Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!

Our town has a wonderful park district. They make sure that we not only have many and varied parks to play in, but inexpensive or free activities to participate in all year round. Every spring they put on Touch a Truck day. This event brings together firetrucks, semis, ice cream trucks, race cars, S.W.A.T. vehicles, etc., etc. Every kid has a chance to climb in, out, and all over these vehicles. There's free soda and ice cream and plenty of LOUD horns to honk. I took Logan and Avery to one about 5 years ago. Ellie wasn't even a bun in the oven at that time, so it was her turn. Brent had the day off and it was nice to spend some time with him and only have to keep track of one child. Of all the trucks there were to see, Ellie had the most fun in the bounce house, of course.

Baptism

Our church believes that children are not accountable for their actions until they reach the age of eight and so they are not baptized until that time. Logan turned 8 this year and we postponed his baptism to coincide with my graduation from nursing school so Brent's parents would only have to make one trip.

I had such grand ideas for preparing Logan for this special day, but school and my own laziness got in the way. Regardless, Brent and I did speak with him about it, as did his primary teachers and grandparents. I don't think he fully understands what it all means, but neither did I at that age. Logan asks very deep questions sometimes and is quite perceptive, so I know he'll make sense of it all some day.


Brent's mom, Pam, makes great cookies and as her husband and oldest son are well known for their love of cookies, she always makes a batch when she visits.

Little Maroons Preschool

We have had the wonderful opportunity to have had all three of our children participate in the Little Maroons Preschool. The kids go three days a week for only $20 a month. It's run by the Child Development teacher at Central High School and her students. The little kids all have at least one "big friend" that caters to their every need.

This young man was Ellie's favorite "big friend" and I often found her sitting in his lap listening to a story when I came to pick her up.


Ms. Yago is the Child Development teacher and does a wonderful job of managing the little kids and the big kids too.


The kids performed several songs for us as part of their "graduation".


Caroline is Ellie's best friend. We met her family at church and because the preschool is so fun and inexpensive, it is highly populated with Latter-day Saint families.

Dress Up

The sister's-in-law on the Hart side participate in a wonderful clothing exchange with each other. Since our kids are all around the same age it's easy just to pass on our outgrown clothes to the next cousin in line. Avery gets so excited when her "new" clothes arrive. Such a box of treasures came this spring, only better. In addition to summer clothes came many, many tap costumes. FABULOUS! The girls had sooooo much fun playing dress up and immediately demanded that they have a picture taken for every outfit. Thanks Lily and Aunt Beth!

Easter

What is it about Easter that makes us think, "Oh, colored eggs hidden around the yard. Yeah, that's a great way to remember the sacrifice of Jesus!"? Well, whatever the inspiration, we celebrated the same as most others, a basket full of sugar to begin the day, afternoon church, and more sugar found in plastic eggs to end the evening. I don't need to go on, you've all met my kids, you know what kind of a day I had. It is awfully fun to make them so happy though.

Bowling

What's up with bowling shoes? I mean I get that they have to have a super soft sole so they don't scratch up the floor, but why do they have to be so ugly? I almost want a pair to wear as regular shoes just for the conversation starter I'd have.

A while back Illinois passed a law that you can't smoke in a public building. The fumes were what kept us out of the bowling alley in the first place, so since the air had cleared we finally decided we would take the kids for a fun afternoon. Fifty bucks later we had rented 5 pairs of shoes, 2 lanes and only played 2 games. Good Gravy! You know, considering it's just rolling a heavy ball and knocking things over, bowling is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. We won't be bowling again anytime soon, but we did get some cute pictures.


Look at that form. He'll either be a great bowler or a champion figure skater.


Avery got pretty good at the Granny bowling.


This is how Ellie had to bowl because the ball was just too big and heavy for her to handle on her own. She obviously gets her cute butt from her dad ;0)


And speaking of Brent...he's very athletic and quite good at the sports he plays. Sadly, bowling is not his forte. Our first year of marriage I learned I was way better at Monopoly than he was and now I can add bowling to the list as well. Which is saying something, because I'm really bad at bowling. Hee, hee, hee! He was a gracious loser and it was nice of him to let me gloat.

Logan's Birthday

Okay, I know Logan's Birthday was April 1st, but I've been busy. Here begins my blogging bonanza as I try to catch everyone up on the last two months of our lives.

Logan, like the girls, got to go on a shopping spree at the store. Because he'd been to both Toys 'R' Us and Walmart with his sisters, he knew exactly where he wanted to go and exactly what he wanted to get, Bakugan. I'm sure you're all thinking, "What on earth is a Bakugan?". Good question. A Bakugan is a small plastic toy in the form of a ball. Much like a transformer, these balls can be manipulated to resemble some mechanical space creature. Blessedly they do not require a doctorate degree in engineering to be able to take them from one form to the other, like you need with Transformers. All you have to do is affix them to some metal surface and the magnet inside releases the movable parts. Logan pretty much cleaned out the aisle of Bakugan there at Walmart. He also got a new bicycle because he outgrew his old one. Woo Hoo!

The kids also got to choose the restaurant that we went to for their birthday dinner and Logan chose Red Lobster of all places. My kids aren't much for fish. I did manage to get them to eat catfish once, but I think it was a fluke. Thankfully every restaurant known to man serves chicken strips, so the girls were happy. Logan, however, ordered crab legs. ??????? Huh. He did eat them, but I think he had the most fun just trying to get the meat out. He said he wanted to take one of the claws home as a souvenir, but I explained that I did not want that smell to permeate my house and he relented.

Oh, and Logan's hair was his idea. He begged me for a mohawk, but I told him a fauxhawk was just as cool and more church friendly. He's worn me down though, and I told him that we would give him a real mohawk this summer, after Nana's family pictures.