Typical

This is what you would see every single day if you walked into our kids' room. The bottom half of the bookshelf is always cleared off as Chloe systematically buries herself in books. She will sit and "read" to herself for sometimes 30 minutes :-) Probably the only time of day she is quiet.

Posted by Bree

Stunt Man

"Did you see THAT, Mom!?!?"

Our neighbor asked me the other day when we were going to build one of those bike trick ramps in our backyard for Evan .... He does these crazy fast wheelies till his bike tips up and he slides backwards off the seat. More danger means more fun for this guy!

Posted by Bree

Lines

Posted by Bree

Re-Cap

The weather has been so gorgeous the past week but today... it all changes. There's a cold front moving in, and the forecast for this week is chilly :-(

Here are some of our warm-weather pictures from the past week or so.

And I know the blog has been lacking for interesting content (other than pictures) ... It's hard to be creative all the time, but I'll be out of my rut soon enough ;-)

Posted by Bree

Quiet Day

It was warm and wonderful outside today.
A quiet and peaceful day and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

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Looking Through Evan's Eyes

All photos taken by Evan during the month of April

No direction has been given to him regarding what to take pictures of. He just asks "Can I take some pictures?" and we let him. I do delete the really blurry ones though.

Posted by Bree

Serious Playing

Playtime can be so serious around here sometimes -- by the look on their faces you'd never know how much they are enjoying themselves.

These pictures were actually taken at Liz's house this morning after this morning's outside playtime got rained on quite suddenly :-)

Posted by Bree

Playground

Today was Chloe's first time to the playground this year and she LOVED every part of it. She is such a mover!! We went with Brook and Luke -- they hung out on the swings in the shade while Evan and Chloe ran all over!!

Running Running Running Running Running Running ... Then finally they moved on to the slides ;-)



Up and down the huge and fast "curly slide" all by her big daring self!!! Chloe is so unbelievably fearless (our kids are like night and day, aren't they?). She kept running back to the stairs, zipping up them -- like she has been doing this every day of her life-- and whipping down the slide in a spiral of static and giggles!


I think the dirt on Evan's face makes him look like he has a mustache... enlarge that one and check it out ;-)



There is no point in telling a kid they can't climb up a slide. Why do grown-ups make rules that are senseless like that? Our rule is you can climb up ... as long as no one else is playing on it. Works great.

I thought this was cute... Chloe on her tippy-toes to see the water and rocks down below!

It was a great experience today, but I will sure be glad when the trees start growing leaves again... there was minimal shade and that sun was hot!!

Posted by Bree

Weekend Stuff

We were pleasantly surprised this weekend by the seemingly overnight blooming of so many flowering bushes and plants in our neighborhood. Finally some color!!!

Early morning reading. "Dad, will you read to me?" is a question Evan asks nearly every morning before Todd goes to work. This time it was Saturday so there was a lot of time for books. The book stack usually stays on the couch for several days until Evan is ready to go to the bookshelf and trade them in for different ones. Lately he has only wanted to read Clifford and Little Quack books. The great thing about the Clifford ones is that Chloe loves them too. She calls him "Wee-fuhd." It's cute.

"Little People" is Chloe's constant DVD request. I use it to make her sit for hair-styling time since it is short and sweet. This one is all about trucks and wheels and was Evan's favorite for a long time... and he still likes it. After I fix the hair all pretty, Chloe finishes the movie by twirling her piggy-tails round and round till it's over.

We took a family Jeep ride with the top down last week to go get Coldstone Creamery ice cream. Evan picked mint (because it was green) and Chloe shared my chocolate with more chocolate mixed in kind. It was really windy but Chloe handled it well after she realized her piggytails were safely staying on her head.

Play-doh for Chloe means having a mud pit of her own and me giving her all the containers to make a tower with. She also needs a few trucks to get stuck in the mud pit. This day, in addition to her usual, she wanted some of the shape cutters... to wear as bracelets. This girly tomboy combination is so cute!

This was before church on Sunday when Evan and Chloe were showing what toys they had each picked to bring with them that morning. Evan had two monster trucks and Chloe had the Doc Hudson car.

Bryce came to see the kids this morning right before bathtime today. Chloe was on her way to the tub and turned right around and ran away when she heard Bryce come in the door -- "Ah Bice!!"

They were soooo excited to see her! She is holding about 55 pounds or so and probably didn't put them down for a whole minute! No wonder they love her, right? She's young and strong and full of energy!!

As of this morning, Evan's favorite stuffed kittens have officially been off-roading. And when the rock crawler truck flips over and lands back on its wheels, the kittens stay safe inside... thanks to the roll cage.
This little brave girl goes flying down this slide at light speed and then runs back around to do it again -- "swide again... swide again... swide again...." She found out the hard way after insisting that "baby do it by a-self" that she would not like landing on her butt. Afterwards, in tears, she said "bum hurting!" and from then on was ok with "mommy catch you."

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In blog news, the more time we spend outside, the less time I think about doing blog posts until evening time, so they might be posted 8-9pm each night instead of in the afternoons like I was doing for a while. The sign-up is still at the right for email alerts of new posts if you want to do that. The new post comes to your inbox as a newsletter and you just read it there.

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In unrelated-to-anyone-but-Jason-and-Liz news: "The OFFER" is officially being extended. Let us know what you think. :-)

Posted by Bree