I took the kids to the Grand Rapids Art Museum for the first time, expecting it to be a bit of a disaster. But, they did pretty well. Though I kind of wanted to just stare at Open Water for a while, they were pretty into Andy Warhol--especially his endangered animal prints. But they were really into the fountain out front.

Adios (for now), El Puente

Somehow, though it was pretty important in the life of a 4-year-old, I haven't yet written about Rowan's last day of preschool. Possibly because, while I thought it would be rather emotional for her (and I wasn't really sure which kind of emotion--extreme excitement for summertime fun or extreme sadness at not seeing her school friends all summer), it was sort of just another day. While I felt a twinge of sadness watching her pass yet another milestone, she was pretty much oblivious to it all. She just knew they got to eat popsicles on the playground.

A few of Tate's latest obsessions

1. Happy Birthday--still. Many times a day, Tate sings "Happy Birthday" VERY loudly and presents me with a present. I think I wrote about this once before. It's been going strong since his birthday in February. I'm thinking he's hoping for a real birthday present or cake or something.

2. His penis. He just loves it. The obsession really does start young. He has lately been very concerned about where his penis is when I get his diaper on. It was just there and now, all of a sudden, IT'S GONE! Today there was a luncheon after church. Tate was successfully flirting with an older (MUCH older, dare I say, elderly) woman--playing hide and seek, talking to her with that adorable voice of his. Soon enough, she asked "Where is your belly button?" As soon as the question came out of her mouth, I knew what was coming. Sure enough, Tate's reply, after showing her his belly button: "But where's my penis?" I couldn't help but laugh and, thankfully, so did she.

3. Being called Tate. Example: When I call Tate "sweet", "adorable", "little monkey", etc. he will say. "I'm not sweet! I'm Tate!"

4. The "hot dog dance" diapers. The giant packs of Huggies have two designs. One is Mickey and Minnie dancing. The other is Mickey with a bluebird. Despite my pathetic attempts singing "Zipadee Doo Da", I have not been able to convince him that the bluebird diapers are wearable. I do lots of sneaking around, getting out one diaper to put the other on, etc. as it's getting a bit out of control.

5. Nature, in general. On every walk, Tate has to stop to pick every flower or weed, collect more rocks, move any and all dead and dried up worms to a safer place in the grass. He really is a sweet, very inquisitive kid and I'm kind of wishing there was a farm preschool closer to us because I think he'd love it.

The things he comes up with are hysterical.

Playroom Concerts

Tate often will bang around on the piano and sing and I finally caught him on camera, so I had to share. Rowan, of course, wanted in on the action when she saw I was taking a video!

First Strawberry of the Season

On Monday, I was cashing in on a Mother's Day gift from Lance (a design consult with a friend of a friend) and Lance took the kids outside to play. When the consult was done, Rowan said "We have a big surprise for you. It's the first of something." Sure enough, it was the first strawberry of the season in our side yard. Lance adorably split it into four pieces and we all shared it, but not before the kids drew a picture of the occasion. Since then we've gathered quite a few more berries and love being able to pluck some ripe berries, rinse them off and eat them immediately.

Loveness

A recent conversation between Rowan and Lance:

Lance: What kinds of things will our plants need to grow?

Rowan: Water and sunshine.

Lance: Great, Rowan. Is there anything else they need?

Rowan: Loveness.

Warm, sunny afternoons

The rain has stopped, the sun is shining, it's feeling a lot more like May (finally!) and a lot less like March. So yesterday, Lance took advantage of the forecast, went to work at 6:30am so he could leave early and we headed to Tunnel Park. Of course I forgot my camera on our first beach visit of the season. But it was wonderful. Pretty cold with the wind, but the kids loved every minute of it. I stood with my feet in the warm sand and pictured many, many summer days spent at the beach. I packed a picnic and fully planned on our inaugural trip to Captain Sundae, but, alas, the kids didn't eat their dinner (surprise!)so we didn't stop for dessert. There's always next time...and the time after that...