So Long, April

Ruthie approached me this evening as I was helping Chet clean the kitchen after dinner. She said, "Okay, I'm ready to go! And I have three dogs."

(The other two dogs were tucked away inside that greenish-blue sling and in the cat backpack.)

I can't think of a better way to end April!

TGIF!

On to May!

Wild Acres

Yesterday the kids and I met my friend Stephanie and her daughter Nora at a family owned...petting zoo? It's called Wild Acres, and they LOVED it.

Here is Sydney feeding a porcupine, which was also in her lap:

I was able to get a good picture, because I was standing OUTSIDE the porcupine enclosure. It turns out that porcupines are in the top five of the world's largest rodents. 

No, thank you.

The animals I willingly touch include cats, dogs, and horses, in that order. Oh, and sheep, because I petted one of those yesterday, and it was fine.

Happy Thursday!

Lunch After Church

This past Sunday -- for the first time since Chet deployed in February 2020 -- we went out to lunch after church.

Here was the timeline:

1. Chet deployed (I normally don't take the children to restaurants by myself)

2. COVID happened

3. Chet returned from deployment (July 2020), but wasn't allowed to go to restaurants until THIS PAST FRIDAY (I wish I were kidding)

We celebrated Chet's release from "captivity" by going to a restaurant we like that serves both breakfast all day AND Thai food, and has a pond of fish:

What more could one ask for?

Happy Wednesday!

Sydney and Me

Sydney wrote a paper about Walt Disney for her end-of-year project, and presented it to her class this afternoon. 

Dressed up like Walt Disney

She did great, and I'm so proud of how hard she worked this year!

Sydney's Painting and Lorelei's Cookies

A few weeks ago Sydney went to a painting class with her friends from our homeschool group and painted the American flag on a canvas.

I, of course, do not have a picture of her with her finished painting. However, if you look closely in the post about Easter Sunday you can see it hanging on the wall in the dining room behind Ford's head.

A sweet friend also sent us cookies after Lorelei's surgery (more on her surgery later, I promise!):

How was your Monday? Ours was spent getting ready for our last homeschool group meeting for the school year.

Fishing

Yesterday (Saturday), Chet and Ford went to Academy and came home with worms.

Around sunset yesterday, Chet and the kids walked over to the lake across the street from our house and caught some fish!

(They've fished in this lake several times, but have never caught anything. I stayed home to wash the dinner dishes.)

The children each have their own pole, which has always felt superfluous to me, but actually came in handy last night, ha!

Happy Sunday!

Easter Sunday

I did not post on Easter, but we had a great one!

Chet and I decorated the house the night before:

We went to church, and picked up donuts afterward.

I took the kids' picture AFTER church, informing the children that if they did not cooperate while I took their picture I would eat all the donuts we had just picked up:

Bribery works every time.

Last year on Easter the weather was terrible, and Chet was deployed. Our church had mailed out ready-made scavenger hunts, and after that we did an egg hunt in the master bedroom. They thought it was the BEST.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I printed out a scavenger hunt online, and Chet and I hid eggs in the master bedroom again.

Perhaps it's tradition now.

He is risen!

Reading Time

A few nights ago I sat down on the couch with Ruthie to read her a book.

Ford quickly joined us.

Monster, who was napping on the loveseat across the living room, noticed he was missing out on the fun. He left his comfortable spot, jumped up on our couch, walked across Ruthie, and settled here (look closely):

He is the silliest cat, and he makes us laugh every day.

April Showers

Our part of the country has had SO MUCH rain lately. Not just rain, but thunderstorms, which have GREATLY disturbed the sleep of the people living in this house the last two weeks.

Thankfully, the rain stopped last night and is over for a few days.

To combat the gloomy weather, I pulled together all of my spring-colored Fiestaware, which excites me every time I open the kitchen cabinet:

How was your weekend? Personally, I'm not sure I'm ready for Monday tomorrow...

Lorelei's (First) Cast

Well. 

Clearly, I am both an alarmist AND dramatic, because I've posted no updates in 16 days about Lorelei and her arm. (Sorry about that!)

Here she is, April 1st, wearing her first cast:

You can't really tell, but her cast is sawed in half, and held together with plastic spacers wrapped in brown tape. The orthopedist at the ER manipulated her bone back into place (after she was sedated), and needed to cast it right away in order to keep the bone where he put it. Sawing the cast in half would accommodate any swelling in her arm after such a procedure.

The Lorelei arm saga is a long one, so I will save it for later (and because right now it's late and my contacts are super dry need to be taken out). Just know that Lorelei IS currently on the mend, and I will fill you in on all the details over the course of a few posts.

TGIF.