Dallas Blooms

Today, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and the beginning of Spring Break and paid a visit to the Dallas Arboretum. Every single thing is in bloom, and the dazzling array of flowers and colors was just amazing.

This year, the play houses exhibit has a "Fairy Tale" theme, so the boys had fun exploring all the castles. Here's Jackson at Aladdin's humble abode.

We enjoyed having Gramma and Grandad join us for a bit, and it was fun to find the special flower bed dedicated to Gramma! The sign says, "This area of our floral display has been given in honor of Eleanor Penrose by All the Family." :)

Grandad was nice enough to take a couple of pictures of the 5 of us. (Luke enjoyed wearing Grandad's hat.)

Then I took about a million (if you ask them, they'd say it was more) pictures of the boys. Here are just a few!

I had told Cody to squeeze in with Jackson in the above picture, and he took me VERY literally!

Luke was an ever-moving blur throughout the morning....I don't think he slowed down at all during our visit.

I got Cody and Jacks to sit together for a minute by promising they could take a silly picture after the "serious" one.  So here's serious:

And here's silly:

And even more silly!

I did get this nice shot of Cody by the reflecting pool.

Anthony tried to get a few pictures of me with the boys, but by then, they were just DONE with the camera. So Cody stuck a little wink in this one.

And he refused to smile in the rest. Plus, Luke was sad because he'd just done a giant face-plant in the grass (I actually found a big green smudge on his forehead after this picture).

Clearly, it was time to call it a day. But we had a great time, and we hope to go back again to see even more of the spring flowers!

Cody's Portrait of Daddy

Cody has really fallen in love with drawing lately. He will spend long periods of time working a picture, adding the important details and writing in some text. 

And this is the portrait he made of Anthony. He was most proud of the beard and the veins in Daddy's hands. That little thing that looks like a bird about to peck Anthony's head...that's his whistle that he uses at basketball practice.

I think my most favorite part is the spelling of "work" and how excited Anthony looks about it. There's even a little smiley face. 

Cody has told me he wants to be an artist when he grows up. Buddy, you're well on your way. :)

Jackson's Froggy Tale

This was in the display case in the hallway at Jackson's school.  I love that you can tell he's been reading a lot of graphic novels lately, with all the 'sound effects' used for emphasis.

Cody's Winning Season

Cody had such a wonderful experience with team sports thanks to Anthony coaching his basketball team. Cody learned a lot and had SO much fun. It was a great season, and Cody is already asking how long until they can play again. :)

Here is his official portrait from this season (you can tell it was VERY early and COLD that morning...his hair is plastered to his head from the static electricity!):

This is Cody's best buddy from preschool, Trevor. It was so great for them to get to spend some time together again!

Here's Cody with his #1 Fan, Grandad, who came to almost all the games to cheer Cody on. 

And here's the whole team...in their silly shot. How great is this?

All the kids improved so much and had a great time learning the sport and learning to work together as a team. It was really fun to watch. I'm already looking forward to next season, just like Cody!

Cody's Biography

                                  

Cody wrote this on the computer at school today. I'm going to share it just as he wrote it, but I'll put explanations in parentheses for the words that are unclear.

My name is cody.

I am 6 years ojd.

The are 5 peoplein in my family.

My favorit color is red.

I like to eat jtekin (chicken).

Idotlike to eat brokujee (broccoli).

For fun I like to baws (bounce).

I can wrrke (work).

My favorite thing to do is paiy (play).

when I grow up I want to be a ROK STRR.

I don't even know where to begin with all the things I love about this. ♥

Happy Valentine's Day!

I got a few shots of the my 3 little Valentines today.

Check it out! It's the return of The Wink!

Jacks was the only one of the boys actually able to refrain from taking a giant bite out of his lollipop....until we were done with pictures, of course. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

SNOW!!!

We have had some crazy weather this winter! Last week, we had a 2-day ice storm followed by 2 days of snow. The boys' schools were closed all 4 of those days. And today, we sit here warm and cozy inside on our 5th snow day in 2 weeks.

Last week, we got 6+ inches. That's an awful lot of snow for Dallas!

Of course, we had to get out and play in it!

Jackson made a bunch of snow angels.

Luke lay down in it, tasted it, climbed up and down across our neighbors' lawns...and ended up covered in snow!

Jackson also wrote us a note: "I ♥ Mom and Dad."

We enjoyed snuggling in front of the fire, drank hot chocolate, made S'Mores, and built lots of pillow forts. But I have to saw that I think we've had enough snow for now...and we'd like to get back to normal!