break

It's Spring Break already!  What happened?!  The weather's chilly outside, but at least sunny for now, so the boys can get in plenty of outside playtime.  (Okay, that was yesterday when I started writing this...now it's cold, rainy, and thundering!)  I still don't take Jackson outside to play much; I know, I'm terrible.  It's just so much work....in the house he's at least somewhat contained, you know?  He's hard enough to keep track of as it is - if I take him outside who knows what ideas he'll get (and he's fast!). 

The rest of March passed by without too much crazy.  We had Boden and Heidi overnight once (not TOO crazy), I had my last few volleyball games (so fun), I helped with a couple things at school for Reading Month (popcorn and ice cream), Levi had a friend over to play (Liam), Caleb and Logan moved up a belt in Martial Arts (gold), we went to the school play (so funny), and banquet for school (Dr. Thornbury and Jonny Diaz), Levi went to a friend's birthday party (Catch Air), Mike made a trip or two up to the cottage to help Harold (looking good), and of course there's always work on the farm for Mike to do with my Dad (moo).

A couple fun Jackson things from lately.  One of his recent favorite books is Good Night, Good Night, Construction Sight.  There's a page where the dump truck is snoring, and there's a guy shouting from a building, "Hey, pipe down!"  Now Jackson loves to go around telling people to pipe down.  Ha!  Also, I love how he literally tries to get into the books we're reading - he'll lay the book on the floor and jump into the water, ride the camel, or climb the ladder.

Jackson is quite attached to Caleb and Logan's stuffed animal monkeys that they received as a gift when I was pregnant with them - Bob and Larry.  Jackson especially loves Larry and generally takes him everywhere.  When we're out in public sometimes he'll hold out Larry to show people (so not shy).  The other day it really cracked me up when a couple different people asked what a monkey said, and instead of making a nice "oo-oo, ah-ah" noise, he did a loud howler monkey noise.  Took them off guard a little bit.  :) 

Jackson is definitely trying to become more independent.  We're in that fun stage where he so badly wants to do things for himself ("Jackson do it!"), and there are some things with which he's successful (buckling his booster seat at the table), but there are plenty of other things that he insists on doing himself but cannot and then gets frustrated but still refuses help (putting on his shoes). 

Caleb, Logan, and Levi all had great 3rd quarter report cards!  We are so proud of them, and it is fun to see what areas they really enjoy.  They are doing well in all areas, but Caleb is really getting into reading, and he also enjoys math.  Logan loves science, and does really well in art.  Levi really seems to like math the best so far.  They all love having chess on Thursdays, and are very excited about chess camp this summer.  Caleb and Logan have Drama on Friday's, it sounds like they have fun with it, and they really got a kick out of seeing the school play.  Love being at a small school where they know almost all the kids in the play, even though they're mostly high schoolers.  They especially enjoyed seeing their cousin Jason.  :) 

I love seeing their creativity and imagination when they play outside.  The last couple days their project was building a jump for their bikes.  The other day they were nailing boards on one of the trees to build a ladder.  Quite often they are working on something in the dirt (mud).  The fresh air and free play time is so good for them!