house on Friday, we went on a walk to the forest/park at the top of our street.  It was a little muddy, but we had a fun time enjoying the beauty of the trees.  We made a little list of things to find while on our walk, and we brought a sack to put our gathered items in.  It was a fun walk!  It’s been sunny the past few days and should be sunny all week, so we’ll have to try again when the trail isn’t quite so muddy.

Lunch at Jergens Park

Landon has no school this Thursday and Friday for parent/teacher conferences.  We decided to meet our friends at Jergens Park for lunch on Thursday.  It had rained through the night, but had been dry all morning, so we were hoping we’d make it through a park visit with no rain.  It was a little windy, but overall really nice weather, and the sun even came out for most of the time we were there.

 

James and Leela on the swings

 

Davis was really proud of himself for climbing up this rope ladder by himself and asked me to take a picture of him.

 

All the big kids on the ladder.  Aren’t the blossoms gorgeous?

 

 

James found this spot on the playground, and he would climb up, then slide down on his bum.  He did that over and over for most of the time we were there.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, it started to rain, and by the time we were on the main road, it was coming down really hard, so we were glad we went when we did! 

3 Frogs + 3 Boys = Hours of Fun!

Tuesday night, after dinner, the boys headed into the backyard to play for a few minutes while we cleaned up from dinner.  Landon and Davis tipped over the basketball hoop and found two little frogs, and Shane found one other small one hopping around the yard.  Shane finds frogs a lot in our yard when he is mowing the lawn, and we frequently find them hiding in our hose box or under toys in the yard.  At first, we had all three of them in our bug house, but soon, the boys wanted to take them out.  This was the first time we’d found three at a time, so each boy had one to hold.  They were having so much fun holding them, watching them jump around the yard, and then catching them again!

 

The frogs in the bug habitat

 

Observing the frogs, and James cheering “Yay!”

 

Davis and Landon each holding their frogs in a cup (that didn’t last long)

James’s frog was the fattest of them all, and it would just sit on his hand most of the time. I think James kind of traumatized it when he was holding it.  Every once in awhile, he would hop off, and James would go hopping after it trying to catch it (watch videos at the end of this post to see him chasing the frog).

 

Davis’s frog was the smallest frog, and quite jumpy!  He would crawl up his arm, all over his hand, and then jump off, but Davis always found him and picked him back up.

 

Landon had the mid-sized frog, and the most jumpy.  I’m actually not sure if it was the frog or Landon that was the most jumpy, because Landon would laugh and say the frog was tickling him, then the frog would be jumping in the grass again with Landon chasing after him.  I wasn’t sure if the frog was jumping off all of the time, or if Landon was so squirmy he would fall off.

James would sometimes just toss his frog into the air.  I was snapping pictures when he did that once, and later, as I went back through them, I found the one below with the frog spread across his face!  Yuck!  He didn’t seem bothered by it though.

   

I took a few videos too.  I have only used the video setting on my camera a few times, and I definitely need some more practice!  I had it on manual at first, and then I had a hard time with the focus once I got it set on automatic, but you overall can see what they are doing.

When it was time to let the frogs go and go inside for a bath, the boys were sad to leave their new friends.  James was especially sad, and I had to carry him into the house crying after letting his frog friend go. I’m sure we’ll be catching more frogs this spring and summer, although I’ll leave the frog-catching to Shane and the boys.

Making Pancakes

For the last year, my friend Jenn and I have traded babysitting once a week so that the other one of us can volunteer in our sons’ classrooms.  Friday, I had Eve and Isaac over, and we decided to make some pancakes for lunch.  All of the kids wanted to help!

 

James

I found James in his room reading books.  That is one mess I don’t mind cleaning up – a mess of books that have been read!

      

Here are a few other pictures of him being silly on the couch.  He found the Cars 2 shirt that he is wearing in Davis’s drawer.  It was too small for Davis, so he has adopted it as his now and loves to wear it whenever he can!

    

Tulip Festival Visit with Mom

April 12 and 13 was the FBLA State Conference that I recruit and coordinate judges for every year.  My mom was great again and came up to watch the boys for me while I was away for the two days.  They had fun playing games, going to the park, looking at the caterpillars she brought, and she even put them to work to clean off the kitchen chairs!   I’ll have to remember that I a good job for them to do.  Even James got in and helped them!

 

After I finished the conference Friday evening, we were lucky she could stay around one more day.  On Saturday, we drove down to the tulip festival in Woodburn, an annual tradition.  This was the first time my mom had been able to go.  The weather was nice, and we were lucky to get there before it got super crowded. 

    

Playing with the ducky races

 

Having fun in the hay playground

   

Going down the big slide

 

Three cute tulips – I like how Davis and James are looking over at Landon in the first one.

 

Davis and James trying out the wooden shoe car

     

Something we hadn’t ever done before while there was ride the cow or shoe train.  This year, my mom got them all tickets, and they loved riding through the tulip fields in the cows!

     

My mom stayed around a little longer to watch Landon’s baseball game that afternoon, and then left that evening so she could be home for church Sunday.  We were so glad to have her come and visit!