More Memphis

 After the boat tour, we had to waste some time in downtown Memphis before going to dinner.  We thought we would go to the Peabody to see the duck parade but we were 45 minutes early and there was already no place to stand to see the ducks that we decided to just leave.  Then we thought we would go to Peabody Place but that is completely closed.  In fact, there is not much in downtown Memphis.  We ended up walking down Beale Street (which was a little too seedy for me with 5 year olds) and ended up in front of the arena downtown and the kids played with the big stone balls out front.  I had to take a picture of them sitting on every type of ball!

Then we went to dinner at Gus' for friend chicken.

The next day we went to the zoo.  It finally warmed up so that later in the day we could exchange winter coats for spring coats!  We went first to see the pandas as my kids have never seen real pandas.  We were almost the only people there looking at the pandas!  The male panda was very active and we got to see him play, eat and climb!

We also saw a zookeeper feed the penguins.  Noah was able to ask the zookeeper a question while she was feeding the penguin.

We went to the children's zoo and N2 loved to play around.

They really enjoyed the Memphis Zoo but it was time to get home as Noah had allergy problems and was coughing at night as was Natalie so none of us were getting a good night sleep.  Next time we had down that way, we'll have to stop at Mud Island because it isn't open until April 1st.

Memphis

I realized that I never shared our Memphis pictures with you.  The day we drove to Memphis was cold and snowy.  We decided to go on a boat tour on the Mississippi River.  Boy was it a cold and windy day for that!  Everyone spent most of their time inside the boat but N2 loved to go out on the deck so Brian would take them for a while.  Then they would come in a get warm but get bored so would go outside again!

Here's our boat and pictures that were taken while we were waiting for the boat to set sail (we were on the boat about 30 minute early-I had to stand on shore because the boat was rocking too much).

Once we got set sailing, the guide told us a lot about Memphis and what was on the river's edge.  He also told us about the Arkansas side.  It was really interesting information.  Unfortunately it wasn't that exciting for N2.  We killed time by letting them take pictures.  So I don't have great pictures of what we saw (plus Memphis isn't that picturesque of a city!) but I do have good funny face pictures!

Adventure Farm

I know Marcie already posted about our visit to the adventure farm but I thought I would share the pictures that I had too.  April was a while ago but I haven't been great at sorting pictures recently!  There are pictures from when N2 played t-ball last fall that I wanted to show off but never got around to posting (perhaps I will still do that!)

We started out our visit at the Busy Barn's Adventure Farm with chasing chickens into their houses.  It was funny that all the chickens minus 2 ended up in the same house!

The kids LOVE the tube slide in the barn so we sat there for a while watching them slide down over and over again.  A barn cat fell in love with Nathaniel and he tried to pet/grab the cat.  IT was very cute!

Noah and I hung out for a while doing different things from the other kids because he was tired.  He wanted to visit various places that other people weren't as interested in.  Brian also spent a lot of time with him as well-he was very interested in the bee hive hut.  Noah and I tried out the can stilts.

We also went over to the hamster wheels earlier than everyone else so I got some pictures of just Noah!

The kids all tired to push the wheel at the same time which was pretty funny.  Inevitably someone would fall out.

Last time we were there the kids weren't able to really do the string maze but this time, they loved it!  The attached a chain to themselves and to the rope and had to get around and climb over and under the ropes.

Of course, we had to "ride" the horses.

 We had to visit the barn with baby animals because the girls all wanted to see the baby animals.  Noah really could have cared less.

We had a great time as we did last fall.  We'll have to visit again in the fall.

Baseball Camp

I took N2 down to visit Mom and Dad last Friday.  Dad asked that N2 bring their baseball mitts so he could work with them on throwing and catching.  Natalie was up first throwing baseballs.  She did a good job listening to dad's instructions when throwing the ball.  She threw a bucket or 2 of balls and then let Noah have a turn.

Then it was Noah's turn.  He had a harder time throwing because we're trying to force him to throw with his left hand and I think his natural inclination is to throw with his right hand (he has a mitt for his right hand).  I think it is going to take some practice and dedication on this part to get better at throwing.  We'll have to keep working on it and hopefully he'll learn more at t-ball this summer.

Then it was time to work on catching.  Dad would throw a bucket full of balls and then they would switch sides and try catching more balls.  Here Natalie shows us how to catch with her arm!

I love Noah's expressions in these photos. He was serious about catching the balls!  I think he's a better catcher than thrower at this point.

On Father's Day they brought their mitts again and they did a little bit more practice.  We'll have to come down to practice again!

Slip n Slide

N2 earned a slip n slide for good behavior at dinner (we started behavior charts for dinner behaviors-chewing with their mouth closed, not talking with their mouth full, sitting on their chair the correct way, eating over their plates, polite dinner conversation, etc.  We focused on 3 skills at a time and they earned stickers if they did those things with only 1 reminder.  Once they mastered those skills, we moved on to 3 more skills.  One of our kids got stuck at sitting on their chair correctly and took forever to earn 7 stickers!  They could get a sticker at every meal-breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Once they earned 7 stickers (we started with 5 but they earned 5 way too quickly!) they got to pick what we had for dinner the following night.  They had to pick something that we would normally eat for dinner and they couldn't pick the same thing as their sibling right away.  It was such an effective way to help with appropriate behavior!  However, it has kind of fallen by the wayside but now that we're both home, it should get better.  The 2 of them wanted a slip n slide so we decided we would let them get one once they both earned 7 stickers).  Brian went to the store today and picked up a slip n slide.  My kids had no idea what to do with it at first!  They couldn't bring themselves to running and jumping onto it.  Finally Noah figured out that he could get on his tummy and slide a little ways and then army crawl down it (he was the braver of the two).  Natalie figured out how to run and kneel on it and she went most of the way down.  This was quite a hit!  It kept them nice and cool on a hot day!