Work and Play

 

Last Sunday Katy "put away" the keys in the plastic spoon box. We searched and cleaned the house for 45 minutes before Mike, who had said a sweet prayer, found them! We were late to church, but the house got pretty clean in the meantime!

 

Costco just opened and I went this week. I'd let our food storage dwindle on purpose so I could buy in bulk. I had no idea it would take two trips to be able to shop the whole store! Thankfully I can still get several large things like diapers, tp, and paper towels in bulk cheaper through Amazon's subscription program! The kids know I've been excited and they were so cute getting excited about using "Costco cheese!" in their sandwiches or eating "Costco yogurt!"

 

For Activity Girls, Nicole made cute Easter cupcakes. She was delighted to be able to eat them all over the next few days. I understand the joy of having a dessert all to yourself with no siblings allowed to touch it!

 

Today we had an all day family project of mulching/laying pine straw in the backyard. This is when we were finished with the mulch in the front half and getting started on the pine straw. All of the kids worked their hardest, even Katy got in on the action by picking up mulch and taking it to the wheelbarrow. Jim couldn't keep up with their calls for "I need another bag of mulch" and they enjoyed "beating Dad" and working fast.

 

Diana taking off on the swing!

 

Laying pine straw. We have an area for a future fire pit in the middle of the pine straw.

 

Diana riding the zipline towards her unsuspecting siblings.

 

Her shrieks of glee gave her away as they got out of her way. Diana keeps ALL of us on our toes!

 

Katy swinging on the balance plank.

 

Some of our new plants are blooming. We hope they survive a summer with our children :)

 

We planted the squash and zucchini by the apple trees and they are already raring to go!

 

Final view of the finished backyard, plus the eggs all ready for the Easter egg hunt!

 

 

Katy off to find more eggs after putting one in the bag.

 

Behind trees and on swings

 

Up in the eagle nest

 

And on fence rails

 

On the bike ramp and every place in between!

 

After collecting the eggs, they open them to find a few jellybeans and a puzzle piece in each egg.

 

They put the puzzle together to earn their Easter prize.

 

This year the kids got oil pastels and sketchbooks. I made them shower since we were all filthy from all of the pine straw and mulch- and layers of pine pollen! Fun for them to experience a new art medium before we all watch some more March madness basketball :)

Spring is here!

Diana was the only other kid brave enough to touch the iguana last week. She was good and just used one finger to "pet" it.

 

Last year this tree died thanks to me spraying weeds at the base with weed killer. Apparently that can kill the tree too. We waited until spring to be sure it was dead and then Jim took it out while the boys helped. They would pull a rope (from a very safe distance) to make sure each limb would fall on our grass, not over the fence into the neighbor's pool.

 

Then they would drag the limb and use shears to cut it into smaller pieces. I love watching them working hard and learning new skills.

 

The neighbor, who I'm sure had been eyeing the process with trepidation the entire time, offered to help when it was finally time to cut the top of the tree off. Jim made the appropriate notches and then the boys helped the neighbor pull and the tree fell perfectly onto our yard. Jim used a hack saw the entire time and said it was as good a workout as surfing :)

 

We went to an Irish restaurant where they had a St Patrick's day celebration going on with a band, dancers, bagpipes, etc. The kids played their own version of corn hole with several other kids while we waited to be seated. They gave us a half hour wait time, then extended it another half hour when we checked then. So after watching the band and dancers and playing around, we just went home and had some good old spaghetti. We felt good about the money we saved :)

 

The kids all piled up to watch a movie on a Saturday night.

 

Diana ready for church. It was one of those days (which seem to frequently occur on Sundays)!

 

Jacob's Kindergarten class made leprechaun traps, and Jake was so excited to share how his glittery box full of gold coins and "pom poms for a nap" would lure a leprechaun in, then the wood stick propping open the box had a shiny gold bell attached to the top. When the leprechaun pulled the bell, the stick would fall and the box would close.

 

We had primary voting this week and it was great to be able to participate.

 

I watched the Truehafts this week and it was great to see their imaginations and ideas as they ran all over the house and yard.

 

I've been taking the lizards out a bunch. Flare roams her cage restlessly when she wants to get out and play. The other day after being on the back porch for a long time, she tried squeezing behind a big rock and almost got stuck, silly girl.

 

Jake has volunteered to feed Boo at nights and Nicole is more than happy to let him have one of her jobs. Jacob loves it when Boo eats from his hand.

 

All ready for St Patrick's Day! We had Lucky Charms for breakfast as opposed to our normal oatmeal and their behavior really reflected the sugar highs and lows. I think next time we will make the sugar cereal the desert after dinner!

 

Diana was exhausted after a big day at preschool and playing. I would add the caption: "Peace on earth goodwill to men." The calm after her awake hours of energy and motion is appreciated very much by my pregnant self!

 

 

My back isn't what it used to be so Jim took some time off Friday to catch up on all the stuff I've had to stop doing. One of the things was getting the garden finished planting with some more strawberries. We are doing tomatoes, peppers and onions in the garden along with a ton of strawberries. We have other spots in the yard for squash, zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelon because they would each gladly take over an entire garden bed with their enormous leaves or vines. I mulched around the strawberries and look forward to the different varieties.

 

While at Lowes getting the strawberries, we looked around. Jim has wanted to do something about the eroding topsoil of the back. Last year we put down pine straw, but when fall came we had to rake all that straw, plus leaves, plus straw from our pine trees! We didn't want the weeds and thorny vines back though. So Jim, who has a master plan for how the yard will look in a few years, decided to add a bunch of evergreen shade friendly bushes of different sizes.

 

We strategically placed the plants in the yard and we look forward to how they will help the yard. We still need to do more to stop the erosion, but this will help as the plants grow and their mulch and roots help. We figure in 10 years it will look great haha

 

Nicole and Michael took an art class on Saturday to make owls with acrylic paint. They LOVED it!

 

Michael kept forgetting to tap water from his paintbrush after getting it wet so there were water lines, but it was fun watching his ideas. The model paintings they had hung up were cute, friendly owls, but he definitely had his own ideas about how owls are night predators and painted accordingly :)

 

Nicole made a cupcake owl. She listened to the instructor and learned so much.

 

Finished artwork!

Despite the full covering of the smock, Michael was covered in paint from head to toe when we left. In his defense, it wasn't his fault that while they were taking a group picture a girl standing behind him tripped and planted her slightly damp painting on his head as he sat in the front row. Just his luck I guess :)

Jake is 6, Reptile and Amphibian Day, Family

 

Trying to take a family picture before opening Jake's bday presents.

 

Birthday boy with a smile to show you just how excited he is to open his presents! Jacob is 6 now! He is our official "finder"; if we lose something, he knows where things are or can find them most of the time. He is so thoughtful and will give me a little back massage to help me feel better when Katy or Diana have their usual morning spill of milk or cereal or whatever. He prays for his grandpa's ear to get better every single prayer. There are a million little ways he is so sweet, kind, happy, and fun. He is a blessing to me every day.

 

Nerf football happiness.

 

 

Teaching the kids piano lessons once they turn 5 is as close to homeschooling as I've come :) Jacob finished his primer level on his birthday and was so thrilled to be done with the pink books!

 

To celebrate Jake's birthday, we went with the cousins to the downtown science museum's Reptile and Amphibian Day. They are turning over cards with snakes on them to see which ones are venomous.

 

Don't worry it's not real :)

 

Guessing how many frog eggs are in the jar.

 

Making frog hats.

 

Katy was a doll and let us cart her around 90% of the time.

 

Diana put her head in the lion spot- pretty accurate I'd say! :)

 

I've never seen kinetic sand like this. As the kids moved the sand around, it changed the topography colors. A great hands-on science learning tool.

 

The kids took turns touching the iguana and the owner encouraged me to say hello. I talked a bit and petted the iguana and he closed his eyes like he was really happy.

 

So the owner said to get up close and I did!

 

We were leaving and found that we couldn't cross the street to our parking lot because there was the Raleigh St. Patrick's Day Parade going on right next door. There were some very interesting groups that I'm not sure how they connected with the Irish theme. There was a dog training school, lake boat tours, and this is an Indian dance group...dressed in green. It was entertaining though!

 

Diana is a fireball of energy! She loves friends and is always asking us to play with her in the sweetest voice.  She "helps" the kids make their lunches and get ready for school, she "helps" me make mac and cheese, she "helps" water the garden, and so on. Keeping up with all of her assistance is often exhausting!

 

Blueberry scones, oatmeal and o.j. for breakfast.

 

For the final game Marian and I coached, the husbands and 11 kids were all there. We really make a statement as a group wherever we go. The other two bleachers were filled, but the one on the end was left completely open to our families haha.

 

After the game we went to our house for a bbq and watched a BYU basketball game. Diana and Evelyn are so fun together and communicate so much better now that they are a little older.

 

The weather has hit 80s and I've had fun sunning on the back porch with my beardies.

 

Yesterday I took Diana to the park. This is BEFORE we got out and she has dirt smeared all over her face. Somehow in the morning before the kids went to school she was in the backyard having a lot of fun in the dirt.

 

Sweet sunshine.

 

Diana loves to run around the park!

Sitting on the Kofford's front porch swing custom made by Daniel last summer. I love my family.