Bird people by day, frog people by night.

Why is Gopher our cat hanging out by the back door 99% of his day latley. Wagging his tail and making squeeking noises, you ask?

Because he's hoping we'll let him be an outside cat for just one day so he can catch a tastey treat!

The boys got ahold of a big bag of bird seeds and spread some through the yard one day a couple weeks ago. It attracted a few friends. Then the next day Jake decided to feed them more, and attracted a few more friends. Now every bird in town has heard about that house that has so much to eat in their yard! I lost count one day, but can pretty much guarantee there were close to 60 birds in our yard. They were in the grass, on the sidewalk, in the bird houses, in the bird feeder, in the tree, lining the fense, etc. Not kidding at all. So by day, were now bird people. I guess it makes us night time frog people a little more rounded out? haha Eli asked me one day while we watched them if we could buy a pet bird at the pet store. I laughed and told him no, he has 60 in the back yard.

Easter

I really cherrish our Easter weekend every year. Jake and I started a tradition a few years ago to just go away for the entire Easter weekend to the beach. The last couple years we've stayed at Gearhart by the Sea and have had the most relaxing time. We go to an Easter egg hunt in Seaside, go out to eat, eat in, swim alot, watch some tv, sleep, play on the beach, and shop. We just try to do whatever, whenever we feel like it. No planning or rushing about the weekend. Its so relaxing!

Two days before the weekend I plugged in both my camera and my video camera to make sure I had full batteries for the weekend. Well, I think some little fingers got into the case when I packed up because we arrived at the beach and when I pulled them out to take a picture...NO BATTERIES! Can you believe that I, ME, had to go through an entire holiday trip without taking pictures of my children??? I was very sad. We were able to get some video on our video camera but not much before the battery died on that too. So we took a few "make up" pictures when we got home of their Easter baskets.

These suckers were funny. They are made by the ring pop company, but they were bunny teeth. The boys laughed alot at eachother sucking on these!

Maybe Ive taken too many pictures of my boys? Eli especially is really hard to take photos of latley. He cant control himself and just smile nicely for Mommy and the camera anymore, so I have to look at pictures of him like this I guess. Crazy kid.

The boys and their baskets, we love books!

The eggs we colored at the beach.

I had bought some Easter theme cookie kits and we took them to the beach with plans to let the boys make them there. But the room we were in, didnt have a cookie sheet and I wasnt about to cook them on a broil pan. So when we got home from the beach, the boys made cookies. Again...Eli making funny faces instead of just smiling for me. :)

A much needed dose of vitamin D

There was no keeping the boys inside with this nice weather we've been having. They decided it was warm enough for WATER play. Out came all the sprinklers, each to take their turn and lose that winter dust. This particular sprinkler we got last year from my friend Leslie. The Tiki. The boys absolutley love it. The water fills up in him and then as his eyes open, his head blows and out shoots all that water. Its probably the coolest sprinkler ever made.

Zachs not big on getting wet, unless its really warm and its all his idea. So most of the water play this time was of him running from the water and not getting very wet at all. The few times he did get wet he got pretty upset about it.

Eli showing off his talents...face in the sprinkler...

and bottom on the sprinkler... BOYS.

We have loved this weather the last few days and look foward to more sunny days as summertime approaches. And thanks again Leslie for a great sprinkler!

Its that time of year again....

FROGS FROGS AND MORE FROGS! We just love this time of year. When our pond fills up with baby frog eggs and at night our yard is taken over by the sound of tons of croaking little green friends. In past years we've had them in our yard, and our neighbor has a pond as well...so our frogs talk back and forth. Almost like their playing marco polo. This year however, Im afraid frogs may be taking over the neighborhood. We stood outside last night sneaking up on some of the little green friends and listening to all the frogs and realized that we could hear frogs coming from what sounded like a block away..in every yard. I didnt get a video of the sound for you just yet, but will I promise. If you cant wait for me to capture and post it, then look back on my frog blogs from last year. I have one on there.

They are still a little weary of us coming up on them, usually later in the season they get used to us and dont jump off as fast. So Jake was pretty happy to catch this little fast guy in the dark.

Look at that throat blowing up to croak!

This is the only one who is welcoming to our presence so far. He kept swimming right up near me, I think he wanted to play.

We cleaned out the pond once we realized that eggs were already hatching. This is the majority of those eggs in a bucket waiting to go back into their newly cleaned pond.

Dundee volunteer fireman breakfast.

We love the fireman fundraiser breakfast every year. The food is yummy, the community gathering is alway wonderful to see and experience, and the trucks are lots of fun to play on.

Zach Eli and Jaxon driving the oldie inside the firehouse.

Zach and Eli pretending that the truck is driving really fast and they have to hang on tight!

Driving the big truck.

Benefit Egg hunt

My good friends Leslie and Todd put on a benefit egg hunt every year to raise money for local Sherwood families. They do such a great job stuffig all those eggs and organizing this great event. Its amazing to watch the community rally and raise money for the families who need the funds due to Cancer and the medical expences that come along with their struggles durring their battles. We pray for the day that a cure is found and cancer is a thing of the past.

The Easter bunny showed up on a motorcycle, how cool is that!?

Trying to get a picture of the boys before the hunt. Zach apparently is blinded and cant open his eyes, Im not sure why Jaxon is covering his face, and Eli seems very proud of his bag. Haha

Chore time!

The boys love to work around the house to earn pirate treasure chore tokens that they can use to trade for fun rewards. Mommy favorite chore that they love is the dishes, I HATE dishes. Eli washes, and Zach loads the washer.

They've figured out latley that if they work together on all the house chores, that they get them done faster. So now when they want to earn chore coins they get very excited about "team work".