Happy Easter

I finally fixed the problem with my camera and I probably have 50 more photos from our trip to upload but let's talk about Easter first.  We had one of those rare spring weekends where there wasn't snow on the ground, the wind wasn't blowing more than 30 mph and the sun was shining.  It was a great time!  Saturday, Glenn and Will went turkey hunting in the morning.  Reina and I ran errands, I jogged with a friend, attended our church's prayer vigil and grocery shopped, all in time to meet the guys back at the house by lunchtime.  On Sunday, we woke up early and attended the Easter sunrise service.  We had a delicious breakfast at church and came home to a little Easter egg hunt.  By 9:00 a.m., we were finished up. It's amazing how much you can get done when you start the day at 5:30 a.m.  Later, I made everyone nap.  The (little blonde) person who most loudly proclaimed, "BUT I'M NOT TIRED!" slept for 2 hours.  The Fry's came over for Easter dinner and we all took turns entertaining Baby Cousin.  Weekends like this one don't come around very often.  The next few weeks look to be really busy so it was a nice way to spend some family time together.  Plus:  chocolate Easter candy. 

 

Easter finery provided by Grandma Pauley. 

A siting of the Bronco Baby Mom - who's Easter finery is also provided by Grandma Pauley

You'll never run as fast as you do when you are trying to get to the Easter eggs before your sibling does

Trigger and Tootsie prove very helpful in sniffing out all of the hidden eggs.  Bonus when one of the eggs 'accidentally' breaks apart. 

Degas, eat your heart out

Reina is a prodigious artist. She brings home sheet after sheet full of all of the ideas floating around her brain: the entire plot of the movie Frozen, a drawing of her family including her pet ants (a story for another day), Tootsie and Trigger, ice cream, etc. While we were in Florida, she drew her first ballet picture for Grandma Pauley. As the date nears for her big recital in May, she has ballet on the brain. Here's her latest work:

Reina's ballet masterpiece

We have the audience in their seats. They are so captivated by the performance that their heads are floating in the air.  The yellow squigglies on the side of the page are the doors and the stairs naturally.  Notice the ballerina leaping through the air?  That's Reina.  The quadrupeds on either side of the dancers are unicorns accompanied by a herd (?) of Easter eggs.  The gentleman in the red hat is not Abraham Lincoln, as I erroneously assumed, but rather a Nutcracker.  Well it is a ballet painting!   I think it compares well to this one - http://www.edgar-degas.org/The-Rehearsal-Of-The-Ballet-Onstage.html.  Besides, I think we can all agree that Degas could have used a few more Easter eggs in his painting.  And a unicorn.  

Springtime

Here are my pretty daffodils shining in the sun on Saturday morning.  The tulips are peaking through and I'm busy scouring the seed catalogs to see what I want to branch out into this summer.  Besides teaming up on the community garden plot with Aunt Vicky, I'm also going to try my hand at our own plot in our church's new community garden space.  But in Wyoming, garden plans are on hold until Memorial Day, at least.   

When I saw the weather report, I thought about knitting them sweaters. 

And here are the same little daffodils on Sunday morning.  It's been snowing all day and we have the pellet stove fired up again. It's amazing how cold 20 degrees can feel in April.  In January that same temp felt like a little heat wave. I'm not complaining about the moisture, just the color of it. 

Florida - Part 1

We made our annual Spring Break trip to Florida last week.  We had great weather, hospitable hosts and a few adventures.  The kids had fun and were (mostly) on their best behavior.  I have a million pictures from the actual camera to upload but the technology is being cranky so here's the cell phone version.  

 

Even the shuttle at the airport in Orlando is magical.  According to a 5-yr old anyway. 

Day 1 at DeLeon Springs.  One of our favorite places to visit.  The water is always 72 degrees or something like that.  The kids swam until their lips were blue. 

After a cold swim, nothing's better than a warm dad to snuggle up to. 

Or sunbathe with. I didn't even get my suit on.  The weather was too cold for me.  I've turned into my dad! 

We fished and fished and fished!  Reina loved it and threw a fit on the last night when I made her throw the fish back.  On the previous nights, Glenn kept some of the fish and fried them up for breakfast the next morning.  My little animal lover has no qualms about fishing. 

Will caught fish too. I think they were drawn to the glow from his outfit. 

Day 2:  The beach at Cape Canaveral National Seashore.  Look at Glenn's pecs!  This is one of our favorite beaches to visit.  It's undeveloped and on a Tuesday, not very busy either.  Reina ran up and down the beach trying to catch seagulls. I love that she has enough confidence to think "why not?  why wouldn't I catch a seagull?"   I did get in the water this day.  It wasn't incredibly warm but I can't resist the ocean. 

Day 3:  Disneyworld Hollywood Studios and one of the soldiers from Toy Story. 

Trying on Muppet hats at Disney.  I almost bought this one but I'm hoping I can find it online for a little cheaper, and in my size! 

We stayed the night at the Art of Animation Resort and it was delightful!  I have a thousand more pictures of the resort on my camera because I kept seeing little details that were so fun.  Stay tuned. 

The #1 reason to visit Disney Hollywood Studios was for all of the Star Wars stuff including the Jedi Padawan Academy.  More on this story later (it involves one of the top 5 arguments that Glenn and I have had but all's well that end's well) and many MANY more pictures of The Most Serious Jedi Ever.

Battling  DARTH VADER!  I actually gasped when Mr. Vader came on the stage because I wasn't expecting it and I'm a bit of a geek.  Darth Vader did say that the Force was strong in this one when he was battling Will and I may or may not have yelled "That's right!!" 

I had texted pictures of Will's Star Wars adventures to family members and Grandma asked what Reina's dream come true could be at Disney.  It very well may just be this Disney cake pop that's all her own and a live Little Mermaid show.  She had a great day too. 

Traffic cone bedside lamps in our hotel room.  The cuteness! 

A sofa that looks like a bench seat in an old car.  It also pulled out into a sofa bed for kiddos.  Squeeeeee! 

The morning after Disney, we drove back to the grandparents house and stopped for breakfast with one of Glenn's old friends.  We met at a diner and I had grits for breakfast.  They were delicious. 

One of the houses that Glenn grew up in - we did a drive-by. 

Towards the end of our trip, the kids were really getting into the warm weather.  Will usually doesn't like to go topless but when it's warm enough, why not?! 

It's a Florida girl! 

On our last morning (a Saturday), I was just climbing out of bed when Glenn came in the room and said he needed my help.  He'd woken up early to fish by himself and he came back with the hook in his hand.  I googled 'how to get a fish hook out' and promptly announced that we were going to the ER.  When I read that you'd have to push the hook all the way through, I barfed a little on the inside.  We also couldn't remember the last time he had a tetanus shot and let's face it - we don't mess around with weird infections and Glenn Pauley.  

In the ER.  I told him the last picture I took of him in the ER wasn't very cheery so we needed to turn that around.  I like this version much better. 

A week later....a Star Wars birthday

This time last Friday night, Glenn and I were recovering from the trauma that is having ten seven-yr old BOYS over to your house for a two hour birthday party.  From the moment Will's friends and classmates arrived, it was pure chaos and we were in no way prepared for the level of energy in the house with that many seven yr old boy brains working together.  Truthfully, I wasn't as prepared for the party as I should've been.  Work has been pretty crazy during the last few weeks, we've had all sorts of kid activities and we've been running four different ways.  But, I planned a few activities, ordered some pizza and made lightsabers out of pretzels and candy melts. 


The partygoers paused long enough to take a bite out of their lightsabers and/or whack each other with them.

For the record, Will had invited his whole class - fourteen kids all together, plus a few other boys from school and friends.  None of his female classmates joined in the festivities and after witnessing the party for ten minutes, I completely understood why.  Even brave little Reina hung back and stayed out of the craziness. The party was during dinnertime and we started off with pizza and a big feast laid out on a Star Wars tablecloth.  The each took a bite of pizza, a swig of soda and then they were off and running.  I hadn't planned any outside activities but we quickly sent them that way even though it was a little chilly.  They ran and ran and ran and ran around the front yard.  Someone would come in crying from time to time and the parent in charge inside would patch things up.  The 'outside' parent kept kids within the confine of the yard and rescued footballs from the top of the tree.  Finally, everyone was cold enough to come back inside and they took a few more bites of pizza before it was time for cake and ice cream.  The two hour party felt like it lasted two days but the most important part was that Will had a great time.  He kicked off the next year with fun friends and a happy celebration.  And nobody ended up bleeding.  For very long. 

Seven: A letter to the birthday boy

Dear Will:  This week, you turned seven.  Seven!  You told Aunt Vicky that it's just nine more years until you can drive her car, but let's focus on seven for now. I took donuts to school on your actual birthday and you were the most popular kid in your class.  I think your pretty popular on a normal day, but the giant sugar bomb certainly helped.  You woke us up that morning at 5:45 with the announcement that you were ready for your birthday presents.  You waited (mostly) patiently while the rest of the house stirred and find our way downstairs.  You opened up a pile of presents from us and your grandparents. Aunt Vicky and Uncle Matt had taken you shopping the Sunday before and you picked out a retina-piercing green hat and matching shirt which you wore on St Patrick's Day.  It was definitely green! 

Will and Reina on St Patrick's Day.  The wearing o' the green was definitely in effect. 

Will, I know I write this every year, but you have grown up so much in the past year.  You still love your Legos and Star Wars, but you also watch more sports with me and plan on hunting with your dad this spring and fall.  I love that you love football and basketball, my only problem is that when our favorite team loses, I have to comfort a disappointed kiddo and fight the urge to stomp around the house in tears.   I promise that I'll never tell you, "It's only a game!" and I hope that we'll have more championships to watch in the near future.  

Will and his birthday shirt.  We'll buy the Super Bowl version next year! 

Will, you are one smart kid.  You don't always focus on the academic part of school, not when they are so many fun things going on, right?  But let's face it, you are figuring things out in that big brain of yours.  You spelled 'leprechaun' on the first try last week when we were working on your spelling words. I was so impressed that I sat down right away to email your teacher and I had to double check that I was spelling it correctly!  You remember spelling words and math facts and you argue with me over the correct way to do your homework.  While you'd prefer school to be a bigger mix of recess, PE and swordfighting, when you put your mind to something, there isn't anything you can't figure out. 

Will and our weekly trip to the library.  Today's selection including a Lego book, Star Wars encyclopedia, an easy reader version of one of the Narnia stories and the first Captain Underpants book.  We also placed a hold on a Minecraft book because that's the newest app on the Ipad.  Yeah, I still don't know what it is. 

Will, you told me this week that you don't ever want to leave Wyoming and want to always live near your family.  I won't hold you to that because I think you have many adventures waiting for you out there but it does show what a sweet kid you can be.  You help around the house (most of the time) and have your own chores.  You are kind to your sister (most of the time) and when the two of you are getting along, you can keep each other occupied for hours playing soldier/Star Wars/Ninja/queen/whatever.  You sit next to your baby cousin and patiently hold her hand until she gets bored and then you make her smile and giggle.  You are growing like a weed and I fear I'll blink and you'll be taller than me.  Keep on going, big kid, 2014 has a lot of fun in store for you.  Happy birthday Will! 

Butler

A couple of weekends ago, the kids were running around the living room giggling and calling each other "butler."  This continued for a while.  "Hey butler...."  "You're a butler!"  Listening to this, I finally realized that they were calling each other butler because it had the word Butt in it.  During a break from all the giggling, we had the following conversation.

Me:  Do you guys even know what a butler is?

Will and Reina:  (blank stare)  Ummm no.

Me:  Well, in olden times a butler was someone who helped people get dressed, helped them serve their dinner, things like that.

Glenn tried to interject that butlers usually worked for wealthy people in big houses but the wheels were already turning and some people were losing interest in the conversation.

Reina:  (thinking for a minute). So are you a butler?

Just call me Carson.