Any other moms out there think that it’s not a bad day spent watching these guys on screen?

Here are some pictures just in case you don’t know who I’m talking about.

Sportacus aka Magnus Scheving

Steve Burns

This is Hailey. I don’t know what kind of horse she is but I know that she ate an apple out of my hand and that was one of the coolest things I’ve done in a long time! I may live in cowboy country but I’m still a city girl. Being a city girl I haven’t spent a ton of time around large animals but I think I may just want to adopt a horse. Can’t you pick one up at the human society or something?

Friends of ours thought we should bring the kids to see the new pony that was born. That pony was born months ago so I thought I better drop in before the pony is too big to pass as a pony to my astute kids. I’m sure they would call me on it if I tried to pass a horse off as a pony. They’re pretty literal that way. We spent some time feeding Hailey and her baby Oreo. Laurelyn was fascinated, from afar. David wanted to jump in and wrestle with the pony. I think David would wrestle with anything. The kid has no fear!

Once the novelty of the horses waned my kids traipsed around the barn/storage shed like it was a treasure trove. They climbed the mountain of hay bales, swung on the wooden swing, played on the four wheelers and chased the barn cat. At one point Jason smiled up at me and asked, ‘Can we stay here ALL DAY?”

What better way to end a field trip to see a horse then with a field trip to see dinosaurs?

The Calgary Zoo revamped (and I’m not referring to actual vampires because there’s no such thing in case you were wondering) their dinosaur park by building motion sensitive, roaring, moving dinosaurs. I think that the dinosaurs could have been a teensy bit more realistic in their robotic movements but the kids were thrilled. Really, that’s all that counts! (Although I was slightly disappointed.)

One of the things I laughed about with my friend was that David has only one speed. Saunter. When we’re outside David doesn’t run around. He saunters over to look at things. He uses a leisurely pace that will get him to his destination eventually but will infuriate me in the process because I walk fast and I hate to wait for anything. This creates a problem or as the saying goes, we are at an impasse. I usually get annoyed and make him sit in the stroller so I can speed along blissfully unaware of all the beautiful things David would have stopped to look at.

Since we’re on the subject of David’s observation this is a picture he took of me reading my book and snacking on carrot sticks while the kids set off a roaring T-Rex a couple thousand times. Making a dinosaur roar never gets old and my book was really good so it made for a great day all around!

Don’t your arms want to wrap around him? My little man.

I can’t believe how quickly Jocelyn is growing up. Slow down girlfriend! It’s not a race. Stay a little girl forever if you can!!!

I love field trip days and I love the spring time weather making it more possible. The snow is almost entirely melted in my front yard and that is a huge undertaking, you should have seen my front lawn!

I wonder where we’ll go on our next field trip!

Sometimes I am amazed when I come downstairs and the kids have done almost their schooling and I’m able to really focus on what schooling is left and we have the rest of our day to play, build forts or laze around. I prefer the latter.

Today was the complete opposite. The kids played with Lego while I was at my fitness class. When I got home they wanted to finish building lego cities and then wanted to have a snack. Once their bellies were filled they wanted to play some games and then draw for a bit. I know that as a homeschooling mother I should be happy that they were playing and not watching TV but my brain is only a homeschooling mother in part. The other part of me wants them to stop bickering while they play and get their bleeping school finished already.

My unschooling friends would be horrified, I’m sure.

It’s after 4:00 and Jocelyn is at her children’s choir practice and her schooling STILL isn’t finished. We’re closer and I am happy for that but I am so glad that I don’t do my fitness class every morning because I can start school with the kids right after breakfast.

I wish I could be a mother that doesn’t worry about schedules and the amount of completion. I wish I could sit back and be proud of what they accomplished. Their Lego cities are beautiful. They didn’t make huge messes while they played. They didn’t bicker THAT much and they loved doing all of those things.

It’s slow progress but I’m learning to relax.

I’ll relax more as soon as I get my house clean, the kids to finish the rest of school and get everyone into bed.

Like I said, slow progress!

After we finished school I told the kids to jump into their snow gear and have a recess outside. They yelled and jumped around. “RECESS!!!”

There was just enough snow to cover the ground so it didn’t take long before they had used up all the fresh snow to make snowmen. DO you know what is under snow?

MUD!

My grand idea to get some stuff done while they were outside playing turned into a ton of extra work because I had to wash clothes, mop floors and give baths.

I’ll know better for next time…hopefully.

If you look closely you can see past the dirt on Jason’s nose and see that he now has his front teeth. He had his last dental appointment to build his teeth back after his accident. I’ve gotten so use to his broken front teeth that I can’t get enough of looking at him. He keeps reminding me to stop staring at him.

I don’t know why that would bother him!

Not a bad thing, right?

This is going to be a family filled blog post. First, Chuck’s mother and grandmother came for dinner and we took some pictures of everyone which makes me especially happy because right now my grandfather is in a hospital in Utah. I wish I had pictures of my kids with my grandfather.

The other family filled event we’ve experienced lately is Jocelyn’s baptism. My mom and dad came to town to be here with her. Everyone was so happy to have them here. I just wish we had more time with them! There’s always next time, right?

Jocelyn was so happy to have her baptism and she took it very seriously. I am so proud of her!

I can’t even say enough of how beautiful the baptism was. I can’t believe she’s old enough to be baptized and I’m so proud of her for choosing for herself.