Another Nice Day...Mostly.

Yesterday was another sunny day, so I took the kids outside to run, ride bikes and wear them out good. We started with a bike ride at the park. I need to get my bike fixed because they are so fast now I can't keep up on foot. After the park we ran a few errands and went to lunch. They played on the toy at the restaurant as well, expending even more energy. After lunch we came back and played with the bubble wands Amelia had so generously bought everyone.





Then we moved on to playing on the big toys at Amelia's school. The favorite activity there was picking up the pea gravel, carting up the stairs, dumping it down the slide and then sliding down after it. They were pretty dirty by the time I called them back.







We decided after a quick snack we'd finish off the day with a walk around the nature park. This park has a couple ponds, a small canal, footpaths and ducks. We started down the path parallel to the canal. The sky was blue, the breeze was refreshing and life was good. Until The Incident.

I was holding the kid's hands (hello, water nearby) and Amelia was on my left. I heard a rustling in the dead grass to my left about three feet away. It startled me, so I looked over, thinking I'd see a small furry something. Nope. More like a nasty medium-sized snake. Now, I'm not necessarily AFRAID of snakes, I just don't like to be around them. Ever.

I may have let out a very lady-like yelp and pulled Amelia away from the evil creature. She, alerted by my startle and yelp, looked over and spotted the snake. Her yelp was more of a blood-curdling scream. I pulled her further away, trying to shush her while keeping an eye on the sinister serpent. This was more difficult than it sounds, as she was trying to climb up my body to my shoulders, crying loudly. Added to everything was Cooper trying to go back and FIND the snake so he could say "Rowr!" to it and scare it away. I told him Amelia's screams probably did the job just fine.

Moments before the incident.


This is the face Cooper said he'd use to make the snake laugh if scaring him with the "Rowr!" didn't work.


I finally got Amelia calmed down and we elected to go to a nearby playground, since all the fishermen were now glaring at us. They played for awhile, and I convinced Amelia to go for a quick walk, far away from the previous sighting. I talked myself blue the whole time reassuring her that the horrible little creature was more scared of us, probably soiled his little snake pants when she screamed and was long gone. (However, I did keep a sharp eye on our surrounding area for the remaining time we were there.) She seemed okay, but walked in the middle of the path the rest of the way.

By then we'd all had enough of nature so we came home and watched a movie. You know, where it's safe. Whew. Stupid snake.

Last Day of School!! (For Amelia at least)

Yesterday was Amelia's last day of school. She's officically a second grader! She passed all her end-of-the-year tests with flying colors and is ready for the summer. Cooper has another 9 weeks, but we are all completely fine with that. We celebrated with a picnic in the park and lots of playing outside. Both kids already have a nice farmer's tan, and my lips are burned again. Here's some pictures:

Cooper riding down the "edge".


Amelia writing in her new summer journal.


Happy kids!

Nothing Much

I worked all weekend while the kids partied with the grandparents, aunts and uncles. So I have no pictures of this weekend, none that you would want to see at least! However, I do have one for you from last weekend. Last Sunday afternoon Amelia and Cooper were playing nicely and having a pleasant conversation. Upside down.

"I'm Being Tricky!"

Cooper is a mischievous little boy. He likes to play tricks on Amelia and me. In the past they have included: locking us out of the car, locking us out of the house, locking us out of the bathroom (I carry my keys everywhere now), hiding Amelia's favorite toys, "borrowing" toys from preschool, unrolling and re-rolling an entire roll of toilet paper, taking my bookmark out of my book and lastly--today's newest trick.

I was working out in the garage (lots of room, and no thumping for my neighbors below me) for 20 minutes. 20 minutes, people. Cooper usually watches TV or plays while I sweat it out. Today I heard him moving around, some water running and long periods of silence. I didn't want to stop my workout to check on him, and assumed whatever mess he'd made I could clean up easily. After the 20 minutes were up, I dragged myself upstairs to the kitchen. I opened the fridge to retrieve my perfectly chilled water and found this:



Yes, that's my EMPTY liter water bottle with toothpaste in it. I looked down at my sweet little boy who was wearing the most charming smile possible. He said, "I'm so tricky! I put my toothpaste in your water bottle!"

My water now has a slight cool mint flavor.

Bless his tricky little heart.

Sunday Afternoon Walk and New Sous Chef!

We have church at an awkward time. It's too late to have the rest of the day available, but too early to get anything done before we attend. Hence, we usually have time to burn in the afternoon. Normally we go on a Sunday drive, but today was so nice we opted for a walk. I thought it'd be good practice for all the hiking I have planned this summer. However, 3/4 of the way through I realized the kids need to build up some endurance! But we had a lot of fun and I'm confident bedtime will be a snap tonight!

Starting our walk.


Resting at the fountain (a bit tired).


They each brought a friend. Amelia's bunny is named Butterfly, and Cooper's puppy is Pluto.

Now that Amelia is in school so much, I've drafted Cooper to be my new sous chef. He is very talented already! (And yes--he leaves those knives in the background alone.)

Happy Mother's Day!

In honor of Mother's Day, here's a picture of me, Amelia, my mommy, and her mommy--my Grammy. Happy Mother's Day! I truly don't know where I'd be without my mom, and hopefully I'll never have to find out for a long, long, long, LONG time. Got that, Mom?



Here is Amelia in her Easter dress. Cooper didn't have any new Easter clothes, because he didn't "wike" anything in the store. And what Cooper doesn't wike, he doesn't wear! (Remember the overalls last summer?)


The kids posing. It's not a bad picture!






All of us before church.

Trying New Things---Fruit

Amelia came home from school last week and announced that we are supposed to try new things because we never know what we'll like. So, we are starting with food. My children have a very limited palate (as do I), so I bought a bunch of different fruits, made some fruit dip, and we expanded our horizons. Well, the kids did--I love almost all fruit!

Ready to try bananas, strawberries, pineapple, apples, and kiwi.




Cooper explaining he "wuved" the apples and bananas. He didn't "wike" the strawberries and pineapple. He wouldn't even touch the kiwi.


Amelia said she liked the bananas, apples, pineapple and strawberries....a no-go for the kiwi though.


Tomorrow I'm making them smoothies with the leftover fruit. We'll see if they like the fruit all blended together! Next time we'll try some more exotic fruit, like mangoes, coconut and pomegranate and see how those go over.

After that we're on to vegetables. That'll be rough for all of us! Yuck.

Low-key weekend

After so many crazy, jam-packed filled weekends, we decided to chill a bit. Saturday morning we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and took Cooper to the doctor. After picking up some heavy-duty meds, we had a nice lunch at McDonald's with the rest of the Rexburg's youth. After lunch we drove down to Idaho Falls to pick up Cooper's pictures and drop off some clothes. The sun was finally shining, so we parked downtown and walked around the greenbelt a bit. The wind was still cold, but the kids had a great time. Cooper especially like the waterfalls, and Amelia threw everything from rocks to sticks to pinecones into the river. (I managed to stop her before she almost grabbed some goose poopy. Honest mistake.)

We came home, had dinner then popcorn and a movie. The kids went to bed and I watched a movie. I got to bed about 11pm. Cooper began coughing at 11:03pm, and promptly threw up. We spent the rest of the night coughing, vomiting and discussing our opinions about the Royal Wedding being replayed on cable.

Sunday morning came and we decided Cooper couldn't go to church. Amelia still wanted to go, so I called a memeber of the primary to let them know she'd be there alone. She was so excited to be going to church alone. She was quite exasperated when I expressed worry. Here's the little darlin' all dolled up for church:



Turns out I didn't need to worry, she did just fine.

Next week starts Amelia's last month of school, and Cooper's first week of pre-school. EVERYONE is excited!

This was last Thursday. Amelia woke up and wanted to "look pretty" for school. I think there may be a boy involved. As always, Cooper wanted in on the shot.