Gardening

This is during the planting...

This is after!

The weather is beautiful here and not too hot yet so we decided it was the perfect time to plant some flowers and put in some new mulch. The kids think this is the greatest activity because they are guaranteed to find rollie pollies and worms and ants etc. There is also dirt and lots of of it. Perfect family day. We took them to the store and they each picked out flowers and vegetables to plant. We will see how that goes but they were so excited, we couldn't squash the idea!!!

The day wore on and the kids went inside for a snack and drink and I am standing outside when the police slowly pull in front of our house. She gets out and smiles and John comes out of the house with Jack and tells me that he called 911. She was really nice and asked him his name and he seemed ok with the fact that he shouldn't do that again but poor Christopher who had nothing to do with it was so scared and crying. I asked Jack what was the emergency and he said "um I thought there was a fire in the cul de sac, Are the fire men coming to? He has been asking me what constitutes an emergency so we have been having lots of morbid conversations around here. The fun never stops!!!

Spring Break

The kids have been begging John and I to take them to Canada to see snow. So for spring break we flew to Canada to see the white stuff. There wasn't much but the kids thought it was perfect and it was so fun for us to see them enjoy it. We took them to Blue Mountain a couple hours north of Toronto to a little ski community.
Here they are all ready to ski. They did so well. We were going to put them in lessons but decided to see how they would do and well they loved it and did really well. They went up the magic carpet and down the bunny hill on their own with no troubles. After a little bit of this the kids informed me that they were done with the baby hills and ready to move on. I think we will definitely be taking them again. The highlight was that my parents also went. My dad has skied in the past but my mother had never been on the slopes and bless her heart she did it for the kids. They thought it was great. What a fun fond memory for us!!!
The boys got to bowl for the first time and Ella got to freshen up on her skills.
This is a model of a large maple tree. We took the kids maple syrup tapping and they got to taste the sap and then watch them boil away the water and taste the sugar/syrup remaining.

We also did a little glow in the dark mini golfing. A very busy action packed trip that was so fun. What a great time we had!

Kindness

Here is my KIND girl in red. The boys wore red head to toe to celebrate with her...

At Ella's school each month there are character traits that are emphasized such as respect, kindness, citizenship, responsibility etc... There are 9 traits and each month when teachers see kids exhibiting these attributes they get a blue ticket. At the end of the month they pull a ticket and they spotlight that child in a ceremony. Its a great thing the school does and its fun. They assign a color to each trait. Last year Ella won respect and wore yellow. The parents go to school and say something nice about their child and then the best part is punch and cookies (according to Jack and Christopher). This year Ella won kindness. This was particularly cool because kindness is the only trait that is peer voted. I was unaware Ella won until nonchalantly one day she says "mom I got spotlight this week" I was like what? that's awesome Ella. She told me the day the letter came home but she had already known for a quite a few days. I asked her why she hadn't told us and she said "because MOM you tell everyone! I told her I was so excited and proud of her so could I please tell my friends? She says NO, just tell Daddy. Silly girl. So I told all my friends not to say anything! SHHH.

We are so proud of her. She has always been kind and gentle with everyone. She shares amazing and would give up anything for someone. Yesterday Jack was complaining that he had only earned $1 and next thing Ella is giving him and Christopher a dollar so they could have some more money. She is lovely and I think she is the greatest gift God could give me...

Right now it seems Jack is being funny with all his antics and sayings. He's at that awesome age where they are just funny and don't know they are and aren't trying to be yet.. We are thoroughly enjoying his tales. Here's another....

This weekend John took Jack out to get the mail and when he comes back to the house he in his raspy animated voice says "Mom, I got mail, I say oh yeah who from, knowing it was from Johns dad but was surprised when he responded, "President Lincoln" What Jack? Look he shows me the stamp. John says that's George Washington. OH he says, I got mail from George Washington then!!

Rodeo

Rodeo Day at Ella's school

Decorating a cowboy boot

Obviously the blog has been on hiatus. This is for many reasons, I am tired, Johns in town, the kids are keeping me so busy that by the time I sit down at night I am exhausted. The kids are saying funny things all the time. I am constantly still taking pictures although most of them are on my iphone now and we are still doing all kinds of activities that are worth blogging to my family about but haven't. In an effort to redeem myself here goes.

Jack and Christopher pick up Ella from school with me everyday and we normally get there early (surprise) since I am never late. Anyways this area has quite a large Mexican population and everyday they greet you with a kiss. Yesterday being no different that any other day I was kissed on the cheek by a man at school. Jack indignant asks "Why are you kissing my mom?" I explain to him that in Spanish culture that is how they greet each other. Hours later after gymnastics we meet up with John for dinner and when the waitress comes over to our table Jack asks "Daddy, are you going to kiss her???" If you know John that is pretty funny!

Living in Texas we have the annual Rodeo. Ella celebrated at her school last week with chili and cow roping naturally and the boys have it this week. Its such a fun experience for them. The boys school brought in a real cow and they showed the kids how to milk a cow. Christopher comes home all excited to recant the day and tells me "Mom the cow had lots of penis's and when they pulled them, milk came out!"

Anyone who reads this knows that we have to change the blogs name since we will no longer only be a party of 5 but are swelling (literally) to 6. Our house is currently buzzing with baby questions, name suggestions and anything related to poop. Jack asks me yesterday morning while he was getting dressed. "Does she (pointing to my tummy) wear pajamas in there?" He has come around to being very excited about having a new baby once he was reassured he would not have to do anything related to diapers.

We went looking at a house and the lady said that it only had 4 bedrooms not 5 and Ella says that's great. The baby can have a room, Jack, Christopher and I can have our room together, Mom and Dad can have a room and there is still one left over for Grandma. Its so cute how the 3 of them still sleep together and are really enjoying being together. The time will come when the natural separation will occur and that's ok, but I am loving seeing them all cuddled in together every night.