Outside play in Arkansas

The kids rode bikes around the neighborhood park:

And we went to Henry's grandparents' house to play in their pool (with Henry' cousin Claire):

To distract the boys from shooting the grown-ups with water guns, we challenged them to knock the inner tube off the post.  They never got it, but it kept us dry!

Fishing with Henry's grandfather at a local pond:

Coop didn't catch anything, but that's not really the point of fishing, is it?

Food and fun in Arkansas

Henry was in school a couple of the days we were there, so we met him for lunch at his school one day.  Turkey and cheese melts.  Not bad.

Ice cream!  In the background, notice the Waltons store front?  It's the Walmart museum and visitor's center in Bentonville.

At the Crystal Bridges art museum:

And we ate family style fried chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies, and bread at Monte Ne Inn.  Yum!

Caroline, Cooper, Henry:

Walking around the farmers market:

At the (slippery, rocky, semi-scary!) water feature at the farmers market:

Hiking in Arkansas

We hit a few different hiking trails while we were in Arkansas:

Look closely in the background.  Directly in the center of the photo:

See it?

It's this guy:

Yeah.  That's a copperhead.  Oops.

Waterfall:

Scenic view:

Other fun things in Arkansas:

Henry's school had a book sale.  50 cents for kids books.  We walked out with about $20 of new books for Cooper, including many Star Wars titles!

Coop and Caroline enjoyed trying out the "fancy chair" -- a really nice lounge chair that Miss Melissa got for Mother's Day:

Miss Melissa is a pediatric occupational therapist.  One of her co-workers (an OT in training) needed the opportunity to evaluate a kiddo she didn't know.  So Coop volunteered.  One of his favorite things was this Cuddle Swing -- a stretchy sack that completely enclosed him while the OT pushed him back and forth:

We visited Crystal Bridges, a gorgeous art museum that had a display about the architect who designed Exploration Place in Wichita (Coop's standing next to the Exploration Place model):

We went to an estate sale where everything was incredibly expensive.  Coop sweet-talked the sale workers into letting him have this bear for $2 (instead of the $5 that it was tagged).  Still expensive in my book, but he was thrilled and spent the rest of the week with Bear:

Star Wars with our friend Henry!

Alan was busy working on this textbook, so Coop and I headed down to Arkansas once Coop was out of school.

 

Coop took his light saber, and he and Henry spent hours having light saber fights in the yard:

Reading Star Wars books in the car:

Putting together Star Wars legos at a place called Brick by Brick.

It was an amazing place, with lego sets all along the wall.  Nothing to buy (whew!), but you pick a set and spend a couple of hours putting it together.

The boys had a great time:

More light sabers:

Watching Star Wars on the laptop:

Playing Star Wars video game:

Mother's Day

Cooper's classroom hosted a Mother's Day event.  We were to bring pictures from our lives (one for every 5-10 years), and the kiddos helped us moms make a timeline.

Coop did my proud by sitting and reading while we were waiting for everyone else to finish.  "Yup.  We do this all the time at the house.  No running around being silly or out of control.  No.  Not my kid."  Heh.

The kids had made tissue paper flowers:

And this jewelry set is what Coop picked out for me from JC Penney.  I wore it the next day to the office!  :)

Fun with Cooper

Cooper took an art class at Raintree after school on Thursdays.  The last Thursday of the semester, the kids worked in groups to make art from nature.  This was the sculpture (I think he said it was a cotton factory?) that Coop and his group made:

 

Cooper and I went to a magic show in Lawrence.  It was two and a half hours of awesome!!  Nine different magicians each did a 15-minute set of tricks.  Very, very cool!

This is magician Lance Rich, a magician who ended up calling me up on stage during his act!!  Man, I love magic shows!!

Coop and I went to a picnic at one of my co-worker's house.  There was a pond, and none of the kids fell in.

But they did get ridiculously muddy:

Alan hosted some of his students at our house for an end-of-the-year gathering.  Coop dug out the Halloween tubs to help with the decorations: