Everything from January until now!

A trip to the Children's Museum for their new gecko exhibit. A chance for Bella to dress up and act like a scientist?! Little girl heaven.

Here was the gecko we had to observe.

Ryan worked on his field journal as well.

Bella asked me to hold the stuff in her pockets while she played. The treasures of childhood!

This one's in here just because it's cute.

The kids practice being a gecko with velcro hands!

Makes you wonder what he's up to, no?

And of course, Bella had to make a silly face too!

Bella and I had a date at Tea Buds as a reward for doing chores.

Ryan tried tracing his hands. When I said they looked like baseball gloves, it bugged him. He tried over and over and kept saying, "Baseball glubs! I hate baseball glubs!"

Field trip for Ryan: Sam Ash music store. He was in heaven!

They do have a pretty sweet drum room...

Giving keyboards a try...

And the guitar.

One day I took Ryan to the Children's Museum-just the two of us. His favorite place? The train table at the gift shop, of course!

A flattened penny for his collection.

Some play at the sand table.

This is him watching the cars go by at McDonald's after the museum. He asked, "Why did you take a picture of my head?"

Library time! You can check out an iPad, so the kids played some new games.

The picture by the flower. She is almost bigger than the wall!

Bella and Grammy at the library's Fancy Nancy party.

Missouri! A golfcart ride to find the pirate treasure Maga hid.

We have a map...

eyepatches...

and Blackbeard!

Mom hid clues all over the neighborhood. Bella had to read each one to move on to the next.

X marks the spot!

A booty of snooky snacks, juice boxes, and dollar store toys that kept the kids happy all week.

A special trip to the train yard in Springfield!

Bella on a coupler.

The kids just hanging out!

And no trip to MO is complete without ice cream from Braums!

Ryan was determined to get mint chocolate chip.

Miniature golfing, which was cool enough, but we rode a train to the first hole-how cool is that?

Bella lines up her shot...

Ryan attacks his.

Ryan would whack away at the ball like he was playing ice hockey. Bella would shoot and shoot and shoot and then just drop the ball in the hole and say, "Pretend I won, okay?" Classic.

At the scenic overlook. Dark, but I love how sweet the kids look together.

Bella learns about a banjo.

Bowling! Bella's second time. The gutter fillers and ramp helped-she got a 90!

Ryan's first time "real bowling." Love the tiny legs and bowling shoes! He rolled a respectable 86.

Gotta try lots of different ways, you know.

Bella's big hair cut. She lost about 6", and I gained about 10 minutes each morning not brushing out tangles!

Our bunny, Jellybean. It's hard to take any pictures of her because she's so dark.

The circus! The first thing Bella asked for was an elephant ride. Her expression and excitement were precious.

See?

And no circus is complete without cotton candy! She preferred throwing it in a glass of water and watching it dissolve.

Missouri in May

We were fortunate enough to take almost two weeks off and be in Missouri. It was so fun to see my uncle and cousins, hang out with my parents, and just take a break from the daily routine. Here are a few highlights:

This was the day we spent at the outdoor mall; we wandered in and out of stores (I love Joshua for enjoying that!) and did crazy vacation-only stuff like have pretzels and ice cream for lunch. Here's Bella awaiting her cone and flashing a ridiculously grown-up looking smile.
Another highlight of the day was riding the little train that chugs through the mall. The kids were in kiddie heaven!
And no trip to Missouri is complete without golf cart rides! Both kids had plenty of spins around the neighborhood and Dad even let them "drive" this time!
We found a break in the rain clouds one day and pulled out the Slip N Slide. The kids had no clue how to use it, so it was a learning experience. First Ryan used it as a water fountain (notice the super-saggy diaper!)...
Then Papa tried to slide Bella along...
Then Joshua tried it...
...and he ended up just slinging the kids toward the end. They LOVED it!

It rained. A lot. This did not deter the kids. And, as it was vacation, what the heck-let 'em play in the rain. And the mud. They splashed in this puddle for almost an hour. Then mom pulled out the hose and blasted them in the rain! Happy kids collapsed into bed each night, exhausted from all the fun.
Cousin photo shoot! I did NOT include the crazy ones of us with eyes closed, or looking away, or Ryan jumping over my hips.
Bella with her early birthday present, her "big gore" bike. Although she preferred Ryan's little trike, I finally got her to like hers once we got home.
We only got one (quite frosty) day out on the lake. I love this shot of Ryan-he looks like he owns the boat! He was a handful to keep out of trouble while the other five fished!
Jeff was on a business trip to Oklahoma, so we made the trek to Tulsa to have dinner. The part of OK we saw was beautiful, and as you can tell by the pictures, it made Bella's day to see her beloved Uncle Jeff.