More Pictures, Please

Beautiful days are definitely a gift!  We played outside then went down to the Fayetteville Square to eat dinner at Tiny Tim's Pizza, one of our old hangouts.  Ches had an honors convocation at the Town Center on the square that he had to attend, and he didn't finish teaching until 4:50, and the reception began at 5:30!  We ordered ahead, and he went closer to 5:45.  Then I let the kids visit the bronze Peace fountain which they used to play around when they were little.  I worked really hard to find old pictures of them, but it was pre-digital pictures.  Today's will have to suffice!

It's ten feet around!

I wish I had the old pictures when they were tiny to show you.  It's such a comparison.  They are tall enough to see into the water now!

Time out for a dead bug.

Back to climbing and checking out bugs and coins in the water!

Isn't he darling?  He's telling the water his wish (that he gets a plane!) before he throws his coin in.

Aww..how sweet!

Then we walked around the square, where all those tulips are finally blooming-just gorgeous!

Big, fat peonies!  Hope mine are getting ready to pop through the ground...

I just love pictures from the back..can you tell? : )

How wonderful are these tulips!?  Yes, there's a path through the back! ; )

Check out that flower that broke off!

Wait..there's another dead bug!  ..Let us see!

Check out these tulips.

..and he found something else to climb.

I swear she poses herself!

Check this out.  I guess I should not worry about low self-esteem? ; )

So sweet.  They are growing up right in front of me.

Of course they are climbing.. : )

So sweet..except when Ethan refused to get in the car, and yelled that he wanted to stay and take more pictures with the flowers.  Ha!  What a day.

Girls Day

We are safely home. : )  Yesterday we toured the Apple store (I sat in the van and photographed my fave--Pottery Barn:

Doesn't it fit right in?

Then the kids couldn't wait to get to the Moon River Marble Company!  (They kept calling it a "factory" and we were told we'd see a marble-making demonstration!)  So..when we came upon it, and it was a little gray building, with a gravel parking lot, with only about 10 spaces, I was deeply disappointed we'd driven out of our way-into Kansas-to see this.

It's a chalkboard.

The bonus is there were train tracks just about 20-30 feet away from us, and the two times the train came through, we could FeeL it, and the boys ran outside to see it!  I was so worried after Ethan told me he'd "lay down flat, arms down, and let it go right over him!"  A mother's nightmare!  And he's awful adventurous..

To give them credit, we did see a marble-making demonstration.

A lady clearly explained how they weren't a factory.  The marbles they sell by the bag or by the tube are from a factory: machine-made.  The only ones that are human-made at that location (or shipped in by other glass artists) are in a case at the back, and run from $30-$1600.  Guess which ones we bought?  Yep: the machine-made ones! : )  (I should mention it was generally a big toy store-tons of games, dolls, girl-stuff, and...squirrel underpants.  Really.  They had boy and girl underpants, and for the life of me I don't know why I didn't take a picture!)

Sorry I didn't post last night, I was so exhausted!  I was busy trying to get my checking account reconciled (by hand!) since my Quicken software downloads from my bank online, but I realized there were chunks of time missing (and pages worth of transactions missing!).  Now, since tax-time is looming, and we have to turn in our paperwork, it's become increasingly important!  Our tax guy never finishes them till April 15th, so I'm not freaking out..yet.

..and Today Mary Claire and I had a girls' day out. (while Ches took Clay fishing!) We started at church working on envelopes together, and giving some medicine to a friend's mom and the ends of our insulin pens to another friend (we are not dealers-no money is exchanged!) (Hahaha!).  I forgot to take into account that it was spring break, (other envelope workers are gone) and that it would take longer.  Lucky I had Mary Claire to help! : )  We whizzed right through them in about an hour, then headed for the library-she was so excited.

We toured, found new fiction, got Clay some heavy-duty fiction-a couple new ones (one about a train and this one!), and got Ethan some picture books: LMNO Peas, Too Purpley, How to Teach a Slug to Read, Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake, and The Wonderful Book.  I love that they set up the newest books in a special section-they are almost all new to us!  Not that I don't love some favorite authors.  One of the picture books Mary Claire chose was Ponyella (by Laura Numeroff!), it was a spin-off of Cinderella, but with horses-so cute!  What a good class assignment: choose a fairy tale, and change the characters to write a new story with animals, talking foods, etc.  It was cute, and I loved the vocabulary and how they changed up all the magical fun!  (She also got this, this, two of these, and this.)  We got so many books, we had to buy an extra bag on the way out!  Waiting for the elevator...

And then as we were driving away, I noticed these beautiful flowers..

..and thought if there were little bits here and there at the library..the Square must be so much better!  We drove on up the hill, and I was right.  They haven't peaked quite yet, but beautiful!  I needed some colorful happy.  Enjoy:

Tulips...Spring is coming!

Don't you love this tree just full of big, fluffy white blooms?

so much color!

Then a trip to Mom's to help her get ready for her trip..and she's off!  Then we met Ches and the boys at the movies.  We saw Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules!  I have to say I liked it at least twice as much as Rango.  I forgot to tell you much about that (but they used the words h*ll and d*mn-I wasn't happy!)  We are talking about an animated cartoon, and not during a busy scene where they'd be glossed over-it was loud and clear.  Disappointed me big-time.  BUT-I laughed my head off at the Wimpy Kid!  I mean, the whole thing was fun-the parents, the kids, friends (and enemies), the talent show, the party at their house (with no alcohol, but tons of fun)..ahh, it was great.  I think I saw myself in the mom, and the older brother Roderick tells his mom, "but I showered yesterday!" and we looooked at Clay!  You should see it.  Funny stuff.

Then we had dinner out, took some library books in with us and read..just fun!  I loved that the boys liked what we got them.  Then, more shopping..I had to use a Gymboree rewards certificate before tomorrow (and found the cutest brown zebra dress that just came out yesterday, and would go SO well with that dress I got in Florida from J.Crew!) (even for Easter, but Gymboree wouldn't count it for the Easter Dresses 30% off-sadness.)  I'll have to wait for Gymbucks time since I have to save something to buy then! : )
Finally, Wal-Mart and Home.  Long, sweet day with my girl (and boys).  So thankful for time with them this week.  We still have two days...what should we do?