The Last Good Picture?

Thursday we spent the afternoon and evening with Nana and Pappy in VA. Our original plans were to spend Friday as well, but Pappy had to have a biopsy early Friday morning to determine whether his melanoma had metastacized.

While the visit was good, the shadow of cancer was hanging over all of our heads. If the biopsy results came back positive, it meant that he had Stage IV melanoma, and with his MS, treatment options were very limited. We chose not to tell the kids anything until we got the results back so that they could enjoy their time with him that day. But with each picture I snapped, the thought kept running through my head: "Is this the last picture I'll get of him looking healthy with ______?"

Roger is a man of God, and is not afraid of dying, but like any normal human he does not want to leave his loved ones behind. So. The day had a heaviness about it, despite the beautiful weather.

Rain = Puzzling

The weather did not cooperate with us while we visited Grandma and Grandpa in DE -- it was cold, and wet the entire two days we were there. We stayed mostly inside both days and had a low-key, relaxing, and very enjoyable time working on puzzles together. We finished 3 (!) 500-piece puzzles and got started on a fourth (which turned out to be a real stumper that we had to re-box for a future visit). And today we ventured out for breakfast and dinner after a wonderful lasagna-dinner at home on Tuesday.

Oh, and tomorrow's forecast? Sunny. Oh well, there's always the summer!

"Easy Bake" Magic

As a child, I really wanted an Easy Bake Oven, but my parents were quite skeptical of an oven that baked using a light bulb. And who could blame them, honestly? But it actually does work! Katelyn received her Easy Bake Oven for her birthday from Grandma and they had fun trying it out and making sugar cookies. The cookies were delicious! I can't wait to try all the other different things we can bake the Easy way.

The Post-Easter Miracle

I have been trying (mostly unsuccesfully) for years to get a good picture of the kids with their grandparents. Today I succeeded in getting a great shot with my mom & dad. It was a spur of the moment shot taken after goodbyes had already been said as we were getting ready to leave MD for DE. Perhaps it was the fun of the day (golf for Grandad and Ryan, shopping for Gram and the girls) that led to the positive results. Or maybe it was because of a great visit. Or maybe it was just a miracle. :)

Keeping Things Interesting

First, let me say that Easter is about the celebration of our risen Christ. Not eggs, or bunnies, or chicks, or baskets, or any other such frivolity. However, I thoroughly enjoy the fun of those traditions in addition to keeping the true meaning of the day.

My children have become expert egg hunters over the years. Ryan, in particular, craves a challenge when it comes to our Easter morning fun. So this year, in addition to making sure the eggs were well-hidden, the Easter Bunny added some twists:

1. There were three sets of numbered eggs hidden. Each child had to find one of each of the numbers (thanks to our Kindergarten teachers for this idea!)
2. There were three sets of patterned eggs hidden (the girls' were marked with their initial). Ryan had to find all of the sports-themed eggs, and the girls had to find the ones shaped like animals and fairies. The Bunny hid Ryan's eggs in some really tough places!
3. Each child had a special egg hidden that contained a clue to help them find their basket.

They were up bright, and early at 6:15 a.m., and the fun began by 6:30. Thanks to the added challenges, the fun lasted nearly an hour this year instead of the typical 15 minutes. We had a leisurely breakfast and then went to church at Highland, where the kids behaved wonderfully. Dad picked up lunch for us from Geneva Farms and we spent the rest of the day relaxing a bit after all the activities of Saturday.

A Pre-Easter Miracle

We (my sister and I) have been trying to get a good picture of all our children together ever since her first child was born almost 3 years ago. There have been lots of attempts, a fair amount of bribery, and a few successes. Another potential challenge was added this time with the addition of my newest (and I've been assured, final) neice. I think we were all pleasantly surprised to get this shot after just 3 tries!

P.S. Ryan is still holding out hopes that another boy will join our family...

On the Road, Again.

One of the few down sides to our move to NC is the length of time it takes to get to a visit with family. I know the sentiment is shared by those taking the trip down here. But the kids are generally good travelers and we've gotten the packing down to a science (one suitcase per stop rather than one suitcase per family member). And Kevin and I are both very familiar with all the best spots to stop along I-81 thanks to our college days. Thanks to DVDs (and snacks!), the 8-hour drive really just melts away.

Buddies

Hooray! The girls finished cleaning the playroom, so we were able to have the playdate I had scheduled for Katelyn with her friend Rylee. Rylee is one of Katy's favorite friends from school, and she has been begging for a playdate. I don't know why I haven't scheduled one sooner (aside from personal laziness). They had a great time together with lots of giggling and imaginative play. They both love doing crafts, and Rylee was very impressed by my scrapbook room. I pulled out stamps and inks and papers and stickers and scissors and they had a good time creating. AND they cleaned up the playroom when they were done! Without whining. Time to schedule more playdates with Rylee--she's my kind of friend.

Tripping

I challenge you to walk into our playroom without tripping. Seriously. It is a mess (although it's been much worse!). And the room is a fairly regular source of aggravation for Kevin and me. On the one hand, we'd like to just clean it ourselves and avoid the whining. On the other hand, that doesn't teach our children anything about responsibility for their actions. So. Sometimes the playroom gets r.e.a.l.l.y messy. Like now. BUT. We are leaving for a week-long trip on Friday, and the girls have been instructed that they will not be playing with any friends until it's done. Fingers crossed...

Bedtime, Revisited.

Today marked a turning point in my life. I know that it is not one that is permanent. Yet. But it does mark a change for some nights. The girls asked to give themselves their own bath. Huh. Why not? I thought. Let's see how it goes. Well, it went remarkably well. They are clean, and other than checking to make sure they had rinsed their hair and handing out towels, that's all I did. Huh! When they got out I said: now, go put on your PJs, brush your teeth, get your icy cold water if you want it, and pick out your story. And they did. Double Huh! So all I did for bedtime tonight was some cursory supervision, a few directives, and then got to read stories get kisses and tuck them in. Now, there is the tiniest part of me that feels a little sad that they don't need me as much anymore. But mostly I'm just a little giddy with the taste of freedom!

Undecided

Our friends, the Huntleys, are on Spring Break this week. They go to a different school system because Allyson works in the Mooresville city schools. Last week Sydney and Brandon planned on greeting our kids when they got off the bus. They have been so excited about this! Usually they get home about an hour to an hour and a half after our kids do. My original plan for today's picture was a bus stop picture. And I have a fun "dog pile" picture from today's bus stop. That's Brandon in the blue T-shirt and Sydney on the scooter.

But then Kevin found a friend in our garage. So I'm torn and undecided about which picture to use. For now, I'm going with both!

Yard Work is Two Four-Letter Words...

Thanks to all of the rain over the previous week and a half, our yard was in need of even more attention than anticipated. Kevin has wanted to do some work on the playset for about a year now, and finally got the tool necessary to take it apart (some kind of hammer set for his air compressor). I thought that he was just going to get it level, but he ended up completely reorienting it on the mulch bed. This led to his decision to decrease the size of the mulch bed.

So. On Friday he fixed and reoriented the playset. On Saturday, after baseball practice, we moved a LOT of mulch from the previous bed and made the mulch layer much thicker under the playset. Then Kevin cut down and rebuilt the mulch enclosure, while I began working on clearing all the leaves, weeds and other debris that had accumulated over the fall and winter from our back mulch beds.

On Sunday, I mowed the yard while Kevin worked on spreading a layer of topsoil and then seed over the area that had been covered with mulch for the playset. I then worked on clearing leaves, weeds and other debris from the side and front mulch beds, while Kevin cut down several trees that had begun to lean thanks to the large amounts of rain followed by heavy winds.

Everything is looking pretty good, although we still need several truckloads of mulch delivered for the wooded areas. That project will have to wait until after Spring Break!

Once the playset project was finished we both found it amusing that the "new" grassy area is about the size of our entire back yard at our old townhouse.

Spring Training

It's that time of year again--baseball season. We had skills assessments two weeks ago, and practices were supposed to start last Wednesday. Unfortunately we've had rain outs for the past 3 scheduled practices! That means lots of make-up practices this week. Kevin is coaching again, and our team is the Orioles. :) Today was the first actual practice, and the fields were still pretty muddy. I generally can't make it to the weekday practices because someone needs to get the girls in bed, so I was excited to watch them today. There's a pretty wide range of skill sets on the field. Ryan is one of the best 3 players on the team (and I say that as an unbiased observer--if I was biased I'd say he was THE best!). Check out that follow-through during one of the batting drills.

Seasonal Water View

This is the phrase that dots real estate listings in our area. If one is not fortunate enough to be living on the water, having a view of the lake is a nice feature. My request for sunshine has been granted, and I have a feeling that my seasonal water view will be obstructed by foliage quite soon. I'm enjoying the sparkling diamonds out there while I can!

April Showers

Let's continue with the April-related euphemisms, shall we? Now, I know that April showers will bring May flowers, but I'm getting a bit tired of the rain! Everything is lush, and green and vibrant. Beautiful really. But I'd love to see how it looks with a touch of sunshine. Please? It was supposed to be pretty today, so the grayness and continued rainfall caught me a bit off guard. And it's making it very hard to get motivated to do much of what I need to do! Hopefully the weekend will be sunny and we'll be able to get out and do some yardwork. Not to mention get the kids outside to run off some of this energy that seems to be bursting out of them!

April Fools!

It has been an April Fools Day tradition at our house for the past few years to have dessert for dinner. It is utterly frivolous. Thoroughly silly. And completely delicious. Albeit, a bit unhealthy.

At least, you would think it is unhealthy. But to Kevin's and my surprise, this year was a bit different. We served doughnuts for dinner tonight, with a side of candy. And for good measure, some homemade Fibre One muffins and cantaloupe. Now, I expected that the doughnuts would be devoured in no time, and perhaps the healthier fare would be consumed if they were still hungry.

The kids were so excited when they walked in and saw the table! Ryan commented that he wished Brandon could see what we got to have for dinner. The girls were positively giddy.

But the first things they reached for were the muffins and cantaloupe. Huh. Ryan ate his doughnut, but had three of the muffins and almost 1/4 of an entire cantaloupe with a large glass of milk. Katy had 2 large wedges of cantaloupe, a muffin and a few bites of doughnut with a large cup of milk. Olivia had juice to drink, nibbled on her doughnut, ate a few pieces of candy and finished a muffin and 2 wedges of cantaloupe. Not what I expected at all!

So, the kids ended up eating a somewhat healthy meal without realizing it, and I scored MAJOR cool mommy points for serving doughnuts for dinner. I wonder who the April Fool really is?

Field Trips

Today's picture was taken by another mom who got to accompany Ryan on his 3rd grade field trip to a Science Museum and Planetarium in Winston-Salem. Only two moms got to go as chaperones and I lost the lottery. Ryan was so excited about this trip, and begged to take my camera with him. I was a little nervous about sending my current one, so he took my old Fuji FinePix. He came home with a card full of photos and a day full of memories.

The Food Chain

Ryan wanted to enter this picture at the school's Art Festival, but since it was drawn on notebook paper, it didn't qualify. Instead, he had to use one he'd done in art class. It was a leaf rubbing. He titled it: "Leaves, Duh." Boy, are we in trouble! Nothing like a 9-year-old who understands the subtlety of sarcasm.

Oh Scrap.

I am a scrapbooker. And the kindergarten classes at our school present the children with lovely keepsake scrapbooks of their year at a Kindergarten Celebration at the end of May. It made sense that I volunteer to help with putting together these scrapbooks! Honestly, I'm very excited about how they will look when they're done, but I looked at the calendar today and realized that my 10 needed to be done in less than 2 months. I'm currently about halfway through, but still--it was an "Oh Scrap" moment... So I got down to some major scrapping today!

When in Doubt, Just add More!

My Livvy is a creature of consistency. And she has definite ideas about what she does, and doesn't like. For instance, when sleeping, she does like the bathroom light on; and she does like for her door to be open. However, she does not like for the kitties to come in her room while she's sleeping (she's afraid they'll puke on her floor like Oreo used to do). Tonight when we came upstairs, we could not find the kitties at first. We then discovered that Livvy had been busy. She had gathered them up and shut them in the laundry room. And to make sure that her door stayed just the way she liked it, she got busy with her stuffed lovies...

Sleep Over

When you're a kid, life just doesn't get much better than having a sleep over. I don't know why we don't allow them more often, other than they stay up much later than usual. But other than that, it's really no trouble. And they are so excited for the days leading up to the big day. Ryan slept over at Brandon's and Sydney slept over here. And the best part was they all slept until nearly 9 a.m.!

Katy's New Digs

Ryan stopped having a bunk bed in his room soon after we moved. It has been disassembled and taking up space in our house ever since. We decided it was time to get rid of it, so Kevin reassembled it in the living room so that I could take pictures to post on CraigsList. Well, Katy began begging to have the bunk bed in her room as soon as she saw it. We debated what to do, and finally caved when Olivia assured us that she did not want it in her room. Needless to say, Katy is thrilled!

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

We have been in a drought situation in western North Carolina for almost 2 years now. Our surface water levels have improved alot in the past year, but our ground water is still nearly 8 inches below what it should be. This week we've had nearly 2 inches of rain so far, with another 2 inches expected over the coming weekend. Some people are complaining about the dreary, gray weather, but I am enjoying it. You can already see the plants turning greener each day. Even with all this water, we'll still be at a deficit, so bring on the rain!

Kitty Love

Midnight is turning out to be one of the sweetest, most affectionate cats I've ever met. He is happiest when being cuddled. Tonight, he was snuggled up with Kevin while we were watching TV. When Kevin got up and left the room for a few minutes, Midnight sat there for about 15 seconds, and then with a purr-eow (that's a meowy kind of purr), he lept from Kevin's spot over to where I was and started head-butting and purring ferociously. He lies on your chest and will gently touch your cheek with his paw, almost like he's caressing you. He is just precious.

So long, Farewell

Gram & Grandad had to hit the road this morning to get back to their regular lives. They were up bright and early (notice the windows are still dark outside?) this morning to say goodbye to the kids and to get to the highway before the buses and rush hour traffic began to slow things down. Gram even left off her lipstick so the kids would be free of kiss marks at school! It's never enjoyable to say goodbye, but at least we all know that we'll be seeing each other again in just 2 1/2 weeks.

Piggy Kisses

Who knew there could be so many kinds of kisses? And our girls love to get all of them: regular kisses, butterfly kisses, eskimo kisses, noisy kisses, hand kisses, blow kisses, etc. But when Daddy tucks them in, the girls always want his special "piggy kisses."

Behind the Camera

As the primary photographer of my family, I am rarely in any of the pictures that I scrap or blog. Not unless someone takes my camera and assumes photo duty do I appear. Mom has the same problem. It can be frustrating at times not ever seeing yourself! Of course, it is also a relief to not have to worry about showing up on too many bad hair days...

Today I took the kids to the Lazy 5 Ranch with Gram & Grandad. It is always fun to see all those animals up close and personal--some a little too close (like those pesky emus who kept putting their heads inside the van!). We got to feed and pet llamas, watusi, several types of goats, zebras and giraffes! One of the llamas was quite aggressive and tried to grab the feed bucket from dad's hands; and an overzealous zebra was successful in stealing my bucket. We all laughed so hard and had such a fun time together. Of course a fair number of pictures were taken, but somehow this one felt most appropriate to share. Great minds think alike!

Waiting

It is the fate of younger siblings to wait around while older siblings participate in various activities. By the time they become interested in their own activities, the older sibling is generally too involved with theirs to be able to sit around watching all the time. And unfortunately the girls don't seem to show any interest in getting involved in any activities yet (yes, I know that's probably a good thing and I should enjoy it, but I entertain all kinds of mommy guilt about somehow depriving them). However, once they do get involved, we will insist on Ryan attending their events whenever possible!

Anyway, it is always a happy day when the place where Ryan is playing a sport has a playground. It makes the waiting so much more fun for them! We were all happy to see the play area when we arrived at Stumpy Creek Baseball Park on Saturday for Ryan's skill assessment day. Throw in two grandparents who are more than willing to play along, and it was a very fun (an long) wait indeed.

Movie Night

Our family began our Friday night tradition of pizza for dinner and a movie afterwards when Ryan was four. We generally put the fun on hold during the summer months in favor of playtime outside (still have pizza, though!). We've watched more movies than I can remember, and it's been a fun time of snuggling on the couch for all of us. This Friday, Gram & Grandad joined us to watch Bolt. I snapped a quick pic during the previews before the snuggling began. Katy spent the movie sprawled across Gram & Grandad, Olivia was curled up with me, and Ryan had Midnight ensconced on his lap. Sicky Kevin got a chair by himself... :)

It Must be March Madness

Basketball on the TV? Check.
Basketball on the computer beside you? Check.
Sheets of completed brackets littering the sidetable? Check.
Highlighters with the brackets (one color for wins, one for losses)? Check.
Mountain Dew close at hand? Check.
March on the calendar? Check.
It's that time of year again. 64 teams get whittled down to 1 National Champion over the next 3 1/2 weeks. And this weekend is the big one with 48 games being broadcast. Kevin is in sports heaven. Hopefully he's got some good brackets this year!