First Barrette

Alyssa has enough hair to wear a barrette - it is a tiny one but a barrette none the less!!!

Math Whiz

Bryson loves math and does so well at understanding numbers. There are many addition equations that he can do without even using his fingers, it is just in his head. He also is beginning to understand bigger numbers and has figured that a trillion is more than a billion which is more than a million. We were practicing spelling when he said he wanted to surprise me with something so I couldn't look. A few minutes later he came over with this - he has counted by 50s before but not very high, only to about 200. I couldn't believe he did this all on his own with no help!!!

Clue

Kevin and I just watched the old movie "Clue" and thought it was funny when a few days later they called and asked him to help out with the combined youth mutual activity. They were going to play clue - the background was a laptop was stolen from a stake dance, Kevin's character was suppose to be this teenage boy who is way into dances. He did great with his costume, tuxedo shoes, spkiy hair, and all. He looked gorgeous!!!

Turkey Run

For Family Night on Monday, we picked Kevin up early from work and drove to the State Park, Turkey Run. Kevin had gone in the fall with the youth and had been wanting to take our family, it was the perfect day. It has a beautiful suspension bridge and then lots of fun hikes. The kids did better than we even hoped they would. Bryson was the leader and loved running ahead and checking everything out for us. Kaitlyn decided she was the break leader - she said, "I will decide when we should take a break" and she did:) Alyssa did great kicking Kevin lots with excitement and even tried to help him climb the ladders as we were coming out of a neat cave like place (you can see her big smile in the picture). Kevin also would tickle her anytime she raised her arms, she now randomly will just raise her hand high in the air, telling us to come tickle her! We had a great time and the kids are already asking when we get to go again and try another trail!

Siblings

We have plenty of sibling fights but it is great that they always have a friend to play with. Yesterday Bryson and Kaitlyn headed outside and played for the next 2 hours (no exaggeration). I loved watching them giggling together. They dug for treasure in the sand box, pushed each other on the swings,



chased birds, ran around the garden numerous of times, and just enjoyed being outside



Alyssa had a great time playing in the house (we were secretive about the kids being outside because Alyssa loves being outside but everything was still so wet and muddy and I wasn't in the mood to deal with her covered in mud). One of her favorite things to do is play with the recycling basket - she loves to go through the papers one at a time and then to, of course, throw them all over. The funny thing with this photo is that she is so good about not putting things in her mouth but she loves to do things to make others laugh and you can tell from her face that this is why she put the paper in her mouth.

She also loves playing in "her cupboard", the one that isn't off limits. She once again loves to spread out the dishes everywhere!


She is also a smart one, as soon as I took her photo with the dishes she dashed off and it took me a minute to figure out why she change activities so fast but she went right to the camera case and showed it to me - she knew what we were doing!


I took advantage of the opportunity that all three were playing nice and tried a new recipe: Curried Pumpkin/Apple Soup

Spring Break

Last week was spring break and we decided to just hang out here and do all those little things that we hadn't gotten to yet. We also loved getting to sleep in most mornings, good timing for day light savings for us!!! We took the kids bowling and they were happy that they both beat me but Bryson was pretty ticked that Kevin beat them! We spent a day in Indianapolis and went to the Children's Museum!



There is a sign by the slide that says that parents can go on it but just to watch their head. It was deceiving! It may look like we could fit but you had to crawl army style and then to turn around to go down the slide... good thing no one was watching. It is suppose to be these underground tunnels that end with the slide. Bryson has done it lots before but it was dark and some boys were saying boo inside so he didn't want to do it alone. I did it with Bryson and then didn't say much when Kevin said he wanted to go too. Notice neither of us offered again after that:)



I thought Kevin was taking lots of photos of Alyssa on the carousel but when I downloaded them on the computer, they were me...
He was maybe trying to decide what he thought of my new haircut!!!




I think we need to do more of these relaxing Spring Breaks. It was great to end the week feeling rested and thinking that I wish it was a few days longer!!!

Happy Birthday Alyssa!!!

Alyssa had a great birthday on Saturday! Even though she didn't understand, she was excited and clapping all day all thanks to Bryson and Kaitlyn who were constantly singing to her and telling her it was her birthday. It was fun to watch! She loves her care bear walker toy. She is not into walking yet but loves to climb on and off it and dance to the music.

Then of course the first birthday eating of the chocolate cake. She started slow with just trying a little piece


then realized she liked it and decided to just grab the whole piece.



However she didn't follow in Kaitlyn's footsteps and eat every last piece plus lick the plate clean. She ate some bites, drank lots of milk and then tried to hand it to me (her way of saying she is done and if I don't come take it, it goes on the floor so I am always quick to respond)

Happy Birthday Alyssa!!!