Man your battle stations!

Jack is obsessed with all things boy lately. A big thing for him lately has been soldiers. I'm fine with the cute little Toy Story bucket of soldiers, but Eddie and I have different opinions on the gun play. So far, the rules are you don't point at your face or animals, you only play soldiers with kids who want to with you, and you don't ever point at Mommy. Ever. :) Snapped these while he was setting them up one day...








Before Sully decided to play:

After:

Our date with Jack

Last night, Neily was invited out to dinner with a friend so we got to spend some time with Jack on his own. I love the rare treat of spending time with each child one on one. It's probably the one thing I miss from their crazy preschool schedules when Neily went in the a.m. and Jack went in the p.m. We made a picnic and ate on the side of Landen Lake, then walked the nature trail. We have lived in Landen for 11 years and I can't believe I've never been on the trail. We've enjoyed the lake before, but the trail was like finding gold. Eddie had told Jack we could hunt for fossils, and I thought he was joking. He was definitely not, there were actually tons of pretty impressive fossils to be found in the creek bed. Jack made several really cool finds and Sully terrorized several ducks.




Check out this shell that Jack discovered! We've scoured tons of beaches over the years and never found anything this cool, and here it was practically in our own backyard! However- words cannot describe the foul stench of this shell. It was unbearable. I soaked it overnight in a bleach and water solution, only to find out this morning that- surprise!- it was actually white. EW! I mean, bright white. I can't even begin to imagine what made it turn the color it was, and it was not just mud, folks. To top if off, after a night in bleach, the sucker STILL smells horrible! I actually dug some slimey goo out of it this morning (hurl!) and am still soaking it... doesn't seem to be helping, though.

A trip to Cox Arboretum

The kids are on spring break this week and we are enjoying some AMAZING weather! I cannot remember the last time we had a spring break this warm. Seeing green outside feels so nice after a reeeeeeally long, yucky winter.
I've wanted to go to Cox Arboretum for a long time, and it was the perfect day to be there. It's a beautiful park with a lot of wildlife. We had fun spotting turtles, fish, and butterflies. They're gearing up for a butterfly exhibit, we will definitely be heading back when it's open!