Strawberries Galore!

It has been a long, exhausting, but super fun week for us.  We have had our normal routine of preschool, errands, church, speech, reading, dance, etc. but added onto that was dentist appointments, a field trip to the zoo, and most importantly, a trip to the strawberry patch!  Whew!  I was so worn out on Friday night, but somehow the kids STILL got up at 6 am on Saturday morning.

Jacob's class took their field trip to the zoo this week, and I was able to go with him.  He had so much fun, and loved the giraffes, bears, lions, mere cats and elephants.  We timed it just right and for $5 you could feed the giraffe three pieces of lettuce...the quickest $5 I've ever spent!  Jacob loved it, and I loved being able to have one on one time with him doing something extra fun. Here is part of his class having snack before we really got started in the zoo:

 $5 worth of lettuce for the giraffes:

 That giraffe's tongue was so long...Jacob thought it was "AWESOME!":

 On the carousel:

The kids have been enjoying the beautiful weather, but it is already starting to get hot…which means that the lizards are out!  This is so exciting at our house because anytime we (as in Jacob) see a lizard, we have to try to catch it.  Brian is getting pretty good at it.  You either use a bucket or if the lizard gets in the grass, it is much slower and easier to catch.  Gwyn likes to look at the lizard after it is caught, but wants no part in it.  Annie loves it, and would probably try to eat it if she could ever get her hands on one.  We have been going up to the park at night to walk, and when I told Jacob that I was trying to get into shape and that so I could run around the track, he asked if I would be fast enough to catch a lizard…I told him it would not be happening because I don’t “do” lizards…he didn’t understandJ

Gwyn prefers to slide in the backyard…my kind of girl!

Jason bought Jacob a glove, some baseballs, and a bat.  He loves it, he asks to practice every single day, so Brian and I are both usually out there with him working on catching, hitting, and throwing.  When I put him to bed the night after he first got to use his baseball stuff, he said his favorite thing was playing baseball, and he wanted to see if we could play again tomorrow.  Here he is working on hitting:

Here is a picture of Gwyn just before church, she looked so cute, and this was right before she lifted her dress up...what is it with little girls lifting their dresses up??

 Here is my sad excuse for the play dough I made for Jacob's class this month...I remembered I had signed up for it over spring break, and I think the green was supposed to be for St. Pats, but I'm a little late...needless to say, with its lumps of white flour, I will NOT be asked to make it again anytime soon, oh well!

 Jacob and Gwyn's new favorite thing to do, push Annie around in this little doll stroller.  Annie loves it:

We made it to the strawberry patch again, it had been a couple of years since we went.  The last time was when Gwyn was 13 months old, and she tore it up with the strawberry-juice-looking-like-blood all over her, and Annie did give her a run for her money this time, but I’ll never forget this picture of Gwyn, which I had entitled, simply, GIVE ME ANOTHER ONE:

The kids had a great time, we ended up with 13 lbs of strawberries, some of which will be eaten within the next few days, some frozen, and some given to some lucky friends!  Here is Gwyn ready to fill the basket:

 Annie trying her hardest to get one off:

 Jacob picking, he liked to pick the berries and he really liked telling Gwyn that the ones she picked weren't very good.

 Brian and Gwyn picking.  Brian was the "best" picker, he was very selective on the berries he put in "his" basket, and told the kids to put theirs in my basket.

 She decided it was more fun to just sit down and eat than it was to actually pick them.  She couldn't get them off the vine, so Jacob kept giving her some...she was happy!

 The loot, take a wild guess which basket is Brians:

 Anyone want to help clean me up??

Annie turned 17 months old this week, she’s getting so big!  She is starting to say quite a bit of words, and now yells “NACKS” when she sees me handing out fruit snacks to the kids. 

Here is Gwyn at 17 months:

Here is Jacob at 17 months (seems like just yesterday!):

Here are a couple of pictures of their artwork for the week, we’ve got zoo projects out the wazoo around here…I get to go to the zoo again next week with Gwyn’s class.  She is so excited and has been asking all the time if it is Wednesday yet.

One last picture of an unwanted visitor to our yard...it was spotted twice in the last week, and Brian found it in the landscaping on Friday.  Although it is a non-poisonous Texas Brown snake, as I later found out via Google, it picked the wrong house to visit and unfortunately will no longer be found again (I hate snakes!):

 Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob:  If we can make Annie stop growing, get her to turn green, and have her ears grow long, then she would be just like Yoda!
Me to Brian:  I'm not sure which hand she will be (Gwyn is left handed, Jacob is right handed, and Annie is still unknown)
Jacob:  Annie is 2nd handed. (I was a bit confused, but remembered I had mentioned earlier that I had said that Annie will only get 2nd handed stuff from Gwyn)
Gwyn (she prays every night):  Jesus, please give us a rainbow.
Gwyn to Brian after going to the dentist:  Look what the dentist gave me (she hands him toothpaste), it is for my bottom.
Brian:  No, Gwyn, that is toothpaste (not diaper rash cream), a dentist doesn't give you stuff for your bottom, and if they ever do it is time to find a new dentist.
Jacob to Brian as he's riding on his shoulders:  Your shoulders are okay, but not as good as Grandpas.

Ladybug Hunters

Oh, what a whirlwind past couple of weeks we have had!  Last week is really just a blur by now, which is why I try to update each week because I forget everything that has gone on!  My mom came in for a long weekend visit, and she was here for my birthday!  32 just seems so much farther from 29 than 31 did, and I don't think it helps that Gwyn tells everyone that I'm 42, although I am happy to say that Jacob is mastering his "th" sounds and will jump in to correct her that I'm 32, thanks buddy!  How can you not be happy about celebrating a birthday when your kids give you hand decorated cards like this??  Isn't the one on the left hand corner funny?  Jacob has started cutting eyes, noses, ears, and mouths out of magazines and gluing them on paper to make a person and they are a little freaky looking!

They also got some streamers to decorate the dining room as best they could:

And I can't let this blog be complete without letting everyone know that Brian took the kids to the  grocery store at 7 pm that night to get me a cake that had expired:)  It was a great birthday, and I'm glad that my mom was here to celebrate with us.  I was also able to squeeze in a dentist appointment and a haircut (my first in 7 months!), so thanks mom!  The weather has been so nice here, and that weekend we discovered a particular weed that ladybugs love.  We were able to find several, here is a picture of the kids with Brian and then a video of Annie - she loved them and the kids with them!

So, with the departure of my mom, also went the departure of Brian for the week of Spring Break (how bad of planning was that!) to a training class in Michigan, but thankfully, Em came down with her precious girls, Grace and Sadie and stayed until Thursday.  We had a wonderful time, but 5 kids kept us going non-stop from 5 something in the morning til 8 at night.  We did have at least 1 1/2 hours or so after the kids went to bed to talk (uninterrupted) for the first time in YEARS, which was great, but we were both exhausted and went to bed by 10 every night, they wore us out!  We spent our time pretty much either making meals/cleaning or playing...lots of park time, riding bikes/ride on toys, swinging, bubbles, playing with toys inside, and reading books.  Here are some pictures from the visit.  Grace went to dance/gymnastics class with Gwyn and they had a great time.  Grace loved it and the funniest part, which neither Em or I were able to get on video, was the girls trying to run and skip around, they were trying so hard and both had these goofy little gallops going on...Gwyn had told me about wanting to skip, so I'll have to video the next time Brian is trying to teach Gwyn to skip because THAT is hilarious!

 Gwyn at the park.  I had gotten all 4 girls these matching princess shirts at Target.  I had gotten Annie's out, and as soon as Gwyn saw it, she put her hand over her mouth as she gasped, "It's beautiful!" as if it was the most breathtaking shirt she had ever seen, ha!  Needless to say, she was super excited that she, Grace, and Sadie all had one too!

 Annie at the park:

 All 5 kids...in most of the pictures I have not even one of them looks at the camera, so this was a good one!

 Jacob Skywalker with his homemade light saber (a bubble wand emptied and filled with glitter courtesy of Em) that he pretty much did not put down the entire week!

 Oh Annie, still trying to run down slides:

 Train ride around the park:

 Jacob the ladybug hunter holding the prized collection:

 27 ladybugs!  What a catch for these novice ladybug hunters!  That night before bed Jacob asked if I would turn the light on to keep the ladybugs warm, I didn't realize he had taken them upstairs into his room!  This resulted in another new rule, no bugs upstairs, even if they are in containers.  The next day, they did a ladybug release, sadly, a few didn't make it after Sadie went over to check them out (she likes to stomp!).  A couple of days later, Jacob found a rollie pollie.  He brought this inside and lost it in the couch, which we found after a couple of minutes, and then lost it in the rug, which took about 10 minutes to find, so this resulted in another new rule, no bugs in the house at all!

Brian flagged the ice cream truck down last weekend and my kids got their first ice creams from the ice cream man...Jacob picked Shrek, Gwyn picked Dora, and Annie picked a push pop (Daddy thought this would be less messy).  Well, we were outside playing and we heard the truck, and Em and the kids jumped up and down and yelled like crazy to get his attention since he was going down another street.  Well, he saw them, backed the truck up, and everyone got an ice cream.  Jacob picked a bomb pop with gum, Gwyn got Barbie, Grace got an ice cream sandwich, and Sadie and Annie got push pops.

 Enjoying their ice cream...Grace and Gwyn lived in these Tinkerbell and Tiana dress up costumes all week, although Grace also loves Cars and wore Cars pajamas to bed, which Jacob thought was supercool:

 Gwyn with her one-eyed-pirate-Barbie ice cream:

 Two peas in a pod.  Annie was mesmerized with Sadie.  Sadie gave us non-stop entertainment this week.  If I thought Annie was wild and crazy making messes and getting into everything, then Annie would be a little bunny and Sadie would be the Tazmanian Devil, except that you can't call her a devil because she is so stinking cute and sweet, she has so much fun, and her little laugh is hilarious!  Sadie also started calling Jacob, Bubba like Annie!

 Jacob wanted me to take a picture just so he could see his tongue:

 St. Patricks Day green fingernails:

 St. Pats Day green for Jacob, I love that face!

Here are a few other pictures from the week before, please help us all in 13 years!

 Annie, who does not sit still, this was the best picture out of about 15 I took while waiting in the car during Jacob's reading class:

 Jacob loves his little sister Annie, who now has 6 teeth!

 Oh how we missed our Daddy!  This was Friday afternoon after Brian got home from work.  Gwyn had fallen asleep on him, and Jacob always has to be close to one of us, I love this time with him, he's so sweet! Brian and Jacob also were able to catch a lizard this afternoon, which Jacob was so excited to call and tell Papa.  It was a baby one, and Jacob kept picking it up out of the bucket, he was SO excited!

 Sweethearts, Brian and Gwyn:

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob:  I think Sadie and Annie are going to be good friends.
Gwyn (after I was trying to explain how you wear green on St. Pats day so you don't get pinched):  That isn't nice.
Jacob (the day after St. Pats day):  I don't have any green on!
Me:  That was yesterday, you don't have to wear green today.
Jacob:  But I don't want to get pinched!
Grace (after Jacob is giving her a detail account of Star Wars):  Who is Generous Grevous? (General Grevious...poor Grace made the mistake of asking a question about Star Wars, which resulted in about 5 minutes of Jacob telling her random bits of information he knows about it)