Summertime Fun

Summer in Texas is a hot, humid time of year.  If you do anything outside during the summer you need to be prepared to do it with sweat running down your back.  Springtime on the other hand is beautiful.  The weather is pleasantly warm - not hellishly hot.  There are flowers everywhere.  Its the time of year when you want to be outside.  I always tell myself that springtime is really Texas's summer.  And summer is really Texas's winter because that's when you want to be indoors most of the time. So this past week we've been soaking up all this "Summertime" weather.

 It started out with a rain storm on Friday afternoon.  This wasn't like the cold rain storms that we had during winter.  This was a play-in-the rain storm. The twins had lots of fun splashing in the puddles of water that formed in our back yard.

 Derrick had fun drinking rainwater out of the downspout and then spitting it out while jumping in the air. This was followed by peels of giggles from him and Veronica.

 The rain continued into Saturday.  It wasn't as much fun the second day.  I'd been planning to take the kids to a Kites for Kids Day.  The activity wasn't cancelled, but I didn't want to be responsible for 4 soaking wet kids in public.  So instead we stayed home and got mad at each other.

Part of the problem was the the house was messy so the we worked on getting that taken care of.  We cleaned all the bedrooms and straightened up the living room.  That made me feel better about being trapped in doors all day.  I had been planning to get together with Ashley and Seth on Sunday, but I asked them to come over on Saturday instead.  We had dinner and watched Back to the Future Part II.

At some point on Saturday Veronica wanted me to take this picture with her.

 After Ashley and Seth left I cleaned up the kitchen and living room.  I also got all the laundry sorted and most of it put away. Even though most of the day had been pretty depressing I was very impressed by how clean my house was.  I didn't know I could be that on top of things while Brandon was away.

On Sunday we had another good day at church.  Once again my kids behaved themselves during church.  I think it's partly due to the fact that they are getting older and partly due to the prayer I say after I buckle the kids in their car seats.

The rain had cleared up so we spent Sunday evening outside in the back yard.  I was Skyping with my parents and I took the laptop outside.  My dad said it was like he was really there with us.  The kids had fun showing him the new swing set.

Here's a cute picture of Veronica.  She is so photogenic.

On Monday My visiting teacher brought me a belated birthday cup cake.  I ate the whole thing and thought I was going to die from a sugar overload - but it was worth it.

One day Charlotte woke up with an idea to go on a pinecone hunt.  So after lunch we put everyone in the wagon and walked around the neighborhood so Charlotte and Lydia could gather pinecones.  It was actually really fun. Charlotte ended up with about 20 pinecones, and has been playing with them all week long.  

Another day Lydia wanted to go to feed the ducks at the College that is only one freeway exit away from us.  So after lunch we hopped in the car and went over there.

 Last year we never went anywhere after lunch because Derrick and Veronica took turns napping all afternoon.  But now Veronica is the only one who consistently naps, and she doesn't go down until after 1:00 so we are free to do things like this.

 Oddly enough Veronica was afraid of the water.  I didn't think she was afraid of anything, but she didn't want to go very near the water.

 It was a strange day for feeding ducks. The ducks were nowhere to be found and the geese didn't want our bread.  We actually witnessed some geese trying to drown another goose.  (Ashley later explained to me that that's how birds mate.) We were all kind of traumatized by that.  But hey at least we were out of the house.

 Back at home we had a hyacinth bloom.  Last fall my mom sent me some leftover bulbs from her/my flower garden at her house.  I wasn't sure if they would grow here, but I wanted to try.  So far it's worked for this one.  We'll see what the tulips do.

 Our pink tree is also looking very pretty.  (For anyone who is interested its an Oklahoma Redbud)

 Here's Lydia smelling the hyacinth.

 This is what our park looks like these days.  I have no idea when or if it will be rebuilt.

 But there has been a silver lining to the whole no-park thing.  We still go on walks to the park in the evening - we just go to a farther away park.  That means that the kids walk farther, which means they are exercising more, which means they go to bed really easy.  So it's actually been kind of nice.  Lately we've been going to the playground at the elementary school. Here is Veronica playing on the play ground.

 See what I mean about the kids falling asleep easily.  I put the kids to bed, and Charlotte and Lydia were crying because they were tired and upset about something trivial.  A few minutes later the crying stopped.  When I went to check on them a few hours later this is how I found them.  This is definitely the funniest positions I've found them in lately.

Charlotte and Lydia love to play together.  This week they spent a lot of time pretending to be Susan and Peter from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Lydia is Susan and Charlotte is Peter.  (I don't know why, but Charlotte is always the boy when they play pretend.)  They also played babies a lot this week.

 Here we are back at the school playground on another day.

It's actually kind of fun to have a "new" playground to enjoy.

Charlotte and Lydia have a double stroller that they both like to push around.  They seriously play so well together.

On Friday I decided to take the kids to a drive in movie up in Gatesville.  This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but I was waiting for a perfect movie opportunity to do it.   When I found out that the drive in was going to be showing the live action Cinderella I knew we had to go.  I'd wanted to take Charlotte and Lydia to see it in a regular theater, but I didn't want to have to bother with finding a babysitter for Derrick and Veronica.  Plus I didn't want to spend a lot of money and then have the girls talk all through the movie. For $10 the drive in seemed like the perfect solution.

At first I thought that we'd go on Monday or Tuesday night, but then Friday evening came around I we didn't really have anything planned, and Derrick had taken a long afternoon nap, so I decided that we should go.  First we had to stop off at HEB to get cash and treats.  A spontaneous trip to the grocery store at 6:00 pm is not something I ever thought I would do with four little kids, but it actually went just fine.

 Then we drove up to Gatesville.  It's a half hour drive and we got there around 7:00. The movie didn't start until 8:00.  I decided it was a good idea to get our wiggles out.  I remembered a park from last time we were in Gatesville so we went there.  The crazy thing is that the last time we were here Veronica was less than 1 month old.  We'd had to come up to get a copy of her birth certificate from the county courthouse, and I'd taken the kids to the park after that.  This trip was a lot easier.

 We stayed at the park for about half an hour and then got back in the car to go to the drive in.  I snapped this picture of the Coryell County Courthouse.  I love how every county in Texas has one of these classic looking courthouses.

 We pulled into the drive in and set up the car.  I took all the car seats out of the car and folded down the seats.  Derrick kind of freaked out and refused to get out of his car seat.  So I just scooted it around with him still in it. Eventually he relaxed and enjoyed the movie.  But he never budged from his carseat.

 We had so much fun. The girls loved the movie (and talked during the whole thing.)  Veronica snuggled up on a pillow on my lap and stayed awake for the whole movie.  Derrick liked the movie, but by the end he was very tired.  He kept putting his blanket over his head.

 I had been hoping that the kids would all fall asleep during the movie and I could stay for the second movie that was showing.  It was Insurgent.  I didn't really care for the book, and my movie guy didn't like the movie, but I kind of wanted to see it.  Alas, my kids didn't fall asleep so after Cinderella ended I put the carseats back and got ready to leave.  First I had to get someone to jump my car because the battery had died.  (I think that it hadn't had enough time to charge back up between the park and the drive in.)

The kids all fell asleep on the way home.

 I carried them into the house one by one, put them in their pajamas and put them to bed.  I considered it a small victory that I got Charlotte and Lydia into pajamas. Most nights they just want to sleep in their clothes and I am just fine with that because at least they are going to bed.

 I didn't want a repeat of the previous Saturday's grumpiness, so I made sure we had something planned to get us out of the house.  At first I considered taking my kids to the Easter Egg hunt in Cove, but that seemed like too much chaos to handle on my own.  Then I read about a fire department open house in Belton.  The flier said it would have a free bounce house so that sealed the deal.  (We'll go to anything if there is a free bounce house involved.)

 Veronica wasn't so sure about the bounce house, but she liked the firehouse mascot.

 The kids took a break from the bounce house and we went to see the fire station.  The girls got to see the inside of an ambulance.

 The firemen were giving away a lot of free stuff like stickers, coloring books, chips, and hot dogs.

 Derrick wasn't too happy about everything and kept trying to leave.  I came prepared though and had put the wagon in the Honda just in case I needed somewhere to put Derrick.  So I grabbed that.  Derrick and Veronica were perfectly content to hang out in the wagon and eat hot dogs.

 Charlotte and Lydia got their faces painted.  Charlotte wanted to be a butterfly.

 And so did Lydia.

 We took a picture with the fire truck.  For some reason Derrick did not like the truck and he bolted from the wagon as soon as I wheeled it took close to the truck.

 We went back to the bounce house.  Soon we noticed that the firemen we letting kids climb up about a 1/4 of the way up the huge firetruck ladder.

 Lydia just had to do that so we went over and waited in line.  Soon it was her turn.  She was so brave as she climbed up (while wearing a purple leopard print dress and tap shoes.)

 Here she is looking out at everything with the fireman.

 Charlotte hadn't wanted to climb the ladder and had stayed at the bounce house.  But as soon as she saw Lydia up there she decided she wanted to climb too.  So we waiting in line again and soon it was Charlotte's turn.

 She was very brave too - and very proud of herself.

 I'd brought a picnic and there was a large field behind the fire station so we went under a tree and had lunch. See what I mean about springtime really being summer time.

 I'd even made a quick trail mix called, "leftover stuff in the cupboard we need to eat before we move mix."

 There were blue flowers in the field.  I'm all sorts of mixed up on what these flowers are really called.  I'm fairly certain they are called Bluebonnets, but I swear someone told me that Bluebell Icecream is named after these flowers.  So last year I called them Bluebells and so that's what my kids call them.  Lydia wanted to pick the "Bluebells" so badly.  I told her that I let her pick them last year because she was little and didn't know any better, but this year she is old enough to understand that she can't pick them.  She was pretty heart broken about that so we compromised by letting her take a picture with the flowers.

 Some of the kids wanted to go to the bounce house one last time.  So we headed back over there.  But pretty soon it became apparent that we were done for the day.  I put all four crying kids into the wagon and we went back to the Honda.  I think one of the keys to going places when you are outnumbered by little kids is to have a good escape plan.  This wagon is my escape plan. I don't know how we would have gotten out of there without it.

 I took this final picture of the station as we left. It had been such a fun morning and probably a lot less stressful than the egg hunt would have been.

 The kids slept on the way home and then woke up and started playing in the back yard as soon as we got home.

 Two years ago we hardly ever played back here.  There were too many sticker plans and fire ants - plus we didn't really have anything to do back there.  But look at us now.

 Charlotte likes to collect rocks and then bring them home.  She likes making what she calls "Yellowstone." with the rocks.  I love her imagination.

I guess I should throw in a little update about Brandon.  I haven't talked to him since Monday night. On Tuesday he passed his PT test and then started the actual Warrant Officer Training.  It's pretty intense, but in a good way. His group should have phone privileges in a few weeks.

I worried that I would be really lonely while we couldn't talk to each other.  And yes, I admit that I do miss adult conversation, but I'm actually surprised by how much fun I'm having with my kids.  I've always known that I love them and that I like spending time with them.  But this week I've discovered that they are some of my very best friends.  I'm so grateful that I have these four little people in my life.

Back to normal . . . kind of

Brandon was around a lot after he came home from Korea.  He usually came home every day for breakfast and for lunch.  And he was usually done with work by 3:00 ish.  It was pretty great.

One day, a few weeks after he came home from Korea, he wasn't home in time for dinner.  I can't remember why he didn't come home, but there was something going on that he had to stay for.  The kids and I sat down for dinner.  Charlotte looked around and excitedly said, "Hey, we're back to normal!"

 * * *

Yesterday we were driving in the car on our way back from the store.  Charlotte again exclaimed, "We're back to normal."  And I kind of have to agree with her.  Having Brandon gone does feel very normal.  I guess that means we are officially an Army family.  

Several people have asked me how I'm doing now that Brandon is away from home again.  I usually tell them I'm doing fine.  The truth is that I'm doing GREAT!!!!!!!

I mean I miss Brandon and all, but this is something I've been hoping would happen for a long time.  He's going to become a Warrant Officer and learn to fly helicopters.  Not just learn to fly, but be paid to learn to fly.  After spending a small fortune on Utah State's mismanaged flight school I'm thrilled that he will be the one getting paid this time around.  (And most of the extra money will go to paying off the student loans that financed the last flight "training.")  So if he has to be away from me for a couple months I'm totally cool with that.

And it's not like I Brandon and I haven't been apart before.  The first year he was in the army we spent a total of 6 months apart.  And the second year was spend with him in Korea.

And I know I keep saying this, but my life is so easy right now.  Veronica turned 18 months old today.  Do you know what that means?  It means for the first time EVER I have an 18 month old without also having a newborn around.

It means I go to sleep at night and I don't wake up until the next morning (usually.)  It means that we can go shopping at a store without too much preparation.  It means we aren't under house arrest all afternoon while kids take turns napping.  It means I can cook without little kids wanting to be held.

Sure I still have four kids age four and under to take care of all day long, but they are all so much easier now than ever before.

I thought it would be fun to list the ages of the kids each time Brandon went away. I've also added some details about each separation. Check it out.

Basic Training/ AIT

Started September 2012

Lasted 3 1/2 months

Brandon and I were able to communicate through 10 minute phone calls on a very irregular basis

Charlotte and Lydia were 22 months old and Derrick was 5 months old when Brandon left

Brandon missed the twins' birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and barely made it home in time for Christmas.

National Training Center (NTC)

January 2013

Lasted a month

There were 14 days without any contact at all

Charlotte and Lydia were 2 years and 3 months old.  Derrick was 9 months old.

I found out I was pregnant with Veronica.  (During the time I couldn't talk to Brandon.)
Brandon missed my birthday by one day

Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC)

May 2013

Lasted a month

Charlotte and Lydia were 2 1/2 years old.  Derrick was 13 months old. 

I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Veronica
Brandon missed Mother's Day and our 6 year anniversary

Fort Hood Gunnery

August 2013

Lasted about a month

Brandon was able to come home about once a week

Charlotte and Lydia were 2 years and 9 months old

Derrick was 16 months old

I was almost 9 months pregnant with Veronica

Gunnery - Part Two

October 2013

Lasted 8 days

Charlotte and Lydia were almost 3.  Derrick was 18 months old, Veronica was 3 weeks old

Korea

Lasted 8 1/2 months from January 2014 - October 2014

We were able to Skype at least once a day.  Brandon also sent me daily e-mails

Charlotte and Lydia were 3 years and 3 months old, Derrick was 21 months old, and Veronica was 4 months old when Brandon left. 

Brandon missed my birthday, Valentine's Day, Easter, Derrick's birthday, Our anniversary, the 4th of July, and Veronica's birthday

Contrast all that with how things are this time around.

Charlotte and Lydia are almost 4 1/2

Derrick is almost 3

Veronica is 18 months old.
Brandon will miss Easter and Derrick's birthday, but we'll be back together in time for our anniversary.

Here's a visual illustration of how much easier my life is this time around.  This is the GIANT triple stroller that we bought before Brandon went to Basic Training.  I used this stroller to take my kids on walks to the park and on adventures like visiting the zoo.  This stroller was a life saver because Charlotte and Lydia both liked to wander and Derrick couldn't even sit up on his own for very long.

This is what a walk looks like these days.  We bring the wagon in case somebody/everyone gets tired, but all the kids can walk on their own if they want to.  Veronica still likes to wander a little bit, but for the most part she'll follow her siblings everywhere they go.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that things are even better than normal for me and the kids right now. This separation should fly by.  Soon we will be with Brandon again.  Then we'll be able to figure out an even better normal -one  that involves all of us being together as a family.

Celebrating Easter, Saying Goodbye, Celebrating St Patrick's Day, and a bunch of other stuff

It's Friday night, the kids are in bed, and I have a hot date with this blog and about 65 pictures from the last week.  Do I know how to party or what?  

I've spent the last several nights watching 4 or more episodes of Parks and Recreation while working on various projects.  I've started to have regular dreams that involve Leslie and the gang so I think it's a good idea to take a break for tonight.  (which means watching just one episode.)

So let's recap this last week with pictures.  

It seems like Brandon was going non-stop for most of last week.  But he found a few minutes on Thursday evening to sit and draw pictures with Charlotte and Lydia.  Everyone in this family owes their love of art to Brandon.  

The weather was wonderful on Friday.  The kids set up all the chairs and asked me to get them popcycles.

We've known for a while that Brandon would be gone for Easter.  So we've been planning to celebrate it early.  I even made a big show of "calling the Easter Bunny" and telling him that we needed him to come early.  I told the girl's that it's a special service that the Easter Bunny has.  I originally called and told him to come on Sunday, but then I called back and changed it to Saturday.

So on Friday night the girls excitedly put out their Easter Baskets.

Brandon was busy gathering his stuff together so he could pack, so I took care of filling the baskets with stuff I'd bought earlier in the week.

I also put chocolate covered raisins, almonds, and cookie dough bites out at Rabbit Poo.

I'd hoped to somehow get the kids to eat breakfast before they found their baskets, but that didn't happen.

Veronica was the first one to figure out there was candy in the eggs.  She was pretty happy about that.

I saw these butterfly wing headbands at the dollar store and I just knew that Charlotte would love one.  Back in December she saw a kid wearing a reindeer antler headband, and she wanted one so she could wear it.  She put her butterfly headband on right away.

Lydia was excited about her's too.

Veronica and Derrick were mostly excited about the candy.

Charlotte and Lydia had fun collecting Rabbit poop.

We made scrambled eggs for the kids, but they hardly ate them.  Brandon made yummy omelets for him and me.

The kids ate their candy.  I'd filled a bunch of eggs and had planned to hide them in the back yard, but since the kids hadn't had any real food I decided against that.  They were going pretty nuts with the small amount of candy that was in their baskets.  I decided to just save the plastic eggs for real Easter.

Charlotte and Lydia each got new markers so they tested those out once the candy was gone.

They wanted to take this picture with all the girls wearing their headbands - Veronica wasn't too interested in that idea though.

It warmed up outside so we went out there to play with the chalk that was in Veronica's basket.

All this fun was really just a distraction from what was coming.  Brandon finished packing all his stuff and soon it was time for him to leave. We went out to the car as he loaded up the last of his bags.

Earlier he'd given everyone Father's Blessings.  We'd also had a family prayer.  So all that was left was one last round of hugs.  I gave him an extra long hug.  It was hard to say goodbye, but I was so glad he was leaving.  Then we all waved goodbye as he drove off.

The house always seems so quiet and empty after Brandon leaves.  So I didn't want to stick around there.  The kids and I took the wagon on a walk along the bike path to the tire swing park.  (Which has't had a tire swing in about a year and a half, but we still call it that.)  Veronica hates to ride in the wagon and so often she'll walk while the rest of the kids ride - which is pretty silly when you think about it.  When I took this picture only Lydia was in the wagon, but by the end of the trip everyone was in the wagon (and Veronica was screaming her head off about it).  I like that bringing the wagon guarantees that I'll be able to get my kids home from whatever we are doing even if they are hurt/mad/sad/tired/etc.

We had lots of fun at the park.  Veronica likes to climb up the stairs and then go back down them.  She'll slide at other parks, but I think this one is taller than she feels comfortable with.

Then we came home and made a count down chain while Veronica and Derrick took naps.  Last year we had a chain with 9 months worth of links.  It was super long and depressing to look at.  So by comparison this chain is nice and short.

The chain counts down to Brandon's graduation when we will all be together in Fort Rucker.  I put little pictures on it so the kids will know what big events to expect.

Earlier in the week my awesome visiting teacher Brookelynn offered to make me dinner.  I accepted the offer and told her that Saturday night would be the best night to do it.  She ended up being out of town, but she had pizza delivered.  It was great.  She even added a big chocolate chip cookie pizza.  Lydia said, this cookie made me feel better.  I was glad I didn't have to cook.

On Sunday I got the kids ready for church.  The "Easter Bunny" had also brought new dresses for the girls. (Actually they were hand me downs from my neighbor Jessica's girls.)  Charlotte's favorite color is orange so she got the dress with the orange polka dots. She also proudly wore her butterfly wings headband to church.

Lydia's favorite color is green so she got the dress with the green lines on it..  She didn't want to wear her headband, but she did want a ribbon.

Veronica's dress was one that belonged to the girls.

All the kids cooperated and posed for this picture for me.  Derrick's become very attached to soft blankets lately.  So his is in the picture too - and yes he took it to church.

 Church itself was interesting.  I'd been planning to ask to sit with Elder and Sister Crockett, but they had a family emergency and had to leave town.  So I asked in the ward Facebook group if anyone in the ward would be willing to sit with me.  I didn't see any responses back, and I was nervous about how church would go.  Even with Brandon there it hasn't really been easy the past few weeks.  Lately we've been joking that we want to write a book titled, "Church is Hell: And other memories from life with four little kids."

I debated just skipping Sacrament Meeting all together.  That's what I ended up doing for the second half of Brandon's deployment last year.  However, I couldn't justify that.  Last year church had started at 8:30 and half the time at least one of my kids was still sleeping when it was time to leave.  This year church starts at 12:00 and everyone was awake - and bored.  So off to church we went.

I said a prayer in the car that someone would be there to help us at church.  When we got there Jessica, one of the young women in our ward, came and sat with us.  Later I noticed that she'd messaged me on Facebook, but I didn't know that at the time.  She really was like an angel to me.  I couldn't believe how great my kids were.  Jessica helped keep an eye on the twins.  Veronica was content to play on the bench (a miracle in itself), and Derrick was happy to sit with me.  He'll sit still if I write letters for him.  He'll read them in a not so quiet voice so if you sit near us you'll probably hear him saying things like S-T-A-R and D-E-R-R-I-C-K as I write words for him.  But hey it's better than him pitching a fit because he's bored and wants to leave.

At one point Charlotte had to go to the bathroom.  I let her leave the bench and Lydia went with.  For some reason Derrick through it was time to go too.  So he took off.  I was about to go after him when my friend Seth got up from the back of the room and said he'd keep an eye on the kids.  In a few seconds Derrick was back with me, and Charlotte and Lydia soon followed.  Thank goodness for good friends.

I had to teach my Sunday School class so after sacrament meeting I dropped Veronica off at nursery along with Derrick.  Technically she wont be 18 months old for another 2 weeks, but there was no way I could teach if she was in my class with me.  She's been to nursery before and done just fine so I didn't even bother checking on her before I went to Relief Society.

After church the kids and I went over to Ashley and Seth's house for dinner.  Gosh I'm going to miss Ashley.  She and I get along so well.  Our personalities are super compatible and we just get each other.  I don't know what I would have done without her friendship this last year.

We had dinner and watched Back to the Future Part I.  The kids played inside and outside the house. Derrick had fun blowing all the dandelion tops in her backyard.

  After I got home from Ashley's I was able to talk with Brandon.  He sent me several pictures that he'd taken on his drive to Alabama.  This is one of a beach that he stopped at along the way.

 Fort Rucker is only about two hours away from Panama City Beach Florida.  Who wants to come visit?

 This is what the side of the road looked like. Brandon says he's really happy about all the trees.

 He's really excited to be out of Texas.  For some reason he's kind of always hated the quirky things about Texas.  He says he feels like he's back in the United States again.

Monday was the Military Family Home Evening activity for the month. Since the Crocketts were out of town I was in charge of the food.  I thought about doing pizza again, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to take all four of my kids into Little Caesars at 5:30 PM.  I figured it would be easier to take all my kids to HEB at 9:00 am and buy stuff to make large subway sandwiches.  So that is what we did.  The activity was really fun and I was glad that I avoided cooking dinner for a third night in a row. 

On Tuesday the kids helped me clean out the car.  I also started figuring what stuff to give away before we moved.  I had the garage open and Derrick went into the front yard and started playing in the dirt.  This picture is titled, "Raising a boy - not flowers."

Brandon was able to Skype with us for a little bit on Tuesday.  Charlotte showed him her block tower.  Lydia drew a rainbow and asked Brandon to tell her the what colors to do.  In a few days we wont have any contact with Brandon so I'm glad that we can get it while we can.

The weather continued to be nice so we got the bikes out and the girls played with those.

They have really improved at pedaling and steering this past year.

Tuesday was St Patrick's Day.  They girls remembered trying to catch a leprechaun last year so they wanted to do it again this year. I'd been too busy with the FHE activity to do anything about it on Monday night.  Fortunately the girls don't know a lot about St Patrick's day.  So they were just fine setting up the traps on Tuesday night.  They made them the same way they did last year, but this year they taped the little flaps down so the leprechaun couldn't get out that way.

That night I waited until they were asleep to go spring the traps.  The kids were so cute when I checked on them that I just had to take their pictures.  I love how Charlotte and Lydia always share a bed.

Derrick is still sleeping in his crib.  He'll be three soon and he still has never tried to climb out of his crib.  I've decided to give away his crib before we move so we'll see how he adjusts to a twin size bed when we get to our new house.

Veronica has turned into a light sleeper and she actually woke up for a second after I took this picture.  I forgot Brandon's warning of "what ever you do don't touch Veronica!" and tried to move the blanket for the picture.

I just let her cry herself to sleep.  I worked on the traps.  I hadn't been able to find any gold coins so I used jelly beans that were suspiciously like the ones the Easter Bunny had brought.

And then I put little green foot prints on the floor.  This year the leprechaun escaped out our oven vent.

He used the cans from the traps to help him up.  (Charlotte later questioned this logic by asking, "his feet stick to the wall so why did he need the cans?")

The kids were excited to see everything in the morning.  I was glad that we were done with candy orientated holidays for a while.

Charlotte and Lydia decided that their Easter Baskets made great hats.

I wish this picture was turned the other way.  They you could better see the sunrise over the ocean scene that Charlotte drew on the decorative bricks.  She even turned one of the broken bricks into a whale.

Veronica has picked up on a lot of Derrick's mannerisms.  And by a lot I mean pretty much all of them. Every morning I walk into their room and they both say, "Hi."  I get them both out of their beds and they both drag blankets with them as they go into the living room.  They will both ask for "I" and point to the TV.  After I turn on a movie they both want to eat cereal.  It's hilarious.  Here's Veronica playing with water like Derrick always does.  

And here she is again.  She handed me the camera and said, "Say Cheese."

On Thursday's I usually take the kids to story time.  But they didn't have story time because it was Spring Break.  So I took the kids to the Mounted Weapon Demo.  Everyone liked seeing the horses before hand.  Lydia surprised one of the handlers by asking to see the horse's bit.  I explained that we've been reading Black Beauty.  The handler showed us the bit inside the horses mouth.  Then Lydia asked why the horse didn't have blinkers.  I was glad to know that she's picking up so much from the book.

Last time we came to this we sat in some bleachers, but today the riders were in a different field and we just stood around the edges.  We liked watching the horses ride around.

The demo officially started with a cannon blast.  I covered Derrick's ears, but he was still scared and started crying.  Veronica cried too.  And then Charlotte and Lydia started crying.  The demo had a lot of gun shots and none of my kids calmed down.  So it was time to leave.  We walked through the barn/office on our way back to the parking lot.

The kids stopped to pet a dog that was under a bench made from horse shoes.

Lydia had been wearing her Easter Basket on her head most of the morning.  Lots of people smiled when they saw her.

When we got home we noticed that our tree had pink buds on it.

I was hoping that we'd be here to see this.

In the afternoon we made banana chocolate chip cookies.  Veronica loved them.

You've probably noticed that Charlotte wore her Easter Dress all week long. She even slept in it. Every day I'd ask her if she wanted to change it and she'd say no. She said she wanted to wear it because it was so special to her.  I pick my battles carefully and so I don't really care what my kids are wearing as long as they are wearing something when we leave the house.  So if Charlotte wanted to wear her dress all week long that was fine with me.  Well today she told me that she was ready to change.  So I helped her unbutton it in the back.  Next thing I knew she was putting on her pumpkin Halloween costume.

I admire the amount of confidence she has.  She wears what she wants because she wants to wear it.  She's not trying to impress anyone.  I took her to the store and to play group dressed like this.  Everyone who saw her smiled.

On Tuesday we were all very sad to see that our park was blocked off and workers were starting to tear it down.  I'd known this was going to happen since December, but it still made me sad.  Apparently our beloved park was deemed "unsafe."  At first I heard that they were going to tear it down, and they weren't going to replace it.  Instead they were going to make the playground at the tire swing park bigger.  I was ticked about this because having a park across the street from my house has always been one of my favorite things about living here.

I called the Director of Family Housing and let him know my feelings.  I also urged other people in my neighborhood to call him too. Apparently that worked because last I heard they were planning to replace the playground with a new one.  I don't know for sure though because I got so worked up about the whole thing that I decided to just let it go and focus on the fact that I was moving.  

Even if they do replace our park, we probably wont be here to see it.  Lydia was very upset by everything.  She was already sad about Brandon being gone, and I'd just given the sand table away to my friend, and now the park was gone.  She cried about it for a while.  I told Brandon about it and he took this picture of a park in a neighborhood on Fort Rucker.  Knowing that there was a park waiting for her near our new home helped Lydia feel better. 

But I knew something that would make her feel even better.  On Sunday the kids had been playing on the swing set in Ashley's backyard.  All four kids were sitting together on the chair swing and I liked that I could push them all at the same time.  I remarked that I wanted to get a swingset like this when we got to Alabama. Ashley replied with, "do you just want this one?"  She and Seth weren't planning on taking it with them when they moved, and Oakley didn't really play with it anyway so Ashley said we could have it if we wanted - which I did.

Seth surprised all of us by bringing the swing set over and setting it up while the kids and I were at playgroup today.  The kids were so excited when we got home and they saw the set. 

They started playing with it right away. It definitely made Lydia happier.

My neighbor Arika came over for a few minutes tonight.  She remarked that she couldn't believe it had already been a week since Brandon left.  I hadn't even realized that.  I'm hoping the next few weeks go by just as fast.