April Blooms

April showers bring May flowers... so what brought these beautiful blooms? Whatever it is I'm not complaining! Our yard is in full blossom right now! Something is opening every week. I just love spring! and it is definitely time for the first mowing... that will really kick off the season!

I love this picture of the daffodils.. they are so papery white with such happy little centers! If they had faces they would surely be smiling!

These crocuses are the first to bloom in our yard.. or I should say grass.. they are in the old front bed that is now grass. Every year I tell myself I need to dig them up and move them some place more appropriate.. and every year I forget until it is too late... maybe next year!

We have a couple of lone tulip bulbs... we were given a box of dug up bulbs that were speculated to be tulips.. they were mostly daffodils with I think just two tulips! So they are super special!

These guys are our first blue flowers of the season

I liked the angle of this one.. taken from above..

Ahhh the rhododendrons... these bloom just as the forsythias and ever popular purple azaleas are dropping from the bushes.

Purple leaf Sandcherry... we bought this one last year, it is one of my new favorites.

.... and the beautiful flox that used to be very plentiful along the top of our rock wall.. as you can see by the blades of grass popping out from the middle I haven't been so good at weeding.. so a lot of the flox was lost. Maybe next year we'll work on replenishing it... because it really is beautiful .

And the bright sunshiny forsythia... almost gone by by the time I took this photo.. I think they lasted extra long this year.

I don't remember what these are called but they surprise me every year when they come up, as I am certain every year that they were killed off.

Up next month... lilacs, bleeding hearts! and much much more!

Our Weekend...

I guess since it is almost this weekend I should finally blog last weekend! Last weekend Saturday morning at 7:30!! we had the opening day LAFA parade! A fire engine led the parade from the high school to the field complex where high school seniors threw out the first pitches (male and female) after the national anthem. It was very cute. We then went home for a few minutes before he headed back to the fields for Caden's game! don't worry no pictures except for the team picture since I'd already took a bunch the night before...

hanging out before the parade started

Caden's team!

There he is in the back..

Team photo!

After Caden's game we hopped into the car and headed to Maine to visit Grampy Waterhouse and Uncle Brian! It is crazy because now when we go there it is like we have only one kid! The boys go off with Grampy to do "work" and we play with Cora. Sunday we took her to LL Bean and to visit my friend Angela whom I've been friends with since birth!

While we were waiting to meet up with Grampy, Jane and the boys we hung around and visited with the geese and sheep.. and tried to put Cora in some cute positions for some good pictures.. she was NOT in the mood!

Apparently this Tom Boy does not like Bobcats!

But she does like rusty farm equipment.. it's like a jungle gym to her... as well as wooden pallets with rusty nails sticking out of them (we avoided those)!

Now how absolutely amazing would it have been to get one of the kids to sit on this tractor.. or even in front of the wheel? Cora did not like my idea, and by the time I got the boys with me we'd lost almost all the light.... hmmm, maybe next time.. I'm fairly certain it'll be in the same spot!

Once we were joined by the rest of the gang we headed out to the fields to bring the horses home to a closer pasture.. they were out and about grazing on some deliciously long and green grass and getting some good running in.. cowboy Cole was getting a bit tired of all the hard work! Grampy toted him around for the round up.

Here they go.. cowgirl Jane follows them out as they stop for another tasty snack before heading in.

I so wanted to get the horses in silhouette.. but I'm just learning how so didn't quite figure it out before the horses left this magical spot! Next time I'll bring a checklist... sunset horses and kids with tractor among many other fun photo ops! If only everyone else was as excited about these as I am! Feeding horses, collecting eggs, riding in the Bobcat and dumping stuff out of the dump truck is far more exciting to them!

Sandbox Kids

Our swingset has a spot where you can have a sandbox. So this year we bought and installed the cover, it is a nice spot because it is under the fort so always in the shade! The kids love it and they would play in it for hours on end.

Cora just plops down right in the middle of the sand... and I actually let her!

... I'm not sure when it happened, but I stopped completely freaking out about the kids getting all messy, it is funny that it happened with the girl!

Whee! fun with sand

Copying her brothers...

Whoops!

Yay! I'm a big girl!

Ewww!! Worms! Caden loves worms, he likes to collect them when I'm gardening.

Park It!

Middle of last week in the midst of all the stomach bug sickness going on in our house we got some fresh air at the the local playground with the Sevins... I'll be honest it is nearly impossible to take pictures of the boys as they move so fast! especially while trying to make sure Cora isn't standing at the bottom of the slide again beckoning to be taken out by some fast sliding feet!

Speaking of feet.. are these not the cutest?! We bought these cute little pink crocs last year at a tent sale.. the real deal were only like $4 or something ridiculous like that! We got Cole a pair and Cora two pair (they didn't have Caden's size), her feet are almost too big for this first pair so we are trying to maximize their wear.. although we have a pair the next size up just waiting! but they may be too floppy for toddling 1 year old.

Caden and Cole S. were big fans of these crazy twirling chairs.. I think this is the first year they've been able to use them without help.

Cora checking out her new stomping ground!

I don't know what it is about "the bumpy slide" but every child loves it!

Cora loves all slides in general...

Cole with his thumb wrap after a casualty on the slide.. luckily Cora had puked seconds before heading out the door so I had stuffed a bunch of paper towels in my pocket!

Buds on the see-saw

My cowboy...

My monkey-man..

Caden stands patiently while I try rounding up the others to stand next to their picket for the annual photo... but they got sidetracked on the swings.. Caden patiently asked "Mommy, can I go play now too?!"

We put Cora in a swing for the first time a few weeks ago and she hated every second of it.. today she loved it! But remind me to stop swinging her to take the picture.. although her hands are pretty cute hanging on I would have preferred her happy face in focus!!

There they all are!! as Cole is backing Cora out of the picture.. he refused to stand any closer to their picket. Too bad there wasn't a way to add Cora's name!

Let's Go Red Sox Rockies

Tonight was Caden's 1st T-ball Game! And if I do so say myself, he is the most adorable T-ball player ever! But I may be a bit biased, but seriously.. there is some major cuteness going on here! And there is some photo overload because well.. there was just so many to choose from and so hard to not include them all (which I didn't there are A LOT more). Through this I also realized that I "definitely" need a new lens... the 70-300mm. I mean if the kids are going to be doing sports, I totally need to be closer through the camera! The 200mm does a good job, but I still had to crop in a ton to see much in many of these.. those baseball diamonds are big!

The first part of each t-ball "game" is practice where they work on four drills...

Throwing and Catching - Cuteness right?!

Grounders

Fielding (and batting too, but I didn't get any good pictures of that portion because they were hitting into the cage behind home plate)

I think Cora is a natural catcher!

Cole explores the other side of the fence

Rob keeps Cora occupied with his shoelaces.. fascinating activity!

Let the games begin! Caden up at bat

This is Caden at 1st base yelling "NO, Mommy.. No Mommy" because apparently he didn't want me watching and/or taking a picture of him!

Does he not look pro here?...

... and here!

I'd like to think he is giving signals to the catcher here.. except there is no catcher really.. and there is no pitcher!

On the bench

Next preoccupying trick... snacks!

"mwa mwa mwa mwa" What's that Cole? you have your mouth full of goldfish?

Caden runs to 3rd base around the gaggle of teammates congregating at 2nd.. seriously you have to come watch a game it is so funny (and adorable)!

... and we begin to lose focus with about 2 batters left to go

Good job, nice game...

... and notice the coolest coincidence of all of him being on the Colorado Rockies? Check out the hat.. (I'll give you a hint CR = Caden Rogers)

We are officially ball park people!