It's been awhile!.....

It's been awhile since I have posted. A lot has been going on. Finally calm, so hopefully I'll post more :)

We brought the airplane down from blueberry....they love it!

Using some good skills to climb over the the wall on the climber.

So sweet E!! Waiting to go down the slide.

You did it!! It's quite an accomplishment!!

Outside

It has been snowing all day today and we didn't go outside because it is just too cold for the little ones, but on this day we went out and there was a tiny bit of snow left on the picnic table. This was the hot spot.I remember as a kid that snow was sooooo yummy! Have you tasted it lately? I try it off different things...cars, mailboxes, fences, bushes. It always has an old flavor...like it has been sitting there for awhile, even though I know it is fresh. I guess I am a snow snob. Cause these guys obviously LOVE it!

This day it was sprinkling when we went out, but by the time we went inside it was pouring. The kids didn't mind...they love the rain.

Quinn is watching raindrops fall off his head....

In the dark....

It is dark. I was chatting away with Dacia and I looked up and it was dark. Kids don't care...matter of fact they love it. I remember playing for hours in the dark around the neighborhood when I was little...don't you?....back when parents were just thankful it was quiet in the house. :)

Yes....we still have pumpkins floating around the yard. They like to carry them, push them in wagons, and in Jences case...try to push them up the slide.

New Rope!

In light of the Indiana Jones movie and Bryans love to pretend to climb with a rope (he would find string, or bungie cords, or just the air) I thought we should get some ropes. I put one on the climber outside and one inside on the climber there. They all LOVE it....and especially Bryan. He is going to have some pretty big muscles soon with all that pullin himself up!

Here is Connor ready to go. He has his belt and his tool and the rope."Jence, help! Help! get me up....."I can save you Connor..grab on!"

SO cute!

And then there is these 2 little love bugs.....

Bye Bye Butterfly tree

Brayden came to visit today! We have missed you Bray Bray....glad to have you...anytime!

We decided to take down the Butterfly tree today. It was getting old and didn't produce very many flowers this year. We will get a new Butterfly tree in the spring and plant it somewhere else...but for now we need to make room for the sandbox since we took 1/2 the sandbox away for the playchips. The kids worked haaaard pulling the large tree branches from one end of the grass to the other. They worked together to move the extra large branches.

Climber makes it up front

New big/little toy up front!! So exciting! This was in our backyard for...well, forever, and we would switch off back and forth. Front yard/back yard. FINALLY, I made my family take it apart and pull it up front. We (or I should credit Paul) cut the legs to make it a little shorter and we (he) added another slide. It is so much easier for the little ones to climb on. The only thing missing is the swings. We might add a tire swing....we are just trying to figure out space. Anyway...the kids love climbing (duh) and I love the fact we can climb, play in the sand box, and ride bikes all at the same time!

Our garden

Our snap peas are big and yummy! When we go out, this is the first place they run to, to find some peas to eat and check out how all the other things are growing. We have squash growing...we picked one and we are going to make zuchini bread. We have lettuce, carrots (not doing so good), and tomatos! They are still green but getting bigger every day. We had broccoli....but I thought we could wait for the weekend and eat it on Monday....but look what happend (last picture)....it is called 'bolting'. It looks pretty on our table.

Our Bolting Broccoli.....

Salad....

"I'm makin salad"
Indeed he is...he has been working on it for some time. The rule in the yard is no picking leaves and flowers off of the living plant, but if you find them on the ground, they are all yours. I have seen them sometimes...pull the flower off, ever so gently and sneekily, then quickly drop it to the ground...."Look, I found this on the ground!"...I just remind them the plant won't be pretty if they keep picking the flowers off....then let them use it...what else can I do....
But he found this all on the ground...It's hard to see, and I think he might have put that big rock (tomato?) on top of all the greens, but it was rather colorful.
And very yummy by the way.

Spit....

We found a spit bug today. I have seen many of spit on plants, but the bug has already vacated. This time we caught him. "why is he spitting?" Very good question. So, we looked it up. They are also called froghoppers. They spit to hide themselves from preditors and keep themselves from drying out. We even found out that the childrens author 'Eric Carle' http://www.eric-carle.com/has written about a spittle bug in his book 'the very quiet cricket'. Which is one book I do not own...hint, hint, but will find at the library soon. This tells more if you are interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froghopper

bungie cord togetherness...

These guys were cracking me up. When they first started this game they were pulling each other (with great force) to the ground. They were laughing sooo hard it would take them a moment to collect themselves, stand up, and yank the other one to the ground. In the previous video you can hear them screaming with delight with the power that they possesed over each other.
As they tired of being jolted, they started communicating with each other as to where they were going and what to do to keep themselves upright. "No, you go this way, I'm going over here, so you need to walk the same way I do." "But I wanna go this way." "Okay....(Yank...he falls)...now, go this way with me (she already has the girl over boy power...)"
They stayed hooked up like this for about 45 minutes. Open ended objects (items without a specific way to use them) have unlimited possibilities. Love them!

Easter Egg Hunt

Drew hid the eggs for all the kids. After a few times....he handed the job over to Ashley, then Jesse, then Olivia. They had so much fun hiding and finding eggs. We carried on the egg hunt inside...much warmer in there!

Outside

: "Look Annie.....Look up there....Can you see it? It's a plane....Look at it's tail."....ahhhh, the beauty of being young and able to see minutely things up in the sky. I took a picture, but even the camera did not pick it up.
Look closely...Boomer is sticking his toungue out......If it were at Olivia, I would swear he was doing it on purpose. (only because she sticks her toungue out at him....only because he is being naughty)

Bubbles........

Outside

Dino (not to be confused with the chicken dino's) families....

YeeeeHaaaaa!
Weeeeeeeee........
BIG squeeeeeeze!