A fun cousin day

Emma & Josie came over for a few hours this afternoon and played with Brielle. They flew kites, jumped on the neighbor's trampoline, and then played on the swing set. Inside the play set, we put a tarp down over the grass and they each cozied up in their own sleeping bag. They played inside for at least an hour... and even had a snack service (me) that provided them with popcorn, crackers, apples, & water. They asked if they could have a real sleepover there sometime this summer. Good idea!

Jolene, Karley, & Tessa came over later and joined us for dinner since Terry & Connor were gone fishing for the day. Here's a jammie photo from the end of the night:

Karley, Josie, Emma, Brielle & John.

Good Friday at the Farm

It was a damp & rainy day, but that didn't slow Brielle down. She led Tim all around the farm to visit the animals in this order: the lambs, cats, calves, chickens (where she checked for new eggs and found one), Patches the pony.... and then back to the lambs.

Here's what John was busy doing the whole time that Brielle & Tim were walking around.

He fell asleep 5 minutes before we got to the farm and took a nice 45 minute nap in the car :)... resting up for a fun afternoon & evening.

After everyone ate dinner, there was an Easter Egg hunt for the 20 grandkids. The hunt was downstairs at Grandma & Grandpa's because it was too muddy & rainy for an outdoor hunt. Each grandkid was supposed to look for the eggs with the corresponding # to what grandchild that he or she is. John is #15 and Brielle is #12.

John was carrying his eggs in his shirt.... and enjoying the M & M's soon after.

One of Brielle's eggs was hidden on a classic Berning family photo :)... and another was in a filing box.

The excitement of finding her final egg! :)

Strawberry DIP

John is always a good strawberry-eater. Brielle, on the other hand, says she only likes strawberries with strawberry DIP... the "strawberry dip that Grandma Carol has."

On this day, Brielle knew we had some dip in the refrigerator so she asked for some strawberries. She said, "I need a knife. Grandma Carol showed me how to cut the green part off." Then, she took care of cutting all of these by herself!

America's got TALENT

The other night John and Brielle decided to do a little performance showing off their singing and dancing talent. I love how John moves his arms:)

New animals on the farm

My dad, Grandpa Berning, is always looking for new things for the grandkids to enjoy on the farm and the latest animals Grandpa got for the kids are two baby sheep, one boy and one girl. I am not sure if the grandkids have named them yet but they sure enjoy playing with them:)


Although after seeing the kids run after the sheep I think that my dad got them to help the grandkids become better runners:)

You are getting sleeeeeepy

John learned this from "The Care Bear Movie" :)

Brielle's 1st time as a Tadpole

Brielle participated in swim lessons for the first time. It was a series of about 8 lessons, and tonight was her final night. She is signed up for another session this spring. She was in the "Tadpole" group with her cousin Josie and one other girl. Her swim teacher's name was Taylor. Several other cousins were at this same lesson time in other groups, including: Connor, Emma, Sam, Wilson, & Pierce... for a total of 7 cousins! Thanks to Brielle's aunts :) for always getting her to swim lessons while I was at work and Tim at track practice.

The younger kids wear floatation belts as they are learning because the shallow end of this pool is 4 1/2 feet. This is the same pool where Kristen, Jenny, and Alexia swam for 10 + years each through club swim team & high school swim team.

Brielle had a lot of fun and always looked very comfortable in the pool. One skill she seemed to master over the last few weeks is her "bobs". She plunges underwater and comes up with a smile :). She is very proud to show this off whenever she would catch us watching her. Her backfloats and doggie paddle improved too.

Another skill they worked on was jumping off the starting block. Sometimes Brielle wanted Taylor there to catch her, but Taylor worked on encouraging Brielle to jump on her own. In the photos below, Taylor was off to the side and Brielle did jump on her own. You can see a big smile on Brielle's face after she did it.

And a FIRST for tonight... Brielle jumped off the diving board. She walked to the end so quick and jumped right off, that this is my best picture :). I switched the camera to video-capture, but didn't get it in time. That's okay because I'm proud of the fact that she jumped off right away. Later, Taylor gave the 3 girls their report cards & a treat. Brielle was pretty excited about her Skittles, since Taylor told them last week that if they did a good job they would get Skittles.

Josie & Brielle :

Spacial Awareness

Last week Brielle & I were walking back to my car after swim lessons. She was seeming very grown up as she was munching on an apple that Jolene gave her and talking to me all about her swim lesson.

We walked through the parking lot and up to the driver side of my car. I was reaching to open the door, when I said, "Oh, Brielle, this is not your side. Your car seat is on the other side."

Brielle said, "I know, Mom, but if you would have parked the car in BACKWARDS, my car seat would be on this side."

"You're right!" I said, as I was wowed by her spacial awareness. :)

iPod touch & Brielle

Brielle is showing John how to work Dad's iPod touch. There are a couple games on it that she is pretty good at playing. One is a matching game and the other is a whiteboard where she can draw. She also likes the Google Maps app-- she likes to look at the roads and will sometimes tell us she's looking at a map of a certain place-- such as a city or a farm. She will tell us we can use the map she has found to get somewhere. She calls this her "GPS."

She "explores" through the apps on the iPod touch and has found things Tim didn't even know were on there. For example, she found where you can set the different sound effects such as alerts & beeps. Brielle & John were laughing at the variety of sounds. Also, the other night Tim woke up to hear an alarm going off at 12:30 am... he had to look around before he found out it was coming from his iPod touch. Hmmm... we think Brielle must have been the reason for that too!

Baking chocolate chip bars

Aprons on + measuring cups in hand = ready to bake with Dad.

Handprint & Footprint Artwork

Brielle & John often come home with some very cute artwork that they make at Aunt Becky's house. Becky thinks up some creative projects, often using handprints & footprints to make different pictures. It's fun to hear the kids explain what they made & how they made it. The kids say it tickles when Becky paints their hands & feet :). The artwork is fun to hang up at home and great for the box of keepsakes. We also can see how their hands & feet change over time.

PB & J on her own

Brielle, John & I had a picnic on our porch Friday. Brielle made PB & J sandwiches for herself & John. She even got everything out all on her own. She was very proud of herself... and so was I :).

In pursuit of Thin Mints :)

More techno talk from the kids...

Today John said "I found some BIG DVDs!! I found some big DVDs!"

Castles & GPS

Conversation after reading one of Brielle's Disney Princess Books:

John: "Is that castle for all the princesses?"

Kristen: "Yes... would you like to see a castle someday?"

Brielle: "Yes! Where is there one?"

Kristen: "I don't know..."

Brielle: "The GPS can tell us."

Perspective

I haven't taken many blog-worthy photos lately... so I went into my archives and chose one that makes me smile :). This was taken by the photographer at Jenny's wedding. During Jenny & Jef's wedding ceremony, it was pretty sunny, so John was chilling out in Tim's shades.

Naps & Baking

John has been a little "under the weather" so it was a quiet weekend for us. Tim even worked in a nap since John warmed him up & relaxed him so much :).

Last night, Brielle helped Tim make some homemade bread... yum! A couple months ago, Tim decided he wanted to learn how to make homemade bread. He has gotten great tips & advice from his mom.

Brielle's favorite job is when Tim asks her to help him "punch the bread." In her words, "You get very dusty."

Here she is today with the finished product.

Happy Joe's

Tonight we went to Happy Joe's and brought along Emma, Josie, and Karley. Since we don't have a vehicle with a 3rd row, Tim & I each had to drive! :)

The 5 kids stood here for about 10 minutes watching the pizza be made.

We wanted to do something fun for dinner since it was Brielle's birthday, but Tim & I were undecided for awhile if we would recognize her birthday "Happy-Joe's-Style" where they sing & honk their horn. Brielle has SEEN other birthdays celebrated there, and she didn't want to have it done for her. She said the horn would be too loud. Emma tried to encourage her... and so did we... and we even tried the part about getting ice cream. Emma said nice things like, "But they won't know it's your birthday..." Emma also told her that she & Josie have had their birthdays here before. But Brielle still was not interested.

Well, we decided to go for it anyways. And we recognized Karley's birthday too. Karley was fine with the attention... while Brielle played "shy girl" and crawled up onto my lap.

Everything turned out fine... the song was over quickly... and they all enjoyed their ice cream.

Karley liked the whipped cream on top the best, and barely got to her ice cream. (Josie helped finish it off later.)

John picked out mint chocolate chip because it was GREEN ice cream.

As you'll see below, Karley was showing John her ice cream. Here's a funny thing that occurred... see how he has whipped cream on his finger? Well he was probably planning to taste it, but one nano-second after this photo, Karley reached over and used her hand to wipe off the whipped cream so John couldn't lick it. (It was funny, and I definitely laughed a little. And don't worry, no one cried.)

Like Karley, Brielle's favorite part was the whipped cream... and the sprinkles.

Emma and Josie both chose rainbow sherbet.

Now the kids are all in pajamas, teeth-brushed, and watching Brielle's new movie she picked out today... The Care Bear Movie.