Jack's "Popper"

Today was our last day of Bible Study until fall. Jack came home with this coloring paper in his backpack. And, let me tell you, Jack knew that paper was in his bag. He talked about it the whole way to lunch with Mom's Bible Study friends. For the whole car trip, we listened to "color 'popper', color 'popper'."

There wasn't time after lunch to color, so poor Jack had to wait until after his nap. He woke up saying, "color 'popper'."

It seems my brother has a great memory! Good thing we have crayons at our house! Isn't Samson especially lovely when colored in shades of green, blue, and orange?

Top Secret Projects

Mother's Day is just around the corner, so we've been working on secret projects.
Here's Mom helping me...

...and here she is helping Jack.

I probably shouldn't say anymore! Our lips are sealed! Shhhhh!!!

"Dog Festibal"

Sunday morning we finally made it down to the Dogwood Festival. There were lots of "treasures" to look at and treats to be tasted.

It was a fun time walking and looking...

Flop-flops

Yesterday Mom went shopping. She came home with brand, spanking-new "flop-flops" for Jack and me.

We love flop-flops--just like our Dad loves them.

Now you can here us coming as the shoes flap against the bottoms of our feet...

Skipping the Festival

This weekend our town hosts its annual Dogwood Festival. It more than triples the size of our town for about 4 days. This morning Mom thought it would be fun to head on down to check out the fun. We drove past the festival in search of a parking spot. "Mom," I said, "Let's get another treat besides the 'Dog Festible'." Mom agreed. She thought skipping the crowds was a fine idea.

We headed to the bank for free candy, then hit the drive-in for apple juice slushies, before heading home to enjoy our treats at our picnic table. After we finished, we drove our trikes and scooter around the garage for a bit.

Treats at home turned out to be a great idea!

Teaching Mom to Share

Well, it seems Mom still has a hard time sharing.
Every year the Easter Bunny (a.k.a. Mom's Uncle Jim) sends Mom a stuffed bunny. This year's bunny was pretty cute, and Jack can't seem to leave him alone! But Mom thinks the bunny is hers, and hers alone. You can imagine the problems this causes! Especially because Mom keeps finding Jack squeezing her bunny!

Mom had better learn to share quick! Jack doesn't seem to want things any other way!

Yesterday

There was no time for blogging yesterday because we spent the day outside digging in the dirt. Jack and I were covered with the stuff by the time we were ready to head in. Mom stripped us down, dusted us off, and carried us straight to the tub.

While we were playing, Mom got the flower boxes ready for the summer. In the herb box, our chives, rosemary, and lavender survived the winter nicely. Yesterday Mom planted cilantro, basil, and oregano (all from the farmer's market). We'd love to have some thyme in our garden, too. We didn't have luck with herb seeds this year, so we're hoping one of the nurseries around here with supply us with a nice bush thyme. We'll see.

The flower box is completely weed-free! The only thing that seemed to have survived the winter was our columbine. Mom isn't exactly sure what she's going to plant here. She'd love to have a perennial garden, but our box gets full sun. Mom prefers shade perennials. She's thinking maybe a mix of annuals... For sure we'll plant lots of zinnia seeds. Hopefully the seeds will get planted in a few days after the wind dies down.

So there you have it...our garden plans and progress!

The other day...

...this picnic table arrived at our door! Mom thought it would be a fun thing for us to have this summer.

She has big plans for backyard picnics, crafts, and other fun.

Pirates

When we're not playing hotel or penguin, Jack and I like to play pirates. We gather up our toilet paper telescopes, change our voices to grouchy pirate voices (ahoy maties!), climb up on my bed (it's the boat), and sail away looking for treasure. We even have special pirate names. You'll never guess what those names are.
Never.
Mom says they aren't very pirate-ish, and then she laughs and laughs and laughs.

As long as you promise not to laugh, I'll tell you our pirate names.

Promise?

My pirate name is David, and Jack's pirate name is Gracie.

NO LAUGHING! You promised!!!

And now you're wondering where those scary pirate names came from... All mom can figure is they are the names of the sheep in the movie we saw a few weeks back at the local theater.

But back to pirates...

While we're sailing, Mom hides the treasure box...

...Jack and I consult my map (located above my bed). Before too long, thanks to our telescopes, Jack and I find the treasure box!!! We open it up and there they are! The three golden coins!

I love having imaginary adventures with my brother!

Turtles and Fountains

We are in for a few days of wonderful, spring-like weather, and we're determined to enjoy it!
Packed, we headed downtown. First stop: the bridge by the fountain. We saw three exciting things. First, the garden ladies were out in full force weeding and planting in the historical garden patch. I think it will look great when they finish up.

Second, the turtles were sunning in the creek. This guy was soaking up the sun perched on this piece of driftwood.

And this turtle was floating lazily away in the murky water. Every couple of seconds he would flap his legs and reposition himself to better absorb the heat from the bright sun.
We had a great time watching the turtles.

But then we saw it.

Up ahead was something even better than turtles!

There were some men inside of the fountain with brooms and hoses. Could it be? Has the time come to fill up the fountain and turn her on?
We headed over check out the situation. "Yes," said the worker men, "It's time to fill 'er up." "She should be pumpin' by tomorra," said one of the nice men.

Yippee!!! We l-o-v-e fountains! I told Mom we're going to need to find some pennies for our next trip downtown.

Coloring

A while back Grandma Carolyn sent us a package containing all kinds of fun things. Included were some coloring books from my Fairfield Connelly cousins. Without wasting any time, Jack and I got to work enjoying our gifts!

It's just that we forgot to tell you all about it. I guess you could say we got distracted!

They have been fun additions to our days. We've loved picking out which picture and stickers we're going to create with. Thanks for thinking of us!

More about the wolf...

This morning during our pre-breakfast play, I was walking around with my purple squirt gun searching for the Big Bad Wolf...

Me: Mom, the Big Bad Wolf is standing over there by my brother and the three little pigs!

Mom: I hope the Big Bad Wolf does NOT get your brother!

Me: He won't, Mom, cause our little brother doesn't smell like ham.

Intertwining Fairy Tales

As Mom was getting us ready to head out the door, I came running out all in a panic.

"Mom, the Big, Bad Wolf is trying to get Mama Bear's porridge!"

Announcement made, I frantically ran back to my room.

Apparently Fairy Tales are getting all mixed up around here...

Ice Cube Nests

For the past couple of days we have had beautiful weather around here. Rather than spend time inside blogging, we've been outside enjoying the sunshine! It was a little bit chilly this morning, so Mom said it would be a good time to catch up on some of our inside stuff like cleaning the floors and other chores. After we helped Mom vacuum, Jack and I decided it was time to play while Mom finished up her list.

We thought for a minute and decided to play baby penguin. Lately it's been one of our favorite games to play. To the average eye, the baby penguin game looks a lot like block tower building. Let me assure you it's a very different game!

These structures are not block towers. They are baby penguin nests built out of ice cubes. Baby penguins love to be freezing cold. My baby penguin nest is really tall so the Big Bad Wolf doesn't come and eat me! (Yes, the Big Bad Wolf still manages to make it into just about everything I pretend about.)

Isn't Jack the cutest baby penguin you've ever seen? He's getting very good at ice cube nest building. Mom says he's learning from my good example.

And that's all for now, the sun is out. It's time to head back outside!

Opening Day at the Farmer's Market

We've been waiting and waiting for this day, and it finally came! Today was opening day for our little, local Farmer's Market. We loaded up and headed downtown.

There wasn't much. We were hoping for some tender, spring lettuces, but the lettuce farmer wasn't there. Just the sweet potato farmer showed up this morning. There were a couple of crafters there as well. Mom says she remembers last year having a slow start, too. Here are some of our sweet potatoes...

Hopefully the other farmers were keeping busy this morning growing veggies for future market days! We're hoping!

Mom's Easter Table

We sure had a nice Easter. Jack and I had lots of fun playing with Oliver and Sullivan, and Mom had lots of fun setting the table. Since we forgot to take pictures of the kids, here are pictures of Mom's Easter table.

Here's a close-up of an egg. Mom painted one for each person and set them above the plates as place cards.

After we were finished celebrating Easter, I asked Mom if it was summer yet? I'm ready for summer because then we can play outside all of the time. Mom said perhaps Wednesday will feel more summer-ish. We'll have to just wait and see.

Happy Birthday Uncle Tim!

Well...we knew it was your birthday yesterday, but we had a houseful of people and forgot to post! Sorry about that Uncle Tim! We hope you had a nice day!

(Did you notice that we're eating vegetables instead of cake for your birthday? That's because we know you don't like cake!)

Happy Easter!

Mom thought it would be nice if we took pictures wearing the Easter outfits Great-Mom-mom sent us. Mom was hoping for a sweet pictures of her cute boys and their cute Easter bunnies...

...instead, we were silly!

VERY silly!

In spite of our silliness, we hope you have a nice Easter.

He has risen!
He has risen indeed!

Easter Eggs

With some of the energy burned off, we decided it was time to dye eggs. (Shock of all shocks, Mom made us take our clothes off before touching even one drop of dye!)

Jackie-boy went first. Here's his blue egg...

...and here's his orange egg. Jack had such a fun time with those eggs!

I'm older and had a little bit more patience with waiting for the eggs to turn deep shades of color. I was full of eager anticipation...

...and finally, after counting to ten at least three times in both English and Spanish, they were ready to check!

Such pretty eggs!

Eggs dyed, we took one last picture before Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere headed off to Oliver and Sullivan's house. We have to share, you know...

Thanks for a fun 24 hours! We'll see you soon at our Easter dinner!

Easter Baskets

Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere arrived mid-morning yesterday. We had lunch and rests before opening our Easter baskets from Colorado! Grandma Lou had stuffed those baskets with lots of fun stuff!

Things got busy last night with dinner and baths, so we didn't really get to enjoy our baskets until this morning.
I started off with my chocolate bunny.
He was very yummy!

That bunny gave me the sugar jitters, so I had to calm down by reading a book with Grandpa Jere. He's a very good story reader.

In the meantime, Jack and his monkey had a snuggle with Auntie Julia.

Still jitter-y, it was time to head outside. Our house wasn't big enough to contain my bouncing, bunny joy! We blew some bubbles with the egg bubble necklaces from our baskets and ran around.

Thanks for making our baskets fun, Grandma Lou!
But mostly, thanks for that bunny! He made my day!

Spring Storms

This evening a big storm rolled through. Rain was followed by hail, lots of wind, and dark, dark skies. We were thankful the tornadoes stayed away this time around. After the storm Dad headed out to watch the sun set.

Storms are sort of scary, but they sure make pretty sunsets.

Fun with Auntie Julia

Auntie Julia arrived late last night. We had sort of a busy morning, but we still managed to have a little fun. Jack L-O-V-E-S his Auntie Julia. He snuggled and wrestled and sat on her shoulders.

That brother of mine thinks he's pretty tricky riding high in the sky!

Getting Ready

Late this evening, Auntie Julia flies in for a quick visit. Mom decided that straightening the garage was a must-do before our company arrived. Although, I'm not sure Auntie Julia will care all that much...

Jack helped Mom while I road my scooter around the garage.

I'm glad the weather was warm enough today so I could ride my scooter. I love that toy!

A Stay-home Day

After the events of yesterday, we decided to stay home today. I'm feeling TONS better, so Jack and I built a few towers.

Jack gets so happy when the towers crash!

Towers destroyed, we moved on to playing penguins. This is our nest of ice cubes. We're hiding underneath all the "cubes". I told Mom the "ice cubes keep penguins snuggly warm."

Sometimes a person just needs a stay-home day.

Sick...again...

It seems I caught another virus...
And, it seems Mom has more laundry to do...

This spring has not been my lucky spring...
Jack, however, seems to have an immune system like none other!
And that makes Mom happy!

While Mom was away...

That's right! Mom was away for a night this weekend. On Friday night, our Mom headed to a hotel for a night of blissful sleep and some alone shopping. She had a great time.
These are the pictures she found on the camera when she returned home.

It seems Dad took Jack and me to the cafe...

...in our jammies...

...to play dominoes!