Natalie's first 'solo' recital

Natalie did a very nice job playing a 'twinkle variation' at her first recital, accompanied by her instructor Daniel Colwell, and her group instructor Rebecca Schloneger.

(Unfortunately Russ, who was supposed to accompany her on violin, was at home sick.)

This ones for you mom (Nana)

Notice Natalie saying she wants to see RUSS do this! Lou however would like to avoid a trip to the ER... watch and see, it all turned out okay and we even made dinner reservations on time :)

The Challenges...

Deciding how to scale each rock.

Throwing a ball from rock to rock...

Greg and Russ did plenty of analysis for each leap. They did pretty good, and provided the rest of us with good photo opps.

More of Rock City

Dad's head came in handy in this spot...

How do you do this?

Oh, like that... luckily this time Natalie showed some caution and waited until Dad came back with his handy head/stepping stool.

Rock City State Park

Definitely another new favorite spot was Rock City State Park, just NE of Salina. Great place to play, climb, play hide and seek...
We went with two other families from Newton and had a great time. Thanks Eric & Yolanda for telling us about this place!

I think both of our kids loved the climbing, so we may have to make this a more regular spot. Natalie continues with her "no fear" outlook, so we had to keep one step in front of or behind her, but it was fun to follow behind those little excited feet.

Oh yes, and the Zoo

There is also a zoo at the Rolling Hills Wildlife adventure, although for our kids I'd have to say the museum was the highlight. The Zoo has many unique animals that were fun to see, including the wildest creatures ever behind the "Danger, do not enter" sign. :)

And, for a break from that KS wind, they have a wonderful play house in the middle of the zoo. Great!

Places to play, imagine and be a kid

The museum also has this really awesome play space - with lots of things to get those imaginations going. awesome puppets, games, computer games, a tree house full of books, etc etc.

Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure

A new favorite for us is now the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, just east of Salina KS. They have a wonderful museum that the kids loved so much we walked through it twice. The museum has animatronic human robots narrate stories of how they interacted with environment around them. The kids especially like the stories told by the snake charmer in Bombay. I wasn't expecting that on our KS spring break! What a great treasure! Plus, on the drive to Salina, Ethan finally jumped into reading chapter books on his own. It's now the end of the week and he has completed 3 of them. I love road trips and all they provide....even if they are only an hour.

You may wonder about the last picture...Ethan is wearing a wolf mask he got in the gift shop. The second time through the museum he was a wolf stalking prey. Oh, interesting times.

Spring Break

We spent spring break around home this year, exploring a few new favorite locations and visiting a few tried and true favorites. The first kite flying of the season is a highlight for us, and was a great way to start out spring break. Got to love that KS wind!