Bikes, Bugs, Babies and Karate?

We went out for our first family bike ride to the lake this year. It was a bit cold though, at least for mom and dad, so it didn't last as long as we had hoped. But we still had a great time. I pulled the bike trailer up all the hills. All 80 or so lbs of it! We plan to go on many bike rides this summer. Our kids really do love to be outside, and any time I can get them to do something other that TV related stuff I'll take. But I am proud to say that we have only watched about 2 hours total this week of TV! Wahoo!

The other day I heard the kids out the window talking about a prating mantis. Those are one of the few bugs I actually don't mind having around. In fact I'll even hold one. But anyway they were talking about one and I wondered what was going on. So I went outside to our front porch and this is what I found. A nest of praying mantis bugs had literally just hatched and there were at least 100 of these little bugs just under the lip of our porch. Very cool!

Finally, a couple of weeks ago Sadie got a big girl car seat! I was so excited about it because she had been screaming everytime I put her in the car. She was not amused! Well ever since then the baby seat has just been on the garage floor. And everytime she goes by it she has to sit in it! She apparently loves it now that she doesn't have to sit in it.

Oh and I have to share what happened the first day it was in the car. We were going to go to the zoo with Tommy's kindergarten class. I went to put her in the car and she saw her old seat on the floor and her new seat in the car and she was freaking out saying "uh-oh, uh-oh!" But as soon as I put her in the new seat she got the biggest smile ever on her face. But she looks so little in the big girl seat! And then we got to the zoo and she puked all over it!

And I'm not really sure what is going on in this picture... but I thought it was funny. High-yah! Watch out he packs a powerful punch! Or rather kick...

Sometimes don't ya just feel like this?

I thought this was a good picture for today. It has just been one of those days for all of us. But as one of my favorite childhood books says... we all have days like this even in Australia!
I would like to say this about the picture though... even when she is upset, she's still cute! Earlier today she was quite cuddly infact. The boys don't cuddle much anymore now that they are "big," so I always enjoy a good snuggle from her.
I watered my garden today. The peas are growing! I have something else sprouting too, but I can't remember what I planted where so until it gets a bit bigger, I have no idea what it is! I am hoping to plant my tomatoes soon. They are growing, just not in the ground yet. I think I will make salsa again. I made some last year and it was really good. I made 11 jars and I think we have 3 or 4 left. It's way better than store bought and it costs a lot less too!
Well... here's hoping tomorrow will be a better day!

Soccer

Here's Spencer playing soccer.... we aren't too sure that he likes it, but at least he's cute!

Tommy on the other hand LOVES it. If you talk to him about it he'll tell you that he's the best soccer player and he's not quite sure why they don't pick him every time to play. He's actually pretty good. He said he scored two goals this last week.

I'm not sure why, but I don't have a picture of Mark playing this time yet. He's pretty good. He likes to be goalie. I never wanted to be goalie, the thought of balls flying at my head and body just isn't a fun one. But he likes it and he's pretty good. I'll make sure we a get a picture of him this Saturday.

Legoland!

Legos are just about the coolest thing ever. This is a scaled replica of the excaliber hotel in Las Vegas built out of Legos. Mini town USA was the best part of Legoland.

This is part of downtown New York. Again built out of Lego and scaled. The buildings were pretty tall. Taller than me, yes I know I am short, but they were probably two feet or so taller than me.

I can now say I have been to the presidential inauguration (sorry you'll have to bear with my poor spelling). Again I love Legos... they are so cool.

A random picture outside of one of the rides. It's cool only because they built it out of legos.

This was my favorite ride there. You rode in a ship and could squirt water at people. The kids liked it too.

And here we have Dark Vader as my niece calls him. The boys thought it was pretty cool. We'll see him again later on in our trip.

Green food

It has bocome a tradition at our house to eat green food on St Patricks day. This year we had green apple juice, broccolli, pesto with noodles, pears and green great harvest bread. We finished it off with green shamrock cookies. YUMMY! For the rest of the week our kids told me frequently how much they like eating green food. Micheala was waving to Sadie to come sit on her lap, well Spencer thought she was talking to him so he had a seat. Micheala was really cute and just let him sit there. She's a good cousin.

Grandma Lael love to read stories to the kids. They seem to enjoy it too. When we have have family dinner at Grandma's house she always reads the kids a story before we go home.

Another smart cookie

Mark had SEP conferences last week. He's a pretty smart little guy. At school he gets to do Maonster Math. It's a group of kids who are advanced in Math and get to do extra work to keep them c hallenged. He's also a great reader. He has been asking most every night if he can have a turn to read the scriptures to the family and today after school he got home and almost immediatley picked up his book that he's been reading because he wanted to finish it. We are very proud of our little guy!

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Well, Tommy is now 6! It's always amazing to me how quickly time flies! They grow up way too fast. Tommy loves life. He loves to learn. I think he may end up writting someday. He just has a great love for words. He currently is reading on an end of first grade level and they have started giving him spelling tests so that his spelling can keep up with his reading. He's one smart cookie!
He loved his rainbow cake on his birthday. He thought it was so fun that the cake was colored. For those of you who do like food coloring this would not be the cake for you... but it still tasted good!