Little Plants

Mid-March we started our seeds.  A gazillion little plants are poking their heads above their little dirt pods.  Actually, we have four 72 plate chambers all filled.  Most of the seeds planted were tomatoes, but we have a good amount of peppers, then a handful of leeks, scallions, herbs, pumpkins, watermelons.  We wet our little guys on the table with a lamp and window shining light down on them.  We had a little set-back with some mold on our popsicle stick signs, but I don't think that will harm the seedlings. 

Getting itchy for gardening :-)

A new elementary school

Next year, Tamlin will attend classes at the elementary school.  He got to tour the new school last month, but he could only tell us how cool the TV in the cafeteria was and that the gym had volleyball nets.  Luckily, last week, there was a community open-house and we all got to see the inside of the school.

Wowee!

Schools have come a long way since we were young!  It is a huge square building with the cafeteria and gym in the center.  Each of the four sides is a grade-level with art and music in a wing off one side.  The library is NOT in a room but in the hallways beside the cafeteria.  The classrooms are NOT traditional.  Each pair of teachers has a huge double-room that can be open or shut into 2 rooms.  This allows them to have students move more freely between teachers depending on the subject and their comprehension level.  Each teacher isn't stuck trying to teach a ton of different levels of students in a subject and allows the students to interact more with each other and (hopefully) not get board.  There are moveable tables instead of desks and rocking chairs for antsy students.  All state-of-the-art equipment: smart-boards, overheads, computers, ipads.

Just wow.

Tamlin can't wait...though he has already said he is a bit worried about finishing kindergarten and starting a new grade with new friends.  Luckily, he'll likely ride the same bus and his friend Liam from next door will be there for another year too (he'll be in third grade).   Here's all three boys playing in the garden beds...helping to stir up the dirt before we put the plants in.

Baths and Slime

A few quick shots of the boys having fun with body paint...which they call "slime".

These are their zombie faces.

Mid-April Beach visit

Spring is finally here.  Finally. FINALLY!
The little flowers have sprung and Lake Erie has thawed.  I've put away the winter coats and gloves and got out the summer shoes, particularly crocs for Jude.  Brian's started cleaning and organizing the garage.  The boys are playing outside more in the early evening light.  It is so wonderful to air out the house and spend time outdoors again.

On Saturday, I decided to take the boys on a walk to our neighborhood beach.  What I hadn't realized was that they had just recently paved the road (which badly needed it).  This meant that Jude on his little blue car and Tam on his bigwheel bike are REALLY Fast now with no potholes to slow them down.  I had a wicked hard time keeping up with them...I need to get skates or a bike :-)

At the beach, the water was as smooth as glass.  Peaceful.  I got a good many skips with rocks thrown across its surface.  It was so awesome to see the water moving again and not frozen with ice and snow.  Both boys asked to go in the water immediately.  I conceded to letting them take off their shoes and socks.  I thought the water was still pretty bloody cold, but the boys stuck feet in with tremendous joy.

We brought just a couple of little shovels and castle-shaped buckets so that the boys could make their first sand-castles of the year.  Jude is old enough now to understand how to make castles on his own with the wet sand.   Tam was having fun making piles and then stomping on them or slicing them with sticks claiming he was a ninja. 

Here's Tamlin smiling proud over his first sandcastle of the season :-) 

Jude tired of the castle project and decided to clamor out on the break-wall.  He's grown so much in confidence and with his long legs.  I let him walk out all by himself (but under my watchful eye and I my readiness to jump in after him).  My baby is growing up!  Swimming lessons will be a must this year.

While playing, friends came down to the beach too.  They have a daughter the same age as Tamlin and a son the same age as Jude.  We see them frequently at neighborhood gatherings.  All the kids play well together, especially now that the littler ones are older. Their mom and stood around talking about the kids and school.  We both can't believe how quickly the year has gone by and that our kiddos will be first graders soon. 

Then, I hear

SPLASH.

Yep.

Tamlin has decided it was warm enough to go wading in the water.  Within moments, he has waded out to his "rock", which means he was in the water up to his armpits.
"It's not cold, momma!" he yells through chattering teeth.

Then...
SPLASH.

Jude's in the water too.  He stays close to shore, only about waist deep.  Sigh.  If they weren't so gloriously happy to be swimming, I would have been more upset.  Luckily, I had brought sweatshirts, so when they were done getting wet, I whipped off the soaked shirts and had something dry for them to wear home. 

As we were drying off, soaking in the setting sun, we go to see another neighbor zooming around overhead.
He has a lawn chair, with a fan on the back and a parachute overhead.  He was zipping back and forth and doing barrel-rolls.  We all had fun waving as he came down low over the beach.

Smiles for everyone.

The ride back-home was a bit slower, as the boys were so much more tired.

They slept well that night.

And my heart was happy.

Visiting Ashtabula

Before Easter, I had a day off to be with the kids.  We decided to trek in to Ashtabula for the day, because I knew that Easter Sunday would be a bit chaotic.

We were able to stop and see Aunt Rosilyn and Aunt Carol for a bit.  Shelly and Company made it over too.  I love seeing Aunt Rosilyn holding the little babies.

At mom's house, it was warm enough to let the kids play outside....kicking the balls around and riding the bikes...thought the older ones are getting a bit too big for the bikes and Jude still refuses to use the pedals (like Tam used to).   

Ciearra has lost her first tooth and was delighted to show off the gap.  Baby Elizabeth didn't seem overly-impressed with the proceedings.




I then took the mobile kiddos on a walk over to the carwash...this gave Rick time to hide a couple of dozen plastic eggs all over the front yard.  The carwash was exciting because it has two automatic bays...and people were using them on this fair-weather day.  The boys were really excited to see the soap spritz out of the cars because it looks just like pink slime.  (We had very recently watched Ghost Busters).  Ciearra was slightly less impressed, but did like watching the arms spin the water around the vehicles.

Once back at the house, we gave each kid a bag and the rule of only finding 10 eggs each.

They did great...and only needed a little help finding the last few.  Tamlin was slightly hindered because he had forgotten a belt so he kept having to hitch up his pants.  I particularly liked that Rick hid a purple egg in amongst the purple flowers and a green egg by the green sand-box. 

A good day to build some new traditions and happy memories.

Egg hunt at church

On Palm Sunday, our new church accepted us as members.  We are officially Lutheran now.  I'm just happy to have found a faith home that feels like home.  On this morning, they also had an egg hunt for all the kiddos.  The boys, as usual, had a blast.  Tamlin did a great job of finding eggs and then helping some of the littler kids.  Jude kept wanting to open each egg he found immediately, instead of going on to find more first.  He knew that they held candy!  Luckily, I convinced him to wait just a bit more, until we got home.

But once home, both boys loved prying each egg open to find the treats inside...fruit-snacks, chocolate, jellybeans.

Such simple things make them so happy.

Oh, and Jude has decided that wearing button-shirts is okay, if it is for church.  Brian convinced him they were cool because Tamlin and he wear them too.