Easter happenings

Easter Sunday was a busy day for our family. Somehow, I managed to be involved in 3 different things at church. All three were good things, but when you combine a busy morning at church with Easter it makes for a really full time.

During Children's Church - one of the 3 things I was involved with at church - my mentee Tia and I helped the children make pipe cleaner and ribbon crowns. I was inspired by the illustrations in an Easter book. I had tons of ribbon on hand (I tend to purchase ribbon at the Et Cetera Shop b/c I'm attracted to colorful cheap ribbon) and it just seemed springy and fun and like something to celebrate with.

Anyway, as far as a craft goes it didn't go quite like I had envisioned but the kids seemed to enjoy having them on their heads. Most of them wore them during the Easter egg hunt and it was fun to see the ribbons dance in the breeze.

This photo captures Noah's mood for most of the day. Ben and I couldn't quite figure out why, but he was in a foul/downright awful mood on Easter.

Ben even got in on the crown action.

We didn't dye eggs this year or do an egg hunt with the boys. We did get them chickens that laid/pooped bubble gum eggs. The chickens were fun for the whopping 2 minutes that they worked before they broke.

In the evening we gathered at my cousin Megan's house for our Epp gathering. We ate a fabulous meal and enjoyed time together as a family. My sister baked wonderful cupcakes and a to-die-for white chocolate cheesecake with cranberry, raspberry and orange peel sauce on top. It was the perfect ending to our meal.

It was so good to see miss Rylee again. I kept staring at her during dinner amazed at how big, grown up, capable, independent and beautiful she is.

The kids did an Easter egg hunt and searched for their Easter baskets after dinner.

All the kiddos - there's a lot of personality packed into this photo. It's great watching them grow up and change before our eyes.

We actually got a family photo! It's been a year since we last took one. Thanks for being our photographer Megan.

The kids begged the dads and grandpas to play kick ball after the Easter activities wrapped up. They had a rousing game going - shoes were flying and everything!

Levi and Cambry were swinging on the swing set near by,

the kids were waiting their turns nicely and cheering each other on

and then Ben accidentally kicked the wooden home plate. He hopped around in pain for a while, but claimed he was fine. So the game went on. Unfortunately, on Ben's next turn he used his trusty left food to kick a whopper right between second and third base - too bad Caiden's head happened to be between second and third base at the exact same time. It knocked Caiden down and probably gave him headache, but later in the evening he reported to Ben, "That was awesome!" Go figure - leave it to a boy to declare such things. The thing is though, that Ben's foot wasn't actually OK.

He iced it for a while, went to the doctor the next morning and found out he has a hairline fracture. So, crutches and pain killers are helping him hobble around these days. He says it seems to be feeling a bit better and we're all hoping he heals quickly.

Safety doesn't always come easy

It's good to play it safe, even when mowing with a toy mower inside the house.

But it's not always easy to be safe.

Ahhh, that's better!

Time to milk

The cows out at the farm get milked twice a day. Noah's become fascinated with the process and loves to be a part of the action whenever he can. He especially likes to follow the cows out of the barn when they're done being milked. He hollers at them and waves him arms to encourage them out to the free stall barn.

We even have to pretend to milk each other at home! The couch transforms into the part of the barn where the cows stand to be milked. Then we open the "gate"/cushion to exit the "barn."

Moooo

You need good boots to farm in...

and you need milk barns for toy animals when mom and dad get tired of pretending milk barn.

Funny thing is, we have cows they could have used for this...a pig and sheep work just as well though.

Growth

At the beginning of the month, my lettuce looked like this

and tonight just before I cut most of the leaves (hopefully making space for more growth) it looked like this.

It was so pretty, full of green leaves all with different textures and tones. I'm looking forward to eating salads for lunch this week.

We also have strawberry plants growing. I failed to keep the plants from last year alive through the winter, so we started over again this spring. Hopefully, we'll get a few pieces of fruit this year.

Ah, the joys of spring!

Cookies

My husband (and boys) make the best chocolate chip cookies. No kidding.

The funny thing is, while he baked cookies tonight I was busy with the boys. Then Ben brought us milk and cookies for snack and well, I never took a picture of the baked cookies. I guess you'll just have to trust me on this one.

On a different note, we have been fascinated with Human Planet on the Discovery Planet. It's an amazing series about how humans around the world live. It's been very eye opening. We often find ourselves saying, "I would NEVER be able to do that!"

Whirlwind Weekend

It was indeed a whirlwind of a weekend. We were quite busy, but it was good - good, good stuff.

Friday evening we went to the MCC Sale and ate at the Feeding of the Multitude. It's a bewildering maze of people and food that works so well and in the end you sit down with warm, delicious food!

Saturday, Noah and I went back to the sale to watch the auctions, go through the children's building again, go down the big slide again and see more friends and family. Ben and Levi stayed home and got lots of things done around the house.

Sunday evening we spent some time at the farm and I finally captured one of Levi's favorite things to do with Grandma Schmidt - play the piano and sing.

My mom has a Disney song book that Levi loves to sing from.

AND!!! Noah learned to ride bike without training wheels! He is SO proud of himself. I have to admit, I spend more time not watching then actually watching. It makes me really nervous to watch but he's done quite well - only crashing a couple times.

The weather was warm all weekend and the signs of spring continue to show themselves all around us.

Moss flingers

If you give Noah and Levi access to moss and sticks, they'll be busy for quite a while.

It went flying for a while

and made for lots of giggles.

Ducks!

When we arrived at the Arboretum tonight, the boys took off running, Levi in the lead.

Then he noticed the ducks near the path.

He came to a screeching halt, turned around

and waited for me to catch up.

Sun, Wind, Corn

And lettuce! I have two pots like this on my deck. I hope they grow, I don't have a garden space and I love fresh lettuce. We'll see. My friend Shari brought 3 different varieties to church a while ago and I just now got them in some soil. I hope they like their new home.

Now, back to the subject of this post...we've spent 2 days at the farm and they were both full of sun, wind and corn. My dad is at the beginning of planting corn which opened the doors (literally) for tractor rides on the field. Unfortunately, that also meant it was nearly impossible to get Noah to take a nap.

Dad taught Ben how to plant corn today. I'm completely intimidated by the tractors and complicated equipment and Ben is not. Or, if he is he doesn't show it. Dad showed him the ropes and then left him alone on the field for quite a while. I was impressed.

On Friday, when dad had just gotten started and was having a few technical troubles, he and Noah stopped so they could make sure seed was actually going into the ground. It's not easy to find a little kernel of seed corn, good thing Grandpa had help.

A row of newly planted corn...doesn't look like much so far, but hopes are high for it to look tall and green in a couple of months.

Complicating the Noah-refusing-to-take-a-nap situation are the cows and their milking schedule. The guys that milk show up around 3-ish and as soon as they show up, Noah's out there with them. Noah used to be scared to pieces to be near the cows, but in the past month or two he's shed his fear. Now he can't get close enough - we had to talk to him today about keeping a safe distance! He loves to ride along on the skid steer to clear the free stall barn and today he raked the sand in the stalls. Unfortunately, he was "done" raking when I got out there with my camera.

And it's not uncommon for him to spend the entire 2-3 hours of milking out in the barn. Just standing there watching...I think that's what he does....I don't stand out there with him...so I guess I can't really say....it's a stinky place and I prefer to not be stinky.

So, after an early morning, no nap and a long day out in the sun and wind - this guy was tired tonight.