Fun at the Park...

...and a few other random pictures/videos.

Julia is the only one documented because she (obviously) was with me the whole time, while the other kids were free to move about to different areas. Still, I thought these were worth sharing. They make me smile!

Collin continues to be...stubborn...with using the potty for #2. However, it's very important to him to be a "big boy." 

Julia, obviously, has no real inclination to be potty-trained, but she's very...er...obvious about certain bodily functions.  It makes this possible:

 And this serves as fabulous motivation for Collin to at least TRY to be as "big" as his little sister. ;)

Just thought she looked particularly cute and girly here.

She also continues to improve in her army-crawling skills. :) Door stops are particularly enticing right now!

I'm attempting to get back into consistently exercising, so the littles and I have been going running each morning.  Well...only for 2 days so far.  Julia and Collin get to ride in the double jogging stroller (which is like a sail in the wind, might I add), and Ian rides his bike...which provides great incentive for me to keep up the pace!

Last night, some storms fired up in the area. Here in Goddard, we didn't get all that much precipitation, but the lightning to the east was spectacular! It was constant enough that I was even able to capture the above picture with my cell phone! Granted, it's not a wonderful picture, but capturing lightning with it is rare. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Ian: Soccer Star!

Emily and Ian were both scheduled to have their first soccer games this past Saturday, but since it rained almost all of last week, the fields the older kids use were too boggy (read, underwater) to play on. Needless-to-say, Emily's game was postponed.  The preK/Kindergarten (half) field is on higher ground, though, so Ian's game took place on schedule.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

Red-tailed hawk soaring around before the game. Awesome.

Ready for his first soccer game...a little nervous, too. 

Spectators ♥ 

Warm-up drills

...not always super happy.

...perhaps bordering on bipolar.

...see? (The previous three pictures were all taken within 30 seconds.)

Breaking away from the pack

Getting to the center to shoot

GOAL!!!

Thumbs up to Mom and Dad. :)

A few minutes later...another GOAL!!!

...and another thumbs up. :)

He lost a shoe in an epic kick during the next play, so Dad helped him out.

A great time was had by all, and Ian worked through his jitters (about people watching him). So proud of that kid. He scored 2 of his team's 4 points! (Incidentally, one of their points was actually scored by a kid on the opposing team...)
Little kid sports are a HOOT! :)

Two Peas in a Pod

We Have Mobility!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 (today)

Funnel Clouds

Yesterday evening, while visiting with a friend and waiting for dinner to be ready, we noticed these bizarre looking funnel clouds forming.  They looked like cute, skinny tornadoes (bet you never heard a tornado referred to as "cute"), but they never touched the ground and there was no severe storm involved. Some did get pretty long before dissipating, some were even horizontal. We saw...I don't know...maybe six or seven of them (?) over the course of about 45 minutes.

Here's what a short video from a local news station:

And you can link here to see what another local station had to say. And you can go here for some pretty impressive pictures of other cold air funnels. :)

Here is what wikipedia had to say:

"Cold-air funnel clouds (vortices) are usually short-lived and generally much weaker than the vortices produced by supercells. Although cold-air funnels rarely make ground contact, they may touch down briefly and become weak tornadoes or waterspouts.

A shear funnel extending from a generic cumulus cloud. Observed in northern Texas by a member of the VORTEX project.

Unlike the related phenomenon associated with severe thunderstorms, cold-air funnels are generally associated with partly cloudy skies in the wake of cold fronts, where atmospheric instability and moisture is sufficient to support towering cumulus clouds but not precipitation. The mixing of cooler air in the lower troposphere with air flowing in a different direction in the middle troposphere causes the rotation on a horizontal axis, which, when deflected vertically by atmospheric conditions, can become a funnel cloud.^[1]

They are a common sight along the Pacific Coast of the United States, particularly in the spring or autumn."

Pretty cool!

Spring

The view from our back door today

I wish you could all see this in person. All over town, trees are in full bloom, budding leaves and new grass is a brilliant spring green, and there are flowers opening in all kinds of dazzling colors and fragrances.  Added to this is the steady, delicious rain that's been falling for the past two days. It's even warm enough for the kids to play in. (Yesterday, they came in soaked to the skin, despite their ponchos, but they sure had fun!)

Ah, spring...how I love you!

Scott's BIRTHDAY!!!

Yes, it was an exciting weekend, y'all! Scott has been out of the country for his last two birthdays, so we thoroughly enjoyed being able to celebrate with him ON his actual big day this year.

I wish (yet again) that I'd thought enough ahead to have the camera charged and ready to take pictures, but I didn't.  Michael (Papa), Brenda (Nana), (Uncle) Garrett, (Great) Grandpa Art, (Great) Uncle Alan, and (awesome trampoline super star) Candy all came in on Saturday and spent the whole weekend here.  We had an absolutely amazing time with lots of relaxed conversation and leisurely meals. (...so leisurely, in fact, that we didn't even eat lunch on Saturday until almost 4:00.  Yes...definite hostessing win on my part, haha! :-/ )

Julia playing with her great grandpa Art. He met her for the first time back in September and seemed to just eat up every moment with her. 

Great grandpa with all the kiddos

Julia has her thumb...

Surprised after work!

The girls tried out the airplane box.

Surprise #2

I've mentioned he's a rockstar, haven't I?

Scott's cake...designed by the kids

Singing "Happy Birthday." Even Julia chimed in. :) 

Scott being...himself :)

Win.

We sure love you a lot, hun, and we've had a blast celebrating your life and the things God is doing in and through you. Happy, happy birthday!!!

The Last 2 Days

Julia can get into a sitting position all by herself now! I caught her like this in her crib yesterday after her nap.  She had pulled off 2 of the 4 animals on her mobile, too. (The mattress is now lowered, and the mobile is now a projector only!)

Emily and Ian have started spring soccer, but we're ALL loving the beautiful temperatures and sunshine. :) (This was yesterday evening.)

Collin woke up today with a fever of 102. After some Tylenol and a few hours, it was 103.8!! He's had some ibuprofen now, and a bath, the combination of which brought it down to about 101 by nap time. Hoping he feels better soon, poor little buddy! :( 

Happy Pi Day!

Here are some pictures from our morning:

We went on a quest to find circular household items

The boys chose their favorites and a favorite color of pipe cleaner  (I didn't have any good string/twine/yarn to use) 

Julia cheered us on

Ian measures the circumference of his cup (I ended up helping him hold it on the rim so that it would be consistent with our diameter measurement.)

Measuring the length on a ruler (using centimeters...easier units to work with.) We also reviewed how, when we measure, we have to make sure the ends line up (start at zero.)

Results on our cup measurements

Ian helps Collin measure the circumference of his bubble container.

The diameter was easier to find because there was a line/seam on the bottom of the bottle. Better results!

Results from our glue stick measurements (We're improving!)

In the end, we measured 5 things: plastic cup, bottle of bubbles, glue stick, baby food jar, and a measuring cup.  

When we took the average of our results and rounded to the nearest hundredth (bah, significant figures), we were right on! Woohoo!!!

We also had to bake a pie. :) I should've taken pictures during the prep since the boys helped, but I didn't think of it in time. We found some yummy-looking blueberries at the store yesterday, so we used those.

Truth be told, it kinda bothers me that my equation isn't centered, and that my capital 'C' (for circumference) looks rather...lowercase. Oh well.

Checking on the pie to make sure it doesn't get too brown. It smells UH-MAZING!

Final product...the [lowercase-looking] 'C' oozed. No matter. :)

The boys approved!

It was a fun morning. We also read "Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi." We might need to just buy these books (I think there are 5?); they're just fun. 

Happy Pi Day, everyone!!!