In The Sun He Melted

Between egg hunts on lovely spring days, a storm or two decided to stir things up.  When the snow accumulated to a sufficient amount to build a snowman, Garrett was persistant to have my assistance for the task.  I realized this might likely be the last snowman of the season so I reluctantly obliged. 

The snow was wet and dense and perfect for moulding into form.  Throw on some buttons, a hat, a carrot nose, and some other accessories, and our snowman turned out to be a pretty dapper fellow.

No sooner had we built the icy figure, when the sun came out and melted him in a matter of hours.  And just like that, he was gone.  All we had were the photographs to stand as any proof that it had even snowed that morning.  Oh--and we had the memeories, too.

When I looked over the crumbled mound of snow that had been a smiling figure moments before, a twinge of sadness washed over me as I thought of how many (or how few) snowmen I might have left to build with Garrett before he begins to outgrow the notion of building snowmen all together.   At the rate life is going, I might soon find myself thinking And just like that, he was grown.  All I will have are the photographs to stand as any proof that he had once been a young, spunky three-and-a-half year old who obsessed over building snowmen.  Oh--and I'll have the memories, too.

I am so grateful for that little snowstorm!

This post authored by Amber

'Cause All We Need Is More Candy At Our House!

We enjoyed what moments of sporadic, pleasant weather during the first week in April to hunt Easter eggs on two occasions. 

The first opportunity came courtesy of Nuskin, who provides an egg hunt for the young children of all their employees every year.  Jason was at Augusta National Golf course at the time (maybe I'll convince him to blog about it), so I was on my own trying to maneuver three children between three separate, designated areas, all the while trying to capture images on video and camera.  I have discovered I am not an effective multi-tasker, so I missed most of the action shot opportunities, but I did get the children all together at the end to at least pose for a few decent pictures.

 When Jason returned from his trip, he suggested we take advantage of the community egg hunt sponsored by the city's recreation department.  Even with the extra adult support and supervision, I still missed most of the action shot opportunities.  Oh well.  My children are quite used to being gathered at the end of an event to have their pictures taken.

Now what am I to do with the bag fulls of salt water taffy we've recently acquired?

This post authored by Amber

A Bit of Tomfoolery

Garret & Ella "helped" me with April Fool's dinner preparations. 

Yeah, so April Fool's day sort of snuck up on me and I hadn't made any plans for it whatsoever. Then I overheard my oldest boys talking to each other the night before, giddy with excitement and anticipating having dessert for dinner and dinner for desert as we had done in years past. Umm....

Well, it's a good thing that I almost had everything on hand necessary to make TV dinner cupcakes (except the corn flakes for the chicken, but Honey Bunches of Oats were an okay substitute.  And, yes.  We often have large assortments of candies like fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls at our house). 

I only had one small package of Jell-O, so I could only make trick drinks for the three boys.  Then I tried to use food color in water to create the same color for Jason and I.  It was a little lame. 

I misplaced the meatloaf recipe my sister had given me for the year before, so I resorted to trying the one on the box of the Lipton onion soup mix because it seem like it would be dry enough to form into a cake to be "frosted" with mashed potatoes. I was right. It was dry. It didn't taste very good to me, so dinner was a bit of a flop. But, hey! The kids were satisfied that the tradition continued, even if nobody ate very much. I think we resorted to satisfying our hunger with bowls of cold cereal later on that evening.

At least this year I set the bar pretty low.  I can certainly outdo myself come next April....that is, if I don't completely forget again!

This post authored by Amber