Some animals are turnal

From James:

Rudy and I were discussing animals that come out at night. I told him they were called "nocturnal." We were talking about animals a little later and Rudy described one as "turnal." I said, no - animals that come out at night are called nocturnal.

Rudy insisted that the animal he was describing was turnal.

I said, no...some animals are nocturnal.

He didn't seem to udnerstand what my problem was and said, "Yeah...some animals are turnal and some animals are NOT."

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Maggie had her surgery nearly 10 months ago. I told Rudy we'd be taking her to the doctor today. He asked me if we were going to get her leg back.

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Both kids call the things in this ^ picture "binoclears". I've gotten so used to hearing (and saying) this myself that I recently could NOT remember the real word. It was quite embarrassing to be talking to another grown up and have to say binoclears!

Sunny and sandy

The weather was insanely hot last weekend, in the mid-90s! The pool isn't open yet, so we cooled off by flooding the sandbox.

Before we came inside, we sprayed the kids down with the hose and then they made "belly prints" on the sidewalk.

Bummer stinkers

Rudy has been testing out some new vocabulary lately. We've had to correct him a few times with his usage of the "d-word". James sat him down for a serious talk tonight about how it's not a word that the kids are allowed to use. The discussion segued into a talk of which words they can use when something doesn't go as planned.

Later that night, they were flying a toy airplane outside. The first time it didn't fly right, Rudy exclaimed, "Bummer!! ... Can I say bummer?"

J: Yes, you can say bummer.

The next time it didn't work, Rudy exclaimed, "Stinkers!! ... Can I say stinker?"

J: Yes, you can say stinker.

R: OK. Bummer stinkers!!

Earth Week

We've been doing activities to 'celebrate' Earth Day all week. So far we have...

Made napkin rings from recycled materials:

Recycled old crayons into new ones:

Built a "bean tepee". (We planted beans that will eventually grow up and around the tepee poles to make a fort.)

Made a bird feeder (from a recycled bottle):

Written a list of things we do that are good for the earth:

The list reads:
PlAnt VEGGEES
REESiKLE
KOMPOSTE
tAKE BAGS
tURN OFF tHe LitE
Biy FOOD FRUM FRM (buy food from farm)
tRN OFF the WODR
HELP the BrDS

and, we even saved a hummingbird!

This one wasn't a planned activity, but this guy (or girl) was trapped in our garage. He let me catch him in my hand and then even hung out on my fingers for a full minute or two so Rudy could get a closer look!

We've since seen him several times at our hummingbird feeder!

April showers

We played hooky yesterday. It was rainy and chilly and the perfect day to stay home, watch movies, and bake cookies. We did venture out for an afternoon stroll in the rain.

Hanging out with Ru

Wake up duty

I sent Brady to wake up Rudy. When they both didn't come right back down, I went to check on them and this is what I found...Such good brothers!!

I wanna do a chore!

It's been a month, and we're still all about the chore charts around here. Both kids have no problem finishing their required number of chores each week, and Brady even made some money last week.

Rudy chose window washing (for 10 minutes) as one of his last week. Not sure he has a career in it, but it was a good effort!

Latest woodworking project

James just completed his most recent project - an armoire/desk for him to use in the office. Maybe this will be the answer to our 10-year 'discussion' about where his stuff belongs :)

Ragamuffins

We had dinner with friends Saturday night. It was a beautiful evening, so the kids were running wild outside. They did agree to sit still (well, relatively still) for cupcakes:

She's not mine...but I love this picture! You can tell Bella had a great day!

Waiting for the fire in the chimenea:

More Easter Pics

Lots more pictures of the boys from Easter. You can tell the sugar had kicked in for most of these :)

Brady, acting goofy, and Rudy, striking a pose:

Kisses from Maggie:

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday started out with a hunt for Easter baskets.

We had breakfast and then did the egg hunt. The boys found 103 of the 106 eggs the bunny hid...we still haven't located the last three!

Brady, checking out his loot:

After church, we went to the neighborhood egg hunt.

Rudy thought he needed to check nearly every egg before putting in his bag. This is his sad, the-egg-is-empty face:

Updates

So...last week when I said this:

So far, we're all in the clear. So, either 1) we've all developed an immunity to the itchy poison, 2) James and I are botanically inept and it wasn't really poison oak, or 3) we did a bang up job of scrubbing down. Either way, I'm thankful that Rudy is OK and we're all itch-free.

Apparently, I forgot 4) we haven't waited long enough for the itching to start. James and I are both sporting some lovely patches of poison oak itch.

Also, remember I promised (threatened?) more pictures from our CA trip? I've added those additional posts...
Los Angeles, Day 2
PCH, Day 1

Easter eggs

We had such a good time dyeing Easter eggs that we even colored the raw, non-boiled eggs - livin' on the edge! (We managed not to break any, or to mix them up in the cooking!)


Brian and Rebecca bought the boys new kites for Easter. It took a lot of college degrees to get them assembled...and by the time they were done there was no wind to fly them!

A few laughs, complements of Rudy

Between our travels and the Easter excitement, the poor kid was exhausted this weekend. He asked to go to bed at 7:15 Saturday and requested a nap Sunday afternoon. He was pretty pooped Sunday night at bedtime, too, but he was bawling about 15 minutes after I tucked him in. I went back up, to find him as a sobbing mess in his bed. I asked what was wrong.

"These aren't my din-o-saur pajama pants. These pants don't match my pajama shirt."

We changed his bottoms into his matching dinosaur pajama pants and he cuddled right up with his blanket. When we checked on him later, this is what we found:

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He was trying to eat his mashed potatoes at our Easter dinner yesterday. They were hot, so he commanded Brian and Oma to blow on them. They told him to blow on his potatoes himself.

His eyes got all watery and the lower lip came out. He said, "But I don't have stronger blowers."

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Brady made up a joke in California (Where is a cow's favorite place to go? A mooo-seum!). He tried to tell Rudy at breakfast this morning, but Rudy had his own punchline and now has a joke of his own.

Where do cows go on vacation?
To Cow-ifornia!!

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