Lily quote

Today I was helping Lily clean the bathroom.  As we were rinsing her feet off (after being in the tub to scrub it) I commented on how long her feet are getting.  She said, "Yes Mom.  My feet are long and they take so much longer to clean now."  I just laughed and agreed that long feet take longer to clean than short feet.  :)

Ollie's happenings

The older your kids get the busier they get.  Ollie had a school project to make an animal habitat box.  He picked an owl.  He had to show the habitat of an own.  He had fun researching it and he had lots and lots and lots of ideas.  We narrowed it down a bit and this was the final product.  He was really proud of it.  :)

Ollie loves art.  Living in Texas...  let's just say there is a LOT of sport emphasis here.  We found a Saturday painting class and signed Ollie up.  He painted this picture.  It's his first time with paint.  He usually draws with pencil.  We hung the picture in his room.

For one of his cub scout arrow points he needed to plant a flower garden.  I helped him a bit but he did most of it on his own.  He was especially happy to pick the flowers to plant in it.

Our cute 8 year old is happy and keeps us busy!  We sure love him!

Butterflies

We did the growing butterflies thing again.  We did it about four years ago and really enjoyed it.  We decided to do it again since only Ollie really remembered it.

It was really fun to watch them eat and grow.  They sure grew fast!

Then they went into their chrysalis. 

Then we got beautiful butterflies.  We watched them for a few days and then released them.  It really is amazing to watch their life cycle.  It reaffirms my belief in God.  There is no way this happened by chance.  It also makes me think about how a little gray caterpillar can turn into such a gorgeous butterfly.  What can I become???

April Fools

I wanted to play several jokes on the kids for April Fools... but it was the day after Easter this year.  I was kind of burned out from all our Easter festivities so I just did one joke.

I made jello in cups with straws inserted.  I told the kids it was juice.  We all got a good laugh out of it.  Spencer and I enjoyed watching them try to suck jello through their straws.  :)

Easter Pictures

We had a great Easter.  We died eggs which is always a huge hit!  Our kids love swirling the eggs in the dye.  Claire is at the age where she just moves the eggs around from bowl to bowl.  The colors all get mixed and after a bit all the eggs look the same.  :)

I love seeing kids' fascination with the egg changing color.

They all got some bubble tape.  They were very excited to get gum!

Looking for Easter eggs

Lily and Claire got sleeping bags.  Lily got purple and Claire got pink.  Ollie and Katie got pool toys.

Playing with sleeping bags on the trampoline

A side not about the trampoline...  Our kids asked several months ago if we could get a trampoline.  We told them sure if they saved the money for it.  They saved all their birthday money and Christmas money.  They did LOTS of extra chores.  After many months they finally had enough.  Spencer and I agreed that if they bought the tramp we would buy an enclosure.  They did it!  Ollie was especially excited.  They all enjoy playing on it.

Our Easter cake.

No denying these cute girls are all sisters!  Thanks so much to my mom (chocolate Grandma) for the matching dresses.

Everyone ready for church.  Ollie was upset that I made him smooth his hair down for the pictures.  :)

Butterflies

One day Lily came and showed me a picture in a magazine of fun butterfly snacks.  She really wanted to make them.  So one day I made them to surprise her.  She was super happy about it and that I remembered. 

Katie

Katie is getting so big!  I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up.  She loves to eat rice cereal and oatmeal cereal.  She is also eating veggies.

One night I went to turn her swing off and check on her.  Someone else (Claire) had gone in and given her a few things to play with in case she woke up in the middle of the night.

Baby #4 gets spoiled with attention!

She is super alert and wants to touch and taste everything.  She is always looking around for the next thing to taste.  We sure love her and are so glad she is part of our family!

Band

Ollie decided one day that he wanted to make Lily a guitar to play. He looked on the internet and found a picture of one that she liked. We printed the picture then Spencer helped him enlarge it and cut it our of cardboard. Then he colored it. After she had a guitar he decided that he needed a drum set and Claire needed a piano. He spent an entire weekend making these. Cute kid is so sweet with his sisters! They had fun jamming once they got them all made. :)

Lily has really been wanting to learn to play the guitar.  Here she is jamming...  and singing her heart out!

The whole band together.  Ollie's drum sticks were pirate hooks.

Claire can play the piano and eat an apple at the same time!

The instruments turned out so cute that we still have them.  Usually his cardboard creations get thrown away pretty quickly but they still use these.

St. Patrick's Day

The leprechauns left us a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end

They also left us a new sandbox which is great because the old one was falling apart!

Then they baked us a cake.  I don't think they were planning on making a cake but Lily got all excited when she found out it was going to be St. Patrick's day the next day...  she remembered that last year they made us a cake.

Playing with the sandbox.  Ollie and Lily both got sunburns and refused to wear shirts...

The inside of the cake was green!  We had a good day.  The kids were excited the leprechauns came again this year!

Pinewood Derby

Ollie had fun making his cub scout pinewood derby car!  He designed and painted it himself.  He won the "Most Futuristic" award.  He was proud to get an award.  He had lots of fun racing his car!  :)

Goodbye Old Friend

We moved Lily and Claire into a room together.  Lily was no longer needing this bed...
I sold it on craigslist but I must say it brought many happy memories to our family.  We bought this when Ollie was almost three.  We lived in Lubbock at the time and found it for a good deal.  He was so EXCITED to have a firetruck bed.  The first night he slept in it he fell out the little door area.  He cried and didn't want to sleep in his bed again.  Papa solved the problem by putting a piece of cardboard over the opening and it was back to bed.  Ollie loved this bed.  He loved to show his friends his bed when they came over.  All his little friends loved to play in the bed with him.  It's been climbed on, jumped off, filled with toys, colored on, and everything else little boys (and girls) do to a bed.
A few years later Ollie was too big for this bed.  He got a new bunk bed (because we were going to have another boy who would share a room with him... lol) and the bed got passed to Lily.  She was excited to have a new bed (and share a room with Ollie).
After we moved the girls into a room together we were no longer using this bed.  We kept it for a little while.  Ollie didn't want to sell it because he liked to lay in it and read books; but we had no room for it.  Spencer and I also kind of wanted to keep it but no room so it got sold.
Ollie's room has much more room in it without three beds- for one boy.  :)  We did love this bed and have lots of fun memories!