Sloths, Egg Hunts and Fort Building!

Easter weekend was full of all sorts of things for the Simmons family. On Friday we decided to head back to Waco so Roger could explore the Cameron Park Zoo with us. It was another great day - not too hot yet...and the animals were out to play. One of the lions was roaring, the sloth was climbing across the roof of his enclosure and the kids found the playground.

 Love this one - goofballs on the slide.

 This one might be even better. :-)

The next day we decided to get started on the fort. Roger designed it to have 2 towers with a bridge connecting them. So here is the beginning of the towers...with the lower decking going in first.

Side note - We have totally lucked out with our backyard landscaping and fort building. When the house next to us was being built we noticed that the builder was going to throw away a bunch of limestone. So, with headlamps on, we hit the garbage piles and grabbed all these HUGE limestone rocks. And then another neighbor decided not to rebuild their playscape, so they gave us all the wood! It's been a bit of a challenge matching up the wood lengths and avoiding existing holes, but I am not going to complain about all this free wood!

 The boys getting in on the hammering.

Easter morning brought the bunny, baskets, and fun toys.

Let the hunt begin!

 Beckett's haul. The Easter bunny was smart and marked 25 eggs for each kiddo. :-)

Grant's haul.

 Now let's see what's in these.

We also decided to check out a new park up in Georgetown. There was a great bike path and lots of trees and playground down by a lake. We will definitely be going back.

 

 CHARGE!

 And here is the bunny cake this year. The boys wanted chocolate this year. Not as cute as the white version, but no one is complaining! :-)

Then we decided to dye some eggs. I can't believe we've never done this before! I thought the kids approach interesting. I remember being very diligent about my dying....making sure the colors didn't overlap too much and such. Not Grant and Beckett. They decided to see what would happen if they just kept dropping the eggs into all the colors..over and over. Then Grant started mixing the colored water together. Their eggs turned out really cool!

Goofy Kids

The following video I attribute to Grant taking theater arts at school.

While I was making dinner the other day I looked up and saw the kids mimicing Bugs Bunny. Each taking different characters and acting out the scenes on TV. Silly kids.

And here is Beckett on a non-school day. He was calling himself The Time Keeper because he had on 2 watches - a batman watch you can see on his right wrist and hanging by his left leg you will see a pocket watch he found in the drawer. He kept telling me the time - like mom...it's 4:65! I also love the helmet, winter gloves and Crocs on the wrong feet. :-)

And here is Beckett's latest injury. The boys were playing in the backyard and a football got stuck in the tree. Beckett grabbed one of the rakes we had out there to try and get it out. Not exactly sure how it happened, but the rake slipped and hit him right on the head. We were incredibly lucky that it didn't have super sharp points and that it wasn't the edger...after this I contacted my nurse friend to find out the location of the best and nearest Urgent Care. :-)

Watch Out Parkside!

This week was Kindergarten registration. I can't believe it...Beckett is headed to the big leagues! He is so excited...and a bit nervous. Because we go up and have lunch with Grant every week, most of the staff already knows or at least recognizes him. The Kinder teachers certainly recognize him because he's always pushing the envelope when playing on the playground. :-)

To help with registration, I signed the 3 of us up to give tours of Parkside. Beckett was into it for about the first 45 minutes or so, then he was done. Grant however enjoyed every minute of it. He was quite the tour guide. As we went down the hallways, he pointed out the classrooms, explaining what each class was. Once we hit the Kindergarten wing, he talked about the neighborhood area and what happened there. One of the parents asked if he was really in Kinder....very impressed with his maturity and presentation. I was so proud of him.

Meanwhile I was also chasing down Beckett. :-) He liked seeing some of the kids he has already met through the playgroup that we are doing. Mostly he was tired and just ready to go home. It was a LONG day. At school at 7:45 and not home till 5:45. UGH! Definitely made me glad I am not going back into school counseling quite yet.

Beckett took some photos while we were working at the table. 

 Oh look, there are some people coming to register. Beckett I need my phone back.....

 And you need to listen Beckett. ONE....

TWO.....

And then I got my phone back. :-)

One of the best things we did to help Grant get ready for Kindergarten was a playgroup last summer. So this summer I am organizing it for Beckett's class. Right now we are getting together about once a month. Meeting at local parks for a couple of hours so the kids can play and the moms can chat. :-) This summer I have planned something every 2 weeks or so. It's been fun meeting the kids and moms. I know that both my and Grant's closest friends are those we mett through Grant's group so I am looking forward to getting to know this group too.

Easter Egg Hunt!

On Saturday our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt in our park. There was also face painting, balloon artist and snacks. A lot of Grant's friends from school were there - our school is a neighborhood school...LOVE that! A fun afternoon.

 Ready to go.

 Scoping out the eggs...

 Aaanndd...GO!

 It was absolute bedlam! There's Darby in the pink skirt behind Grant!

 Of course a sword! Just what I think of when I think about Easter!

 Let the battle begin. See Darby behind Grant. :-)

 CHARGE!

 Face Painting

 What else makes you think of Easter? Darth Maul of course!

Field Trip!

On Friday I went with Grant's class to a local strawberry farm. Grant was SO EXCITED! As you can imagine, with 120ish Kindergarteners, it was pretty organized. There was no free, run around time. :-(  Nevertheless, the kids seemed to have a great time.

 Goofy Grant eating lunch

 This is Alexis. She has a slight crush on Grant and kind of follows him all over. :-) She's so cute. 

 Grant - such a rule follower. The farmer was demonstrating what she wanted them to do when she said some saying...I think Grant was the only one to follow her and put his hands up. :-)

 Here they are planting seeds. That's Jaxon next to him - they are buddies. The little girl is Savannah.

 Planting their seeds

 This was a strawberry gun (although, as the farmer told me, they don't say gun or shoot on the farm. They say decorate and wand. Oh brother). Basically, I pumped it up with a bike pump, the farmer stuffed the end with strawberries, and the kids "decorated" a banner with rotten strawberries. Big fun!

 Grant talking with his lady bug that he just released. I think he was encouraging it to fly away - they were a little cold still from being stored in the fridge. :-)

 Again - the only one following along with the farmer's instructions. :-)

 Checking out the goat feed. That's Darby next to Grant. She's so cute and tiny! They line up next to each other every day and one day when I went in to have lunch with Grant she was leaning back and resting her head on Grant's chest. :-)

 Picking strawberries. Not sure who this little girl is. There are so many! :-)

 The whole class. Grant is standing next to his friend AJ