Boating!!!

Our good friends the Watties took us out on their boat on Tuesday. It was AWESOME! It was an all day experience and one that I hope gets repeated many times over the next few months. Neither of the kids had ever been on a boat so this was a first for them. They are both sold and can't wait to do it again.

Pete played hooky from work and I am so glad that he did. He works to darn hard to not enjoy fun outings like this. Heading out Heading to our "island" Izzy's friend from G'boro sent us Flat Stanley so we snapped a quick picture to send back to her! Pete tries to escape the work calls/emails/texts...but can't put the phone down (not yet anyhow...but just wait) Our "island"...and not another soul/boat around! The kids ran, swam, explored and snacked! The boys even took to trying to kill a jellyfish by throwing sand/sticks/shells on it. If you can't get him from the shore...hit him from the above! Super fun so far and about to get better! It is time for tubing! The water was absolutely freezing so Craig pulled us on the tub (first time for my kids) but promised not to go too fast and flip anyone off. It will only be a matter of a couple weeks before the water is warm enough for some serious tubing and flipping. I rode with the boys just in case we flipped. I had explained to my kids that if we fell off the tube to just hang tight in the water and the boat would circle back to pick you up (though it might look like we are going further away at first). In this picture I told the boys to pretend we were in the water already and doing "no hands holding on" - and if my photographer wouldn't have gotten the sand in the picture it would have looked much more realistic! The big girls rode together And then Drew wanted to take another spin with the girls And look who had finally put down the phone and loosened up a bit Heading home Our Captain getting ready to take us under the "big bridge"... Tired boys It was an awesome day! This was the girls saying goodbye to one another (we live 4 houses apart) after getting off the boat, but before getting in our cars to drive the 2 miles back home. This is one of my all time favorite pictures ever!

St. Patrick's Day

It wasn't until I was in high school that I remember St. Patrick's Day being such a big deal. In high school one of my best friend's mom would make us a huge breakfast and then we would all head downtown on the rapid transit to the parade. The best part was that if it was a school day then our super awesome parents would let us "ditch" school!

These days schools gear up for St. Patrick's day with lots of talk of naughty leprechauns. Beginning about two weeks before the actual day, my kids talk about all the fun/naughty stuff that those leprechauns will probably do to their classrooms. Last year Izzy's class was filled with green glitter and green toilet water, as well as many items were repositioned to silly locations throughout the room.

This year, Izzy had to make a leprechaun trap. Our trap was a oatmeal container made to look like a leprechaun hat. We hung a pot of gold above the hat to entice the leprechaun up our stick ladder, and once he tried to get the pot of gold he would fall through our trap door at the top of the hat! We though for sure we were going to catch a leprechaun!









Leprechauns are known for not following instructions...






Here are the kids in their St. Patty's day attire...





So Drew - the boy can't just stand for a picture without a goofy face or crazy pose.


We didn't do anything to crazy for St. Patty's Day, but we did have some green food.


And while we totally thought we would catch a leprechaun with our super cool trap, we didn't. Darn.