Curlers and a field trip...

 Last night, Alice agreed to let me put sponge curlers in her hair for Mother's Day. An hour later, she started furiously pulling them out. Here's the beginnings of how her hair COULD HAVE looked today!

 Last Sunday, Charlie turned 6 months old and we started him on rice cereal.

 He loved it immediately!

 Alice has really started liking to interact with Charlie. She reads him books, tickles him, talks to him in a high voice, etc.

 I never get sick of seeing my fat baby naked! (And who's that handsome man holding him?)

 I haven't spent time in Grace's classroom all year because Paul's been too busy for me to leave the kids home with him. On Wednesday, he insisted it was okay, so I spent the whole morning with Grace's class. She loved having me there, and lots of parents and teachers made sure to let me know how wonderful they think Grace is.

 We went on a field trip to the campus farm. It was a short walk from the school. Grace and Ellie were inseparable all the way there.

 Then everyone was split into groups. I went with Grace's group called the wildflowers. Grace is terrified of all animals, but did amazingly well on this field trip. She pet a chicken.

 She pet a baby chick.

 Prim and proper.

 Playing in the soil.

 Holding a worm!

 Nice view of the ocean from the farm.

 Planting a corn seed.

 Being baby birds.

 Listening to bees in the beehive through the plastic window.

 A velcro-like leaf became a badge to show they were great garden explorers!

 Then art class - Grace painted a gecko. I was impressed with the art teacher.

 Grace arranged all the chairs around Charlie:)

 Grace decided this week that she is strong.

 Strong enough to carry 23-pound Charlie! (just a few feet)

 How cute are they?

 Charlie grew out of his previous Sunday outfit, and is on to this little number.

 With shoes!!

 Inspired by Sarah, I got pictures with each of my children for Mother's Day.

 So, the end of the story about Alice's curlers is that she wanted them back in this morning. So I put them in her super dry hair, sprayed them with hairspray, and took them out an hour later. It looked awful, so I quickly tried to curl it with a super skinny curling iron. The result wasn't that great.

 Mother's Day flowers from Paul - so pretty!

 Grace's face barely cleared up in time to get this picture right as we were leaving for church. She cried for quite a while after we yelled at her for distracting Charlie during his picture time, so her face was all red and splotchy for a while.

Grace visited the pediatric GI doctor. We are optimistic that she is improving since then!