Zoo (trip 2), Strawberry Picking, and Cousins

In April, we went back to the zoo, and this time, Adam got to go with us. The boys had a blast even though it was quite crowded due to spring break visitors. Just like last time, they really enjoyed climbing all of the statue animals and going on the carousel.

They look so small on this big rock at the zoo. But they are quickly becoming "not so small" as the are now both "big" boys at ages 4 and 5. Sentimentally, I am getting sad that they are getting bigger and older, but at the same time happy for the new stages we are experiencing!

Strawberry picking at a farm just a few minutes away from our house. Fun activities for all ages! My sister brought her 2 boys over to us for the day and we all got to enjoy the farm together!
Wyatt is nearly 4 ft tall!

Levi is not too far behind his brother in the height category and basically equal in everything else as he always "has" to do what his brother does!

Filling up the basket with strawberries with cousin Ethan!

The Cowser side grandkids! 4 boys! What a change for my parents from only having 2 girls!

Wyatt and cousin Ethan

Levi and cousin Hudson

Levi Turns FOUR!

My "baby" is no longer a baby, no longer a toddler, but a full-fledged "preschooler". He has been wanting to be four (or just older) for such a long time. Seems like since he was born he has wanted to do things that are beyond him. We could just tell that he wanted to "get places" before his body was capable of crawling, walking, etc. We could tell that he wanted to feed himself before he really had the coordination to do it. We could tell he wanted to dress himself or more so, pick out his own clothes before he was physically coordinated enough to do so. How could we tell all of those things?? B/c of how mad he would get when we would do them for him or when he would try and couldn't do it. Yes, Levi has "gotten mad" an immeasurable amount of times in his 4 years of life so far! He is our strong emotion boy. When he is loving and sweet, he is extremely cuddly, sweet and loving. But when he is upset, he is mad and you will know it! But this strong will and self reliance can be used for great things later in life, and I am fervently praying to that end! So, yes, our youngest is now FOUR YEARS OLD!! He is thrilled. I am happy for him, but a little bit sad for me...just how fast my babies are growing up. Levi will always be my "baby"! My Sweet, Sweet Levi! In the picture below, the boys are getting ready to play a Lightening McQueen version of "hot potato".

And some of the birthday decor and presents. The theme was Lightening McQueen from the Disney movie, "Cars"

Jello Jigglers in car and trophy shapes--a BIT hit!

Blue Gatorade w/ a label from the movie

Disney's Cars themed labels that I printed from here.

Levi being silly when asked to pose for a picture

Trying to get a nice picture

The PINATA...probably Levi's favorite party activity ever!

He is very serious about hitting the pinata and hits it VERY hard (and surprisingly accurate)

My cousin Andrew was able to come from SC to visit

We also had a little bday celebration for Levi when we were out at Adam's parents' house over Easter/Spring Break

My boys! If only Wyatt had a nice smile in this one. oh well! silly boys!

And there is the BIG birthday boy. VERY, VERY happy to be four years old!

Easter at the Beach

This year, we got to spend  Easter at the beach in the Outer Banks of NC! It was very chilly and 'non-beach-like' weather, but a great time spent with Adam's parents, brothers and their families. Lots of pics coming below!!

Grandpa and Gram Haines with their 8 grandkids!

The whole Haines crew...4 Haines men and their wives and kids + Grandpa and Gram

Trying to get a nice picture on Easter Sunday

Adam, Andy, Grandpa, Gram, Luke, Mark

I love my sweet handsome boys!

Cade, Brayden, Griffin, Lily, Kaleigh, Wyatt, Levi and Tanner

in birth order

this is just a block from my in-law's house!

football on the beach with cousins

Sand castles and feathers...

My sweet Levi!

Grandma Visits and a Trip to the Zoo!

My mom was able to come down to NC and stay for a little over a week. We had a great time with her! The first few days of her visit, she babysat the boys for 2 days and 2 nights! Adam and I "went away alone" to the romantic destination of a parenting/discipleship/homeschool convention. While it wasn't a "true" vacation in Adam's definition of rest and relaxation, it was time that we were together WITHOUT our kids needing us. We learned alot of great things at the convention and had some fun times with some friends of ours that also went! For those interested, it was the Teach Them Dilligently convention in Spartanburg, SC. There were so many workshops and classes that we enjoyed, but I think one of our favorites was Pastor Voddie Baucham. We read his book, Family Driven Fatith last summer and had heard a few of his sermons previous to the convention. Ken Ham was also a speaker along with Crown Financial Ministries, HSLDA, Raising Real Men, Jenny from Southern Savers and many more! While there, I found (and bought) the Bible Curriculum we will be using next year for Kindergarten...Positive Action for Christ. I am really excited about homeschooling Wyatt for Kindergarten starting in the fall. Going to this convention really encouraged us in our decision to homeschool, as well as, gave us alot of important information that we needed to know. Thanks Mom for coming! (and Dad for letting her come!) While my mom was visiting and after Adam and I got back, we took the boys to the zoo in Columbia, SC. It's just a 1 1/2 hr drive from our house. The last time we had been to the zoo was 2 years ago, so Levi had only been 2 years old. Both of the boys were beyond excited when we told them that we were going! While they loved everything at the zoo, one of the "highlights" for them was the statues like in the picture below. They loved to just climb all over them and would ask us to take their picture! ha!

They also enjoyed "reading" the map and telling us where they wanted to go next and how they thought we should get there!

We brought a picnic lunch and ate it out in the van. After we had already eaten our lunch, we found out that we could have gone to the Botanical Gardens at a different entrance within walking distance, or taken a tram, and eaten our lunch there. We will remember that for next time!

More fun on the statue animals

We also had a wonderful surprise blessing...a lady with twins saw our boys in our double stroller (and must have thought my kids were twins too) and asked us if we wanted to us her kids "bracelets" to get on the train, carousel, etc. She said her kids wouldn't even wear the bracelets let alone go on the rides. We were thrilled! (and clueless as to how much the "rides" and the "bracelets" for unlimited rides even cost). Later we found out that what she had given us was worth $20/person! WOW!! So the boys got to ride the carousel and train multiple times!

Another "favorite" was climbing on EVERY fence and rail all throughout the zoo! Boys will be BOYS!

And a few more pictures of the boys climbing on the animal statues. I love their expression on the 2 pictures below!

Preschool Corner

~Wyatt is 5 years old. Levi is 3 3/4 years old~



Wow! Only 1 blog post in December, 1 in January and none in February! If any of you all are still following my blog and aren't my family, I'm really glad that you are my friends and love me enough to keep reading about the happenings in our life!! We haven't been any busier than normal, but life just keeps going and seems to be passing by faster and faster. I wish I could freeze time and keep my boys as preschoolers forever! I just LOVE this preschool age!

Levi and I are still having tons of fun at home with the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3 yr old curriculum and various ideas that I find on a couple other homeschool blogs. He is really starting to remember the letters and their different sounds as we continue to go thru the alphabet. We are up to Letter P and the Number 10. He has learned 9 Bible verses. He can also write his first name without any help. His favorite thing, by far, is cutting. We are still working on being able to cut on a straight line for shapes, but he loves to just cut up pieces of paper :-)

I hardly have any pictures of his school work and activities the past few months...we are just having too much fun to stop for pictures, I guess!
We play the board game (is it really a board game?), Memory, at least 3 times a day, and he is VERY good and often beats both Adam and I.
We are still renting toys and educational tools/toys from the Resource Center (aka "toy library"). Discovering the Resource Center has been one of the best things!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom has been one of their favorite books for awhile. We have gotten it from the library many times as well as renting the video. On our last trip to the Resource Center, we found this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree complete w/ felt letters and numbers! Levi had fun knocking the tree over (boom, boom) after all the letters were put on top!




Wyatt is loving preschool at Mineral Springs United Methodist Church on M, W, F from 9 to 12. He already knew alot of the academics from our homeschool preschool last year, but it was important to us for me to be able to spend some one-on-one time with Levi. While sending Wyatt to preschool wasn't originally in our "plan", it has accomplished what we had desired with my training Levi one-on-one. And we love how MSUMC uses Abeka curriculum and has the children learn a new verse every week.
Wyatt has learned how to write his last name and is getting alot better at writing in general. We had only focused on writing upper case letters last year at home. His teacher has been very good at encouraging him to use lower case in writing his name. He was already reading short sentences from our lessons at home with the book, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. And he is getting more practice with phonics and reading at preschool this year. His teacher has them do alot of creative artwork and we enjoy what he brings home! Here are some pictures of Wyatt's classroom when Levi and I brought in a birthday snack for him. Even Levi got to join in on