An Afternoon in the Park with Grandma 4/2/10

Just like April 1st, April 2nd was another gorgeous day!! My Mom said she was having "I don't wanna work" fever so we went to the park for lunch and some play time.Lots of other people had the same idea, but for the most part, everyone was nice and shared the play sets. ;)
This was a cool teetor totter that Marc was able to do on his own.
My Mom and I split up, each taking a kid. I started out with Marc. I love the way this picture turned out. :)
This was a really tall twisty slide that Marc made loops doing, one right after another.
After awhile we switched kids. I had fun pushing Samantha on the swing and listening to her giggle and smile. :)
Since she was a little young for a big play set last summer, and this was the first time at the park, she was a little leery about some things at first, but she quickly became my little dare devil. She loved this "suspension" bridge. She climbed up the stairs, crossed the bridge, and went down the slide. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Oh, and sometimes she stopped to drive the play set.....
and play tic tac toe.
Samantha wanted to go down a tube slide like her brother so after Mom came over close to me, we let her go down it. She loved it!!
I'm not sure which girl enjoyed swinging together more. ;)
Just like there was the single person teetor totter, there was a two person one as well.
Samantha bouncing on a pelican's back.
The kids wanted to ride a bouncing "ride" together, but at first we didn't see a 2 person one. We were excited to find this alligator they could ride together.
Samantha wanted to drive all the play sets.
Marc has come a long way since last summer. Last year we tried to get him to do lots of stuff but he was too "scared" to do it. This summer he hopped right to it! He walked these stepping stones. He said the orange ones were wobbly.
Samantha wanted to do almost everything Marc did, so I helped her "walk" the stepping stones...and pose for a picture.
Samantha was riding her motorcycle so fast she had wind blowing through her hair. ;)
She thought this curved window was SO cool!
the kids were getting tired of me and my Mom making them pose for pictures. ;)
This play set had 4 holes all right in a row. Samantha poked her face through each hole and said "boo!"
They decided to end the trip to the park with a spin on the merry-go-round.
I think it was a fun-filled trip to the park for everyone involved....I know it wad for me! :-)

Kindergarten Gymnastics Field Trip 4/2/10

The Friday before spring break, Marc's class went to a gymnastics place for a field trip. The teachers found out several years ago that they don't get much work out of the kids that last day before break, so they turned it into a field trip day. ;)
When the kids first got there they had to stretch out with some of the instructors. The instructors then told the kids the rules for each apparatus and then let them loose!
One of the things the kids can do it jumping in to a pit filled with soft, squishy foam pieces. This place had 3 different "levels" to jump from; the floor, a platform 3 steps high, and a REALLY high platform. The first thing Marc did was to make a bee-line to the ladder to go up to the platform. That totally floored me! When he took gymnastic lessons 2 years ago, we had trouble getting him to even jump into the pit, let alone the high platform. I thought that maybe as he waited (up really high) for his turn to jump, that he might change his mind.......
he didn't!!!!!!!!
and he landed safely in the soft, squishy foam. :)
He then walked directly back over to the ladder to do it again.
Marc got the biggest kick out of being able to jump on the spring board and jumping onto the vault. His "girlfriend" Katerie wasn't able to do it because she is shorter then Marc but he stayed there encouraging her. :)
They have what is called a tumble-track. It is a really long skinny trampoline-like thing that the kids could jump, hop, skip down.
One of Marc's favorite's was an inflatable whale that you crawl into its mouth......
crawl through an obstacle course in its belly........
and slide down it's tail to get out.
After Katerie jumped into the pit, Marc was ever so much the gentleman and helped her get out of the pit. :)
When it was finally Marc's turn on the trampoline, he was just jumping around like normal. I told him to loosen up and have some fun and make some silly jumps.
When Marc was in gymnastics, he had no balance what so ever! ;) This place had about 6 balance beams of varying height. He said he was going to walk all of them, even the really high one. And he did it!!
I had a lot of fun watching him do all the apparatus and being wowed at how far he had come since he took classes. :)

More Sun! 4/1/10

If you weren't here, you would think I was playing an April Fool's Day joke on you....but I'm not! The high on April 1st was 82 degrees! So we put on our shorts and headed outside for some more sun!!
For his birthday, Marc got some sidewalk chalk paint that he has been itchin' to use. So he painted some of the driveway, and my tire, with his green paint.Samantha had a ton of fun playing catch with herself. ;) She would throw the ball, then chase it down, pick it up, and throw again...repeat, repeat, repeat (about 10 times in a row), until, of course, I got the video ready. As soon as she saw me videoing her, she stopped. One of the times she chased the ball she tried to run quicker then her little toddler legs would carry her and she fell down boom. :( She got her first skinned knee of the season.
She did really well with it. I told her "oops....all better now" and she went on playing. As she played it started to bleed a little so I put a band-aid (Princess of course) on it. For 3 days after-wards, she would tell anyone and everyone about her "bo-bo".

Wacky Wednesday 3/31/10

The week before spring break at Chandler Woods was "Spirit Week". Wednesday tat week was "Wacky Wednesday". The kids were supposed to wear crazy clothes. Marc wore 2 different color socks, his vest backwards......and his hair looked like he stuck his finger in the light socket. ;)
He was so excited about going to school looking crazy. I think he looked really cute with his hair all spiked!!

Sunshine-y Fun 3/29/10

The sunshine was out so we went out to play!!!!! After a long winter of cold and snow it was great to get outside and enjoy the sunshine!! I have been working on cleaning out the garage and the kids helped by finding all the "outside toys" and making sure they worked well. During my cleaning I found a push car that Marc used when he was younger. We thought Samantha might enjoy it so I cleaned it up and she tested it out with Marc's help.
Last summer Samantha wasn't really old enough for sidewalk chalk, so I decided to pull it out and see what she thought of it......
she liked it!!!
I blew some bubbles inside the house a few weeks before and Samantha couldn't stop giggling and Marc LOVES chasing them, so when I found a bubble gun, the kiddos went to town! I "blew" the bubbles while Samantha giggled and Marc popped them.
Then Marc wanted to "blow" some bubbles for Samantha. He really is a good big brother. :)
We had a fun hour or so outside before it was time to go in for dinner. We are looking forward to many more hours and days to be enjoyed in the sunshine.

St Peter's Preschool Carnival 3/19/10

Every year my preschool has a school carnival. As an employee, I am required to be there from start to finish and to help out where needed. This year Samantha was sick so Daddy had to stay home with her. Marc was so sad that he might have to miss the carnival, so I took him with me to be my side-kick.
When we first got there we got put to work running the sucker tree game. Marc felt super-important. I had such a fun time watching him feel like the big man on campus in his old preschool.After some time running games we had a few minutes so Marc could play some games.
After playing a few games, we worked some more, then had a quick few bites of pizza before heading off to play a few more games before then night was over.
After playing games and getting redemption tickets, Marc turned his tickets in for some prizes. He got some nice prizes.
Marc had fun returning to his old stomping grounds and being the big man on campus by helping me run games and I had even more fun watching him. It was a fun night for both of us. :)