Talk about recycling!

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cool site...

Easter!

So this year we went to my parents house (South Lake Travis, about 20 min. outside Austin) for Easter weekend, and got to see my sister and her family as well! We love to see cousin Pey Pey... Adelyn slept through the egg hunt Saturday afternoon at the neighborhood park, but Kenna had a blast! She was a little overwhelmed being in the 4-8 year old group (man those kids can move!), but she jumped in and with a little help from Mama got some eggs, did a few crafts, and had fun playing on the playground until it started raining!

GrAnne and Peyton!

So Sunday after church we came home to the "real" egg hunt, although it took some convincing to get Kenna to realize that the Easter bunny HIDES eggs - he doesn't just throw them out on the ground like most of the egg hunts she has done this year... and they were fun, don't get me wrong, but she was going to have to look for these eggs! Of course we had a map of where all the eggs where and if it was too easy we made Kenna skip over it... she was a great sport for letting Adelyn find some! They were amazed to find their names on a few eggs, and of course a few were already cracked (in the hiding process no doubt...) but I think next year it will be really interesting!

And when we got home on Sunday we were greeted by our first adult ladybug! Hard to see in the picture, I know, but it is on the 'grey rock' just above the "Ladybug Land" sign. The really big blobs are the raisins we put in for them to feed off of... Just over a week later they are all out (13) and we are releasing them in our garden tomorrow morning (Kenna said it was o.k. to wake her up early for that... I actually think this time she will jump out of bed!)

And we have a tomato... 3 actually, but the other 2 are still super tiny.... we'll have enough for salad oh, maybe by July! :)

Well I finally got on here to post some Easter pictures and some just fun pics of what we have been doing, only to realize I haven't even downloaded them from my camera yet!!!!

It has been a crazy 2 weeks since I have officially started working mornings at Kenna's school, and I am actually Kenna's homeroom teacher now! I teach Discovery during rotations, which is pretty much science, which if you know me is right up my alley! We have our own Ladybug Land at school and will be releasing our 15 pink-spotted ladybugs Tuesday! I will certainly have to try and get pictures of that. This week we are studying all types of bugs, so it will fit right in! I have 5 classes that rotate to me for 30 minutes each, including my own class, and man does the morning fly by... We also have a leopard gecko in our class (who we are currently having a renaming contest since we just found out it's not a boy - used to be Gus!) Any recommendations for good girl lizard names? Our favorites so far are Sandie and Lizzie...

Well I do have our Easter bunny picture to post, so here it is:
Nobody shed a tear this year and the bunny got lots of hugs from both girls! We went one day after school so I didn't mess with getting them all fancy in their Easter dresses, but it was fun and the girls like checking out the picture all the time! Wonder how long that will last... :)

And among our finds at the Trader's Village a few weekends ago were these really cute headbands, and both girls love wearing them! I am really trying to grow Adelyn's hair out (we have not even trimmed it yet!) so it would be great if she became a fan of headbands! She's not a fan of plastic rubberbands going in her hair...



So I'll have to get my pictures downloaded... we have lots of ladybugs in our land at home, 3 tomatoes out in the garden, and lots of funny Easter pics to share... check back soon?

It was a busy weekend...

even with Papa out of town! Joel went to Corpus for some golf and basketball with Pa and Uncle Mackey, so we kept busy with friends and playgroups!

Our playgroup's Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday at the Keller-Smithfield Activity Node:

EGGS!

she's on the loose!

Just the girls!


On Saturday we met my friend Jennifer and her two girls at the Trader's Village in Grand Prarie! Sort of something in between the small 3rd Monday Trade Days in McKinney and the huge weekend festivals in Canton... Lots of booth selling all kinds of things, and they even have a kids area with rides! Nothing like a good turkey leg and a cold beer on a beautiful Saturday afternoon...

Although it was a fun day with the kids, I'd love to go back soon sans kids and do some bargain hunting! Anybody up for a day trip? :)

So what are we growing right now?

After the first round of plantings we thought we either had a resident bunny or some cats who like fruits and veggies, because all the strawberries turning pink were nibbled on (and our dogs don't nibble!), and a few of the tomato plants were down to stumps! I could tell Blakely had done a little digging on one side, but I think she was smelling the bunny... Maddie was nice enough (ugh) to bring the bunny to me last week, so we don't have to worry about that anymore... Joel told me I set the trap (garden) so I think we'll skip any bird baths in the yard for now since Maddie would be all over that!

Anyway, here's a few pics (taken by McKenna!) of what's in our garden right now:

strawberries!

Here's one I took of the lovely grid system I have going to try to deter anyone from getting in! I am trying to put off making a cage around it, and since we already had lots of these stakes I figured we would try this first!

So far we have 3 tomato plants, 3 strawberry plants, and a few herbs in the middle... will have to transplant a few once we get another box going! I think the '75 days to maturation' is going to kill me, especially since McKenna is already saying "mom where are the tomatoes?" Ahhh!

We do have a few bugs in the garden that I am excited about - ladybugs! Well, we have found several lady bug larvae (and how exactly do I know what they look like you ask? that's coming up!). Here are some of the best shots I could get! I really need to break out the bigger camera!

Even Kenna can spot these now and gets really excited! We have talked about how they eat the bad bugs and since we have seen several mature lady bugs around we hope this little one will make it and be good luck for our garden! So how do we know that these are lady bug larvae?

Introducing - LADY BUG LAND!

I ordered 2 of these kits several weeks ago, one for my class at school (they love it!) and one for us! Check out these kits and more at http://www.insectlore.com/ So they send you the dome house, and a tube with these little larvae and food in it (already hatched from their eggs!). We just keep a little water in there and soon they will become pupae (pretty much just like butterflies) and about 5 days later they are supposed to come out mature - these are supposed to be PINK spotted ladybugs - we can't wait to see!

And Kenna has been using the dropper from lady bug land to water the seed she planted at school! Like I said before, it will certainly be a test of patience waiting for all these thing to grow!

Gymboree!

So in February I decided to enroll Adelyn in some play classes at Gymboree (which we are pretty much done with now since i switched to working mornings!) - I did some of these classes when Kenna was little in McKinney, and they were pretty fun! Not really gymnastics skills, but more just organized play with a theme each week (push/pull, over/under, etc.) and they do the parachute and bubbles and such... decided to take the camera last time since and snap some 'in action' photos! I have some video too, on my phone (which I can't seem to hotsync right now!) so i will have to post that later!

we walk in the door and she is pointing at her wrist saying "Gymbo, Gymbo" since they do stamps at the end of class! It has been really fun and I am going to miss our little time together...