Spring Has Sprung

Spring is here, and that means a whole lot more time outside.  Instead of going right up for bed after dinner, the kids now run outside and play on the playset for a bit.  They love it when little Lilly from next door comes over and joins in the fun.  Miller has learned how to swing on her own and does not miss an opportunity to run outside and show off her skills.  Savannah loves to lay in the grass and watch them play, but she stays close by and does not want to be left alone.  We installed a cat door on the screen porch after she was left out in the rain one night for a few hours.  She was a pitiful sight of wet, curly, matted, and dirty hair.  Now she can at least get shelter on the screen porch if someone forgets to let her in.  

Colby and Miller are both thinking about Summer, their birthdays, and what grade they will be in next year.  Now that Colby is getting a bit older, he has been thinking about his future.  One night at dinner he said "I know what I want to be when I grow up, but it doesn't exist anymore."  He looked truly sad and discouraged.  "What's that buddy?" I said.  "A knight or a ninja.  But it doesn't exist anymore."  He could not have been more serious.  Oh, to be six again.

T-ball has begun, and Lee is one of the coaches this year.  Colby is not really loving t-ball...I think he has realized that he prefers more fast paced sports.   We figured that would happen but wanted him to realize it on his own. 

Both kids loved dying eggs this year.

 The Easter bunny came!  And he brought Doritos!  And Cheetos!  And toys!

And candy!  And books! And candy!  (It's amazing how different our kids are)

Back yard Easter egg hunt

        Heading to church

A few days after Easter we had a very early morning departure for Turks and Caicos.
                                             

This was taken right outside our bottom floor room.

The beach was beautiful.  It was the first time the kids have ever been to "the beach".

Dinner on our first night

Although they spent most of their time at the pool, the kids did many other fun activities....among them kayaking, sailing, snorkeling, and Colby went horse back riding.

I could not believe that Miller jumped out of a boat in the middle of the ocean and snorkeled.  How many four year olds could (or would) do that?  Without a life jacket!

Warming up after snorkeling

One of the stops on our snorkeling trip was "Iguana Island."  You can see why it's called that.  However, after seeing one or five iguanas, we had all seen enough and wanted to go back.  Not so fast....they left us on this hot island with no shade for over an hour!  Lee renamed it "Starvation Island" because, well, we were all starving.  Colby was obsessing about the sand in his shoes...he would go in the water, wash off his feet, walk back up, get upset about the sand and do it over again.  And over again.   Ahhh....memories.

Picture taken on the beach of Iguana Island.

Colby made an amazing attempt at water skiing, but with all the wind, waves, and salt water, it was just too difficult.  He tried his hardest and did not give up.  He is one determined little boy.

I tried about ten times to get up on one ski, but couldn't do it.  I must have snorted gallons of salt water- I am not a fan of ocean skiiing!  Eventually I decided to get up on two skiis and drop one.  

After watching Colby and I struggle in the water, Miller made the very wise decision to stay on the boat and observe. 

 The next day Colby and Lee went horse back riding.  These were not trail horses- you really had to steer them.  Lee said Colby did awesome.   Look at that posture!

On our last day, the kids built their very first sand castle.  (Kind of sad, isn't it? We are not beach people)

    Dinner on the last night.  I'd say our first trip to "the beach" was a success!

The last days of Winter

We had our last ski of the season, and Colby and Miller both did great.  Colby is now skiing black diamonds and there's really no slope he can't do.  Miller finally had the edgie wedgie taken off and is skiing the intermediate slope by herself.  It was a really great day!

This week has been very eventful for Miller.  She learned to pump on the swing and is so proud of herself.  Now every day after school she runs out to the playground to swing.  That must have inspired her, because just a day later, she told me she wanted her bed rails taken off.  And the day after that, she told me she is going to wipe her own butt when she poops.

Well HALLELUJAH!!!!!

I asked Colby at dinner the other night what he wanted to be when he grows up.  He said "Well, what I want to be doesn't exist anymore."
"What's that?" I asked.
"A knight or a ninja."

Sometimes he seems like such a big kid, but moments like that remind me that he's really just a six year old with a very big imagination.

Spring is just around the corner and t-ball starts today.  We have a busy couple of months ahead!

Snow tubing

We just returned from a really fun weekend visiting with our friends Mindy and Chris and their kids at Wintergreen.

There was s'mores making...

 (and eating)

Movie watching....

And tubing!  You can't tell from the picture, but the hill is very very fast.

 Lee, Colby, and Dasch all linked up and ready to go.

Thanks Mindy and Chris for an awesome weekend!!  (and why are there no adult pictures?  We need to do better)

More Winter Fun in pictures

Colby got his first pair of lace up shoes.  I thought it was going to be a problem, but he learned to tie them in less than ten minutes!

We've been doing inside play dates with Charlie and Jonathan.  Here are Charlie and Miller hard at work on some dot-to-dots.

Pizza party and ice cream.

Colby has been going to the climbing gym with Lee and loves it. 

Miller and I have enjoyed squeezing in a little girl time.  This was her first real pedicure- soaking, lotion, and all.   Needless to say, she loved it. 

 Lee is officially a cat person.  He will try to deny it, but pictures don't lie.  

Actually, I swaddled Savannah up like that.  I do it every night just to annoy Lee.  Savannah seems to like it- she must be the most laid back cat in the universe.

I helped Colby's class celebrate the 100th day of school by manning the beaded necklace table.  Colby loves it when I volunteer in the class, and I love getting to know all the kids.  They run up and hug me when they see me in the halls.  I NEVER would have hugged someone else's mother as a child.

On warm winter days, Miller and I like to do a little spider swinging.

For the second year in a row, I got crafty with the valentines.  (But don't mistake me for a crafty person)  I found them on the internet and printed them off and added the pixie stick instead of a pencil.  (Who wants a pencil on Valentine's day?)

Miller's valentines were a butterfly body with a blow pop as the head and two googly eyes glued on, but I forgot to take a picture.  Miller calls it "Valance Times Day".  It's one of those things I cannot bring myself to correct.

The kids are still enjoying our proximity to the ski slopes. This is Colby and his friend Colin.  (Marin's brother)

Colby and Colin had a blast skiing together, but of course, it's the Apres-ski they both really love....here they are at Colin's parents' condo playing a little DS.  

 We took just Colby and Miller skiing yesterday...

Miller has had two lessons, and I mistakingly thought she was ready to ski with us (without an instructor).  What I did not know is that during her lessons, she was wearing an "edgie wedgie" at the tip of her skis which controls her speed.  Yesterday, I put her at the top of the advanced beginner slope and told her to follow me.  She skied towards me and then flew by me at a high rate of speed....she had no control at all. She could not slow down and Lee and I screamed behind her to "FALL!!!!" as she whizzed down the slope.  We were all terrified.  Thankfully, she fell shortly after that (wasn't hurt) and cried her little eyes out.  She did not want to ski down to the lift, so we took our skies off and hiked back up the mountain.  I knew we could not go home on such a terrible note, so I booked her a private lesson with her favorite "Chocolate man" a couple hours later and we headed inside for hot chocolate. 

There's not much that hot chocolate won't fix.

 Once Miller was with Chocolate man (her third lesson with him) she was happy as a clam.

After her lesson, she had her confidence back and a belly full of chocolate.  (Why do you think they call him chocolate man?)  He is fabulous with her, and we have decided that the only skiing she will do this year will be with him.  She said to me after the lesson "I only fell once.  But chocolate man said it was because I was tripped by a snow stick."  She was totally serious.  So cute!

Colby is doing great and is now going on the big hills!  Oh boy...not sure I was ready for that so soon, but he is totally in control.  We did not do the black diamond, but we did Tyro and Eagles Swoop, which is almost a black diamond.  I'm so proud of him.

 

The secret to keeping Colby happy is adventure.  Plain and simple. As long as he has adventure, and fun people to play with, he's happy.  I have a feeling he's going to give us some gray hairs in the future.  (And check out my new braces...worse than I remember at twelve but hopefully I won't have them too long)