Spring Break at the Arboretum

This morning, the boys and I met Grandad at the Arboretum for Dallas Blooms. It was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day (which meant many of my pictures were overexposed...oops) and we got there right when it opened so we had it mostly to ourselves for the first hour or so. The only other people we saw were brides having their portraits done, and Laura Bush. Wait, did I say Laura Bush? Why yes, I did. We saw her riding in a golf cart, being given a tour, while her secret service agents (hard to miss in their dark suits) were stuffed into a different cart behind her.

One of the things the boys were most excited about was the big display of playhouses. When similar structures appear at Northpark mall, they are closed up and blocked off so that the kids can't play on them. We were concerned that might be the case today, but happily, these playhouses were open and ready to be played on. Each was built to go along with a particular children's story, such as "The Owl and The Pussycat" and "Peter Pan."

Here are the boys with Dr. Seuss' "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."

This window was part of a house whose connected story we didn't recognize (and of course, whose name I now forget), but it was fun nonetheless.


Jacks did a great job looking out for Lucas and leading him along.


Occasionally, we did actually see some flowers, too!


But, as expected, the things the boys got the biggest kick out of had little or nothing to do with the Arboretum itself. Such as the great fun they had drenching each other with this water fountain.
Grandad managed to catch me with Jackson.



The boys were big fans of anything that allowed them to climb or play with water.


It is a near impossible feat to get a good picture of a 6, 4 and 1 year-old together, and I didn't accomplish it today. But here are the outtakes...


Getting a shot of TWO of the boys at a time, instead of 3, does sometimes work, though. :)


And all of my boys, hams that they are, were willing to pose on their own quite a bit. (First 3 photos by Grandad here...he's a master of his craft!)


We had a fantastic time but before too long the crowds began flooding in and I started getting photos like this:

I call this one, "So Over It." LOL When I see faces like that, I know we're done. So we called it a day, but I'm sure we'll be going back again before too long. :)

Luke and the Chopsticks

Oops, you caught me. I found Cody's squeezy ketchup bottle of little cotton pompoms (not to be confused with the big stringy blue one that Jacks was waving at school the other day) and I just had to check it out. I managed to get the bottle open but somehow they spilled all over the floor. Don't they look pretty? I'm sure Mama won't mind.

Now, I got out Cody's chopsticks, too. I know I'm supposed to use these on the pompoms somehow. Let's see...ok, yep yep, I just pick 'em up! No sweat!


Yeah, I got this. Fine-motor activities are fun! Soon I'll be able to rebuild the motherboard on Daddy's computer.

Mamaaaaaaaaaaa, help me clean all these up!
(The child can already open twisty tubes of lipgloss and bottles of nail polish. Nothing is safe from him! And he's enjoying the chopsticks more than Cody is. He needs NO more help developing his fine-motor skills, the little devil!)

Family Portrait

Jacks brought this home from school yesterday. I just loved it. I'm not sure exactly why Cody and Lucas are just "brother" and "baby brother." Did he forget their names? Or, since he put them up near the roof and in the chimney, respectively, perhaps he's sharing with us his vision of our family hierarchy? LOL

Jackson's Spirit Assembly (with a special guest!)

Jackson had a special role in his elementary school's Spirit assembly today because he was his class' student of the month. He got to stand in the hallway leading to the gym, along with all the other SOM's for all the classes (grades K-5), and they cheered, waved pompoms, and generally created a giant ruckus as the kids and teachers filed in for the assembly.


Once inside the gym, the SOM's got to sit on risers in a special section reserved just for them.


The first part of the assembly was a little skit put on by a few of the teachers. The theme seemed to be The Olympics, which I thought a bit odd since they were over 6 months ago. The teachers had named 4 of the rings and what they could stand for if they were to have special meaning at the school, but they were stumped on what to have the 5th one represent. What could they do, what could it mean? And along came Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin to help them figure it out!!! (and don't ask me what she came up with, because I have no idea!)


She actually attended Wells from 1st-4th grades and many of the teachers still there had her as a student. She talked to the kids about how long she has done gymnastics, they showed a little video of her at the Olympics ("Ooooh Aaaaah WOW!!!" as they showed her flipping all over the place on the vault and parallel bars), and then she judged the grade level cheer competition. That's the Wells spirit stick that she's holding below, 2nd grade's prize (at least until next month's assembly) for winning.


Nastia stood outside the gym for 20 minutes, giving all 470 students high-fives as they filed back to their classrooms.
Jacks was pretty underwhelmed by Nastia (even though we did watch her a lot last summer, but mainly he remembers Usain Bolt), but he was very proud of his pompom and getting to sit in the special section. Also, Jacks rarely gets attention solely on him without having to share some of the spotlight with his brothers, even if just through their presence. Gramma stayed with Cody and Lucas so that I could focus on Jacks today, which I think made him feel all the more special, so I'm glad I went. We're very proud of all his efforts at school! :)

Trip to Houston

This weekend we hopped in the car and headed down to Houston to visit Anthony's family. We don't get the chance to see them very often, but it's always a fun visit. We had a great time with Aunt Beth (Anthony's sister) and Pop (Anthony's dad), though we were sad to miss Ma (Anthony's mom), who was under the weather. That's Aunt Beth and Pop above with Jackson, Cody and Luke.

When we venture to Houston, we stay with Papa, the boys' great-grandfather, an 82 year-old former Navy submarine commander who dotes on our little guys. All 3 just adore him and talk about him constantly between visits. Papa takes wonderful care of us and we always leave feeling very loved and spoiled. :) Here he is with Luke:

At dinner last night, Jackson and Cody bonded with Aunt Beth...especially when they saw her delicious chocolate birthday cake and learned she was willing to share with them. :)

We went out for breakfast with Pop and Aunt Beth, and since the weather was cool and breezy, we wandered around a bit afterwards. We found a quiet little garden area right next to La Madeleine and let the boys run around before we got back in the car for the long drive home.

Jackson and Cody decided running wasn't quite enough for them, so they tried some jumping flying.

Daddy thought Luke might like to fly, too.

I took this last one just as we were leaving. Think Luke likes his Pop? Just look at that smile!
We loved seeing everyone and we're already looking forward to our next visit.

Student of the Month

Jackson's teacher selected him as her Student of the Month for February. SOTM's are chosen for being responsible, respectful, life-long learners (the school's motto). They are mentioned in the Morning Announcements video broadcast and get to take part in a Spirit Assembly (his teacher said something about holding a pom-pom! Yeehaw!). There are 20 kids in Jackson's class and only 7 months of this school year where they're picking SOTM's, so it's not just something where everyone gets a turn. It's really a reflection of how hard he works at school, not only on academics but also on his behavior. We're so proud of him!

"Putty" Humor

Cody has been having a great time at OT for the last couple of weeks, and on Monday his therapist gave us some "Thera-putty" to take home. Think of Play-doh, but it's denser and harder to manipulate. What you do is bury little prizes (like beads and marbles) inside and then he has to stretch it out, pull on it, and dig inside to get them out. So he started off with the rolled up ball you see above...and then went to town. :)

And here's everything he got out!

He loved it. It's really such a great exercise to strengthen his little hands. Now I just need to come up with some other clever things to hide inside to keep it interesting for him.