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.

Andrew!

See the toy alligator in the bottom corner of this picture? Andrew really wanted to play with it. So after wondering why I kept calling his name and flashing a weird light at him, he focused.

Andrew has done a LOT of rocking on his hands and knees the past few weeks. He occasionally lurches forward and face plants. We, of course, do not giggle when that happens.

Unfortunately, he usually ends up moving backwards, out of reach of the toy.
But he gives us smiles anyway. Sweet boy.

And then we are joined by Gabe, in his Sunday finery. Too bad the picture of Gabe trying to lift Andrew turned out blurry - that would give you more of an idea of what really goes on around here.

Pop Rocks

I worked on potty training Gabe at the beginning of this week. One of his prizes was Pop Rocks. Neither of the kids have had those before, that I can recall. So they weren't sure what to expect...

They really liked them, but it apparently wasn't enough of a draw to help Gabe decide to only pee in the toilet. :)

Art Gallery Exhibition

On Friday, there was an art gallery exhibition at Naomi's preschool. (Translation: families got to go see all the projects on the wall!) Gabe played with all their toys while we wandered around and checked out some very fun projects.

Pointing to her green frog (on the brown background)

I didn't take a picture of most of the art, because we will be ending up with it in a few weeks. It was fun to get a closer look at the room and projects, and Naomi was thrilled to explain everything they had been doing.

Yellow River Game Ranch

A little while ago, just after the odd snowfall and week-long closure of everything in the cit, we headed a couple miles down the road to the Yellow River Game Ranch. Think outdoor zoo with animals indigenous to the area.

At the beginning...we had kernels of corn off a corn husk (bag in Naomi's hand) to offer to the animals, but they seemed to prefer the kids' wheat thins.

I was fine with the rest, but this part was almost freaky. Having grown up in the country and seen a lot of deer in action, I was unsettled to see a deer to walk up to a row of jumping, wiggling kids and eat out of their hands.

Feeding the goats...

Looking at buffalo...they have one of the largest herd east of the Mississippi.

We managed to bump into a few friends along the way, and it was a good way to spend a few hours after having been cooped up in the house for awhile. Note the snow on the ground in the pictures.

While Daddy's Away...

Matt was at a conference in D.C. in the beginning of March. This is some of what we did while he was gone:

We jumped (actually, ALL of us did! Naomi was preparing for a hop-a-thon fundraiser at her preschool, so we set the timer for two minutes and tried to jump as many times as possible in those two minutes).

And then Andrew jumped some more, because he loves it!

We painted.

We visited Stone Mountain for the first time.

I didn't know this thing was still in existence, but it was hanging out in the parking lot at Stone Mountain. The kids thought it was pretty cool!
And then one of us got in trouble for using the furniture marker on his face...

When questioned about what he had used or how it had happened, he kept saying, "My don't know". Bill Cosby would say, "BRAIN DAMAGE!".

Naomi's Birthday Celebrations, Part II

Naomi was eagerly anticipating her birthday celebrations. Good thing there were a few of them!

First is a picture of her birthday dinner.
She picked out everything for the table decorations.

Then a couple of presents were opened...

We don't have pictures yet of Grandma and Grandpa Merrell's gift. She opened them while on the webcam with them, so I completely forgot about pictures! They were a super fun doll family and a unicorn music box/jewelry box. I cannot even say how much she has enjoyed them!

This next picture of is Naomi on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa Jones, thanking them for the Shetland-sized unicorn.

Matt made the cake - a unicorn one at Naomi's request.

Finally... the day of Naomi's birthday party arrived!

First the kids decorated bags. Then they followed the treasure hunt clues which eventually led them to the back yard, where they discovered and bashed in a pinata (seriously! what a difference from the 3-year olds...these kids beat the daylights out of that thing!) and used the bags for collecting the candy.

When it broke, it didn't let everything out, so I continued to prod at it until everything came out. The kids didn't seem to notice more candy raining on their heads!

Waiting for cake...

More waiting for cake...

And the party ends with hide-and-seek in the front yard.

Our Boys

Gabe is the sweetest tough guy you'll find around. He loves rough-n-tumble play, but whenever he sees Andrew, he'll rush over to give him a gentle hug and kiss, and then he's off again!

He loves to build things, line up blocks and toys, etc. While Naomi is at preschool and Andrew naps, Gabe and I get out the blocks and figure out what we can make. This is a tower we constructed using every single block we own.

Another of Gabe's main interests is puzzles. The one pictured above has been done countless times (literally! One morning I counted 14 times that we did it!). I finally got a new set of puzzles since he had memorized that one and we figured he (and we!) would enjoy some variety.

And Andrew.

He continues to be our sweet, mellow little guy. I wish he would vocalize more, but it's fun when he does! He grins and laughs, especially for Naomi and Gabe. He loves toys and standing in the exersaucer. He has some super ticklish spots, and he also has two teeth coming in. I'm pretty sure he puts out his body weight in drool daily. And he loves watching our fish!

Let the festivities begin!

Here come the celebrations for Naomi's 5th birthday!

Yesterday was the celebration at preschool, complete with songs about blowing out candles followed by cupcake time. Gabe got to sit at the table, too, which he loved.

Naomi's preschool teachers, Miss Kathy and Miss Maffin.
Naomi was beyond thrilled with her "5" necklace.

Today, her actual birthday, started off with cards from the grandparents
and a birthday call from Uncle Edward.

We had some fun at the park with friends, where she lost her SECOND tooth. Such exciting events for a little girl. The festivities will continue tonight with presents and root beer floats, and then she'll have a small party with friends and cake on Saturday.

Happy birthday to our princess Naomi!

(dancing lessons with Daddy)