Guess Who Had a Birthday...

 

 

 

 

 

With much excitement and anticipation, the great day FINALLY arrived.

She was not sure how she would handle the very old age of eight.

 

Her request: brownies and home made ice cream.

 

 

Proceeding the festivities was a supper of Little Caesar's Pizza

on a colorful and festive table.  It rather matches her personality.

 

There was also the Easter egg hunt she requested for her birthday.

To say the least, we were glad we only hid 8 eggs; those were challenging

 enough for her short attention span.

 

There are always the much anticipated gifts to open.

We try to give her gifts that will keep her busy or are very useful (or both).

 

Now that the great day has passed and life has settled back down,

she is concentrating on finishing up second grade and making

good use of her birthday gifts.

 

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In kitty news...

 

The "cat lady" around here is happy.

 

 

Even the reluctant "animal lover" is happy.

 

And I am rather happy that we only have ONE kitty!

 

 

 

 



An Easter Tradition

 

 

Like Christmas, Easter is a church holy day that is full

of tradition whether those traditions are developed in a church setting or in our families.

 

Yesterday, Tiana was wondering why on Sunday we had sung and read our way

through the events of Jesus' last week on Earth.

I explained that it is to make sure that we remember that Easter is about Jesus

and not about an Easter Bunny or the candy in the eggs.

She let me know that she had her priorities straight by declaring,

"Not me, I go to church on Easter so I can have breakfast."

 

Although things changed a bit this year, one church tradition

 is morning worship and breakfast on Easter.

It's something that everyone looks forward to and while the menu changes

from year to year, we ALWAYS have Fruit Cups.

Thanks to Pam Franklin for diligently making them from year to year,

my taste buds can't imagine an Easter morning without these cold treats.

 

Frozen Fruit Cups

The ingredients are very simple:

30 oz. crushed pineapple

6 large bananas, chopped

12 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

10 oz. maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

1 C. sugar

2 juice cans of water

 

Mix it together in a large bowl.

 

Pour into small plastic or Dixie cups and freeze. (I use 7 oz. plastic cups)

Remove from freezer to thaw 30-40 minutes before serving.

 

*I doubled this recipe so my pictures show more ingredients and cups than you would

have with a single recipe.  In doubling the recipe, I found that it is cheaper to buy a

huge can of crushed pineapple so I end up putting in more pineapple than is called for;

it just makes the fruit cups even better.*

 

These are also great treats to have in the freezer during the summer.

My kids like to pull one out, microwave it for 35 seconds, and eat it's slushy goodness.

 

Here we are this past Easter morning.

Another church tradition...family pictures under the tree near the front door.

 

 

 

 



Last week was one of those weeks where simply going to the bathroom seemed like an unnecessary waste (pun not intended!) of my time.  There were too many things to get done in too little time.  Despite the busyness, there were light moments that always brought forth laughter.

Tiana came to me one day and kept insisting that there was a pupil growing in the middle of her forehead and that it hurt a lot.  I finally discovered a small pimple on her forehead.

I was looking for the newest edition of a magazine.  Tiana picked one up and loudly declared that she had found the nudist one.  Of course this happened in the library!!

Due to this month being Tiana's birthday, she tends to get a bit over-excited and lose control of herself, so we have had many discussions about her behavior and how she needs to think about her actions.  The latest discussion had turned to attitude and she declared that, "My attitude is usually good but sometimes it just turns a bit naughty."

Wesley was driving and I could see that there had been a major accident on the other side of the freeway.  I told everyone to see if they could tell what was going on and tell me about it so I would not have to take my own eyes off the road.  Wesley made a motion to turn his head but I informed him that he was not to be the one looking.  Nathan told Wesley to stop being a "floppy-necker."  I asked what a floppy neck was and it turned out that he meant that Wesley should not be a rubber-necker.

One day Bethany was complaining to me about some of Tiana's behaviors that were not appropriate for her age (or maybe any age).  I had to explain to Bethany that I have two very different girls with very different interests.  I have one girl who chases the boys because she wants to run and play with them because their type of play is much more interesting than the typical female interaction.  I have another girl who chases the boys because she wants to be their girlfriend. 

Tiana, while eating an apple and doing her school work, "I am multi-tastic."  She meant to say that she was multi-tasking.

**********
The following is a story that was not so funny to me at the time but others found it to be quite hilarious:

The youth group had a big yard sale this past Sat. to raise funds for Bible School.  It was a very busy day but during one lull in customers I strolled through and looked at the items.  At one point I stopped and picked up a pair of nice dress shoes and it occurred to me that Nathan had a pair just like them.  I put them back down on the bench and continued on. 
 
Later, as the boys were packing up the clothes to donate to the Gospel Mission, Nathan said, "Hey, here are my church shoes."  Shari mentioned that she had tried to sell them to a lady for $2 and she was so disgusted that the lady did not think that was a good price for such nice shoes.  After hearing that, I was very glad the lady had passed them by.

Nathan had changed from his church clothes the previous weekend and had left them at church by accident.  He could never locate his bag of clothes during the yard sale but I presumed they were in the bathroom or tucked away somewhere else.  It suddenly dawned on me that his clothes might have made it into the yard sale items.

One of the boys jokingly asked Nathan if the belt he had picked up and put around his own waist was Nathan's.  Nathan did not think it was but on closer inspection he decided that it was his belt after all. 

At the point I told him that he needed to go through all the clothes and see if his pants and brand new shirt were in the pile.  It was not long until he located his dress pants in a bag of clothes.  I was getting concerned because I was afraid we had sold his new shirt at a deep discount.  Finally he located his shirt (with the sleeves still rolled up) at the bottom of the clothes pile.  I was quite relieved that he located all of his clothes, except for his socks.  Socks are a lot cheaper to replace than shoes, shirts, and pants so I am counting my blessings that no one was moved to buy those particular items.

Springtime Delight... 

 



This past Sunday, Bethany performed in the Spring Recital hosted by her piano teacher.

Her piece was the rousing Gypsy Rondo by Franz Josef Haydn.



 

 My plan was to post a video of her performance right here.

So, I spent way more time than I really had trying to accomplish that impossible task.

Instead...here is a picture of her performing.

It definitely is not the same as having a video.

 

Since there's no piano music to delight your ears,

I decided that we would instead have to turn to a feast for the eyes.

The roses are blooming and they are especially beautiful after a spring rain.

Although these are not roses, it's nice to have the hanging baskets
back up and filled with flowers.

We have been very thankful for a few days of spring showers in these days of drought.
Everything is so fresh, green, and pretty.