Playing at the River

We have some extra time to play this week since Nathan doesn't have school! Jeremy works all week like normal, but the kids and I can spend more time with fun things. Today, we headed down to the river. 

Elizabeth climbing. 

Running down the big hill. 

Then throwing rocks in the river and then climbing back up the big hill. They had an obstacle course. 

Here's where they had to climb back up to the top. 

And run down to the bottom again. 

Sometimes, it's faster to slide down on your bottom. Sorry pants. 

Throwing her rocks before climbing back up the side of the "mountain." 

Taking a climbing break. 

Nathan thought we needed to bring this stick home. 

They found some trees to climb. 

Hugging. Always a miracle. 

Bath Buddies

I told them to make funny faces at the camera. 

Go Cougs!

How adorable is this Laura?

Bike Safety Fair

Nathan's school had a Bike Safety Fair today. He did really, really well!! 

Here he is trying to keep his bike between the lines. He got a 10! 

Elizabeth was not interested in the bike safety fair. She wanted to play on the toys so off we went. Instead of riding bikes, she did the slide. 

And some swinging...

And climbing...

Nathan finished his bike riding and came to play too! He was very excited to play on this toy because apparently kindergartners are not allowed to play on it during recess. 

Going across the monkey bars. He made it all the way!

Happy!

We found out the next week that he won 1st prize for kindergartners at the bike fair. He came home with a prize!! 

She wanted a close up

4 year pictures

Here we are on the way to get Elizabeth's 4 year pictures taken at JC Penney. Yes, it's about a month overdue. However, she had a black eye for a few weeks after her birthday. She had a fight with an end table and the end table won.  When that finally went away, she got a cold which (of course) included a yucky nose that wouldn't stop running. We finally had a day where her face looked pretty good so we took advantage of that! 

She's not a big fan of wearing dresses, but she was agreeable enough to put this one on as long as we promised she could take it off the minute we got home. I think she doesn't like dresses because they get in the way of climbing and doing her other busy activities. She was also such a good girl for her pictures. She smiled REAL smiles and didn't cry! It took 4 years, but we finally had a successful photo shoot. 

St. Patrick's Day Races

Today, Nathan and I ran races! Thankfully, it was a cool day and the wind was not blowing!! 

Nathan got to run in the Leprechaun Dash which was a 1 mile run. It was a free race for all the grade school kids in the Tri-Cities. The elementary school with the most finishers wins $2000 of PE equipment! I don't yet know who had the most finishers. There were 600 kids racing. Nathan said he had a lot of fun. He said when he got a little tired, he walked a bit. He finished his mile in 12:53. 

I ran the 10K (6.2 mile) adult race. The wind wasn't blowing and there weren't any huge hills, so I managed to run it in 51:18. That's an 8:15 pace which is really good for me-especially to keep it up for 6 miles. It was a great race!

Fun at the Park!

We spent a fun afternoon at the park today!

Throwing stuff in the river is always fun. Nathan's hands are all muddy and cold here. 

Contemplating what to throw next. 

Climbing rocks is also fun. 

Sliding

More climbing!

Nathan loves the zipline. He loves to just zoom across! 

The elephant slide-a Richland favorite. 

Swinging on a Spring Day

I think it's safe to say spring has arrived!! We hit 65 degrees today and no wind! It was fantastic! The kids played outside as much as they could. They would swing all day (if I would push Elizabeth all day). 

I got it on camera. He was pushing her!

Nathan and his BFF

Nathan sure loves Pippa! 

Hello Kitty!

Thanks for the cute Hello Kitty outfit Papa Ray and Kim!

A Rainy Day

It rained here quite a bit yesterday. We'd been having fun playing outside it was so warm (65!!)...and then the rain showed up. Luckily, it went away today. 

Here was Elizabeth's face when I told her she got to put on her cute raincoat. 

Here was her face when I told her it was actually raining out. It was time to go get Nathan off the bus!

Cooking Dinner

For the past 6 1/2 years, I've really struggled with making dinner in the evening. The reason is because Jeremy is gone in the evenings for work. It was darn near impossible for me to cook anything decent being the only adult in the house (and I've refused to use the TV as a babysitter since I already use it earlier in the day to get a workout in). Someone was always crying, needing to do something in the bathroom, starting a fight, etc. Food was always getting burnt and it took 2 hours to make dinner due to interruptions.

 So for the last 6 years, I have done my cooking in the middle of the afternoon when Jeremy was around to handle the kids' needs. Jeremy would get a nice, hot meal before work, and then I would reheat dinner for us in the evening which was easy to do. 

I think the tide is finally turning. Now that the kids are getting bigger, we are finally getting fresh meals in the evening. I can stand at the stove for more than 2 minutes without some kind of problem occurring in the house. Of course, Jeremy is now the one heating up food in the middle of the day for himself. 

While I was cooking the other day, Nathan worked on some homework. 

Elizabeth was content to paint. 

Fairy Time

Sometimes, I will catch a fairy running through my house. The fairy does not like to have its picture taken and tries to zoom by quickly. But look, I snapped a picture! The house fairies do exist!

New jammies

Hello Kitty and Angry Birds! 

A blue kind of day

Elizabeth got dressed today and came out wearing blue pants, a blue shirt, and a blue shirt. She made a sad face and said it was a "blue" kind of day. I'm pretty sure when she meant blue she was also referring to feeling sad. It must be this horrible March weather. 

Pippa's Puppies

Nathan is still obsessed with Laura's dog Pippa. Here's an embarrassing blog post he might not want to see in 10 years. He likes to pretend he's Pippa. 

Look, Pippa is having puppies!

Time for the vet to get the puppies out. 

The vet has to weigh every newborn puppy. 

Pippa had 9 puppies today!