More April Activities

I took Rett to sign up for VPK for fall and it is really starting to sink in that he won't be home all day every day with me! So I am trying to take him out and do fun things with just me and him more often, so I surprised him with a trip to the bouncy house place. When I told him where we were going later (big mistake!) he got so excited, he asked when we were going every minute until it was time to go. He really hoped that "friends" would be there. He loves it when other kids are around for him to play with.

A month before Christmas I ordered these glow in the dark blankets that are supposed to glow for 8 hours, like a night light. I didn't realize it was a kickstarter and that they didn't actually have them made yet, and all sorts of things came up that pushed back the delivery date farther and farther. So finally in the middle of April, the Christmas presents finally arrived! At this point I was glad we got anything at all, I thought my money was just gone.

Crazy goats!

The boys had soccer pictures before their game and after an hour of them running around and waiting for their turn, it just so happened that both boys were getting their individual pictures from two different photographers at the exact same time! What are the odds! So I was racing across the gym back and forth trying to make sure that they cooperated and smiled and everything (mostly Rett). It is times like these that I miss Anthony getting off earlier in the day. They let us take a silly picture of the team after they got their shot, but James didn't hear us say to be silly and kept posing. Look at that handsome boy!

Most the boys' games have been scheduled at the same time, so Anthony and I have been taking turns watching and trading off at half time.

Going blueberry picking for the first time this year! The place we usually go to raised their prices this year, so we have been exploring other nearby patches. We found a new favorite just down the road.

Sunday morning James woke up with an upset stomach and ended up with a strange 12 hour stomach bug. He would be totally fine and then have moments where he was nauseous or had diarrhea. Then he was back to being fine. Since I had responsibilities at church, Anthony stayed home with him and kept Rett home too just in case. I asked Anthony how they were doing, and this is the picture he sent me. So miserable! :)

James had a field trip to the Orlando Science Center, so my mom came to watch Rett so I could chaperone. They loved getting to ride the charter bus, it is seriously so exciting for them!

I was excited to go on this field trip since I have heard such good things about the science center and how fun it is. It was kind of disappointing to get there and find out that the kids don't get to explore the entire center, they have a tour guide that takes them to specific places that are just for field trips. The tour guide mostly felt like a security guard that was there to make sure the kids stayed out of the really fun areas that were just for "guests" (I guess people who pay regular admission that day? I mean, we paid too so what's the deal??). So even though the kids had fun, all of the adults were really put off by the experience.

Their first "adventure" was to sit in a classroom and take turns stamping animal prints onto a paper and creating weird animals with different animal parts. This was James' creation:

Then they came around with a baby alligator for the kids to pet. Issac was the only other kid in my group, the one sitting next to James. He was not a fan of the alligator!!

After this one activity, it was time for lunch. Once we got the kids settled in the lunchroom with their lunch boxes, they came in to announce that there were too many people in the room and that all the adults had to eat outside in the grass. As they led us outside, we walked through a huge empty food court area that we weren't allowed to sit in because it is for "guests". You see what I mean?? After lunch we saw one or two exhibits, then an Imax movie, a few more exhibits and then time for home.

James and Issac inside the sinkhole exhibit:

Our crazy chickens decided to start a rogue nest in the leaves between the boys' power wheels. I am thinking that it started when they got caught out in a thunderstorm and hunkered down in the carport. I noticed that the chickens were hanging out there more than usual, but one day I happened to see this silkie try to push all the eggs underneath her, under the power wheels. I shooed her away and started looking through the leaves. I found 9 eggs in there!

James went out shrimping for the very first time and loved it! Anthony and his dad went out on the boat right after he got off of work, and after the boys' soccer game James and I met them at the dock while Sharon stayed home with Rett. It started to rain a little bit as we were getting to our spot, but thankfully it stopped really quickly and were able to get down to business. As soon as the lights went into the water we started seeing shrimp. So exciting!

We ended up with around 2 gallons, some of the shrimp were huge! We measured the biggest one and it was 7 inches long! James stayed up with us until 1 am, helping to clean and put away the shrimp. When Tony said something about how awesome it was that he was such a good helper, James said, "Well, I like that we can do this together as a family!" Melt my heart!

Anthony found a baby squid in with the shrimp, so he and James got to examine it and dissect it. James was so excited when they found his ink. I wanted to throw it away when they were done, but James begged me to put it in the freezer. I guess I can't expect any different from the son of a man who put a bat in the freezer a few months ago!

Here a few pictures of Baymax in his puppy class. It is so hard to remember to practice with him!! I can barely make time to practice sight words with my human kids, how can I remember to train my dog?? I am pinning a lot of hope on summer this year. I am hoping that I can catch up on a lot of things!

Practicing sit:

The pictures above are from his first class in March and this picture is from last week. Can you see how much bigger he is??? I can't get over how fast he grows. He is up to 6 cups of food a day and he is only 5 months old. I know I should be used to feeding growing boys by now, but it still amazes me :)

Beginning of April

We took a Saturday morning to go strawberry and vegetable picking at our favorite patch. Rett loved picking me some flowers too :)

James would run off down the row of strawberries and find perfect ones, so he created his own gathering basket out of his shirt.

Picking a few onions:

Baymax and the goats chewing on sticks:

As a writing assignment, James had to write about what he did over spring break and illustrate it. Of course he wrote about sledding! It seriously was the highlight of his year so far!

The boys were invited to a space themed birthday party for a boy in Rett's primary class. They got to collect "space rocks" which were easter eggs covered in aluminum foil and they all got to take turns launching rockets that they made at home. (The mom sent home bottles with the invitations and the kids made their own versions). It was fun watching everyone's take off! I ended up finishing the boys rockets late the night before, so they were really basic and as a result were pretty light and actually went really high!

Waiting for the launch:

Baymax started puppy obedience class! He is doing really well (as long as we remember to practice with him!), and he is known as the "mellow puppy" in the class.

I was out late practicing my flute with a few people from church and someone asked me what the boys were doing. I told them that hopefully they would be in bed, but more likely they would be in my bed when I got home. Sure enough, this is what I found.

James has really been enjoying soccer this year! He hasn't played since he started school, so he has taken off 4 seasons. This time he is doing a much better job of listening to his coach and he doesn't cry or pitch a fit about putting on his uniform and going to games or practices. Sometimes he gets a little wild during the game, playing with the person next to him, but those games can be at 7:30 or later so I can't really have high expectations for focus :)

Visiting with the animals one morning:

I was sitting on the bed in James' room (trying to hide to get some work done) and Rett found me and decided that we were going to read stories. I told him "Ok", and this is the stack he brought for me to read!

My mom broke her motorcycle helmet and had to buy a new one, so she gave the broken one to James. She knew that he would treasure it, broken or not!

A friend posted that she got some naked neck chickens (or turkins) at our local feed store and when I commented that I needed to get some, she offered to pick some up for me and bring them to parent pick up! (She lives right next to the feed store). I mean, you can't say no to that right?? So now we have four turkins to add to the chicken count.

As I was walking back to the car from dropping James off at school, I noticed this crazy cool frog. He was so camouflaged, it was amazing!!

James got to play goalie for a little bit this game. It was harder for him to pay attention, but he did make at least one good save!

We tried out a new splash pad for the first time. James loved it and was hard to pull away when it was time to go. Rett didn't want any part of it, so he played with cars on the picnic table with me.

James' school had "Donuts with Dudes" for the kindergarten and 1st grade to invite dads, grandpas, or male friends to come eat donuts with them. James invited Anthony's dad, but he ended up being caught in the worst traffic on the way to the school and couldn't make it at the last minute. So they had the school handyman Mr. Tom fill in and sit with James. The principal went out of her way to make sure that every student had someone to sit with them, she spent the night before calling school board members and other contacts she had in the community to make sure they had enough "dudes".

James said he knows Mr. Tom because "he can fix anything", and "one time Michael puked and Mr. Tom got gloves and cleaned it up". :)

Rett will have long pretend conversations on this toy phone and multiple times he has had pretend conversations with 911 that go something like this, "Hello, police officer. You need to get James from school and put him in jail. I want to play his toys. Bye".

Taking Baymax for a walk to look for rain puddles, while Rett carried his own doggie:

Finally found one!