Kite Festival

Last year I heard about this kite festival not far from our house but we didn't think it was windy enough that day so we didn't go. This year the weather was perfect so we thought we'd go check it out. It was a zoo. There were SO many people there. It was really nice though, the kids got to make a little kite and it looked really cool with all the different kites in the air. Luckily the park was big enough that we were able to go off and find our own little spot. Bradley did a GREAT job keeping his kite in the air. Gracie mostly sat on the ground and played with the string :) And Sammie was very excited about all the flying objects :)

Summer?

My last post was about our Snow Day. 2 weeks ago we had almost a foot of snow on the ground, yesterday it was 85 degrees. I feel like we jumped from winter to summer in 2 weeks. What happened to the NICE 60 and low 70 degree weather that I love? I am NOT ready for upper 80's and 90's. We had air conditioning in our old house, now we do not and every summer the kids and I are miserable in the house, even at night. There's not much more I hate than it being so hot at night that the kids and I can't sleep. Kevin says there's no happy medium for me, either I'm always too hot or too cold, and I guess he's kind of right. But I'd much rather be too cold because I love GETTING WARM, and it seems much easier to get warm than to cool down I think. Kevin's the opposite, he's in such a good mood with this heat and the realization that summer is near here. Maybe I can convince him to get me and the kids a big pool! :) BUT I don't know how I'd take 3 young children (that don't know how to swim) swimming alone - not nearly enough hands (or eyes for that matter). Here are the kids enjoying the warmer weather - LAST week when it was still in the perfect upper 60's :)
I don't know what it is about spoons but they are constantly taking my spoons outside to pick up stuff, move stuff, or dig. I have mysteriously lost over half my set. I love how Gracie dresses herself - long sleeve shirt, TINY skirt with the pink underwear visible at all times, and snow boots :)

T-ball season is quickly approaching and once again baseball is 24/7

Wouldn't it be a little easier to play with the sand if you got IN the sandbox?

I've been explaining to Bradley how in t-ball you always hit off a tee and no one pitches to you and he keeps telling me that he's a REAL ROCKY and can hit all the pitches (which is true). But he'll have to deal with the tee for the first year :)

Gracie went in and got a chair to bring outside so she would have a good seat, it took some convincing to get her to move it BEHIND Bradley so she wouldn't get hit with the ball :)

Zoo!

Last Friday Kevin had an unexpected day off of work, so I knew we HAD to do something fun. My 3 choices were actually the Butterfly Pavilion - somewhere I've never been but heard it's a lot of fun, The Zoo - we haven't been there since Bradley was a baby, or IKEA :) - also never been, but probably the least fun for the kids :) So we decided on the zoo.
I figured with it being a Friday and not a really nice, warm day maybe it wouldn't be too busy, which I love. Poppy decided to come with us too because he hadn't been there for years. We got there and the weather was being really weird, it was really hot when the sun was out, then a huge cloud would come over and it would get really windy and COLD, then it would change again. The kids were super excited and didn't seem to mind that it was pretty chilly at times. After we got there I realized that Bradley decided to wear flip-flops and I was worried about his feet getting cold the whole time. At the very end Gracie noticed and freaked out that he didn't have socks on :) Bradley quickly took over the map duty and was finding all the animals he wanted to see. First on his list was the leopard because he wore a shirt with a leopard on it to show him, but that was way on the other side, so we saw the lions first :)

Then came the dinosaurs - I mean Rhino :) Years and years ago I went to the zoo with my Mom and sisters and I saw what I thought was a statue of a Triceratops - then it moved and freaked me out. I guess it was a Rhino, not a dinosaur, but I've never lived it down. 2 things - when I say 'years and years ago' that this happened it wasn't when I was little, I was probably about 25 at the time :(, BUT in my defense thanks to Bradley I am becoming somewhat of an expert on dinosaurs and even all his dinosaur shows COMPARE Triceratops and Rhinos and talk about how similar they are - so I'm sure a lot of people make that mistake :)

"Look kids, the dinosaur is MOVING!"

My kids have a thing for trains, they always have. I used to go out of my way to avoid trains - I've actually always been scared of them myself. But now, I'm a Train Chaser :) Anytime we are out driving and my kids hear a train I go looking for it and try to find the best spot possible to get as close to it as we can and sit and watch as it goes by. It just makes their day. Anytime we drive over the train tracks we all ask each other, "Which way did you look? Did you see a train?" The other day Kevin was out working and came upon a train and even video taped it for the kids to show them later - that's how much they love them :) So... there's a train at the zoo. It ended up consuming all their thoughts. It's like they couldn't even concentrate on the animals, all they wanted to see was that train. They kept listening for it and looking the the tracks, wherever we went. We didn't ride on it this time, I figure that's something they can look forward to next time :) And of course, Bradley being so sensitive to noises kept covering his ears when it came by (even though it wasn't that loud :) ) and of course Gracie just does whatever he does. Sammie saw them covering their ears and she covered hers too, except she does it wrong and puts her hands on the top of her head :)

 

Playing the drums :)

Looking at the monkeys

He reminds me of Ludo from The Labyrinth movie with David Bowie :)

We went into this rain forest exhibit where you walk through on this path and there are birds in trees and on the ground all around the path. We were the only ones in there and Bradley started following this bird on the path, then it walked into the mud area of the 'rainforest'. Bradley stepped one foot into the mud and the bird FREAKED OUT. It started squawking really loudly and scared Bradley to death. It knew that he wasn't supposed to cross that line, he needed to stay on the path :)

Gracie trying to figure out the map

Bradley was very disgusted by how BIG elephant dung is :)

Finally we get to the leopard, and he was eating lunch

Fist pump for SUCCESS! He was even talking to it so softly saying, "Look, I have you on my shirt!"  :)

We went into the aquarium building and you're supposed to leave strollers outside. I was being paranoid and untrustworthy and tried to run through it to get back outside to make sure it was still there and when I came out there was a family staring at the stroller. There was a squirrel in the bottom of our stroller stealing our snacks. We had bags of nuts and Cheerios and goldfish, and when he saw me he tried to grab the whole bag of goldfish and make a run for it, I ran over there and got him to drop it just in time :) I bet they get a LOT of snacks like that!

Might be one of my all time favorite pictures of them together :)

We had so much fun and we actually got the membership pass this year so I'm excited to go back soon!!

Baseball

I haven't video taped Bradley playing baseball in a while. He is all signed up to start t-ball next month and he cannot contain his excitement. This morning he woke up saying he wanted it to be next month already and he was tired of this month and this month was taking too long :) Rockies have started again and he is baseball 24/7 again. We were in the backyard the other day and I wanted to tape him hitting the ball. I know I'm his Mom and all Mom's think their kids are the best :) but he really is AMAZING at baseball, always has been! He can hit anything, slow pitch, fast pitch - and SO far, he's hit the ball over our house and into the street from our backyard. And he's also great at catching, throwing, and sliding actually :) I'm SUPER excited to see him on a team!!
Anyway, I set up the camera close to him to the side and got him batting some but couldn't see how far the ball was going, so I went and got my tripod and set up the camera back towards the fence behind our covered swing - trying to protect it as much as possible. I was a little worried, but thought 'what are the odds that he'll hit this ONE tiny spot in the whole yard?!' :)

It seriously came within an inch!!! Freaked me out :)

Too much skin?

Gracie dressed herself the other day and put on a skirt and pulled it WAY high, so it ended up being a TAD short :) Sammie must have realized and thought she needed to be more naked too. I took her jammies off to get her dressed and she ran away into the corner and took off her diaper and was SO proud of herself! I sure love those cute little bodies!!!