March 2014

On one of the few rainy days this winter, the boys got to use their cool rain boots and play in the gutter for a while.  They were thrilled!  

We tackled a painting project and covered our patio furniture with a nice fresh coat of black paint.  It was a family affair and a learning experience, with the boys helping with the little rollers, and us doing both rolling on the flat surfaces and spray paint for other parts.  We were glad when it was done and our legs and feet no longer looked filthy from the fine black mist of the spray paint.

Caleb had a blast doing some bowling and hanging out at his buddy Caleb Elson's 5th birthday.  Some of the five-yr-olds are better at bowling than I am!  Lots of fun having all these kids together!

Family outing on a whim - we just started driving toward Sacremento and ended up taking the boys to Fairytale Land, which they haven't been to before.  We were thru the whole thing pretty quickly, but they were excited to keep going around and into some of their favorite areas... the Crooked Mile, the big blue Tortoise from the Tortoise and the Hare, the Pirate Ship, and Cinderella's Coach.  Other than the allergies that came from the constant downpouring of tree blossoms, we had a fun time.

During the kids' Spring Break from preschool, Jen Walters and I took the kids up to Murphy's for the day.  They played at a park next to the river, threw some stones into the water, and peered into the old one cell jail (drunk tank?).  We then headed to Ironstone for some walking thru the 'forest' (walking paths with lots of trees and vegetation), let the kids run around on the huge lawns, and had a picnic lunch.  It was a first for me, both visiting Murphy's, and visiting Ironstone, and it was a lot of fun. Plus Ironstone had every sort of tulip you could possibly imagine, as there was a flower festival planned there for the following day.  We got to enjoy seeing all the gorgeous flowers.

This is currently our favorite exhibit at the WOW Science Museum - you push a button, run and pose against the wall, and the bright light flashes, temporarily leaving your shadow on the wall even after you move away, its so cool!  We have fun making silly poses together.

Caleb and Landon helped mommy take apart some pieces of wood from an old fence.  They loved getting to put on their gardening "work" gloves and use real hammers to break apart the boards and hammer out the nails.  Caleb is a pro with a hammer - he really hits it with some force!

Two boys being silly at the park on a windy day.  I think they were both trying to look serious and mean. Ha!

While Jimmy was in South America the boys and I got to join Amy Elson and kids for a fun overnight trip to Tahoe.  Despite Landon taking a huge crash on his bike, it was fun to be with friends and get out of town together while our hubbies were gone. 

It's really crazy to see how low the water is in Tahoe... The boys were walking on the bottom of it, probably a good 100 feet out from the normal beach area. The second picture gives you more of a perspective of how far down it is... and where I stood taking the picture still wasn't even to the shore.

So the evening we got to the cabin, we were letting the kids ride their scooters (and Landon his balance bike since we only have one scooter) on the (mostly flat) road in front of the house.  Amy left for a few minutes to go pick up the pizza for dinner around the corner, and of course that was when it happened... Landon and the other boys started riding up and down a curved driveway, and it was one of those moments when you can see that something bad is about to happen but you can stop it before it does...  Landon got going to fast and went over his handle bars, pretty much landing on his face.
He scraped his upper lip really well, and we later realized that he actually tore that little tissue that connects your gums to your top lip.  I'll spare you the inner mouth shots, but you can see below the good scrape he got on his upper lip.  Poor Landon - he has had a lot of trauma to his little mouth in his 3 1/2 years!  He did great though, and once we got some tylenol into his system he was ravenous and ready to eat a late dinner, so we knew he was just fine :)

Eli was being so sweet to his buddy and laying with him after he got hurt, and Baker made an awesome card for Landon, complete with a drawing of the kids eating popcorn on the couch, as they had been doing just before that.

The next day was a lot of fun - we packed up some snacks, badminton rackets and birdies, and plastic cups and went down to the boathouse to let the kids play on the beach.  Yes it was actually warm enough to play on the beach in Tahoe in March.  Seems kinda crazy, but the kids loved it.

Shortly after we had to wrap up the fun and head back down the hill so Landon could be seen by his doctor before the weekend began (it was a Friday).  We were just glad we hadn't needed to go to an ER (none of which are anywhere nearby!)  Great getaway with our buddies and fun to break things up while our husbands were gone.

Officer Landon, complete with ninja turtle knee pads, Elefante and the scrape still very visible on his upper lip...

One of their first times 'swimming' this year... although I think they stayed in the warm spa this time..