Spring Happenings

It is FINALLY getting a little warmer here, and we are loving it!  Dave had to teach first aid for a scout camp out this weekend and the boys had fun practicing their skills.

McGarry's do first aid!  A super hero cape sometimes can help.  I am pretty sure that it says that somewhere in the scout handbook.:)

The boys LOVED the stretcher, and tried to lift each other up, but finally decided that this would have to do.

This isn't a very good picture, but Oaklie climbed right into Dave's lap and sat there for quite a while.  She wanted to be part of the action too.

Friday was rainy and cold, so we made homemade pretzels.  The boys loved helping, and shaped them into dinosaurs, snakes, and all sorts of things.

They made one for Oaklyn too.  And enjoyed eating them warm from the oven.  I don't know why but cooking with my kids makes me feel closer to them than almost anything else.  I love to bake with these boys!

Right before I put Oaklie down for a nap one day, the boys were asking an unusually large amount of questions(even for them) about how apple juice is made.  When I came back down stairs I found them crushing apples to make their own apple juice with blocks in the toy room.  I could see that it was starting to spray on the furniture, so I STRONGLY ENCOURAGED them to move their little exercise in self reliance outside. :)  At first I thought it was a waste of two apples, because they each only got a tiny amount of juice out of it, but when I saw how it kept them occupied ALL afternoon, and how proud they were of themselves, I could see it was worth it.  

One afternoon this week while Landon was at school, I had a date with this little cutie playing pirates. 

We guarded the "treasure" from the bad guys and had all kinds of fun.  I love this boy so much, and feel so blessed that he is mine!

One morning this week, Landon said that he wanted to do something nice for Easton, like build him a nap time fort.  For his "special time" that morning I helped him, and Easton slept like a baby in it.  

Landon is getting ready for kindergarden and starting to read pretty well.  However, he is in that stage where he can read very few books from the library all on his own.  But he loves to read all the time.  I made him his own books mostly about our family with words I know he can read or sound out.  He loves them, and feels so proud of himself!

He read with his "reading phone"  An idea I used when I taught school.  The voice echos into their ear as they read, and Landon thinks it is really cool.  Easton uses it too to "read" his letter sounds.

The plot and sentence structure isn't exactly RIVETING, but I only had preschool, kindergarten sight words, and small three letter words that he can sound out to choose from to make a story out of, and I am no author. :)  Luckily he is only 4 and thinks this one especially is funny because I didn't have a picture of his Dad when he goes for his runs. So I had to cut out Dave's head from a different picture and glue it onto a running body from google search, and it looks kind of off, but it works.  

The illustrations are interesting too, but Landon thinks it is funny that Dave is running right up a mountain.

Dave's graduation is right around the corner, but we are mostly excited to get to fly home, and visit our family right after.  The kids can't wait to see Grandparents and cousins! :)