Mother’s Day

Another Mother’s Day come and gone…here are a few pictures from the day:

Zoe and I.

She made me a beautiful canvas, and also picked out a new charm for my Pandora bracelet; a cruise ship. Cute, isn’t it?

Landon bought me an iTunes card with his own money. I thought that was pretty nice of him!

Harper and I. I told him I wanted to get a picture with him because it was Mother’s Day. He said “Oh? Is that today? Well I wanted to give you four things…here’s a hug and a kiss.” Then he got up and found me a bouncy ball and a toy from his kitchen set. Mission accomplished, I guess! :)

Dakota and I. Getting this little girl to smile isn’t always easy, but she must have known it was Mother’s Day when I asked her to smile for me!

I’m one lucky Momma.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there…especially mine. I love you, Mom! Wish I could’ve spent my day with you.

Five on Friday

• On Wednesday night I went out to dinner with some friends. We were headed to Gunnings, but for some reason they were closed and we ended up going to Joe’s Crab Shack instead. Tony and I have been wanting to try Joe’s so knew he wouldn’t be happy about us going there, but I figured I’d try it and let him know if it is worth going or not. It was worth it. Expensive, but tasty…we’ll definitely have to go sometime.
• Yesterday, Harper and I decided to watch Frozen. I was pretty excited to watch it with him because of all the raving about it I’ve heard…but, I have to admit, I don’t get the hype. I mean, it was a good movie, but I was expecting something AMAZING, and I wasn’t amazed. Maybe all the hype played up my expectations and they were too high? I don’t know. It was good, and after watching it I didn’t feel like I needed to gouge out my eyes or anything, so that’s an okay movie in my book. Harper enjoyed it although I question how much of it he actually understood. Who knows.
• I finally got my Sugar Honey Iced Tea together and did something with the frame Tony made me for Christmas. Yes, Christmas. This one, remember? I decided to print some of my favorite recent pics to put in it. I like it, but I think that the next time I change the photo’s I’ll print them a bit larger.

• Dakota has been going down for her naps so peacefully this week. I don’t think there’s been a day she’s cried when I left the room. We’ve developed a bit of a new routine, and it’s more simple than what we were doing. We kiss HarHar goodnight, get a diaper change and one book. That’s it. No more playing with the doll house or Minnie Mouse and we read no more than one small book. Then she relaxes on my lap while I run my fingers through her hair and talk to her a bit. She stays pretty quiet but she does talk to me a little too. A couple of times now, including today, I’ve gently stroked her arm with my fingernails and when I do that she knocks out pretty quickly. Almost immediately her eyes start to roll back and she gets completely still…it’s pretty darn cute.
• I decided to take the little’s out to Lake Waterford this morning. We were the only ones there when we first got there. About 10 minutes later, some girl, who I saw walk out of a wooded area, joined us on the playground. She was probably between 10/12 years old. She played a little then went to the parking lot and got in a truck that had been sitting there when we pulled in. It was weird. Then, about 20 minutes after she left, a little boy came running to the park. I never saw where he came from, he was just there all the sudden…by himself. Harper ended up making friends with this boy and I overheard him tell Harper that he was six. They played and played and about half an hour later a woman shows up at the park with a little girl in a stroller and calls out to him. I think he called her grandma. I thought it was kinda weird that she left him there for so long by himself, but maybe I’m too much of a worrier, who knows. We had a good time at the park and we got back home just in time for lunch.

Little Artists

My two little’s were in the mood for some art on Monday morning, so I pulled out the paint. Well, first I googled some free flower images to print, then we set about painting them.

I thought they’d probably enjoy marble painting, so we did that first.

After they’d rolled their marbles to their hearts content, we moved on to watercolors.

I saved the messiest for last; finger painting. I found it amusing that Dakota wanted to put her fingers in all the paint except the finger paint!

What you see in the above picture is about as good as it got with her finger painting! She would only stick one finger in and the she’d want a “nap” (napkin) to wipe it off. :)

Harper, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the experience! He was so happy to get messy and he painted for a good while.

Looks like we’re going to be home tomorrow so I think I’ll go ahead and go check out Pinterest for a craft idea or two…

Preschool Mother’s Day Gift

When I picked Harper up from school on Tuesday, he climbed into the car holding this little Mothers Day gift.

He was very proud of it and when he handed it to me he said “Happy Mothers Day!” and then gave me his award winning smile. That little guy is a sweetheart!

Out of Doors

We’ve been playing outside again. Our back yard has really turned into an area we love to hang out. We’ve got enough to do that the kids never seem to get bored and their imaginations seem to soar when playing in that space.

Whoever lived here previously left behind large pieces of rock. They were just scattered around the backyard and I thought we might be able to do something with them. Tony brought them up under the deck and while Dakota napped, Harper and I arranged them into a “hopscotch”; what he’s decided to call it.

He loved arranging and rearranging each stone and then he played hop scotch until it was time to get Dakota up from her nap.

Don’t you love his outfit!? He chose it all by himself. It is so perfect! From the rain boots right up to the too small hat. Cutie pie.

Once we’d had enough hop scotching, it was time to play with some small rocks. Harper and Dakota both enjoyed gathering the rocks up in their buckets and then dumping them out to show me what they had.

Dakota found a water gun in the outdoor bin and asked me to put some water in it. I obliged her…and she took it straight over to where her brother was playing and tried to shoot him in the head with it. Too bad she was holding the wrong way and ended up squirting herself in the face!

So, you know how in the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, how one thing inevitably leads to the next…well, that’s what happened here. Once Harper discovered that Dakota was playing with a water gun, he too needed one. Then, when I filled the water guns up for them, it made them think of the water table we have on  the deck…

Of course both of them ended up soaked from head to toe with nothing more than their underwear/diaper on, but it was nearly 2 hours of happy play. No fighting, just two little kids having an amazing time playing in water. It’s funny how many hours kids can happily play in water. Harper was playing with the little people most of the time. He was making up all kinds of stories and using them to act out his ideas. It was awesome to watch. Dakota did what all toddlers her age do. She poured and dumped and splashed and experimented; it was great.

While they were busy I got started planting some of the flowers I’d picked up earlier that morning. I got my usual deck flowers: purslane, portulaca and bracteata. I bought several of each and I still need many, many more! I’m hoping to get back to the farm this weekend to pick up some more stuff to plant…I love this time of year for this reason alone!

Sports Camp: Tennis

Today was Harper’s last day of sports camp. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go over when we started it, but I’m so glad that we did it because he really enjoyed himself. There were a few hiccups along the way, but really, that’s just how life goes with preschoolers, or anyone really.

They had them start out with a game where they pretended to be flamingoes. They had to run until the coach yelled stop and then they all had to stand on one leg. Not much of a game, really, but they sure enjoyed it! After that they did some hopping. They hopped with two feet down a series of hula hoops that were in a line on the floor.

After hopping with two feet, the all tried hopping the same path with only one foot. That was much more challenging!

I loved how Harper kept starting over and over again. He just knew something wasn’t working right so he’d try again and again until he finally got it. It’s too bad I wasn’t sitting on the other side of the gym for better video, but I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want him to get distracted or anxious if he saw me.

The next thing they tried to do was to keep their ball on the racquet while they walked around. Harper did pretty well with that, only dropping it once or twice. The best part though was when the coach wanted them to put the ball on the ground and hit it with the racquet that way! They loved that part the best I think! After they had their fill of that they tried to drop the ball above the racquet and try to make it pop up into the air.

Once the basics were covered, the next step was trying to hit the ball over the net. Harper was too worried about chasing down all the balls as the other kids hit them that he only hit the ball over the net once. He really had a good time today though and wasn’t ready for it to be over when it ended.

They got their stamps at the end of class like they usually do, but Harper was last again because he could NOT decided which stamp he wanted. I’ll tell you, being three is tough when it comes to choosing which special stamp you’re going to sport on your hand for the rest of the day. After quite a bit of thought he finally chose a basketball stamp. He was really happy with it, so I guess he decided on the right one!

It’s hard to believe this has already come to an end. I’m really glad we stuck with it and I think we’ll probably do it again in the fall once school’s back in session.

Recent Scrapbook Pages

I’m not much in the mood to write (tired), so I’ll just share a couple of my most recent scrapbook pages. Enjoy!

Five on Friday

• After finishing the second Junie B. book, I thought it’d be good to try something else and I came up with Charlotte’s Web. I knew it was going to be a bit over Harper’s head but I figured we’d give it a try anyways. So far he seems to be enjoying it and I’m actually surprised at how much of it he does understand. I’m taking this book really slowly and making sure he understands the vocabulary, asking him what words mean when we to them. Some examples are: brook and sob which he didn’t know as well as snout and weep, which he did know. He asks a lot of questions as we go but so far he seems to like listening to the book and he seems to be understanding a lot of it. We just finished chapter 4 tonight so we’ve got a way to go yet.
• I reminded Tony that Mother’s Day was next weekend. He asked me what I wanted and I told him “quiet”. Without missing a beat he said “What would your second choice be”? I thought that was pretty damned hilarious! I mean, what the hell kind of thing is quiet when you have 4 children? I still can’t help but laugh when I think of his response…
• Since quiet isn’t going to happen for Mother’s Day, this with this would be FABULOUS instead. Hint, hint…
• Towson University’s Relay for Life event is tomorrow and Zoe is out there tonight setting up for it. She has to be out there by 7am tomorrow morning and won’t be done until 7am Sunday when the event is over. Good thing she’s young, huh? I’m really proud of her for choosing such a great cause to work for and sticking with it these past few years. It’s been good for her and she’s really enjoyed it.
• The kiddo’s didn’t really understand how this was supposed to work…and this picture makes me laugh!

Preschool Day at Maryland Zoo

Today was Harper’s preschool trip to the Maryland Zoo. We met up with his classmates at 9:30am and even though it was a class trip each family pretty much toured the zoo on their own. We bumped into people here and there, but we pretty much did our own thing, which I’m thankful for because my kids weren’t moving anywhere quickly!

It has been many years since we’ve been to this zoo. Whenever we choose to go to the zoo we always go to the National zoo in DC. It’s much bigger and there are lots more animals, plus, it’s free to get in. I couldn’t really remember much about this zoo so it was like a whole new experience! When we first walked in, we spotted the prairie dogs. They were out and running around like crazy!

After the prairie dogs, there is a long walk (or short tram ride) to the rest of the zoo exhibits. We chose to walk and it is really beautiful and shaded by huge old trees along the path. The kids were pretty much in and out of the stroller all day, but Dakota coaxed Dada into holding her for quite a bit. I think she’s a little intimidated by crowds and needs the extra security of being in someone’s arms. Harper was fine though, he just wanted to walk some and ride some.

We saw a polar bear sunning himself on a rock:

An arctic fox.

Giraffes:

A Lion.

And then we had some lunch on a bench in the shade.

Then we found the penguins:

And a zoo keeper working with an elephant:

At this point, the kids were getting pretty tired and antsy, so we started to walk back to the entrance. On the way, I spotted a ginormous rhino, and had to stop and get a few pictures. I was amazed by how HUGE he/she was!

All in all I’d say we had a pretty good day. The weather was perfect and beautiful and the kids were as well behaved as we could ask or expect. I don’t think we’ll be going back any time soon but you never know!