Pet Rocks

I currently have a bucket of rocks on our porch so I figured why not make some pets?!

Scott's new pet is named Triceratops Tam.

Below is his bio...please forgive all my misspelled words.  I'm not used to writing without spell check these days! 

and here he is in his habitat

Sydney chose not to be photographed with her new pet rock which she has named Rock.

Starry Night

The school I used to work for puts on an annual event called Starry Starry Night.  They usually use our fire pit so we loaded it up last night and headed out for s'mores, telescopes, night animals and owl pellets.  

They both fell asleep on the way home so I carried Scott in to the bathroom and told him to go potty while I went to get Sydney out of the car.  I came back to find this...

The start of t-ball season

Thursday night was the first t-ball practice!

demonstrating his moves

I believe his words were, "Yikes!  Baseball players don't put their arms around girls."  

AND 

 "Girls don't play baseball."  

I cleared that up.

Today we had the first game.

Scott was pretty anxious.  He kept asking if his same coach would be there and was worried when we headed over to a different field than the one he practiced on a few days before.  

warming up...

The game is 2 innings.  Each kid bats twice and plays in the field twice.

This is Scott's first at bat. I missed his actual hit.

The casual stroll home.

McDonalds for lunch.

Errands with mom.

Armed with new sunglasses it's time for a nap.

Strawberry Picking

It was the day we had been looking forward to...Strawberry picking at Froberg's.  It was a long 6 weeks for Scott without strawberries and he is making up for lost time today.  I'm pretty sure he ate at least a pound of strawberries this afternoon. 

 We took home a whopping 8.68 pounds of strawberries!

By the time we left the field it was a bit obvious by the faces and clothes of my children that they tasted a few berries.

Yummy!

Happy Spring!

No it's not night.  It's 5:30am and we need something to do. 

 Sleep shifting is tough.  Instead of being up all night like in Russia, we are up early and in bed early.  The kids were asleep by 6:30pm tonight.  Hopefully Scott can stay awake for his t-ball practice Thursday at 7pm!

Yesterday we ventured out to the store and picked up some flower pots and plants so the kids painted theirs this morning so they would be dry by the time the sun came up.

Scott had lots of fun colors going on.

Happy Spring!

Do you like my hat?

If only you knew how much time and effort it took her to wash her hands for dinner.

She said, "by myself" so I stood back and watched.

This was after she spent a good amount of time moving the stool to turn the light on, move the stool to the sink and adjust 3 times...oops the hat fell off so had to put it on just right...and on and on and on.  

The last days...

We made it home safe and sound.  The kids did great, the food yummy and plentiful and the service fantastic! I highly recommend Singapore Airlines.

Here's a few more photos from the trip:

Last minute wardrobe change before bed including alterations...

These are Sydney's favorite pj's and due to either the very hot dryer or a growth spurt they don't fit so I fixed them :o)  Sydney wanted to wear the feet too.

1

This was maybe a week before we left?  By the time we left the snow had melted quite a bit and the day came when the park ice slide was not sled-able anymore.

Making colored bubbles...

It's hard to believe that those clothes have since been packed away (or I plan to) and summer clothes have been dug out.  

Bonding

When I sit back and think about our 6 weeks in Russia I just know that Scott and Sydney have grown so much closer because of it.  I don't know if it is the fact that there is only the two of them or not many toys or growing up or just being in such close proximity for so long but they have turned into quite the pair.  I just hope when we go home in a few days they will continue to be such pals. 

The laughter was so loud (as well as the happy screams) and the bonding was so apparent while they were rough housing together.  When they are playing together, they end up doing this more often than not and I love listening to their excitement!

Little sis was there to administer a kiss to a hurt knee...

resting up!