Tulip Festival etc.

The Tulip Festival has been going on for a couple weeks but it has been so cold and windy that we hadn't been yet.  The stars aligned this week though.  The sun came out, the wind died down, Ian came home from work early (!!!!), and we headed over to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens as a family Wednesday night to check out the Tulips.  

I wanted to find the Secret Garden, so we grabbed a map and set off.  We started at the waterfall.  It's the kids' favorite.  We did finally find the Secret Garden and it was really cool.  Picturesque and definitely reminded me of the movie.  Plus it had a fountain that the kids played around.  Talia could have stayed there for hours.  As it was she managed to soak her shirt in only 15 minutes.

We also stopped and fed the hundreds of koi in the lake.  This was a highlight.  It's kind of scary how crazy the fish go when you feed them and there are SO many!  Anyway, it was a very fun, exhausting outing.  Lucky for me Weston thinks pushing the stroller is cool.  :)

ETC.:
Weston's school did Spring photos a couple of weeks ago.  It was nice that they sent home a proof of the picture then you could decide whether or not to buy it.  I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the proof.  He's such a 1st grade mess!  Crazy, messy hair.  Shirt on backwards. (He told me he realized his shirt was on backwards later that day.)  Needless to say, I had forgotten it was picture day that morning and we did not pay to order these pictures, but I felt this photo still needed to be documented.  Love my cute grade schooler!

Also in this post I just have to include a bunch of pictures of my cute little Beckett.  He is getting big so fast and I feel like I forget to document it like I should.  He is now 7 months old.  He still just has his same 2 teeth.  He has slept through the night the last couple of nights, so I'm really hoping we are getting settled in that department.  He's pretty much the cutest little guy ever.

This was a random little hat I tried on him while wandering Hobby Lobby.

He's definitely on track to become another Bowles vidiot child.  He loves watching Baby Einstein!  This is his zoned out face.

He is finally trying more foods.  We've had carrots, green beans, apples, and squash mixed with our oatmeal so far.  While we were eating at Carl's Jr. last week I fed Beckett tiny pieces of bread.  He loved it!

This little guy is no longer content to lay on his back and play.  He immediately rolls over on his tummy to play.  He scooches backwards and moves in a circle.  He can lift himself up into push up position too.  I have no doubt he will be my earliest crawler.

He babbles and chats up a storm.  He just started babbling "mama."  I love it!

Just For Fun

Just for fun . . . 

-Here is what our mornings look like.  These kiddos love their shows!

-Beckett was up a few times in the night and was a very tired baby the next day.  I was trying to get him to play but he was just too worn out apparently.

-Ian just finished a big, long, busy project at work that kept him there a lot.  He tried to make it up to me by taking me out on a date to see The Host and let me do a little shopping.  I got a new outfit!  And even better it was all on clearance and I paid $25 for the skirt and top.

-Davin decided to do a little writing practice on the mini magnadoodle.  I think he's getting really good at his name!  I didn't even say anything about the backwards "N" because it was too cute.  :)

-I love my baby boy's baby blues.  I really hope that his eyes stay blue!  We shall see.

-Ian was working late and we really needed to get out of the house so I braved an outing with all 4 kiddos by myself.  We ate at In N Out then played at the dinosaur museum.  The kids did great and we had lots of fun in the practically empty museum.  Oh, and Talia insisted on wearing the red cape.  It was adorable.

Two Wheels!

One of Weston's goals this year was to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  We really wanted him to accomplish this goal too.  I mean, the kid is seven years old.  It was time.  Ian worked with him several times during Spring break and took the pedals off his bike so he could get used to balancing.  On Saturday afternoon Ian put the pedals back on and within half an hour Weston was riding a two wheeler!  He was so so happy and excited and proud of himself. 

When he first started learning, Ian had told him that when he rode around the block on his own then we would take him out for frozen yogurt.  Weston told me that he was even more excited that he could ride his bike than he was about the frozen yogurt.  But he still wanted to go.  Saturday night we all went out to celebrate Weston's accomplishment. 

I'm so proud of Weston for sticking with it and trying hard even though it didn't come easily.

Soccer

It's official.  I'm a soccer mom.  Davin started Spring soccer last week.  This is Davin's first extracurricular activity and he was SO excited.  He was clueless and adorable and had so much fun.  His team met on Tuesday for a practice, but it was really windy and cold, so they only lasted about 20 minutes.  I'm not sure how much instruction he really got. 

 

The game on Saturday wasn't much better.  It was overcast, windy and cold.  Davin ended up wearing his zip up hoodie jacket under his jersey.  Mel and Brad came to watch and were very fun to have there.  They were also much more prepared on the snack front than I was.  :)  Davin pretty much stayed on the very fringes of the game the whole time.  He ran back and forth and did an awesome fist pump/yessss thing every time anyone scored or they stopped playing to kick the ball back in.  He kicked the ball two or three times, but mostly stayed away from the other kids because he didn't want to get "squooshed." (as he told me after the game)

 

Talia was pretty miserable and whiny the whole game.  Beckett endured it without a fuss.  Weston claimed he wasn't cold.  Davin's favorite was getting a juice box at the end of the game.  He said he had fun playing soccer and is excited for his next game.  I'm hoping it's a little warmer this Saturday.  And Uncle Brad put out a bribe for Davin to get in there and score a goal.  I'll keep you posted on our little soccer player!

Motherboy

Last week was a fun one at school for my big boys.  In preschool Davin is learning about bugs.  On Friday he could dress up like a bug if he wanted to.  He really wanted to be a bee, so we put together a homemade costume and I thought he was a pretty adorable little bee. 

 That night was a mother/son activity at Weston's school.  Ian liked to refer to it as Motherboy.  If you are unfamiliar with the Arrested Development reference please watch this clip and all three seasons.  It's hilarious.  Anyway, I decided to take both of the big boys for a pizza picnic followed by a reptile show.  Aside from losing Davin between the picnic and the show we had a great time.  I loved watching Weston with his cute school friends.  They are so funny and silly.

 Davin was enthralled by the show.  The tarantula and scorpion were his favorites.  Weston's favorites were the turtles.  My favorite was when we got to stand up after sitting on the cafeteria floor for an hour.  :)  At the end the kids got to "pet" the giant 14 foot snake.  It was definitely a good time and nice to get out of the house and spend some time with my boys. 

Spring Break

The kids had all of last week off for Spring Break!  I felt like a lame mom and didn't plan much to do, but it turned out ok and we still had some fun.  The kids spent lots of time playing outside whenever it wasn't raining.  When it was raining we stayed inside and watched movies, played video games and Legos, and even crafted a bit!  Alright, maybe the term "crafting" is a bit generous, but we did do the boys' melty beads craft that they got in their Easter baskets.  It was right up their alley.  They had extra beads after doing the kit design so they each did a couple of their own designs too.

I spent an entire day cleaning and organizing.  I went through all of the toy bins and organized the boys' bookshelf, desk and closet.  I found this little literary gem in the boys' desk.  I'm pretty sure this is about a year old.  Pretty hilarious.

We went to the dinosaur museum one morning with our next door neighbor buddies.  It was kind of crowded since it was Spring break but the kids had a blast!  We have the best neighbors!

I was a little overwhelmed having all of the kids home for a full week while Ian worked lots and lots of hours so this made me laugh instead of cry.  :)

Ian came home one night and we took the family out for bowling and pizza.  It was really fun and Talia's first time bowling!  She loved it.  We had to constantly remind her to keep her dancing little self in our own space though.  Weston bowled without using the ramp for the first time and did great (he didn't actually get any strikes though; that was a scoring error).  I love that Talia beat all of us.  That figures.

One morning we met up with friends at the little neighborhood park and Talia loved riding her bike!  Speaking of bikes, Ian spent all of his free daylight minutes working with Weston on learning how to ride his bike without training wheels.  He is getting better but still has a lot of practice to do.

Friday night Ian and I went on a date.  We got sushi (I got orange chicken), got my ring cleaned and did a little shopping (I got a super cute denim skirt and green top on great sale), and saw The Host.  I loved the book.  I had pretty low expectations for the movie and it was maybe a tiny bit better than what I was expecting.  Certainly not great but definitely not horrible.  And I liked that it stayed as true to the book as possible.

Spring break finished up with General Conference weekend!  Ian had to work all day on Saturday, but I watched Conference with the kids.  They were all really good.  They colored and played quietly while we listened.  During the afternoon session the little ones napped and Weston played outside.  I listened and dozed while Davin played quietly on the ipad.  Then he was my snuggle buddy for a bit.  It was a nice day.

He was pretty happy to be watching Baby Einstein

Sunday morning Emilee and the Bowles cousins came over to watch the morning session and visit.  They will be moving all the way to Florida soon so we are glad we got some time with them before they are so far away.  Talia and Ivy were so cute playing together.  Noelle was pretty shy, but as long as she was close to Emilee then she wanted to play with the toys too.  They built block towers with a puzzle and had a tea party.  We even managed to listen to most of the General Conference talks while the kids played.  After we ate lunch we all went for a walk around the neighborhood.

It was a warm Spring day and we enjoyed the weather and our family time at home listening to uplifting messages from our church leaders.  Now it's back to school and our routines.  At least for a couple more months until summer!