Little Girls Have Dance Recitals

...and they're a lot of fun!  At least when it's your little girl that you're watching.  This isn't one of the things that raced through my head when the nurse said "it looks like you're having a little girl!"... but it should have been.  That might have lessened the effect of the thoughts of teenage boys and having to get a shotgun that were making me break out in cold sweats.  Without further lettered distractions, here's the video that we got from here recital (camerawoman credits got to the Tiffinator).

End of the School Year

Kayla had her last day of preschool today.  She attended the First Federated Church's Bo Peep preschool and loved it.  Last week they went on a field trip to Linden Hill Farm where they got to see (and pet!) lots of different animals.  We registered her for the FFC's preschool for next year too.  Here are some pictures of the field trip and her last day today:

Waiting to get kicked in the face by the lamb.

Watching the horses.

Petting a chicken.

Petting a calf.

In the milking room.

The class with her teachers and the farmer's wife.

Looking very grown-up!

Logan was busy sweeping while I was trying to get some good shots of little Miss.

Finally decided to smile!

With her teachers, Ms. Wilson and Ms. Wolfe.

Blowflowers

You know the cold dark winter is officially over (cross your fingers) when the dandelions are out...

...and Kayla's loves planting weeds.

Enjoy the springtime!

Kids are Awesome

 ...and apparently it's headlamp Thursday.  I'll have to remember next week.

Grandma!

Last weekend Tiffany jetted off for some much needed "chatting with friends on the beach" time, and as I spend my weeks on the Texas-Oklahoma line, my mom was gracious enough to come out and help with the kids.  It was pretty rough on Tiffany (as you can see - she's an exclamation point), but somehow she pulled through.

The kids loved getting their way with Grandma, and it was great to have her out to visit.  Thanks again mom!

St. Patrick's Day

I'm married to a girl that loves holidays.  I mean loves them.  Even the ones that don't count as vacation, like St. Patrick's day.  As a result, I woke up groggy and being pinched because I hadn't had the foresight to put on any green underpants the night before.  But really, that's part of the fun.  This morning, we woke up to everything being green-washed, including breakfast.

While at first green pancakes might seem a bit sam-I-am-ish, they were quite delectable with maple syrup.  The green smoothie is a regular at our breakfast table, but this time it was extra-green for the festivities.    The kids too got in on the celebration of St. Patrick (what are we really celebrating with this one by the way?), Logan with an awesome bow tie and Kayla kicking and screaming in a green skirt because she wanted to wear something pink that her Grandma got her.  Her outfit satisfied both of those requirements, but she still wasn't convinced.  She eventually came around though, and narrowly avoided an entire day of being pinched by St. Patty's day revelers.

 

Happy almost-springtime everyone, and Happy Birthday Jen & Marcus!  Big hugs all around, and pray for sunshine!

 

Zooniversary

Five years ago Tiffany and I got married.  Really it's been almost six years (at a bonfire on Tiffany's b-day)  that we've been nearly inseparable, if you neglect the past few months where I've been touring the midwest for work, but I digress.  Some couples might celebrate something like this with a trip somewhere like Europe or the Caribbean, but we opted for somewhere more exotic - Missouri.  We went to St. Louis where it was a little warmer, a little wetter, and they have great BBQ and an awesome Zoo.  As well, one perk of living in a hotel for the past few months is that we got upgraded to a suite (Kayla loved the two TVs and her pull-out bed).

Logan and I at Pappy's  - he was a natural.

And Kayla lover her Strawberry Fizz.

At the pool - Logan was a little fish and Kayla has almost gotten over her fear of the water.

At the science museum learning about physics and static structures hands-on...  it took her about 20 seconds to destroy the gateway arch.

They also had an animatronic T-Rex, but Kayla was somewhat afraid (read terrified) to get close.  She was however open to doing impressions.  I believe what you see above is her impression of a triceratops that just noticed the T-Rex around the corner, and below is her best T-Rex impression...

...which looks surprisingly like her Hippopotamus impression.

Checking out the elephants - there was a whole family, and Kayla (and Tiffany) thought it was awesome.  See lil' Stampy below

And this guy appears to be hatching a plan for escape.  Just biding his time...

Giving loves to his sleeps sister (I have no idea how she slept through his mauling)

Hitting the road on the way back to the car!

As I'm finishing this I'm realizing that I don't have any sappy pictures in this post.  Tiffany, I guess that will fall on you for the sequel!

Shameless Post of Pics of the Grandkids

Rule #1. To keep the Grandparents happy, live nearby.

Rule #2. When you violate rule #1, post lots of pics.

Rule #3.  Remember rule #2 (we're working on it)

 Logan loves apples.  Really the Log-man loves food. Anything edible.

 He also loves seeing what type of container would be ideal for shipping a big sister to Indonesia.

 ...and playing with the phone (watch out - he looks so cute, but really he's just deleting apps and sending texts).

 Obligatory bath-time shot

 He's graduated to climbing all of the stairs in the house, not just the pansy carpeted ones.

 One of many fancy-shpancy Sunday hairdos.

 Obligatory bathtime shot #2.

 Escape!

 Right now the kids love each other, we'll need to blow this up and frame it as a reminder...

 Spelunk!

 Build!

 Sled!

 More Loves!

 Kayla gets into mischief...

 ...while Logan cleans up the mess...

 ...and eats snow.

 Seat of your pants parenting tip:  When you're caught off guard by the snow and don't have a sled, the laundry basket will do in a pinch...

... though not that well.  It's got to be a pretty tight pinch.

 Attacking Tiff with a snowball.  Look at the form!

No wait, look at that form!

 Logan prefers the "I eat my snow by the fist-full" method

Tiffany's method hearkens back to the "if you lick soft enough you can get individual flakes" school.

No, fistful works best.

Happy end of February!