A to Z at the Park

Here's a creative & educational activity from last month! My friend Lisa had shared this link, which mentions going on an A to Z walk. I thought it was a GREAT idea for fun, free kid entertainment! So we grabbed the camera, a notebook to keep track of our letters, and headed to the park. Carter REALLY got into it, he thought it was tons of fun. Here's what we came up with...

A is for Air.


B is for going Barefoot.


C is for Carter next to a Cactus.


D is for dandelion.


E is for ESCAPEE!


F is for Frog.


G is for Grill.


H is for Hill.


I is for the Interesting part of the park.


J is for Jump!!


K is for Kid.


L is for Leaf.


M is for Mud.


N is for Numbers.


O is for Orange shirt.


P is for Pelican.


Q is for the Quiet part of the park.


R is for Rock.


S is for Swing.


T is for T-rex.


U is for Up a tree.


V is for Very hard. ("but not for me!")


W is for Wrong Way up the slide.


X is for X. hee hee


Y is for it's good to be Young.


and Z is for Zooming down the slide!


Yes some were a bit of a stretch, but we did our best. Fun day at the park!!

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height...

Yesterday Aunt Laura, Uncle Brad & Morgan came over and brought their kite - Carter did such a great job!!! (Well, with lots of help from Aunt Laura, of course!) :-)



Thanks for stopping by today!

My future cyclists!

For Christmas this year, Santa brought Carter a new big boy bicycle! Sadly though, Carter was not too thrilled about it. I think he was a bit ticked off at Santa on Christmas morning, to be honest. There was no mention of a bike anywhere on his list. Mommy was really worried that she didn't do a good job making sure Santa saw his list, and that future Christmases may not be so magical for Carter anymore. But... he finally showed some interest in the bike, and yesterday he wanted to ride it outside for the first time! Yay!! He did so well on it too!! Here's some photos...

Daddy helped Carter get comfortable on the bike and used to peddling...


See that grin?! (but Carter, you better watch where you're going!)


In no time he didn't need Daddy to hold on anymore! (the training wheels help...)


Wait, who's that we see in the distance...?


Oh it's Courtney!! She got a "new" tricyle for Christmas too - Carter's hand-me-down. This was her first time out riding too. She concentrated on those peddles really hard - but she still needs a bit more practice.


Here's my two little bikers, proud of their bike-riding accomplishments!


Oh and if you're wondering - yes - they are in their jammies. What of it? :-)
Thanks for stopping by today!

This day was SNOW much fun!!

We had the most exciting thing happen back in February, and I cannot believe it's taken me this long to blog about it! IT SNOWED!!! I know some of you have had so much snow this winter that you are completely rolling your eyes at me, but trust me, this was a very rare and special treat down here in Austin, Texas! It was only the kids' second time seeing snow EVER - the first time being two Christmases ago in Michigan. So it was a VERY exciting day!! Here are some photos...

The kids at the window watching the snow fall.


Seconds later they would be running around the house yelling "It's snowing!! It's snowing!! It's snowing!!" and seconds after that they would be dressed and ready to go outside and play - the fastest I have EVER managed to get them dressed and into coats & hats!

It was really coming down for a while.


Once we were outside, Carter immediately tried catching the snow with his tongue. Is this just something kids are just programmed to do?


Courtney was unsure once she was out there. That other time she had seen snow in Michigan, she wasn't even 11 months old - she found this white stuff falling from the sky to be quite bizarre.


Meanwhile Carter was trying to catch snow with his bucket, to save for later...


Courtney made her way off the porch but still wasn't convinced...


Carter found a nice deposit of snow on our outdoor table to play in...


We built a little friend for my frogs...


Finally Courtney agreed that it's FUN to play in snow!


She started singing a little song to herself as she marched around in the snow - "It is snowing, it is white. It is snowing, it is white." So cute!

And here's the front of our house on that rare, snowy day.


It really was beautiful - like being in a gigantic snow globe. I think I was just as excited as the kids! Or maybe I was so excited because the kids were so excited. And poor Daddy was in Korea and missed it all!

Playdate with Rachel & Derek!

Our good friends Rachel and Derek came over for a playdate, yay!!! We don't see them much anymore, now that our preschool time is on opposite days. So it was GREAT to have some time with them!! First we did some playing in the playroom, mostly building tracks on the train table, but that quickly deteriorated when a certain child who will remain nameless (but hint, he was not one of the sweet, well-behaved guests!) decided to keep destroying the tracks instead of building them. Sigh.So next I got out the paints! Paints are always a great distraction!! And here are our cuties painting...That distraction lasted for about 15 minutes. So then I got them to all sit on the couch and watch a little bit of Mama Mirabelle while I fixed their lunch. Here are all the cuties lined up on the couch! Notice a little hand-holding going on to the left of the photo!!! SO SWEET!!Thanks for playing with us Rachel & Derek, we hope you'll come over again soon!