Monday, March 30, 2015

When Winter turns to Spring

 Winter was kind enough to give us one last hurrah!  We were able to build a fort, make snow angels, eat snow ice-cream, have a snow ball fight, get lots of gloves and pants wet, and have a super fun time in the snow.  Hip, hip hooray!
 Winter indoor soccer ended with a bang and a close call.  This kid did fabulous on each game.  The last game ended in a tie, but it was a great game that put a smile on everyone's face.
 The Leprechaun visited us on St. Patrick's day and made everyone happy (well, almost everyone.  William was hoping for a surprise but got the shaft).  This was Peter's surprise, plants to play with.
 Diedre celebrated Clover Day by making rainbow BLTs.  They were very tasty.
 Caleb had his first overnight camp with the scouts.  He was excited and I guess so was I.  I had to get fun and make him a shirt.
They went to the sand dunes and had a blast.  The weather was great and they brought home plenty of good memories (burning tumbleweeds in the fire) and sand in the ears.  Caleb also had another first boy scout moment this month by earning his Tenderfoot rank advancement and 7 merit badges to go along with that.  He is off to a good start.
 We went to a really cool lego display.  They had all the major American landmarks built out of lego. They were awesome.  The White House, Lincoln Memorial, The Statue of Liberty....and in this picture you can see Mt. Rushmore with of course the Rainbow for William.  Very fun.
The school had their reading contest in March and so the boys and I frantically read minute upon minute, hour upon hour for 3 weeks to get as many as possible.  This was at the reading contest assembly where William (who had 2,375 minutes of reading for those 3 weeks) was in the top 5 readers of Heartland!  Go, William! Much to the dismay of William's brothers he won, not them.  Both Peter and Caleb had 1,000 more minutes than the little dude, but they got passed by.  Bummer
 And HELLO SPRING!  I wish I could say we had a more prosperous and snowy Winter, but spring is surely here.  Digging in the dirt and getting dirty, all part of the fun.
Not to mention all the beautiful blossoming trees that there are to see.  Makes for a beautiful time of year.  And that of course leads us into the Easter Egg hunt, Easter remembrances of Jesus Christ, and more time outside.  But that will wait for another day.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Second chances at fun and happiness

Time just seems to fly sometimes.  It has been another month of homework, activities, scouts, fun and the like.  
 Peter celebrated his 9th birthday and I think he enjoyed himself.  Rob took the three younger kids swimming while I took Caleb to choir.  Caleb was unhappy about missing out on swimming, but it is what it is. Among the other presents Peter received was this new bike for school and fun.  He was excited to ride it to school the next day.
Valentines Day came and went and I called for a re-do, a second chance to show love to each other.  The actual day was terrible.  Selfish kids, grumpy parents, tired kids, impatient kids and parents. So, we determined that we needed to give this "day of love" a second chance and do it another day.  Our re-do was on Monday and it went much better.  Happier kids, smiling parents, good food to eat. Yea!
Caleb had a fun first happen for him.  The 6th grade Valentine dance was held at the school and he was one of the few boys who was not dreading the experience.  He wanted to ask his cute friend to the dance, and was looking forward to dancing and having fun.  What an awesome kid!
 These two crazies can have a super fun time together.  On this particular night they dressed up as ninjas and went to town in their fighting skills.
 You may have seen my love of nesting dolls in recent photos.  Well, I tried my hand at nesting dolls for our little family.  Goalie is of course for Caleb.  Plants is for my botanist Peter.  Haley loves tigers.  And William goes crazy for foxes.  That tiger had a few second chances given to it when I had to do a few coats of paint to get it just right.  I have another set that I painted for the cabin.  The fawn for that one took 6 coats of "second chance" paint for me to get it right!
 And winter gave us a second chance!!!!!!  Oh what a happy family we were to see the snow fall, and stick.  We could not resist.  Snow ice cream was made and devoured.  Snow angels were done.  A fort was constructed.  Snow ball fights ensued.  Glove after glove was used in keeping warm and dry.  It was terrific!