A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It has been an absolutely gorgeous spring day today! We were up to Lexington and back by a little after noon, so we all headed outside to enjoy the weather:

I had just remarked to Ben that he stuck his tongue out just like his daddy did when he was concentrating. Kate decided that she'd try to...not exactly the idea, but cute just the same.

Daddy came out and played "monkey in the middle" with us after a few minutes. Ben really gave his mama a scare! He was the "monkey," and we went for the ball at the same time and ended up on a heap in the ground. I landed on his arm, and he let out the worst sound I'd ever heard...I just knew that I had broken his arm. I jumped up quickly to see if he was okay, and he grabbed the ball and took off running! What a stinker!!!

Jonathan caught this shot of Kate losing a battle with the swing:



After we played a while in the yard, we started off for a walk. There is a memorial forest directly across the road from us, and we are always surprised by what we find there!


Most of the bullfrogs jumped away when they heard us talking, but one brave little fella stuck it out:

They are in the process of installing these features by the wetland habitat. They're not functional yet, but I know we'll enjoy them!

Our walk didn't last long today...we thought it was going to shower about five minutes into it, so we headed back to the house. Of course, after we were inside, the sun came back out! There's always tomorrow, though. I've found a neat nature walk challenge that I'm getting ready to start with the children, so I will be posting that soon!

Acquiring Linear Waterfowl Status...

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In case you couldn't guess from the picture, that would also be known as getting your ducks in a row.

We have had a crazy day around the house today. Jonathan worked overnight last night, so the task fell to me to keep the kids quiet this morning. Usually that's not an insurmountable task, but we had workmen coming this morning to replace part of our sewer pipe.

Have y'all ever tried to homeschool when someone is coming to fix something? Or better yet, when the view from your dining room table includes a backhoe? Yeah...I may not have learned much, but I know that just wouldn't work.

So I spent the morning literally entertaining my children. We did have fun, but I am exhausted! And tomorrow will be another long day, traveling up to Lexington for Ben's appointment at Shriner's.

Umm...where was I? Oh yes, back to the ducks! Looking around my house, I am going to have quite a few projects to get done this weekend. The two most urgent are cleaning off laundry from the table and cleaning out the refrigerator. I will post some pictures of the "before" shots Friday morning.

What "ducky" projects do you have going on this week?

Things that make me smile

A few "thingish things" from the past couple of days:



A girl needs accessories, right?



Warm, made from scratch, strawberry-banana muffins. (And of course, "help" making them!)



A gift from a sweet friend! A little desk for Kate to do her "school" work at while the older two are doing theirs.



The breeze from the concussion- er.....merry-go-round...



Just living it up in the sunshine!



Sisterly love.

And, of course, certain boys that stay on the go so much that the only pictures their mothers can get are of various blurry arms and legs!

I love these moments!

Before and After Pictures

Before wrestling with Ben:



After wrestling with Ben:

Lily finally lost her first tooth! It had been loose for weeks, and the new tooth had come in behind it. We visited the dentist to get things checked out, and he told us not to worry, that the baby tooth would fall out very soon. Looks like he was right!

Our sidewalk

It was a perfect fall day yesterday, so the kids decided to do a little outdoor decorating to welcome our friends John and Kim, who were coming down for the weekend. Lily first wrote "welcome" at the end of the sidewalk, and then added their names. She and Kate quickly decided that wasn't enough, so they started adding everyone else's names too.

Ben was much less thrilled with the artistic process.

I'm glad I got pictures of it all, because the rain has now washed it away! I suppose that just means a fresh canvas for the next time.

Scarlet Fever and Furry Rodents

Yeah, it sounded like a downer, but it's really not!

Since Jonathan had to work this afternoon at his "third" job, the kids and I settled in for a movie afternoon. Every year when the weather begins to get colder, I pull out Little Women. It never fails to put me into the mood of fall cleaning and thinking ahead to preparing for the holidays. It also never fails to make me blubber like a baby... throughout the whole movie, in fact. But the worst part for me is during Beth's initial bout with scarlet fever, where Jo wakes up and rushes in to check on her. There is that split second where I see the empty bed, and even though I know the outcome, I hold my breath every time until I see Beth sitting up, and then the waterworks begin.

The older kids were already prepared for this yearly phenomenon, but it came as a bit of a surprise to Kate. She saw me crying and climbed up in my lap, asking, "Mommy, why are you crying?" I answered, "because Beth was sick, but now I'm happy because she's better."

Kate looked at me matter-of-factly and said, "Oh...she was sick and had a beaver."

I must say that she totally ruined the rest of the sad scenes for me. Anytime I started to cry I would think of that and begin giggling instead. But at least if I go back to the blubbering next year I'll know that there's a beaver to dam up all my tears.

Spiders everywhere!

Take a look at what we found during our walk Saturday...

We are blessed to live directly across the road from a memorial forest, and we love our nature walks! Lately, however, we have had a little more "company" than usual. We tried to take a walk Saturday with our friends Ryan and Starr, and ran into a spider web every time we turned around. They were stretched completely across the trail at some points.

It was a short walk!

Lily-isms

We are certainly looking forward to the weekend here! I thought I'd help you get your weekend started off on the right foot with some funnies from Lily.

We attend a homeschool co-op twice a month, and Lily is taking a writing class there. This past assignment was on the Statue of Liberty. I was telling her that I had been, but hadn't walked up to the top. She cocked her head thoughtfully and said, "Well, they probably don't let people up there because they don't want them to knock off the nose. It's really heavy."

Yesterday, Lily was in the kitchen with me while I was cooking. She said, "Wow, mom, you look like a real chef!" I laughed and told her that maybe I would be one when I grew up. She gave me the typical Lily eye-roll and told me I was already grown up, and I pretended to be all upset over this little announcement. We argued back and forth for a while before she finally said, "It's okay, Mom, grown-ups are just little kids who already know how to drive!"

And then, my favorite...

Lily was very energetic yesterday, and I told her I was going to start calling her Tigger. I started explaining, "you know...because Tigger always jumps all over Rabbit..."

She looked at me with a perfectly straight face and said, "Rabbit's grumpy." Hmm...I sure hope that was an observation and not an accusation!

Here's Lily last month at my best friend Kim's wedding: