Activist

James signed his first petition at school. The after school daycare program banned all electronics after a minor incident. (They told me that a young girl reported seeing something "inappropriate" on an ipad. After an investigation it was nothing but they decided electronics weren't worth the constant monitoring.)

The kids were outraged, especially the older ones who have ipads. This also affects James' Leapster game system, so he joined their petition to bring back electronics.

 

One of the kids signed my name, probably because I showed interest in what they were doing. I quickly scratched out "Mom" because I really do support the ban.

 

We had noticed too much screen time. We are glad. We hope that with improving weather the kids will actually get outside to PLAY!

 

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Easter 2013

James made this masterpiece at his school. I always love to see "I love Mom" on his artwork because it means that he was thinking of me at school. I love that little guy too!

 

James was his Grandma Rose's house, so we joined them on Sunday for an early Easter dinner. We brought over the Easter basket that we had ready for him, and other little gifts.

 

He dug into his Easter basket right away, but of course he had already received gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. They also had an egg hunt that morning too. I was sorry to have missed that, but I'm sure it was fun :)

After dinner James refused the dessert and instead asked to start on one of his chocolate bunnies. Tia ChaCha caught this picture from across the table. I find it hilarious!

 

Coconut Vanilla Bean cake with Coconut Swiss Meringue Frosting. James missed out!

 

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Grandma's Best Customer

James spent the weekend at Grandma Rose's right before Easter. We surprised her with a visit to her bank. She loved showing off her handsome grandson to her coworkers.

 

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That Big Bunny is Coming!

We took James to the local mall to visit the Easter Bunny. The line was crazy, insane.

Half an hour into the line we became one of those parents who handed a phone to our child to keep him busy. It was hard to resist when nearly every other kid was doing the same. Even babies!

 

Darn near an hour later, we got our 1.3 seconds with the Easter Bunny.

 

 

 

 

Here's our shot. We didn't pay $19.99 for it either! We chose to stand the distance away for our free shot :)

 

At home later... Egg dyeing!

 

 

 

 

Angry Bird eggs! Cute stickers helped.

 

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A Friend's Birthday

James has been invited to a few birthday parties this year, but if you ask him he says he only has one friend. What?

This party was Clayton's. His Mom is a pastor at Faith Lutheran in Coon Rapids (seriously, like two blocks from my school). They held the party in the church's gym and party room. I left James for a bit while I ran errands. I came back and they were happily feasting on pizza and then cake.

James was probably the quietest one at the table, but I did watch him interact with the other boys. He has more friends than he thinks :)

Oh, Clayton lives on our same pond. I'm sure we'll see him in the neighborhood a lot this summer!

 

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Break

The rest of our spring break was a lot of comings and goings. We went to several fun places and stayed home a bit too. I made a real concentrated effort to PLAY too. It was fun :)

 

James and his "invention". Fan on fan.

 

I don't have many pictures from this outing, but one day we went SWIMMING. Like MOM in the pool too! We went to the Shoreview Community Center for the afternoon. There was a school group at the pool, but they were soon to leave (we were told) so we put up with the crowd for a short half an hour before having the pool almost all to ourselves.

James is very brave in the pool. He was eager to show me all of his skills. I tried not to be a worried, hovering Mom but...

No pictures from the pool. My camera was safely in a locker.

There was also an indoor playground. I didn't take many pictures because I was in the moment. I watched James climb and run all over the place.

 

On another day we met Grandma Rose for lunch.

She just cannot keep her hands off my boy. James does not want for love or attention. EVER.

 

Grandma Rose and James get so into each other, that they FORGOT ME in the mall. They left me downstairs and then rushed back to find me, when they realized I was missing. Whaaaaaat?!

 

Hmmm. There was a Lego gift involved that day.

 

 

The rest of the week was fun and games at home. We had a great week!

 

 

James learned how to play MY game on the ipad.

 

And then he said, Do you want me to teach YOU how to play Angry Birds?

With all the lessons he's given other people, I've always avoided the game. I just figure its his.

 

 

I still don't know the game.

 

 

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Spring Break begins!

We were glad that James and I shared the same week for Spring Break. I was determined to get out of the house and do fun things.

On our first day we hit Grand Slam in Coon Rapids. Grand Slam, I found, has it all. A bunch of activities for active kids. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there. Usually that would be great, but it was a bummer that there weren't other kids in the play area and the bumper cars.

We still had fun. I couldn't go in the play area (no adults) so I watched James for a long time.

There were these air "cannons" that were supposed to shoot the foam balls throughout the caged area. James couldn't get them to work. I broke the rules and went inside to problem solve. Finally, we got a worker and it was fixed. I was then given permission to stay inside the area to play :)

 

 

 

Coon Rapids obviously is bringing a bit of culture to the community...

 

 

My job was to collect all the balls for James to fire in the cannons. This was hard work!

 

Bounce house.

 

Bumper cars. I had a one-time pass for a bumper car ride, but James was unlimited. He loved to spin around and around. With tongue :)

 

And we hit the mini golf course. It is hard to know what skills James has at this point. He tries, but he doesn't. I'm anxious to get him on the real courses this spring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Tower. Ha.

 

This happens to terrible children, I told James.

 

 

Just a few tokens to play some arcade games.

 

ooooh skee ball!

 

And that was exhausting.

 

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