Saturday in the park

On Saturday afternoon we decided to get our spring break on and go for a hike through the woods that included a little geocaching. I haven't been on one of daddy's geo-tours in some time and I figured a walk in the woods would do my physique well.

It wasn't sunny or very warm, but funny posed pictures and geo-treasures can make anything more fun.

One of the geocaches we found. It was a puzzle that you had to shake the key out or something. I told Trent he looked like he was trying to dismantle a bomb.

Sweet little freezing Vayvay hanging out in a tree.

Evan and I discovered some little plants budding in the woods. I am totally drawing a blank on what they are called right now. Fiddle head! Right? At least that is what I told him it was.

Spencer trying to decipher the next geocache. The guy that placed these hides is super into it. He comes up with the craziest stuff I have ever seen.

The next step of the hide, after the light up box, was this container full of puzzle pieces. Now Trent and I are pretty good at puzzles. We have done some doozies. This was so much harder than it looked. I told the kids that we are being too hard on the Survivor contestants when they struggle with puzzles. They are not as easy as they look. We messed with it for about a half hour and then had to give up due to the fact the kids were freezing and we had a date to see The Hunger Games (SO GOOD!).

How much do I love these sweet little faces?

We plan on going back to the park sometime before break is over to try the puzzle again. Trent emailed someone that had completed it for a hint. They would never let him get away with that on Survivor...

The last Tuesday of the month

Hailey and I were sitting home this afternoon trying to think of something to do. Since our summer weather has turned into more seasonal temperatures, our daily beach treks are out for a while. I remembered that Valueland always has a sale where the whole store is fifty percent off on the last Tuesday of the month. Luckily, it just happened to be that Tuesday. Off to hunt for bargains we went.

The first thing I grabbed were these embroidery hoops. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet, but I bought a small one about a month ago to make a cute little embroidered heart Valentine's Day decoration. I see them on blogs and Pinterest all the time with cute crafty ideas. Even buying some coordinating fabrics and stretching them on the frames and making a wall scape is always an option. I think I paid about two dollars for all of them.

I found this fleece jacket for Spencer. His coat situation is far worse than his pants situation has ever been if you can believe that. I don't know what the boy does to his coats but I am embarrassed to even have him wear them. It is even reversible - two dollars and fifty cents.

I got this dress for Hailey for ninety nine cents. It has a couple of pen marks on it, but they are in the fold of the dress so not too noticeable. I don't even know where she will wear this, but she loved it and for ninety nine cents, it was a no brainer.

A suit vest for Evan. Seventy five cents and he is the happiest little guy on Earth. He already wants to wear it to school.

A pair of gray jeans for Spencer and pink pants for Hailey. I think these were like a dollar a piece.

A nice heavy sweatshirt hoodie for Hailey for 1.50 - big enough to fit her for a couple years. I thought this would be great for spring baseball games and soccer practices.

And finally, two cute little dresses for Hailey's doll. She was so excited to put these little numbers on Baby Lila. They were fifty cents each.

In total I spent fourteen dollars and some change. I also got two shirts for me, but forgot to take a photo of them. I would say our bargains were worth the trip.

The Dunes

Grama Dune has been in Florida for the past week, which is unfortunate timing because our temperatures since she has been gone have been nearly as close to those in Florida. Though I am sure the ocean is much warmer than Lake Michigan.

We stopped over to check on her house today and since it was such a beautiful day the kids asked if we could go for a walk in the dunes behind her house.

This time the red lips are due to the Slurpees we had on the way over there.

Evan knows the way around the dunes like the back of his hand. He likes to find and point out all the rusty barrels he has discovered on his walks exploring with Grama.

Spencer is up on this hill but he is super hard to see. I didn't have my camera with me, just my phone and it was nearly impossible to see the screen because it was so bright out.

The kids decided to take their shoes off so they could feel the water. It was still REALLY cold - of course it is only MARCH!

Evan and Hailey got braver and braver or maybe just numb and number.

We found a bunch of these tiny shells. I remember finding these all the time as a little kid.

There is so much broken glass all over back in the dunes. I don't know if people meet up and party back there or what, but the amount of glass is unbelievable. It kind of makes a pretty picture though.

Evan on the top of "Pigeon Hill". It wasn't dark out at all, I don't know why it seems like night in this picture.

It was a fun afternoon exploring around at Grama Dune's.

Resemblence

I gave my Dad a copy of these two photos in a side by side frame for his birthday. It blows my mind how much my oldest son resembles his Grandpa.

St. Patrick's Day

We woke up on St. Patrick's Day Saturday to find that the crazy little imp had once again thwarted out attempts to catch him. Evan and Hailey had even painted rocks gold to try to entice him with more than a couple years old flutter fetti.

All they found in the trap was some chocolate gold coins and some super festive St.Patty's Day socks. Around the trap were some suspicious green footprints. They were pretty happy with that.

St. Patrick's Day is also my Dad's birthday so our plans for later that afternoon included going over to Grampa's and bringing him some cupcakes, beer and cards. The kids did such a great job on their cards I had to snap some shots of them for posterity.

Evan's card with the dogfish on the front and inside some renditions of coral and a great white shark.

Hailey had been working on her card all week. She used a couple different art mediums - paint and do-a-dot markers.

On the front she had her St. Patrick's Day rainbow and inside some trees, a sun and a portrait of Grampa Paul. I love how kids paint the sky as a line across the top of the page.

Even Spencer got into the card making with his cute little drawing of a leprechaun with his pot o' gold.

The weather was an amazing high seventy degrees so the kids decided they wanted to hang around and try to fish.

Evan wanted me to take his picture by this number seven because that is how old he is. He also reminded me that won't be the case for much longer.

There were tons of little fish right off the dock, but they were not super hungry. Or maybe just not accustomed to seeing worms and poles in mid March.

Spencer was the first successful fisherman with a little sunfish. The boys don't have lip stick on. They each had a Red Pop earlier that stained their mouths and lips.

Evan has a major competitive streak in him and gets so upset when someone other than himself is catching any fish. Finally, Evan pulled out his own little Sunnie.

Then Spencer caught his second fish - a pretty good sized Perch. Since we only had that one, we threw him back. Hopefully we will catch him again and some of his friends for a yummy dinner later this summer.

Hailey even caught two of her own little sunfish (with some casting and reeling help from her fish-tastic mama)!

All in all, a great St. Patrick's Day. Happy Birthday Dad!