April

We kicked off our crazy busy month of April with a fun Pizza Showdown with our Aunt and Uncle.  There were four pizzas from four different pizzerias and we had to decide which one tasted the very best.  Interestingly enough, once all of our favorites were together in one place, there was one clear winner.  After our pizza showdown, we played a rowdy game of hide and seek.  Emma won with her hiding spot right next to where we were counting!  She stayed quiet and hidden for a really long time as we searched the house three times over, and still couldn't find her!  We ended our foodie party with a brownie pizza, decorated by the kids.

The Pizza Showdown was a great way to start off Will's spring break.  We played with the idea of going somewhere for spring break, but decided to have a stay-cation instead.  Here are the girls below, starving after waiting for almost an hour to get a table at the local brunch place.  I ordered the s'more pancakes, as s'mores are one of my favorite foods.  I left feeling sick, and realized that I was no longer a kid and am now unable to eat pure sure with sugar drizzled and sprinkled on top as a meal.  I knew I was in trouble when Emma offered me a piece of her bacon saying, "Mom, it looks like you could use some protein with that."

We also visited the Science Center down town with friends and had a great day.

I made soap with a friend while her kids hung out and taught my kids how to make and fly paper airplanes.  It was fun to show my friend how to make soap, while watching the shyness wear off between the kids - her boys, older than my girls - all playing, laughing and being crazy together.  Soap Making, Spring Break style!

We took care of a lot of items on our to-do list in between walks, bike rides, and ice cream stops.  Will installed the built-in shelf we had picked up from Shipshewana before Christmas.  The entire project was started and completed in one day.  I was amazed, and it really turned out great.  If I would have known it would have been that painless, I would have let him tear up my kitchen sooner.

I spent a lot of time over the break making products for my honey business.  Besides me making lip balms, soaps and salves, there were lots of trips to the post office, and lots of research online for packaging materials, ingredients and pricing.

Spring break ended with a wedding shower for my sister-in-law to be.  She flew up from Florida and the girls and I had so much fun visiting with family and one of my favorite parts was the game, Pin the Mustache on the Groom.  As my brother stayed home in Florida, it was a fair game.

Our baby chicks are almost full-grown chickens now, although Lucy pointed out they still make cheep cheep sounds, so they are like teenagers.  Our older hens are still laying eggs like their lives depended on it.

This is the first month this year that we were able to harvest something other than eggs from our yard!  Below are the first crops of dandelions and violets, to be used in salves, soaps and lip balms as well as our first crop of asparagus.  Harvesting from my yard, especially when my kids participate and it is the first of the season is always such a happy and exciting event.

 Charlie fits right in with our producer lifestyle, and also is excited to harvest from our yard.  He surprised himself the other night when he caught a bat.  Sadly, he didn't prefer the taste and we had to dispose of it.  In the bottom picture he is watching us play in the yard.  If we go around a corner, he runs after us and settles down nearby again to watch us.  I think he is part dog and I love him so much, even though petting him is a sure-fire way for me to break out in hives.

 The girls and I attended the opening week of our local zoo's new penguin exhibit and enjoyed a picnic dinner afterward.  I have to be honest and say that it was far too crowded for my liking but it sure beat staying at home while Will worked late.

 We've had lots of fun with friends this past month...

 ...and enjoyed a homeschool group trip to Curious George the Musical at a local theater, as well as a homeschool open skate.  It was the girls first time roller skating and even Violet skated!  Lucy skated the longest with the help of a friend but by the end of the afternoon, my back was hurting so much from stooping over to help Violet.  In the top left-hand picture below, Violet was taking a break with a friend, while singing along to Fight Song by Rachel Platten at the top of her lungs.

We enjoyed a mid-morning week day hike with my parents and sister and loved seeing the ducks but especially all of the spring flowers in the woods, just starting to bloom.

 Plays, roller skating and hikes are all perks of homeschooling.  Downsides include motivating your children to get their work done so that we can go do the fun things.  Emma is still pretty excited to do schoolwork but Lucy drags her feet and is the queen of procrastination when it comes to reading and handwriting.  I've decided to try a new tactic of only telling Lucy one time to do something and if she doesn't finish, we don't delay the next subject, but continue to the next items.  If she has unfinished work, she can't play or watch TV until she finishes.  It may not be working great for Lucy, but it is working great for me, as it puts me in a bad mood when I feel the need to hound her to focus.  I set the timer now, and my day is no longer held up by her procrastination.  With homeschooling, if you are motivated, you have the opportunity to complete your schoolwork and then have plenty of time in the day left over.  I hope someday soon Lucy realizes this.

 Not to mention that the weather has been beautiful, and the sooner schoolwork is complete, the sooner we can get outside and enjoy the day!  Here we are, in the great outdoors.  In the top, left-hand picture below is how Lucy plays with sidewalk chalk - instead of drawing, she mixes chalk colors.

 We have already enjoyed many meals outside but especially dinners, as it is easier with two adults to bring stuff outside.  But oh, the joy of not having to sweep up all of the crumbs after!  Lately after dinner we have been going for walks where Violet rides in the stroller or her push-along-trike and Lucy and Emma ride their bikes.  Lucy and Emma do a great job listening and following our safety rules and I am loving this new phase of walks with the family.  Will and I can now pick up the pace and feel like we are getting a good workout as we walk fast enough to keep up with the bikes.  In the below picture, we are taking a break from our walk/bike ride to explore a field of white violets.  In the bottom picture Will is waiting patiently while his girls revel in the violets.

 Both Emma and Lucy celebrated birthdays this past month and have been enjoying all of the treats and presents that come along with turning another year older.

And even though my oldest girl is now seven, she still needs mama snuggles every day and I am so glad.  Emma promises me that she will give me snuggles even when she is a grown up.

Will never says it, but I think he enjoys snuggles with his girls too.

Violet is Two!

Violet has been telling us for weeks now that she is going to be two on her birthday.  She also loves counting to two and says things like, "One, two babies!" or, "One, two shoes!"  Even better, "One, two chocolates!"  She would live off of chocolate I think if she could.  Below is the wrapper from a chocolate she ate at her new Aunt Beth's wedding shower.  As if getting a foil wrapper that says "Stay up until the sun rises" isn't enough, she got "One, two wrappers" that said the exact same thing.  

Our cutie loves to play with her baby dolls but loves even more to play with her sisters' dolls.  Here she is below, in clockwise order from the top left: "drawing", holding Lucy's baby dolls, licking chocolate frosting off of the floor on Lucy's birthday, and setting up play with her sisters' Barbies in the kitchen while I cook.

Here is my silly girl caught licking the Himalayan Salt Lamp in the living room.  Most times I catch her licking her finger, then swiping the lamp with the wet finger, and then licking her wet, salty finger.  This time she didn't have time for such dainty salt licking.

As I write this post, it is occurring to me that perhaps Violet has a deficiency in magnesium and salt?  Hence all of the chocolate eating and salt licking?  Or she just takes after me, as I do love chocolate and pink Himalayan salt.  Here she is below getting her hair cut for the very first time by Will's cousin.  She was so proud to have her hair cut just like her older sisters and me!

Violet woke up on her birthday, and thanks to her sisters setting the example in the previous three weeks, she sat up in bed and said, "ViVi presents?"  So we got ready for the day and headed downstairs to open up presents.

This was the birthday that all of Violet's dreams came true.  She finally got her own baby doll and doll carrier to match the ones Lucy and Emma have that she has been coveting.  She refers to this new baby as her "daughter" and when I asked what the baby's name was, without hesitation she told me "Ella" - which happens to be the name of one of her sister's dolls that Violet always wants to play with.  She also got her own piggy bank, her own "big-eyed" stuffed animal, her own apple tree to earn apples on just like her big sisters, and her own Barbie storage box, complete with Barbies handed down from Lucy and Emma.  Now she has all of her own stuff, and hopefully the fighting will lessen.  I can dream at least.

After Violet opened her presents we headed to the local cider mill and had donuts, cider and sausage that we had fried up before we left - all of which was Violet's own request.  As we were eating our breakfast at a nearby picnic table, I saw my parents and sister walking into the cider mill and waved them over.  They may frequent the cider mill even more than we do, and we all exchanged sheepish grins as we acknowledged that perhaps we should form a support group for people like us.  The weather was overcast and looked like it was about to rain so the fact that we were the only people at the cider mill that day was already a testament to our love for cider and donuts.  As if to prove our need for help, a forklift drove past us, carrying a heavy load of Frying Oil and 50 pound bags of Sugar.  Knowing that donuts aren't health food is one thing, but seeing the ingredients truck by you on a giant fork lift are as close to a health intervention as you can get.  In all our years at the cider mill, we had never actually seen the ingredients.  And just when we thought our reality check couldn't get worse, another fork lift trotted by us carrying a load of giant bags of Cake Mix.  My sister's horrified reaction sums up our rude awakening so perfectly - "You mean they aren't made from scratch?"

After our picnic breakfast we said good bye to my parents and sister and headed down the trail for a nice, spring hike.  Violet walked most of the way by herself but by the end requested for "daddy's shoulders" and then eventually her stroller.

We came home and Will set about the business of turning Violet's carseat forward facing.  She finally meets all of the recommendations for weight, height and age.  By switching Violet's carseat from rear-facing to forward facing we had to rearrange Lucy and Emma's seats as well.  The back seat of our sedan is like a master level Tetris game but our incentive to win this round is to buy more time before we need to buy a bigger car.  Will worked it all out, and now Emma is in the middle seat and Lucy and Violet are on either side.  We went for a joy ride once all of the seats were back in and the uncovered food crumbs and cheerios were vacuumed up.  Violet was beside herself with happiness at all of the new sights.  Lucy however was cranky because she did not like being moved from the middle seat to the door seat.  She has since come around to the idea but now Will and I are having doubts as the pecking order has been proved once again, showing that Emma is NOT a head chicken by any means and is now being harassed by BOTH sisters.

 We passed by our friends' house on our joy ride, and luck was on our side when we saw them playing outside.  After a quick hello and Violet showing off her new seat arrangement, we headed home.  Violet played for the rest of the day with her new baby doll, also known as her daughter, Ella.

We measured Violet on the growth chart and she clocked in at exactly one inch taller than Lucy was at age 2, and two inches taller than Emma was at age 2.  Yup, Emma has neither size nor personality on her side for head chicken status.

I had made a double batch of chocolate cupcakes for Lucy's birthday and froze half of them for Violet's birthday.  Because of this, all I had to do was make frosting and the girls were excited to lick the beaters and the bowl.  

It rained on and off all day on Violet's birthday, but that was okay by us.  Violet got an umbrella from Grandma T. for her birthday, so after dinner we headed out for an umbrella walk.

 Lucy and Emma had rain jackets from a friend, and I found some rain boots that fit Violet in our hand-me-down shoe bin in the basement and even a pair for Emma too.  The girls enjoyed free-style splashing in puddles and a little bit into our rain walk we noticed that Charlie had come along too.  Since Charlie didn't have rain boots, a rain coat or an umbrella, he started getting super whiney and Will ended up carrying him for the majority of the trip home.

Violet had a great birthday and she is so proud to be two now!  The past two years have challenged all that we thought we were capable of, and Violet has shown us that although we would have chosen an easier path for her if given the chance, she is up for the challenge.  ViVi, you have been a joy and a gift to us and we are so proud that you are a member of our family!  We love you baby girl!