I'm back!!

 Hey everyone.  Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  The kids had Spring Break last week (now 2 weeks ago) so I was a little more occupied than normal and this week I have been...... well, lazy.  It's not that I didn't have anything to say it's just that I have so many pictures of last week that I wanted to post it just seemed to daunting a task so I keep putting it off!  

 Here it goes. So Spring Break.  Was FABULOUS!  For the first time in several years the weather here was amazingly perfect every single day!  I think we spent every minute of daylight outside!  We went to the park more than a few times, flew kites, blew bubbles, went on LONG walks, and drew with sidewalk chalk. 

  On Monday we went to a local park with a giant wooden playground and a duck pond with a walking trail around it.  Hannah and Ethan had a great time playing on the wood playground but it was a little to big for Andrew so I took him over to the smaller playground a few feet away.  He went on the slide a few times and then decided to move on to bigger things... like scaring the living daylights outta me!  There was this arched ladder thing that was about 5ft. tall that he insisted on climbing.  Ok, fine I can help him.  NOPE!  He would not let me touch him.  He had  to do it himself.  He did pretty well although there were a couple of times that I had to quickly grab him before he fell through the bars to the ground.  Andrew (and my heart) survived!  After playing on the playground for a while we went to the duck pond to take a walk around the path.  As we came upon a duck family I thought this would be a great learning opportunity for Andrew as he had never really seen duck up this close before.  They are very conditioned to people so you can just walk right up to them so off we went...... or started to.  As it turns out my little dare devil who is not scared of anything is scared of DUCKS!  Yep, scared of ducks!  We kept walking...........

 

  

On Tuesday, we had plans to go to an indoor play area but got there to realize that it was no longer in business!  The kids were super bummed.  We had been there before and they couldn't wait to get back so we were all disappointed to find it closed.  So we created a plan B.  I let the kids plan the day and I have to say they did a fantastic job.  Not only did they decide on something that they would have fun doing but something fun for Andrew as well.   First we went to McDonalds for lunch.  They didn't even want to play in the playland because they were so excited to put their plan into action.  

  They had me take them to WalMart where they picked out kites, bubbles and balls for everyone.  We then went up to their school and took advantage of the playground and giant open field. We flew kites, blew bubbles and played, played, played..... for HOURS!!  The kids played so hard and got so hot and sweaty that when we got home they were all begging to take a bath.  I'm sure that'll never happen again!

 

 On Wednesday we all went to the Ft. Worth Zoo.  We were there when they opened so we beat the massive crowds for the most part, although by early afternoon it was getting hard to push the stroller through the crowd.   We were able too all of the animals that the kids wanted to see except for "woofs".  That is a "dog" for those of you that don't speak Andrew.  No dogs at the Zoo....... who knew?!?  Any how,  the favorite find of the day (for the kids) would have to be the penguins.  They have a really great penguin habitat set up with icebergs and water and all.  It really was neat to see these guy so close up and watch them dive into the water and pop back up onto the ice!

  On the way home from the Zoo!

  On Thursday we had to kind of take it easy.  Ethan had Allergy shots that morning and he isn't supposed to be very active for about 24 hours afterwards.  After Ethan's shots we took April for a much needed visit to the groomer.  I am embarrassed to say she hadn't been since August and was looking pretty rough!  The man at the desk when I dropped her off even accused me of taking her somewhere else in between visits there because it had been so long!  When the kids and I went back to pick her up it was pretty funny because Andrew kept staring at her like he had never seen her before and Ethan said "mommy, are you sure that's our dog?".  I must admit,  she looked COMPLETELY different!   On the way home from picking up the pooch we stopped at Sonic for some milkshakes and slushes!  It was a nice relaxing day!

  On Friday Ethan was still coming off his Allergy shots but was allowed light activity so we stayed around the house and played outside.  We laid a blanket out in the backyard and the kids read, snacked, played in the sandbox, rode their bikes and and drew with chalk.

  Even though we had a "staycation" rather than a vacation it was still a blast and we couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather!  Hope everyone else had a great Spring Break!