A warm winter day at the Redwood Nature Center.

55 degrees here yesterday!

Cat feeding station.

Cat!

Cat house.

Bald Eagle!

Clear view of the mountains.

Skyler telling us about the bald eagle.

Geese.

Another cat house with a cat eating.

3 cats and a lot of garbage.

Kitty!

Skyler running with Maizey dog.

At the fabric store.

Mommy took Skyler to the fabric store yesterday afternoon while I finished cleaning up from re-sealing the front rain gutters on the house.  He got to ham it up while she shopped for space themed fabric for his birthday party.

In outer space.

Pretending to float with the planets.

"I'm on fire!"

More floating.

Real space he tells me.  :)

Planes fire and rescue.

That movie still delights Skyler.  So much so, that after school yesterday, he found all of the official toys in his organized bins and assembled this set.  He immediately wanted to watch the movie after playing, so we did!

Complete with the smoke jumpers!

Monster!

Skyler drew this monster in class last week.  Maybe this is the alleged monster that lives under his bed?

LOTS of appendages!

Swimming lessons version 2.0

Mommy signed Skyler up for some group swim lessons now instead of the crazy expensive and not easy to schedule private lessons he had been attending.  Last night was the first night and Skyler couldn't have done better.  He's in a mixed group 1 & 2 class and it was great to see him competing with some older kids.  He was even practicing when one of the other kids was learning from the teacher.

Only 4 kids in class.  I like that there's a lifeguard on duty too.

Granger Highschool has a really nice pool!

Being able to touch the bottom of the pool really boosted his confidence.

Watching the teacher.

At least one of us is feeling better.

Skyler went to school today.  I'm still sick however...   Sigh...

Sigh...

Playdate!

We went to Otto's house yesterday morning so the two boys could play together for a couple of hours.  It was nice to spend some time with adults while the kids played.

Instant camera photo!

Chinese New Year.

We celebrated Chinese New Year yesterday by making homemade egg rolls for lunch, and homemade beef and broccoli for dinner.  Both were delicious!

We bought the egg roll wrappers at the grocery.

I ground the pork with the Kitchenaid grinder attachment.  Ground ginger, granulated garlic, onion, oyster sauce, cabbage, and carrots make up the filling.

Pan fried in about a quarter cup of vegetable oil...

Voila!  They were absolutely scrumptious!

Beef, broccoli, carrots, chili garlic sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil make up the dish.

Year of the rooster.  I made some brown Basmati rice to go with the beef and broccoli.  Delish!!

Scootering on the Parkway.

We have had a busy Saturday!  Swim lessons for Skyler, a stop at Trader Joe's, and scooting on scooters on the Parkway.

Mommy got to ride her new scooter from Santa.

8 deer!  Usually there's only the 7.

Ripping along!  I walked the dog while they scooted.  I tried Mommy's scooter while walking the dog and she did just fine.  Next time I'll scoot too!

The closest we've ever been to the deer.

Skyler sat down and very quietly watched the deer.

100th day!

Skyler's school is celebrating the 100th day of school today.  They are supposed to wear an article of clothing with the number 100 on it so I used a stencil and airbrushed the number 100 on a t-shirt to help him celebrate.

He's really more excited about it than he looks.  :)

Continuing the dog theme...

Maizey dog is feeling much better after her mild ear infection a couple weeks ago.

Happy dog!

Best friends.

Skyler and Maizey sure make a nice pair.

She doesn't mind it at all when he lays on her on the couch.

Playground!

Skyler loves to go out to recess at the end of each school day.  I went to pick him up sometime last week and found him and Evan playing "police".

Words cannot describe what two 5 year olds running and making siren noises sounds like!

Cooking with Skyler.

I heard a mention of Dairy Queen's "steak fingers" a week ago or so.  I mentioned it to Mommy and she thought it sounded like a tasty weekend meal.  I found this recipe online and Skyler and I got to work last Saturday.

He got right in and started breading the cube steak pieces. 

Flour dredge.

Into the pan.

We ran out of room in the pan and got out the tiny pan just for Skyler.

Turning each "finger".  They turned out great and were rather tasty.

R/C in the house.

It snowed here almost all day yesterday.  We had lots of indoor time and Skyler found and charged up his radio control car.  I had to have him take it downstairs after this picture, the walls were getting beat to hell!

He was driving down the hall and then reversing back up it!  Pretty good!

Dog truth.

Thanks Grandma!

Grandma sewed Skyler this nice shirt.  He's rather thrilled to wear it to school today.

Still waking up, TGIF!

100%!

Skyler aced his first spelling test on Tuesday.

So proud of him!

Swim!

Skyler had another swim lesson this past weekend.  He only has one more private lesson until he moves on to some group lessons.  He's rather excited to try the group lesson, he has been marking off one day at a time on his calendar.

One day at a time...

Practicing diving from the edge.

Ready...

Go!

Time for the diving board.