The Circus!!

Wednesday my Dad took Duke, Dessert, and I took the Circus! After dropping off Dime at guitar lessons, the boys and I had some extra time before we met Grandpa. We decided to stop in at a local Mexican grocery store and bakery. The boys were shocked that I could reply in Spanish! :-) "Wow, Mom, you know another language!" Well, just enough to answer. :-)
These are their treats from the bakery:

This is from the grocery store:

Then we met Papa at Wal-Mart, had a sandwich, and headed to the Circus!
They began with the tigers:

Here are the dogs:

The is the contortionist:

After this, she picked up her hands and twirled rings on her arms, while traveling in a circle.
The boys were in awe. :-)

At half-time, Papa and the boys went to ride the elephant! Duke said the little hairs were prickly. What an experience!!

Having fun!

The dancing ponies:

The jugglers - these guys were amazing. They were juggling seven rings up on the post, while balancing a ball.

Musical clowns.

Acrobats!

This pair was amazing!

The elephants were incredible!! We were so close!

Just before the closing, they announced that they needed some helpers to clean up. In return, the helpers would get free cotton candy, popcorn, and a snow cone. Papa got the boys right over there at the end of the show. They wrote a number on their hand, and gave the boys a garbage bag. The crew worked like little monkeys grabbing garbage around the bleachers and stairs. What a great idea!

Here they are with their loot!

Thanks Papa, for the fun day at the Circus!!!

Boys and their conversations

Conversation around the breakfast counter:
Child #1: Milk makes much better burps than pop.
Child #2: Yeah, but does it taste better?

Sing, Sing, Sing!

Friday night was Dot, Dime, and Deer's voice recital. They did wonderful!
Dot got to sing a song from Enya that had a little Elvish in it. Very fitting for her. :-)
These pictures were staged later.

Dime sang with animation. He loves the stage.

Deer gathered courage and braved the crowd by standing up front and singing. Yeah!!
Their teacher Mrs. P. - Thanks for a great year!!

Ballet! So much fun!!

Saturday night Dot and I went to a friend's ballet recital. We enjoyed watching E and T play percussion in the band, and then were treated to a beautiful ballet recital by E.

Here are the 5 girls and their teacher watching someone's video clip of their performance. E is the middle girl.
She used to be in my ballet classes for a few years, and then went on to be challenged by more experienced teachers. She has been doing fantastic as you can see by the picture below. I am so proud of her!! :-)

Soli Deo gloria! (I'm sure she'd agree.)

Slide Show and Book

To check out a slide show Dot made of the boys CAP trip, check out my daughter's site. You will need to scroll down past 12 pictures. Great job, Dot!

If you are looking for an interesting summer book, "Unveiling Mary Magdalene" by Liz Curtis Higgs fits the bill. The first half of the book is a fictionalized story set in modern days of Mary Magdalene. It is well done! The second half of the book goes on to explain in greater detail the background behind Mary Magdalene and the misconceptions around her story. Fascinating!

Best Hubby Award!

I have the best Hubby!!
Our washer was giving us problems. The hot water valve was sticking occasionally and then flooding our mud room. We've been dealing with it for awhile, and most of the time I'd catch it. But every so often I'd forget (because it didn't always do it), and boy, what a mess!
Well, we checked with some guys who work on them, and they said it is very hard to take apart those kind of parts, to deal with the stickiness. So, probably would need a new part for $40. They are great guys, so I'm sure it was a fair price.
But still, with Dh out of work, he decided to try and fix it himself first. He took it all apart - only partially hard - and then worked to clean it with toilet bowl cleaner - and then put it back together - the really hard part.
He did it!!!! It works wonderful. No longer do I have to remember to stand next to the washing machine until it has filled and shut off.
PTL!!

Spring Time!

Wow, can a week fly by. Both my big boys are on a CAP trip this weekend. We are excited for them, and praying their trip goes well. Also, praying they don't lose Dot's camera, and the cell-phone. :-)
The weather has been gorgeous!! Upper 60's and low 70's.
Dot had the camera out, and took some great pictures of the kids playing outside.
Tree Time:


Tramp Time:

Pond Time:

Isn't this one great! That is not flotsam in the air, it is the reflection of the kids' in our pond.

Now they are sticking out their tongues!

Darling checking out the frog eggs.

Happy Spring!

More Quotables

The other night Duke was drinking water out of a water bottle. Darling walked up and said, "I want a drink of water!" Duke replied, "No, this is my water." Darling whined, "No, my water bottle!!" Duke (to be peaceful) started to hand her his water bottle, then hesitated and asked, "When did it become YOUR water bottle?" Darling paused for a moment, and replied, "Right Now," and took it and drank out of it. Little Rascal!! (She is sweeter than this incident sounds like.) :-)

I'll Be Kind!

Dessert had a toy Darling wanted. Because I was reading aloud to Dessert, Duke, and Deer at the time, I insisted Dessert give the toy to Darling. Then Dessert left the room in tears and I found out it was his own toy, not a shared one like I had thought.
Duke said he would give Darling his toy (same type), so Dessert could have his back (so Darling wouldn't yelp while reading). We realized Darling was listening to the whole conversation when Duke got up to get Dessert, and Darling rushed to the door and said, "I'll be kind! I'll be kind!" and went to get Dessert.

Darling Quotes

Yesterday while doing school, Darling dumped out a package of division flash cards. I looked over at her spreading the cards around, and asked, "What are you doing?" "Getting into trouble," she replied with a grin. Rascal!!

Dessert's Birthday and Update

We celebrated Dessert's Birthday a couple of weeks ago. He had his favorite meal (sweet & sour chicken with carrots, rice, and corn bread).
Then we quickly opened presents before he headed off to Awana with G&G W.
I sent cupcakes with him to Awana(they were decorated with little fish sprinkles). Everyone loves "the Bug" as you can see by all the hugs he gives and gets. :-)




You'd think he'd be sweet enough with all the hugs he received, but maybe that is why he is so sweet. :-) I think he inherited his Mom's sweet tooth.



He wanted an ice-cream cake this year made with chocolate marshmallow and cotton candy ice-cream. I convinced him that they don't go as well together, so he opted for chocolate marshmallow and chocolate chip for the cake, (I add oreos and carmel) and then cotton candy as a side. :-)

We love you!!

Spring-like weather for a week, led to the guys getting out the motorcycles. Doesn't he look cute in his gear? There was still some mud, so I had tons of laundry that week. Now we are back to cold and snow!! (Probably thanks to global warming, right....) I thought it was so ironic, that with all that fresh snow, not one kid went out to play in it. Just not interested. I had to really struggle hard to see it as "pretty." If you want to see pictures, you'll have to go to Jeannie's blog.

Drum had his 15th birthday a week later, but I can't find his pictures. I will blog about his birthday as soon as I find them.

The great news is that our computer is fixed and running fantastic!!

The bad news is that Dunk still doesn't have a job. Well, one for pay that is. Keep praying. We are hoping for a reply next week on a possible job, if that doesn't turn out - well, back to the drawing board.

We've had several items round up in the school department, and I'm so looking forward to the end of school!! Yeah!! :-) We have about a month left for the younger set. We do testing the end of April, and I'm looking forward to getting that behind us. I'm still debating about a garden this summer. I know I'm not eager for one, so not sure if I should wait one more year, so that I feel more like kicking it in gear, or if I should just go ahead anyway and the rest of me will follow along. The kids want to, but what kid doesn't at this stage of the game. Then in 2 months, who wants to weed before we head up to the cabin! Some mentioned a small garden - I don't know how to do small, nor do they! I'll let you know what happens.

Oh yeah, last week Drum & Dime went with their CAP squadron up to Grand Forks to help with sandbagging for the flooding. It was a great volunteer experience. They were looking so forward to Black Cap this weekend, but it was canceled due to the flooding (in case more help is needed). So today all the guys in the family are headed to an open house for a local motorcycle dealership. Grunt, Grunt!! Then the CAP two are headed to a volunteer opportunity in the evening.

I've got to come up with supper while they are gone. Sometimes I feel so eager to cook and do this or that, and then the mood changes and I don't feel like cooking anything. I'm trying to get out of that slump. Maybe it is because grocery shopping is depressing for how much it costs!! Plus, no more making a big meal and having it last for two. (Long gone are the newlywed days where I cooked one meal and we ate it for a week!!) Now a big meal lasts one meal with maybe some lunch leftovers. I have to make a gigantic meal to make it last for two meals. And then who wants to clean it up!! - Maybe that's the real reason - the cleanup project. My kids can inhale a pound of cheese and crackers just as an appetizer or bed-time snack. PTL for popcorn. :-)