Spring 2002

School Daze

Zachary got a electric ATV for Christmas and he likes to ride it when we walk Jackson to school. Zachary is hell on wheels. You do not want to get in his way. In this picture, Jackson is running for his life.

Jackson's school had a science night. One of the featured attractions was a reptile exhibit. Jackson is petting an enormous yellow snake and looks not too sure about the whole situation.

Jackson's helped to make his class's exhibit titled "Changing States". It was about how water can be solid, liquid, or gas. For a first grader, he knew a surprising amount of information about evaporation.

I am one of the parent volunteers for Jackson's class. I volunteered to be one of the team leaders for Jackson's class field trip to the Desert Botanical Garden. My group was Jackson, Sara, Vanna, and Brittany. We saw lots of cactus and were the only group to see the elusive desert tortoise.

7th Birthday Party

Jackson's 7th birthday was on March 21. This year he wanted to have a bowling party. Bowling parties are really easy because there is a built-in activity for the kids and they really seem to like bowling.

After bowling for an hour or so, the kids gathered in the bowling alley restaurant for cake and ice cream. Once again, Jackson went for the Pokemon cake theme. Zachary was very excited to be included in all the party festivities.

Home Life

Zachary wants to keep going till he drops, and sometimes that's exactly what happens. In this picture, he is zonked out while listening to a CD. I am such a parent because I'm always telling the kids to turn the volume down on their CD players. I go into a whole scientific discussion on how if it's too loud it will damage the little hearing nerves in their ears. They don't care.

There has been a new, exciting addition to our bath routine, bubble bath. The kids fight over who has the most bubbles, but other than that it's a total success. I prefer the Scooby Doo brand because the kids like Scooby Doo and it's also cheaper than the Arthur bubble bath.

Jackson is a really good reader. He doesn't quite like doing it as much as he did. He tells us that he reads enough at school. I make him read for half an hour at night before he gets to watch a video. In this picture, he is reading "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone".

Lisa and I switch off on the weekend. I get to sleep in on Saturday and she gets to sleep in on Sunday. Sometimes Lisa tries to sleep in all morning. At 9:00, I suggest to the boys that they wake up mommy. They run into the bedroom and jump into bed with her. We all have a good laugh over that trick.

The bed can be a sad place too. I'm not sure why Zachary is so upset in this picture. Perhaps we suggested that it was 10:15 at night and time for him to go to bed. Or maybe we denied his request for a fifth sippy cup full of milk. Who can say.

Easter 2002

Easter is a very popular holiday around our house. The boys love to paint eggs. Lisa bought a set where you actually paint the eggs with brushes, rollers, and sponges. Lisa and I joined in the fun as well. I thought my egg was the best.

The real fun at Easter is the finding of eggs, and the hiding of eggs. The boys and us did this all day long. Sometimes they would hide the eggs. Sometimes we would hide the eggs. We had Easter egg hunts outside the house and inside the house. We went over to Grandma's house and had more Easter egg hunts.