Charlotte Nature Museam

This morning, we ventured out to the Nature Museam here in Charlotte. I have never taken Caleb and Kathryn before, but have been wanting to go for a long time. I had been there years ago when I took children that I used to babysit, so I knew that Caleb and Kathryn were at a good age to enjoy it. Caleb and Kathryn were excited to meet their friends Caroline and Roy Austin there and they ended up having a blast. They got to see turtles, snakes, an apossum, an owl, spiders, butterflies and even a skunk, all of them native to NC. Caleb's favorite thing was the playset made to look like it was underground. He loved pretending to be a squirrel in it. We will definitely be headed back, especially when it gets warmer outside and we can enjoy the big park behind it.

Peeking out of a little treehouse

Caleb looks out of a hole in the ground

Kathryn looks through a tunnel underground

Yucky snakes!

Cool owl!

Caroline as a fly

And of course, the cutest bug ever!

Work Out Buds

Russ and Caleb have started working out together some. Caleb is so proud of his muscles and he loves to show them off. After he works out he goes around the house picking up things to show how strong he is. He loves to pick up Kathryn! He has really enjoyed sharing this manly time with his daddy!

I had to show this picture of sweet Kathryn. She loves to sit at my sewing machine and pretend she is sewing. Maybe one day she will love to sew too!

Sledding! (well, almost)

It has been beautiful weather here in Charlotte for the past couple of days. It really feels like it is spring and we have loved it! Too bad it will get colder again soon. We have enjoyed this pretty weather and were able to play outside with the kids. Yesterday afternoon Russ took Caleb and Kathryn sledding in the backyard. Well, it's the closest thing to sledding that we have! Russ cut part of a cardboard box out and the Caleb and Kathryn sit on it while Russ pushes them down the little hill in our backyard. They love it and want to do it over and over again!

A few weeks ago while I was shopping I went into K B Toys to see what kind of deals they had going on. They are going out of business and everything in the store was between 50 and 75 % off. I racked up on birthday gifts, outside toys and special treats for Caleb. One of the treats was a big styrofoam airplane that I got for 70 cents! Russ put it together yesterday and he and Caleb had a blast playing with it in the backyard. It does awesome loops and Caleb tried and tried to figure out how to do it as well as Russ can. It's going to take some more practice though!

Here is 1 thing that I had to include in this post. It's a picture of my little hat children. They take after their daddy! Russ always has a hat on if he is not working and Kathryn wants to be just like him. She has one of Russ' hats that she loves to put on all of the time. Russ adjusted the strap and it fits her pretty well now. She will wear it for hours at a time!

Thank you Julie!

I participated in a Valentine's Blog Swap recently with other bloggers ~ thanks to Donna Graham who got me into this! It is really a great idea and lots of fun to do. Donna got a list of bloggers who wanted to participate and then drew names. Everyone was assigned to another blogger to buy some Valentine's gifts for. They had to be pink or red. Julie Day had my name and the other day I found these cute gifts in my mailbox. They were wrapped in hot pink paper, but that didn't make the pictures :)

This adorable plaque which has a really cute (and true) saying:

And this Disney love song CD ~ which I love! My kids and I will have a great time listening to all of these sweet love songs which are from some of my favorite Disney movies.

Thanks Julie for these great gifts! I love them!

Snow Day!

We were all very surprised to wake up this morning to a ground covered with snow! It was the first snow day that Caleb and Kathryn have had this year. It did snow a few inches a few weeks ago, but we were out of town for that. Caleb was so excited to look out the window and see all white. He wanted to go outside and play right away. So we hopped out of bed, got Kathryn up and got all bundled up to go and play. It was FREEZING outside ( like a windchill of 10 degrees), so we stayed out long enough for Caleb to tramp around in the snow, eat some, throw some snowballs and make a snow angel. I had to make him come inside! Kathryn was pretty miserable out there and didn't even hardly want to move. She didn't last very long. Unfortunately the snow all melted by early this afternoon, but we were glad that we got to enjoy it for a little while!

Winter wonderland (well, almost)

A Snow Angel

A freezing and miserable little girl!

Yummy snow!