Lydia's Visit to Petland

She is saying, "Wow!"

She's doing her sign for dog which is panting and she's waving hello to the puppies.

Loving the puppies.

He's such a dog. Oh wait. Moving right along...

Now this is what we came to see...

I love it.

Fascinating.

Cade thought this was the best part of the trip. (Yes, that is poo coming out of not one, but two of the goldfish. Gross.)

She was making the fish face the whole time we were in the aquarium area.

This cat was actually asleep upside down. He kept slipping further and further down and I kept watching because I thought how funny would it be to see this cat fall down and get the picture to post on my blog? But then I felt bad and tapped the cage just a bit to wake it up.

Isn't this the CUTEST picture?

Isn't it fun to rediscover everything through your child's eyes? That's what I was thinking on our way home from the pet store tonight. We took Lydia for the first time today and she loved it. From the frisky puppies, the napping kitties, all the fish to the noisy parrots, Lydia couldn't get enough. It's pretty cool being a parent.

Morphed Photos

I look like a cross between a fish and platypus!

Elvira meets Madame de Pompadour

After Lydia's party and while she took a much needed nap, Monte got his laptop out and we started playing around with the web cam and got these.

He Did it!!

Lydia kept herself entertained by smiling and laughing at the family behind us and by eating tons of Cheerio O's.

Getting ready to go up for a reading.

I think this is just so precious!

IMMEDIATELY after his turn.

He did it!

Tonight Cade had his first Reconciliation. For those non-Catholics out there, that's his first confession, one of the seven sacraments. He did a great job reading and seemed truly relieved the whole ordeal was over. It was 50/50 on whether or not he was going to get to go since he's been home sick the past 2 days. We did, however, get the OK from the school to bring him. I don't know what we would have done if they told us he couldn't make it. How do you make up missing your first reconciliation with the rest of your class? He would have been heartbroken. Anyway, next comes his first communion later this spring. He truly is growing up way too fast!

Game Time

Cade's biggest fan was at the game, cheering him on.

Guarding his man

He shoots! He scores!!!

These are pictures from Cade's first basketball game. He had an awesome game. He got his first basket on their first possesion! It's obvious that Rusty and I are extremely proud of his ability to do well in basketball, but it's apparent that Cade is also taking pride in his "mad skills".

He's Got Game!

These are just some pics I took at a recent practice of Cade's. He's becoming quite the baller!

Cub Scout Night at the Museum

Last Saturday we had another Cub Scout event at the Kansas Museum of History. We started off learning a little bit of what Native Americans did for fun. Cue the "Bone Stick" pictures. Yes, that's right. Bone Stick. The Boy Scouts who were teaching the boys claimed you could spend hours trying to get all four blocks onto the stick. They know this because they have. Next they moved on to loom beading. We learned that it's not as complicated as it might look. I mean if first and second graders can do it, how hard could it really be? Then there was a scavenger hunt in the actual museum. Lots of fun. Woo-hoo! Finally we moved on to working on requirements for an art belt loop and academic pin. So much fun for one Saturday night!

Cub Scouting at Home

So this year I've volunteered to be the Wolf Den leader (with the help of another mom and fellow DG, Angie) and a couple Mondays ago we had our first den meeting at our house. We started off going over the food pyramid and what were good examples of things to eat. Then we proceeded to make the Dennis Family favorite snack: Puppy Chow. Chalk full of rice chex, peanut butter, chocolate chips and powdered sugar. That's half-way healthy, right? Anyway, Cade and Riley were the only ones who were at the meeting so they had TONS of Puppy Chow to eat between the two of them. They also had a pretty cool time making it and we got to check off another achievement in the handbook.