The Rhoadarmer Babies!: Late May

Dean coordinated the family and got me some trellises and fencing to put around my garden for my birthday this year, so that balls and errant children will have a visual barrier to keep them out of it.

Robin, I mean Batman, helped us put the fence posts in the ground

Robin's preschool class took a walk to the neighboring "Dinosaur Park" at the end of the school year. I volunteered to chaperone this one, so I got to get some good pics.

At the park

Ride!

Robin and me, up high

Lining up to ride down the slide together

Whee!

Eating the lunches they packed

Back at the school, here are Robin and his best friend leading the song they sing at day's end.

Dean wanted to join in too, but the field trip specifically said no younger siblings. So Dean decided to just bring Liam to the park to play toward the end of the field trip. After heading back to school with the class, Robin and I went back to the park to hang out with them some more.

This is why it's called Dinosaur Park, by the way.

Playing in the homemade rocket one more time before donating it to the preschool (as a creative way to get rid of it)

Ice cream! Because life should be messy sometimes. Messy and tasty!

Painting the deck with water

No Liam, don't mix the "paint" with your drill

I love pictures like this--capturing moments of accord between the boys

We visited Robin's friend C's t-ball game at the end of May, to see if Robin was interested in joining a team over the summer. After the game was over, the coach (C's dad) asked Robin if he wanted to try batting. Despite his request to do so while the kids were still playing, Robin held back. Held back, that is, until Liam ran forward crying "Me!!! Me!!!" So Liam took a turn.

And then Robin took a turn.

At C's birthday party. They hired a "Mad Scientist" to entertain the kiddos

Erupting a volcano

Writing secret messages

Will you blow on the dry ice for me?

Feeling the dragon's "ice breath"

Cold foam!

Mixing up "dragon snot" to take home

Getting ready to launch a rocket!

And, of course, with all the open space, it landed in a tree

Mmm, cake!

These two crazy kids like to do "high fives with their butts." Ai yai yai.

Together, Robin, Dada, and I pressed a lot of "traffic cones" out of play dough

Counting them

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Robin has grown quite a bit over the course of the school year. For a comparison, here is a picture of him on his first day of preschool, next to a picture of him on his last day of preschool.

You can see he's a good few inches taller, as his head now brushes the bottom of the light switch.

And although he's come up with several things he wants to do when he grows up over the past few months (including teacher and pirate,) Robin's response on the last day of school was "someone who works at Olive Garden." At least I'll get lots of free breadsticks out of him!