It's fun to Swing

Rocket, Rocket....

For the last several months, on my day off, my good friend and partner in crime, have been getting together to let the kids play and try to teach them things.   Recently, we've done a few lessons on the solar system, the stars and the planets and how God fits into all of that.   We've been building up to making rockets as our grand finale for the theme.  But the weather has not cooperated for the longest time. 

Last week, we finally got our chance....it was a beautiful day for shooting rockets!  Joy got the rocket kit from Michael's for about $15.00 for two rockets.  It was a little too difficult for the kids to put together, which is what we were originally hoping for.  So, the two of us  built the rockets and then went to the park to shoot them and have a picnic lunch.

 Unfortunately, when it was time for liftoff, we could not get it to work.  Despite our best problem solving attempts, we could not get the rockets to launch.  The boys waited very patiently, and in the end, we just ended up removing the motors and letting them play with their rockets and on the playground.

 

 Just before leaving, someone was walking their pet pig.  The kids were drawn to it, naturally.  So, even though the rockets were a bust, at least they still had fun!

Potato Head

At 10 months, Dylan is expanding his tastes and trying new people food.  He recently tried his first bites of mashed potatoes.

Quite literally, he turned into a potato head.

The One Where I am a Bad Person

Being married is a lot of fun and both my husband and I get along really well.  But even so, we have our moments where we get on each others nerves.   This weekend for example.  It was a cold, rainy, laze-about- and-do-nothing kind-of a Saturday.   We took Ryan to his swim lesson in the morning, ate a fantastic lunch and went home in a food-coma stupor.  By the time we had all woken up from our lengthy naps, it was a little less rainy but still cold and evening was setting in.....yet none of our usual errands had been completed and they needed to be. 

Unknown to me, one of the errands that needed to happen BEFORE 7:00 PM was a trip to the SAMs club eye-care center so my husband could fill his perscription for new contacts.  Unknown to me, he was not only on his last pair but had worn them out so badly they had residue on both of them and a hole in one of them.  So I was quite surprised and slightly annoyed when his manner for getting the family out the door became....somewhat abrupt and intense.  He explained the situation in the car and sweetly told me that if they were closed (we arrived at 6:45), he was going to tickle and poke me until I peed my pants. 

I did not much appreciate that.

When we got inside, unfortunately for me, the eye people had left fifteen minutes early that day.  I was concerned at that point he would make good his promise publically and put some distance between us while he looked with dismay for any sign of life in the eye care section, and booked it with the kids through the electronics section.

Out of nowhere, a smiling sales-person tried to catch my attention, " Hello, Ma'am do you have cable or satelite."

Uh-oh.  I avoid sales-people like the plague....but this one could not be averted. He  was directly in my escape route. 

So I smiled sweetly and said, "Oh you'll have to ask my husband.  He takes care of all of that.  He's right over there. (pointing to husband who was just turning around).  His name is Josh."

As I sped away with the cart, as the sales man raised his hand and flashed a wide smile, calling, "Josh! Josh! Hello, Josh. I just spoke with your wife...." and glimpsed my husbands face slacken with surprise as he was accosted by the lengthy speech which followed. 

It bought me a good ten minutes.  Josh eventually found me hiding in the detergent section laughing so hard I am pretty sure I was crying.  He told me I was a bad person.  He told me our little sales friend was quite persistent and hard to get rid of.  He told me how he had initially been hopeful this person would be helpful in solving his contact needs, only to have them dashed.   And so, I successfully sicked the persistent sales-man on my husband and so distracted him he forgot all about tickling me until I peed my pants.  All he could do was shake his head and repeat, "You my dear, are a bad person."

 Marriage is fun. 

And just for posterity, some of you will recall that my husband can not take a normal picture.  It's still true.

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

We've had a few reasonably windy days here this month.   Kites were on sale at Target for $2.00, which I thought was a deal.  We let Ryan pick out a kite and one windy day, he went kite flying for the first time.

It was a bit difficult for him at first, since he wanted to run TOWARD the kite, not away from the kite, so his kite kept diving out of the sky and nearly nailed him on the head a time or two. 

 But he eventually figured it out with some coaching from me.  He did end up with a kite flying high in the sky and he was quite proud of himself!

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter! After church, Ryan got to look for more plastic Easter eggs.

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

Two days before Easter, Ryan got to go on a special Easter egg hunt with his best friends.  They got to go to the farm and look for eggs hidden in a flowering apple orchard. 

It was Ryan's first Easter egg hunt.  It did not take him long to catch on to the idea!

It took some practice, but he even found the ones hidden really well!

But, I think Ryan's most favorite part was the animal yard.  The kids were allowed to hold the chicks.

 Oh, Ryan loved that chick.

 He was so gentle and sweet with that chick.

 He kissed it and hugged it and sat and watched it.

 Dylan even got in on the action!