Great Hair Days

Have I mentioned that the trampoline does great things for our hair...and smiles?

All Aboard!

Our home often feels like a train station...

Child 1 and Child 2 wake up minutes before Child 3 arrives with Mom 1 which is just minutes before Child 4 arrives with Mom 2. It is not for two hours that Child 5 and Child 6 arrive with Grandma 1, stay 20 minutes, and Child 6 departs with Grandma 1. Two hours after that, Childs 1-5 depart to Dreamland. I will not even attempt to map the Potty Stops. One hour after that, Mom 3 shows up with Child 7 to play for 2 hours. Child 1 & 4 awake to play outside with Child 7. Child 2, 3, 5 awake an hour later to join Child 1, 4, 7 when Mom 2 arrives to pick up Child 4. Child 1 tries to sneak away with Child 4. Mom 1 arrives a few minutes later with Child 8 to pick up Child 3. Just after their departure, Grandma 1 returns with Child 6 and 9 to pick up Child 5. All Childs enjoy playing together, so no departures. Grandma 2 walks over from next door with Child 10. Mom 3 arrives for Child 7 as Grandma 1 is loading up as many as she can. I try sending Child 1 and 2 with one of the above and realize their destination is with me. As the train station is closing, Dad 1 arrives and the conductor pleads for take-out.

It's a wild ride!

A+ Projects

As you have probably gathered, we like to do projects around here! We're pretty crafty...Here are a few fun, successful ones that we did this month.

Mimi finds us really neat foam craft projects that the kids love to do...and they are so easy and spark fun conversations.
We have also greatly enjoyed coloring on this cardboard house the girls got for their birthday. It has also been "blown down" more times than I can count...

This next activity was an after-thought of a mama-mistake. We left a whole container of colored chalk out in the rain, and the chalk was then turned to a colorful mush. So when life gives you "rainbow mud" or "liquid chalk", paint the sidewalk with it!It actually was really neat because each brushstroke was a different color.And the rain from our liquid chalk was probably brought on from our Rainsticks! We made these by hammering nails into paper towel tubes, pouring rice and rocks inside, and taping up.
They enjoyed shaking them crazily for a storm...

...and soothingly for a shower :)

Crafty kids, huh!

Cheesin' with Cousins

We celebrated this little sweetie at Chuck E. Cheese's this past weekend...our little cousin Kyrstin turned 3!It's always fun getting all of the cousins together! (LtoR, oldest to youngest: Kenlee, Kelton, Audrey, Layton, Corbin, Kyrstin, Blakely, Brenna)

Ponytail Details

I think I wrote earlier that Audrey recently got a haircut---about 5 inches trimmed off! I love all of the little details that go along with this story...

First off, we were just visiting our neighbor Ms. Linda while our friend Jessie was doing her hair. It was Audrey's idea to get a trim this time (which is big because she has forever been timid to get it cut.) So during a break in the hair-fixin', Ms. Jessie and Ms. Linda turned on the movie Rapunzel and fixed a "tower" for Audrey to sit on to get her haircut :)
She was very proud! And if you remember last time I cut her hair, we let her throw the trimmings out for the birds to use in their nests. So she was adamant about doing that again...And exactly like last time, the sweet details continued when several days later Audrey and Daddy found another fallen nest that included her hair of course ;)

But really, it has been fascinating to examine the beautiful details birds put into their little nests...and the beautiful details the Lord likes to weave into our lives :)

Spring Things

We are happy Spring is here for any and all of these reasons:

Kite Flying

Cool Bug Exploration

(Ok, I have to admit that I am not crazy about the bugs, but the kids have been excited about them, so I try to hide my cringing in an effort to make them tougher than me!)

Flower Planting and Maintenance

Bubble Blowing

Beautiful Outside Play-Time

Welcome Spring!

Extreme Camo

Layton's hunting party...we had a blast...pun intended :)

Puddle Jumpers

We've spent lots of time in the sun and puddles this week! Here's Daddy and the girls enjoying a flowing creek at Mimi and Pop's house:

And some even bigger puddles in the yard!

Don't be scared to take your shoes off and get a little muddy every now and then!