Monthly Archives: April 2010

Pickin’ Berries

Strawberries

Last week a few of us from the hood, headed out to Marble Falls to pick strawberries.  It was a whole day event and we were all very exhausted at the end of it all, but it was so much fun.

Picking 1 Picking 2

Kate was a quite the helper.

Simon eatingShoving it in

Simon doesn’t quite get the concept of taking small bites.  The idea is complete craziness to him.  It’s got to be all or nothing.

donkey

After lunch, we checked out the animals.  There were some cute baby animals that the kids loved.

Lady bug Lady bug 2

There was this lady bug for a cute photo op… until Kate and Summer treated it like a jungle gym and climbed all over it, leaving behind mud from their shoes on each of the holes.  For some reason, I couldn’t convince the other kids to stick their heads through the holes.

Wagon ride

At the end, the kids got stawberry ice cream or popsicles and I pulled them around in the wagons.  (Pretend I don’t have that scowl on my face; I really was having a good time).

As promised…

Here are some pictures of Simon in the bluebonnets. When I took the pictures of the girls, Simon had a major rash from an allergic reaction. When that finally cleared up, he took a tumble down the driveway and his face met the pavement. You can still see that his face is a little red under his nose.

Simon 1

He’s in a major pointing phase right now.  He points at everything.  He’s really good at letting you know exactly what he wants without speaking a word.  A few days ago, he signed “more milk” to me.  So I went down stairs to get him some.  I took a long time down there so I thought, “Surely he’s forgotten by now that he wanted milk.”  So, I went back upstairs without the milk.  He was sitting on the top stair and before I even got to him, he signed, “more milk” and then pointed down the stairs with this look on his face that said, “Don’t even try to fool me again.”

Simon 2 Simon 3

Simon 4 Simon 5

This boy makes me smile.

The tree

Spring time in Austinland

The bluebonnets are gorgeous this year.  I just couldn’t resist getting out with my new camera and taking some pics of the kids.  I could have spent much more time than we did.  I’ll be heading back out soon!

Audrey 1

Sassy Kate

Indian Paintbrush

Running Kate

Running Audrey

Running girls

Audrey 2

Holding hands

Pictures of Simon are to come.  He’s been a bit under the weather and unphotographable.

Easter

We had a very fun Easter. Our neighbors got together for an Easter egg hunt on Friday.  Simon’s age group went first.

Simon on the hunt Simon discovers jelly beans
He got right into it and quickly discovered that he likes jelly beans.

Kate's hunt Audrey's hunt

There were so many eggs everywhere.  Audrey found the golden egg and got a special prize.

Egg toss Cascarones!

They had an egg toss with Cascarones!  The confetti was a huge hit.

Later on, we had some fun coloring eggs with friends.

Coloring Easter eggs The Finished Product

After 100 lessons, 10 bags of colored marshmallows, 3 boxes of Nerds, some tears, and even more cheers, Kate can read!

Kate was all set to finish up her 100th lesson last Friday, but she decided to mix things up a little bit on Thursday. We finished up lesson 99 and got some books from the library and then Lucas came over to play.  Kate was so excited to read her books from the library, so she read to Lucas.

reading to Lucas

Then, she read to Simon.

Reading to Simon

Then, when Audrey got home from school and her piano teacher came over, Kate informed me that she wanted to do lesson 100 that day.  She had been reading the entire day except when she stopped to play cars with Lucas.  Her tiredness was showing by the end of her lesson, but she did awesome!

When she got done, she said, “Can we go to Build A Bear today?”  It has long been known that when she finished her 100th lesson we would go to Build A Bear.  So, we did it!  It was so fun!

Giving Hello Kitty a bath Prize in hand!

She put a little recording of herself in Hello Kitty’s paw that says, “I love to read.”

She is a reading machine now.  I was looking for something in her closet today and couldn’t find it so I ended up cleaning the whole thing.  While I did, Kate read 12 books to me.

Library books