Winter River

Nesting

I hung up this decorative lantern thing one day on our back porch. I was meaning to put a solar light or a candle in it at some point. Timmy saw it, and the first thing he said was, " I want a bird to build a nest in there." 

He went on to put some grass and twigs in it. I looked outside, and it turns out he got his wish. A bird has made a nest in there. He peers in it every once in awhile to see if there's any eggs.

Our decorative bird nest lantern

Friday at the River

Sitting in the Frio River, holding Hugh, as he splashes at the water with his hands and tries to grab rocks and sticks that float by, I try to surround him with big rocks, too big to choke on, watching the kids swim in the river, they could swim here all day it seems, I look up and see this view and think how beautiful it is and I should really take a picture.

Lexa snorkeled. Timmy caught a crayfish. They played with some kids from school who were there, ate some snacks, Hugh took some naps.

River Summer

I'm looking forward to spending so much time at the rivers with the kids this summer.

 For the longest time we didn't realize that this Sabinal River crossing was literally 1 mile down the road from our house. We just never had a reason to drive south instead of north.

There's usually not much water there, but after all the rain and storms of the past week it was deep and moving fast!

 Hugh and Will in the shallows

 Patrick piggybacked each of the kids across some deeper faster water to a little rock island where they played in the water in the shade.

An interesting plant Timmy gave me while I held Hugh and watched them play

My view of the most adorable little feet in my lap

Lexa enjoyed banging these two rocks together

River Rock Painting

 I tried to take the kids to a rock painting activity at Garner State Park, but we didn't make it there in time, so we brought some rocks home and painted them ourselves.

Why did I put a towel down again?  These tempura paints wipe up really quick and easy with a wet towel though, just hopefully they won't get their painted rocks wet because they'll wash off easy too!

Tree Climbers

Bluebonnets

There was a field of bluebonnets and Indian paintrbrushes right near our house. The kids really enjoyed exploring it.

 

Don't eat the flowers.