Easter

Regular egg hunts make no sense to the boy, so we had a treasure hunt with clues and candy hidden in eggs around the house.
Our discerning little foodie does not like jelly beans. He does like Cadbury mini eggs.

His favorite part? A wind up chicken that lays bubblegum eggs.

New best friend

Case found a new amazing bug this morning while I was unloading his bike from the car. "Caterpillar!" he shouted with delight. Not quite a caterpillar, just the biggest millipede I've ever seen in the wild. Because I am insane and he was nearly at tears when I made him put it down so we could ride/run, I did a crazy thing. I emptied a water bottle (his, not mine) and put the bug in there to wait for him in the car. He rode and asked about the bug any time he wasn't whining.

Now we're at home and he and the millipede are having a great time. "Da bug onna piano! Say hi doa clock bug! Lookita bug's eyebrows!" He takes the bug to crawl on the fishtank, the tv. The bug is on my kitchen counter. Now he's in our singing bowl. So long as the bug stays the hell away from my bedroom we will all be ok.

Thomas

We took some time off from our busy Looking at Bees schedule to go see Thomas this last weekend. It was awesome. Case was all giggly to see the big blue train.

Sir Topham Hat was another win.

There was an actual steam-powered narrow rail engine there too. It wooshed and puffed dramatically and Case probably loved riding it even more than Thomas (the inside of a train car was only moderately interesting to him.) Then to top it all off there was a small collection of farm animals there. Case only had eyes for the tiny rooster. Does anyone know what kind of rooster this is? We need one. Case crowed at it, and it looked him in the eye and crowed right back. Little guy was absolutely smitten.

Bees

Every afternoon Case gets off the bus and comes running up the driveway smiling, to run right past my outstretched arms to the azalea bushes where he spends time with his bees. Today we were out there for an hour. He talks to them. He pets them. He picks flowers and holds them out for his tiny little friends. Sometimes he even hugs them. He loves them and I think they understand.

We chose our annuals this year specifically as flowers that bees like. I spend more time researching beekeeping than a renter who will PCS next summer should. Eventually I drag him inside, but he has found ways to keep up with his little friends.

Camping

Recently Case and I had the pleasure of camping at a large base campout. I was a little nervous going in, but was reassured knowing I can strike my tent in under 5 minutes. Worse case scenario I have to pack it up by headlamp and drive home 20 minutes in the middle of the night. But things could not have turned out better. There was a movie projected on a big inflatable screen that Case had not seen before but still tolerated with enough pizza. He like peek-a-booing me and my geographically single mom friends from the tent as we kicked around in camp chairs and talked very late into the night. And eventually he slept well, even though he took up more than his fare share of our little tent.

Breakfast included donuts-another score!

Our friends brought fishing gear, and the boys kindly shared with Case. He actually caught something! Helen was casting it out and letting him reel it in, and he pulled in the line with a tiny crappie hanging on to his hot dog bait (but not the hook) with his teeth. It let go, but not before Case got to see.

Since then we've been in the area of FamCamp and Case asked about the tent, so we'll start planning our next outdoor adventure soon.