Spring Break 2013!

Happy Spring Break!

(Sadly - it ends tomorrow for us.)

It's been a wonderful 10 days of no school, no rushing, no homework (except for therapy) & lots and lots of playing around here.

Look who hitched a ride on our stroller during our walk yesterday...

a sweet little butterfly!

We took turns holding him & admiring him.

I am so so so excited Spring is Here!

 

 Earlier in Spring Break, R was out of town for work so the kids & I joined my mom for some fun animal experiences in Dallas - 

we explored the aquarium

and the zoo!

We met up with friends one day at a new park outside of town & had a picnic & flew a kite!

(I can't help myself - it's March - we have to fly kites!)

 

Will helped launch the kite while Ellie helped hold the string.

It's too pretty to be inside so we've had lots of outdoor picnics

She's such a good mommy - feeding her baby lunch first.

 

I'm thinking I should hire this kid out to local nurseries.

He used his gator to help me get my planting supplies from the car down to the flower beds

Meanwhile, Ellie, in her cute smocked outfit, was a big help "digging" & also, apparently, she likes to play with earthworms.  

Don't let the pink smocking fool you - she loves lizards and earthworms.  We've caught several this week.

I so wish I had a better picture of the "neighborhood parade."  It may be one of my favorite memories of spring break 2013!

We have such sweet kiddos that live on our street - I am so thankful for the sounds of laughter that I hear every evening as all these kids play outside together.  I've noticed that they are so content just to play - free, unstructured play - often with maybe just a single ball or a couple of toys or no toys at all.  They make up games & they rotate yards & they just spend hours playing outside together.  I just love it.  They range in ages from 2 (Ellie) to 11.  Yet they (mostly) play well together.  I love too that when they don't play well together, they are learning to work it out among themselves.  They are learning to work across age & gender lines and resolve issues - seems like good real world training to me.

Anyway - off my soapbox of how much I love these kiddos on our street  & free time to play outdoors -

while I was planting the other afternoon, they grabbed a variety of riding toys out of our garage & also our American flag (which had sadly fallen out of our tree) & held their own little parade.  And they sang, loudly, "God Bless America."

It was precious & I loved watching (& hearing) them march up and down all the driveways.

It's been so warm that we've even been playing outside in the water.

I've avoided getting Ellie a water table until she was standing & I'm so excited that she could navigate my mom's all by herself this year!!  So, this morning, she spent some of her Christmas money on a new water table for our backyard!  I promised we would set it up after naps.

My parents warmed up their hot tub (luke warm - don't worry!) & the  kids have LOVED swimming outside again!

This was on Will's bucket list for Spring Break - yay for swimming!

Some long time friends from the early days of our marriage came to visit yesterday from MS!  They were driving thru and texted & I'm so glad they stopped by.  EJ & I used to run together - I miss those days of dedicated running.  We even ran a few half marathons together!  Our oldest boys are just 5 weeks apart and haven't seen each other since they were toddlers.

The boys had fun playing together

 and even "climbed" our sideways tree.

Thanks, Williams, for coming by & hanging out!  We miss you all!

My precious tired little opossums on a walk

Will lost tooth #3!  We didn't even know it was loose until it got knocked while playing with a friend.  It was hanging kind of funny & bleeding so I pulled it out!  (Yay, Me!!  This was my first one to pull!)

He has been so excited & I can't believe he has already lost 3 teeth!  Hopefully his grown up teeth will start to come in soon - he may be toothless at the rate he is going!

Apparently, a leprechaun visited our neighbors and caused all kinds of mischief yesterday for St. Patrick's Day.  

My neighbor is very creative.

Will wanted to know why one didn't come visit us.

Thankfully, a leprechaun came up with some easy, very last minute ideas & wrecked mischief during our movie night last night.

I love carefree days & age 5-

he's wearing a knight cape, a superhero cape on top of that, a batman mask, and his underwear.  That's it.  While wielding a sword.

And admiring his moves in his reflection on the oven.

I LOVE this age.

Also - I caught him one day wearing two pirate eye patches.  Because what's better than one? TWO!

It's been a lovely spring break!  I think several of us are going to be in mourning tomorrow morning!