Riley's got skillz

Riley caught a bird. It was sleeping on our fence and Riley caught it with a butterfly net! We let the kids check it out for a few min and then let him go.

Do you see the muddy socks and shirt above? And the muddy face below! AHHH!!-all the time. We were going to meet some friends at the park the other day... but before they got there Gracin found a puddle and was soaking wet from the waist down. He sat right in it. Yeah we had to go home and miss the play-date.

Easter activities

The kids did have really cute matching Easter outfits for church. I was going to take their pictures that evening but... Gracin got dyed blue--you'll see. So I had to put it off. Then we were hit by 3 days of tornadoes, thunder storms, and RAIN. We were safe we just had some water get into our kitchen. This was a crazy storm and took many lives (close to 200 in Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama) But we were safe and careful. We didn't even loose power like thousands of others. Let me tell ya, those tornado sirens are a little freaky to here--especially when you don't have a basement to take shelter in!!

So long story short, I'll take the Easter pics of my kids this week sometime. Here are some pictures from our Easter.

Dying Eggs

Gracin just kept these two eggs the whole time. Putting them in, taking them out, putting them in, taking them out. ...he made a big mess

And his hands were dyed blue for 2 days. My fingers got blue too while trying to help Gracin...oh and I got a haircut.

Easter baskets

The Easter bunny hid eggs around our living room.
Gracin using his new magnifying glass to check out his new Buzz Lightyear.

Egg hunt

A few weekends ago we went to an egg hunt at Riley's school. The kids came home with close to 30 eggs! And each was filled with candy. Gracin was just happy to run free at first, then he got into it and collected lots of eggs.



Rhylan was a pro, like she had done this lots before...

After our hike...

The kids still hadn't had enough outside time. So after dinner we headed to our backyard to catch some lady bugs. Rhylan is a pro, Gracin is trying not to squish them. He has one on his hand in this one.
On the hunt-
I was so excited about these pictures. I think I would love a macro lens. I took these using a trick I learned online. You take off your lens and turn it around backwards and hold it to your camera. Then lean in close until things pop into focus. It is so cool!! I didn't edit these pics at all, I didn't even crop them. That is just how my "fake" macro lens works:) It makes me happy.



Riley also worked on stuff for the frog cage... we are getting a Red Eyed Tree Frog on Saturday at a reptile show. He is making a little coconut hut.
And then we laid down to watch the clouds...yes he wears clothes sometimes. But mostly he is in a diaper and shirt. But this day he got his shirt all wet so I took it off.

Weekend hike

Saturday was a beautiful day. We were supposed to have Riley's family here this weekend but they weren't able to come after all. We still wanted to have a fun day, so I decided we needed to go on a hike before the weather was too hot. My friend Kate told me about a hike they did by Lake Arkubutla. We headed there.

It was so green and just amazing. The kids did really well on the hike too. I'm not sure how far we went but we walked for about an hour I think. Gracin's little legs were getting tired near the end and he got a shoulder ride for a while. This is something I did a lot growing up and I want this to be something my kids remember too. (Not this specific hike, but that we went out and did stuff as a family like hiking, camping, etc.)





Riley and Rhylan climbed a vine! Its like a jungle here.





Rhylan is loading her pocket with rocks for her "collection."
She was the leader most of the time.



Loved the swampy area! You don't see that in Arizona.
Here is some strange bark!

Just beautiful...