Field Trip to Lake Katherine

Today was a gorgeous, sunny, 72- degree Monday.  It was surely worthy of more than sitting inside with books and dishes.  Thankfully my good friend invited ours and a bunch of other homeschool families to spend the day exploring Lake Katherine and having a picnic lunch at a nearby park.  We really enjoyed it! 

The wildlife were not camera shy.  We saw turtles, ducks, swans, snakes, and even a squirrel mama carrying her baby.

EM ran away with the camera for a while.  I love to see what she finds beautiful and picture worthy. 

The egg EM captured.  It was much bigger than a chicken egg, maybe a swan?

I tried to take a picture of all three kids looking at the stream.

So I wasn't close enough to catch LD before he fell in.  There he goes!

Climbing on the same rock and sitting the same way his big brother did a minute ago. 

It's so much fun to get together with a handful of moms and dozens of kids!

 

 

Brothers and Sister

I have a few memories of playing with my sister growing up, when we were getting along and enjoying each other's company.  Most of my memories of our childhood relationship, however,  include us teasing and torturing each other mercilessly.  I thought that was just the normal relationship siblings were supposed to have.  We are great friends now, and I'm very thankful that they have gotten over the torture I caused them in our childhood.  :) 

I'm not exactly sure why, but my kids seem to get along pretty great.  Oh sure, they have their moments and for a long time I thought they would start fighting when they got older, because I thought that's what siblings did, but they haven't so far!  (crossing my fingers)  Maybe it's because they're home together all day and have each other as companions.  Or maybe it's because they're pretty close in age and have similar interests.  Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying it every day and so happy that they love eachother and love to be with each other. 

Life with LD at 28 Months

My sleepy guy came down from his nap, cuddled up on my shoulder and fell back asleep for another two hours.  It's been a long time since I've held a baby while he slept.  Sweetness! 

 

 

We got an Angry Birds puzzle for Easter and LD has put it together so many times that he can do almost the whole thing by himself now!  He loves all things Angry Birds and is on a puzzle kick these days, so it's a hit.

 

 

Another napping picture - I went to check on him to see if he was awake or napping and couldn't find him in his room.  He was in the corner behind his dresser and rocker surrounded by open books, sound asleep. 

Signs of Spring in Monee

Last night I spent some time looking through old posts on this blog and I CAN NOT believe how much my kids have changed!  I especially enjoyed stumbling upon something I wrote about or posted a picture of that I had already forgetten about.  I resolved right then to get better at recording the special everyday things that make our family, our family. 

About three weeks ago we had our first break in the winter weather and we started to feel signs of spring coming.  Josh got home from work and said he had to take us to see something cool. 

He took us to the Monee Resevoir to see the geese!  There were thousands of geese as far as we could see, covering the lake and the land.  They were taking a rest on their long journey home - a sure sign of spring! 

We threw them cereal and crackers, but these geese were not used to people feeding them like the ones at the zoo.  At first they were afraid to come close enough until one brave goose went for the bait.  They must have realized we weren't trying to poison them because then they all goobled up our dry Kix. 

In true "No More Perfect Moms" style, here I am in the picture, enjoying the moment with my kids.
 

Thanks for suggesting this really cool outing, babe!