Saturday, March 31, 2012

Spring Break Week One

We get two weeks of Spring Break this year. I had originally planned on spending it in South Texas taking pictures of my kids at the beach and running through fields of blue bonnets. Clint got swamped at work and that plan got postponed. So, we've done our best to stay entertained while staying here.
We met some friends at the Castle Rock Rec Center. They have the best indoor pool! Regan got invited to a birthday party there last month and we knew we were going to have to come back. Regan and Kate spent most of the time on the water slides. I don't know how many times they climbed the stairs all the way to the top!
Haden had fun playing on the play structure and slide in the zero entry pool.
Lila was happy just being in the water.
I know this isn't the best picture of Haden, but three kids don't sit still long enough to take multiple shots, so I take what I can get.
We can't wait until summer when we can start going to the pool on a regular basis!
Another day we met some different friends at the Museum of Nature and Science. We had never been there before. I just assumed it was too academic for little kids. They absolutely loved it! There was a traveling display of lizards and snakes. The older two liked looking for the camouflaged lizards in the different tanks. Lila was just grateful I let her out of her stroller. Despite the look on Regan's face in all of the pictures, she really did like the museum. She just doesn't want me to take so many pictures of her. Tough.
There was a life sized toy python for the kids to play with. Haden was too busy looking cool to help lift it and Lila just copied whatever he did.
Haden loves taking pictures. He prefers to use my nice camera. He actually does a decent job when he pays attention to what he's doing. The dinosaurs must have been interesting to him. I downloaded LOTS of pictures of dinosaur bones. Silly kid.
Strollers were not allowed in the dinosaur exhibit. There were lots of people there, and Lila loudly protested when I tried to hold her or even just her hand. She would quickly get loose and run off. She was given more than one dirty look by the employees when she ducked under a rope and into the exhibit before I could get around all the people to grab her. She was laughing. She knew and thoroughly enjoyed being naughty. Little rascal.
She's lucky that she's so darn cute.
Haden and Lila both loved playing in the fossil dig.
Regan had fun with the huge fan and scarves.
Haden was fascinated with the mummies and their sarcophagus's. With Easter coming, we've talked about how Christ was resurrected and how someday, we too, can be resurrected. All the way home, Haden kept asking about the mummies and if Jesus was going to make them come back to life, too. "But their skin looked funny, how would they look if they came back to life?" He also wanted to climb inside the sarcophagus. Thankfully, they were all enclosed.
I thought this next display was fascinating. You programmed your age and information onto a little card and then took it to each station where they calculated something about you and then printed it out. One station measured your stride, energy output, and the speed at which you ran down the runway. The information appeared on the screen. Regan is the middle one and Lila is on the far left. Lila's normal speed is 2.6 mph and her stride is only 14 inches. Her little legs are moving!
We all liked the museum and have plans to go back.
Regan also got to have her very first friend sleep over. She and Kate had the best time! They wrote and practiced singing a song with guitar and drum accompaniment. Lots of crafts were created. Their dolls changed outfits a number of times, and Regan showed off her day old ability to ride her bike without training wheels! That was a HUGE accomplishment for Regan! I am so glad it is finally done; now I can start working on Haden.

The weather was beautiful! We have done daily bike rides to the park and spent hours soaking up the sun in the back yard. Hopefully next week will be just as fun!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Backseat Driver

I have the most ridiculous backseat driver, and he's only four. "Mom, turn your arrow on, you are about to turn! Now turn your other arrow on because you are going to turn the other way. Mom, that was a yellow light! You are supposed to stop for yellow lights! Mom, Why didn't you turn your arrow on? You are supposed to turn it on! Mom, you're going kind of fast, I don't want a policeman to take you to jail. Mom, you are going the wrong way, our house is not this way!" He's a little outrageous! Life around here is not boring with that kid. I do hope this is a short lived phase, though. Oh, and I have no idea why he thinks that speeding warrants you a trip to jail. Little stinker.

Friday, March 2, 2012

The Cheesecake Factory

Regan has wanted to have an "American Girl" themed 7th birthday party ever since she got Kanani at the end of last summer. Most of her friends also have American Girl dolls. However, many of her friends have since moved away. So, before Naomi and her sisters left, Regan wanted to do a girls' lunch. We met them at The Cheesecake Factory. There were 2 moms, 5 girls, 4 dolls, and Haden with his dog, Sparky. The waiter asked if all these kids were ours! I guess grouped together it all seemed a little more overwhelming.
Lila insists on feeding herself these days. She did a very good job spooning her macaroni & cheese into her mouth.
She also prefers to clean herself up. She was so well behaved! Well, that is, until she got mad about something and sent her dish with some remaining cheesecake on it crashing into the wall and onto the floor. The waiter was wonderful, though, and insisted he had seen far worse messes. I still left a generous tip. I wonder why we don't take her to nice restaurants on a regular basis?
Haden didn't care for the bread, but licked all the butter off. Some things never change. He initially insisted that he liked my macaroni and cheese better and refused to eat his. When I explained that the sauce was only butter, cream, and cheese he started eating and asked me if I would start making this kind instead. Little stinker. I think I'll stick with Kraft!

After we said goodbye to our friends, we wandered around the mall. All three kids found things they couldn't live without. It was a fun day!