Big Rigs

Some time back since I'm catching up while falling even more behind, UALR hosted a morning centered around kid safety that included information on vaccinations, car seats, etc.  Our main interest was the advertised emergency vehicles they could explore.  When we arrived, there was no fire truck as anticipated.  However, in addition to the ambulance and police cars, there were tons of other big rigs and vehicles to climb around on like a dump truck, tractor, cement mixer, boat, etc.  Josh was in heaven once he warmed up and I think Emma's favorite was definitely the boat.  She got to say over the loudspeaker, "put your life jackets on."  They also got to practice exiting a building in case of a fire.  They had a trailer that they fill with smoke and the kids have to get down and crawl to the window where they can climb out.  Emma was not a big fan but it is a good lesson to learn.  We did capture a few photos on our phones.

Wordless Wednesday - Ready to Ride

Nosy Neighbors

Watch out if you move into our neighborhood because we are totally the nosy neighbors and not so subtle about it.

The night our new neighbors moved in was incredibly exciting and the kids had to watch the whole thing unfold out the window. As if it wasn't bad enough that we were spying to begin with, before they would go to bed, they both insisted that we had to go say "hi" to the new neighbors so off we trooped next door. I'm sure they think we're totally crazy now but at least we're harmless!

Pedicure

Emma gave me a pedicure for the first time not long ago.  She did a pretty good job and I don't think any polish ended up on the floor.  Actually, looks like I am due for another so I better get her on that especially since we're going in to summer and sandal season!

Josh was totally interested!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

After watching a kite being flown at our friend Everett's 5th birthday party, Emma desperately wanted her own kite so I went out and got her a princess kite and a Spiderman kite for Josh.  We packed up and headed down to the river to test them out.  Emma was so excited to fly her kite but Josh, who is a little wary of the wind (yes, the wind) pretty much only wanted me to hold him and flew his kite for maybe a minute.  At one point, he told me to hand the kite over to Brad and I thought, great, he wants Brad to fly his kite up very high but as soon as I handed it off, Josh said to me, "now you can just hold me."  Love that boy!

Working at the Car Wash

Several weekends ago, Brad enlisted Emma and Josh to help wash the car. As a side note, I'm not sure he'll do that again. While they were initially raring to go with the washing, the attention quickly turned to the hose for Emma, which led to Josh getting soaked. However, as you'll see in the photos, once he finally got the hose just before they were finished, Josh exacted his revenge. They had tons of fun and I'm just glad that I was behind the camera so they couldn't spray me!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Last year we got busy and had to skip dyeing Easter eggs so this was the first year that Josh got in on the action. I think that every egg pretty much made it in to every single color but they had a great time and two years later, Emma was less messy than she was the last time. Thankfully we did convince Josh to wear only a pull-up but it took a lot of convincing. Josh hates being undressed!

Egg Hunting

Hang in there with me; I have some catching up to do! Back to Easter, you know that holiday we celebrated well over one month ago to celebrate celebrate Jesus. The kids had several opportunities to do some Easter egg hunting this year. Emma had it mastered this year and it would seem that Josh has picked up some tricks from his big sister. While the hunts were not so challenging, rather than picking up one egg and getting distracted, Josh was all about filling his basket. At our friends, Anne and Marvin's, Josh scored and found the egg with the $5 bill. The boy loves money! Now, on to the pictures.

Swim Lessons

The opportunity arose for Emma to take swim lessons through daycare this year so we jumped at the chance. The lessons last five weeks and last Friday was the first lesson. Thanks to Mrs. Cindy who drove Emma to class, we did get a few photos. Emma made sure Mrs. Cindy to took her picture so I could see "how cute she looked in her new Hello Kitty swim suit." It sounded like the kids had a great time. The only thing they didn't like was the salt water when it got in their mouths. Emma said that she did some spider walking and also got to hold on to two noodles and go catch balls. She also said that she swam with her head under water. She certainly hasn't missed a beat from last summer and it would be great if we could get her swimming without a flotation device by the end of this summer.

Easter

We had a great Easter 2012. Leading up to Easter, Emma talked frequently about the Easter Bunny coming to her house but when she woke up Easter morning, she had totally forgotten that there might be a basket to find. We took advantage of this lapse to get the kids fed and dressed for church before reminding them that the Easter Bunny may have stopped by. Emma found her basket hidden under a chair in the dining room and was so excited about her Lalaloopsy Girl that she pulled down the curtains. After only a couple of pieces of candy, we were able to convince Emma and Josh to head off to church. After the service, we got to do some Easter egg hunting and both kids were masters. After a little rest, we spent the afternoon with the Barnard Family as we have for many recent Easters. The kids had a great time playing with and hunting for more eggs. It was definitely a wonderful day celebrating that Jesus is alive.