Look at Me!!

I was convinced that Kathryn was miles away from walking - she hasn't seemed at all interested in holding my fingers and walking, she pulls herself up, but quickly drops down to crawl. All of that changed yesterday. She started pulling the same stunt as Anika. She will find something in the middle of the room (e.g. socks) and stand up without touching anything. She hasn't made any strides yet but she is definitely working on balance. Perhaps, like Anika and Andrew before her, she will take her first steps on her first birthday - a lot can happen in 5 day!

She is so excited and proud of herself. She kept waving Dad's sock!

Mistlin Morning

Today begins a warm up -- supposedly we are going to be in the triple digits this weekend!!!! We took the kids to Mistlin Park today so have a picnic lunch and enjoy the sprinklers. A great time was had by all (we even brought Scout along!). These were taken with Lloyd's iphone so the quality isn't great.

Can we build it? Yes, we can!

I've been pretty ambivalent about getting a sandbox for our backyard. I could just envision sand everywhere -- but the joy that it brings my kids outweighs the hassle and so I started work on a sandbox. Since we have a nice planter box that doesn't have any sprinklers, I decided to retrofit it:-) We dug out the dirt, put down a liner, and added some sand - presto a sandbox!


A little beach in our backyard:

Dress-Up Reprise

As you Wicker Fam blog watchers know, Anika loves dressing up. Now she likes to dress up and say "Mom, take a picture to put on the blog". (Sigh, what have I done!) Here is Anika in a familar dress, but with a new twist -- she added a train.

Mother's Day

I read a newspaper article yesterday that opined that Dads are responsible for making Mom feel special on Mother's Day at least "from gestation to the moment they [their kids] can hold a glue stick." It made me laugh --not because I necessarily agree with the sentiment but because Anika spent the afternoon yesterday with a glue stick, making me a card. She was so excited to hand it to me this morning. Andrew gave me a great big hug (a super hug) and Kathryn was a trooper throughout this busy Sunday. I was blessed by Anika during her conversation with her Grandma this afternoon when she said, "Today is the day we thank mom for all her hard work!" Thank you, Anika! You make the work worth doing.

Summer in our Backyard. . .

Grandpa Boeck gave Lloyd this game for Christmas and we are finally getting it out and playing with it. Anyone for a game of Lasso Golf???

Sprinklers anyone???

Enjoying a Spring Day

The only picture I could get of Drew (an action shot!): Kathryn really gets around:

Anika performs on her trike:

I asked Anika to go in the house for the camera and she took this shot on her way back:-)

(Grand) Mom's Day Craft

Anika & Andrew sat down to send a special picture to their grandmas for Mother's Day. We had so much fun. (Hopefully, this arrives before Nene and Grandma see this post:-))

Hard at work:
Anika's picture for Nene:
Andrew's picture for Nene:
I was in such a hurry to get Grandma's pictures sent off to IL that I didn't get a picture of them but Anika was very creative with buttons again:-)

Maid, Cook, Theologian???

Parenting requires all sorts of skills. Some I feel much more prepared for, others leave me at sea. Cooking and cleaning I can accomplish with some degree of mastery. I find discipline and theology to be more of a moving target -- especially as my little ones grow. This morning we had an interesting discussion. (I'll see if I can remember enough to clue you in. . .)

From the living room:
Andrew: I gonna be Jesus
(Mom's ears perk up)
Mom: So, Drew, who are you?
Drew: I Jesus
Anika: He can't be Jesus! That takes Jesus' name away
[Editor's note: Anika hears "take Jesus' name in vain" as "take Jesus' name away" - I kinda like it!]
Drew: But He does good things!
Mom: Yes, Drew, I'm glad you want to be like Jesus
Drew: Yes, he takes peoples' sin away.
Mom: Isn't that wonderful!
Drew: Yep, he takes their friends away.
Mom (confused): No, Andrew, not their friends, their sins.
Drew: Oh. . .
Mom: Do you know what sins are?
Drew: No
Mom: Well, sins are naughty things we do like disobeying, taking things that aren't ours, being mean. . .
Drew (getting into it): and hitting, and 'neaking candy, and stealing babies -- That's bad manners!
[Editors note: I don't know that Andrew knows much about stealing babies - I think he was looking at the baby doll that Anika was playing with. Also, our "Good Manner Jar" seems to be working at least on some level. . .]

Attention span exceeded, Andrew moves on to the next thing. Mom sits down to blog about it:-)

Growing Up

They just keep growing!

Mom's Club Pedicure

It isn't even Mother's Day yet and I've had a wonderful month:-) Our Mom's Club at church had a day without the kids. We had babysitters at church and we treated ourselves to pedicures. It was wonderful, relaxing, encouraging. . . A great time to chat and be pampered.

Before:





After:

If the shoes fits. . .

Anika & Andrew raided mom's closet and found my boots. They thought they were pretty cool strutting around in my shoes. (I was just waiting for them to turn an ankle in my heels!)

Disneyland Delight

Our day at Disney was a cool and overcast - PERFECT! (Since we totally missed out on pictures of Kathryn during of California Adventure day, I've made up for it in these posts:-))

The cousins:

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride:

King Arthur's Carousel:

It's a Small World

Kathryn was enthralled:

Andrew & Simon:
Anika & Nathaniel:

On Tom Sawyer's Island:

(Kathryn was crazy to get out of the stroller and crawl for awhile!)