SIMPLIFY

We survived the winter and we are trying to soak in the spring. Throughout the winter the boys rode Strider balance bikes through the house (trust me, it was a life saver!). In the process, they got pretty good at balancing on 2 wheels. I knew they were ready for no training wheels for a while, but I was a little afraid of taking them away too soon and then having to deal with the whining about not having a bike to ride. Well, the time came. I had been telling the twins we would take off their training wheels in order to prep them. This particular Friday we went outside to ride bikes and Declan suggested today was the day to take off the training wheels...so we did. I set each kid on their bike and wallah! off they went. It was truly remarkable. Great control, able to start and stop, glide around the cul-de-sac. I was truly impressed. Two thumbs up for balance bikes and no crashing!

Xander is already doing tricks!

Where did Easter come from? It was so early this year. I tried to make the Easter egg dying less stressful this year (stress-free sounds impossible) by moving the party to the backyard. Target had a dozen eggs on sale for 99 cents...so I bought 8! They dyed eggs to their hearts content...and then I made them dye more!

Xander loving his mouth full of whipped cream from the spray can.

The beauty about the youngest children is you barely have to teach them anything. I seriously have no idea how Xander learned to write letters - let alone the letters of his name (see the yellow circle). My favorite is the crazy B (in the orange circle).

Our chicks are all grown up (well, 3 weeks old - grown up enough to start flying around). It is time to take them back to the farm. The boys (and some of our neighbors) had one last rendezvous with our fuzzy, pooping friends.

Good bye friends, we will miss you (but I will be happy to have your mess cleaned up!)

Xander and his best friend Skye.

A conversation from earlier...'Xander do you want to get married when we grow up'...'Maybe when I'm older than you'...'Xander, you will never be older than me.'...'oh.' ...end of conversation.

Easton's second grade music performance.

Easton got the principals choice award for his art project. He is a pretty good little artist!

A clay turtle they made in class.

We paid Easton and Jonathan a dollar each to help us move all these bricks from one wall in our garage to the other. They were awesome helpers. Easton later informed me that he wants to make at least $1 an hour (apparently I broke some sort of child labor laws on this deal!)

Jacob's 6th birthday party. Katie has the best backyard - but you add a giant jump house to it - and it hours of fun!

All the little dudes in the sandbox.

All the big dudes launching water rockets.

David and Cache.

Xander and Sarah

It was a game of tackle once the bottle rocket landed.

I insisted on doing the cotton candy machine since I had prior experience.

I still have a lot of learning to do!

Jacob, the birthday boy.

Easton and David.

Easton said they counted freckles at school, and he had the most!

Can I tell you how much I love my new camera (even though it is still on automatic focus!).

Look at the water on this picture...awesome.

For spring break we organized a cul-de-sac trip to the zoo. Our cul-de-sac has 4 main families that all play together - each with 4 kids. Impressively, we all made it there. Not surprisingly, after we met up and took a group picture, I dumped the group. It was too crazy!

This was a big trip for us. No strollers! Can you imagine. I barely could. But they did it.

Whenever we go to the zoo, Easton always wants to take over my camera.

Here are a few of his pictures...

zoo selfie

The twins had their first field trip and first trip on a bus! They were so excited (mainly for the bus). Somehow I am one of those moms with no younger kids to take care of, so I got roped into chaperoning the field trip. With all the high school teachers and chaperones, we were an a ratio of 2 adults to 1 child...so basically I did nothing.

We went to the Reston petting zoo...they loved it.

I'm not sure if the love of games is genetic or not, but I definitely passed it down to my kids. We have a whole closet of games (just like we did growing up). Today's game of choice - 'Go Fish'.

Here is a picture play-by-play of their game...

Easton and the super puppy pants. What is it with boys putting things in their pants anyway!

4 cute monkeys in a tree.

They really are quite cute!

I pruned our tree. I have never pruned a tree before and it was long overdue. I just hope it survives!

(I did receive an oral tutorial from a neighbor that seemed quite reliable!)

Even Easton and his 8 year old muscles helped out.

Remove the sand from the court, and let the games begin...

You know those t.v. previews where they show you so much of the movie that you think, 'I don't need need to see the movie anymore'...well after viewing the next 20 pictures, you will think the same thing about our basketball game!