Hillbilly Girl

Elizabeth frequently gets very dirty. She needs her bath every day! When we visited the grandparents this weekend, she was even dirtier than usual. By the end of the day, her hair was falling down into her face and full of dirt. She had popsicle juice staining her face with dust stuck in it. She had soaked herself in a hose and then walked through loose dirt. Her clothes were filthy and her skirt was even torn. We thought she looked like a hillbilly girl. THEN, I noticed she was playing around in Papa's shop. Papa has a lot of old stuff. I took a few pictures and realized she looked like a girl in pictures from the Dust Bowl or something. So I made them all black and white. 

Driving Papa's old truck. 

The designer dog kind of ruins the "old" theme. 

Memorial Day weekend

Jeremy had to work Memorial Day weekend. The kids and I made a short visit up to Royal City where we all engaged in various pursuits. 

Popsicles were popular. Each person ate at least 2 a day. 

Papa Norm rode a bike!! Laura and I don't ever remember seeing him on a bike. Such a sight!! 

A miraculous whirlpool was discovered in the canal. 

As you can see, everyone thought it was interesting. Papa Norm said he's lived here 34 years and never seen one there. 

Here is an up close picture. The kids spent a LONG time finding things to throw in to watch them go round and round and then get sucked down into the water tornado. 

More popsicles. 

Pippa found 2 other dogs in the house. Here, she is going to pounce on them. 

Moving past the bears

Nathan has moved past the Bears in Cub Scouts. He's officially a Webelos now. Here is a picture from their "crossing over" ceremony. 

Summer Begins!!

Summer is officially here!! Did we even really have spring? Pelican Bay opened today so we headed over. 

Elizabeth in the tube. 

Nathan waving hello. 

A little monkey on the climbing wall. 

Climbing up!

Funny I caught her in mid jump. 

Nathan made it all the way to the top, but he was so quick I didn't even get a picture!

They both did a lot of jumping too. 

Breakfast Conversation

This morning was rough. For some reason, our fire alarms decided to beep for just a couple of seconds and then stopped. This happened at 3:30 am. It scared everyone to death and no one could go back to sleep for a few hours. Jeremy did reset the thing so hopefully it never does that again.

When the kids were up and I was getting them breakfast at 7, I forgot a few things because when I'm tired the first thing to go is my thinking skills.

Nathan: "Mom, I think you're having amnesia."
Elizabeth: "Yes, it's definitely short term memory loss. Like Dory."

Evenings at the Track

The kids and I have been heading down to the track some evenings. I walk laps and they sprint and jump. 

They also just play in the sand. They actually brought a bucket and little sand shovels. 

Monday 5/22

We hit our first 90 degree day!! It was so nice and warm. After school, Jeremy and Nathan decided to go out on the boat. They didn't do any fishing. They just trolled around. Jeremy sent me this picture. 

While they boated, Elizabeth and I walked and biked around the little lakes at the park. We saw a family of ducks. The little ones were so cute! A boy who was fishing at the park had found a baby turtle so he showed us that too. It was a lovely day at the park. Tomorrow is supposed to be 97. Yikes! 90 is nice. Somewhere between 90 and 97 it gets too hot. Luckily, it's only supposed to be tomorrow and then the weather will get back to normal. 

Solitary Boat Rides

Last week on a very cold and rainy day, Jeremy wanted to get out on the boat! I am a fair weather boater so he headed out by himself. Here are some pictures he took. 

He said the river was as flat as glass and very pretty and quiet. 

Some cool birds he saw. 

Saturday Park Day

Warm weather (we think) is now permanently here! We headed out to the park Saturday morning. The kids ran around and had lots of fun. I didn't get many pictures. Here, they are racing. 

We stopped by the library on our way home. Nathan thought his choice of book was hilarious. Elizabeth finally found a fairy book that had her name (kind of....a nickname of her name anyway)

Conversations

On the walk to school today:

Elizabeth: "Don't step on any moving rocks! It's means they're rolly polys."

She does love those bugs. All the kids do. We must stop 20 times on our walks to school to observe the bugs. Nathan actually brought some home once to start a collection in his worm garden.

Too Much Star Wars

A funny conversation happened at dinner tonight.

Jeremy: Our training at work tomorrow will be on use of force.

Nathan:  You're seriously going to be training using the force???

Jeremy: No, use "of" force. Not use "the" force." There is a big difference.



I think Nathan has been reading and watching too much Star Wars!

Girl in a Bucket

Elizabeth has a new trick. She can squeeze into a bucket! Then, she flips herself over and rolls around. 

Mother's Day

Here are the pictures we took on Mother's Day. 

Elizabeth created a gift for me out of a pinecone, feathers, and some of her old Halloween candy. It's so cute!! 

The kids and Grandma Pam made these cute pictures!! I love them!!! 

Underwear Calendar

A dinner conversation with Elizabeth:

Me: "Is your homework due tomorrow?"

E: "Let me check my underwear!! Yup, it says Thursday! That means tomorrow will be Friday and my homework is due on Fridays."

A while back I bought her a pack of underwear that has the days of the week printed on the front. She takes it very seriously and wears the right day every day. That underwear sure came in handy tonight!!

First Grade Field Trip

Elizabeth's class took a field trip to the Planetarium! Luckily, the bus ride was only about 15 minutes. The kids thought the bus was just amazing! Two classes went on our day. The other two classes went the next day. 

Here's Elizabeth and her class. She's in the front row in pink. 

Listening to the talk. I didn't take any pictures in the actual planetarium. It was quite dark most of the time! The kids listened to a presentation on stars and planets. 

Elizabeth and friend are astronauts!

Bus ride! 

The open windows were blowing wind all over! 

New Boat!!

Uncle John and Uncle Doug gave us a boat! Now, Nathan and Jeremy can fish out on the water much more easily. 

They brought the boat down today. They fixed it up all nicely for us. 

They pulled in and Nathan and Elizabeth went to check it out. John gave instructions to Jeremy and explained everything they were giving us. 

The kids jumped in. 

They even bought us brand new life jackets!! Wasn't that nice? 

We were so happy to see Grandma Helen arrive. We weren't expecting her and it was a really nice surprise. We showed her around the house since she hadn't been here before. 

More boat instructions. 

Putting on a life jacket. 

We drove to the boat launch. Grandmas in the back!! 

Putting the boat into the water. 

Doug giving Jeremy a few more instructions. 

Luckily, we had a nice day. Not too windy or cold or crazy rainstorms!! 

Getting the life vests ready. 

The inaugural run with Jeremy learning the ropes. 

Watching them leave!

After the inaugural run, Jeremy came back to take more people out. Elizabeth was terrified to get in the boat and did NOT want to go. Once she was convinced to get in, she loved it!! She went back for more rides. I stopped taking pictures here because I got in the boat and am still nervous about bringing my phone on safely! Wouldn't want to drop it in the river somehow. 

The rides were great! The boat runs really well and we should have a lot of fun with it. Thanks John and Doug!