Friday Funnies

Spring Wrap Up

My Clematis has so many blooms this year.  I just love perrinials.  You plant them once and then God does a little miracle and they come up bigger and better every year.  I work on my perrenial beds every year and I think I have finally got them how I want them.  We have only been in the house ten years!

Of course, we had the annual camp out with the Country Mice.  Right on cue, it started raining at 10 PM.

 We visited Yaya in Dayton, went to her hymn sing and out to lunch.

There may have been some early spring hiking:

Lead us on PK2:

Here is proof that if you don't let your kids watch TV, they will go outside and do crazy creative stuff.  The girls are always coming up with something like this contest to see who could build the highest tower out of garage toys.

The girls were very sick with the flu...then as soon as they got better, I got it.  They were such champs though...keeping themselves alive while I fought off my fever.  I would just crawl out of bed long enough to pull some food out of the fridge three times a day and then crawl back to bed. Before he left for work, PD bought us a big vat of soup and it is all we ate for 72 hours.

The girls were also in a railroad themed program at the nursing home.  I may have some video to follow for that.

Wii Celebrate with the Country Mice

We couldn't let PK2's birthday pass without having our best friends over.  We have celebrated with them for every birthday they have ever had.  The big girls were born 6 weeks apart and the younger ones were born 4 weeks apart.  Of course they had to try out the new Wii.

And open some presents.

We made Flubber.

And ate cupcakes.

Wii Are Family

Several months ago I started telling PK2 that she was having a family-only birthday party. We usually do family and friends together, or two separate parties, but I was burnt out on all of that.  It worked out great because she has Cinncinati Cousin who is just her age and they get along great. Oh my goodness, it was so much better than having a bunch of rowdy obnoxious energetic kids running around.

It didn't hurt that we surprised her that morning with a Wii!  Yes, the family that has no video games or cable tv or smart phones, got a Wii.

Cousin already has one so he was a complete superstar at all the games.

I am determined to police that darn thing and we did kick the kids outside to play in the water.

And shoot at this target that PD and I made for their new Nerf guns.  Thanks for the Nerf guns Gram and Papa!  These Nerf guns were at the top of PK2's wish list.  Can you tell her 3 closest friends are boys?

Gigi got her this gorgeous book about the Sound of Music.  The girls are on a HUGE Sound of Music kick right now.

Family is SUCH a blessing.  Good friends are great but nothing compares to family that loves and adores you unconditionally.  I am so thankful that my children have this gift.

Cincinnati Aunt took this good picture of the four of us.

Happy Pentecost Sunday

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Romans 8:9

GEMS celebrated Pentecost this week.  Here is a little video I shot during the lesson.  The mom that lead it did such a nice job.

Horsing Around

Gram's birthday party fell on the same day as the Kentucky Derby this year, so we had a horse themed birthday party for her.  The kids all got a riding lesson from Gram's best college friend.

PD made mint juleps:

We watched the derby and Papa even ordered a horse cake!

Butterflies

GEMS went to the beautiful Franklin Park Conservatory for a tour of the gardens and a lesson about butterflies.

The conservatory has some amazing Chihuly glass sculptures on permanent loan and the tour ends with a butterfly release in the garden.

Even the moms got in on the action.  Everyone commended me for not freaking out when butterflies landed on me.