Puddle Walk

Park

We took a couple bike rides last week to the park on the other side of our neighborhood.  It is only a few blocks away, but the kids like to take the trails, which makes it a little bit longer bike ride. Jada and Ethan rode their bikes, and I pulled Zachary and Micah in the bike trailer....which has a 50 pound weight limit, and together they weigh 64 pounds. So, I was a bit tired by the time I got back. I don't entirely trust Zachary to follow the rules of the road yet, so he still has to be in the trailer.

Once we got their, Jada and Ethan practiced on the monkey bars, I learned that Micah is capable of getting around the park, and that Zachary will throw a fit if he is told to not play with the porta potty door. Before heading back, we stopped and walked on the fishing dock and tried to see some fish. They wanted to go back and get their fishing poles, but I told them that they needed Daddy for fishing. He took them out a few days later, and Jada caught something!

This guy thinks he is hot stuff to be able to go across the bridge by himself!

Brow furrowed in a touch of worry: a classic Ethan look.

Can you tell he was in a mood?? He has a death grip on the wheel because it would be awful if Micah were to have a turn!

Jada did not know I took this. If she did, she would have stuck out her tongue or crossed her eyes (hopefully a short-lived phase)

A New Sandbox!

We have had our turtle sandbox since Jada was 2.







 It was perfect for the front porch at our condo and it fit her well. It actually worked really well up until last year. I bought some new sand for it, filled it up, and Jada and Ethan hauled most of it out to the big park in the middle of our block and there was no sand left for Zachary. I got irritated and closed the sandbox for the rest of the summer. Early this spring, Jada mixed the remaining sand with as much mud as she could find and made herself a "garden." Yes, it was as much of a mess as it sounds.

Our big park, that we share with our neighbors, has sand in it, but the kids dug it out so much last year, that they left some rather dangerous looking holes. I decided that we should try and avoid that this year, so... to Menards I went, in search of a cheap solution because the turtle sandbox was not going to hold all four kids plus their friends. I'd made raised garden beds a couple of weeks ago, and was going to do the same thing, except put sand in it instead of dirt.

I ended up making a 4'x6' sandbox using a couple of 2"x6"s. I screwed it together with screws that I think were 2.5". I put weed cloth, that I had leftover from my garden, underneath the frame, and filled it with sand. The building materials were less than 10$. The sand turned out to be the most expensive part! I bought 8 bags, and we really need at least 8 more. So for now, the sandbox is only about halfway full. But, as my neighbor pointed out, the sand will stay in better if it's not filled up all the way. The kids tend to get excited whenever I've bought them new sand, so maybe in a few weeks when the novelty of having a "new" sandbox wears off, we will pick up a few more bags and they will get excited all over again.

So far, they love it! It holds all four of them, plus a couple friends. Before they got to play in it, I warned them about carting sand out to the park (they were told that if I even saw them thinking about dumping sand anywhere but the sandbox, they would be done:). So far, so good.

Jada thinks it is hilarious to ruin every picture she is in by sticking her tongue out. No, I don't remember why her hair is blue.

Building sandcastles

If you know Micah, you know that he is very "busy" and never stays still very long. He will sit in the sandbox and shovel for at least 15 minutes at a time.

A Couple of Firsts

Micah had his first haircut a while back. It was just a little trim and it went very well. I stood him at the sink and turned on the water. He was so happy to be playing in the water that he didn't really notice what I was doing. He had a second haircut last week, and it got quite a bit shorter than I wanted. I got the back too short, and one thing led to another. I have yet to take a picture of it because he looks too grown up with it:(

Look closely, no more training wheels for Ethan! Jada taught him for the most part, and it only took a couple days.

Soccer, Dandelions and Nuks

Our chore system involves the kids earning "merits" for everyday they do chores. Ethan and Zachary saved their merits for a couple months to save for a soccer goal. They were so excited when it finally came!

Someone was quite proud of the blue tennis ball that came with the goal...

And then equally irritated that the camera was still on him when he was picking dandelions

This little guy was feeling awfully sly that he found an old nuk of big brother's... and big brother decided that he needed his nuk back, a fight ensued.

Happy Easter!!!

We hope that everyone had a great day!!

Jesus is alive!

(yes, this was the best picture of all four, no there are none of everyone looking at the camera)

5

Today Ethan turned 5! He has been waiting all month for this and is very excited to finally be "a whole hand!" He got to pick the menu for the day; we had waffles for breakfast, pizza for lunch and mac and cheese for dinner! His good friend came over for the morning, and then we had cake with Daddy at night.

All excited on his birthday morning.

cookies for after lunch

A "shark wif teef" as requested. However, you can see in the next two pictures that the cake was not as big as hit as I hoped. He had also specifically requested a "diver in the shark's mouth wif blood". Silly me to think that the shark would be good enough, and good thing that I am not easily offended by my children... because this cake was a lot of work!

He quickly recovered when it was time to open presents. He got legos, a basketball and a basketball hoop.

And then he decided that he liked his cake!

And since it is winter... in Minnesota, the hoop is in the entry way. It will be moving to the garage tomorrow though:)