Easter Hunting for All

Tried some camouflage egg coloring kit this year.

 

The kids and I had a good time coloring them and trying out different color combos.

However the dual dipping, stickers and clean up took a lot longer than the usual dieing.

As you can see both kids were still very excited and having a blast from beginning to the end!  (are you done now Mom, can we go to bed now?  Thank You! said with attitude)

Easter Weekend!

We tried to fit quite a lot into a weekend and tried to make everyone happy or sort of happy?

Geocaching with Gpa Norman and Gma Marie for the Roseburg coin.

This would be a special coin that the city made and we had to find 15 virtual caches and 5 real caches answering questions along the way to earn the coin.

Here we found a real cache and took the clue off of the inside of the box.

(look, sunny and sort of warm)

Where?  Here?  No, there?  Are you sure? Yes ... maybe.

Gma Marie's Geosense managed to find this one!

Myrtle Creek Egg Hunt!

And they are off!

We didn't think Jo was picking up any eggs, only candy but she managed to do very well for herself this year.

Three money eggs for Jo, I mean Elizabeth, and two for Cole.

Quite a few store eggs, where they received lots of candy, some more cash and Elizabeth even got a free taco from a restaurant.

Eater A.M.

Oma and I stayed this year with my folks while Cole and Elizabeth (typing Jo is so much quicker) stayed with Rachelle and Connie again.

Oma had a GREAT Easter day.

Peeps on a stick and hunting for more caches!  This one was a 1/5, which easy to find but hard to get.  Maybe one day Oma will do a blog post and give all you Muggles out there some more Geocaching knowledge.

(Muggles: to describe non-geocaching people)

Cole and Elizabeth (Jo is so easy...sheesh) woke to a basket full of candy and toys!

Are they really awake yet?

Then out to do their morning Easter Bunny egg hunt.

Connie said that this year Rachelle tried to sneak out to hide the eggs in the yard and then,

Elizabeth said; "There goes Rachelle to hide the eggs".

Connie replied with: "What do you mean, the Easter Bunny hid the eggs."

Elizabeth: "No, Rachelle just went out to hide them."

We now wonder how many years they have known that it's been Rachelle doing this and they have just played along to please us adults?

Happy Easter BS Groupies!

Oh, the Roseburg coin?

Very nice indeed.

April Showers and Not

Cole's Babe Ruth Opening Ceremonies were warm and dry like baseball should be!

See, folks had to use umbrella's to keep from burning in the sun it was beating down so hard!

Cole was suppose to have a game right after the ceremony so Gma Marie and Gpa Norman drove up to spend this special day with him.

Gma and Gpa just got back from Snow Birding in the South and thought this was a welcome home sun break!

The umbrellas didn't even keep us dry it rained so hard!

We did have a good time visiting and playing card games at the house.

Almost 9

Welcome to learning to mow the yard.

He did an awesome job for his first time.
(as soon as it stops raining it's Jo's turn)

I finally got around to replacing my gate fence post all by myself.  (Correction, Cole helped me dig out the old one which took quite some time as it looked like a two bag of concrete mix around that post)

Yes, a thumbs up people as it stayed square.

Had a little concrete left over so I dug out a couple stepping stone size holes and had the kids do a hand print.

They thought this was quite fun and asked to do it again soon together with their friends hands.

Scratched in their names and year and turned out well.

Jo, oh Jo...I mean Elizabeth as she has asked us to call her now.

We never know what we will find when we check on her after she falls asleep.

This night she was sporting furry gloves.

As for calling her Elizabeth, she asked to try it out so Oma, Cole and I are to call her by that name.  However we forget as does she most days, nights and weekends.

Onto the next update!

April Things

First, a little bit of Jo.  Jo can be asked to get dressed in the morning and by time she walks to her room she has forgotten what she went in there for.  Well this little calendar with a recipe for each month comes out every month like clock work.  She only makes the recipe of said month, no going forward or back!

This one was Kiwi Delish!  Jo manages the slicing/stirring and blending of the recipes herself as she becomes more independent. We enjoy helping and tasting the end products as she smiles with pride.  (Now to teach her to clean up afterwards)

 

Baseball

Hoping to get Jo more interested in baseball I taught her how to keep score.

She had a good time and took the job very serious.  I know she learned quite a bit.  At the end of the third inning she said "Mom, I hate baseball, can I be done keeping score?"  Hey, three innings, that's pretty good I thought.

Cole is catching most of the time these days and he is really in heaven.  The first couple games he looked uncomfortable in the catching gear, wabbling around when he walked.  Well now he can walk/run and move Cole Quick with the gear on.

This past game he caught a pop up & hustled to a bunt and throwing the runner out at first.

Jo Likes Baseball?

"Hey Mom, I like baseball now.  I have friends there."

(Goodness knows it's not to watch her brother do well or anything.)

YEAH!  She is actually enjoying going to the games now as she has made friends with other sisters from the team who also get drug to the games.  Thanks Jo!

Nice Bunt Cole!

Going after a pop fly from Coach Kurt.

Mom's Office!

I moved myself into an empty office at work that's being used as storage and created a work space for myself.  It's temporary as a real desk and office is "coming soon".

If you look closely I'm using patient tray tables as my desk, laugh if you will but I actually like it.  I can sit, stand and move my desk around to my needs.  If co-workers say nothing else about me they have to admit that I'm flexible with where and how I work.

Yes it's spring time and that means baseball, lots of it!

This year the family all has matching hats to cheer on Cole and the team!

Jo and I are bundled up on the bleachers for the first game.  We were knocking on wood that the rain would hold off and it did.  Just windy and cold but we can live with that!

Jo is totally into baseball this year.

Ok, no she isn't.  She did, however, ask for a baseball hat to show her pride in Cole.  (her words people, really)

This is more of what Jo does during the games.  "LOOK MOM, nutria!  And there is a baby too!".

I didn't realize the zoom was on when I snapped this photo of Jo.

What a Beauty!

Oh, it's baseball, right?!

Cole played a couple innings at third base the second game and made some good plays.

It's fun watching him in the infield this year.

Oma is helping out this year at practice and also feeds the machine during games when we are at bat.

Cole is standing on second as he had made a nice hit up the middle and made it easily to first.

His favorite position is catcher.

Cole is learning quickly that this position is actually more than just catching as he is already learning to direct throws and learning to pay attention to the whole field!

LET'S PLAY BALL BS GROUPIES!

Nails to Boards

As anyone who knows Jo, she loves dirt, bugs, dresses and makeup.

Tracy was kind enough to take Jo on her first ever professional manicure!

She not only came home after a hand massage with beautiful nails but a new bag with polish, emery boards and other items to take care of her nails.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL!

A pedicure the following week too!

She is walking tall these days, telling us how we should take care or our nails and how she had her feet and hands massaged.

Big THANKS to Tracy for giving Jo such a wonderful gift!

SNOW BOARDING!

 

Real Girls wear dresses

when they snow board!

Ok, she tried it on and practiced in the house before heading up the hill that evening.

Yes, an evening trip with snow and more snow and even more snow!

Brandon volunteered to do yet another lesson.  He has now taught both kids how to board and they are both hooked!  Thanks Brandon...we think?  Ha Ha!

Brandon said Jo stopped asking for help up half way down the first run, he was impressed that she wanted to do it alone.

She had a blast!

Though it might be hard to see here, she's smiling and still smiling today!

Painted nails snowboarding, this girl is living the high life!

The requirement from Jo the next day was that Mom put together a video of her day on the mountain.

About 3 minutes.

(If you can not see the video on the email click on our blog link in the email and go to our site.)

THIS GIRL JUST WANTS TO HAVE FUN!