An awesome day

We had so much fun today! It was a gorgeous day, so after we got home from gymnastics, we spent several hours playing in the backyard. Our neighbor Emilio played outside with us. We had ice-cube-on-the-spoon races. (We are already doing a lot to make sure we're raising little nerds. We want to make sure they're ready to rock middle-school gym, as well as science!) (Nathan was the good little gym teacher's assistant, helping restock the spoons with ice cubes.)

We jumped off the stump.



We ate lunch at the picnic table. (Nathan was beside himself with the coolness of eating with the big kids.)



We used spray bottles to clean the patio furniture, pollinate the tulips, and water the tree.

(Note the direction Nathan's spray bottle is pointed. It stayed that way the whole time.)


We even rested a bit.

And we ate popsicles. (The usefulness of the stick was lost on Nathan. I feel like this whole post has been pointing out Nathan's amusing silliness. He adores being with Rachel and doing whatever she's doing--or trying, at least--and it is an absolute hoot to watch him figure it all out.)


We have much else to report, but after such an awesome day, the rest will have to wait a bit as we all recharge!

Laura lives. Tarzan too.

Any of you dear and faithful readers who knew me as a young girl, especially if we hung out together in Hayward, will appreciate this:


This is, perhaps, even cuter:



Again, we were getting ready to go to the park. Sunglasses seemed the perfect contemporary complement to the sunbonnet. Nathan wanted the coolness of shades but not the vision compromise. Made me laugh. (Backstory: My mom made me two sunbonnets--just like those that dangled down Laura Ingalls's back--and I wore them at the beach for a number of summers. Loved them. We uncovered this one a couple of weeks ago, and Rachel took to it right away, much to her mother's delight.)

Nathan insists on protective gear for many activities. Before we leave the house, no matter the weather, he pulls out a jacket and wants help putting it on. He also usually wants a hat, though we've been pretty successful at convincing him the winter hat is not necessary these days. And he won't eat until he has a bib on. Then, midway through breakfast the other day, I looked up and saw this:



Silly boy. Must wear the bib, but that one shoulder can get plenty of yogurt on it with no worries. Thought you might be amused, too!

Alleluia!

We've had some really glorious weather around here lately. We've gotten to spend lots of time outside. Nathan has been initiated into the running-down-the-block-to-meet-Daddy club. (He tried crawling down the block a few times last summer, but this is way cooler.)
Easter weekend, Rachel met up with her catechesis class to dig up their Alleluia banners, which they'd buried at the beginning of Lent. It rained that morning, but there was much rejoicing all the same.

The weather cleared in time for a family bike ride after lunch--Nathan's first time in the trailer, and he liked it! (Having Rachel with him, as well as a cup of goldfish, may have sweetened the deal.)

Then Nathan started driver's ed. He's precocious, but we all knew that already.

And we dyed our eggs--outside!

We put the sparkly cookie icing from Aunt Beth to beautiful use.

Rachel took very seriously her job of processing with her Alleluia banner at church.

And this is how my nutty children get ready for a trip to the park! We've been spending a lot of time there--Rachel contorts herself and climbs all over everything like the gymnast she is, and Nathan ambles around, mostly trying to get under the feet of as many big kids as possible. (At least, that's how it seems to the one charged with protecting him from feet.) He's quite a champion at going up stairs and down slides--a real park-player.

Quite a springtime we're having! Hope you're enjoying it, too!

The oldest restaurant

Rachel goes to catechesis on Saturdays. She enjoys it, but she doesn't tell us too much about it. A few weeks ago, we were asking her at dinner what she'd learned about that morning, and she said: "Jesus and his brothers." Hmmm. Okay. What did you learn about them? "They prayed together, and then they all went to the Olive Garden." Tee-hee! We were amused. As one friend put it, I'm sure all those words were somewhere in the story she heard. She's just putting it into a context she can understand.

Then, last night, she spent a very long car ride (yucky traffic jam!) asking questions like these:

--What's the thing on top of a submarine?
--Why do submarines have periscopes?
--How do you get milk from a cow?
--Does ice cream come from the ground?
--Do you have to wash your hands after you touch a cow's nipple?
--What's lightning?
--What does scurry mean?
--Why did the guy in the song want to scurry at the top of his lungs?

I can totally understand why she sleeps so hard, if her brain is working that hard all the time!

(And, in case you find yourself touching a cow's nipple unexpectedly, we decided you probably should wash your hands after you touch any part of a cow. Just FYI.)