It might, finally, be spring!

It snowed again last Sunday.  Not today though! Yay!  The streak has been broken.

Anyway, that Monday morning Emmy really, really, really wanted to make a snowman with the inch of melting snow outside.  I did not want to get her bundled up for that.  Instead, I brought in a tub of snow from the porch.  Cadence was not so sure about it, but she ended up playing with it longer than Emmy did.

 Snowmen in the bathtub, so much less hassle than going outside.

 And snow tea!

 Then it all melted away. Hooray!  
On Wednesday the girls and I invited a neighbor lady for lunch.  She used to teach kindergarten, raised five children, loves the Lord, and brought me fabric, so I think we can be good friends.  The girls were so excited to have a guest for lunch!  I would have enjoyed it more if Cadence hadn't thrown up on me.  *sigh*
Griffin came to play on Thursday.  It was also in the 70's all day so I made them play outside and we ate lunch on the porch.  

 We got a new box of chalk.  And Cadence is really not sure about sandals.  

 Friday was co-op... the little girls like to come to my class room and sit in the big kid chairs before they go find the toys in the nursery.  

 We had to have lab in the gym because the Anatomy class was dissecting in the kitchen... it was a little unorthodox, but they do have a sink nearby so it worked.  
Saturday evening the girls went to the farm for supper and Bob and I went to testimonies.  I love them dearly, but sometimes the quiet is so nice.  So. Nice.
She's discovered that chairs can be pushed and that the counters and upper cabinets are now accessible.  Yay.

 Emmy's in story hour at the library.  She likes it, but she suddenly wants me to stay in the room with her... with Cadence.... which is not ideal.  At least this week she agreed to sit on the rug with the kids (I may have bribed her with the promise of McDonald's).

 We met my family for supper Thursday to celebrate Matt's birthday.  Cadence and Gideon do not like to share Grandma or Grandma's phone.  

 It was a busy week- Friday I invited myself to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch because I really rarely get to see them; church and family gatherings are too chaotic to count. I offered to bring lunch, but, of course that wasn't going to happen. Ha.  Grandma Lydiann's love language is feeding people.  There are lots of toys in the basement: Cecily had Grandma sorting Legos for her...

 ...and Emmy did a state puzzle.  They found Iowa, where Grandma-Lydiann-at-the-condos grew up.

Last night we went to Dale and Meg's to help babysit for the other potluck kids.  There were not as many this time, and they were all well behaved so it was a pretty low key, enjoyable evening.  Until poor tired little Emmy didn't understand how musical chairs is supposed to work and totally lost it.  Sometimes I forgot she's only 3...
This morning was the usual Sunday struggle to get out the door on time.  And then Cadence, who KNOWS she is not supposed to climb the bunk bed ladder, followed Cecily up, slipped, and fell off RIGHT before we needed to leave.  *sigh*  She was a little subdued in church, but thankfully she seems to be ok.  Maybe she won't do that again?  Blocking the ladder hasn't worked as a deterrence.
Otherwise, I've been whittling away at the spring cleaning list and the sewing projects.  I've only got two more Co-op dates before Chemistry is done.  Crazy how fast that went! And I suppose I should be thinking about the garden, but it's been so cold it's been at the bottom of the to-do list.  
Blessings.

And it's snowing again

For the 3rd Sunday in a row.  I've been told there's a saying about rain on Easter...

Since my freezer is full of (excellent) Wyss beef, I attempted a brisket for Passover.  It's apparently fairly common for Seder meals, and I love brisket.  I used a recipe that included a mushroom sauce, and since the mushrooms were visible, certain of my children were leery (aka convinced I was trying to poison them).  *sigh* Oh well, more for me, and it was really good! They did eat more than their fair share of deviled eggs and watermelon and drank all of the sparkling grape juice.     

 The big girls dyed a few eggs while Cadence was sleeping on Friday.  We spent the evening at Good Friday services.  

 Sooooo.... I have been squirreling away money from teaching, etc., to replace this book shelf.  I really wanted an antique barrister bookcase and last Saturday I went antiquing.  All the way up north to Chilli.   

 It was kind of more of an adventure than I planned....I found one that I really liked, got it loaded up fine in the van (It comes apart- each shelf is its own section), and was driving home really carefully.  It was super windy, of course, and a big sheet of black plastic blew under the van and got stuck and I could hear it flapping around and there was no where to stop.  Until I got to a slightly sketchy gas station.  It fell off then, but there was some plastic melted to the exhaust pipe.  Woot.  I made it home without further incident.
Out with the new, in with the old!   

 They were pretty excited about their Easter baskets on Sunday morning.

 Chocolate bunny!

 After church we celebrated Bob's birthday!  Lucky guy, Easter, April Fool's day, birthday all rolled in to one this year!  Ha.  Or not.  He doesn't seem to mind as much as I would... 

 The night before the girls decided he needed a "Link and Zelda castle cake!" and I was not planning on anything elaborate at all..... so I stuck some pictures on the cake and they were almost satisfied. 

 We went to Fred and Dianne's in the evening for Easter with the Wysses.  The girls had fun playing in the basement, and then of course Cadence found a phone.

 Let there be light!  We had Rob come out and put a new overhead light in the living room.  I just don't understand why you wouldn't want overhead light.  You can always not turn it on and just use lamps, but when you're reading or trying to sew (like at sewing club) I need light! Lots of light!  Maybe it's just because I have bad eyes.  Anyway, we now have light.  Also, my new old bookcase has a lingering stain/varnish smell that bugs Bob and it's full of deodorizing things like vinegar and baking soda and kitty litter.  Since it's not warm or sunny out to take it outside.

 Tuesday evening Bob's mom came to watch the girls while we went to Champaign for Ned's doctoral lecture/recital.  It was so fun.  And really good to be on campus again, despite the cold and wind.  Mom and Dad rode down with Fred, Di, Tate and his friend Nolan (Also a former student of mine. ha.). Dad gave them a quick tour of the quad and of course the Morrow Plots. Because you can't throw shade on the corn, and you can't visit the U of I with my dad and not stop and pay homage to the oldest experimental cornfield.    
Ned's thesis is on Beethoven's violin concerto and he spent about half an hour talking about the different revisions that had been done to the violin solo part.  It was pretty interesting.

 Then he played it for us and it was amazing.  It was 40-45 minutes long and he had it all memorized of course.  Afterward there was cake and I had to get a picture with the future Dr. Ned.  (He defended his thesis a few days later.)

 It was late, but since the recital started at 5:30 and we hadn't eaten supper yet, Bob and I went to Black Dog Smoke and Ale House with Mom and Dad, Matt, Ned, Fred and Di, Tate, and Nolan.  I decided to be like the young kids and take a picture of my food.... brisket sandwich and corn bread with bacon in it- so good!

 We got home pretty late and the girls were all asleep.  Apparently they were not very happy that we weren't home to put them in bed the right way.  I heard all about it in the morning.  Hehe.
Emmy is in story hour again.  Cadence is still not a big fan of sitting quietly in the library, playing with the toys, or looking at the kids books.  She'd rather grab the display penguin and wrap it up in her blanket and carry it all over the library.  

 At one point she was curled up with it on the floor watching videos of herself on my phone.  Silly kid.

 It's been cold, windy, and not very conducive to going outside.  One afternoon they were feeling cooped up so I got out a magnet craft kit.  Painting and decorating actually kept them occupied and not fighting for a while!  

Blessings.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

We survived the wedding weekend!  Fair warning- there are lots of pictures, most of them aren't that great.

So since Shelly's been dealing with blood clots and other early pregnancy miseries and I haven't really done anything helpful, the girls and I brought lunch last week.  They enjoyed Gideon's "peetee."  Hehe.  He talks a lot more than Cadence does... the girls made a big toy mess and I mopped her floor for her so I could feel like I/we weren't just getting in the way.  

We rode bikes one slightly warm afternoon.  Cadence climbed up on Emmy's bike by herself, which is terrifying.   

 Friday morning Cecily woke up complaining that she had a sore throat so I didn't let her go to school.  Bob was home so I just took Emmy with me to Co-op.  We spent the rest of the day packing for Iowa and checking weather forecasts.  Because, of course, they were calling for the biggest snowstorm this season.  We were planning on driving out in time for pictures on Saturday morning so that the girls could get a maximum amount of sleep in their own beds.  Plus, Cecily was running a fever and we didn't want to take her out any sooner than absolutely necessary.  
So we got up super early on Saturday to snow on the ground and sleet.  *sigh*  It was not a fun drive.  The roads were nasty for the first hour and we almost went in the ditch once.  So scary.  But then it eased up a little bit and turned into rain for the last half of the drive and we made it to pictures right on time.  
They were at the local historical society- housed in a beautiful old library.  Pretty girls in pretty dresses.  

 And dapper little boys in bow ties.  

 And 'spenders!  They were so cute.  (note the mop bucket catching drips from the leaking ceiling...)

 Pictures went about as well as we expected.  Cadence would not let me put her down.  Jack and Gideon were not interested at all.  This picture makes me laugh so hard- Matt is hiding behind Jack trying to get him to look, and I'm behind Cadence holding her under her dress so she wouldn't cry.  You can see my skirt.... it's too bad no one had a camera off to the side.  

 Somebody snapped this one of us on a phone.  It doesn't look too bad, so hopefully the photographer got a good one.

 The kids got a little bit bored waiting for pictures to be done.  They explored the museum over and over.  Grandpa showed Emmy the statues of "Chief Black Hawk and Minnehaha" and she told us all about them later.  

 The little ones preferred watching videos of themselves.

 Grandma and the girls on the couch they almost matched.  

 The happy couple and Emmy.  

 Hey, it kept her entertained.

 Oh, this makes me smile.  Shells and Ned...

 Groomsmen and Bridesmaids and the museum lady putting out plastic to catch drips from the leaking skylight....

 Then, when they were almost done with pictures we discovered that there was a playroom.  With this awesome kid sized steamboat, mini cabins, and all sorts of fun things to do. Why didn't we know about this earlier!?

 Gideon's loading a barrel of apples and Cecily has a skunk(!?).

 Cadence wanted the large stuffed cow. "MMMM!"

 We changed and ate lunch at Rachel's parent's house.  Then we drove through more sleet/snow to Dave and Tami's.  Cecily's tylenol was wearing off, poor girl, so we dosed her up again and tried to get her and Cadence to take a nap.  It didn't work because Dave and Tami have a cool house with lots of fun toys.  Visiting Tami's family was always a bright spot in our dreaded trips to Lester, so it was good to spend time with her family.  
The girls went to church for the evening and ate supper with the Lanz girls and my family (once they got there- the storm was worse in IL).  Bob and I went to the rehearsal dinner, which was amazing.  The food was so good.  A couple from church had it in their home- they called him "the smoke master," not a misnomer, as the fillet mignon was sublime.   It was also really nice to just be able to eat and be served and not have to take care of small children... 
We were a little late to the singing at church.  Poor Cecily was not feeling well at all.  She got more tylenol and we hung out in the fellowship area for the rest of the evening.  Of course by the time we got back to Lanz's it had kicked in and we couldn't get her to bed.  Or the other two.  *sigh* Traveling with kids is stressful enough, a sick kid makes it so much worse.  Thankfully we had gracious hosts.
Sunday was a beautiful day.  It was crazy, the weather was suddenly sunny and almost warm.  We had a good day in church; we wouldn't let Cecily go to Sunday school because she was still feverish.  Emmy didn't want to go and she actually went in to church with Clayton.... and then she got scared and Clayton brought her to me crying. Hehe.  Poor Clayton.  We managed to get the girls fed (even our slowpoke eater Emmy!) and to the bathroom before they wanted to usher us in.  So I took one girl to the bathroom and then came back in with the next one and somebody asked, "Didn't I just see you in here?"  Haha, yes, pretty much feel like I've spent half the weekend taking children to the bathroom...
Cadence got to play in the babyroom with the Lanz girls and Jack and Gideon during the wedding and Cecily and Emmy and I got to sit way up front.  Cecily's fever finally broke during the service!  I kept surreptitiously checking her forehead.  I only got teary eyed a few times and they said yes, so it was a great success!
Then we were off to the reception!  The girls were not impressed with the line.        

 They did pretty well for awhile.

 I got to meet Andrew!  That was exciting.  And it's always good to see Brent and his family.

 Matt and I took care of decorating the Wagoneer.  I wonder how many vehicles we've decorated together... 

 We were nice.  It's very understated, elegant almost... haha.  Matt's 'family' decals were a stroke of genius.  

 The kids liked the balloons.

 Cadence is over the reception at this point... taking selfies with Carli.

 It's too bad that this is blurry.  "I want to go hooommee!"

 Cecily wanted to take a picture of us.  

 Then the line was gone and they discovered the chains and everybody perked up for a bit.

 The happy couple... they look tired.  

Then they left the reception in a shower of bubbles and drove the Wagoneer off into the sunset.  We changed clothes as fast as we could and high tailed it to the border.  The girls slept all the way back. We made it home for a late supper by 8 and had the girls in bed by 9. 
I spent Monday recovering.We watched Grace and Eden most of the day and were lazy and got nothing done except a load or two of laundry.   
Yesterday the girls got to go to Kenna's house for a little bit while I got groceries.  
Otherwise, we are enjoying a very low key, slow paced, spring break. 
Blessings.