Artist

Last week we found out that Emma's art work, "Texture Town," was selected to be entered into a contest. The art teacher at her school could select 10 pieces of art from David Elementary to be entered into the contest. Each school in the district will enter art work and 300 works will be selected to be hung in the district Administration building for next year. She was pretty excited! We are pretty proud of her. I am still a little dumbfounded that an artist came out of me. I think it means that there is more Russell in her than I had thought. Aaron's grandpa Lofgreen was a good artist and Aaron is very good at drawing. The contest will happen in May.

Bravos Bend Camping Trip

We usually go to Brazos Bend State Park every spring time. This time we decided to go camping over the Good Friday break. We invited a bunch of families to go with us and had a great time! We had four campsites all by each other and the kids just ran around everywhere playing with each other.

We were able to see a nest of baby alligators. They were about as cute as baby alligators could be. They just slept and walked all over each other. Turns out that baby alligators aren't much different than human babies in that regard.

We also were able to see a couple of daddy alligators do their mating calls. They stuck their heads up straight in the air and their tails up straight as well and then they made a loud grumbling sound. It was cool. I think they were each staking out their territory.

At one point John had to use the bathroom and we were far away from the bathrooms so Aaron took him out into the trees. Afterward, John said, "I like this!" Emma was also able to experience using the trees as a bathroom and based on the frequency with which she requested to use the bathroom, she liked it too.

In the evening we all sat around the fire and told stories. It got to be late and John begged to go to bed. I was shocked. He didn't want to sleep in the tent by himself though. A short time later he decided that he was that tired and would sleep in the tent on his own. And he did.

At night I learned that John snores like an old man and talks in his sleep.  Overall, sleeping in the tent wasn't so bad. We got about of good of a night's sleep as you can in a tent while camping as a family.

Emma's favorite part of camping was playing with friends. John's favorite part was digging with a camping shovel. Emma also liked the orange soda and John also liked the cheetos.

I learned that I can handle one night of camping and that I am a social camper. It was a ton of fun to camp with a bunch of friends. If anyone forgot something, someone else had it. The kids had a great time running around and it was nice to visit with friends. We lucked out with the weather. There weren't any mosquitos and the weather was perfect. There were little gnats but they didn't bite, they just flew in your face.

We drove home and the kids crashed on the way home. Aaron and I crashed for a few days afterwards.

Resourceful

John brought me a container with trucks and beans and asked me if he could play with them. I was perplexed because I thought I had put them up high but figured I was wrong. Later I went upstairs for something and found this:

I wasn't crazy, John was resourceful.

Esmerelda

We have hit an enormous milestone in our family. Emma lost her first tooth! She had a shark's tooth coming in on her bottom front tooth so we had the dentist pull her tooth out. She was beyond excited! She wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy and put it and her tooth under her pillow.

In the morning she found a note under her pillow and a dollar. She was ecstatic! She was also excited to tell her teacher and get her name on the board at school for having lost a tooth.

Stuck

I was putting the groceries in the back of the van and John was playing around in the car. Suddenly I hear, "Mom! I am stuck!" I look in the car and I see that John had been playing in a carseat that wasn't buckled into the car and it fell in between the third and second row of seats. He was stuck in the carseat in between the seats. Both of us were giggling. I couldn't get him out until I took a picture first. I tried unsuccessfully to lift the carseat up out of the seats. Finally I had him wiggle out backwards to get out.

April Fool's Day

I ran out of steam this year so it was a pretty tame April Fool's Day. I had Aaron pick up some Jello at the store for me so I could trick the kids. I made jello in clear cups so they would think I got them some juice. They tried to drink the jello and of course it didn't work. They were a bit confused. Finally after several attempts to pour the "juice" into their mouths unsuccessfully, we told them that it was jello. They tasted the jello and didn't like it. I thought it was weird that they didn't like jello because surely all kids love jello, right? Well, later when I was cleaning up the kitchen, I found the jello box and Aaron accidentally bought cranberry jello. Who knew that they sold cranberry jello outside of November? It makes me wonder if it is someone's attempt to manage a UTI.

Random Thoughts from the Kids

Here are are variety of conversations I have had with the kids.

Emma: Where is the Silverlicious book? I can't find it.
Me: I will help you find it if you come give me a hug first.
Emma: I will try looking again. [Walks off]
Apparently hugs are that awful.

John and I were having a conversation about being a rocket scientist. He got excited and wanted to be a rocket scientist. He told me that when he was 12 he would be a rocket scientist. I told him he had to finish high school, and college before he could be a rocket scientist so he would probably be almost 30. He didn't like that. He then told me that he wanted to go to haircut school instead. Later that day he changed his mind and decided to be a rocket scientist again.

John: Sometimes stuff get dirty on my bum a little bit. That is why I wear a cape.

Emma: Does John have an allergy?
Me: We don't know yet.
John: Jesus knows.

When John sticks his finger in his nose, and I tell him that it is gross, that is a guarantee that he will keep it there.

John: Can you throw me into the wall?
Aaron: I think that would hurt.
So Aaron threw him up to the ceiling instead. (He didn't actually hit the ceiling, just to be clear.)

Aaron came home from work and was changing his cloths.
John: Those are gigantic shorts!

John: My pet pet dog....
Aaron: What is your dog's name?
John: Lazy Starfish.
Aaron: Your dog's name is Lazy Starfish?
John: Yeah, he doesn't like it.
Aaron: I bet.
John: He wants to be named Starfish John. My cat's name is Special Fart Lick. They are at the vet.
Apparently at the vet they have a big rolling pin that they use to smash off the cat's claws.

During conference we play conference bingo.
John: Gambling with beans is another word for conference bingo.