Hail Yeah!!! I mean Hail No!!!!

So along came a spring shower, and with it came LOTS of hail.....so much so, and at such a bad time of the day, that the kids' school ended up not releasing the kids until about 30 minutes after when the buses should have normally run, as it was right at the same time as the largest of the hail storm.....

April 20th if you must know.....at least it was this year!!

 This was our front yard, as you can see from all of the leaf debris, it was pretty bad!  Plus, it was early enough in the spring that the leaves had come out, but were still pretty tender, so they just got pounded!!!  I am so surprised it did not shave all of the trees bald.....our hostas probably got the worst of the beating!!  So sad!!!

 This is my car windshield!!!  I got about 20+ dings on my car, but they are not really that big, as you have to REALLY be looking for them to see them!  I always was a bit dented ;0

Our back deck.....you all have to know this was more for my insurance company than you all - KIDDING!!!

Easter

I know what you are thinking!!!  Easter, Lynn, come on, that was MONTHS ago!!!!  Oh just wait my friends, I have pictures from September to put on here!!!

 I promise you Austin is in this picture!!!  He is the only one wearing a NEON Yellow shirt....oh the Easter Egg hunt!!!

AND I promise you Ansley is in this one too; she is just to the left of the tree in a pink dress....oh how well a Mom knows the backs of her children's heads!!!

7!!!!

Oh Ansley, how did it happen?  How did you get to be 7 years old?!?  No, seriously????  I cannot believe you are 7!

Look at that kitchen table!!!  What a fun party we had this year - 7 years, 7 friends - 2 hours of crafts, piñatas, baking pizzas, decorating cupcakes and cookies!!!  No wonder Mom had to have an adult beverage afterwards ;0!!! Did I mention we were stuck inside because it was pouring down rain the whole time and we had planned for you guys to play in the backyard for most of the party?  Must be why we played charades instead!  But it was fun!!

 

Recap for your year: you started gymnastics this year, and you LOVE it!!  We actually had to make you do it as you were content not doing anything outside of school and playing with your friends, but we wanted you to do some sort of activity and you picked gymnastics.  You LOVE the bars and have convinced Dad to build you a set in the backyard...now we just need to make the time to do it!!

You love having friends over to play or going to friend's houses - your BFF is Leah, who you call Leafy and she calls you Apple - silly girls!  You have done so well in school and the teachers always seem to talk about how well you do with helping all people feel included in the class and all activities.  You seem to think boys are gross, which makes your Dad really happy ;0  You have found Eliyse in the back yard and now try to go and play with her any chance the two of you all get - bamboo forest and all!  Of course, you still love to play with Megan any chance you get, such a neat bond the two of you all have - hard to believe it has been 4 years!!

You and Austin still fight like brother & sister - I am pretty sure that is NEVER going to change!!!  It sure does make for some interesting times around here!!  You also attempt to throw a fit every morning over us brushing your hair and putting it into a Taylor Swift ponytail, but it is such a distraction to you in class if we do not get it up so we have to do it!!

 

 

You LOVE American Girl Dolls and Grandma seems to think this is just great!!

 

This was from your birthday, obviously....you were VERY excited to get a new riding hat for your AG doll, can't tell from the picture (smile) how you ran off to try the new hats on, huh?!?

 

We cannot wait to see what life brings in the next 7 years with you!  Love you!

Nerd!!

Austin has learned to play chess, which is great for a math brain, so I am told, I honestly cannot keep up with all of the rules!!!  But Eric and Austin really enjoy playing and he plays every Friday after school in the Chess Club.

At the end of each semester they have an awards ceremony and this year he got 1st place for all 3rd graders in one semester and 1st place in Bughouse in another semester.  You could go so far as to offer me money to explain to you what Bughouse is and I would wind up penniless as I still have no clue and he has been playing it for 3 years!!!!

Of course, our little guy HATES to have any attention focused on him, so it is REALLY hard to get a picture of him getting the trophy, so here is the best we could get.

American Eagle

I am going to catch up on this year; I swear - but I do say that every time I get on here, so ....

So close to the end of the school year, as it got warmer and the kids wanted to spend more time outside than there were waking hours, we started taking the boat out to a lake close by our house, same lake where Austin caught a nice sized fish several months back ;0

Any who, we took the kids out and while out, we saw what we thought was an eagle fly by!!  Pretty exciting!  So we followed where we thought it had flown, and sure enough, we found it.  Of course, we just had Eric's cell phone to use to take the picture, so it is not the best quality, but it was fun to see!

 Never can tell what you will see when you put down the phone, tablet, computer, etc. ;0

Science Fair

Each year the kids have been submitting a project for their school's science fair; this year was no different, but I have to pull more pictures off Eric's phone ;0.....they did a Hovercraft....as you can see Ansley was SO excited it worked!!

Something......

Is better than nothing, right?!?

Where does the time go!?!

Spring is just around the corner, so we are ready to get back to doing some of this.....

 

note the proper head gear for the red head!!  We learned enough lessons from his mother's childhood to know that he needs a sun hat while fishing at all times!!  Fortunately, he still buys the theory that if Granddad does it, it must be a good idea ;)