Sunday, April 19, 2009

The County Fair!

We went with Papa and Grandma Hart to the county fair Saturday afternoon. We had a blast! We . . .
. . . petted sheep and marveled at some VERY large pigs.

. . . petted the cows.

(This one was Connor's favorite . . . it had very red hair. It is hard to tell in the picture.)

. . . saw sharks! I am not sure how this fit into Maricopa county, but it was super cool. There was a large tank and four sharks swimming around. They even had a little show that the boys and Papa attended. Fun!
. . . watched a magic show. And, Connor got to particpate! What a hoot!! He did great and had so much fun. We laughed so hard when the "magician" was doing a trick to make coins appear in Connor's pocket. The guy said that he was going to send the coins to land on Connor's shoe, make the coins go up his shorts, into his underwear, and to his pocket. Connor got a funny look and started feeling his shorts and underpants for the coins. SO FUNNY! He was so brave and such a good sport.

. . . played on a tractor. Kyndall LOVED this!!

. . . gathered vegetables and fruit from a pretend farm.

. . . milked a wooden cow with Papa! Connor has always said that Papa needed to teach him how to milk a cow. It is funny since we don't think he realized that Papa grew up on a dairy and is truly the most qualified teacher for this skill. Maybe Connor just had a little intuition?!?

There was so much to do and learn! Jon and I had as much fun as the kids. Don't you love family days like that?!?! We do!!!


Swing, Batter Batter!!

Connor and Anderson are on the same Tee Ball team. And . . . Jon is the coach! So fun for all my boys!!! Connor and Andy's ages are right for them to be on the same team this season and then they will have to be on separate teams for a year and a half or so. We are savoring this time with only one practice and one game time a week! I am sure this will not be the case for most of the sports that they will choose to play!


Despite Anderson's look here, he did great and had so much fun!! He was right in the action and had great hits. We weren't sure how the game would turn out for him since he spent the entire practice time watching from the van. Ha!

It is super fun that their buddy Gage is on the same team!! There could be a little trouble in the outfield with those three boys and their ideas! Watch out, Coach!

We can't wait for more fun this season!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Baby steps!!!

We caught this video of these sweet baby steps right before bed last night. She is getting better and wants to practice all the time! On to another stage of trouble. Hee hee!!

Easter Hunts!

We had lots of fun hunting for eggs in the last week! Our playgroup had an egg hunt last Thursday. While Connor was at preschool hunting for his own eggs, Anderson and Kyndall got to hunt at the park. So fun and such BEAUTIFUL weather!

I begged Anderson to stop running around for a quick picture. What a sport to comply! Those eggs and that playground were pretty tempting!

My littlest HATCHlings!

Kyndall was tickled by the grass. So giggly!


We hunted for eggs in our backyard after church on Sunday morning. We would have to be up WAY too early to do it before Jon left . . . so the Easter bunny agreed to hiding the eggs while we were gone. Such a sweet bunny!


My Easter treats!

Cheesy!! They must want candy!

Kyndall found her bunny! Yay!

If only all the eggs had puffs in them! Yum! She was so excited to get her hands on them!
We had more hunts too! Both sets of grandparents hid sweet eggs and treats. Such lucky kids!! I, unfortunately, didn't take any pictures of it. I must have been too busy helping one of the kids. Oh well.

But, even better than dressing up a little girl in an Easter dress complete with a bow and sandals, was the fact that Connor and Anderson were excited to celebrate that Jesus is ALIVE! So sweet to hear them share the story of that first Easter and hear the excitement in their voice. They are eager to share all the details, with special emphasis on the exciting parts. What a blessing it was to listen to them!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Friday's Family Fun

We took advantage of the free Friday night deal at the Children's Museum of Phoenix! What a blast! I had not been . . . Jon, my parents, and my sis took the kids last June on opening weekend, but I had to miss out. This place is SOOOOO AMANDA!!! Yay! Jon told the boys (with a hint of sarcasm) that they had just found Mom's favorite new place! Hmmm . . . YES! Oh! Objectives were running through my head all night---along with all the good math terms that I thought had possibly escaped my brain. I couldn't help but play and learn with the kiddos. We will definitely be going back soon . . . but since it is a little pricey, it may be on another first Friday! Join us!! Yay!

It was really busy . . . my pictures don't really show it. But, I loved the crowd. So many families focusing on spending time with their kids. Awesome!


A room just for building and exploring with PVC pipes and joints. How cool is that?!?! Andy built this awesome cube almost all by himself and Connor worked on a fort complete with a flag.


Here there were cars that were made out of roller blade wheels and PVC pipe (maybe there was some huge PVC pipe donation???). They have these ramps that the kids can race them down. Too fun.


More learning. Love it!!


The Noodle Forest! Seriously, this would be created in our playroom if Jon was given the budget and a free afternoon. He loves this thing! So do the kids. Okay, I do too!!!


Even Kyndall got to participate! She loved these little ramps for the golf balls. "Kyndall, can you say, angles? gravity? acceleration?" Okay . . . I didn't really. But I thought it for sure!!


It really is such a great place!!

We finished off the night by hitting the Krispy Kreme downtown. Seriously . . . I thought maybe CPS would haul off the kids of any kooky parents that would feed that kind of sugar to kids at 8:30 . . . almost 9:00pm. Oops. It was a fun end to a fun night though! And, I think the memory will stick (with a little help from that classic Krispy Kreme glaze. YUM!).


Yummy!!! Don't worry, Kyndall just had puffs and cracker bits. :)


Anderson wanted his picture taken like this. What a funny kid!! I love him!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Four Boys = FUN!

What fun it is that Connor and Anderson have cousins so close to their age! We were so lucky to get to have Jared and Tyler come over for some fun last weekend.

They played---upstairs, outside, in rooms, SO FUN! I loved hearing four little voices and all the little feet making noises up and down the stairs!!


We made a wind tent! I saw a friend post a picture of her boys in one last summer and knew it was PERFECT for our Hatch boys. It is now our favorite thing to make when friends come over.


Hide and seek!! It was Jon against all the boys. I really think the boys won! The only really good spot Jon had was perched up on our fence behind our tree. The people driving on the road behind us must have wondered what was going on! My favorite spot of the boys was in the recycling bin . . . good thing it was freshly emptied so there was room for all four of them! Too funny! Such creative and fun boys!

And, Anderson found his block buddy!





We can't wait to have them over again . . . SOON!!!