Spring?

It looks like spring is on it's way!  (I will forget that this morning we had an inch of snow and it didn't get above 24 degrees today with a whipping wind...) The snow has been melting very quickly and has even left some bare spots in our yard!  As a result, we have been hard at work putting together all of the items we have collected over the last few months for outdoor play.  The first up was this climbing dome shaped structure (I am sure it has an official name, I just don't know it;)).  James helped me finish it during nap time the other day and he hasn't gotten off of it since.  He says that he is a spider and is really quite good at climbing and hanging.  Noah is a bit more cautious and prefers to be a monkey.  Ben, mercifully, is not quite tall enough to climb... I am sure that he is only a few months away from being able to do so, but that gives us a few months reprieve... He is, however, very happy to hang and swing from the bottom wrung and loves to pretend to be a trapped animal inside... maybe that live trap did leave an impression.  This picture is showing off the princess dress he has been wearing for a few days now. An official sure sign of spring  is that the kids are running around with no socks... yes, there is still a lot of snow on the ground... they play a game to see who can stand in the snow the longest before jumping off and screaming at how cold their feet are.... I eventually did convince them to wear sandals;)  Most excitingly we were finally able to take down the last of the Christmas decorations!  The garland and extension cords finally came unburied from the snow!

Last weekend we attended a kids Easter celebration at church where the kids were able to participate in lots of fun activities.  Everyone's favorite memory was when James went to throw the whipped cream plate at the "fox" and threw it so hard it went up into the air and landed on his head! 

Noah has been working very hard on his reading both at school and at home.  He is getting so good that all of his siblings like to sit around and listen to him read his "books from school"... even Audrey!

This bottom picture is not quite as cruel as it looks;)  I was in the office and Gabe was playing with the kids (Ben included) in the front room.  I heard Ben say (in a calm, quite voice), "Help please, need some help please".  I walked into the bathroom/laundry room and had to turn right around and walk back out because I was laughing so hard.  Gabe walked in just behind me and said, "Ben, I'll tell you what, I will help you, but first I am going to take your picture".  This made Ben pretty mad and he started screaming.  What he is stuck in is our cloth diaper/"accident"/pee underwear/all things gross bucket.  Apparently he was mad that I had taken something away and he tried to stand on it to try and reach higher... I think he learned his lesson;)  He looks at this picture now, laughs and says, "I stuck, I so funny, hahaha".