Everyday April...

Victor Hill came to Kauai for some training and we got to hang out with him. He was a huge hit with the kids and the boys loved having him here, too.

Morning hug.

The swingset finally tipped over. It has been teetering on the slight hill in our backyard for almost four years. I think the bottom of one leg finally rusted out and over it went.

It rains almost every day in Kalaheo. Ridge is learning early to just get out and enjoy it.

We made Grandma Graves' rice krispy Easter nests at preschool one day. I taught preschool two days in April.

Ridge has learned to throw food all over the kitchen. The table was clean when he started eating this meal. He was pretty proud of all the food he got onto the table.

We have been spending alot of time in the little pool out back.

We had a neighbor kids pizza party. Each kid got to make their own pizza and we made more Easter nests.

The neighbors cut back their trees between our yard and theirs. It caused a big influx in lizard sightings. This guy seems to come around every time we eat lunch outside. It is fun to see the pouch under his chin blow up. You can kind of see it in this picture.

Geocaching

In the back of our minds we have always thought it would be fun to become geocachers. If you aren't familiar with geocaching it is best described as treasure hunting. Someone hides a container with a few random treasures and usually a log book. It may be hidden in a public place or miles into a hike. They input the GPS coordinates, some instructions, and usually a coded clue into geocaching.com. You go to geocaching.com, input your zip code and all the local geocaches come up. You decide which one you want to find and set out with the instructions and your GPS. When you find the geocache you take a treasure and leave one of your own behind. We didn't really think there would be an abundance of geocaches to find on Kauai so we never really looked into it. We were at a friends house a few weeks ago and their daughter had just gotten home from geocaching. That renewed our interest and this weekend we looked up the information (it turns out there are quite a few geocaches on Kauai) and set out on our treasure hunt. We went to a place called Cook's pine grove at Kahilli adventist park. A short hike (probably less than 1/2 a mile each way). The girls were so excited when they found "the treasure." They took their time deciding what they would take. They choose a marble, bead thing, and shirt pin. They replaced them with a small kaleidoscope, a fuse bead creation and a bottle of bubbles. They also had fun collecting air soft pellets in a variety of colors off the ground. We tried to find a few other geocaches around Poipu but we have a few kinks we need to work out of the geocaching system. We ended up at the boat harbor eating subway and catching hermit crabs. It was a great Saturday. choosing treasures.

Ridge is poking Mike with a stick. I love this picture.

Katelynisms

These are a few of the latest Katelynisms.

Katelyn - Mom, don't you think Brianna needs to change her name? (Brianna is our niece)
Me - Why would Brianna need to change her name?
Katelyn - Because it sounds like banana, and she is NOT A BANANA!

Katelyn - Dad, how old are you?
Russ - 33
Katelyn - Ohhhh (very sad voice)
Russ - Why do you sound sad?
Katelyn - That is really old and you will probably die soon.
Russ - Hmmmm

Note- Katelyn has been obsessed with first aid kits. She came to scouts with me one night when we made first aid kits and she made one then. We also made first aid kits in her preschool. Now she has two that she keeps in her yellow purse (more on the yellow purse later).

Katelyn - Mom, I shouldn't call this my first aid kit.
Me - Why not?
Katelyn - because I have more than one. I'll call this my second aid kit and if I get another one it will be my third aid kit.

Katelyn - "I'm going to be five before Ridge is even a grown up like me and Kyleigh."

Katelyn and her yellow purse -
A few months ago Kyleigh and Katelyn were having trouble sharing with each other and other people. I was hearing a lot of, "she can't play with that, it is my special thing." I made a rule that they could each adopt ONE special thing. Katelyn chose her yellow purse. The yellow purse is a pretty big purse that Auntie Dawn (who is the mom of three cute boys, and loves to spoil little girls) gave her. We thought that was kind of strange, but she insisted. We agreed. The next thing you know, she has that yellow purse CRAM PACKED with stuff. We realized that she had schemed the whole thing. Nobody could mess with the stuff in the yellow purse if the yellow purse itself was her one special thing. The contents of the yellow purse have changed but the yellow purse itself is still stuffed to the brim with supplies. We have one smart girl.

"The Wall"

This is "the wall." Our house is on one side. The neighbor's house is on the other side. Any afternoon you will hear someone yelling over the wall for someone else to join them in an adventure. This weeks adventure was a pet shop. For sale were a snail and an earthworm. It took about 15 minutes to catch the merchandise and the rest of the week was spent making posters and dreaming of the gold mine the pet shop would be. Total posters made were about 60. Total amount of money made, $1.10. The neighbors mom paid 10 cents for the worm. I got hooked for a dollar for the snail. This is how it went down.

Kyleigh - "mom, the neighbors mom paid 10 cents for our worm."
Me - "Oh, yeah, that's neat.
K - "We still have our snail for sale."
Me- "Hmmm, how much are you asking."
K - "One dollar"
Me - "Wow, that's a lot of money for a snail."
K - "Yea, but it is the cutest snail ever AND it comes with it's own house."
Me (How can you deny that sales ability) "O.K., that sounds like a good deal, but who will take care of it?"
K - I could take care of it for you.
Me- "O.K., I'll take it."

Later, Kyleigh tried to charge me 10 cents a day for a snail sitting fee. I had to draw the line. No snail sitting fees.

Three kids and play doh

I think this is the first time all three of my kids have sat down and really played the same thing at the same time. I had to commemorate with a picture. It was also the first time Ridge has sat down and played play doh. That makes 3/3 that have appreciated play doh, even with the limited attention span of a toddler.

Long live play doh!

Little man in the little people bin. Little lady that loves the little people.

We are having lots of fun discovering all of the places Ridge can throw a ball.

April Fools!

We haven't ever done anything special for April Fools Day. I thought about it last year and it came and went before I made any plans. This year we were planning on going to a movie on the beach Friday night so we had a special April Fools dinner on Thursday, March 31st. I thought about fooling the girls, but decided it would be more fun to include them in the plans and fool Daddy. We planned our menu...Meat loaf and salad with cupcakes for dessert and fruit punch to drink. The salad was...drum roll...salad. Now, the exciting part. The meatloaf was a regular rice krispy treat made with cocoa krispies and a little extra cocoa. We shaped it in a bread pan and cut it into slices, just like meatloaf. The cupcakes were a recipe for meatballs. We put the mixture into foil cupcake wrappers and baked them. The frosting is potatoes dyed pink and spread on top of the meatball "cupcake." Our special fruit punch was actually jello that could not be sucked through the deceiving straws. We had fun planning and making the dinner, discussing how we could keep it a secret until it was time to eat, and practicing how we would yell, April Fools! For me the best part was the shining glow in the girls' eyes when Rusty went to take a drink from his straw. They screamed April Fools and started laughing hysterically and pointing with huge ear to ear grins. I caught some of it with my camera. Rusty was, as usual, the best sport and did a great job hamming it up. I can't imaging we will ever go another year without a plan for an April Fools.