Easter

Easter has come again so we must dye eggs and find baskets filled with Easter candy. In our house (per tradition) the bunny hides the whole basket and the children must search the house for it.

Dyeing eggs is just another creative outlet for this artist! I think some of her brothers are steering that direction too since we had some detailed eggs. Not only did we dye but we also sponge painted and used q-tips to paint them this year. It worked out well.

We did have a Mema easter egg hunt and drop...and I left my camera at home! We also went swimming that day which you can do when the week before Easter is 90 degrees everyday! We also got to visit the bunny, and S would take a picture with him, but R was too scared and hid around my legs.

The twins did have a playgroup egg hunt and I love this picture of R. He was sad because he did not like any of the candy he got in the eggs he found. None had chocolate. His brother was nice enough to share and he ate the chocolate cake roll I had packed for snacks that day.

Gardens

Look, do you see the red amongst the green.

Those are my strawberries. Two years ago I planted the first plant. It gave me 2 or 3 berries that year. The next year we had an overactive squash plant grow over top of the berries blocking some of their sun and a hard freeze in the winter did not help. I got very few berries and the birds usually got them before me. But this year has been awesome. We have already picked over 40 berries with more to come. We put up a net to keep the birds away. These berries belong to all the strawberry loving members of this family.

The rest of our garden looks good this year. I expect to eat some squash in the next few days and for weeks to come. We have several green tomatoes so salsa, tomato soup and sauce are all on the menu. The green beans....well we will keep watching them. A little rain from above would help the growing too, but for now we use the sprinkler.

The other garden are the ones we saw this week at playgroup. I never knew my little boys would like seeing the flowers at the arboretum so much. They wanted me to read the name of each one so they knew what to call it. They liked the pretty colors and the fish in the pond. After our time checking out the flowers we sent to the park which they thought was cool as well. I love this spring time weather when it is great to be outdoors.

Like this pic of Me and S. His 5 year old brother took it. Pretty good, huh?

Another Spring Break camping trip

The weather we have had is wonderful. It makes me love springtime in Texas. Wildflowers are coming out and green is co everywhere. When the weather is this nice I always look forward to camping.

We tried a new place this time, dragged our feet a little too long to get a usual spot, but then I always like to try new places too. This one was a nice spot on the lake, where the fishing was good. There was a playground nearby and nice hiking trails. We had a good time with our campfire cooking, fishing and other outdoor activities.

C was especially happy to have a girl friend come and not just be with the boys this time.

Then when we came home I made a few adjustments to our packing and we set off again to camp with our ward. Kids really wanted to stay overnight with all their friends which had not done before due to various reasons. Even this time, Daddy had to go to work in the morning so we went without him. I'm sure he slept better in a comfy bed then in a tent with lots of families around and a road nearby!

Birthdays and baptism

We have had a busy 2+ weeks with 3 birthdays and a baptism squeezed in amongst the weekly and daily jobs that must get done. So I will try to summerize our busy time.

A had a big 8 birthday. He got his breakfast in bed and picked where he wanted to go to dinner. He got a bit of an interesting birthday cake...I forgot to buy candles (thought we had some!) so we found whatever we could light. A few candles, toothpicks and popsicle sticks. It worked.

The first Saturday in March, A was baptized. We are so proud of him making this decision.

Just a few days later and the twins turned the big 5. They were excited to have a birthday. Simple happy face pancakes and bacon for breakfast in bed (S got his favorite strawberries!) Then off to preschool followed by MacDonalds for lunch and CiCi's for dinner. We were having a tough time agreeing on one so we went to both to make everyone happy!

Now with 2 boys I dreaded making 2 birthday cakes. That is a lot of cake especially after A's birthday and blue and gold banquet where both cub scouts made cake....I was still in a cake hangover of sorts. I was so glad when S said he wanted an ice cream cake. That was a great idea. I made the traditional chocolate for R, and he requires sprinkles!! Then I froze some softened ice cream in a cake pan. Then I made quick work decorating it. It was not perfect or smooth since the chocolate ice cream wanted to melt as I moved the frosting, but it turned out good, tasty and S liked it.

Field trip back in time

4th graders in our school district get to go on a field trip to visit a farm museum as part of their Texas history curriculum. As part of the historical foundation many items have been gathered from the founding families in our area and now they are on display for us to learn from. Many old houses have been moved to the site including an old school which has the same name as our current school.

I went the first time with my daughter as a chaperone where I walked with 1/2 a class and read from a manuel at each station. Only 2 of the 12 stations had docents that day. A docent is a volunteer who dresses in peiod costume and specializes at a station to make it more insteresting. Stations range from a smoke house where to talk about caring for animals for meat and branding them, to all the farm equipment they might have used in 1800.

You walk through an old house and tell the story of a family of 14 living in this tiny 4 bedroom house. You talk about their beds stuffed with corn cobs for mattresses and how the wood stove heated the house. On the back porch you describe the one wash tub and what order the family would bath in about once a week.

I found it very interesting the first time. I like history! Then last year I took the opportunity to train at a station to become a docent. I picked my favorite station...the clothing and sewing room. The room is actually the family room of the house but for museum purposes they put all the cloth making equipment in the room. I did this station again this year and maybe when the twins go off to Kindergarten I can volunteer on a more regular basis.

I talk about picking cotton and shearing sheep, then spinning it into thread. You had to dye the thread using things like flowers, walnut shells and Cochoneal bugs. They had an old treadle sewing machine and a quilt frame to talk about. Even a yarn winder which is related to the song Pop goes the weasel. Then I get to demonstrate on the loom where I show them how fabric can be made. The kids love it and I enjoy it.

I have lots of pictures of the groups visiting (taking them for the school scrapbook) but for the sake of these kids privacy I will just post the one picture of me and my son. You can't tell from the picture but I have on my pioneer clothes, including skirt apron and bonnet. He is holding a branding iron that has a TH. And he still loves me!

Circus Maniacs

Most sundays our kids entertain themselves building forts with blankets or by playing games together. This Sunday the boys prepared a Circus for us to watch, but they had to wait to perform until Daddy got home from work.

Here is the sign annoucing the "Circus Manieacs" and telling the audience where to sit. We got greeted by clowns welcoming us up the stairs.

Our show began with the clowns playing a chase game, then crazy clowns came out, and A did a juggling act. A was the ring leader and master of ceremonies annoucing each act. His name was Amusing A....

R did not want to be a clown but was a super hero. His name was Rocking Rock. His favorite part was the fishing scene which they used our banister and stairs as a fishing pond. They caught a clown hat. R kept fishing even after the other boys did more performing.

S was (Stumendous S.....) and jumped around and danced through many performances but his favorite job was using a toy gun and pretending to shoot candy into our mouths between performances.

T was "Laughing Larry the clown" and did the sack act where he pulled things from his pillow case sack and did funny things with them. He also did a little animal training with the alligator (ie A in costume)

It was fun to see their creativity and watch them as we saw their personalities shine in what they choose to do.

Fishing in Jan

Every year they (the state of Texas) stocks the pond in the park near us with rainbow trout. Toby is always watching for the date so he can take the kids fishing. It is nice to be able to fish ony 15 minutes from home. We went last Saturday and we caught nothing!! Not good for my born fisherman husband. We talked about why we might not have caught anything....since most years we catch 8-10. Others around us were catching fish. He thinks is was his bait. It is old. They do not sell this stinky type of trout bait in Texas since trout are not native to here. They breed them other places and bring them in to our ponds, where they are either caught or die when the water gets too warm.

So Toby gets some worms and we take more marshmallows (we had some Saturday but most got eaten by kids) and try again on Monday morning. It was MLK day so no school but we only took 3 kids with us since the other 2 had other invites. And within 5 minutes S had caught the first fish. He was so happy dancing and chanting "I got the first fish!" Each kids proceeded to catch 2 or 3 more (a couple too little to keep) and we ended up taking about 9 fish home in 2 hours time. It was cold but they kept catching fish.

Toby had the best catch of the day, 2 fish at once. He actually caught someone's stringer that held 2 fish, one trout and one big catfish that had probably pulled it out as he swam away. WE asked around and no one claimed it. It might have even been from another day since the trout did not look too good. Still Toby had never caught 2 fish at once. Something he can treasure in his memory. We had a good time.

Toby cleans and even cooks his fish (since I do not enjoy fish!) So he made fish for dinner while I added some Mac and cheese for the kids. Then I enjoyed a Taco salad from some leftovers!