Lego Dorks

   

What do you get when you cross Count Dooku, Lumberjack Guy, and Obi Wan Kenobi?  You get George Lucas!

Tulips

Tulips

Tulips die

They will grow back

Spring Flower

When the rays of sunshine hit them

They could burn up

Delicate flower

This is a poem Tommy wrote at school. I was suprised when I saw it because he HATES writing, but he was actually pretty proud of this poem!  It's very Tommy.  I thought I would post this today because Tommy is not feeling well. He has a viral infection that is causing a horrible cough, and he's actually missing one of the last three days of school!  Poor guy.

Dallas Zoo!

Last Wednesday, Eddie's preschool took a trip to the Dallas Zoo!  It took some crazy rescheduling for me to be able to go, but it was SO worth it!  We haven't been to the Dallas Zoo in about two years, so I was really surprised by how much it has changed!

 The boys gravitated to ANY thing they could climb on!  Eddie was constantly wandering off to climb on something!

 There's an entire herd of these big elephants and Eddie loved "riding" it!

 The penquins were one of Eddie's favorites.  Unfortunately, the tank was having some trouble the day we went, so the penguins mainly stayed out of the water.

 The new savannah exhibit is probably the biggest change they made!  It's amazing!! Eddie and I enjoyed chilling at the Base Camp and watching the elephants.

 The giraff exhibit is SO cool!  You can buy food to feed them and they eat right out of your hand and get in your face! 

 Thanks to another parent there, Eddie got some lettuce to feed the giraff.  That's his little hand you see below. SO fun!

We ended our trip at the Children's Zoo, where Eddie got COMPLETELY soaked! He loved playing in the water, but sadly, I didn't seem to get any pics of him there.  Overall, it was a great trip, and now that the zoo is so much nicer, I might have to renew our family membership!

Muddy Mess

On Sunday evening, I went outside to water some plants.  This is what happened when the kids discovered mud.  It was all Anna's idea, and they had the time of their lives!

Fishy Business

I found a picture of the fish that Anna caught at Sky Ranch!  As you can see, she's holding it as far away from her as possible!  Not all the kids caught a fish, so Anna was pretty excited!

Anna has soccer practice at a park that has a small pond with a dock.  Usually, the boys will stick to the playground, but one day we went exploring and discovered that there are tons of fish and turtles in this pond who LOVE to be fed! 

These fish are BRUTAL.  You can see them jumping out of the water to get to the bread!  The kids love to sit on the dock and feed the fish every time we go to soccer practice!  The light hits the water just right in the evening and we can see almost to the bottom of the pond.  It's fun to watch the fish and Eddie loves it when the family of turtles swim by! (Please excuse the poor iphone pics.)

Sky Ranch

Anna went to Sky Ranch last Wednesday through Friday.  It's a sleepaway camp that all the fifth graders go to, and it's a huge deal.  Anna was SO excited and was packed almost a month in advance!  She got her own camera for Christmas and came back from camp with 202 pictures!  I'll spare you from having to look at all 202, so I picked out some for your viewing pleasure.  Below is a picture of Anna and Kaitlyn, who is a friend from church.  Kaitlyn's mom went to camp with the kids as a chaperone and was kind enough to send me text updates on Anna and kept her eye out for her.

Anna took several pics of Sky Lake.  This is one of her faves.

Below is Anna's "group."  These are her best buds and they were all lucky enough to be in the same cabin!

Do you see that little speck to the left hanging from the zip line?  That's Anna in the bright pink helmet.  I'm so proud of her for going on the zip line!  It was really high and apparently one of the teachers had a freak out moment before going on it, so it was a little scary for Anna.  She loved it, though!



There were several self portraits of Anna in her pics.  She said that she would get bored and practice taking pictures of herself.  This one was cute, and had a great view of the dock where Anna caught her first fish!!  Anna didn't get a picture of it, but a couple of the other parents did.  As soon as I get a hold of a pic I'll post it on here.

Anna LOVED Sky Ranch and came home with a million stories and new life experiences.  I'm so glad she had the opportunity to go!

Fire Station Trip

Eddie's preschool class took a trip to the fire station at the beginning of the month.

I was able to switch my schedule around so that I could go with him! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. The pics are from Angie Lewis, one of the other moms who came and was smart enough to bring her camera! Thanks for sharing the pictures Angie!!
Eddie wanted nothing to do with the fire hat, but he loved looking at all of the cool equipment!

Sick

The kids have been sick with allergies and cold-like symptoms. It sucks. It started last Thursday with Tommy and a persistent cough, then Friday Eddie woke up with a croupy cough, and by the end of the day Friday, Anna was coughing. Eddie was so bad on Sunday that Danny and my bro-in-law Brian gave him a blessing. I took him to the doctor on Monday, but the doc said it was just a virus, and he was mostly through it, and of course, there was no medication for it. The kids are still boogery and coughing today, but hopefully the end is near! They have been cranky and tired, and that's not fun for anyone!

Chico

Chico is the name of Danny's soprano trombone. Eddie LOVES Chico! He talks about it all the time, and can't wait until Papi comes home so he can play it! Danny tried desperately to get Eddie to hold it correctly, but as you can see from the pic below Eddie wanted to hold it his way.
Yes, Eddie has terrible hand position and embochure! But he's only four, so we'll let that slide. For now.

Such As....

Tommy is awesome. I love him. He's such a great kid, but man, he can really be strange sometimes. His latest thing is "such as." He says it all the time, and COMPLETELY out of context! In the middle of a conversation he'll bust out with "such as!" and continue on! We've explained the proper use of the phrase, but he just really likes the sound of it, and will use it whenever he feels like it! Apparently it's a 2nd grade boy thing. ALL the boys are saying it, according to Tommy. Oh dear. At least it's completely harmless! I just hope he doesn't come home with something inappropriate!

What do you want to be?

The kids and I were having a discussion the other day about what they want to be when they grow up. Tommy's response was interesting. He wants to be a machine worker. Really?!? Because he wants to make machines, like Transformers. Not the Transformer toys, but REAL Transformers. Hmmm.... We'll see how that works out. Eddie wants to be a Ninja. He's convinced he'll turn into one when he turns 7 years old. Anna wants to be a fashion designer/cake designer/fashion icon/cupcake bakery owner. She's got her sights set high!

As for me, I STILL don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

Our Weekend with the Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar spent the weekend with us in January. Eddie LOVED having him with us, and even took him to bed with him! And yes, he even went ice skating with us!

He went to elementary school with me and Eddie when we put up some posters. Notice Eddie's cheesy grin? I don't know what that's all about, but you'll see it again!

He played Yorkie the tuba.

Yep. There's Eddie's cheesy grin again!

That caterpillar went with us EVERYWHERE that weekend!

My Monsters

My kids each got a DS Lite for Christmas. Danny and I assumed that they would each go their separate ways and play alone, but they discovered they can link up and play MarioKart together. They spent a lot of time playing together over the Christmas break. I loved how quiet they were!

Eddie LOVES the Old Navy dog. Everytime we go, he insists on sitting on it! So, on this random occasion, I took a picture of him doing it, and Tommy and Anna ended up in the shot with him! These kids may fight all the time, but they really do love spending time together!

Meeting Michael Buckley

Michael Buckley (author of the Sisters Grimm series) came to our local Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago. Anna LOVES the Sisters Grimm series and was so excited to meet the author! Michael Buckley spoke for about 30 minutes, then led a question and answer session. He was hilarious, really nice, and spoke to each and everyone who came to the book signing. It was so fun!

Ice Skating!

The Stars Center hosted a free skating day in January. Since we live less than 5 miles from the rink, and the kids have never ice-skated before, we decided to take advantage!

They piled mounds of ice shavings (snow) in the corner of the rink for the kids to play in. Eddie thought it was awesome! Eddie did a pretty good job of skating. The kid has great balance, and a low center of gravity, so that came in handy on the ice!

Anna was dying to learn to skate, but she struggled quite a bit. If she doesn't get something right away she gets really frustrated. Ice skating is a lot harder than she thought it was! She ended up learning a lot, and didn't give up! We'll go again when it's not so busy, so she can practice some more.
Tommy is super independent and refused our help with skating. He went out on his own and did a pretty good job. He ended up spending most of his time in the snow!

They also had a snow machine that sprayed snow all over the kids in the corner. Tommy loved to just stand there and try to catch it in his mouth!

2012 Already?

Yeah, I know I suck at posting. Time has just flown by and I can't believe it's already three months into 2012! Yikes! I'll try to do better at posting, but I won't promise anything!