Just because they make me smile...

Alex had a snake painted on his face. We had attended the Wildwood Blooms festival earlier in the day, where he and Lucas watched a pirate fight, made arts and crafts, chased caterpillars and butterflies, and stuffed their faces with good food.

Spring Flowers

I'm way behind in my blogging again, but will attempt to catch up this next week. Life has been crazy and I am SOOO glad I got these shots of my spring flowers before all the horrible weather rolled through Little Rock last week. Every single one of these plants is now ruined from the massive hail and winds we had due to the tornadoes. We sat in the "man cave" and listened as hail and wind battered the house. I am thankful that we were not harmed, as many others were not so lucky.

I love our yard. We have so many wonderful plants that were blooming, including the roses above and my Clematis featured below. The actual blooms on the three Clematis vines were about the size of salad plates--so pretty!

Just before the "heat wave" we had tulips in all different colors, too. It certainly felt like spring had arrived!
I also have two Peony bushes that were JUST about to bloom before the hail. Now most of the buds have been ripped off, but I'm hoping a few will survive and bloom for me anyway. UPDATE: Went out today and a Peony was blooming! So I added that picture at the top.

Spring Activities

Despite all the crazy tornadic weather we have endured the last few weeks, we have still had moments of pure spring weather that the family has enjoyed. One of the kids favorite activities is coloring on the driveway with sidewalk chalk...not terribly exciting, but they love it and I love seeing them be so creative. Just some fun shots of them one afternoon. Lucas is always being silly these days and wants to make crazy faces when he poses.
Alex's masterpiece:
Lucas hard at work:

Our Karate Kid

I've got TONS of photos to go through and process from all our Spring activities so far and that is going to take me a few days. We have been BUSY. We just returned from our spring break trip to visit the Tennessee family, and before that, I had a trip to my father's hometown in Illinois. We've been to Wye Mountain and frolicked in the daffodils, enjoyed the great weather by rooting in the dirt, hit the zoo a couple times, and much much more. I love spring and all the wonderful activities. Can't wait to post about all of that, but for now--here is Lucas in his Karate outfit. He just graduated from his white belt to his orange belt and he was VERY excited to officially be "Orange Ninja" as he called himself. That boy sure makes me smile!