handsful

We’ve been busy doing fun stuff.  It’s been Spring Break, afterall.

First off, the boys had 4 friends over for 3 days/2 nights.  Lots of running around in the woods (in the rain), games on the trampoline, tent camping in our open field, and a TON of food now gone.

I’m just about recovered from it all.

We also colored eggs.  The pic above is from our experiment.  Apparently, using shaving cream and food coloring is the way to go, so we tried it.

They turned out great.  Here are two of them still in shaving cream.  After they chill in the fridge for a while, you use paper towels to wipe them off.  I think my “after” photo is on my phone, I’ll post that later.

Field trip time!  Marley tagged along as we took Lainey and Dylan to a farm owed by another homeschool family.  They held and played with lots of animals, saw a just-hatched chick, rode their horse, and had a fun egg hunt.

Lainey holds Peggy Lou :)

Next up…Annual Easter hunt at Gram’s house on Saturday.

We had a couple of extras join in this year.  We brought Kylie and Daniel, and Caleb’s girlfriend Anna came as well.

Gram and her grands

So many watchers this year…we’re down to only 3 egg hunters this year, and next year it’ll just be Lainey and Dylan.

The big kids read their first clue for the hunt…

Finally, it was Easter Sunday…

Payton, get outta our shot…

And, that covers  our Spring Break.  I think I somehow missed the concept of “break”…but we had a blast.

These would be the bushes that used to grace the front of our house.  Last year, we decided to trim them back and got a little over-zealous.

And, we might have used a little weed killer near them, while trying to…

Well.  Kill weeds.

Too add insult to injury, we had an unusually cold winter.

None of this was very appreciated by our lovely bushes, and as spring began, we noticed that there were very few green leaves on our bushes.  Hmm?  In fact, we saw a lot of brown.

We scratched our heads.  Did our bushes usually die off and then spring back to life?  We’d not really noticed before.

So, we called our friend Larry, who also happens to be a landscaper and has done work for us before.

He took one look and declared them dead and/or dying.  Likely, from a combination of the above mentioned trim / poison / cold.

We had no choice.

The bad news?  Having almost every bush in front of your house yanked out costs more than you’d think.

The good news?  Planning the house front landscape ourselves, rather than adopting what the previous owners put.  Which was ALL green.

Looking forward to seeing some knockout roses and hydrangea in there…

In the end, keep this in mind.

Don’t ever let us tend your bushes.

It’s that time of year.

The weather is turning warmer (finally), the pollen is beginning to build up, allergies are flaring up, my lilies are peeking out of the ground…and, teenagers are busy renting tuxes, buying dresses, getting their hair and nails done, and posing for tons of pictures.

In fact, three of my teens did just that last night…attended our local homeschool prom.

And we’ve spent the last few weeks getting ready for it.  After a relatively quick search, we found Abbey’s dress, shoes, and jewelry.  We rented the boys tuxes from a gentlemen’s clothing store downtown, ordered corsages and boutonnieres (am I the only one who can’t spell that without checking first?), and spent the day of the prom taking Abbey for a mani/pedi and a beautiful up-do.

Hope you enjoy the pictures…

The boys were ready first (shocking, right?).  I told them I wanted a picture of them in the doorway.  This is what they gave me.  Goofballs.

Yes, I’m that short.  I don’t mind…I’ve got two very handsome boys.

And then, Abbey was ready.  She looked stunning!  Her boyfriend, Daniel, was already at the house waiting.  Before taking pictures with him, I wanted a quick sibling shot.

We then drove to a park to meet the boys dates, and their friend Trevor and his date, to take photos.

Flower time…

Here’s EJ and Kailee

And, Payton and Elaina

Abs and Daniel

Ladies

Gentlemen

Because this is Abbey’s Senior Prom, here are a few extra shots :)

Daddy-daughter dance with our Classical Conversations group.  The theme was a Hawaiian Luau.

New dress, new shoes, fresh curls…

Someone likes posing in front of a camera

Sassy

Time to go…

They had a wonderful time!

We woke up to this today…

And, this showed up today…

Coincidence?  I

think not.

Life happens quickly.

In between doing school with the littles…folding a load of laundry…running the big kids to biology…feeding the cats…

Things happen, and I grab my phone camera.  I should grab my REAL camera.  But, it is what it is.

So, I thought I’d share a few moments in our days.

Marley took the above picture of the sunset.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  The heavens declare the glory of God…

Abbey and Daniel went to a dance put on at church a while back, called Love Redefined.  Marley went too, but I didn’t get a picture…she got ready at her friend’s house.  They were taught how to waltz, salsa, and swing dance.  They had a blast.

Like I’ve mentioned, Lainey and Dylan attend Classical Conversations on Wednesday mornings.  Parents attend as well, and I usually sit in on Dylan’s class to watch the tutor work with the kids, and help when I’m needed.  One of their subjects is Latin, and Dylan’s tutor uses a puppet named “Mr. Jiggles” to let the kids lead the latin memory work each week.  It was D’s turn last Wednesday, and he did great.  They both love CC!

Emily, a fellow adoptive mom friend of mine, makes pillow cases…Marley found a fabric she loved online, and Emily found it at her local fabric store…voila, pillow case with antique cameras all over it.  She loves it!  Emily also made Dylan (Batman) and Lainey (owls).  I’m thinking about what kind I want :)

Last Sunday, the kids were outside playing when they came tearing inside the house, yelling “MOM, come see this!!”  This was the first balloon to fly over our house, another followed soon after.  Very cool!

For years, Payton has had his own cartoon guy that he draws…Harry the Stick Dude.  Dylan decided he wanted to copy it the other day, so Payton drew it on the dry erase board.  Not a bad copying job, huh?  Maybe we have a budding artist on our hands…

Ethan plays the drums.  He’s never had a lesson, other than lessons he watched when Payton thought he wanted to learn to play the drums.  (Silly Payton, he’s the actor in the family, not the musician…) For about a year now, he’s been on the middle school worship team, playing every other Sunday for the 6th-8th graders.  Last night, he made the jump to playing on the Wednesday night team that plays for the high school.  He did great…he allowed me to come in a take pictures, as long as it was just my phone and NO flash.  Ha…

Marley will soon have a roommate.  Her name is Sochi, and she’s a 4 week old orange holland lop bunny.  We drove out to the breeder’s house yesterday, and she put her deposit down.  We have to wait till April 5th to pick her up.  She’s crazy excited.

Payton is waiting to hear if he received an acting part in an Upward Basketball campaign.  He auditioned for the role of Trent, and made it through the first cuts…he’s a finalist for the part!  He now has to tape the audition segments again, and send them in by Saturday morning.  He’s thrilled to have made it this far (there were MANY auditions sent in), and is hopeful he’ll hear good news soon.

Abbey has her first real job as of today.  She had her orientation at Bojangles :)  I promise to share a picture of her in her uniform as soon as she gets it!

That’s about it for now.  Life is busy.  Life is good…

Or rather, God heard my desire and decided to let it SNOW!

It started snowing Tuesday morning, and kept on till Thursday afternoon, with a few hours of sleet in between.

I know some people hate snow.  I can understand getting tired of it, if you live where you’re buried in snow all winter.

I love living in NC, where we have all 4 seasons…

We might get a snowfall or two, but it’s usually gone in a day.  Course, I’m writing this on Saturday, and it’s still pretty white out there.

I’m also thankful for a husband who was able to bump up his flight home, so he wasn’t stuck in Florida.

Thursday afternoon was our family Snow Day…even Randy joined in.  See above?  The boys dreamed that up.  A snow “thing” that apparently was hungry for a certain boy named Dylan.

How to get him out?  Push it over, of course.

“THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAY!!”

Abbey’s version of Olaf :)

We live on about 19 acres, and our driveway is long, downhill, and winds around our shop building in the back.  Randy had the grand idea to tie our 2 person kayak to the back of his landcruiser and take us “sledding” up and down.

Genius.

After kayaking, we took the sleds to the hill behind our shop.

Pelted with a snowball, right before she went…

Dylan watches as Lainey goes down, head first!

Yes, I’m bundled up to the point of embarrassment.

Marley and Payton, racing…

It’s never dull with Payton around.

EJ and Dylan’s turn to race

Notice Dylan started out on the right…as they went down, he crossed in front of Ethan and ended up crashing on the right.

I’m so thankful we had our deep snow for the season!  If we get more, that’ll just be frosting on the cake.  Get it?  FROSTing…

Sorry.

It was the best snow day…ever.