outdoors and snacks

We have enjoyed being constantly outdoors.  Always searching for animal and plant life.  The kids only venture inside to get a snack but then they go back outside to eat it.  I love late summer.

summer

I am so glad that this summer feels like summer.  Last summer, not so much.  We spend our lives outdoors in the forest, lake, garden, pool, bikes, river, parks, ocean & zoos.  We have adopted popsicles and smoothies as our favorite snacks and eat them daily. Whoa it has been warm.  But no, I am not complaining. 

nursery

Kitt joined Tabor in nursery recently.  She waltzes right in without even looking back.  She is a social butterfly.  It is so weird going to church without a baby on my lap for all three hours.  It's been over 4 years since I have had such a novelty.  I am not really sure how to concentrate for so long. But I figure I will get use to it fast enough. :)

cousins

The kids love to be with their cousins!  More people to get into mischief with! We are so blessed to have such a large loving family!

I have been putting most of my posts on the "teaching toddlers" blog.  I need to find a balance between the two. Sorry. 

Queen Pepper

Pepper has been wearing around her "super fancy" dress and shoes.  She is fairly good about taking them off before our walks in the forest because she understands that we don't want them to get dirty.  But she doesn't understand why you would need to take them off before you go to the grocery store or the library... those are clean places.  Thus she wears them. Here she is on her green throne.

Ramp turned wild

I made a ramp to drive cars down.  But apparently the kids thought it looked more like a slide. Or maybe something to jump over.

Gramy's

 Pepper has had a year long obsession with "curly ferns".

It has not been our typical Seattle spring weather this year.  It has been super warm, with little rain.  We went on a hike and the kids did really well.  They hiked for over an hour without a complaint of someone being tired.  Pepper fell and scraped her knee at one point.  She thought she needed carried for a couple minutes due to her injury (didn't even break skin) but then she braved up and kept walking.  Afterwards we went to Gramy's where she made us root-beer floats. And the kids LOVED watering her plants.  They made her refill their watering cans over and over and over.

park day

Today was a park day.  We practiced letters in the sand, fed the ducks, waded in the water, threw rocks and then played on the playground.  The kids were super cheerful today.  I was super cheerful today!

Lifting Logs

We walk through the forest all of the time pointing out birds, squirrels, slugs and other animals that may come across the path.  Today I decided it was high time we go off the path.  I lifted up a log and the kids were thrilled by all of the bugs living under it.  We spent another hour lifting logs and observing.  

paxman family

This was the first time the "Darrell & Vicki Paxman" family has been together since before Tanner left on his mission.  We went to California.  The house we stayed in was awesome, it was a mile from Disneyland, had Disney murals on the walls and a swimming pool in the backyard.  The kids were great... Korv and Pepper continue to be buds.  Korv is so sweet and puts up with Peppers bossy ways. After the kids went to bed we would play cards or other such games.  I am so glad we all stayed in the same house where the adults could converse at night, because most of our days were spent chasing around children.  We went to the beach, parks, Disneyland, played pickle ball and did some shopping. And we saw the sun, everyday :)

snow

It is spring and we just experienced the first snow (that stuck) of the year.  The kids just had to get out in it before they had their breakfast.  So Pepper is in her pajamas.  After breakfast we got on our snow suits and made a snowman.  The building went great, the kids LOVED it.  All went well until it was time to give the snowmen arms.  Pepper and Tabor picked different sets of sticks.  I could not convince them that we would use one of each of theirs... it was all or none for them.  Soon the argument turned into a fight of hitting each other with their new found sticks.  Tears came and we went inside, our poor snowman is armless.  We have warmed up with hot chocolate and baths.