Giving the ducks a bath

The ducks loved their first bath and the kids thought it was hilarious to watch them swim and splash around.  The hard part was keeping the kids out of the water and the ducks in.   Ducks are so messy.  Cute, but messy.  Kinda like kids really. 

Pretty sure I'm ready to move them outside with the chickens and get them a swimming pool!  The ducks that is...

Curious Heifers

Carter spent the night at my sister Christy's house for the first time.  Sounds like it didn't go too bad, about like you would expect...lots of giggling, later than normal bedtimes, etc...  Christy had a race to get to early in the morning so she dropped Carter off at my mom's house.  (Very nice of her, since Chase still wasn't up when she left and it gave me a bit of quiet time this morning to work on bookkeeping.)  When Chase woke up, we headed down the hill to play with Keenan for awhile and pick up Carter.  Chase is very much into being OUTSIDE right now so it didn't take long to get all the kids outside playing.  The heifers came up to see just what the kids were up to, and the kids were more than happy to put on a show.

Chase sat on the hill for a long time watching the heifers, mooing back at them, but wasn't quite ready to race down on the little car (Thank heavens!)

Avery and Chase watching and laughing at Carter and Cade's antics.  Chase loving racing the car on the sidewalk. 

It must be in the DNA

Chase is facinated by all things mechanical, and the bigger, the better.  I can entertain him for at least an hour by leaving my car door open and letting him pretend to drive.  (Door stays open since I'm not up for him figuring out the locks and I take the keys, just in case!)  There is a little electric motorcycle in the barn and Chase jumps on it every chance he gets.  Such a little boy!

He has also started to want to go anywhere so long as he gets to leave the house.  He spends most of the day either outside or crying to be let out.  "Outside" has become one of his favorite words and if you head to the door for some reason he is right there beside you or on his way every time!  He'll happily go with Robert, my sister or anyone else so long as he can leave the house. 

Naturally it didn't take him long to find this tractor on his last outing with his Dad.  Happy as a clam. 

Outside!

From the time he wakes up, until I drag him to bed, Chase wants to be OUTSIDE.  He's either on his way out, already out, or standing at the door crying to be let out.  I feel rather like the house is a big cage for him.  Clothing is optional.   

Nothing funner than being outside and playing with water, his other favorite thing!  However he doesn't understand why Mommy really doesn't want him drinking out of that waterer.  (Same one the cats, dogs, chickens, horses, calves, etc all use)

Four Wheeler Ride with Uncle

Chase is pretty suspicious of strangers or people he's not around a great deal, but he was more than willing to make an exception for a four wheeler ride with Uncle Clint.  He loved it!  Carter, of course, is always game for a ride!

St. Patricks Day Parade

We took the kids into Billings for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Parked (what felt like) two miles away from where my mom wanted to meet up.  Luckily, my sister and I were smart enough to shove a couple wagons in our cars before heading out.  Naturally Chase wouldn't sit it in and I ended up carrying him most of the way to where we watched the parade, still, it was pretty nice to have the wagons there for all the bags, coats, etc.  Carter thought the parade was OK, but loved the part where candy was thrown.  We had to keep a pretty close eye on her to keep her from racing down the street following whoever was throwing the latest bit of candy.  We were near the end of the parade route so not too much candy, but really just about perfect!

Cade got most excited about the mounted riders, I loved the bagpipes and Chase, he LOVED the popcorn.  My sister had the brillant idea to get a bag for the kids and Chase was entertained for almost 2 hours with it.  It was awesome!

Chase watching some of the parade, although he spent most of the parade sitting happily on the curb with (his, as he thought of it) popcorn.  Yes, I did have him on a leash.  I LOVE the teddy bear leash...saves worrying about them running off into traffic, dissapearing when your trying to help the other kid, I think it's the best thing ever.  I've watched city kids sitting happily in their strollers for hours, but never ever managed to get my kids to sit in one for longer than 15 minutes before throwing a fit.  Probably because we don't live in town and they seldom have a need to be in one.  But the leash is awesome at this age when all he wants to do is get down and explore!

 

By the time we got home, everyone was all tuckered out!  It was a fun outting although I think I can wait awhile before we attempt another parade!

March thaw

The first real warm weather we've had in a long time really started the water moving down hill.  It looked like a river flowing through the driveway. 

It didn't take the kids long to shed some clothes and head outside to play in all the water.  It was still VERY cold water.  They'd get out in the water then start hollering that it was so cold.  So I'd go rescue them, but it wouldn't be very long before they got back in.  It's been a long cold winter, a little spring sunshine is just too much to resist. 

Chase was happy to scatter dirt as fast as I was trying to get everything swept up and clean.  Cade checking out all the water.  He didn't like to get too far out in it.  Carter on the other hand, changed into shorts and happily splashed until she couldn't feel her feet!