Spring Break- FAIL!

The kids have Spring Break this week.  I know, it is a ridiculous time for a break, since school is all over in another month.  But, whatever.  They have no school all week, so we wanted to go out and do something.  I thought it would be a good day to check "Alligator Farm" off our Bucket List.  So off we went.

Sadly, I had looked at too many different things and got confused.  I didn't realized the one we chose didn't open till 12.  We arrived at 10, after an hour drive.  Grrrr.  I was grumpy about the wasted drive, and doubly grumpy that I hadn't taken the time to double check the details. 

But we were here, so by golly, we needed a picture of the kids with an alligator!  Whew!  Thank goodness there was an alligator on site just for us to get our photo op in! 

Callie had to be funny. 

The kids were very good about the long drive to nothing, and were content to play on their DSs all the way back.  I got to look at some pretty bridges and scenery. 

We did stop by a great park, so it wasn't a complete waste.    I particularly love this picture since you can see Marian in the front, and Joshua, Delaney and Callie behind.  They had a lot of fun at the park.

This spinning thing was the best!  I had a marvelous time on it myself! 

Of course, my children must climb to the highest part of the park. 

And more spinning. 

More climbing. 

I did stop by Wendy's to get Frosty's (or is it Frosties?) for everyone.  They were pleased. 

So many things to do at the park.  They played longer than I expected.  Joshua especially didn't complain as I'd have thought he would. 

But he was happy to make faces for me as I took pictures! 

Callie begged me to come over her and take shots of her on different equipment. 

Delaney just dashed from one thing to the next.   

"Take a picture, Mom!" 

Yes, a good time was had, despite the alternate plans of the day.

At Last!

Yep, Callie FINALLY lost her first tooth!  I know, she's turning 8 this year, so she's a late-late bloomer in the tooth department. 

Unfortunately, she still needs that other bottom tooth out.  You can see the permanent tooth has grown in behind it and that baby tooth has no intention of leaving.  We were at the dentist a month ago and she said if it didn't come out, it would have to be pulled.  Guess what is scheduled for tomorrow?!  

Guess who is not thrilled about it?

And guess who now has the cutest whistling lisp when she tries to make her "s" sounds?!

Callie and Marian finally got their Orange Belts in Karate.  I think Joshua leveled up to green, but he's in a different class and I didn't get pictures!

 Here they are getting their new belts.  They were quite pleased.  They did a good job on their Kata.  They had to stand in front of the class and show certain moves and they looked pretty good to me!  I guess they looked good to the instructors as well, because they got their new belts.

Rylee was not impressed with the proceedings.  She saw the camera and said, "Take a picture of me!"

Camera hog?  Why yes, yes she is!  A dang cute one at that. 

Here are my lovely ladies with their certificates of belt whatever it is. I love these kids!

Sad

We currently have 4 empty houses on out street, and I know of another 4 people moving out this summer.  We're having a huge turnover!  I know that summer is the season of military moving and change, but I can't remember losing this many people I know before.  It is sad.

Even more sad is that we found out Delaney's best friend is moving.  A week ago, his dad was gearing up for a 9 month deployment, and was suppose to be leaving Friday morning.  On Wednesday, they were told, just kidding, no deployment, but you are moving to Korea in a few months, so get moving.  Yikes!  So they go from being mentally prepared for a 9 month deployment and have to adjust to their whole family moving in 8-10 weeks.... to a foreign country!  I'd been so happy they were going to be here another year, so now I am really sad.  And sad for Delaney.  She and James have been best friends for the last 18 months.  And I mean BEST friends. Delaney will disappear over to his house and I won't see her all day.  She will come home just before bedtime, having had dinner over there.  I'm pretty sure they could pack her up and take her with them and it would be a few days before I noticed she wasn't here anymore.  I think she may spend more waking hours at their house than ours.

On the plus side, I love the excitement of getting new neighbors.  I am so hoping for some more girls Callie's age.  She is having trouble with a girl here who is trying to keep all the other girls from being Callie's friend and it is so much drama!  I'm hoping for one nice kid to be good friends with Callie.  And another nice boy would be great.  Joshua's best friend was one of the move-outs in March and I've missed him having someone to go play with.  And someone who "gets" Marian would be nice.  There was one kid who got along very well with Marian when we first moved in, but they left about a year ago.  Marian does fine on her own, but I think she'd like to have an actual friend some days.

I'm losing a few friends too, so I hope new people will move in who are compatible with us.  Sigh.   This is such a depressing time of year sometimes.

And a year from now, we'll be the ones moving.  The cycle never ends!

Happenings

We got a little cake pop set a few weeks ago and Marian has been dying to try it.  I had hoped with a kit it would be a little less of a project, but alas, it was still rather time consuming.  Fortunately, being a kit, it only made about 15 of them.  Whew.

Marian was thrilled with the results and they were a surprisingly big hit with all the kids.  I didn't actually try one myself.  They were strawberry flavored.  Who wants to ruin perfectly good chocolate cake with strawberry?!!  Oh, these kids do!

Joshua the photobomber strikes again!

 There was a little base 5k, plus Kid's 1 mile Fun Run, plus Health Fair this past weekend.  Since Dan took Joshua camping, I took all the girls to the event.  I ran the 5k, and was pleased with a time of 27:36 for 3.26 miles.  The girls all wanted to do the 1 mile run, except for Marian.  I ended up walking the mile with Delaney and Rylee, but Callie rocked it!  She went out in her pink skirt and pink shirt and tights and sparkly shoes and she ran that mile in a little over 7 minutes!  She was second and a little miffed that some boy snuck in front of her at the last minute to win.

You can see Rylee in the middle.  She took off running and then got scared by the motorcycle.   The motorcycles were there to keep the kids from getting lost. 

There is Delaney, running along holding hands with her friend Andy.  So cute!  I'm so glad my friend Kelly got pictures!   That's me in the pink to the left behind them.

The girls really enjoyed the health fair.  This was one of their favorite things.  Rylee was determined to hula hoop.

 It was really funny to see her shake her little booty while the hula hoop dropped to the ground.

But she kept trying! 

(She's wearing her race shirt over her cute dress.  She was so excited to get a race shirt, even though it was huge on her.) 

Marian was amazing with the hula hoop.  She just stood there, barely moving and the hula hoop kept going and going! 

And Going!  She probably could have stood there forever.  I was impressed. 

Also this weekend we went to play at James's house.  James is Delaney's very best friend in the world and she spends more time at his house than at ours I think.  We hung out with them and had a great time.

 I really just wanted a picture of the raised sand table James's dad made.  The kids spend hours playing with this thing!

Delaney and James. 

The hammock was also a huge hit.  Rylee thought it was doubly fun to sit on Joshua and to swing. 

Joshua and Marian were the best at sharing and were so cute here.

And this.... this just makes me want to cry.

 I keep the church bag in the car.  It is filled with the books the kids can look at during church.  This scrapbook of our family from 2010 was in that bag.  Saturday, Rylee unrolled her window and I forgot to roll it back up.  It thunder-stormed and poured down rain all Saturday night and Sunday morning.  The huge drops of rain that drench you in a single drop.  That sort of flooding deluge is what we had. When I got into the van for church Sunday morning, there were puddles on the floor of the car and everything was saturated around Rylee's seat, including the church bag.  This book was completely soaked, along with everything else in the bag.  I was so sad.  I still am.  The book has mostly dried out, but it is in bad shape.  Let his be a lesson to you.  ALWAYS roll up the windows!  I won't be forgetting for a long time, partly due to the nasty smell growing in the van as it slowly, slowly dries out in this 80% humidity we have.  Sigh.

Levi on the Levee

This morning I took Levi for a long walk on the Levee.  We love going for walks there.  It is quiet, and pretty, and Levi can run all over and sniff lots of exciting things.  And the Levee goes on and on and on for miles and miles.  We only did 4 miles or so today and it was so much fun for Levi.  There was a lovely breeze, so I wasn't too hot, but Levi was getting a bit warm by the end.  No worries, I had a solution for that!  I took him down to play in the river when we were done.  He had a VERY good time today.

Trotting along, having a good time.

See, it goes on forever!  Some of it is paved, some not. 

This is the one time I really like the extendo-leash.  20 feet for Levi to roam.

Sometimes Levi likes to roam down the sides.  Occasionally it is too steep, but occasionally there are some good things to sniff!

That's my buddy!

I said we had fun!

And he was so dang funny in the water, I had to take pictures! 

Galloping around. 

Leaping at the water. 

 Racing like a maniac.

Levi is endlessly entertaining!