Strawberry Picking

Every year since Katelynn has been born, I have made sure to go strawberry picking.  It is such a fun yearly event for me to do with the kids.  This year we went with Katelynn's "best friend" from school and her little brother and mom.  We were both daddyless today so it made the perfect Saturday with the kids, and they had a blast!

First on the list of things to do was ride the super-cool "cow train" that the farm had. 

Then we hit the fields to pick the strawberries.  I have to admit that my children impressed me.  Katelynn went off picking on her own and did a really good job picking the right ones.  Justin still needed reminding, but he was pretty good at making sure they at least had some red on them, and he didn't even try to eat or squish them all (which I was expecting squishing and throwing after our egg coloring last week).

Once again, if I can just alter one picture to have each kid looking, then I will have the perfect picture.  Here's the four kids after picking all our strawberries today!

The farm had so many fun things to do.  We feed the animals and played at the playground after picking our strawberries.

 What a fun day we had!  Now on tomorrow's agenda is making some baked goods with our fresh strawberries!

Sidewalk Chalk Fun!

The Easter Bunny brought the kids some new sidewalk chalk, and it has been a fun outdoor activity all week long, especially for Katelynn who has been spending a lot of time making artwork on the driveway.

 Who said chalk couldn't be messy??

An unsuccessful repeat ultrasound

Remember how I said our little guy is stubborn?  Yeah, now I am going to be returning a THIRD time to the ultrasound tech in attempts to actually get good shots of this little guy.  Sadly, he cooperated even less than last time.  The first 15 minutes of the scan, we couldn't even get a glimpse of his face.  He put his legs and hands in front of his eyes, mouth, nose the entire time.  Finally we snuck a quick smile shot in (probably him laughing at our attempts to get a picture and he totally knew he was winning the game.. ha,ha):

And our tech did get a cute shot of his bum that she was super excited about.  She said she's never gotten a shot this good of a little one's rear end.  Notice the wrinkles in his right leg?  Too cute!

So, I have to say that this 3D tech is the best tech ever.  She is so sweet.  My mouth about fell to the floor when she suggested I return yet again.  This is an elective ultrasound; she doesn't have any measurements that she has to obtain to be successful.  She is totally using up her time and repeating these for me free of charge, and I am more than thankful to her for such.  I will return again on Monday, and even if we don't get good shots, I will not let her reschedule me again.  There's no reason she needs to keep wasting time if my little guy proves to be the most stubborn little one yet! 

A Cruise with Friends

We had friends over to play this afternoon, and the kids had a blast!  Part of the fun included Justin driving Caleigh around in one jeep and Katelynn driving Lleyton in another.  It was quite adorable to watch them giggling as they drove around the cul-de-sac.

30 week Belly!!

So technically I'm 29 weeks, 6 days but close enough to 30 weeks to make it count.  :)  I feel huge!!!

The Rest of our Easter (2011)

My parents and brother were here for Easter, and our plan was to head out on the boat after the morning activities, but our starter on the boat broke and we ended up homebound for the day.  We made the best of it by enjoying the gorgeous weather outside!  The kids played with the beachball sprinkler, rode powerwheels, and played baseball.  We just cooked out on the grill for dinner and had a good time!

Our Family Easter Pictures

Remember how I JUST tried to get a picture of the kids together that was frameable?  Well, silly me actually thought that I could even attempt a family photo and have four people cooperate at the same time!  Will I ever learn?  My husband is just about as moody about the pictures as the kids so it's not much help, and Justin seems to be taking after him because he was just as unhappy about it as he was last week when I tried.  I do think we got a few that are better than I got last week.  The one picture Justin smiled in, no one else was cooperating in by then.  If anyone knows how to edit pictures so that I can put his smile face in with some of these other shots, I would love to hear how!

The first pose is my favorite, but of course Justin was the grumpiest in them.

Photo #1

 Photo #2

 Photo #3

 Photo #4



Okay, all of you non-comment people.  I want comments on this post!  Which one is your favorite of the four?  (You should be able to click on each picture to enlarge it and see it better.)

Happy Easter! (Easter Morning 2011)

Easter Morning was pretty exciting around here!  This is the first year that Katelynn has been so excited that she couldn't sleep and I had to keep telling her that the Easter Bunny was going to skip our house if she didn't get to sleep and stay asleep.  She woke up early and was ready to see if eggs were hiding the minute she woke up.  Justin thought the search was pretty fun too and was pretty into looking for his eggs (with a bit of help from his big sister).  The Easter Bunny was nice enough to put "J" and "K" on the eggs so that they knew which ones were theirs. 

 Easter Basket Loot!

Easter Egg Coloring! (2011)

I must say that this year was the messiest egg coloring experience to date.  In other words:  Boys=Messy.  It's the first year Justin has been really interested in the activity, but I wouldn't say he was interested in it in the same sense his sister was.  Katelynn was very excited and proud of creating her eggs and making them different designs and colors.  Justin, on the other hand, just wanted to drop them in and out of the coloring and probably see how much he could splash out each time.  By the end of the egg coloring, he had learned that he could poke holes in the eggs and crack them if he pushed on them hard enough and he had tried throwing an egg just for the fun of it.  Yep, he's all boy!  Thank goodness I have Katelynn to get excited about the creative side of egg coloring because I have a feeling both my boys are going to be way more into the messy/destruction part of it!

Why bother with the wire hook when you can use your hands.. and bonus:  get them messy!!

Katelynn's finished products.  I should have taken a picture of Justin's, which were all smashed, cracked, and containing dirt from being tossed to the ground.  :)