Petting Zoo

We went to the petting zoo at Petit Jean this weekend while we were visiting Jeff's parents, and I must say, it has gone downhill since our last visit. The other time we went (just before Ashley was born), I was very impressed. Considering that it was a barn containing live animals, it was relatively clean and well run. Wayne said that it has changed owners.

This is about as close as Ashley would get to any of the animals. She was especially not a fan of the goats - and there were a lot of goats!

Nathan like the animals, but was more excited about playing on the swing set that was behind the barn. He also like this thing:

I don't know what it's called but I wish I had one. Nate stayed on it forever!

Berry Pickin'

I took the kids to a U-Pick strawberry farm yesterday morning. I had so much fun doing that when we were kids, and my kids loved it, too. The berries were just barely ripe, but we filled up a bucket anyway. Nathan was very good at finding the ripe ones. Ashley didn't care if they were ripe or not, she wanted to eat them all. I told the lady running the farm that she should have weighed Ashley on the way in and out so that we could pay for all she ate!

Happy Birthday to me!

Mom was here for my birthday and she and the boys made a cake for me.  It was great to have her here this week to take care of the kids while Aaron and I got away for the week for some much needed time away to Orlando.

Johnson's in Hammock

Aaron and the kids got me a hammock for my birthday.  The kids love it and so do I!!!

Pigeon man

This man was at Cocoa Beach.  He brought a little container with pigeon food in it and fed the pigeon's.  At one point there was a pigeon on the toddlers head!!!  We were right behind him and I thought the pigeon's were going to fly into us trying to get to him.

Lego Land

Here are a couple of huge Lego displays at Downtown Disney that were pretty cool.

To infinity and beyond!!

I thought the kids would like this bigger than life size Buzz Lightyear and Downtown Disney from our trip to Orlando this week

Winkle, Winkle Little Star

Ashley has become quite the little singer lately, but she will never perform on camera. I caught a little bit on video in the car the other day...

I hope to record her singing her "ABC's". It's very cute and nearly correct. My favorite part is when she sings the letter "bubble-U".

On the mend

I have been running a fever for the last three days, but I'm finally feeling a little better today. I'm sure I caught some virus from my little germ-magnets. (Nathan was sick last week.) There's not much to report around here. Nathan was supposed to start T-Ball this week, but the field was too wet, so it's been postponed. We're a little nervous about it, because this will be his first team activity. He seems excited though, so we'll see how it goes!

Name That Rodent

Beaver? No. Muskrat? No. Nathan's posing beside a nutria. For those with a lesser knowledge of the furbearing species in Arkansas, the nutria is a type of very large rat!

My mom's in PA watching the Johnson Three while Renee and Aaron are in Florida. So, my dad came over for dinner Monday night and brought the caged nutria. After dinner, we let him go in the river. Now how many of you can say you've released giant rodents into the wild for entertainment? Not many, I would bet.

Happy Birthday, Renee!

Folk Fest

We went to Mountain View this weekend to visit the Fowlkes and went to the Folk Fest. Nathan thought it was the "Fowlkes Festival" and wanted to know why there wasn't an "Adams Festival".

Tyler's grandma lives on Main Street, so we watched the parade from her front yard. We were at the beginning of the parade route, so note the huge pile of candy the boys gathered. The parade was pretty good, but the most random "floats" were some lone guy walking his cow and the beauty-queen-style car that carried TV personality Vic Schedler. I didn't even know he was still alive.

We gave Will a Batman costume for a belated birthday present. Nathan brought his Spiderman costume to wear, but they switched outfits. We told them that they could wear the costumes to the parade, and they ended up wearing them all day.

There were lots of "folksy" things going on at the Folk Fest (obviously), but we mostly spent our time eating. We kicked back in the grass and had corndogs for lunch...typical pioneer food, I'm sure. And then we had ice cream for dessert. Check out the size of Nathan's cone - and that was a single scoop. Quite a deal for $1.50!

Thanks for the Tats!

Nathan and Ashley got some tattoos in the mail today from Jeremiah. Ashley didn't quite know what to think about hers. She keeps calling it a Band-Aid. Nathan has been wearing a Pirates of the Caribbean tattoo for over a week now (I didn't know they would stay on that long!) and wanted his hot rod on the other arm. Thanks again, JJ!

River Rats

I don't usually post pictures of half-naked children on my blog, but this was too funny! Thursday evening (before it got cold here) we went out to Mom and Dad's. Brandon, Nathan, and Mikayla stripped down to their underwear and boots/Crocs and got in the creek. They played in it for at least half an hour until we finally made them get out! The creek overflowed the culvert a few days earlier and was still pretty full. Mikayla said it was "up to her underneath".

Big Dam Flood

Jeff and I went down to the Big Dam Bridge and Murray Park yesterday to see some of the flooding. This picture was taken near the boat ramp which was almost completely underwater. The trees which you can see in the video are usually on dry groud.

As you can hear, the wind was really blowing. We got home and found the umbrella to our patio table in the backyard, and the glass top was completely shattered all over the deck!

Goodbye, Old Friend

I don't mean to dampen the mood of Renee's cheerful posts, but it's been a hard week in the Adams' household. Our dog Jake got very sick this week, and we had to have him put to sleep yesterday. We got him when he was just a puppy right after we moved into this house. That was nearly 8 years ago. He was a good dog, and we miss him already.

Lily is standing

She wants to stand all of the time. I have to sit her down and make her rest her legs because she starts doing the splits from exhaustion. Then she gets mad and I have to stand her up again.

Boys will be boys...........

Nathan,

Jeremiah said this picture was for you. He was playing in the mud in the front yard when he started screaming "Poop, Poop I found some poop in the mud. Then I started screaming "put it down, put it down" Then Jeremiah started dying laughing and said "I tricked you"

Gum anyone?

Spring has Sprung!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have spent more time outside this week than we have in the last six months! Monday we went to the park and Tuesday we went to the zoo with our friends from church, Makayla and Riley. I'm so glad it's spring. My soul needs some sun!!!!!!

Spring has Sprung!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning the boys picked these flowers all from our backyard.

I Love Google!

So, Renee told me about 1-800-FREE-411 a while back, and though I used it several times, I hated it. You have to listen to annoying messages, and half the time, it can't find the number you're looking for. This may be old news to some of you, but I have discovered 1-800-GOOG-411. It's totally free and very easy to use. You can even get a text message or map sent to your phone.

I'm no salesperson, but when I find something I love, I feel the need to tell everyone about it (i.e. Pampered Chef cooking stone and Kitchen Aid mixer). Just thought you might want to know about my latest find!

I need a(nother) day off!

Nathan playing on the playground tunnels (and wearing my old sunglasses)

Dad and Ashley on the swings (note the hip boots)

As a belated birthday present to myself, I sent the kids to school today and had a little "me" time. I went to the salon and then had lunch with my mom. I also had to renew my driver's license - not exactly fun, but at least it's only every 4 years. The LR DMV has a new location, and I must say, it was very efficient and not at all scary (unlike the ghetto office on Barrow Road that they had before). It literally took less than 5 minutes! And, since I had just had my hair done, it looked fabulous for my new picture.

While we were having lunch, my dad called from his new cell phone (yes, he does know how to use it!) and told me to bring the kids down to Murray Lock and Dam to see some pelicans feeding. I bet no one else in the world was having that same conversation! After I picked them up from school, we drove over, but there were only a few birds left, and they weren't catching any fish. We did go to the playground for a little while, so it was worth the trip. There was some tornado damage in that area, so there were huge trees snapped and limbs everywhere.


Overall, I had a good but busy day today. On Saturday night (my actual birthday), Mom and Dad came over and watched ALL of the kids so that we could go out to dinner with the Krebs and Stanisors. It was very nice to be out with just the grown-ups. We were even able to ride in one vehicle! I know that hasn't happened since before we had kids.

Potty Talk

Well, it was inevitable that I would have to blog about potty training at some point. Ashley has worn Pull-Ups to school for 2 days now without an accident. Yea, Ashley! I wanted to wait until this summer to start potty training, but she was ready. She started taking off her diaper when she was wet a few weeks ago. One night she did that, and then she went in Nathan's room and put on some of his underwear. I knew it was time to start!