The Hess Family: April 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

After the bluebonnets...

After the bluebonnets we all came back to our house for dinner and playtime. It's so much fun because the Meldrum kids all fall in line with our kids. We were friends in Merced when we each only had two kids, and then we moved to Texas just after they did- and we were pretty close to each having four. I especially enjoyed watching the babies interact this time!

Blue Bonnet Photo Shoot Part 2

Right after I posted the first batch of blue bonnet pics my friend called and wanted to get pics done there, too. Since I wanted to get more pics with Warren and Cassidy, we met them over there and took turns taking pics of each other. The lighting was better, but super windy as you can see! We had a really fun time hanging out! Thanks, Meldrums!!

Physical Fitness Reward Challenge

I found this fun family challenge in the FHE manual. It's an exercise competition for the family. We had a lesson on it tonight and are starting the exercise tomorrow for our Family Home Evening Part 2. Anyone else want to challenge us? The bronze award for us is going to be getting some more baseball gear (mits, bats, etc.). The silver award is going to be a soccer award. And the Gold is yet to be determined. Have fun exercising!!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Baby Batman

Cade's prayers

Following the caterpillar note and past light saber duels I'm sure this won't surprise you....

Cade has death and destruction on the brain lately. We started to realize it's time for a new focus and perspective when he was saying family prayer this morning, "Please bless that Daddy won't die, and we won't be killed. Bless us to keep the mean guys away....." YIKES! I think asking for safety is an appropriate request, maybe just not in such violent terminology.

In home science experiment

One of Cade's jobs at our house is to pull the caterpillars and butterfly eggs off of our broccoli and lettuce plants. He takes it very seriously and meticulously goes over all the leaves and then squishes whatever he finds. He also runs outside anytime he sees a butterfly near the plants to scare it away or attempt to kill it. This particular caterpillar, Warren thought it would be fun to keep and watch form into a butterfly. After days of watching the little guy- today was the magic day he came out of his cocoon. Cade immediately ran for a wooden spoon (he's been begging for days to kill it- yes a little creepy). He was ready to get to work on the butterfly so it doesn't lay eggs that will turn to caterpillars and eat our crop. He was quite sad when he got to the jar and saw Luke had beat him to the punch (on accident). Luke was so excited he had shaken the jar, quite vigorously, and shaken the poor thing to its death. Either way- I guess atleast it isn't pestering our garden.

Rockin' Roll Day

Today Cass is supposed to be dressed up as a ROCKSTAR for school. As you can see by that smile she is more than THRILLED to be wearing make-up!! ;)

We need a rubber house

Jake is now sporting a nice red bump on his head. These kids!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Play dough sea creatures

Cade is back on the playdough kick. Today he was making "fish", "crabs", (and my favorite) "jelly fish" -with eye balls- :)

look what I found

This may look like a gross picture of a banana. What isn't as perceptible, is the scotch tape someone put on this banana peel to close it back up when they decided they weren't in the mood to eat their banana. Kids are so funny.

Grandmother Jardine's Birthday Present

She's learning early- holding babies while she's playing the piano! I don't think I did this until after Cassidy was born!

Sorry it's a week late! Here is Cassidy playing her new favorite- "Lavender's Blue"

Texas Blue Bonnets

Hooray! An outing!!

That bump's looking a lot better- still has a pretty good lookin' black eye!

Picking dandelions- thank goodness he wasn't picking the blue bonnets. I'm trying my best not to raise criminals!

Me and my boys!

Fire ant mounds- there were tons of these!

love those blue bonnets

The sun is too bright!!

We enjoyed an outing to see the famous "blue bonnets" this morning. Apparently they are our state flower. They are fun wildflowers that grow spontaneously around the area. My friend showed us this great place where there is a huge field of them. I took a million pictures, hoping to catch something amazing on film. Here is what I came up with. I think we might come back when the sun is lower- and when we have Cassidy and Warren with us, too. The fire ants were pretty brutal- watch your step!!