April, Part 8: Johnny's Field Trip

Above: Johnny had a field trip at the end of April with his preschool class. Of course, he didn't want to hang out with any of them, so we explored the Museum of Natural Curiosity and the Children's Gardens outside just the two of us.

Above: Johnny enjoyed checking out this exhibit on motion in the curiosity museum.

Above: I was a huge fan of the gorgeous lilacs growing in the garden outside. What a beautiful day!

Above: Johnny had a great time digging in the sand.

Above: We had a good time...just the two of us!

Above: We were sad to discover, however, that the Noah's ark splash pad had been torn down. After talking to Mike and Debra about it, apparently it was broken and it was actually cheaper to tear it down and build something new than to repair it. RIP Noah's ark splash pad! We loved you!

April, Part 7: A Trip to the Gardens with the Mackays

Above: "Come on, Dad! You can't be that tired yet. We haven't even started!"

Above: We love to look at the fish in the pond.

Above: These boys love to run!

Above: This boy particularly loves to run, and run, and run, and run, and run! Run away from all of us...

Above: My boys have gotten bigger, but they still love to play in fountains.

Above: Just look at that face. He's always up to some sort of mischief.

Above: They had good cousin time at the gardens.

Above: Two buddies, walking down the path of life together...

Above: The tulips were lovely too. They lasted a long time this year. The weather was perfect for the tulips this season.

Above: Lots of pretty varieties.

Above: This girl is such a cutie. She loves to twirl her hair and suck her thumb at the same time.

Above: I love the three tiers and especially the krusty that Caroline is giving me.

Above: Pete, of course, is content to roll down the hill away from the group...and then run off when we look away for two seconds.

Above: Here is Peter after we found him after he ran off. He knows he's in trouble...you can see it from the look on his face.

Above: All of the cousins posing together. Johnny initially didn't want to have a picture taken.

Above: Now Johnny is warming up to the camera though because all of the cousins are giggling like crazy and having so much fun.

Above: However, my two boys never seem to be on the same page at the same time. So, since Johnny is starting to have fun, you can bet that means that Peter is going to turn on us.

Above: Smiles from everyone but Peter! Now, if I could only take Peter from the first picture and Johnny from this last picture with all of the cousins in this picture, it would be the perfect cousin picture!

It was a great trip to the gardens all in all. The tulips were beautiful and everyone had a great time!

April, Part 6: Spring Soccer

Above: Spring means soccer for my boy, Pete.

Above: Pete loves to play goalie!

Above: Look at that kick!

Above: Pete had a really great coach and a great team for the spring season.

Above: These kids are running with all their might!

Above: Time to eat a PB&J when it's not Pete's turn to play.

Above: This picture says it all. This is my soccer playing, soccer loving Pete.

April, Part 5: Stormy Weather

Above: The day after Peter's first soccer practice and the day before what was to be his first soccer game, we got a crazy wind storm. The wind lifted up this trampoline and wedged it between two of my neighbors' houses!

Above: The day of Peter's first soccer game, we woke up to this. Yeah...I don't think there's going to be a soccer game today.

Above: The snow didn't start out too heavy, but by the time we got back to our house from taking Peter to school, the roads were covered. We hadn't put snow tires on our van since it was such a crazy warm winter (we maybe got three or four snow storms tops). As a result, I couldn't get all the way back up to our house. I had to park in the circle across the street and a little lower than our house in the driveway of a vacant house that is currently for sale. I carried Johnny back to the house via piggy back while he was covered in a blanket (since he was only in his pajamas). When the roads were finally plowed, I knew I had to act on things quickly. Luckily, my neighbor (Steve Riska) came and snow blowed our driveway, otherwise I never would have been able to get up it...and the snow was coming down so fast that I wouldn't have been able to get it shoveled myself in time. It has been awhile since I have used our snow blower and I couldn't remember how to get it to start. At any rate, I still had to dig my van out of the driveway I had left it in, so even if I had been able to snow blow my driveway myself and then go and dig my van out, my driveway would have been covered again by the time I got the van there. Happy spring everyone!

Above: This is what my driveway looked like after Brother Riska snow blowed it...it was just enough that I was able to get the van in our garage.

Above: This is what our backyard looked like only a couple of hours after the snow started. It had been completely snow free before the snow storm started.

Above: This is what my driveway looked like only five minutes after my neighbor snow blowed it for me.

Above: Our driveway is pretty steep and without snow tires, there is no way I would have gotten back up the driveway without Brother Riska's help.

Above: Johnny wanted to go play in the snow for a bit.

Above: It took longer to bundle him up than he lasted outside.

Above: Brrrrr! Cold and windy. Not a fun snow day.

Above: Johnny made it down our deck stairs and then headed right back inside.

Above: Home sweet home.

Above: The snow stopped long enough for me to shovel the driveway and then go and pick Peter up from school and safely return home. Peter, my little snow bunny, was more than happy to play in the snow even though it was freezing and windy.

Above: My adventure loving and fun loving Pete in his element.

Above: Peter had a blast jumping into the fluffy snow drifts.

Above: As predicted earlier, the snow didn't melt in time for Peter's soccer game. Peter was very disappointed that we had to spend a quiet evening at home.