rainy days

the excitement of a holiday seems to always be followed by a let down feeling-and since it was accompanied by a lot of rain we are working hard to fight the blah blahs...
a spontaneous trip to the pond to attempt some fishing was not by normal accounts successful. but, the kids were very excited about the worms-emily even baited her own hook (papa would be so proud!).
no bites and lots of hooks caught in the trees made for a short trip.

this morning it was rainy again and cold! but we had fun following the path bobby mowed to the small pond, jumping in puddles, checking on the growing little plants, and remembering our love of sticks.

easter 2011

this easter party was planned several weeks ago-and since brett turned 1 on the 16th it was a multi-celebration occasion. but that was all before aunt beth and uncle rick were both hospitalized-and it was  a tough call to go ahead with the party. the weather couldn't decide what to do either-and it rained for a couple of minutes on and off at the beginning of the day. it was a good day though-and watching kids run for easter eggs and fly kites makes everything seem easy for a few minutes. 

nothing ever goes

 as planned-and the challenge is to go with it instead of fight against what you can't control. easter is a great time to remember that it is not in our grasp to see the big big picture, but it is always a good idea to be around people you love and to appreciate the beauty in the moments that we have together.

after the candle was blown out-delaney said "congratulations on turning one brett"

 thank you to ashley and sharon for providing all the stuffed plastic eggs and to ryan for hiding all 500. troy laid down the rules (as you can see from the confused faces of the kids) it involved lots of medieval measurements of the boundaries.

 it wasn't hard to motivate the young ones-but troy had to use a bit of foolery with the older kids when they didn't get moving quite as quickly. in the middle of the hunt, when jackson and ethan were sprinting across the yard-ethan asked me if there really was a $100 hidden in one of the eggs. :)

 whitney bought these buckets for all the kids-and ashley labeled them all-so cute!

 i love this excitement!

emily's blatant thievery of the golden egg-

 luke slept peacefully through the whole egg hunt-next year luke!

 brett is already learning how he needs to act when emily is around...

 thank you to beth and sharon for providing the kites-there wasn't a lot of wind-so the kids had fun running up and down the hills getting the kites to follow them in the air. the adults were wishing we too had that much energy and enthusiasm :)

happy easter!

the lilacs are blooming...

grandma lallier always talks about this lilac bush-she says it came from france with the family and that no other lilac smells as good. it has always been a staple at this house, along with the JFK tree and the giant sycamore. SO the kids and i were practically jumping up and down when we came home yesterday to discover that it was blooming. we will need to cut some branches off and take it to grandma :)

baseball season has started

 all this adds up to a very happy spring so far

happy birthday to bobby

it was bobby's birthday last week and we had lots of celebrations-including the making of the cheesecake which has been an annual tradition for some time now-












on tuesday, his actual birthday, a new baby wanted to be born-so i needed to be at the hospital that night, so instead of dinner at home-the kids and i ran to costco and picked up some shrimp cocktail, grapes, and another cheesecake and had a very nice picnic after grant's baseball practice.

the weather has been really great-and i just am soaking all that spring brings-sitting in the sunlight,  walks through the woods, and on saturday it was warm enough to bring out the big water slide.

 i'm experimenting with a new black and white software-it is slower than i like-but i like the feel of this vintage preset.

it was a crazy first week of april-with my aunt in the hospital, a preemie baby, and a nasty fall that caused this crazy big bump on anneliese's head. i'm glad to report that my aunt is on the mend at home now, the baby was bigger than expected and doing well in the nicu, and anneliese's forehead is almost as good as new. amazing what a little time and lots of love and prayers can heal....

and i'm so happy that it is finally warm enough to start up the outdoor shower again and it was a very welcomed addition after they coated themselves in mud :)

bobby's dad and lillian hosted a huge combined birthday party for all the spring birthdays. it was so fun to be with everyone for the afternoon-the boys played music, the kids ran around and we got to catch up on some relaxed family time.

as we were leaving a fierce looking storm approached-it made a great show as we drove home

positive and negative-and explorations to the lake

trying to stay positive can be hard work-but it is always worth it. i don't understand why negative comments/thoughts/behaviors have so much more weight on a day-taking pictures of positive moments helps me :)

the girls and i have a little game now-go on an adventure until you find your good mood...
i used to call it run to be happy-
and bobby always says running cures everything

this was our lemons to lemon sherbet-on the day ku lost to vcu

trips to the pond will become a thing for us-because it feels great there-so away from everything, quiet, still and full of adventure.

the dogs ran behind the jeep-and it was the girls idea to run with them-

this was part of the inspiration for the lemon sherbet. i bought a new ice cream maker to play around with homeade treats-since the kids loved these sorbets from costco.

bobby capturing a little of our 'real day'-emily had a painful hang nail and anneliese started crying because emily was crying-
-note the new PJ style-she puts them on herself and loves to watch us laugh

moss-a beaver den-magical...

we were determined not to let the cold march weather hinder our planting...
i think planting flowers with winter coats and gloves is another first.

great bend-baby

last saturday i got a call from one of my idc friends who has moved to great bend. she was in labor! i took off right away on a foggy cold day and although i missed the actual delivery, i was able to be there when molly got to meet her two adorable big brothers. see the video here