Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun

I've been wishing for a trampoline in our backyard for a year now. Last summer, the munchkins were really still a bit small, though. At Christmastime, the munchkins were probably big enough, but we were still working on dealing with Noah and Rosie's medical bills and Gareth's truck accident.

But, as Spring has worn on, and the munchkins have been more and more active, I decided that it was definitely time to put in a big trampoline (for Mommy's sake). I have been using coupons like a mad woman and watching the sales carefully trying to save some grocery money. Then, last week, I found the trampoline that I have been wanting (complete with safety net) on sale. I called Gareth at work and asked him if I could buy it, as with one more pay period of careful shopping I thought I could pay for it. Thankfully, he went for it, and on Friday, we were able to go pick up our trampoline.

The munchkins were beside themselves with excitement (as was I), and we couldn't wait for Daddy to get the lawn mowed so trampoline assembly could start.

Thankfully, Daddy is an engineer, so he had the trampoline put together in just over an hour.
He did have a short break part-way through to try to convince the munchkins that he was finished and the trampoline should look like this (poor Rosie was a bit confused!).

He had lots of helpers. I'm not sure if this made the job go faster or slower, but his helpers had a great time.

It was agreed that Nathan would have the first jump. He was nervous and gave such timid little jumps and giggles that we couldn't help laughing at him.

So, we put the other two munchkins on, and let them help him "warm up".

After a minute or two of nervous, small jumps, they got right into the hang of it and were hopping all over the place.

They bounced until it was dark and Mommy insisted that they had to come in and have supper. First thing this morning, they wanted out again. Daddy couldn't resist running out to jump with them, even if he was still in his pj's.

Happy, tired Munchkins. Happy Mommy looking forward to being able to just tell them to go "jump it out" whenever the energy levels start to get too high!

Grateful That This One Wasn't Flat

As I sat by the window trying to get some school done this morning, I was interrupted by a small round face pressed against the window squealing with excitement. Nathan had caught a toad. All by himself! He was just so proud of himself. The toad was scared half-to-death and squeezed three-fourths to death. As for me, I'm just grateful that this one wasn't flat. Don't have a clue what I'm talking about? Just check here.

Pictures at the Park

The munchkins and I have thoroughly enjoyed our first week of summer. Okay, well, it's not actually summer, and it was actually our second full week out of school, but it has been the first week that we have been able to just play and take advantage of a more-relaxed schedule.

We've done something fun every day this week, and yesterday was a visit to Woodward Park. Now, I have to admit to having dual motives for this. The munchkins wanted to play at a park, and I wanted some nice photos of the munchkins (but didn't want to/couldn't pay a photographer right now;I've spent my pennies on something else, which will no doubt debut on the blog later this week-end).

I'm definitely no photographer (although it's one of those things I'd like to learn to do well), but we had some fun, and did get some photos that while not great, are good representations of this stage of life with the munchkins.

And, the kids had fun. We wandered through the Linnaeus garden, the rose gardens, played on the swings, caught tadpoles, hiked, jumped across a creek on stepping stones, and did some tree climbing. Pretty much a perfect day if you're a munchkin. Here's some pictures from the day:

Amazingly enough, we only ended up with one munchkin landing in the creek instead of on a stone while jumping. Oh, and my sunglasses made a landing in the creek while I was helping Rosie across. Thankfully, it was quite shallow, and I could fish them out with a stick. I was a bit put out, but couldn't stay that way, as Nathan and Noah were standing behind me exclaiming about how talented I was and what a good "fisher" I was. It's soo easy to be their hero right now!

LOVE this next one. Okay, so it's probably not one of those enlarge and frame-type pictures. But it is just so typical of Noah as a 6-year old!

Poor munchkins. They're desperate to climb trees. They climbed in alot of trees yesterday (and also spent lots of time wishing for a "forest like this" in their backyards so that they could climb trees every day. I think we'll be making lots of visits to Woodward Park, now that they're wised up as to the tree-climbing options there.

In case you can't tell, Noah is holding a tiny frog. We found a concrete pond that had thousands of tadpoles in all sorts of stages of development. I got the chance to show the munchkins an egg sac, a tiny tadpole, a large tadpole, a tadpole with hind legs, a tadpole with all 4 legs and still a tail, and then caught a little frog for them. Such fun! Science class, even in the summer.

Here are the munchkins looking for tadpoles with hind legs.

Ahhh. My sweet munchkins. I wonder when they'll think they're too old to hold hands. Hope it isn't too soon. (Not really related, but I had to have an "interesting" conversation this week with Noah about not being able to marry your sister.... Poor lad, he said: But, I can't marry you, 'cause you're married to Daddy, so I thought I could marry Rosie instead.)

This next one is my FAVORITE. Not sure why. I can't see their faces, but I just love it. They LOVED the bridge and the creek. They spent some time wishing that this was in their backyard, too.

Wonder if I'll be able to convince the munchkins to put off our next trip to the park until after the day-time temperatures drop below 95? Somehow, I think not.

Slip-n-Slide

When I was growing up, my Grandma and Grandpa had a HUGE yard. And every summer they put out a slip-n-slide. As often as we were allowed, we were at Grandma's house, slipping and sliding. We would slide for hours, until our stomachs were bruised. Grandma would feed us watermelon or ice cream, ask Mom and Dad if we could spend the night, and then take us in the house for a shower, dress us in Grandpa's old t-shirts, inflate the air mattress, and let us lay in the living room and watch Disney cartoons until we fell asleep. Such sweet memories.

Funny, but the slip-n-slides I remember were MUCh longer. Or perhaps it was just that I was so much shorter. Still, the munchkins love playing on the slip-n-slide. This is last years' slip-n-slide, and it has developed an air leak, but we still managed to make it work yesterday (when temperatures made it to 95). The munchkins are pooling their allowance money, and Mommy is going to make up the difference, so we'll have a new one this week-end. But for now, they're still having lots of fun. Happy Summer everyone!