Fun at the metro park

rock climbing through the water

Big sister love!

Still trying to carry Tucker

Yesterday the kids and I decided to head out to the metro park to enjoy some much needed fresh air. With Bud in Colorado for 10 days times can be pretty hairy cooped up in our house. Tucker had been in his cage for a while and he also needed some exercise. The nice thing about the Lake Erie metropark is the fact that it has a huge playground geared for all ages, bike paths to ride on, picnic tables to eat on, the lake to throw rocks into and a view that is beautiful when the sky is blue. Our activities of the day consisted of racing up hills, climbing the playground, being licked by the dog, rock jumping through the rip currents and a chicken nugget picnic. This area is so full of parks. I could find a new one every single day and enjoy everything it has to offer. Faith and Champ were well behaved which meant we were able to have lots of fun. I find myself in awe of how much Faith is growing. How is it that I still remember her as this 3 year old fairy dancing around the house in Virginia? Whenever I see her off on her own like yesterday splashing and climbing on the rocks, I am given the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy. She is always barefoot and silly. What is it about Faith and shoes? That girl is much like myself. I can't stand shoes. If I could go without shoes for the rest of my life then the place for me to move to would be the beach in Florida.  I could handle that. I suppose Michigan will due for now but the cold weather has got to go.

Cousins.....beautiful cousins

Faith's cousins came last weekend from IL to celebrate a birthday. It was so much fun. Faith loved playing with her cousins. I'm sure they loved her too. Lauren was having a birthday. She's getting ready to turn 11. Eleven is a good age. It is almost like a big sister to Faith. Her other cousin Grace is the same age and although we haven't seen them in a few years, she has always gotten along great with her. It must be something with that age. So Faith's favorite part of the 24 hour visit was most definitely the tree swings. I knew when we bought this house there would be years of fun underneath that weeping willow. Weeping willows are beautiful and give so much shade. It's branches are strong. Faith and Lauren played and played under that tree. First they played stand on the swing together and swing. Then they played leg wrestling while one is sitting on the ground and the other is swinging. Not to mention the game of let's straddle each other and lean towards each other to swing higher. Lauren came up with the game of sitting in the rope swing and swinging. Our puppy was glad for all the extra attention. Seemed like someone was always walking him or talking to him. He couldn't sleep if he tried. However 24 hours doesn't last long. Three of those hours were spent at Faith's gymnastics meet. I wish they could have stayed longer however summer time will be here soon enough and they are coming to visit for two weeks. We are super excited.

3 blues and 1 red

Faith finished her fourth gymnastics meet on Saturday and is ready for state in three weeks. She did a great job. Beam looked good and not a fall was taken. Bars resulted in a blue ribbon also despite not getting her mill circle all the way around. Floor was beautiful. She finished with the music this time and not ahead of it. Floor also received a blue ribbon. Vault was tricky this time around. Bent legs and sloppy body caused her to almost fall off the mat when landing on her back. It was here that she received a red ribbon. She was very proud of herself. Her cousins came from IL to watch her so it was exciting for her to do good routines.

32 and not counting

Faith loves her stuffed animals. I knew she had a lot of stuffed animals in her bed but never really took the time to count them. I don't think she realized how many were there either. She just knows that she loves each one of them and they should all have a place in her bed. I've tried to place some of them under her bed. She has a hammock and shelves however they all end up in her bed. Upon making her bed last night I decided to count them all. My mouth fell to the floor when I stopped at 32. I wonder what it is about; all the fluffiness in her bed. The pile is piled in the corner and halfway down her bed. I told there is lots of room for more. I know she loves them. She never plays with them. She just enjoys their company when left alone for the night. The ever so special Lamby is still a part of that crowd. She is held close though with Lamby's bottom nuzzling against her chin. When Lamby can't join her in her bed she picks one of five other lambs.

In love

Faith is in love with her puppy. She loves to carry Tucker around although he is growing quite big. She always hugs and kisses him goodnight. She wakes him up in the morning and plays with him. She even cleans up after him when he does his dirty work in the yard (this is true love). Faith enjoys chasing after him around the house. She often gives him something he isn't supposed to have and he runs. This morning it was my bra and the day before it was Champ's underwear. She finds it funny. When feeling gloomy and in the dumps, she often loves on Tucker. Last Wednesday was one of these days. She picked him up and just layed with him on the ottoman. He loves her too. He won't go for a walk unless she goes with him on her bicycle. He loves to chase after her bike. A puppy is hard work but well worth the love seen between him and us developing.

Playdate

What was a mere social talking relationship has blossomed into a friendship. Faith's friend Amanda has realized that Faith is a good friend and fun to be around. Although not always the nicest friend, Faith enjoys her company. Amanda and Faith ride the bus home together each day and live only one road apart. Faith could ride her bike over to Amanda's house by herself is how close we live. Amanda came over for a playdate last week over Spring break. The girls had fun playing in the bedroom, swinging on the rope swing outside and riding bikes.

Don't want it!

I am tired of Faith's complaining of what is for lunch or dinner. She is so particular about what she eats it has become quite annoying. Her food can not be mixed so casseroles are out of the question. Sauces are yucky so all those foods are out of the question. Doesn't want to eat beef so that is out of the question. I could go on and on however it wouldn't make a bit of difference. She is picky and I refuse to make mac and cheese every night. A few nights ago I tried a new recipe. I thought she would eat it however it called for eggs to mixed with three types of cheese and broccoli. She eats them all on their own. I thought she was going to barf it up. I refused to give in to her. I was going to hold my ground. I told her that if she didn't eat it for dinner I would give it to her for breakfast. She chose that option thinking I was bluffing but when it came to her for breakfast she said she wasn't eating breakfast. Had it been a weekend I would have so oh well however I was a bit concerned because she needed to think at school. I threw in the fact that if she didn't eat it for breakfast she would have it in her lunch along with nothing else. Faith told me that was ok because she would ask her teacher for snack. I told her that I would email her teacher and tell her that Faith has snack in her lunch and not to give it to her. Upon almost force feeding her she managed to swallow half of the muffin sized egg souffle. She held her nose while I place the egg in her mouth. It was hilarious to think that she was putting up this big of fight. She would eventually get hungry and would eat it. I told her that I had 10 more in the fridge if she didn't eat it for breakfast or lunch that day. Needless to say she did drink all her milk that morning. She had to in order to wash down that garbage. How is she going to learn to like things if she never tries them. I know I'm mean. I love it though. I was made to eat sweet potatoes when I was little. Tried them with everything including marshmallows, ketchup, mustard. I like them now. They just need a little brown sugar, butter and marshmallows. Why didn't my mom think of that when I was little. We could have avoided all the fuss.

The cycle of a seed

Last Fall Faith and I cut some dried black eyed susans and purple coneflowers from a local public flower garden. It was our hope that in our new yard we would plant these seeds and watch the cycle of the plant start from the beginning. So often we can get plants that are already grown into a young plant. There is very little to do to them than other than plant and water. However, seeds can be a little bit trickier to grow. It is our hope that our work will pay off and we will be blessed with beautiful flowers for the summer. Bud tore up the back of the flower garden today. It was actually a rock bed but was not of very good practicality. I hope that this flower garden will turn out beautiful and filled with lots of colorful flowers. Faith separated all the seeds into individual seeds and spread them in the soil. I am going to give her her garden growing patch for Daisy scouts. She loves earning them for the back of her vest.

Fairy houses

I was excited when my friend called me yesterday to come over and make fairy houses. It was like a dream come true. Faith and I love fairies. Whenever we go to our local park here on the island we play in the fairy garden. Fairy houses are so much fun. Yesterday Faith was only able to paint the shelter area that will protect the fairies from rain. We made a little bed for them at Champ's naptime along with a little bedside table. We imagined the fairies heading out after Easter on Sunday and finding the children's Easter eggs. They would gather them and use them to collect rain water to drink. They would use a found cotton ball and place it in the middle of the egg and then use that egg for a chair. I used some hosta sticks and glued some fabric on to it to use for some curtains. Last but not least I added some little beads to the rod. It is so much fun to decorate a fairy house. I could spend my entire day making fairy furniture. Faith had lots of fun chasing her friend Rae around the house. We had to kill some time before the houses were ready. Jennie had to saw the wood and nail it together for us. She is such a "handyman". She can totally do anything. I would love to have half as much ability as she does. Faith finished off her afternoon by hotgluing some moss to the top. We have lots more to do. Will probably finish later today or Friday and get it outside this weekend.d

First annual family and friend egg hunt

Faith had so much fun today at our house. One of the great things about owning a home is having fun activities for friends and family to enjoy. Today was the first of many activities as we decided to host an Easter egg hunt instead of attending a public hunt. Public hunts are often overly crowded and I as a parent am not able to photograph the hunt because too many kids are in the way. Today was just right as we had 16 kids ranging fron 15 months to 9 years old. Faith helped fill all the plastic eggs on Thursday and Friday. The eggs were a pain to fill and often wouldn't snap shut but it was all worth it as we hunted for 200 eggs. Although I feel that 200 was not enough, I am happy to say that all the parents were in agreement that not too much candy was sent home. The candy that they did get was maybe a handful and they were able to eat it while playing and not take any home. We all enjoyed doughnuts and juice. Tucker our dog slept like a baby after all the excitement and all the kids had so much fun playing with him. I am super excited to host more events. Our next one will be a BBQ this summer.

Tucker

Tucker is our new puppy. He is only 9 weeks old and he arrived one week ago. Raising a child is hard but raising a puppy is even harder. Just when my youngest one is potty trained and self sufficient in walks another one to potty train and house train. Although it is still an everyday task to housetrain my two kids I am excited to see them with their new puppy. Tucker is a Brittany Spaniel. He is quite the rolly polly puppy weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 6 oz. He is just the size of some new born babies. What began as two torturous nights locked in his cage has now settled down to a quite night's rest with only one potty break. Tucker crashes shortly after the kids go to bed. He loves playing with stuffed animals even if they don't belong to him. He played with a baby rattle for almost 40 minutes last night and chased our fat cat. Abby the cat is not too excited about this new creature in her territory. If I had to imagine what she was thinking it would probably be, "ok, when is this animal's parents going to come and get him." However if she only knew that he is here to stay and be a part of our family. Faith has taken a big step in caring for him. She had to clean up his poop today in the house because she was supposed to be watching him and playing with him while I prepared lunch. She was disgusted at the fact of having to clean up waste but when she took him outside and he pooped again, she quickly came in and told me she needed a bag. Upon trying to clean it up with the help of Tucker, she realized that he needed to come inside because he was trying to get the poop when she was trying to clean it up which ultimately led to a dirty dog. Tucker is a good dog. He is a great match for our kids who obviously need a dog that will keep them active.

Tadpoles

Faith ventured into our neighbors half filled pond only to find lots of tadpoles. I knew there would be lots but I wasn't prepared for the large amount we actually found. Faith didn't mind the mud between her toes. The pond used to be a functioning pond however previous owners filled it in. Now it is a low land that holds water after a rain. What better fun could a child think of then to trudge through the mud. Day 2 of trudging through mud let Faith to the collection of tadpoles. I wasn't able to help her do this as I was babysitting. Champ and her headed to the pond on their own while I watched from our back window. I believe she collected 8 with her bare hands and brought them home to show me. However they had died by the time they reached me. Her little hands cupped in front of her gently holding the little tadpoles made my heart fill with gladness at the wonderful place that we live now.