Daddy the Engineer

Joy really enjoys our train set, and she's gotten pretty adept at making her own "setups."

However, even she admits that her creations pale in comparison . . .

. . . to what she can construct with the help of her engineer Daddy.

Here's the engineer driving the train (OK, so he's not THAT kind of engineer).

The Joyful One

Joy sure lives up to her name. She is full of fun and surprises. For example . . .

. . . she loves her new rainbow pants (which make her easy to find at the playground).

She recently put "pool rings" on herself and Yellow Bear so she could take him for swim in our front room.

You never know how she'll choose to "smile" for a picture.

Tonight she offered to test our new lantern by checking whether she could color by it at night (the lantern passed the test easily).

And she loves to dress up with her preschool buddies.

We love you, Joy!

Monday Fun

This afternoon, Joy noticed our Star Wars Trouble game in the closet, and she asked to play it with me.

The box says it's for players aged 5 and up, but Joy beat me the first two times we played.

Daniel loves pressing the popper . . .

. . . but he spent more of the afternoon reading books. That's my boy.

At some point, Yellow Bear got an owie on his tail and required a (very festive) "Band-Aid." He's doing better now.

Back to Nature, Relatively Speaking

We enjoyed more family and birthday fun today.

Joy has confirmed that Pink Grandma's apricot tree is great for climbing, and that she can reach that green ball just about anywhere Grandma puts it.

After lunch we headed to Papa's house for some rock climbing . . .

. . . and a little fishing. Papa, should we be concerned that there are sharks in your pool?

The shark proved too tough to serve for dinner, so we went to Lucille's to celebrate Red Grandma and Sean's birthdays. Lemonade, french fries, and steak--oh my!

Happy Birthday!

Dora and the Danish Tacos

Most of the Hendrickson clan is still in town following Great-Grandma's funeral, and they gathered at Uncle Mark's today to celebrate a happier occasion. Three happier occasions, actually--three of the siblings have birthdays this month.

Dinner consisted of Hendrickson Tacos. Uncle Mark (shown above frying tortillas, which I'm told is essential for true Hendrickson Tacos), calls them Danish Tacos, since a Mexican friend informed him that they bear little resemblance to anything she ever ate back home.

That may be partly because Hendricksons use Creole seasoning (courtesy of Aunt Darla) on their ground beef.

(Doesn't Phillip look cute in an apron?)

It was fun getting to know Phillip's extended family better.

Joy particularly liked playing with her second cousins . . .

. . . and Dora the (Long-Suffering) Dog.

In fact, Joy was so taken with all things Dora-related that she insisted on showing Grandpa Dora's water bowl as soon as he arrived. He was duly impressed.

All in the Cards

Our Relief Society (the women's organization in our congregation) had a service activity this morning.

We made thank-you cards to donate to Ronald McDonald House. The cards will be given to families with sick children, who can then present them to doctors and nurses who have helped their kids.

In two hours we made over 100 cards, which varied widely in style and color. My own were pretty simple, but I was really impressed with the artistic skills of my fellow card makers.

A good time was had by all, and we hope these cards will warm many hearts.

Playing Ball and the Bongos

The kids have grown out of many of their clothes, so we did a little shopping today.

As you can see, Joy is super excited about her new duds. SO excited, in fact, that she changed into yet another new outfit for our trip to the park.

While we were there, Joy and Daniel joined the warm-up for a junior softball game. My kids couldn't hit the broad side of an aircraft carrier, but neither could most of the team. Apparently for most of them, it was their first game. Ever. A friend whose daughter is on that team later reported that of 45 at-bats this evening, he counted 40 hits, 40 runs, and 38 errors.

After the warm-up, we proceeded to the Farmers' Market for some strawberries. There are always a few musicians there (usually different ones each week), and this time we found a guy with dreadlocks playing bongos. The cool thing was that he was singing hip arrangements of children’s songs, and on blankets spread in front of him were several small chairs and lots of instruments—little drums, tambourines, homemade shakers, and even an old xylophone. Any kids who wanted to could play along while he drummed and sang. Joy dove right in, playing virtually every instrument he had, and even beating his bongo a few times. It was fun to watch her get so into it.

A Rocket at the Park

The kids are into rockets this week (next week, who knows? singing cats?).

Joy likes watching old Space Shuttle launches on YouTube, and Daniel is experimenting with his "lateral launch" technique. Alas, the horizontal flights tend to be disappointingly short.

At the park today, Joy informed me that the jungle gym was a rocket. This bridge is the rocket bed (beds are made for jumping on, after all) . . .

. . . and this is the rocket bathroom. Joy told me she'd just taken a shower, and was wrapped in a towel.

In the spirit of exploration, Daniel is determined to go where no Daniel has gone before: up the curvy ladder on his own. He still needs a little help here and there, but he's sticking with it and getting better.

Well, enough of that. Race you to the car, bro!

(Daniel actually won the race because Joy got distracted by a tree she wanted to climb.)

The Dirt on Daisies

Spring is fast approaching, and I'm looking forward to doing some serious gardening soon. Apparently gardens are on the kids' minds, too.

Tonight Daniel decided Joy's daisy headband would make a great accessory while he was cruising on her scooter. Apparently coolness is equal parts outfit and attitude.

For our home evening lesson on faith, I presented Joy with a pot of dirt and told her to take a bite of it. I was pleasantly surprised when she dug right in. When she discovered that the "dirt" was crushed Oreos, she shoveled in several more bites as well. In case you're wondering, the greenery is Italian parsley.

Lastly, a friend recently gave us some games her grandkids have grown out of. Joy's favorite item among the new treasures is a flannel board. She informed me that the montage pictured above is an angel's garden (the "angel" is the little pixie with pink hair).

Something For Everyone

I find it interesting to see how our kids play differently at their respective stages of development.

At the park today, Joy--who is old enough to be social and fairly coordinated--played a hybrid of catch and keepaway with some random kid she met . . .

. . . and climbed on the jungle gym in ways the designer never intended.

Meanwhile, Daniel was content to play in the sand on his own . . .

. . . and slide down the slide.

Both kids like climbing up the slide, though. :)

Noisy Birthday To You

Now that the Month of Coughing has passed, we finally celebrated Daniel's birthday with our extended family last night.

At first the birthday boy found the whole business somewhat overwhelming (my family can be a boisterous bunch), but he cheered up when we broke out the cake and ice cream.

As you can well imagine, our little lightswitch fan was thrilled to receive a Thomas Train signal station with switches triggering lights and noises.

Speaking of noise, Curious George offered to teach Aunt Heather how to play the piano with her toes. You can tell from her expression that Heather takes her music very seriously.

The Hendrickson Art Academy

The kids have had fun making creative works of art lately.

You can have a lot of fun with muffin cups and construction paper.

Joy recently saw some instructions for making a family tree, and asked me to help her make one for our family. We even made an apple for the baby.

Daniel prefers more unconventional media. Here's a cool dragon he made by dumping the water out of his glass (I'm glad it was a water dragon instead of, say, a milk dragon, or a cranberry juice dragon). He made his artwork out of a medium that disappears, symbolic of the fact that art and inspiration are fleeting. Or something like that.