White Deer & Lake Benson Parks

On Sunday, I planned to take the kids out for the whole day so Zac could get stuff done. It was a beautiful warm spring day, so I took the kids down to the adjacent White Deer Park and Lake Benson Park.  Since they are near Izzy's neck of the woods, I reached out to Natasha to see if she wanted to do a playdate. She was heading out of town for a conference, but was able to drop Izzy off with us for a few hours.  

The kids had a great time on the playground and in the field.

Then we went over to the nature play area and had a picnic on a grassy knoll.

Then they played some more.

Alice took these pictures of Simon with a fort that they found int he woods and added to.

Portrait of a mother, by Alice.

Followed by a selfie.

Simon loves climbing trees!

Emory, Towns and Hans

On Saturday afternoon, we had Emory over for a playdate and I took the kids to the park for part of the time.

That evening, we went to Zac's work party at the NCSU golf course clubhouse. Emory was there, and so was Towns, a daycare friend (although the kids didn't really remember him).  They all ran around together gathering golf balls and playing. At some point Alice started calling Towns "Hans" and then Simon called him the same thing. I don't know why I found it hilarious.

(Don't worry, there is not a drop off on the other side of this wall. It's just a little wall to enclose the firepit.  So it was a fine evening where we got to sit around a gas fire pit with the Raleigh skyline in the background.

You need to be awake at 8:29

Simon's messages to us this morning, pushed under the crack in our bedroom door.

Bus Stop Beauties

Kitty's progress report

According to Simon, "The kitty is behaving good!"

Bat Devil?

Based on her drawings, what kind of teenager do you think Alice will be?

Signs of Spring

I live twenty years

They must have had some health-related program at school last week, because Simon has recently gotten the idea that if he forgoes sweets, he will live for twenty more years.  He often skips his after-dinner treat now.  I'm trying to convince him he'll live thirty more years if he eats some ice cream, but he doesn't seem to believe me.

Sight words

 In his spare time, Simon has been making alphabetical lists of every sight word he can think of.  That's normal, right?

Falls Lake

Zac took the kids to Falls Lake today while I graded, took my walk, and did laundry and other miscellaneous chores.  It works out pretty well in terms of productivity for us to each take the kids for one of the weekend days.

It was a beautiful day.

The greenway is starting to turn green.

We're on the cusp of spring...

Reptile Day at the Science Museum

On Saturday, I took the kids for the day.  We were having our neighbors Kim and Mike over for supper, so once again Zac was tasked with cleaning the house in addition to other chores and errands.

It was reptile day at the science museum.  The kids mainly did the crafts and activities, and glanced at the creatures a bit.

Simon's obsession with writing sight words carried over there as well.  Alice had brought a little notebook with her (she mainly draws pictures) but Simon kept taking pages out so he could write words.

The kid is completely incorrigible.

I had them play outside a bit afterwards to try and get some energy out.

Mornings with Alice

Mornings with Alice can be rough. She apparently was not fond of this french toast Zac made for her.

Went I passed by her room, I noticed these notes that Simon had evidently slid under her door in the morning. She'll stay in her room and read on the weekend mornings sometimes now, instead of running around the house with Simon.

"Alice, I love you and mom and dad. Love."

"And please can you come downstairs soon?"

You ate my son

To pass the time while Alice worked on a craft at the science museum, I played this fill-in-the-blank word game with Simon. It was going pretty well and keeping him occupied.

But then suddenly things took a dark turn when he thought the word was "ate" instead of "are."

Rockin' Kids

On Sunday Zac took the kids to Laurel Hills park.

It was such a warm and beautiful day that we had supper on the deck.

Eventful day

In addition to putting the fish in the tank today, I had planned out a fun day to get the kids out of the house so Zac could clean it. The weather wasn't great, so we did indoor stuff.

First, we went to see How to Train your Dragon #3 at the movie theater. Alice did fine, but Simon squirmed around a lot and kept asking how much longer the movie had.

After the movie, we went to lunch at the McDonalds with the play place.  We had lunch and the kids got some energy out on the climbing things. In a classic Alice moment, at one point she managed to slide into the table, knock her juice box over with her hair, then squirt a bunch out the straw while grabbing it.

Then we went to the library.

Finally we went home and Donovan and his family came over for dinner.

Fish tank day!

The note from Alice says, "Dear Dad, The fish tank looks great. I can't wait to put the fish in."

So today was finally the day!  After breakfast, Zac took the kids out to the holding tank in the garage and let them catch the fish to put in the big tank. The fish are from our pond.

There they go!

Zac spent a lot of time preparing this tank. He bought it off Craigslist for a pretty good deal. He scraped the blue pain off the back of the tank and painted it black. He built bigger doors for the stand so he could more easily service the giant filter, and repainted it.

It's a great addition to our dining room!

Simon's spelling test

Simon is the kid who wakes up on a Saturday morning and gives himself a spelling test over sight words.

And makes scary masks!

In green: "Scary  Roar"

In red: "This is scary"

In pencil: "Does this look scary? Yes it does."

Alice's student-led conference

This afternoon, Zac went to Alice's student-led conference, where she showed him her portfolio and talked about what she was learning. (Neither one was big on sharing the details, so that's all I have to report.)

 

Notes from the Kids

Alice proudly presented this to me after school one day.

"Dear mom, the summer is going to be fun. I can't wait! I hope we go to the pool.  This summer is going to be the best!"

(The irony is that I'm kind of dreading the summer since I decided to try and save money and embrace my parenting role and not sign the kids up for camps all summer.)

Simon loves to play games where we have to guess words. Today after his shower he went and wrote this.

"Mom, I like you, but guess what word is behind here and no peeking."

The Fish Tank

Zac has been spending a lot of time refurbishing a giant fish tank and stand he bought off Craigslist.

It's almost ready!  He just has to put the doors he made on it (had to widen them to fit the giant filter tank under it) and add some fishies.

Homework

We usually have the kids do their homework at the dining room table after supper every day. 

Simon can finish his packet for the week in about 15 minutes.  We make Alice practice her spelling words every day. I've started making games like crosswords and words searches to make this process less painful. She enjoys the puzzles, but still really struggles with spelling. Alas.

Simon reads...sort of

So of course he's reading along just fine until I tried to make a video of it...