Spring Break -March 2010

Mark and Melissa, Matt's brother and sister-in-law invited us to join their in their second annual Spring Break camping trip. So Matt was able to take a few days off, and we drove North (I think) about 2 hours to a place called Wolf Creek Park.

The weather was perfect, and we all had a great time. Lots of down time, good food, great company, and lots of togetherness time outdoors. It was a great trip.

We took our camper (first trip of the season) and set up our campsite. The kids always love to play inside the camper. This year, Rachael, my niece, and Kimball especially enjoyed themselves in there.

We did lots of fun things at the park. We went fishing, caught bugs, went on a nature walk, and had lots of fires to roast marshmellows and make smores. Yum, Yum.

Here's some pictures of the trip:

playing in the camper:

Our campground:

Fishing at Lake Livingston
(which is a HUGE lake!!)

I borrowed some fishing poles from some church friends, and we had a blast! Matt took Allison to buy the worms, and she and Sarah helped put them on the hook. The leftover worms provided Allison lots of enjoyment after she was through fishing. She carried them around in the container and showed off to her cousins and other kids at the campground.

Kimball was so determined to "fish" at the lake, that I decided to tie a rope to his fishing pole (and hang ON to it myself) before it ended up at the bottom of the lake. There was no way I was going to go in after it, if he dropped it. The water was freezing!!

You can see here in the first few pictures that at the beginning, Kimball held the fishing pole, and "fished" like a normal human being.

But that didn't last long. Soon after, he just resorted to dropping the whole thing in the water, and reeled it in with the rope I tied to it. (see below)

Then I got even smarter and tied the rope TO KIMBALL, through his belt loop,

so he didn't do a little "accidental swimming" himself.

(I'm starting to figure out the way little boys think -- I was pretty proud of myself for being so smart).

Bug Catching:

One morning, while Sarah and I took a bathroom break together, we saw a HUGE bug on the outside wall of the restrooms. It was just sitting there, and was still there the next morning, I noticed. So Allison and Matt went down to catch the bug in our bug catcher.

Thanks to a fellow camper, we discovered that it was actually a LUNA MOTH. It was seriously one of the biggest moths, and coolest bugs I have ever seen! Here's a little bit about them:

the Luna Moth is in the Saturniidae, the family that includes Giant Silkworm Moths; these are large moths with wingspans of up to almost 6", but the 5" Luna Moth appears even larger because of long tails on its hindwings

After Allison, once again, took her "find" around to everyone and showed off, she decided to get it out of the bug catcher. To our surprise and AMAZEMENT, this moth just "chilled out" on her hand, sleeve, or wherever she put it. (and yes, it was still alive). Here are some pictures of the luna moth and Allison:

to be continued . . .

Spontaneous Photo Session

I used my new camera to take some pictures of the kids & Matt a while back - but never posted them. I thought some of them turned out really cute, so here they are. They were taken on our front porch.

These first few are all pretty similar, because Matt was about ready to go take Sarah out on her "date" for her birthday dinner. So I was trying different distances to see how it would turn out.

But then, everyone was jealous of all the camera time Sarah was getting, so they all joined in.

Of course, I couldn't get a good picture of ALL 4 people. Kimball wouldn't look at me in any of the ones I took. So this was the best of the the rest of the fam. (Allison's looking pretty dramatic . . .)

Then I decided to take some "sisters" and individual pictures.

These aren't the best smiles for Allison, and I've decided I like her hair better when it's down.

My baby's growing up

Well, yesterday was a big day. I took Sarah, my second child, my 5 yr old, to go and register for kindergarten. She was so excited --she thought she was starting school today! She can't wait to go to elementary school. Although, she DID lament that she would miss some things about Preschool. Like what? I asked. She said, her teacher, and the toys and making crafts. It was cute.

But it wasn't cute, yesterday, when, while I was registering Sarah at the school, Kimball was running around like a crazy kid, raiding their little candy jar multiple times, escaping the registration room and wandering into classrooms, crawling under ladies feet who were sitting at the desk. Oh, that boy is something else. I have to say that Kimball will sorely miss having Sarah around next year. She is a good little playmate, and a good helper to me too. Man, why do kids have to grow up??

So, in honor of Sarah turning 5 recently, and growing up, I will write a little more about her.

1. Sarah is silly. She can get slap happy pretty easily. Especially when she is tired. She loves to laugh.
2. Sarah has an obsession with keeping her bed made - with the blanket perfectly straight. If someone sits on her bed - she freaks out, because you've just wrinkled the covers on top.
3. Sarah also likes to have her "things" in her room arranged in a particular way. We had to go so far as to put a child safety thingy on the doorknob to her room, so Kimball couldn't get in, unnoticed, and mess up her stuff.
4. Sarah LOVES to organize. Are you sensing a theme here? She's my slightly OCD child.
5. Her favorite food is "a cheeseburger with 5 extra pickles." That in and of itself is a major reward for her. I can get her to do just about anything if I promise her one in return.
6. Her favorite fruit is watermelon. She LOVES watermelon.
7. She loves to comfort Kimball when he's sad. She'll always go over and hug him if he's crying.
8. Sarah likes to help clean. She helps me with loading and unloading the washing machine and dryer. Yesterday, she wanted to help Daddy scrub the floors. She likes to organize our cupboard full of "kid" bowls, plates, and cups. And she unloads the dishwasher and, of course, organizes what she puts away.
9. Sarah's favorite colors are purple and pink.
10. She loves her long hair. She will NOT let me cut it and cries when we get it trimmed.
11. Sarah is learning to play the piano, and loves to practice (yeah, me!).
12. Sarah will rarely smile with her teeth showing. She has learned, for some reason, to smile with closed lips. (see pictures below.)
13. She loves to play with (real) babies & little kids. She is constantly asking me when we are going to have another baby . . . .

Well, I'm sure there's lots more to tell about her, but that's a good list for now.

Love you, big girl. I think you are beautiful.

Below are some pictures taken of Sarah at a local park, a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!