Picture Catch Up

Life has been pretty quiet here. And by quiet, I mean busy, but the usual or expected busyness, which seems quiet. We had special meetings last week, lovely days of company and meetings. We also had kids with fevers and awful colds. Company and colds together means we managed to give our cold to a few people. They were very forgiving about it though. Since then, I have been making slow progress on getting summer and spring clothes out. I dug out the girls summer clothes rubbermaids Saturday evening, thinking they might like a fresh dress for special meetings. (There were mounds of clothes in my kitchen.) After all that effort, the girls, of course, wanted to wear winter clothes. Still, there was a smug I-am-such-a-good-mother energy that propelled me up and down the stairs with rubbermaids, so all was not lost. For four days, we lived amongst the mounds of clothes. Everyday, the mounds would be moved, reduced after much trying on, added to and reorganized, but they never seemed to dissipate. Since the weather was marvelously warm, the kids were busy outside and I did a lot of laundry, washing winter things and hanging them out so I could feel the sunshine. Unlike the kids however, I did not drag half a pound of sand back inside. No matter how I sweep, the floor just feels slightly sandy. Very beachy I guess. With all the cluttered debris of clothing, our kitchen gave off an endangered beach vibe. I am sure the goldfish were getting a little worried. (Actually, we had our first goldfish fatality on Monday. The kids have not yet noticed. It was entirely my fault. I had just been busy with things and hadn't changed their water in a week or two. I feel like a horrible human being. And while we are on topic, dead things, even dead goldfish are very unnerving. As much as I hate mice, I would almost rather see a live one than a dead one.) Yesterday, I finally got everything wrapped up and into rubbermaids, closets, and bureaus. Ahhhh.... Spring can now come unchecked.

Of course, I do not have pictures of organizing spring clothing (thank goodness) and I am pretty sure those would be pretty horrid pictures anyway, not of interest to the general population. So I am going to put in a lot of picture from the past few weeks. 

(Side note--I wonder in those reality TV shows if they ever have getting out summer/winter clothes episodes. It is always such an epoch in the change of the seasons. I can just see the Kardashians rummaging through rubbermaids to see if one K girl would fit into what the older K girl wore last season. Haha That would make them much more of interest to the general population though.)

My forced hyacinth bulbs

I do love daffodils. But they look better against a sky than against a wall. 

A fry day at Mom and Dads with the Whites and Scott

Our trip to Burlington on the ferry

Ice breakup

The kids having a picnic in the back of Cody's pickup. 

(The dogs can't up there to bother the food.) 

My year old pussy willows that are about to be replaced

Heading out to collect

Buds

Cheyenne and Justin

Tractor wheels

Sap buckets

Helpful, hard working girls

Beech leaf. I think they are beech anyway. 

This particular kind of tree doesn't drop all its leaves in the fall. The leaves turn this very light color and some stay on until spring. Apparently the Indians used to call them ghost trees. I guess because they were light and would move in the wind a lot more than the leafless trees. Useless tidbit for the day.

Lily and Elsie helped me make bunny ear cupcakes from our latest issue of Family Fun

You cut the marshmallows on the diagonal, dip them in something pink, and stick them on cupcakes. 

Elsie was not a very useful helper. That cheek is definitely full of marshmallow.

Lily was a good helper though!

Aren't they cute? I ended up using strawberry gelatin to dip them in, since all I could find was bright pink sprinkles, as you can see in the corner. Elliott hates fruity things, so I did some sprinkles for him. To tell the truth, kids mostly just ate the ears and frosting, but it was fun anyway. 

Chickens next to the creek 

Hoyt boy

Elsie is delighted 

There is a picture of Owen (Hoyt's Daddy) in this same laundry basket with a childhood pal. I am mightily impressed with this laundry basket. Lasting 25 years, with 5-8 loads a day in the heyday of eight kids on a farm. It carried a lot of wash outside to be hung out. The slight crack it had had for years was made much worse by these two wiggles, so it was thrown away shortly after this picture was taken. 

I had wanted to go find some moss in the woods to line the Easter egg basket. Based on a picture I saw in Martha Stewart Living, of course. I asked Owen where there was moss in the woods, thinking it would be fun to take the kids on a walk and find some moss. Owen looked at me as though I were suggesting genocide and informed me there was no moss like that in the woods. I think something about the name Martha Stewart makes him alarmed. Anyway, when we were collecting sap, Orianna and Cheyenne kept their eyes out and got a lovely patch of it. We brought it home and lined the basket carefully and it really was lovely. So there, Owen. 

A snowstorm in April

Isn't that sweet? Even if it was from Martha Stewart.

My sweet Easter baby

Checking the eggs

Our second April snowstorm--This is our across the street view. But the haze was one that we saw occasionally in Alaska. 

If you squinted, you could pretend the trees were all in bloom. It was quite lovely.

Gilbert was in love with Eun Hui. He kept asking her to come play piano with him. 

Hoyt feeding a baby. The kids wanted me to be sure the get a picture of this. 

Justin brought home a bouncy horse from Barkleys, some friends of ours he is working for right now. Elsie makes a lot of silly faces these days.