On April 1, I took the kiddos to visit my Grandpa. He is 92 and living in a seinor's residence. They had a great time checking out his building and Kathryn made lots of friends!

I was able to get a few shots of them with Grandpa:


It was quite warm in the building which is why Ms. K's cheeks are so red!

A sleepy snuggly girl and her daddy:

Adventures in getting a good picture.

Mike & Lesley gave us a "My first t-shirt from Brock University" for Patrick when he was little. I was cleaning out drawers/coupboards and storage buckets yesterday and found it! I was hoping it would fit Kathryn and decided to try it on her to see. Perfect fit! Of course then I wanted to get a good picture of it to send to them.... and here's the fun we had trying to get one!

(do I have to smile?)
(OH! I'll get you kitty!)
(hey - whats Patrick doing?)
(this is my handle, and this is my spout)

(ha ha! I'm outa here)
(did someone say 'chocolate'?)
(you can try to make me pose, but I can try to get away!)
(stop chasing me with that camera - ack! I'm trapped!)
I think you'll agree that the last one (giving Daddy a Hi-5) is the best!!

I've now gotten both kids' closets and drawers ready for the upcoming Spring and Summer seasons. I'm so excited to put new clothing on them - getting tired of the things they are wearing now. I'm especially looking foward to putting Kathryn in all the cute little girl clothes we've got, especially some of the dresses!

We also went through the footwear this morning. Patrick needs size 8 runners, and they both need new crocs!! P's old crocs are much too big for Ms. K. Hopefully they will fit her next year but given our past lack of success with hand-me-down footwear, I doubt it. All the hand-me-down sandles from my sister's kiddos are too tiny or too big! Fortunately, there were size 4 runners that fit Kathryn!

We went to the Saugeen Bluffs Maple Syrup festival today! The kids had a blast enjoying the farm animals, and we got to enjoy some maple syrup taffy too. We didn't stay too long - such is life with little ones - but we did get lots of great pictures!

The weather was FANTASTIC. A bit chilly, but bright warm sun and no wind. Perfect!

Kat and Daddy on the bus down the big hill:

Mommy and Patrick on the bus:
Walking along (I love butt shots):
Still walking:
Kathryn has no fear of animals at all - its great! This little lamb was trying to eat her shovel. Kathryn loves that little yellow shovel. It has been all over the place with us!

Checkin' out the mules with mom:
And the sheep with Daddy. There were also Llamas!
Patrick riding a tractor. He cried when we said it was time to move on.

But quickly brightened with a ride on the swings! Here the kids are having a quick water break between swing sessions:
Yahoo for a slide! It sure made me miss our park even more. Melt snow, Melt!

Some ducks:

And piglets:
Patrick wasn't so sure about most of the animals, but he liked these ones because they were caged (and couldn't... well... eat him I suppose!). He also got to hear a calf "moo" and thought that was fantastic!

Apparently I was quite busy yesterday and I only got this one picture! This is Shaun's grandmother with the kiddos - they are her only great grandkids!
We had a great time and there was a TON of food! The kids were excellent (well, as much as could be expected!) and were spoiled with even more chocolate!!

Later Easter Sunday, we bundled up the kiddos, met up with Shaun's parents and went to McGreggor Point to walk the boardwalk and feed the birds.

I've said it before, but its worth repeating - Kathryn LOVES to walk in her boots. She is also quite attached to this yellow shovel and takes it everywhere. Its been shopping with us on several occasions and generally rides along in the stroller. Patrick took off - he loves coming here. The birds are abundant and friendly. The boardwalk was a bit slippery though.
Walkin' along:
Say "Cheese"!
The obligatory hiney shot:

We stopped along the way to feed the birds. They are quite tame, and will take seed from your hand! I had the luck of having a red breasted nuthatch sit on my hand and eat seed! It was quite the experience.

The EASTER BUNNY CAME!!!



Patrick discovers his bucket of fun things:
Daddy helps Kathryn discover hers:

Read me this book the bunny left, please mommy?
Kathryn likes smarties! Yummy chocolate drool:
Patrick has discovered the art of opening plastic eggs to get the foil wrapped chocolate egg out... and then removing the foil. He ate all 20 chocolate eggs that bunny had hid for him before breakfast:
A parent's joy: The kids are playing happily together of their own choosing:

Roseola seems to be the answer to K's 'illness'. The description provided here is exactly like what she had: she was miserable for about a week before this rash appeared with a low-grade temperature, lethargy, and sleepiness. The rash lasted about 12 hours, then disappeared and she was back to normal shortly after that.

Poor baby.

We were worried it might be chicken pox, but her symptoms didn't fit, and the rash never developed that way.

She is back to her normal, happy, outgoing self now.

Our first adventure in washable marker drawing:

You can see that Patrick and I counted up to 115 while K was napping.... P's handiwork is on the left hand side and K's is on the right.

Here's a close up of K's drawing. I think she did great!!

Shaun and I ordered some things from Toys R Us.com for Patrick's birthday. We actually got a TAD carried away, but it was so much fun!

I was so excited when the loot arrived today!! The mower, 2 games and leapfrog word whammer are for P's birthday. The cash register is for now and we also got an 8-pack of washable crayola markers (not pictured).
The big box will be a hit with the kids! They'll be so excited to play in it!
And the packing paper will be great for crafts!! There is a TON of it! I can't wait to tape it down on the kitchen floor and let them try out their new markers! Pictures of that to follow! For now the cats are enjoying sniffing and stepping in it.

CONGRATULATIONS to KATHRYN

on getting Molar #4; tooth #12!

Hurrah!

And on your Great-Grandpa Bert's 92nd birthday too!

What a great way to celebrate!

Milestone Update:

Patrick:
- can put on and take off boots; take of jacket and mittens too!
- can now count up to 99! He's troubled by the number "100" but I'm sure he'll get the concept of that soon enough.
- can count backwards from 30 - 0. He counts down the numbers while the microwave is running.
- has started to count objects and is right about 70% of the time
- notices numbers everywhere - loves to say what isle we're in at the store - knows our house number is "6-7-5", tells me what 'day' it is when I'm writing in the journal.
- sings the alphabet song at mach speed without missing any letters; recognizes upper and lower case letters.
- knows that letters make up words and has begun to spell out numbers when he sees them printed in a book.
- has started to 'think outside the box'. Notices that numbers in his puzzle are the same/different colours to eachother.
- can tell me the 'time' on his digital clock although I dont' know if he has any concept of what time really is.

Kathryn:
- can run!
- can almost jump off the floor with both feet without holding onto anything.
- loves walking in the snow in her big-girl boots
- has graduated to a straw cup to be just like her big brother and is finally drinking milk!!
- is eating about 80% adult food and 20% baby food.
- knows all the body parts for the song "head and shoulders"
- knows the colour Yellow and uses it correctly
- has a really big vocabularly and uses signs for "all done, more, ni-ni"
- is learning to walk down the stairs (still needs lots of hand holding!)
- can show you something in a book if you ask where it is

Kathryn was happily asleep in her crib, and I was cleaning house and doing laundry. Patrick was amusing himself but eventually told me he'd like to watch a DVD and go 'ni-ni' on the couch with his 'buppy'(soother). I set him up with the pillow and blanket, put on his new Elmo goes potty DVD and went back to housework.

This is what I found a few minutes later when I checked on him:
This is the first time Ramses has ever napped with Patrick. Too cute!!

The weather has been so nice lately so we've been able to spend some time outside in the driveway and on the back deck where the snow isn't quite so deep. We've also been able to go walking which has been great! Unfortunately, there is about 4 feet of snow at the park, so we can't get there to play. We're hoping for spring thaw soon.

Patrick loves to help shovel the driveway with me, and Kathryn just loves being able to toddle around in her boots!! I recently got out Patrick's old size 5 boots for her to try and although they are a bit big, she loves the freedom of trudging around by herself. Before this, she wore fur-lined slippers which weren't suitable for walking around outside in - they were just to keep her feet warm. Now that she's mobile, she insists on being able to walk from the house to the garage even just to go in the van. She does fall a lot, but it doesn't phase her at all and she refuses to let me help by holding her hand. Such an independent girl.

A couple pictures of them playing outside on Thursday. The sun was so warm it melted our drive down to the black-top!