Catch Up.

Joel does such a good job of taking pictures to send to me when I am out of town.  I got these a couple weeks ago when I was in Detroit (on the worst work related car ride EVER with a totally strange individual.....long 5 hour ride to Detroit and back, let me tell you....).  

He's also so so so good about taking them to the park and/or playground when I'm gone.  I think he does this to distract them a little from the fact that I'm gone.  Whatever the reason, he's awesome for doing it.

The kiddos stayed with Grams a couple weeks back and while they were away, the kids at daycare planted grass in cups.  Lily was so sad that she didn't have a cup at school growing grass that Joel set them up with a cup at home and helped them plant grass seed.  The grass in their cups is growing like crazy.  (Wish I could say the same for the grass seed Joel planted in our yard...)

Movie day!  We saw "Home" - it was meh.  You can see from Tyler's eyes that he was a bit sleepy before we even got started.  

We celebrated Ayden's and Kenzie's birthdays the other weekend ago.  The weather forecast was predicted 80% chance of rain, but the weather gods were smiling on us and it didn't rain a drop.  The kids were able to play outside to their heart's content.  

They mostly went nuts for these power wheels.  I'm usually content and happy with the size of our yard, but we could never really make good use of a power wheels in our yard.  But it would be fun to have one.  Who am I kidding?  We'd need two.  

I have no idea why Lily is trying to tow Tyler backwards.  

Ayden has a little dirt bike.  Which Joel felt the need to ride down the road.  He doesn't look at all ridiculous on this thing.

Tyler on the other hand - looks totally cute.

And if that birthday party fun isn't enough, we had another birthday party full of fun including a ginormous jumpy house slide thing.

And a piñata.  Which all the kiddos beat senseless.  My kiddos got completely trampled and blocked when the candy finally came out.   I think they each grabbed 2 or 3 pieces of candy.  My mommy heart felt so sorry for them.  Then my mommy brain was super happy they didn't come home with a 100 pieces of candy as we still have a sizable amount of Easter candy left.

There was a little doggie there, so you can guess that Tyler was trying to pet it every chance he got (you know, in between the jumpy house, piñata and ice cream).

Ahh, to be young and able to just pass out in the car for some quick zzzzs...

Tyler's Toad!

Our neighbor found a frog when he was doing his yard work and gave it to Joel to show the kids.  Lily thought it was cool but she didn't want to touch it much less hold it.  Tyler on the other hand, my little animal lover, was ALL ABOUT IT. 

I was completely terrified that Tyler was going to accidentally squeeze the poor froggie to death because he was so excited to be holding it.  His laughter was the best thing ever.  Just giggling and grinning and squealing. 

This little boy is so fun to watch any time he's around any animal.  He loves them all.  At one point, he kissed this frog.  Joel and I freaked out cause when he started to move the frog toward his mouth, we didn't know what he was going to do.  Turns out, he just wanted to show that froggie some love.

 

Lily's First Real Bike!

We finally got Lily a real bicycle!  We've been talking about it since last summer but had wanted to wait one more season in hopes we could get the next size up bike that would then last a little bit longer.  Now that the weather seems to finally have decided to be Spring, we got her the bike.  Plus, the kids have a trike-a-thon this week and I couldn't bear the thought of Lily Long Legs riding a tricycle while all her other friends were on real bikes.  I mean her knees practically touched her ears when she road the thing.

It's a Frozen bike.  I think she likes it.

We got an 18" bike.  I read that frame size is typically for 6-9 year olds.  Sooo, yeah.

She rode it a few times over the weekend and is gaining confidence despite my lack of patience in teaching her how to ride.  In my defense, I wasn't feeling that good and so going up and down the street to catch up to her when she'd lose momentum and get stuck wasn't my idea of a good time.   But she is getting the hang of it - just needs practicing on not getting so nervous to turn that she brakes and then can't get started again if there is even the slightest of an incline. 

After the first 15 minutes on the bike, she asked Joel to remove the training wheels.  I said she needed a little more practice first and she insisted that she had practiced enough and wanted those purple wheels off. 

Tyler was asking when he was going to get a bike.  But I told him he has to ride his trike this summer and maybe next summer he can have a real bike.  Right now, he doesn't seem to understand the concept of pedaling forwards.  He just pedals backwards and then gets frustrated when he doesn't go anywhere.