Happiness Is

Happiness is....riding the trolley downtown with your mom and twin brother and your Pre-K class to go to the Science Museum. 

Happiness is....having a butterfly land right on your hand in the butterfly garden.

Happiness is....getting to eat lunch at the Market Building and having strawberry shortcake from the Strawberry Festival for dessert.

Yes, it's good to be four years old. 

Grandin Village Earth Day 2014

You all know that Earth Day is near and dear to my heart, and I always enjoy the festival that Grandin Village has each year.  The boys get to plant flowers and do crafts.

The Grandin Theater was having a midnight showing of Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  I can't imagine a universe in which I could make it to a midnight showing right now, but I do remember going to see Big Top Pee Wee at the Grandin in the 80s when it was a dollar theatre.

There was a bouncy house for jumping, and a few snakes for petting.  My boys always seem to enjoy petting snakes.

There were plenty of places to create some unique street art.

 There were free seeds and free samples (a favorite was the organic dark chocolate).  The highlight of the day?  Learning how to scoop and poop.  The dog poop you see was fake.  The boys had a blast putting it in baggies to dispose of it properly. 

Thankfully, no fake dog poop make it home.  This time.

The Community Arboretum

On the one day that all three boys had off for Spring Break, I took them to the local community college, where there is a community arboretum.

 We started with the sensory garden, where there are things to hear, like a fountain, things to feel, like lambs ear, and things to smell, like oregano.

The boys liked seeing so many different styles of plants.

They especially liked the bleeding hearts.  

This field is surrounded by a perfect circle of birches.

And at the end, there is a gazebo.

We counted koi in the ponds.  There were pinwheels all over for Child Abuse Awareness month.

We saw a number of interesting sculptures, like this praying mantis.

A bridge led over to our grand finale....

A hedge maze!

Pierce said, "Wow, Mom, this was way cooler than I thought it would be!"

The boys are already asking when we can go back.

Francie Says

Francie says....

Hey! 

She's all shed out now.

And looking well.  I do believe she's good and healthy.

And the horses down the load are looking much better too, thanks to the help of my readers. 

 

Do you know?  Taking pictures while lunging a horse in circles may cause extreme dizziness.

I don't recommend it.



Kindergarten Bound

It's hard for me to believe, but in a couple of weeks, Cort and Reid will have their preschool graduation.  Some of you have seen them grow up on this blog, as I started writing when they were a mere four months old.

Over Spring Break, I took them to their future elementary school and did their assessment tests.  We registered for riding the bus.  I filled out all their paperwork. 

In a minute, I will blink again, and they will be climbing up the bus steps, backpacks thumping along the way.  August will be here in no time.   My sweet baby boys.  How did they ever get so big?

Butterfly Sitting

Cort and Reid's preschool teacher wanted to know if we'd like to bring the class butterfly project home for Spring Break.  They were in chrysalis form - having already shifted from their caterpillar state while the class watched, intrigued.  The twins were so excited to be able to bring them home - it was a huge honor!

 Cort sat by the butterflies while they were hatching, and told them that he hoped they would come visit him after they were free.  Cort kept saying, "Do you remember when you were just a little caterpillar?"

 Once all six hatched, we fed them oranges and strawberries for a couple of days before we let them go outside. 

You know who else really liked the butterflies?  This stinker.  And I don't think he was telling them stories about coming to visit once they were free either.  It's a good thing we don't have any pet birds...

In Training

Look at that stride!

 

Kind of wish my own running always felt that good!