Well, lazy me hasn't yet downloaded any pictures from Easter, but I know Grace will be very happy to see that I finally posted pictures from her latest field trip. We took the class to the Arboretum for Dallas Blooms. Beautiful flowers and neat "treehouses" (still left from the Autumn Blooms celebration, I think). But my friend Karen and I were trying to figure out why we were exhausted after 3 or 4 hours, not walking any more than we normally do when we go there. We realized that it probably had something to do with four of us watching eight 4/5-year olds. You'd think that ratio would be easy, but those kids move nonstop, and usually in at least four different directions.
They had these neat beds set up where the flowers were planted in the shape of butterfly wings with a mat to lay down between them. Unfortunately with the angle of the ground it was hard to get a good picture of the wings. Grace was very excited to take a picture of her like this between her wings - I'm not sure why.
With Brayden's wing picture you could get a better view of the wings.
Grace wanted to be sure I included boyfriend Aidan's picture here.
Cute picture of Grace and Aidan.
The class early on in the day, too excited to pay much attention to picture-taking.
Grace's new "other" boyfriend, Andy.
The kids exploring one of the treehouses. Bit of a misnomer - they are all playhouses build around trees (rather than in them). But very cool variety of styles.
Another treehouse - either a butterfly or dragonfly shape (I can't remember which one). I wish I'd gotten pictures of the rest of the treehouses. Maybe we'll make it back and do just that someday soon before the temperature reaches triple digits.
We thought about just avoiding the frog fountains all together. But then their teacher just sat them down before heading over there and said "You make your own choices. We have no towels and no extra clothes, so if you get wet you have to live with the consequences." Hmm...wonder how that will end up.
Kids playing in the fountain.
A VERY wet class photo. One boy didn't get wet, the rest were drenched. We had to strip off shirts to wring them out before walking on. But the kids sure had fun.
One last photo before we left for the day. I thought it was cute how they naturally posed themselves when I told them to say cheese. A great bunch of kids. Exhausting, but great.
Two kids with their haul on a cold Easter morning. The big coat unfortunately hid the beautiful dress we got from cousin Emma - Grace couldn't wait for the chance to finally wear it. And Alex is as dressed up as he can get - tennis shoes, khakis and untucked button-down is the best we can do with him.
Grace excited about the money in her Easter egg.
Alex excited about his "clock-clock" (chocolate). Much more valuable to a 2-year old than money.
They had these neat beds set up where the flowers were planted in the shape of butterfly wings with a mat to lay down between them. Unfortunately with the angle of the ground it was hard to get a good picture of the wings. Grace was very excited to take a picture of her like this between her wings - I'm not sure why.
With Brayden's wing picture you could get a better view of the wings.
Grace wanted to be sure I included boyfriend Aidan's picture here.
Cute picture of Grace and Aidan.
The class early on in the day, too excited to pay much attention to picture-taking.
Grace's new "other" boyfriend, Andy. 
The kids exploring one of the treehouses. Bit of a misnomer - they are all playhouses build around trees (rather than in them). But very cool variety of styles.
Another treehouse - either a butterfly or dragonfly shape (I can't remember which one). I wish I'd gotten pictures of the rest of the treehouses. Maybe we'll make it back and do just that someday soon before the temperature reaches triple digits.
We thought about just avoiding the frog fountains all together. But then their teacher just sat them down before heading over there and said "You make your own choices. We have no towels and no extra clothes, so if you get wet you have to live with the consequences." Hmm...wonder how that will end up.
Kids playing in the fountain.
A VERY wet class photo. One boy didn't get wet, the rest were drenched. We had to strip off shirts to wring them out before walking on. But the kids sure had fun.
One last photo before we left for the day. I thought it was cute how they naturally posed themselves when I told them to say cheese. A great bunch of kids. Exhausting, but great.
Jim and I have joked about trucks getting bigger and bigger, and that it wouldn't be long before someone started driving an 18-wheeler as a truck. Well, it has actually happened, at least on a small scale. I saw this stupid thing rounding the corner on Mockingbird as I was coming out of the grocery store parking lot, and wondered what this small 18-wheeler cab was doing turning off of Abrams. Then I realized it was a TRUCK. Most likely some idiot Dallasite trying to one-up his neighbor's Hummer.
My irises FINALLY started blooming. Seems like it was at least a week or two later than everyone else's irises in the neighborhood.
A lot more about to bloom within the next week.
Other than my four blue Dutch irises (which I didn't get a picture of), all the irises that have bloomed are yellow ones. Except for this one amazing white one. I love it. I guess my purple ones are gone - I haven't seen them bloom for a couple of years.
Neat blue berries on the leatherleaf mahonia. The poor birds don't have much of a chance at getting these; the kids have too much fun picking them off for whatever imaginary games go on in the back yard.
Neat little birdhouse Jim made and painted with Grace. 
Grace next to the rosemary that is ready to be finally planted in the ground. This was originally the little rosemary Christmas tree we had on the table year before last. I can't wait to see how it takes off once it is actually in the ground. Don't know about this pose Grace is doing. Showing off the little super soaker Jim bought her. Kind of like a weird NRA-lite photo.
