Cinco de Mayo

Both boys had Cinco de Mayo celebrations at school today.
Riley's class talked about Cinco de Mayo & played Mexican music.
Then they had a pinata!
Lily & I were able to come back to help break it open.

Here is the mob of children after the candy was on the ground. =)

Riley was making sure he got lots of candy.

Lily found a sucker, ripped the wrapper off, and stopped looking for candy.

Miss Eva (Riley's teacher) loves Lily.

She has known her since she was born.

And she lets Lily do pretty much whatever she wants.

So when Lily wanted to take the pinata home, Miss Eva let her.

Let's see how that works next year when she is in her class. =)


Later on in the afternoon, we went to watch Zach do his Cinco de Mayo dance.

The Kindergarten through fifth grades all performed songs and dances with the help of the Spanish teacher.

Zach was really excited!

He did a great job!!

They sang "The More We Get Together" in Spanish while they danced.

The whole class did a good job!

The other classes did a great job too. It was a really cute program.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! =)

The Many Looks of Lily

Lily loves sunglasses, hats, and tutus.
Here she is showing off her unique sense of style.

Our Garden

On Saturday, we planted a garden.
The boys have been asking to plant one for weeks now.
To quote Zach:
"Mom, I want to be able to grow our own food, so I can walk outside and pick fresh food off the vine."
There's only one problem with that.
Zach only likes a few select vegetables.
I would love to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc.
But I would be the only one eating them.
So, we went to the store and picked out these seeds.

Green beans (Zach's favorite), carrots, and they talked me into watermelon.
(We'll see how that one works out....)
We also picked out giant sunflowers (my favorite) and Riley picked out some pretty purple flowers.

They do like other veggies, but I don't exactly have a green thumb, and I am not brave enough to try those. =)

We started out with Jeff building a wooden frame for where we wanted to plant the food seeds.

We also bought dirt to put in there to help the seeds grow.

Lily helped Jeff spread it out.

While Jeff was working on that, the kids & I planted the flower seeds.

The dug, planted, and covered up the seeds.

Then we moved over to the bigger garden and planted the green beans, carrots, and watermelon.

We are really excited to watch everything grow!

I will keep you updated on our progress. =)

Friday Afternoons

Friday afternoons are my favorite day during the busy school week.
My sister Mary picks Zach up from school Monday through Thursday.
I pick him up on Fridays.
He is excited everyday after school, but Fridays are different.
He shows me his spelling test, his new library books, and tells me about the fun things he did.
Lily and Riley are excited to see Zach too, and like to go pick him up.
Then they all know what happens next:

Our little treat for Fridays.
Just because.
Lily always gets a strawberry slush.
The boys switch their choices around.
They are into cranberry drinks now.
Riley ALWAYS gets what Zach gets.
Even if Zach changes his mind......Riley will change his mind too. =)
Mine is always a Diet Dr. Pepper....I am addicted.

Here recently we have been going straight outside to enjoy our drinks.

Sometimes to cool off between bike and scooter rides.

Sometimes just sitting on the deck laughing with each other.

Before they run off in a million different directions.

Relaxing at the end of a busy week.

I love Fridays! =)

Tiger Cub Badge

Zach received his Tiger Cub Badge last night!
He has moved up in the scouting world. =)
He is now a Tiger Cub Scout.
He worked all year to earn this badge.

We are so proud of you Zach for all of your hard work!

Renaissance Fair

We went to the Great Plains Renaissance Fair yesterday afternoon.
It was a lot of fun!
I have been to Renaissance Fairs before, but we have never taken the kids.
I think they really liked it.
The first thing we did was stop in the "Kid's Realm" and let the kids play games.

Then we walked around to watch some of the shows.
The boys really liked this fencing show.

We also walked around the shops.

The boys picked out these bows & safe arrows.

Riley is getting a lesson on how to use his here:

Lily picked out a fairy wand and halo.

(It was SUPER windy yesterday....)

Some of the workers were handing out Musketeer coins.

The kids had to take the coins to the Royal Court to exchange them for a prize.

Here they are with the queen.

They also got a stamp saying they were now Musketeers.

While we were walking around waiting for the jousting to begin, we saw some very interesting people.

Then the jousting began!

This was really fun to watch.

This lady was our announcer.

Those horses are huge!!!

These were the two champions.

The one with the yellow and red checks was our side's champion.

Zach was really into this.

He was cheering them on and laughing so hard at the jokes that the announcer and the men would tell.

We moved onto face painting when we were done watching the joust.

Zach felt that he was too old for face painting. ;-)

But Lily and Riley wanted to.

The last thing we did was watch this comedy circus.

The husband/wife duo was really funny!

They were also really good at their acts.

They juggled:

Walked on tight ropes:

And jumped through fire!

It was a lot of fun.

I think we will have to make this a yearly tradition!

It's Not Easy Being This Cute

It takes a lot of work!

First you have to brush your hair......with TWO brushes!

Then, you have to blow dry your hair:

Then straighten your hair.....

(or your ear...whatever works...)

and curl it!

Add a little lipstick.....

and some bracelets, and you're done!

I can't wait for her to be a teenager.......

=)