Happy (early) birthday, Kayleigh!

Grandma came down on March 17th so I could go to Mary Mallof's wedding in Madison WI. When I got back, we had a mini-birthday party for Kayleigh. Since she was coming down so close to Kayleigh's birthday, she said she wasn't going to come down for the actual day. So, Grandma bought some cupcakes and some gifts. The kids thought this was fabulous - cake in the middle of the morning! Score!

Kayleigh blows out her candle before we're even done singing!

She LOVES her new baby. It goes everywhere with her. And it is a point of much jealousy of her older brother who also loves to care for babies. Grandma said he wanted to play with it a lot while we were gone.

The baby's cradle. Rock-a-bye baby! Well, actually that's what Kayleigh calls it when she wants to be rocked to sleep, "Rock-a-bye baby". But baby gets rocked at the same time - because she holds baby, puts her thumb in her mouth, and tries to cuddle up. Good thing I have long arms!

Thanks Grandma for the great presents! We've been having fun with them!

Hamsters

This is my new favorite place for lunch - McDonald's! This is the one on Hwy 3 and El Dorado. We sometimes go here after CBS on Thursdays because it has a fabulous Playland that reminds me of the hamster tubes we used to have. There are like 3 slides, WIFI, and good salads.

The kids climb up the ladder together. The first time Kayleigh went she freaked out halfway up. This time (when we went with Grandma after picking her up at Hobby), she was up and down for the two hours we were there! Yes, she slept like a log that night!

Crazies!

My kids are crazy! My sweet son's favorite towel is the princess one. Hey, Uncle Doug's favorite color was pink for a LONG time.

Kayleigh enjoys wearing boxes on her head and then yelling into them. Maybe they make an interesting sound. Recently, she wore a bucket on her head while she was riding her tricycle and ran into a curb and popped off the trike. I had a nice snicker behind my hand ... but she was not happy.

Strawberry picking with Candice's crew

Froberg Farm opened their strawberry fields to the public on the Friday before spring break. So the Tuesday of spring break, the kids and I packed up and met my friend Candice and her three kiddos. Here is Candice with the gang - Logan, James, Candice, Clara, and (behind Candice) Issac. She was a bit overloaded here! Clara and Kayleigh are in the same CBS class - they're about 3 1/2 months apart.

The boys pick strawberries. It was super muddy! We lost a few shoes, and Logan has said he doesn't want to go back because he doesn't like the mud. Though he did have fun sliding on the mud while we were there...

My little strawberry picker. More made it in the bucket this year than last... she did enjoy a few choice red ones...

Gram and Bapa

Gram and Bapa were flying out of IAH (the big Houston airport) to Hawai'i, so they stopped by our house to hang out. Actually, Gram came down early to watch the kids while I was working the Gator Ride.

She even took them to their first birthday party. Stavros, one of the boys on our street, turned 7. His mom tried to make a cupcake cake that looked like Tron. The black icing was crazy! Apparently, crazy going in, and crazy going out!

Logan chows down on his cupcake.

Kayleigh was a hit with her beautiful face and hands. Mom said a man kept trying to get a picture of her hands...because they were so beyond messy!

Thank goodness after the crazy cake, the kids got to swim in the Angleton Recreation pool. The kids loved it! Although Gram *claims* she was not trying to kill K-bob, but K bit almost clean through her tongue (she is as graceful as her mama) and then fell backwards off some of the steps. But she had a great time. Logan was talking about it weeks later!

After Bapa had run the Little Rock Half Marathon, he drove down to see us as well. So we took BapaGram (Kayleigh believes they are one person - she calls Bapa - "BapaGam" though she calls Gram "Dam" or "Dammy"... Bapa just smiles and says, "how right she is". This is what happens when you've been married for 39 years!). We took Bapa and Gram to the Houston Zoo to see the new African Forest, and to ride the carousel (you can buy tix and they're good for 364 days!).

Logan and Bapa on the Merry Go Round - on the cheetah. Good for the fast feet of the family! Kayleigh rode on a giraffe, an elephant, and finally landed on a manatee. She had fun, though didn't enjoy the whole holding on thing...
Then we went to the Children's Zoo and brushed the goats. Poor goats! Kayleigh treated them like Bug (who is bigger than most of the goats). "Whap!" Be brushed, Goat! But Logan just chased them around the enclosure. You will be brushed, Goat. Resistance is futile.

Next victim?

Break time. The African Forest has some nice benches - and look - on the fence you can see a gorilla! We had a yummy almond and apple snack. Mmmm.

Gram and Logan in the Natural Encounters building. "Cheese!"

Kayleigh runs like a girl - no really, she bounces and the hair goes crazy. But she goes fast. And here she's running for the piranha tunnel.

Gram reads the kids a book.

Kayleigh enjoys a massage with Bapa. She had just moved...for few minutes she just sat still in the crook of his arm enjoying the good vibrations from the chair.

The kids had a blast with Gram and Bapa, and the following day when we were in the car, Logan said, "Mommy, where did Gram and Bapa go?" "They went to a beach, Bubba." "We need to go with them. Let's go get our swimsuits and get on the plane." He was ready to pack up and go to Hawai'i so he could be with Gram and Bapa!

Gator Ride

On March 5, the Baytown YMCA hosted the 22nd Gator Ride. As I was the ride coordinator, I had to be there. It started pouring down rain at 2:30am that morning. At one point, I thought our house had been struck by lightning! It was crazy rain - like only Houston can bring.

These are the 62 mile riders - crazy people starting in the rain at 7:30am. It was also pretty chilly once the rain came in, around 55F. Wow, cold when you're wet! Due to the inclimate weather, we only had about 300 riders show up - down from last year's 1200+.

The YMCA staff and volunteers dance to the music. We had a great time waiting for the riders to come back.

The cow showed up! We had yummy hot Chick-Fil-A sandwiches at the end.

Laurie's massages - nice. Kiki sure enjoyed it...

It was a great time - hope to do it next year!

It's planting time!

It's early March, and it's planting time. Really, we should have planted the seeds in Jan/Feb so we could be planting them outside. We did end up buying some "pre-grown" plants at Froberg's.

Here Kayleigh plants her bell peppers. First we had to add water to the "dirt tablet", then shovel it in the planter with a spoon.

Logan gets ready to plant his tomatoes.

Our finished products - well, pre-seedlings. Bell peppers, tomatoes, and pumpkins.

We're going to the zoo

We went to the Houston Zoo on Tuesday, March 1. On the way there, we were singing, "We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you? Maybe you should come too, too, too. Cuz we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo." It was funny, because the kids would sing the "zoo", "you", and "too" parts and I would sing the rest. They loved it!

When we got to the zoo, we first went to the sealions (one of Kayleigh's faves) and then to the Natural Encounters building. This building as a menagerie of animals - fruit bats, small monkeys, fish, piranhas, Asian river otters, prairie chickens, etc. It's quite a collection. The kids had a great time looking at the big coral reef display. They found Nemo, and Nemo's daddy, and Dori.

Then we got to see the elephants (or elePants, as Kayleigh calls them) take a bath. This is actually the matriarch of the elephant herd at the zoo - she's 42 years old. The trainer was feeding her white bread while she took a bath - which was sort of like watching a twitching bus get a wash! We stayed there a long time, and then went to watch the elephants play in the yard.

Tupelo, the baby elephant born in October, was playing in the yard, and she was having a great time! She would find a big rock and kick it with her feet and trunk. Apparently, elephants like soccer! Then she would run back to her mom, say a quick "hi" and run back out again to find another rock. It was quite entertaining to watch!

Then we headed over to the new African Forest to see the giraffes. On the way there are drums that are meant to be pounded on. So the kids played music for a while. Here, Kayleigh lays claim to the drum she was playing so her brother can't drum with her.

Then we went to a picnic table and had a healthy lunch of peanuts, apples, a soft pretzel, and apple juice. After a quick stop at the small aquarium, we headed to the car. Both kids fell asleep on they way home - they were tired after hanging out with the animals!

Running in the streets

Wednesday, Feb 23, Logan and Kayleigh got a little stir crazy, and wanted to go outside. So we went into the cul-de-sac and ran. The kids would run across the circle and back again. Sometimes they would crash on our neighbor's grass and take a break, but they'd be up again, running around!

Kayleigh, so serious after running up to me. It was a rather humid day, so she had nice curls!

Logan thought it was really funny to run up to me and "Show Me the TUMMY!" Hey, whatever wears him out! Crazy boy!

A new disposal

On Sunday, Feb 20, as I reached under the cabinet to get the dishwashing detergent, that the bottom of the cabinet was wet. Thinking little of it, I thought I'd tell Shane about it after church, when he was awake. Turns out, when he looked at it, our disposal was broken - and leaking. Nice. A new disposal was needed.

So, we packed up the kids and made the 1.5 mile trek to Lowe's. After a while, the kids got a little restless. Logan had already pulled his "bathroom" card, so he decided that hiding would pass the time while Daddy figured out which disposal to buy. Kayleigh couldn't be left out of the hiding.

In between the sinks:

The kids found out how to climb from the back and up to the second shelf. And Mommy, ever being the killjoy, did not allow them to go any higher than this shelf. The second shelf was high enough, since they would climb up the back and jump off the front.


When we got home, and the boys installed disposal. Logan helped Daddy take the cord from the old disposal and put it in the new one. The little man is quite handy with a screwdriver! Kayleigh is becoming good management material - getting in the way and giving unsolicited and poor advice. Heehee. She really just wanted to see what her boys were doing.