Indoor Camping

Ruby has been talking a lot lately about camping. Mostly she just wants to roast marshmallows. Chris decided to make her a little bed inside of her "princess tent" so she could camp a night in her room. The excitement dulled her marshmallow fixation and she was pleased to sleep in her tent in her bedroom.

Of course Ali had to climb in for a look as well.

Puyallup's Spring Fair

Puyallup is well known all over Washington for its annual fair. The fair begins late summer and runs several weeks. It is fun, but it is also crowded and expensive.

The last few years, we have discovered that we are perfectly pleased by the two-day, Spring Fair. It still has great rides, lots of animals and fun things for the kids, but it is cheaper and less crowded.

Ruby was a daredevil this year! she went on several big rides and didn't regret it for a second.
We went with our friends, and Ruby's new playmate, Ella is in some of the pictures.

Here's Ruby and Ella on the "Lil Coaster", Ruby loved it, but Ella was ready to get off right away.

Ruby and Chris went on this crazy, dizzy ride. I was having a hard enough time watching, but they enjoyed themselves.

Jump Planet

We have discovered this great place closer to my parent's house called, Jump Planet. It has huge blown up jumping toys and the kids and adults have a great time there.

The first time we went, Alice wouldn't leave my arms, but this time she had a great time.

The pictures aren't much to be pround of, but at the very least, they remind us of how much fun we had! We'll be going again!

Photoshop Fun

I've been enjoying little excuses to dabble in Adobe Photoshop. Here's a little announcement I made for fun with a few picture I took of Aksel. The announcement wasn't officially for the parents to send out...rather it wasn't solicited by them, but I enjoyed giving myself an assignment and I learned new things in the process. I ADORE his wrinkly face! Definitely, if I were to create one for print I would want hands or something on the left...or three pics of the baby and no feet. I just used these pictures because they were some of my favorites. Okay, now it is bothering me, I think I'll have to get back to it and change that.

Baby Aksel Ray Keim

Our long-time friends, Kelly and Danny Keim had their first baby...a boy! Alice was fairly indifferent to the little guy, but Ruby wanted to hold him. It was close to his mealtime, so he kept making faces and looking like he might cry, and that made Ruby nervous. She kept saying to Danny, "I don't think he's happy," which was the nice way to say, "You hold him now."

It was interesting to realize that Ruby has actually forgotten when Alice was that little. It doesn't seem like it has been very long since she talked about it from memory, but lately when we ask her, she claims not to remember. That's fun for us because we love to tell her about all the things she doesn't remember.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

While Grandma and Grandpa Pierce visited, we dyed Easter Eggs. It was really fun! Alice was full of puckered lipped "ohhhhhs". I don't know why there aren't any pictures of Grandpa! He helped too!

Cupcake Walk

Ruby's always down for a cupcake!

Ali wanted one too, but after four times of not winning (and there were lots of winners each time around), she had forgotten about them and we were happy to move on.

Maltby Community Easter Fair

We went to a great, free fair-like thing at some church in Maltby. There were pony rides, eg

g hunts, a little petting zoo, face painting, big jump toys and a cupcake walk. The kids loved it.

Alice was positively not going to get on the pony, and Ruby tried to decide against it after twenty minutes in line, but we encouraged her to ride because we knew she would love it. She wasn't so sure, so she was mostly pretty serious and nervous when she rode, and then the guide asked her if she wanted to go back and forth again, the answer was a positive, "no". Her horse was named Simba.

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a little Easter egg hunt at Oma and Opa's house. It was fun for the kids. Alice knows by now that there will be treats in her egg, and she knows how to open them. She just sat right down and opened an egg and ate the candy. With this approach she only collected two eggs...fine with me!

Ruby's Easter Bonnet

Ruby made this precious bonnet at preschool! I just love it, and more importantly, so does she. Amazing the power of paper plate crafts!

So early this week while Oma was here, Ruby kept saying, "I see Popcorn!" as we'd drive. Sometimes, she'd say, "Can I have some popcorn". Oftentimes, I would think she was really asking for popcorn, then I would realize she was thinking of the primary song. So I would just agree, "Yep, there's popcorn!"

So then, we were at the park and there was a tree close by with white flowers. Ruby said, "Mom, can I have some popcorn?!" I said, "Sure," and we went over to the tree where I picked a little cluster of flowers for her. When the flowers got close to her, the excitement changed to confusion and she said (while reality was dawning on her), "That's not popcorn!"

For those who aren't familiar, there is a song the kids sing at church called "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" that is about seeing the flowers on the tree and making a pretend popcorn ball out of them. Of course I explained that it is just a song and that it just looks like popcorn, but it is really flowers. We've been focusing on the part of the song that goes, "IT WASN'T REALLY SO, but it seemed to be...popcorn popping on the apricot tree!" She's had such fun eating things like blueberries and apples off of trees, it wasn't so far reached in her mind that there could really be popcorn growing on trees. I guess she was holding out for the white buds because we've been surrounded by pink flowering trees for weeks, and she's never said any thing about popcorn until the white flowers came on.