This is for Tony....

I finally put that stool together.

One less thing in pieces on the floor.

Check.

Easter 2013

While I should be keeping my blog updated for my sad absentee husband (he's in Hawaii, poor dear), I've been super busy, running around with kid stuff and house stuff. Oops. 

I'll try to do better.

We barely celebrated Easter. It was a quick egg hunt with plastic eggs in the back yard. 

No one appeared disappointed. (Cozy had already dyed eggs in preschool.)

...and since that picture, with it's empty flower bed....everything has grown!

The bleeding hearts are blooming and the golden jenny is creeping everywhere.

{Sigh} Gardening is so fulfilling.

I think the bell-flowers and columbine will be blooming next.

Back to eggs - Cozy only picked up pink or purple ones.

...and Matt loved any color of egg....chased them all the following week.

Tony's Downstairs Office

I managed to get Tony's new office set up while he was away. (Yes! Goal accomplished!)

...and I haven't bragged about it until now, so that I could surprise him. (SO hard.)

Anthony helped me move Tony's desk downstairs. It looks so much better now...not covered with junk.

...and I pulled the bookshelf out of the dining room, moved all of those books to a crappy temporary one, and actually arranged all of the hubby's textbooks. ....it also provides a great place to keep his toys helicopters. (You have to have some kind of fun thing to do with kids when they come interrupt your studying.)

I framed Tony's commissioning document and some cool paintings he brought back from Peru last summer.

...and some old submarine pictures. I repainted a couple of the more hideous frames they came in. (I already had the green spraypaint - score.)

The bench is from Target...for visiting rears. I'm trying to convince the kids that it is never ever to be relocated...ever....so stop moving it.

I even hung up the wipe board. 

What I didn't hang up?....doors.

That's just beyond my skill level right now.

Since Tony is heading to Hawaii soon, it will probably be a few weeks before his office sees much use (...by him, Sofia and I both use it plenty.) Still, it's a pretty big check on my (long, long) list of house things that need doing. :)

Squirreling It Away

Jan 2012, Jonny made a goal to save $100 to put into his college fund.

He's been holding tight to every penny and working hard to earn them. 

Once I told him he could have a dime for every stick he picked up in the back yard. 200 sticks later...

I'm so proud of him. First, because he's learning to save and sacrifice and second, because he's is planning for his future! 

What a great kid!

(And doesn't he look adorable in the old Hamtaro costume we found in the basement! It's not quite a squirrel...but close enough.)

Spring Break

Ah, the beautiful splendor of Spring!

I don't think our Spring Break has started on the right foot. Cold. Gloomy.

I did find one Springy scene in my garden. Gnomes sheltering under the daffodils.

We are pug-sitting for part of the break. This is Bruno. (Cozy keeps calling him Pluto.)

I like Bruno. He's sweet and doesn't potty in the house. :)

He also doesn't try to eat the Matt (the kitty). Matt is sure Bruno is the most terrifying creature ever.

What a chicken kitty!

So far, in addition to snow and pug-sitting, our vacation has included a trip to Costco and going to get Sofia "adjusted". (Just her back. If they did attitudes, I would take all of the children.)

On the way home, we stopped at World Market, to buy necessary items. Well, one semi-needful...at least useful item and a candle, some coconut quadratini (yum!), and some bizarre sodas. 

When we got to the car, the battery was dead. 

We called roadside assistance and then began our wait.

Luckily, we had supplies to tide us over.

Let the soda experimentation begin! 

VERY cucumbery. Not for the faint of heart.

Sofi no likey.

(Can you tell we were pouring them into a cup of ice left over from McD's?)

Next: some weird Japanese coconut drink! 

Which got the cucumber taste out of our mouths and went great with our quadratini.

Help did finally arrive....and just in time....the car was getting chilly.

Happy Birthday, Rockville Ward!

Our congregation had a carnival to celebrate it's founding.

The kids were all super-excited to go. They ran ahead of me into the building, and, by the time I got inside, they each had a big cotton candy.

I didn't quite catch how old our ward is, but they had the biggest dang cake I've ever seen!

...the bouncy-est cake too...

Oh the joy of a bouncy house...inside a giant gym, where no random winds whisk it away.

The youth ran all sort of fun bowling, knock-over-the-cans, match-the-ducks, ring toss, eat-the-doughnut sort of games. They allowed all sorts of cheating too (Cozette looked at every single duck in the pool before she finally found matching numbers!) and gave out tons of tickets.

Snowcones. :)

Sofi, holding everyone's prizes (the horses were hers!), with Annika photo bombing.

James, all decked out in his loot.

...and Anthony, looking like he just ate 4 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts...but he's really just helping to clean up. 

Now they're never going to let me miss another ward activity ever...just in case.

Phun Without Me

I really was going to take the kids to Physics is Phun (and probably spend the entire time in the hallway, trying to entertain James and Cozy)...but I got a better offer. NICE friends offered to take my kids along with theirs. Yay! I stayed home with the littles, while the older kids got to learn about Energy and Motion.

Jonathan even brought home the demonstration potato.  

When I asked him how they got the straw through the potato, he said, "Velocity." in his most "duh, everybody knows that" voice. 

...and then he proceeded to tell me about his plans to puncture the hull of enemy starships in a similar manner. Putting that physics knowledge to work. :)