It's Raining Pigs and Noodles

The kids and I reading

"It's Raining Pigs and Noodles"

by Jack Prelutsky

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This book, along with any by Shel Silverstein, is a great

way to get kids interested in poetry. The kids find them quite entertaining.

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I thought this poem appropriate for today, as we wait for our sunshine to come back.

~

It's raining pigs and noodles,

it's pouring frogs and hats,

chrysanthemums and poodles,

bananas, brooms, and cats.

Assorted prunes and parrots

are dropping from the sky,

here comes a bunch of carrots,

some hippopotami.

~

It's raining pens and pickles,

and eggs and silverware.

A flood of figs and nickels

is falling through the air.

I see a swan, a sweater,

a clock, a model train-

I like this so much better

than when it's raining rain.

-Jack Prelutsky

A little ray of sunshine

Spring Break

Before we moved back here, the kids and I would normally come here for

Spring Break while Bob worked his long tax season hours.

Now that we lived here, we weren't sure what we were going to do.

So, we were so happy to have family come to visit for the week.

R & J spent quite a bit of time in the mornings and evenings on their DS's.

Both of them had a new

Pokemon game, so they enjoyed playing it together.

Emma convinced J to play a game with her within minutes of his arrival.

I love this picture of Emma

Since J had spent some time at the airport and on the plane, we

braved the cold wind for a walk to Ryan's school.

Notice Emma upside down behind J?

She's a little monkey!

On Tuesday, we went to the Discovery Museum.

The kids love it there...there is so many hands-on activities for them

to enjoy. It's so nice not to have to tell them to be careful

as everything is geared towards them.

All three of them enjoyed the big bubble exhibit.

We headed over to the Bardenay for lunch.

Uncle Max (Annonymous) took a break and spent some time with us.

J declared it the best burger he's ever eaten.

We had dinner that evening at the kids' local cousin's house.

They have quite the set up for skateboards, so Ryan practiced on that for a bit.

Then, they got out their derby car and road it down the skateboard ramps.

Even Emma took a turn, though not from the top!

Five of the seven cousins

A little Hungry Hippo

Wednesday was cold and rainy, so we spent the morning at the Y.

I don't have any pics of the boys as they were in the other pool.

They all had a great time, and the particulary enjoyed the stop

at Krispy Kreme on the way home.

We played Life and Apples to Apples several times.

On Thursday, Dad and Mom came up. While H, Mom and I went shopping, Dad took the kids to see Ryan's plane. He was very excited for his cousin to see it.

Thanks, Dad, for takings the pics!

On Friday, we went to the zoo. The kids and I really like our zoo as you can

usually see the animals out and about in their enclosures.

The lions are new this year.

Their size was pretty impressive.

Emma loves to ride the carousel.

The boys were so sweet to ride it with her.

No trip to the zoo is complete without a trip down the giraffe slide.

Wildlife checking out the wildlife.

The boys helping with dinner.

Battle!

Emma's uncle sent her a new princess purse full of dress-up/play accessories.

Here she is trying out a few...complete with attitude!

And, no, that's not a princess cape.

It's a Superman cape...one side effect of having an older brother.

Before they had to catch the plane on Saturday, I took the kids to the

best playground equipment we've ever seen. For those of you in the area, this is on Cloverdale, just north of the freeway overpass. The kids love it!

There is a regular playground here also for the smaller kids, but Emmalee usually chooses to

play monkey and hang out with the older kids.

H and J, thanks so much for spending your spring break with us.

We had a wonderful time and hope that you did also.

We hope you are able to come again in the summer!

Seventeen things...

...I've enjoyed over the past twenty-four hours

1. A freshly prepared field

ready for the seed

(that's the convention grounds across the field)

2. warm sun filtering in through the trees

3. opportunity for the kids to do some work
~~~
i hear that it builds character and
instills a work ethic

4. this old tree which, sadly, must soon come down
~~~
there used to be a huge sandbox underneath it
we woudl climb the back side of the tree, climb out on one of the
overhanging branches and swing out on a rope like Tarzan

5. cutting back old growth to make room for the new
~~~
this is lavender
it was a pleasure to work in it
because it smelled so good!
i'm going to get some lavendar for our yard

6. generations working together

that's ryan out there with dad, shoveling manure

yep...we're trying to take the city out of the boy!

7. getting to drive the tractor for 20 miles (it was actually more like three miles, but they were going 5 miles an hour...just seemed like 20 miles to Ryan!)

8. fresh tracks

9. smiling faces that glow with both the sunshine and with happiness

10. before...

...and after

~~~

just wait...in two months time, this burm will be

beautiful! more photos then...

11. evidence that spring has already sprung

12. scary thoughts...Emma behind the wheel!

13. brother and sister

together on the farm

14. working together

~~~

ryan was pruning the branches off

of the tree while emma cleaned them up

15. thousands of snow geese passing

by overhead on their way to the snake river

(click on the photo to make it bigger...hope you can see them)

16. digging for treasures in the newly turned-over ground

so glad they still see this as fun...picking up junk before planting

17. the row of pine trees with

a little of the olden days there at the end