The grass has riz- and all of the flowers in the yard and flowerbeds have been picked and put in vases in my house.
It's me and Michelle.... 😁😂
My favorite flowering crab apple tree suffered a little bit too much ice damage and it needs to come down. Sad day. Contrary to popular belief, cough Bob cough, just because I don't want to live in the woods doesn't mean I don't like trees. hehe.
Also, the last thing you want to hear from your husband when he's up on the roof and you are down on the ground: "Jenny, how fast can you get up here?" Pretty fast it turns out, and he just needed help keeping a heavy branch from hitting the shingles too hard. I do not like heights and it was windy. I came down again as soon as possible. :P
Alas poor tree.... this was a really really bad place to purposefully plant a tree but it was shady and so pretty in the spring.
They were busy digging for treasure.
There is a sandbox not even 10 feet away, but, rocks.
I don't have any pictures of Bob's indoor garden set up but we've been eating lettuce and a few green beans and a few fresh peas. :)
We didn't make any spring break plans. We mostly hung out at home and fought and refereed and played and did Easter things. We dyed eggs one afternoon.
Miri got plastic eggs and water and loved it.
Bob's birthday was the Thursday before Easter- the girls helped me make chocolate chip cookie pie and short ribs.We all spent an afternoon neatly stacking and sorting and burning some of the tree branches.
They fought over who got to move the "logs."
Friday we did Passover-ish food and Good Friday church. We all got china and goblets and they were so excited. Maybe the next generation will like fancy things again. :P
The Beutel kids hosted an egg hunt on Saturday morning.
The older girls ran off on their own so I have no pictures of them; this one would just stand in one spot when I put her down. hehe. They all had a great time.
They hid empty eggs in the yard over and over and over again that afternoon.
And we burned more sticks in our fire pit castle.
They didn't like my suggestion of waiting until after church for Easter baskets- they got more Clothespin cousins books....
... and kites!
Hey, lets get a quick picture! Hahaha. I'm so glad I'm not using film. Happy Easter!
Ironically, after weeks and weeks of windy days, Easter was not even breezy. And they all had new kites they were dying to fly. Dead still and warm but they valiantly ran around the yard trying to fly their kites.
We stopped at the farm on the way to Easter.
The second cousins were waiting very impatiently to get to go find eggs.
They had candy in them!
Easter Monday was a day off of school and it was windy!! There was great rejoicing.
We went over to the high school and had a great time.
Cecily's kite was slightly bigger and a bit more frustrating to handle- thank goodness for Dads who are good at flying kites.
Even Miri got to fly her little kite. 😍
Somebody thinks she can swing in a big girl swing too... no idea what the other two crazies are doing.
I needed to go to W-ton to pick up something on Varage sale and it was a beautiful day so we got McDonald's and Faire coffee (Actually chai latte because I don't like coffee) and ate lunch at the park.
We got a Three Billy Goats Gruff book from the library a few weeks before and I told them about how we would play Billy Goats Gruff on the bridges at this park when I was a kid. So of course Cadence remembered and we had to trip trap trip trap over all of the bridges. :)
Emmy is still slightly enamored/ obsessed with all things Titanic and
somehow it morphed into wanting to have a Titanic tea party in April
around the anniversary of it's sailing. We found a printable invitation
and started planning.
We needed to pick up pork from the farm and I needed to borrow some time on the scroll saw- the snow is gone, but rock piles are just as much fun!
"Sliding!"
We also needed to raid grandma's china cabinet for our tea party. hehe. We came home with many treasures- meat, my wood cutouts, Dad's old chemistry equipment (he's death cleaning), a tea pot and china tea cups....
It's violet season! We picked violets for jam and Emmy made "violet sushi."
They are nothing if not well rounded; the girls helped me peel bark off of some branches that will hopefully become table legs someday.
Such hard little wood workers.
Oh hey, there's that Easter egg no one could find!
It was finally, finally time to set up for our Titanic Tea Party! They were soooo excited. Setting a pretty tea table is difficult when everyone wants to decide what goes where and you have a little sister (who doesn't like clothes) "helping" you.
Grandma Lydianne's silver tea pot, heirloom peacock salt and pepper shakers, antique tea cups, tiny Titanic tea set and a Titanic of course!
So excited for their friends to come! None of them wanted to wear their Easter dress which is supposed to look like a titanic era dress, but whatever, I'm not bitter. 😝
We agonized over the guest list and it was quite difficult to narrow it down to just two girls per hostess. :P It is hard to feel like you're leaving out Sunday School friends, but 6 guests was just about the right amount of girls.
We started out with coloring a picture of the Titanic while we waited for everyone to arrive...
Then we played a few games- Pass the Tea Pot, Find the Thimble, Button, Button... my Titanic themed game ideas seemed slightly macabre.... "Life Boat Drills" just.... yeah.... hehe. Safer to stick with old school parlor games.
Mom invited herself (hehe) and I was glad for her help with the tissue paper flowers we made- especially with the younger girls.
And she read Miri books- and the younger three drifted over. :)
They had a choice between sweet iced tea and pink lemonade in their antique tea cups.
And we had petit fours, chocolate chip cookies, and mini cream puffs.
Emmy helped me make PBJ and Ham and Cheese sandwiches that we cut out into little hearts.
Mom wanted a picture of Em with Grandma Lydianne's tea pot to show her.
Everybody say TEA PARTY! So many pretty girls in pretty dresses with pretty flowers.
Our last activity was a scavenger hunt that Cecily wrote. It led to a take home bag that we filled with Life Savers (get it? Lifesavers in a Titanic treat bag. ha. I crack myself up.), fancy tea bags, and some good old fashioned activities- paper dolls to cut out and a cats cradle string with cup and saucer instructions.
And then it was time for everyone to go home. Hopefully a good time was had by all, my girls at least thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
Blessings.
