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Friday, September 12, 2008

Goin' Fishin'

Eli went fishing for a school field trip & I got to go along!

We used corn as bait on the hooks instead of worms. A lot less messy!

Here's Eli pulling up his catch.

Eli with his first fish.

He was quite proud of it, but thought it was a bit slimy.

We had baked trout for dinner & it was yummy. The whole family enjoyed it.

This is Eli's first grade class with his teacher Mrs. Fitzgerald.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A bunch of firsts for the kids

Eli has decided to try & ride his bike without training wheels & is doing really well.

Adrienne has taken over the bike with training wheels & is loving riding down the street by herself.

Adrienne has also figured out to to pump for herself on the swing. I can now watch my children on the swings instead of standing in the path of flying feet!

We went on an adventure walk at the park & decided to cross the creek on wobbly rocks. Eli enjoyed it so much he went back & forth.

Adrienne made it across but didn't want to go through the slime again in her bare feet. (We took off her shoes because fancy sandals with heels don't mix well with wet rocks.)
I am loving watching my children become these not-so-little independent people who are able to do things for themselves or try new & scary things. I am also loving the snuggles & hugs I still get from my not-so-big kids who still need their mommy every once in a while. It's amazing that they can still be both of those things, but sadly, probably not for very much longer.

1 - 2 - "buckle" your shoe

Eli has learned how to tie his shoes all by himself. I'm slowly being phased out of my "mommy help me" jobs. We're so proud!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Last week of August

Eli with his amazing Lego creation. A multi-level house with a fishing hole, deck, airport & army parking out back.

Adrienne loves to work out. I'm just not sure she's got the technique quite right.

Eli got a hair cut for school pictures Friday. We'll have to see if the school photos turn out as good. :)

The race is on! Adrienne seemed to win an awful lot once she decided the tall slides were actually fun.

Our chef with an attitude!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Looking for Tadpoles

The kids got to go to a birthday party at the Discovery Center & had a blast yesterday.

After making snakes for a craft they got to go on a hike down to Murfree Spring & slosh around in the mud & creek in boots (provided by the DC) looking for creatures. They even had boots for adults so you know I had to put some on & join in the adventure.

There they are with the birthday boy looking at the finer points of mud. They got to wade out further into the water & look under rocks & logs to see what they could find.

They did find ram's horn snails living under rocks in the water & saw little mosquito fish too. Eli also found snail eggs. It looked like a bunch of snot on a rock. Pretty cool.

After the hike we went to the lily pond to see if we could catch tadpoles or fish. The pond caught a couple of kids who were a little too eager in their tadpole hunts. Luckily we stayed dry.

Both kids were successful in catching tadpoles, but those fish were way too fast.

See, a tadpole. A lot bigger than I remember from my childhood. It was odd to see so many tadpoles & not a single frog. Hmmm.....

The kids at the lily pond after their successful hunt.

First day of First Grade

Well, school has started again. Eli will be starting his 3rd week of school tomorrow so I thought maybe I should post a few photos from his first day.

Here he is before we left for school that morning. See that little bit of apprehension in his eyes?

He did fine & when he came home he said his first day was, and I quote, "Fabulous!"

Here he is with his first grade teacher Mrs. Fitzgerald. So far it's all review for him. I dread the 45 minutes of homework he'll be having soon so I'm enjoying this slow beginning to the year.

People & their pets!

While on vacation we got to spend some time with various pets & their owners. This was good for the kids as we are not pet people & they seem to have picked up on that somehow. Go figure.

At Jen & Joe's we had to start out slow & put the kids behind bars . They loved it! They could watch the dogs & cat with out getting licked. By the end of our visit there, the dogs were trained to obey the kids & the kids were trained to be calm with the dogs. It was a win-win especially for some treat loving dogs. The cat got her fair share of treats too. I mean who wouldn't give treats to a cat who will sit on command.

We went to visit another friend with a dog & this time it only took a few moments for Adrienne to warm up to Cody instead of days. This kids don't remember it but Cody has been around them since they were born, so he was OK with them visiting. Barbara didn't get a chance to put Cody through his paces as we were on a time schedule but Eli remembered the see-saw from a few years ago when he got to help Cody practice his agility.

This is our idea of a pet. We have a few (3-4) hummingbirds that have been visting our backyard. We put out the food & get to watch a show every day at mealtimes. No training involved for the pet or the kids. If we ever did get a pet I think it would have to go & live with Jen or Barbara first just to get it trained. (Don't worry though, no pets are in the works!)