Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, cont'd

Here is a sampling of some of the animals we saw or interacted with during our safari:

There were ostriches and emus.  This one is an emu, which you can tell by the shorter neck.  Also, the ostriches were way more aggressive.  My dad tried to feed one and it bit his finger, much to Lucas's amusement!  But we had to roll up the window even with this emu, to get it to move on away from us. 

Josh spotted this deer as we drove by; no one else even noticed it.  We were joking that Josh has a great future as a hunter (although let's hope he doesn't!).  He was really good at finding the animals. 

And he was really good at coaxing them to the car.  A handful of treats didn't hurt.  (They were wildlife center-approved treats.)



Fossil Rim -- Children's Animal Center

The wildlife center also had a children's animal center (i.e., petting zoo), and we all enjoyed petting the goats, seeing the pigs and tortoises, and exchanging calls with the macaws. 



Lucas

as the Amazing Spiderman:





As the next baseball phenom:



He insists on taking batting practice during warmups at Josh's little league games, and he tries to sneak in an opportunity to run the bases before or after the game too. Thank goodness he is starting t-ball next month, because he wants to play so much.

Little League -- more photos

Josh's team is currently in 2nd place, with a 5-1 record. Josh is still batting first and playing third base. He's made a few outs and his hitting is getting better (although I've also discussed with him the importance of on-base percentage over power hitting, in true A's "moneyball" tradition). He is really enjoying his coaches and teammates, and it's been a fun season so far.

Here are a few more photos, this time from the other baseline:












Go A's!

Happy Easter!

We dyed our eggs on Saturday under beautiful blue skies:





Both of the boys were interested in making deep colors, and in adding multiple colors per egg. Fortunately, those ideas weren't mutually exclusive on most of our attempts. We only ended up with one brown egg.



Sammy is at his best lying in the sun.



While we waited for the eggs to dry, the boys rocked out to some music and Josh practiced his "kick flip" move (video to come, at some point). You can see the motion in his hands in this photo.



Lucas will not be outdone.



Our beautiful eggs!



This morning, Josh and Lucas were most excited to finally receive their Power Ranger Samurai warrior gear packs from Mom and Dad; the Easter Bunny's visit was definitely second fiddle.



Although once they got into their egg hunt, they fully committed!



They were disappointed whenever they found real eggs; they were mainly interested in finding the candy-filled plastic ones! (We should have seen that coming.)



Rangers Together! Samurai Forever!



Happy Easter!

Little League Spring 2012

Yesterday was Opening Day for Josh's spring baseball season. He moved up a league this year and is on a new team, the A's.



Look ma, no hands (or arms)!



The team has only had a few practices so far, and they lost three players before the season even began, giving them a roster of 9 (in a league that plays 10 at a time). So the coach is still figuring things out. This weekend, the team had two games -- one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Josh played third base and was the lead-off hitter.





Josh got the team started with a hit in both games.



He made it to second on a base hit in today's game, thanks to some heads-up base running.



Then he scored the first run for his team in both games too!



He didn't get a lot of balls hit to him at third base this weekend, but he kept his head in the game and had a great time.



His team won both games, against some good competition. Josh is already asking if we think his team will make the playoffs (after just two games!). Let's hope their beginner's luck carries on!

Lucas's Spring 2012 Soccer

Lucas is once again playing soccer with the Jets, the same team he's been with for four seasons now. Returning to the same team has helped them pick up their skills very quickly. They have played three games so far, and they've done really well in each of them. It's hard to believe 4-year-olds can be so productive and skillful -- you'd think it would be like herding cats. But they are really playing soccer out there, even at this young age, and they are even starting to spread out and attempt passes and teamwork.



Lucas is still one of the smallest players, but he is fast. And he is good at dribbling. Once he gets the ball, he can usually take it all the way down the field to the goal.



Here he goes again!



Lucas scored FIVE goals his first game!

He scored several goals the second game too, and at least one goal in yesterday's game (sometimes it's hard to tell who kicked the ball in, but he had one on a breakaway that was all him).

Keep up the good work Lucas! We are so proud of you!

Fort Worth ISD Art Show

For a second year in a row, Josh had some of his art work selected for the Fort Worth ISD Elementary Art Show. This year, he had two pieces featured!

First, he had a drawing with a story:





The Magic Flower

Once there was a flower. The flower got shined by the sun. The sun shined on the flower and [it] growed silver and golden. Then the flower became a magic flower.


I love the lettering in his title.

His second piece in the art show was a leaf drawing.





He was once again very proud to receive his ribbon. In fact, he had baseball practice that night and at first we thought we weren't going to make the art show. He really wanted me to go by myself and at least get his ribbon. But as it turned out, we had heavy thunderstorms and practice was cut short, so we made both events.

And no trip to the library is complete without Lucas cuddling the big library bear!

Brahmas Hockey

We decided to use some Christmas gift money to buy tickets to see the Dallas Mavericks play the Portland Trail Blazers. Unfortunately, Lucas immediately vetoed the idea. He's been to see the Mavericks once, and it was much too loud for him, even up in the nosebleeds. I think the indoor fireworks they set off when they announce the players were really the problem, but he never recovered from that and could not enjoy the game. We ended up leaving our seats and sitting in one of the lounges for the rest of the game, so Josh and John could enjoy it. That was more than a year ago.

Even so, Lucas was not ready to return, and John and Josh went to the Mavs game without us. Lucas chose a hockey game as his event, so we were off to see the local minor-league team, the Brahmas, play some ice hockey.



After a slow start (0-0 in the first period), it got really exciting, with lots of scoring in the second and third periods and an eventual tie, which led to overtime and then shootouts. The Brahmas won! It's been a few weeks now, and Lucas is still talking about it. I don't know what got him so interested in hockey, but he really enjoyed it. It didn't hurt that each of the boys received a hockey puck with the Brahmas logo on it.



We were in the sixth row (there are only about 10-12 rows; it's minor league, after all) so we had really good seats, except when a few pucks cleared the glass wall and came shooting in our direction, nearly giving me a heart attack. But as far as the view, it was great. Everyone had a great time.

Another great report card

Congrats to Josh on another great report card. All A's and one B, and he brought his conduct scores up too. Only 10 weeks of school left now!


(click on picture to open a larger version)