WAM Spring Musical

April 7th, the WAM (Worship Arts Ministry -- think kids' choir) presented it's preschool spring musical. It was a fun-filled evening full of songs celebrating spring and Jesus's resurrection. The 4-year-olds were flowers (the girls) and bees (the boys). As has been true in every other performance, though Jack knew every single word to every single song in the program and though he could do the motions in his sleep he was overwhelmed by watching the audience and the other kids. He sang but with little emotion and often forgot to do the motions. He just gets so caught up in people-watching. No matter -- he made a cute little bumble bee!!

My Easter Bunnies

You have no idea how much work it took to get this picture...


I thought I was going to have to settle for something more like this...

NASCAR fun

For my Dad's 50th birthday we all pitched in to get him a NASCAR experience -- 8 laps in a real race car at the Texas World Speedway. We made the roadtrip at the end of March to watch the experience live. We had a BLAST! The boys loved the cars and I thought I was going to have to pull Sam off the track (seriously they needed a higher retaining wall!). Dad ended up driving 16 laps and from all the pictures he had a good time. Now the boys yell "Go Papa GO!" at every racing game they see/play; Jack tells me he's moving to Pearland to get ready for his race someday when he'll get to race #88 (that was Dad's car); Sam shouts "PAPA RACE!" when he hears a big engine. Jack is still wondering why there was no trophy though...

Enjoy the pictures of our trip!

Dad driving the #88 car -- his 2nd 8 laps :)

The boys watching the cars zoom past

Dad ready for the day

Sam checking things out

Jack -- and his goofy new pose

Little Boys with Big Boy Toys

Our Guitar Hero

Grace decided to play guitar with Daddy. She liked the lights! Truthfully she went to the guitar on her own -- Daddy just helped her get into playing position. Silly little girl!

Bottled Giggles

I wish I could have bottled the giggles that filled the air this day. Sigh. The pictures will have to do.

Easter Celebrations

Jack's class had their Easter party Wednesday, March 31st. I was room-mom for this one so I didn't get many pictures...but what I took I've posted here.

Jack and his friend Caleb at the egg hunt

Silly Jack at lunch

Good Friday we spent the day having some good family time. We spent the day doing household things and ended the day with yummy blackened red snapper (thanks Luke!), chocolate cookies (thanks Randall's!) and egg dying serenaded to "Happy Happy Easter! Jesus is Risen!" (thanks WAM!). Here are some pictures of the egg-dying fun! Overall it was a great success; we only ended up with one cracked egg and no one spilled any dye.

Let the process begin

Excited boys

Choices, choices...

I don't think he drank any dye...

Grace's contribution to the night -- beauty

Giant Baby Leaps

Time flies when you're having fun -- or in this case are incredibly sleep deprived -- and before I realized it Miss Grace was turning 5 months old. Determined to prove that her entry to this world really was a glimpse into how she'll approach this world, Little Miss is hitting milestones fast.

Grace found her toes. Thursday, March 18th Luke showed them to her. She reluctantly grabbed her toes but was wholly unimpressed with them. The next day we took her to have pictures taken. Here's how I imagine Grace's "toe-revelation": Why is this lady making kiss noises at me? I wonder what she's after. Man, this bottom lip tastes good -- maybe mom could put my milk in this so I wouldn't have to wait to eat. Oh here are those toe things Dad mentioned last night. WOW that lady is really excited about the toes. Really? They are that cool? Hmm...I had no idea. Yeah they ARE cool. I like them too! Truthfully it did seem like it took attention from the photographer for Grace to realize that her toes really were worth "hanging on to" (wow that's a bad pun). Grace still seems to think the toe thing is just for daddy because she rarely grabs her toes for me but as soon as she sees Luke she begins to show Daddy what she can do.
Tuesday, March 22nd Grace rolled over back to front. She's been able to roll front to back (benefits of a tummy-sleeper) for a while now but has shown zero interest in rolling the other way. Now? Try and stop her. The minute she 's on her back Grace is rolling over to her tummy. She's also beginning to scoot. She's rarely successful and when success does occur Grace rarely goes far but she's trying.Tuesday, March 29th Grace had her first "table food" experience. Like the boys she got rice cereal; unlike the boys she did not make a mess -- at all. The lack of mess can probably be contributed to two factors: one, we made the cereal much thinner than the boys and two, Grace quickly perfected a method to suck the food off the spoon that resulted in less mess. We are about to move on to oatmeal then barley to round out the grains and then like with the boys we'll move on to veggies. Grace will be pleased -- she's been watching food go from our plates to our mouths for a while with a disappointed look on her face.

NOT happy with being strapped into the bouncer.

Still not impressed -- first bite

Not too bad! If you look close you can still see tears on her cheeks -- such drama!

Happy Girl with a full tummy!

And then, before I could post this last night, Grace sat up. She's far from independent but she did keep her balance while I changed clothes -- and she did it without the baby "tripod" pose (all the weight on the hands). Again I'm sure this will alleviate a little frustration on her part -- Grace is ready to participate in the world she's only watched from the sidelines.

All these milestones are making my head spin!