The trampoline

A while back Sharon mentioned that she wanted to get a trampoline for the kids. I mentioned that I thought it sounds like a fun idea to get one once I start making money and we buy a house somewhere. I thought I had successfully brushed her off. A year or so later Sharon visits a friend's house and all the kids are going crazy on their trampoline. Sharon's trampoline bug had bit again, and all my efforts to brush her off weren't nearly as successful as last time.

We did some looking around, and I realized trampoline's aren't nearly as expensive as I thought they were. We found a 12 footer for $200, which we covered with the kids birthday money from Sharon's mom as well as some red envelope money they received during Chinese New Year.

So far, the kids have loved it. I think we will get our money's worth out of it. It was a huge pain to set up and I'm not sure what we're going to do with it once we move, but I guess I'll deal with that later.

Enoch getting some massive air time

One of the goals, of course, of having a trampoline is to have a place where the kids can get their wiggles out. Mission accomplished. You can even snap the door closed and lock your kids inside as you go in the house and ignore them, which is a nice feature.

The next 4 shots show a nice succession of a typical kiddy brawl. These usually happen once or twice a day accompanied by some high pitched screaming. In the 3rd shot Mom is telling them to be nice to each other, and then they promptly go at it again.

Easter

We had a good Easter, starting with an egg hunt, going to church, dying eggs, eating a great dinner, then watching Finding Faith in Christ. Enoch was pretty nervous for Jesus, but luckily he got resurrected.

I can't remember why he made this face

Michael's muscles and Enoch's biking skills

One of my favorite parts of being a parent is seeing Enoch and Michael succeed. Their accomplishments probably mean as much to me as they do to them. I can tell how proud they are of themselves and how much they want to show off to me and to feel validated.

Enoch has been getting a lot better at his glider bike recently, and it's been a lot of fun to see him improve.

The next 2 shots are great because they show off Michael's muscles. He loves to do anything he sees his brother doing. If Enoch makes an obnoxious noise, Michael thinks he's the coolest kid around if he can do it too. If Enoch is mean and tells Mom or Dad to stop talking / singing, then Michael chips right in and tells us to stop talking too. Michael follows Enoch around on the playground, and we thought this ladder would be too advanced for him. He eventually got really good at it, but I like the following 2 pictures because it shows how strong his arms are. At one point he was doing a dip.

We rode to a park near our house, and I found it remarkable that there were no other kids playing. We drove by today, and there were also no kids playing. How are there no kids playing at a park on a nice Saturday and Sunday morning? It reminded me that there really aren't many young families who live around us. 

This isn't the best picture, but it's off a fire ant hill. Houston is swarming with these things, and their bite is nasty. 

Also a few pictures from a trip to the park:

Strawberry picking

We went strawberry picking this year. It was an ideal activity for the kids and we all had fun. We also got a new camera since we'd been using the Nikon coolpix I've had since I graduated high school, which has been fun. Sharon posted these pictures on facebook but just posting them again here.