For the birds!

Our learning unit this week is all about birds. We've been reading all kinds of books from the library and doing fun activities with new bird vocabulary words, handwriting, math, matching, and various other things. We have a few families that we know who have chickens of their own and I thought that visiting one of them would be a fun field trip for this week. Our friend Nancy from church was sweet enough to have us come to her house and she showed us her little chicks, big chickens, their coop, and let the kids run around her yard (probably their favorite part!)

Some of the big birds strutting around

Leah decided she needed an up-close view
of the underside of the coop...my little tomboy!

Owen, Nancy's son, is 2 years old and in the
same nursery class as Leah. He is such a
sweet boy and loves these chickens, as you can see!
He's giving Leah a better view :)

Leah found a shovel and decided to carry it
around as she visited with the chickens

Nancy let Joshua get some eggs out of the coop

We're so thankful for wonderful and sweet
friends like Nancy who share their knowledge with us!

Leah checking out the little chicks

On the move with the chickens!

Another fun field trip that let us see in person
what we've been learning about in books!

Playtime at the Park

What a gorgeous weekend! We spent the majority of Saturday outside to take advantage of the beautiful weather. After naps, we went over to Lake Benson park to fly the kids' Easter kites (Joshua got a gecko kite, and Leah got a ladybug kite). We didn't have quite enough wind to really enjoy some long flights, but the kids still thought it was pretty neat :) We enjoyed lots of running around and some playtime on the smaller playground there (the bigger one was crawling with about a million kids--everyone obviously had the same brilliant idea we did). Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at Zaxby's and ice cream at Pelican's. Let me just tell you...we shared a double scoop of the homemade chocolate Oreo ice cream in a waffle cone and it was AMAZING. There were no tiny bits of cookie in there--it was whole stinkin' Oreos! The delicious ice cream, along with the playground there at Pelican's for the kids, will definitely guarantee that we return soon!

My little pigtailed Leah-bug

Joshua with another hand-me-down

NC State shirt and his Carolina ball cap :)

Daddy swinging our little daredevil around

(seriously...the more dangerous and scary

something is, the more she loves it!)

Leah riding on the toucan with Mommy's help

Another action shot of Joshua

(he is actually really good at dribbling

the soccer ball!)

This little guy LOVES slides!

I love the look on Joshua's face here:

"Daddy...MUST you take my picture

doing absolutely everything?!"

Joshua's turn on the wild bucking toucan :)

Easter Egg Hunt

We had our yearly neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt and cookout yesterday and the kids (and David and I!) had lots of fun. We didn't take any pictures, but David took a few at the egg hunt we did this afternoon at Bernie and Martha's house. The kids always have so much fun when they get to do things with their cousins Will, Ellie, and Janie, and it makes me so happy that they have cousins who live close by that they get to grow up with...plus, I love getting to hang out with Brian and Lisa!

Joshua had the whole egg hunt thing down

pat this year!

Action shot!

Today was the most beautiful Easter day

I can remember...what a gorgeous afternoon

to spend time outside with family!

I served as Leah's Easter bucket carrier

and she'd pick up each egg she saw,

look it over, then put it carefully into

her bucket--too cute!

She's become a very good helper at

home when it is time to "clean up,"

so I think she put these skills to work

when it came to finding and "putting away"

Easter eggs :)

Two egg hunts in two days--the kids

had a blast!

Fresh baked loaves and Easter outfits

One of the things I really enjoy making for my family is homemade bread. A friend of mine from church taught me how to make it from scratch back when I was waiting for Joshua to make his entrance into the world. I was past my due date and had already finished working and each day felt like it was just dragging by! Melissa invited me over one afternoon and taught me her AMAZING recipe for whole wheat bread and it is still my favorite recipe almost 4 years later :) I feel like each time I make it, I do it just a little bit better. We invested in a wheat grinder this past year, so I'm able to use freshly ground wheat now, which makes the bread even better! This weekend, I tried a new method for forming my loaves and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! David was so impressed that he decided to make a photographic record of them (if you don't know David, he is quite possibly the biggest bread fan you'll EVER meet!)

My mom bought Leah a special Easter dress and Joshua a special Easter shirt and vest, so I thought she might appreciate some pictures of the kids all dressed up!

Although Leah is not demonstrating proper

modesty in this shot (ha!), I love seeing her

chubby little legs here :) And I love Joshua's

forced, giant smile that he gave his begging,

pleading mother ;)

Not the best group picture ever, but I couldn't

help posting it because Leah is SO dang cute

in this candid shot!

I think this one is my very favorite :)

I don't know if you can see the tear coming

down Leah's cheek in this one, but she was

upset about something (who knows what?)

But her big brown eyes and chubby little

arms and sweet little face were all just

too precious to keep me from sharing it.

**Happy Easter to you all! We're so grateful

for the atonement and resurrection of our

Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity it

provides us to repent and eventually return

to live with our Father in Heaven, and be with

these sweet, precious children forever.**

Fire Station Visit!

Let me start off by saying it is a GIANT bummer to snap a few pictures, only to realize that your camera battery has then died! So here is my one decent picture from our field trip to the fire station today:

Our learning unit this week was on firefighters, and we learned a lot! We checked out 15 different books from the library and learned all about firemen, fire trucks, fire stations, all kinds of equipment, and what firefighters do during their shifts. We learned lots of new vocabulary words, and did more practice with reading, writing, matching, sorting, math/numbers, among other things. I love seeing Joshua light up with the excitement of learning new things! The big take-home message this week, according to Joshua, was "Firefighters help keep people safe!"

He told this to the firefighters we met today at Garner Fire Station 2 and they thought that was pretty great :) George gave us a tour and showed us all the different vehicles and equipment they have there at the station. Leah made friends with a female EMS worker there who thought Leah was the cutest little thing she'd ever seen (obviously Leah was on her best behavior at the time). It is so fun each week to see in person all the things we've learned about from books and activities, and we're really grateful to live in such a friendly community with many people and places willing to let us visit and learn!

Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon

The big day finally came! On April 1, I ran in the Raleigh Rocks half-marathon. This is the first race I've run since before getting pregnant with Joshua more than 4 years ago, and my second half-marathon. The first one was back in grad school with my friend Amanda and I can honestly say that I didn't do a great job of training seriously for it. So this was a big deal for me! I trained and cross-trained and worked my butt off for this race, so by the morning of the race, I felt as prepared as I could be...and I was pretty excited and nervous too.

My goal was to run it in 1:50 or less, which would be around an 8:25 pace. I ended up finishing in 1:45:59 according to my chip time, which put me around an 8:05 pace--and I finished 6th in my age group (30-34) out of 118 girls, and in the top 15% overall. SO exciting! I realize that I am not built like a "typical" runner, and I've got short little legs trying to keep up with other runners who have much longer, leaner legs, so I'm really proud that I was able to finish with this time.

I actually ran the first 9-10 miles at around a 7:50-7:55 pace, but those last few miles were BRUTAL. I definitely feel like the half-marathon distance is the longest I feel motivated to run...I highly doubt you'll see any full marathons in my future, and I'm totally okay with that! I'll stick to 13.1 or less :)

My mom and dad were in town this weekend, and it

was great to have them join David, Joshua, and Leah

at the finish line to cheer me on--imagining their smiling

faces helped me get through those last tough miles.

They had flowers and a sign for me, and David gave me

the sweetest card at the car, along with a "13.1" magnet

for the back of our minivan :)

I'm really excited to have worked hard

towards a goal like this and reached it.

I think I'd like to make it a personal goal

to run a half-marathon each spring and

fall, and some 5Ks and 10Ks in between.

It is so good for me to have something

like running to keep me physically

and mentally challenged, especially as

a stay-at-home mom. I hope that as

Joshua & Leah get older, they'll see what

I do and know that they can set goals, work

hard, and reach them too!