April Before St. Louis

Every time we go to the park, Dancy and Thora tell me to buckle my seat belt so they can drive to Colorado to Becky's house.

We tried to get Katie's ears pierced twice in March when Lori and Ruth each visited separately and failed both times. Something about store owners not being in their stores when they say they will be, or not being open on weekends. You know, annoying small town stuff. So we finally got the job done on a week day without any visiting aunts or grandmas.

And some little sisters who didn't want left out of the picture taking!

I don't know where she learned her posing, but she's got the art mastered.

Goof.

Samson discovered that he's big enough for the kitchen set. He loves cooking!

Tommy wanted to take pictures one day after our reading time.

I couldn't wait to find out what happened at the end of Changes for Samantha from the American Girl Collection. It made my heart happy!

Katie has become a hairstylist. I rarely fix her hair anymore and sometimes she even fixes Dancy's. One day they matched to be twins.

Katie asked me if I needed a notebook, then disappeared in the basement, resurfacing to ask if she could use wrapping paper. She came back with this:

(KATIE FROM KATIE TO MOM)

She even made her own bow out of a sparkly pipe cleaner!

Surprise! It was a notebook! She stapled paper together to create a notebook for me.

A gym opened in town and had a bouncy castle for their open house.

{Dancy, Thora, Samson, Katie, Tommy}

I'm the Primary chorister at church, which means I teach songs to children ages 3-12, and 18 months to 3 years, separately. For the past month we've been working on playing Jeopardy in a heated boys against girls competition. 

It just ended mid-May and the prizes were honey sticks for all participants, and a prize from a grab bag for the winners--the girls! Honey sticks are a foreign treat here in Kansas; not even the other adults had ever had one! I'll have to keep that in mind for future reward opportunities.

Katie found a piece of popcorn that looked like Rey in her scavenger outfit. Yup!

We go to the library on Monday afternoons for Lego club and chillaxin'.

Because our kids can almost NEVER eat a taco successfully, Shad's engineering brain said we should put it in an ice cream cone instead.

Success! Of course, we had to teach Thora to eat all around and not just in one place! Hahaha!

...and to stop digging in places she ought not to be digging.

Samson's world continues to expand before his eyes.

He was walking at this point, but still not overly steady on his feet.

Figuring out this whole spoon thing.

Katie was so excited when she saw a malo and metate in our local gun shop! She recognized them from the Josephina American Girl books. The rock set was used by Indians and learned by Mexicans to grind corn. The metate is the flat rock and the malo is the round one used in your hand to crush and grind the dried corn.

Tommy loved examining tracks out at the state park.

Our girls are always thrilled Sunday morning because they get to dress up in their pretty dresses. I dunno what to say about Dancy's face though...

Thora loves to sing!

When your mom lets you stay in your pajamas AND watch Strawberry Shortcake...

March

My sister Lori gave Katie some makeup, so Katie gets dolled up occasionally. This picture was taken specifically at her request to send to her 15-year-old cousin Erik. Katie loves him so much!

Samson started getting to experience the park, finally!

I'll have to dig a bit, but I'm sure I have a similar picture for each of my one-year-olds!

Steampunk Thora

I started donating blood back in the fall some time. I was too lightweight to donate at my high school senior blood drive, and then I was a college student, and then in China, and then not thinking about it until I was pregnant and nursing and that's just not a good time to start, despite definitely meeting the weight requirement. Anyway, it's a good time in my life to do it now, so I do. Ed Ballinger, a grandpa figure for us here in town, loves to come babysit for me, especially for the blood drive. Donating blood is really important to him because his dad's life was saved by a transfusion, but Ed is no longer eligible to donate. Babysitting for me to go donate is his way to help. And I never feel bad asking.

Ed always brings a tote of toys with him, making him the most exciting part of my kids' day, and they eagerly push me out the door. This time he brought his latest tech toy: automatic driving cars. They have sensors on the bottom that read the track and then he clicks go on his app and they race!

Dancy got her ears pierced.

I dressed Thora so cutely for St. Patrick's Day that I was successful in making Lori see what she was missing out on, and she came to visit!

I went to a Family History Expo in Phillipsburg. I waited too late to preregister and get in for $10, so I had to pay $39. We thought we were going to be in Colorado that weekend, so that's why I failed at getting the preregister. But then my name got drawn in a raffle for 2 large tabletop lamps! That was a good compensation for me. And I learned a lot about doing German research, and got scared off Scandinavia entirely. Oy vey!

Cathie and I sent pictures to Thora. It was fun hanging out with Cathie again. Probably hasn't happened in over a year.

Thora and Shad sent pictures back to us.

Tommy and Katie declared they wanted to plant a garden. They found some seed packets left in their room from when that was my office space. I gave the kids their own designated garden plot, since I have no plans of gardening this year.

Katie and Tom took a water break with water bottles Tommy found in the van.

Funny watching Katie drink out of a travel mug!

One morning "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten came up on Pandora. Tommy started drawing what he thought the song was about. "Like a small boat in the ocean, setting big waves into motion."

Lori and Mom came to visit! The kids watched Moana with them to save them from needing to rent it. Oh, did I mention I bought Moana? Yeah, I couldn't wait for it to be a Mother's Day gift, so I bought it for Early Easter!

Dancy sitting by Sam for a snack time.

Katie manufactured a cast and crutches for herself, just to play.

And then demonstrated how the crutches could be canes instead. You know, for her to be old!

The tabloids won this one. Anthony DiNozzo, Sr with grand jury murder charges juxtaposed with Gibbs renewing his wedding vows!

We got beautiful blossoms on our peach tree this year! Now it has fruit on it! We planted it the week Thora was born (I ordered it online, but was expecting a spring delivery, not fall!) 2.5 years ago and are excited to see benefits.

When we were in Colorado in February, we delivered a load (300) of movie theater posters to our friend Chris, who bought all the 1000 posters our theater manager was selling. Chris gave us a huge box of toys for the kids. The day Shad pulled that box out was the quietest our kids have ever played all together. Shad bathed them and had them play quietly for me to get a nap! It was amazing!

{Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Thora}

Sleeping baby lumberjack!

We had a date with each of our kids in March. Katie stayed up late to watch a movie with us and we took her out to get a slushie and candy treat. She saw a candy necklace and bracelet on the clearance table and wondered how much they were. She was over the moon when I told her she could get both!

Sometimes hell freezes over and all of our kids eat their dinner well. So they get a dessert.

{Dancy, Tommy, Thora}

Dancy made a Batman mask out of her crepe.

Thora tried, too.

Samson increased in crawling mobility enough to drag a bat around the room.

Thora loves to make phone calls. She asks me if she can call Nana, Bumpa, Grandma, etc. and we go for it. She gets really upset when she gets a voicemail!

Thora calling Nana

Thora calling Grandma