Milestones & Mudholes

Adam touching a tortoise.

Adam's class playing in the rocket at the zoo park.

Adam's class watching the otters swim. Adam is in the top, right corner.

So, life has been busy the past week or two. Time tends to slip by and then I realize I haven't written anything down as to what's been happening. We've had two, big accomplishments.

1. Adam has learned to tie his shoes. We spent a couple of frustrated evenings trying to learn and then, one day, it just clicked.

2. Matt is no longer wearing pull-ups to bed. In fact, he's done so well, I was brave enough to return a package of pull-ups to the store. Perhaps it's his new, big bed, or maybe since he'll be 4 y/o next month--who knows--it's just great.

The weather the past month has been crazy here. We didn't have any rain or moisture for months, literally, and then we had a blizzard that dropped 16 inches of snow. Every weekend since then we've had rain--and a lot of it. And, there was a tornado just south of town two nights ago. All of the trees have their leaves, the grass is green and flowers are in bloom. A couple of weekends ago, between rain storms, we put in a bunch of new landscaping in our front yard--azaleas, asian lilies, gauras, spendwells, spireas, barberrys, geraniums, etc. We've planted some of our garden, too--peas, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce. Yesterday I went to check on it and found some 'mystery' plants sprouting, where I didn't plant anything. They look like beans, or maybe pumpkins. Last fall, Adam and Matt were playing with some old, dried beans(black, pinto, navy, etc) and pumpkins seeds and they stuck them in the dirt. Perhaps they happened to survive. We're going to leave them for now to find out what they are. We need to get our tomatoes and other veggies planted pretty soon. And our lone raspberry bush is doing well. We planted six of them last year but only one took, so we're hoping it does well this summer and we might get a couple of berries from it. As for the tornado, it damaged one of the elem. schools and a dairy farm and a few homes. The sirens were going off for about 30 minutes. Some friends came over that are basement-less. Initially Adam and Matt were a bit fretful when they heard the sirens and we had them put their shoes and jackets in the basement. But, once their friends came over, they were fine and quickly forgot about the sirens and tornado.

School is winding down. The last day is Tues., May 19th. Adam is both excited and a bit sad. He's really liked school and I think he'll miss seeing his friends, teacher and having lots of activities fill his day. It's been fun to help out on Weds. in his class. I think Matt, though, is ready for it to end. He's been a bit more restless and bored those afternoons and is starting to act up a bit. So, I'm glad we've only got two more weeks to go. Last Friday, we went with the kindergartners to the zoo. It was a 5 hour field trip and by the end, the kids were exhausted and hot(it got up to 90 that day). With summer fast approaching, we've already started making plans. It's going to be a busy, full summer. For June, we're going to Cheyenne so Grandpa can do dental check-ups, and I've got Girls' Camp. In July, we'll be gone 16 days to Miami, and I think we've got family coming for the 4th of July. August is still up in the air, but school starts the 12th so we can't do too much. It should be fun.