Spring Sunshine

As I mentioned before, this March was pretty warm.  I even got to prep my garden and plant some cool-weather crops, like broccoli, kale, and spinach, which I hadn't done so early before.  The kids enjoyed "tilling" up the garden soil for me, which required lots of vehicles and dirty clothes. :)

It was even warm enough for us to go to the dairy to catch up with the animals and have a few scoops of ice cream.  They had 2 baby goats, which were so cute; they reminded me of some curious puppies bothering their mom and the neighboring horse.

We have been continuing our family walks almost daily in this beautiful weather, too. Hadley is getting to be pretty fast on her Strider, and Owen prefers his scooter to the bike.  Now Mom and Dad are bringing up the rear on foot.

And Dad's truck makes for a nice rest stop.

 
Of course, sunshine leads to time at the local parks with friends.  

Owen and his friend Carson shared this single-seater swing, and although both looked uncomfortable, neither one wanted to leave their buddy high and dry by himself, so they kept swinging and swinging with lots of clunks and "oof"s.  Too funny.

Hadley does not speak softly, but she does carry a big stick!

An exciting change for us was installing opening windows in a few key places that did not have great ventilation before.  We have been wanting to do this since our first summer here, so it was pretty nice to see it actually happen.  We replaced 5 non-opening windows, in hopes to get a cross-breeze during the non-heater/non-AC months.  The kids were fascinated by the workers and the holes in the wall in between removal and installation. 

An adult on a couch is a magnet for all the little breathers in the house.  I just had to illustrate this phenomenon during some Saturday morning cartoons.  Full couch!

This last picture cracked me up.  Owen has a subscription to a kids' magazine, and sometimes they have a page of kids pictured with their drawings of animals.  Owen wanted to be in the magazine, so he drew this lion.  I searched their website, but couldn't find anything about submitting your picture for publication. I think it must have been an older magazine that we don't get any more, so this will have to do!

Snow Today, Gone Tomorrow

It was officially one of the warmest Februarys on record here, and March was turning out much the same, until it snowed today.  :(  I think because it is spring break!

Anyway, looking back at sunnier times, the farmer decided to sell the field behind our house, and the developers are building a road soon to be filled with more houses.  While we're a little apprehensive about the encroachment on our space and view, the kids have been enjoying watching the construction just over the fence.

And of course we go for a closer look on our evening walks.

We also broke out the hiking backpack for our annual trip to Cress Creek Trail. It's not the most exciting hike, but it's a good one to warm up for the season since it's close to home and pretty easy.  Owen hiked the whole thing and has already planned many more hikes for the summer.  

At a little more than the halfway point, there's the option for going up to the top of the hills via a steep trail.  We've done this back when O was in the backpack, but the backpack was nearly flat while the carrier was on all fours in the loose gravel, so the boys veered off and made it to the top...

while I took over the backpack and found a good snacking spot for Hadley.  Did I mention that the way to her heart is snacks?  Just like her brother!

See?  Energized again post-snack to finish off the hike!

Another cool place that we spent an afternoon is the sand dunes about 10 minutes from our house.  The kids loved it!  We brought some sandbox toys and just let them have at it for a couple of hours.  (We even loaded up some sand to refill our own sandbox.  Don't worry - it's legal!)

Here's Owen making the steep ascent to the top, and Hadley wondering if she can get up there, too.

I actually went up top myself this time, and my glutes were burning!  This is looking back down to our "base camp" and Hadley is about halfway up.

Once we made it up, it was a vast expanse of nearly pristine sand!  The kids were in heaven.  It's kind of random that this exists just outside of our town, but I guess it has to do with the wind we get.  Also, see the horses in the upper left?  It's adjacent to the horse track.  Also random.  Anyway, if we have another wind-less sunny day, we might be back here!

Lastly, another funny picture from our rubber-faced boy.  The greenbelt has some artistic benches, and the kids hopped up here, half-expecting to pedal off into the sunset.  C'mon summer!  Can't wait!

Owen - Almost a Kinder!

Milestone in March: kindergarten registration for Owen!  He loves school and is excited to think about his next steps at the big elementary in the fall.  We celebrated with ice cream at our favorite local dairy (that just opened a second location closer to our house)! At his parent-teacher conferences, his teacher never has much to say about Owen - just that he's a great kid!  It sounds like I'm bragging, but seriously, that's all she says.

Five seems to be a pretty fun age, all things considered.  For one, his imagination is in full swing these days.  This box was quickly decorated with crayon-scribbled buttons inside and out to become a rocket ship to the moon.  "Mom, how do you spell USA?" was uttered during its creation.  And upon completion, Hadley was a gung-ho co-pilot for their missions.  They play well together most of the time, and it's so fun to watch!

He's also learned how to be calm enough around the cats; this is what I discovered one day after quiet time.  Our cats must be desperate for affection. Ha ha!

March has also continued the unusual warmth from February, which may be why we've had a revolving door of colds and ear infections since late January.  The plus side, though, has been some picnic lunches out on the porch...

that somehow devolved into the shirtless chasing of bubbles and other general silliness...

But then we coaxed them back in to their shirts for a day downtown at the library, our favorite restaurant, and the art museum.  Owen says art is the best part of school, and our little art museum has free admission once a month and a really entertaining kids' area. We stayed there for at least an hour and had to pry the kids away.

We also went to Owen's requested park by the river.  It was a beautiful day!

Owen's been saying some funny stuff, like "blah, blah, blah" when he describes a story or "you get the point."  He's so quick to pick up on things!  Did I mention that we came home from one date night and the baby sitter had to ask us if we were really moving to Arizona because he had described so many details to her?  A similar thing just happened a few weeks ago when I had to ask his teacher if they'd really been on a field trip to a dinosaur museum because he was so specific on what he saw and where they'd been, even though I was scratching my head to think of where there could be a local dinosaur skeleton...  The creative story-telling flows out of this one quite naturally, so keep that in mind the next time he has your ear.  :)

It's been fun to watch him grow. Watch out public school system; here he comes!