First Swim of the Season

It has been warming up a lot here and the apartment complex cleaned our the lap pool that is just across from us so we decided to take the kids swimming.  Kherington and Kevin each have 2 swim suits, a set of goggles, a set of floating wings, and a towel so they were set.  Plus grandma gave us swim stuff for Jonathan including a cute swimsuit, swim diapers and pool floating thing complete with cover.  It was going to be fun swimming. 

Well, we got there, snapped this picture, then felt the water.  It was what I like to call 'Daddy Pool Time' water.  It was freezing.  Definitely not warm enough for Jonathan.  So while Jonathan and I relaxed in the sun and chatted with our neighbor who the kids invited to swim with us, Ryan was a awesome and played in the water with the other little ones.

Baby Ducklings

Today as we were leaving the Y, in the parking lot we saw this herd of ducklings trailing behind their mom.  The mom had jumped up onto the curb, but only half the ducklings were able to jump up behind her.  Me and another guy ended up helping the rest of the ducklings onto the sidewalk.  I'm not sure where the water is around there, but hopefully they won' t be crossing anymore parking lots or roads to get there.

Kherington's 5th Birthday!

I can't believe that 5 years ago Ryan was supposed to be walking down the aisle at graduation and instead we were at the hospital having a baby.

Kherington is an awesome little girl.

For weeks she had been talking about having her pink Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast in bed.  She ended up not wanting to eat in bed (later that day, I found the full bowl of cereal so really she didn't want to eat period).  She did want to open presents though.  She opened up a hair stylist costume in the morning.

We headed to the Y in the morning.  She was a little sad the normal desk person wasn't there to tell her how beautiful she was.  Child care sang happy birthday to her and gave her a paper bracelet so she was back to her happy self by the time I picked her up.

She got to choose one friend to join us for a picnic at the park and ice cream.  We ate and played for about 45 minutes when I saw kids streaming out of the elementary school across the road.  At first I thought it was a fire drill or something.  About 100 kid and a couple teachers walked to the cross walk, crossed the street, then flooded the rec center playground.  I couldn't believe it.  Elementary schools have their own playground!  Playing at the park with lines 5-10 deep to swing or slide isn't so much fun so we left and headed for ice cream.  Baskin Robbins was having their scoopfest deal so I let each kid choose two scoops.  Kherington was excited about that...but then decided on 2 scoops of strawberry instead of trying a different flavor.

Ryan came home early from work and we headed off to our surprise activity.  Kherington has been trying to guess what I had planned for a week or so.  We went to the Nickelcade!  The kids both loved it (Kevin had a little meltdown when we finished up all the nickels...he kept banging on the change machine saying he needed more money).  Kherington's favorite game was the spider stopin.  It didn't hand out many tickets but it was fun.  At the end they both traded in their tickets for prizes.

Next up was dinner.  Kherington had gone back and forth deciding what she wanted but on the way out to the car said she wanted McDonalds.  I might have given her a hard time then she changed to Pappasitos. I felt really bad (although half price fajitas are way better than McDonalds) and tried to have her change back to McDonalds, but she said she wanted the 'tortialla place' since they might sing to her.  They didn't end up singing happy birthday, but did bring out a brownie Sunday complete with a candle for her to blow out (they brought one for Kevin too).

When we got home, Kherington and Kevin frosted Kherington's cake.  I completely forgot to put decoration on it aside from candles (the next morning Kherington was sad we forgot to put strawberry shortcake and a princess toy on top...maybe next year).

We had cake and finished opening up her presents and cards.  She got a pink ballerina watch and a coupon book from mom and dad and picked out some super cute pink flats from the Croc store from Grandma Glover (then told me wrap them up so she could unwrap them on her birthday).  She also loved that everyone that sent cards put them in pink envelopes.

I am always taking the pictures so there are very few pictures with my kids.  I asked Ryan to take a picture of me and my birthday girl and when I downloaded them found that Kherington's face was blocked by a teddy bear in some and you could see up my skirt in others.  I was pretty annoyed that he didn't say anything when he was taking the pictures.  Anyways, I got Kherington to take a couple more with me.

Birthday Interview (by Kherington)
The thing I'm best at is: Singing
If I could change my name, it would be: Rosie
Favorite color: PINK
Favorite toy: princesses
When I grow up I want to be: A princess
I like to take these to bed with me at night: Teddies (Bruce)
Favorite book: Princesses
Favorite movie: Ariel (Little Mermaid)
Favorite season of the year: Winter
Favorite food:  Soup (blueberry or tomato or carrot)
Favorite treat: Chocolate Chip Cookies or Pumpkin Cookie
Favorite animal: Flamingo
Favorite sport: Ballet and soccer
Best friend: Jenna
Favorite holiday:Valentines Day
Favorite thing I did last year: Disneyland!

Easter 2014

The night before Easter, Kherington woke up screaming.  First she needed to go potty.  Then on the way back to the bathroom she noticed her Easter basket wasn't where she left it.  Then she was afraid of the Easter bunny and informed me that Daddy put a note on the door when the Leprechaun came, so we needed a note on the door to tell the Bunny it wasn't allowed in the kids room either.  Done.

Well, a couple hours later, pre-sunrise, Kevin woke up and some how found their Easter baskets in the dark playroom then woke his sister up.  This year they each got a shirt (Jonathan's was just taken from his drawer...kinda forgot about him), an Ocotonauts toy to share and some eggs to hunt for with a note saying if they were good there would be more eggs to find.  They were so not impressed with the eggs.  They didn't want to find them, then told us they don't like rolos or smarties or snickers.  They were okay with the licorice.  I remember thinking any candy was awesome when I was their age.

I actually bought Kherington and Kevin a new church outfit for Easter.  Kevin wore his...really I just like the vest and tie.  Kherington decided she didn't want to wear her bright pink dress she picked out and instead opted for a grey one.  I guess Europe style rubbed off on her a little. 

We went to the Parente's house for Easter dinner and had a great time celebrating, relaxing, playing and chatting.  Jonathan was passed from one person to the next.  Aunt Marie (it was her 80th birthday) could calm him down without the pacifier or feeding him...now that is talent.  By the end of the night Kherington was asking to go home because she was tired.  This is pretty much unheard of but she really was tired.  I don't think we had started the car before both kids were out cold.

We did Resurrection eggs for Family home evening and the kids enjoyed opening them.  I'm not sure they really got much out of it, but maybe as they get older.  I really like all the make believe parts of holiday's but it is important to realize why it truly is a special day.

Easter Egg Hunts

Between last weekend and this weekend, we have taken the kids to 3 Easter Egg hunt.  I am thinking next year we will go to two hunts.

1. Grapevine - This hunt had 15,000 eggs.  The kids were separated by age group onto different baseball fields.  The nicest thing was that all their activities were free.  The kids saw the Easter Bunny, held baby bunnies, played on the inflatables, got their face painted, enjoyed popcorn and lemonade and more.

2.  This was the least favorite of the 3.  It was on a football field and separated into just 2 age groups.  They started the hunt 15 minutes late and limited the number of eggs you could get to 12 per person.   I turned my back for a minute and Kevin's basket was overflowing with 30+ eggs!  We let him count out some eggs for himself then made him give the rest away to another little kid who didn't get many.

3.  I missed this one since I was parking the car.  When I got there, boh kids had overflowing baskets of eggs and Ryan said if they had more space they could easily have gotten more.  The downside was that all the extra activities cost money.

Friends and School

We had school at our place a couple more times.  We are now working on numbers.  For the number 1, we played with the parachute.  I also taught number 3 which worked out great since it was right after Kevin turned 3.  Each kid got to decorate 3 cupcakes (one normal and 2 baby).

We also got to have Isabel play with us and attempted to dye eggs.  I was in the other room feeding Jonathan and could hear the kids discussing whether you are supposed to eat the 'crackely' stuff aka the shell.  Kinda funny conversation.

Kevin Turns 3

Our little Belg Boy turned 3 today. I can hardly believe it. Almost every night he either ends up in our bed or Ryan ends up in his bed. He love to be outside (a little sad right now since we don't have a yard). Somehow he makes everything into a sword or a gun. Not sure where that one came from. And 'poo' is his biggest insult. Like telling Kherington she smells like poo or her dress looks like poo. Not sure where that came from either. I really thing some of it is just a boy thing.

He can be the sweetest little boy out there...or the exact opposite of that depending on the day. Some things we will hopefully work on with him this year include listening, being obedient and telling the truth. The last one especially. He instantly replies with whatever response you want to hear instead of the truth. Not so cool.

For his birthday he had breakfast in bed since his sister told him that is what you do on your birthday. He chose eggs, toast and cereal.

In the morning we went to Urban Air and jumped for 2 hours. I let him pick one friend to come with us. He chose Isabel which I was happy about since both my kids love her and they all get along so well.

After the trampoline place we came home and had lunch and played for a little longer then headed out the door to take Isabel home and go to the Y. Well, Isabel's mom invited the kids to play instead of go to the Y. They ran around outside for a good 2 hours there.

Kevin chose Chick-fil-a for dinner where he ran around there for another hour or so. At home he had chocolate sheet cake decorated with toy cars for his cake, then finished opening his toys and presents. He got a bunch of dress-up stuff including a train engineer outfit, spiderman, shield and breastplate, ninja mask, and captain hook accessories. 

I would have thought he'd crash at night but was very wrong. By 10pm he was still going strong. I guess he wanted to make sure to celebrate his entire birthday.

A couple other highlights of the day: Kevin was really good about sharing his presents with his sister.  I totally ruined the first chocolate sheet cake by putting on bad frosting.  I thought I had 'fix' the frosting so I put it on, but when it setup it was like a brick. We still ate the inner part of the cake, but I quickly made a new one for his actual birthday cake that evening. Kevin and Isabel do joy school together and it is fun to see how they stick up for each other.  Pretty cute.