This & That

It's Spring!  Or it's supposed to be spring but our weather is extremely tempramental at the moment.  After a rather sickly winter I'm more than ready for some sunshine and warmth.  Instead we've had rain and chilly dampness.

I was still able to capture a few shots of my azaleas and my Dads cherry blossom tree. 

Other changes include Amos gaining two teeth (in February) and Hannah losing two teeth (to make a total of four.)  She's so adorable missing that top front tooth and the other one is loose and will come out in a week or two.

Hannah & her cute little doll Allison have matching pajamas.  Now Sammy loves when he and Amos have matching pj's.  I don't mind.  They're super cute!

Last month (I'm a slacker I know) we celebrated 36 years of my wonderful Mr. Clark.  We had a quiet celebration at home.  I cooked his favorite meal and the kids baked his favorite cake.  Bobby's dad surprised us by joining us for supper. 

A few months ago Hannah attended the American Girl Doll club at the local public library.  They learned about Felicity Merriman which thrilled Hannah.  She'll be reading some of Felicity's books next year when we learn about the Colonial time period.  Each class the girls had snacks, watched some of Felicity's movie and then made a craft (a fan, a mob hat and sugar cubes.)  The last class was a tea party held at the Walhalla Auditorium.  The girls enjoyed tea & snacks, played a Bingo game for prizes and then learned some Colonial dances.  It was so much fun and the girls were so cute!

There's more.  There's always more.  But that will have to be all for now. 

{little artist}

Hannah loves art.  Loves it.  Her curriculum came with an art program but I'm waiting until summer to start it because I felt that we could relax and enjoy it more after we've completed everything else.  

She is constantly drawing, painting, cutting and coloring.  So one day last month I printed a copy of Kandinsky's 'Centric Circles' for her to try.  Hannah enjoyed this immensely.  She spent an entire afternoon drawing and painting her circles.  She was so patient and careful.  We didn't hear a peep out of her until she was finished.  Even though this is certainly an easy one to copy I still think she did a pretty good job.  

My Boys

Mud Run

This past Saturday Bobby and three guys from our church participated in the Collins Home Mud Run.  One of the kids on Sammy's Upward team lives at the Collins Home so we were definitely interested in helping raise money for such a wonderful cause.  Plus we know Joe & Anne Rackley, the founders of the Collins Home.

It poured rain all day Friday before the day of the race.  Lovely.  The morning of the race dawned bright and chilly.  Extra lovely.  Thankfully Bobby's team didn't start until nearly noon so it had warmed up a bit weather wise (or spectator wise) but unfortunately the mud hadn't warmed up much.

This was a crazy course filled with nearly 40 obstacles.  One of Bobby's teammates was 12 y/o Nathan, who has a slight fear of heights.  But he never whined or complained once.  Several of those obstacles were high (like the 9 foot wall and the cargo climb.)  I'm so proud of these guys!! 

The kids even participated in the Kids Run which included 20 obstacles.  They loved each and every one of them.  Their first time through they barely got muddy.  I guess all of those years of yelling at them to not get in the mud (don't get dirty!) paid off.  Once I convinced them that I had brought towels and extra clothes for them they went right back out and actually rolled in some of the puddles!

I had so much fun just watching everyone.  The wives, grandparents, and several other ladies from church sat together and chatted while we waited for the guys to finish.  We cheered for the other teams as they finished and just had a good time enjoying some fun fellowship together.

I love looking at these pictures!

--Nate F, Bobby, Scott M and Nathan M--

 The guys patiently wait for their turn to begin.

 Almost time...

 The guys lay down and get ready to start.

 Bobby is first to get up the nine foot wall.

 And he helps pull Nathan up.  Many of the obstacles required teamwork.

 After the nine foot wall we couldn't see the guys anymore so the kids began their run.

 I took pics of all of the obstacles but I'm only going to post a few.

 This was the puddle they ended up rolling in!

 Sammy's favorite obstacle was the mini cargo climb.

 The kids after their first time through...

 The kids after their 11th time through.

 Bobby & Nate approach the cargo climb.

 The team finishes together.

Amos @ 9 Months

At nine months Amos --

• Sits unassisted
• No longer hates tummy time because...
• he gets on his hands and knees and rocks back & forth.
• Nurses four times a day.
• Loves baby food, especially sweet potatoes, corn casserole and bananas.  
• Is really hesitant to eat table food but loves Texas Toast and cheese quesadillas.
• Covers his face with his snuggle blanket when he goes to sleep.
• Says "Da Da" all the time and "cat", "na na" and "bye bye" randomly.
• Has two front teeth on the bottom.
• Loves our cats, his books and anything that rattles.
• Is super snugly and so incredibly happy!!

Miniature Greenhouses

Science the past few weeks has consisted of gardening - soil, seeds, watering, etc.  The kids have been working with Bobby, getting our garden ready for the summer.  It's nice that our every day household chores count as school work!   We have also worked on making mini greenhouses out of clean chicken rotisserie containers (I got ours from Ingles.)

It's a pretty easy, self explanatory process so I'll just leave you with the pictures I took.