windsock/jelly fish

We did a craft today. I forget how much children love to make things. My goal is to do more art with my children. I've already done some blog hopping and have a list of craft ideas. Today was the first from my new list. We made mini wind socks. I believe this project came from Family Fun Magazine.

Eli said it looked like a fishing pole. He caught a jelly fish.

Ella liked dancing with hers.

my yogi.

Perhaps I did too much yoga while pregnant, because I think Rhys is doing yoga. Would this be up-dog or plank position?

Or maybe he's trying to show me how tall he is. He can't stand but he can stretch way up on his tippy toes.


Or he could be playing London Bridge is falling down...


I guess he could be learning to crawl. Should I tell him he's doing it wrong?

Easter

We had a great Easter this year. Ella taught us the Easter story in Family Home Evening--I was truly impressed by how much she knew. Ella and Eli spent the week before Easter practicing hiding and finding plastic eggs. Eli gave his binkis to the Easter Bunny (!!!). And Chris even made it home from his night shift in time to join in the Easter egg hunt.

elephants!

We recently went to the Pima County Fair. We watched the Sea Lion show, checked out the live stock and "helped" Farmer John (the children get to harvest fake vegetables, fruit, and eggs, and even milk a fake cow).

These are all very fun, but it wouldn't be the fair without...

Rides:

The petting zoo:

Riding an elephant:

Actually this was the first time we've done the elephant ride, but it was pretty cool.

And now I have the urge to watch "State Fair."

A Rhys update

Rhys is now six months old. I can't believe how big my baby is already.

This was taken on our walk to pick Ella up from preschool. I was sure he'd stay awake...

Rhys can stay in a sitting position, but cannot get into a sitting position on his own.

I love this picture for many reasons. First is his hair. Rhys always has hair sticking up. Second is that he looks like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing...like eating food instead of nursing. I had a hard time coping with him starting to eat "real" food, but now I've come to terms with it.

Enjoying his first swing ride.

Rhys is showing me more each day how he is different from his older brother and sister. Case in point: he rolls over as a form of mobility. Ella and Eli would only roll over if they were on their stomachs and wanted to be on their backs. Rhys rolls all over the house. I love it!

I love my baby Rhys.

fire trucks and blue cupcakes

My big boy is three!!!!

And he really is a big boy. Eli is potty trained (Yay) and has a big boy bed too. He is 39 inches tall and is trying to eat more so that he can grow one more inch before we go to Disneyland in June (a surprisingly good motivation to get my boy to eat something-anything for dinner.)

We celebrated Eli's birthday on March 6th. See how happy he is?

Eli loved all of his presents. The coloring book is from Ella. The firetruck is from me. (As the one who buys all the presents I get to choose the best gift to be from me.)

Chris gave Eli this fishing pole. This was the first time he had seen the present since I am the lucky one who gets to plan these birthday things while Chris gets to work all the time. I was glad he enjoyed the present as much as Eli did. Sadly the $2 fishing pole lasted only two days before Eli managed to destroy it.

Eli cannot blow out candles. If you look closely you can see that his blowing technique is sub par. He ended up needing help to blow them out.

Eli wanted blue cupcakes for his birthday. He decided this at Ella's birthday party back in November because she had pink cupcakes. I was shocked that he remembered his request, but he was adamant that he get them. So I decided to use blue food coloring. And apparently I need to go back to preschool because I added blue food dye to yellow cake mix and made green cupcakes. Eli didn't care though because the frosting (white frosting plus blue dye) was blue.

A few side bar comments: Yes, Eli is wearing a tank top in March -we do live in Tucson. But really he had to wear this shirt because it has Spider-man on it. Also I am glad that he loves his firetruck. Really, I am relieved that I was able to give it to him. He started asking for one in January and I, luckily, had already bought him one in December. When does a mother's plan coincide with her son's desire? I should mention that it is not a good idea to let your son bring his toy firetruck on car rides since he will push the buttons that make loud fire truck noises and give you a panic attack when you think that you are being pulled over by an invisible police car.

my gymnists

Ella and Eli love to go to gymnastics. Eli has an outlet for all his energy, has learned to do summersaults, and is working on his balance on the balance beam. Ella has gained a lot of arm strength as she practices her hand stands and cartwheels. She is (in my opinion) impressively good at the balance beam.

They recently had an observation day and I took a lot of video. But I feel lazy and won't be loading the video for you to see (unless you request it). Here are the three pictures I did take:

See how happy he is to do gymnastics?

This is Ella on the balance beam. I thought the lighting was cool in this shot.

You can see some of the gym equipment in the background. It is a great facility.

I sure hope that we can find a gym in Corpus Christi.