Backyard adventures: popsicles and cloud watching

Notice how Gracin now has a red popsicle... he took mine when he finished his.
Love these little freckles...

Backyard adventures: chalk

I got a new box of chalk a week or two ago. We have been having fun creating masterpieces ever since... This day they got a little more into it than usual. They were both covered in chalk!! Rhylan had no idea her face was blue:)

"Little Stinkers"

The night before St Patrick's day Riley and Rhylan made a trap to catch some leprechauns. Here is the trap. There were several spots where they could fall in and get stuck!
But when we woke up the "little stinkers" (as Rhylan called them) had busted out of all our traps. They built some stairs out of our food to get up to the table, leaving little green footprints all over.
They took the shark and crocodile who were in a pit with water and hung them in a trap! They climbed out of the pit with a rope.
They cut out of one box and left gold coins, green candy, and shamrock stickers all over!! Rhylan is convinced we will catch them next year for sure.

I've been busy!

Ryder

Max

Nicholas

I have done 3 photo shoots this last week and I still have one more coming up tomorrow! Taking pictures of small children is becoming my favorite. Especially babies before they can walk. They are so easy to make smile and are so photogenic. They just make me happy!!

If you want to see more click on my logo below.

Rhylan can make her bed

Check out the straight blanket and buddies lined up at the top!! I was so impressed I had to take a picture. I wasn't even in the room when she made her bed. She still says she doesn't know how or needs help somedays...but I know better:)

Got Frogs?

We made another little weekend trip, this time to St Louis. We have to get in as many of these weekend getaways before we leave the south for good at the end of the summer!!

Riley LOVES Poison Dart Frogs, and there is a reptile show every 3-4 months in St Louis that actually has these frogs. We haven't been able to see many of them before so he was really excited to go. He has been asking me to go for almost 2 year now:) Finally we made plans, yes 2 days before boards, but that wasn't a big deal. We were gone for a total of 27 hours, he studied while I drove, and one of the days was a Sunday, so he wouldn't have been studying anyway. So really he lost no study time:)

Riley made the kids these shirts to wear to the show.

Saying "oooo" at the TV show.
Rhylan also really likes frogs. She loves going to these shows. Riley has so much fun showing her each animal, letting her pet a VIPER!!!!-- Yeah didn't know about that one until we were in the car!!!! She is so brave and outgoing.


Here are a few of the frogs. They really are beautiful and colorful.

This isn't a poison dart frog, but I thought he was cool!
This guy too--Halloween Crab!
Gracin was getting a little tired of looking at everybody's legs and the bottom of tables from the stroller. So, I took him out into the hall for some snacks and a little Toy Story. That made him happy again.

So I decided we couldn't leave St Louis without seeing the historic Gateway Arch. Do you see it there in the skyline? To the left?



It was so much bigger than I imagined!

Here I am up close to it, that is one of the "legs" I'm standing next to.

Ooooo!!

This is a new face that I LOVE. When Gracin gets excited about something, usually food, he will make this face and say Ooooo!!! Here he is excited to eat a chip... and happy to be tickled.

Children's museum

A friend of ours has a pass to the museum and asked us to come along with them. It was such a neat place, we hadn't been in a long time.

At a mini grocery store:
She loved the shopping part!!!
Gracin's favorite exhibit was about planes. He was actually flying that plane with a big fan and a controller.
Here they are inside a real plane. What kid wouldn't love to touch all these buttons?

While we were there, several school buses of wild crazy kids came. We had a rough time after that. I really think if I could take just Rhylan she would have so much fun, but it was hard for her to really try anything out with screaming crying Gracin tagging along. He was just so excited to be able to walk around, we would barely be at an exhibit for 5-10 seconds and he would run to the next. Rhylan and I pretty much chased him the whole time!!!! It was exhausting. And everyone kept staring an me, wondering why I let my child scream that way. At one point I decided that I really wanted to let Rhylan do something for a few mins, so I held kicking crying Gracin just outside the door way where I could see her.--With more "looks" from other patrons.



After that we headed to the little playground area so Gracin could be free. It is blocked off so he couldn't escape. There he was finally happy.

Lima bean

Gracin didn't want to eat his lima beans--surprise surprise--but he did enjoy playing with them. He kept sticking them to his face and making us all laugh. What a silly boy. I really love how kids make life silly, even if it means more messes...