Rapunzel!

The Princess that Julia really, REALLY, wanted to see was Rapunzel. So we stood in line to see her.  Julia was in HEAVEN! She talked Rapunzel's ear off. Julia was on could nine afterwards.

Julia wanted to see her again, that she stood in line for over an hour to see her again on our last day there.

She had to hug her each time too.

Guess where we went?!

DISNEYWORLD!!!!

At Disney Hollywood Studios, Julia got to make her own PURPLE LIGHTSABER! She has been wanting a purple lightsaber for a long time. We made Jude a blue one at the same time.

A BUNCH of princess pictures to come!

My train spotter!

For those of you who don't know, Jude LOVES, LOVES, LOVES trains. There is a active train track close to our house. If you stand in certain parts of our yard, you can see the trains go by. Jude LOVES this and always runs to one of these spots when outside and he hears a train coming. One day he decided to just sit his chair there and watch the trains.

Trying for an Easter picture!

This year was tough to try to get a picture of the kids in their good Easter outfits.

First several tries were horrible!

"Wait, where did Jude go in this one!?"


Finally Jerrod stepped in and tried to help with moderate success!


Once at church, Julia seemed to be more photogenic.


Jude, not so much.


Once at my parent's house, I at least got them together and smiling. Abet, with blue candy ring face!

Oh, well. Such is life with young kids!

Blame it on the weather

I blame my lack of posting on the nice weather. If the weather is nice, the kids and I are going to be outside. I have got half of my garden planted, a bunch of my flowerbeds done, and much more. By the time I have supper dishes cleaned up, baths done and the kids in bed, all I want to do is take a hot bath to relax or just go to bed myself!

I have been kindly reminded that everyone else has Easter pictures posted, but I don't. I probably have over a month's worth of pictures still on my camera.

If I only didn't have to sleep!

Conversations with strangers

I had the following conversations with strangers this week:

Stranger: (while looking at Jude) He is 4, right?

Me: No, he is only 2.

Stranger: WOW! He is really, REALLY big!

Me: Yep.

Stranger: Does your daughter have cerebral palsy?

Me: Nope, she just wanted to wear her shin guards with her skirt today.

Stranger: Oh.... well.... That is cute.

Playing in the snow

Several week ago, we actually got enough snow that the kids could play in it. Julia is a true winter baby and LOVES playing in the snow. Jude likes it for about 5 minutes, then is ready to go back in.

Julia decided that she was going to take her sled down the slide. I think she was trying to give me grey hairs. Then Daddy came out and HELPED HER!!

Jude's favorite part was eating the snow, so we just brought in a big bowl of snow!!

My little fish

Julia continues to be a little fish. I signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA. Since this is a different place than we had gone to before, I was not sure what class to put her in. I put her in one and within minutes for the first class, the instructor said she needed to move up a class level.

Julia loved the swim lessons, as usual. The instructor even had her jump off the diving board and swim to the side of the pool all by herself and without the help of any flotation device. The diving board scared her, but she did it once.

She is a great swimming and can swim all over the pool. The only issue she has is that she cannot figure out how to tread water. Something to work on I guess.

It was water safety day, and the instructor was teaching Julia why you wear a lifejacket when in a boat. Right after this picture was taken, the instructor flipped the boat over!

My gymnast!

Julia started taking gymnastics at the local YMCA in January. These classes are MUCH different that the ones we took at our old place. These classes are much more advanced in teaching gymnastics. It was a bit of a learning curve for Julia, but she caught on quickly. Hopefully, this will help her be more coordinated than her clumsy mother!

Yes, they have the kids doing flips on the high bar (or whatever it is called)


Doing her bridge. This is where I noticed the most improvement. At the start of the session, she could not even get her shoulders off the ground. Now she can get her whole body, including her head off the ground. She still cannot hold it for a 10 count, but I am very impressed at the improvement.


Julia does really well at the balance beam. The first couple of classes she was scared of being that high, but soon got over that and has been doing great.

Helping with laundry

This week Julia wanted to help me do laundry, so I was teaching how to do it properly. I explained about sorting by color and how to set and start the dryer.

Now Julia no longer waits for me to help with the laundry. She empties the dryer into the clothes basket, gets the wet clothes out of the washer (or has her brother do it), puts the wet clothes in the dryer, adds the fabric softener sheet and starts the dryer. She then re-loads the washer with the clothes she sorted and adds the soap. She just needs me to turn it on.

I had to document this with pictures. Now if I could just get her to neatly fold it and put the laundry away, I would be set!

"Yum, yum"

Long story shortened, the kids like to play "shopping", by emptying out my pantry and putting it in their play kitchen. Yesterday, I had Julia put all the food back away in the pantry before we left for preschool. Jude and I get back home and I go about cleaning the house. At one point I walk into the living room and Jude says "Yum, Yum mommy". I look and see this:

I guess the powdered sugar spilled in their shopping cart and Jude was eating it by the fistful!!

He had it all over his face, shirt, pants and on the floor! I just could not get mad at him. And I had to get pictures before I cleaned up the mess.

Handprint embroidery

A couple of weeks ago I finished the handprint embroidery that I had been practicing for. I LOVE how it turned out. I think I will have to do it again in a few years to see just how much it has changed.

Here it is. I know it needs ironed and I need a bigger mat for it, but I was just testing it out.

Jude thought that he needed to be in the picture too!

Hello?

I know I have been lacking in the posting. I am not sure anyone still even reads this blog.

I am trying to do better.

I hope to have some pictures to post in the next couple of days.