Happy Easter!

And yes, that is a chocolate bunny in a chocolate race car. They make everything these days. The bunny was the first to go, and the car was left driver-less.

Time for A Big Bed Perhaps?

I don't have a picture of Owen in bed, so this one of Tigger will have to do. For what it's worth, Tigger's bed is new too, and he loooooves it. The day we bought it he spent the entire day in it and I was afraid he might never get out to eat.

But the post is actually about Owen and his need for a new bed. We wanted to let him stay in the crib as long as we could, and so for close to two years (!) that has worked very well. He seemed to feel safe in his crib. He's been a great sleeper in his crib. He would stay in his crib, whether it was for nap or bedtime or even time outs. I always found it a little ridiculous, to be honest, from the boy who tries to insist on doing the monkey bars by himself, can do a back flip on the rings, and can scale large mountains without breaking a sweat. In fact, not long after coming home he was spotted climbing INTO his crib from the outside. Which, I think must be quite a bit harder than getting OUT of it from the inside...but maybe I'm wrong. In any case, the crib WORKED. But all good things must come to an end, I suppose.

Owen is growing up, and can be quite serious about his big boy status these days. If I ever refer to him as "my baby" he takes great offense and tells me that he is not my baby he is my big boy. So it makes sense that he decided that it was time to get out of his crib. And he did that one morning with no fanfare. Liam and I were up already, eating breakfast, when we heard the creak of a bedroom door upstairs and some footsteps. The pitter patter of little feet walking down the steps...and then Owen walked in, pulled out his chair at the kitchen table (which no longer has a booster seat), sat down and said in the most matter of fact way, "I waked up." And that was that. Ever since, he gets out of his crib on his own. I've never even witnessed how he does it, but I'm sure it's graceful because I never hear a thump. I should probably lower the side of it for him to make it easier. Soon he won't have to work so hard, because we ordered a new bed for Liam and will move Liam's bed into Owen's room. A baby no more...sigh...

Naturally

Ahh, Nature, how we love ya

Now.

Not always.

Depends on which way the wind is blowing.

Last summer we went to the Rock House retreat in the mountains for vacation, and I tried in vain to engage the kids in - gasp - hiking along a trail. Natalie acted like a mini Paris Hilton. She quite literally clutched a small fluffy bunny purse close to her body and made a high-pitched moaning sound the entire time. Except when she was shrieking like a crazy woman, "I don't like to be in Nature!!" Liam was the man of caution, scolding me that the foot bridge we used looked like a life-threatening hazard. "This just doesn't look safe to me...not safe at all!" He even looked for bones lying around it from others who may have gone before us. The bridge was probably at the most a year old. Owen was left at home with Jim because there were lots and lots of bugs, and that meant non-stop shrieking from little Mr Bug Phobia. I was left disheartened and convinced that my kids were going to grow up in plastic bubbles with no appreciation of the great outdoors. Not that I'm a big camper or anything, but I do appreciate nature and the great outdoors from time to time.

Then in the Fall I dragged them to a local park for another hike. Unfortunately, Liam spotted a sign warning that a mountain lion had been spotted in the area a few weeks earlier, and once again I had 3 moaning, whimpering children who jumped every time a leaf crunched and scolded me for endangering their very lives.

But recently we either had a break through or the wind changed direction for a couple of hours. We went on a family hike and everyone enjoyed it. We didn't need a stroller. We walked a long way (really, who knew that we should have read that map at the beginning that would have shown us just how long the "outer loop" was). No one complained, at least not about "being in nature." We saw a water snake. {Ick.} There were noisy bugs, and Owen was only moderately concerned. Natalie - be still my heart - was even heard to exclaim, "I want to have my birthday party in Nature this year!" (No, I won't hold her to that. But it was nice to hear from her.) Liam assumed the Leader and navigator role. He even added some humor at the end of the walk when Natalie and Owen went running off to play on a playground and Liam remarked, "Natalie is just WEIRD! How can she have so much energy now, after walking so far?!" (Oh, Liam, have you already reached the age when your energy has a limit? Welcome to my world. It's all downhill from here.)

It was so nice that I didn't even complain near the end when I was sweating like crazy and cursing myself for not reading that map, while carrying Owen on my shoulders because the poor kid had completely worn out his little legs. We might just have to do this more often.

The Recap Post

Where on earth have we been?? Well, just here. No good excuses for not blogging, other than the fact that I may have too many children and too few brain cells left.

So I'll try to do a whirlwhind recap of the past month, without over burdening my last remaining brain cells...

We were playing lots of sports - baseball (and I'm so bad- I don't even have any good baseball pictures even though it seems that there is baseball all.the.time.).
Natalie enjoys the throw-in at soccer. She enjoys the running at soccer. Taking the ball away from others...not so much.
And the newest member of the family joining the sports mania is Owen, playing soccer. Running in a pack of pushing, shoving children all trying to kick at something - RIGHT up his alley.

He got chummy with other people's grandparents (Grandpa he needs you here to cheer him on so he doesn't have to hug others).

He high fived his coach...a lot.

We rode a few things...

We did a little gaming...

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day

By baking cookies...

It's been so wiiiindy. We flew a kite.

One of us made his 2nd grade Diorama. I think it wasn't just a coincidence that his teacher assigned him the Canadian goose. And yes, those are yogurt raisins for eggs. I think Owen may have pried one off and eaten it, glue and all.

We fed birds..

And one of us even rode a camel...

And I'm not tired at all.