WE LOVE 70 DEGREES!

What a gorgeous St. Patrick's Day!!! I love spring...it has to be my favorite season. I know that we'll have more cold weather, but how fabulous that more of this warm weather is going to be coming our way!

After school, and after naps, we all headed outside to soak in the sunshine. The older boys headed out to the pond to "fish", explore, and throw rocks in the water. The younger ones headed right for the sandbox, digging in, getting nice and dirty, and generally having a wonderful time. The older ones didn't want to be left out of good, sandy fun, so they joined in. There was also a lot of sliding and swinging going on. We've all missed this.

Henry and Seth at the pond

Seth and Evan going down...

down...

down! Weeeee!!!

Seth in motion

How many Noseks can you fit into a sandbox?

Evan bringing a "birthday cake," complete with candles, to Caroline
Evan served Caroline quite a large portion of cake!
I think I know where Evan will be when the weather's warm!

Santa!!!

Ever since we had Seth's cub scout den meeting at our house in December, Henry has had a nickname amongst the first graders. Apparently, Henry was wearing a Santa hat that day, and one of the cub scouts called him "Santa." No big deal, right? Well, it caught on, with many of the kids in Seth's class wanting to be part of the joke. Luckily, Henry finds it funny.

Last night at Seth's music performance, Seth chose Henry to be a part of a group dance. Sure enough, I heard a few of the first graders chime in "Santa!" Ahh, first grade humor...

Here's the dance...enjoy!

Seth's Big Night

We all went to school tonight to watch our Seth in his 1st Grade music program. He did such a good job...Here's Seth in action...


Here's a picture of all four kids. They all were sitting together on the risers, just hanging out. Perfect photo opp.!

Its official...

...our daughter is now registered for Kindergarten. She is thrilled, although a little confused that she is still going to preschool tomorrow. :) Part of the registration is an assessment, and Seth's former preschool teacher did Caroline's. She was so impressed with all this little girl knows, and deemed her a "very smart cookie!"

McCap and the Spectacles

What a fun night! We went to a fundraising dinner dance for McCap (McHenry County Adult Program). My cousins' child, Megan, is in the program. A brief description from their website, "McCAP was founded in 2001 by a group of parents concerned with the lack of adult programming for their recently graduated children with mental and physical challenges." Its a great cause...I've provided the link if you want to check it out. The Spectacles, including my cousin Pat, played some excellent music, and lots of people got up to dance. But not Seth. He was too into his book. That boy has FOCUS!

Seth's Choice

Seth has been reading more and more lately, and I have been so pleased to watch this happen! For a while when he read, sometimes he would be excited about it and sometimes he would just do it because it was part of our daily routine. He does have an excellent role model in Henry, as that boy really gets into his books. Last night, I let the boys stay up to read as long as they wanted, knowing with as big as a day as they had yesterday, they wouldn't be able to stay up too late. However, I honestly don't know how long they read, because I fell asleep reading to Caroline :).

First thing this morning, Seth came downstairs, and this is how I found him on the couch. Not watching TV, not asking for breakfast. He just wanted to curl up on the couch and read.
I am very proud of him, of all of the progress he is making. I am excited that he seems to be developing a love of reading, and I know that will make his journey in school a more successful one.

A Future Entemologist?

Time is flying...

Its hard to believe that the two little 1 1/2 year old girls in this picture...

...have become the two 5 year old pirates in this picture. How does this happen? (They had a fabulous time making Henry and Seth's beds into a pirate ship, and seriously spent a good part of the afternoon looking for lost treasure, defending their ship, and reading secret messages from the "great pirate Lucinda". :) Not sure where that came from.)

This Saturday we are signing Caroline up for Kindergarten. It doesn't seem right. She just started preschool. I am sure of it. And we just signed Henry up for Kindergarten. That can't be 4 years ago. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will blink and it will be Evan's turn.