Fishing

Love his casting technique - haha!

We took the kids out fishing recently, to a beautiful spot where we might just find ourselves a lot this summer.  This was Evan's second time and Chloe's first.  Chloe was the first to catch a tiny sunfish.

Once she felt that success she was fired up to keep going back for more.  Todd took care of baiting the hooks and unhooking the fish for the kids.

Evan caught his first fish ever and his smile just about split his face in half :-)  Ecstatic is the word that comes to mind.

Todd did a  little fishing himself when the kids ran off to the playground for a while.  All the fish were so small and cute!

Back for a few more..... I kept asking the kids if they were ready to go the closer it got to dinnertime, but neither of them wanted to leave. 

 When we finally did pack up, of course, they realized they were starving, but riding home in the Jeep with warm wind blowing takes your mind of food.  Someday we might actually keep what we catch and bring it home to eat, but for now it's catch-and-release then pbj for dinner.

Bubbles

Evan's favorite friend, Jed, came over to visit recently.  They raced RC cars all over the yard, climbed the tree, played on the rope swings, threw things from the treehouse.... We also took a walk together only to realize we were getting rained on, so we all ran back home.  Then the rain completely stopped.  We ended up here under the tree, blowing bubbles.

My Hearts

For Mother's Day each of the kids bought me a glass heart pendant complete with custom-chosen ribbon for the necklace.  I wore them both to church that morning since we couldn't decide which I should wear first.  My two hearts hanging there around my neck, both unique and interesting and completely different from me and what I would have chosen.  My two hearts symbolic of the love they feel and the love I have in return.  My two hearts, little gifts that are perfectly at home with me.

One Gorgeous Morning

One gorgeous morning we got out of bed and decided it was a beach day.  The sun was blazing and the breeze was perfect.  The kids picked the playground beach that they love so much, mostly so they could get sweaty first then cool off in the water.  That was their plan despite the fact that the water is probably 50 degrees right now. The ropes playground is always a great time:

Chloe was all over this playground like a spider monkey.  Only once did she get to a place that scared her, but even then she was able to calm down and work out her own solution.  She can really keep up with Evan better than ever before!

On our trek down to the water, we realized the wind coming off the lake was actually cold!  The kids went right over to test the water (which they finally agreed was frigid), then moved on to their mission for the day: digging holes.   Meanwhile I hunkered down and covered up with a few towels to stop the goosebumps.

When it's too deep to dig with shovels, they lay down and keep going.  For some reason, it's not a good enough hole unless you can stand in it and impress somebody.

After all that digging the two of them ran up and down the beach and went off exploring on some sand ridges farther down.  They spent a good portion of their time climbing and sliding down there and when they came back to me, it was evident they were not going to leave this beach without getting wet.  I could see it in their eyes.

Surprisingly it was Chloe that ended up soaked to the waist and loved every minute of it. 

I was just starting to feel like we should be heading home for lunch when Todd showed up, surprising us all.  He was done with his morning appointments and figured he'd take a chance on us still being here.  By then, the lake wind wasn't quite as cold and the kids had run off to the ridge again, so we stayed longer.......

Park Outing

We only had a few morning hours before the rain was supposed to hit us, so we called friends and went to the park.  The kids played for a good while before our friends joined us.  It's May but we were still in layers of sweatshirts and hats and light gloves -- of course the kids shed their layers fairly quickly after warming up!

Chloe loves to be strong like Evan so when she can really feel her muscles working she grimaces like this:

The first playground outing of the year is always an adjustment as I realize all that each kid is capable of that they couldn't do at all the year before.  Chloe walked UP the tallest slide in town without thinking twice, you know,  like she'd been doing it her whole life and had never been scared of it before:

Or this crazy contraption that she is still scared of in some ways but wouldn't even touch last year!

A rare moment of stillness....

..... between daring stunts like running and jumping off this log thing.  At least he knows his own limits and won't do things that freak him out.  He does trust his own inner voice thankfully.

And he's so cute :-)  That wild hair and those dimples and those clear blue eyes...

Quite a nice morning.  And then our friends came and played too!  I bet they spent 20 minutes just swinging together at first, goofing around and giggling a lot.

Evan had told me the night before that he thought he'd be tall enough to climb the swing-set this year and he was right.  Jed joined right in and these two monkeys refused to stop despite the nagging from below of worried sisters ;-)

A walk on the trail through the woods finished off our morning.  We came out just as the rain started to sprinkle and parted ways. 

It might still be chilly out there with no leaves on anything and barely a flowering tree surviving the frosts, but the birds are still singing and the spring air smells so good!