Tuesday, May 19, 2015

May

First of all, I wanted to start off this blog post with a clarification. At the end of the last post, on a picture of Hudson in the middle of the street, I said I had no idea what he was doing there. Well, once Heather heard about the post she clarified. I don't really remember what the explanation was, but I'm pretty sure it was a good one. Below is a picture of Hudson climbing on top of his playhouse. 

 For Christmas last year, Sara Beth got a cook book. One evening, she decided that she wanted to make a fancy lunch for herself for the next day. That evening, after dinner, Sara Beth made a list of the items she needed and we went to the store. Then, after I put Hudson to bed, we started making her chicken salad. It was a lot of work, and in the end, she decided it was just ok, but she was definitely interested in doing it again.
 We have two rules when it comes to eating meals at the table: 1. we don't force the kids to eat anything, but if they are not hungry enough to clean their plate, they are not hungry enough for desert and 2. once you decide to leave the table, you don't get to change your mind and try coming back ten minutes later. Hudson is still learning these rules, or, at least, trying to see if we will bend the rules if he very sad.  One evening, he declared himself done and hoped away from the table after taking a few bites, disregarding my reminders of the consequences. He regretted that decision when Heather and I got to our desserts.
 It is getting close to the end of school and so all the end of school programs are being held. Sara Beth had hers
And Hudson had his.
We continue to try convincing Hudson that being potty trained is a good thing. In what feels like an eternal struggle, we have resorted to flat out bribery. He got a tent in his room after one day with a clean diaper. A couple weeks later, after two consecutive dry days, he got a can of shaving cream, or "gloppy cream" as he prefers to call it, to use in the bath tub. I think we have nearly convinced him.
My dad bought a boat about three years ago.  Around two and a half years ago, the DFW area started to have drought conditions, and the lake levels got so low that he couldn't put the boat in any of the local lakes, so it just sat as a garage ornament. Well, it has finally rained enough that the lake levels are up so we all took the boat out on the lake.
Sara Beth and Hudson both got an opportunity to drive the boat, though Hudson just put the boat into a tight circle and made donuts in the middle of the lake.
With all the rain, frogs are appearing in our yard again. Sara Beth found a large one that she named princess toadstool and decided to care for it and keep it safe. In this picture, she is covering it while keeping an eye on some nearby birds that might want to make a snack out of the princess.
This past weekend, we went to Bass Pro Shop. While there, my dad began introducing Sara Beth to the proper way to aim and fire a bb gun.