Around the house

A few pictures from May...

More to come!

Boys!

About to head out for a jog at the park...



These guys are great sports!

Carnival!

The teenagers in our ward (church group) helped put on a carnival, which was initially supposed to be for special needs kids. Matt was helping out, and he called me saying not many kids had showed up, so they were opening it up to any kids. It was free and about 5 minutes from our house. Even with getting shoes on, strapping kids in carseats, etc., I think it only took us 6 minutes from the time of his call to arrive at the carnival!

The kids immediately got nametags and were assigned teenage escorts. The escorts took them to any booth in which the kids showed interest. It was awesome!

They started off at the bounce house:

Then headed for the snowcones. Gabe had two snowcones and begged for more!

There were crafts, face painting, pictures with the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2, and all kinds of carnival-style games. Gabe's favorite part was the snowcones, though. And Naomi's...

the horses! She's in a horse and unicorn phase right now.

It was a terrific way to spend our afteroon, especially since I got to chat with my friends and watch as the teens took my kids around to do all these fun things!

Bug watching...

We discovered a fuzzy caterpillar. And we watched it all the way from our back steps to the picnic table.

Small break from caterpillar viewing...



Right back to it! 

The kids also particularly enjoy watching potato bugs. Luckily, I expect there will be plenty of bugs for examination in this part of the country!

And sweet Andrew Frederick:



This is a rare picture of him on his back...he does not tolerate being placed in that position much now that he's a fast crawler! Gotta love the John Deere quilt, too! (Thanks, Mom.)

The Easel

I have many pictures to post. In the spirit of procrastination, however, I am not going to do it now.

In the spirit of compromise and easing my conscience, I will put up this one picture:

Naomi & Gabe enjoying the art easel they got for Easter.

Naomi learns to ride a bike

She's actually known how to ride a bike for quite some time. She just wasn't willing to put out the energy to do it. :) I'm not sure what changed, but she's recently been begging to go for bike rides. Since the weather is beautiful, we often do it, and she actually bikes quite a distance! I guess I'll start looking for a bigger bike, one that she'll actually fit!

She may be motivated by getting to pet the cat down the block!

And she and Gabe occasionally head out on their scooters, too.

Birthday Fun

To celebrate Gabe's birthday on the 11th, we got to go to the Georgia Aquarium. I've got lots of pictures, but here are a few highlights.