Activities

After hibernating all winter, it felt soooo good to get out into the sunshine.  I feel like our neighborhood has come alive as well with people.  We were incredibly eager to  use our green thumb and plant a few days prior to Earth Day.  It was a fun afternoon to include the kids.  Siena is even sporting her gardening gloves.  We now have a peach tree and a dogwood tree, as well as some vegetables we hope to harvest in summer. 

 Siena got a big treat when her Prince Charming took her to a princess ball.  Siena dressed up as Belle and the two went dancing, waited for a carriage ride and enjoyed each other's company.  Kurt commented on how grown up Siena has become, but I think she just loves her Daddy.

 Siena has always had great balance but here she is using stilts in her Tumbleweeds class that many kids struggled with.  She has really excelled in this class. 

We had a fun filled Easter weekend with a trip to Lucky Ladd farm with an Easter egg hunt and a petting zoo.  Siena loved the colorful eggs and Carson loved the miniature pony.  He had to drag him away to see the other animals.   

We spent another special holiday with our extended family, the Hamricks.  Once upon a time, there was two couples who would get together for dinner while in college.  Ten years later, we still get together for dinner to celebrate the important things in life and our 6 children.  

And we had out of town guests with us this Easter; what a treat!  We did our best to show Aunt Cathy and Cousin Megan the sights of our wonderful Nashville including downtown, the Hermitage and the zoo.  I am sure they were tired on their return trip but we packed their trip full of memories.

And the kids were so sad to see them go.  But with the weather continuing to stay nice, I believe this is only the start to another exciting year of activities. 

Chaos

Our family is fairly normal like every other family you have met until...we leave our home.  Seriously, my kids are easy to control, listen to instructions and are fairly well-behaved.  I even hear "Yes ma'am" for the smallest things and 85% of my instructions are followed.  Until.....we are in (cue the scary music) PUBLIC!

From the sounds of it, this seems to be typical with other families, but nothing will make a parent doubt their skills and tactics than a test with other people watching.  Fortunately, we are a very social family and we get the opportunity to display these skills several times a week.  And that's when we look flustered, confused, bewildered and at the end of our rope when the kids run away, put gross objects in their mouths, stamp their feet, use that awful word "No" and refuse to play nicely.  Mind you, my oldest knows what she is doing, because she comes to me later to say, "Mommy, I am sorry," with the sweetest face.  So you are probably use to seeing our family like this:

But truly we have good children who are working continuously on their manner, respect for authority and their abundance of energy.  What about you?  Is our family normal or is this just something our children alone struggle with; the pressure to perform to the heightened expectations of the public eye?

In actuality, you will most likely find my little ones, doing something mundane and laid back when no one is around.  

This is the picture that no one ever sees because in public, my children are incredibly excited to be around people (Siena has yet to meet a stranger), do and climb on new things and learn from all the experiences around them.  Although they can leap over any object in a single bound, they are not Super Toddlers.  They are just learning how to channel their God given enthusiasm and zest for life.