Lynnsey's Field Trip and Timothy's B-day

A couple of weeks ago, Lynnsey came home with A Very Important Note that required my immediate attention. This note was of such importance that it couldn't even wait until I got home from picking Lynnsey up from the bus. She pulled it out of her backpack and made me read it as we walked. It was such an exciting announcement! Lynnsey's kindergarten class was taking a field trip to the zoo. And not just the local zoo. Potter Park Zoo in Lansing! She was so thrilled and wanted to know if Kalen or I would be able to go with her. I knew I wouldn't be able to because I had to babysit that day. But Kalen checked his schedule and said he would be able to go. Lynnsey was ecstatic. Then the morning before the trip, tragedy struck. Kalen realized that he couldn't go after all because he had an all day meeting at the college. It was absolutely devastating for Lynnsey and I just felt terrible. So I called my mom and asked what she or Timothy had on their agendas for the next day. Timothy came to the rescue and agreed to spend his 25th birthday on a field trip to the zoo with his six year old niece! Lynnsey was once again so excited (maybe even more so than she was to have a parent going with her). She was up before the sun the day of the field trip, her special sack lunch in hand, and ready to walk out the door way before it was time to leave. They ended up having a great time and Lynnsey is still talking about all her favorites from the day.

Here she is in the petting zoo area. She's always loved to pet the goats in every zoo we've been to.

Grrrrr!

Lynnsey and some of her best friends.

The highlight of the day for Lynnsey (and I'm sure for Timothy too--how many people get to ride a camel on their 25th birthday?), was the terrifically overpriced ride on a camel. The best part for her was showing her brothers the pictures and watching their jaws drop in utter envy!

Having fun with one of the many animal statues througout the zoo.

After a long tiring trip, that evening Mom and Timothy came over for a birthday barbecue and cheesy dutch oven potatoes. Mom brought the cake and Timothy blew out all 25 candles in one breath. We hope that his wish comes true (and I'm sure we can guess what that wish might be!)

Thanks Timothy for giving Lynnsey such a fun day. We hope it was as much fun for you.

Green: A Springtime Penny Walk

Last fall I posted a penny walk where we attempted to document the breathtaking Michigan colors. Well, if fall is breathtaking, then spring in Michigan is absolutely stunning. We've actually been planning another penny walk for the last several weeks so that we could document the beautiful blossoming trees and flowers that were abounding. Unfortunately the weather would not cooperate and it was too chilly and or rainy to go walking. Finally on Monday for family home evening we decided to go. Sadly, most of the blossoms have disappeared. We managed to catch a few, plus a lot of green. But we definitely love the green and we had a really lovely walk. We tried to get onto campus, but you can't force the penny! (And there is no cheating allowed!) Mostly we ended up on the streets close to home. We did get just on the outskirts of campus, so some of these photos are from there; the kids by the rock pile and the one of Lynnsey on Timothy's back in front of the building where Kalen works are campus photos. The rest are from our neighborhood. Where would a penny take you?

Stylin'

The other night Spencer put on a hat and his new sunglasses and exclaimed: "I'm made of style!" I couldn't resist the photo op.

Random Stuff and a Photo Shoot by Spencer

Once a week the PTO at the elementary schools host fifty cent fundraisers: selling popcorn, pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. Occasionally they'll let the kids pay fifty cents to wear a hat or sunglasses. So last week, Kendall was very excited when they did a crazy hair and sunglasses day. Half a bottle of gel later, and this was the fun result:

He had so much fun and said it was pretty hilarious to see some of the other crazy hair-do's. And I liked it because he didn't come home with popcorn or candy or erasers or other baby choking hazards!

Last week we also attended Taylor's spring band concert. It's always amazing to me how much the kids improve over the course of a year. Taylor has been playing the cornet now for two years and he has become quite good. His teacher actually told him the other day that he thought Taylor played better than a lot of his high school students. That totally made Taylor's day. And I said: "Imagine what he'd say if you actually practiced!" Anyway, it was a really fun concert combined with the high school performance as well. Actually the last two songs the better middle school students were able to perform with the high school, so that was pretty cool. I tried so hard to get a good picture but nothing worked. I tried different settings, with the flash, without it; nothing. Oh well. I wouldn't let Taylor off the hook though so once we got home I forced him to pose in his uniform.

And finally, these last few pictures are courtesy of Spencer. He loves getting his hands on the camera and snapping pictures. It's actually pretty entertaining when I'm looking through the shots on the camera and come across pictures of the couch, the door, a hand, the toilet, a shoe...

Most of the pictures that Spencer takes are just completely blurry. But the other day he insisted on taking pictures of me and of me and Kaya together. Among the thirty or so that I had to delete, I found these. He was so pleased with himself and insisted that I could put them on our computer (meaning the blog), so here they are:

Not too bad huh? The kid may have a future in photography after all. (Sadly, I can't say the same about my future in modeling.)

Happy Mother's Day

I hope that all of you mommies out there have had a fantastic day today. Sometimes I feel like the world's worst mother and other times, like today when I opened the little gifts that my children have so painstakingly made for me, I feel like I must be doing something right. It's hard work. Maybe the very hardest ever. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I love this quote by Sheri L. Dew: "The subject of motherhood is a very tender one, for it evokes some of our greatest joys and heartaches. ...As daughters of our Heavenly Father and as daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers. And we each have the responsibility to love and help lead the rising generation. ...If we really want to make a difference, it will happen as we mother those we have borne and those we are willing to bear with...My dear sisters, whom I love more than I know how to express, will you rise to the challenge of being mothers in these perilous times, though doing so may test the last ounce of your endurance and courage and faith? Will you stand steadfast and immovable as a mother in Israel and a woman of God? Our Father and His Only Begotten Son have given us a sacred stewardship and a holy crown in their kingdom. May we rejoice in it. And may we be worthy of Their trust."

Happy Mother's Day to all of the women I know and love and thank you for your influence and guiding example to me.

Notes

Lynnsey is always writing these days. She writes notes for us and for her friends at school. She writes in her journal often. She writes down song lyrics from High School Musical. Sometimes she just writes random words. She always seems to have a notebook or scratch paper or paper towel or something that she is writing on. We go through a ton of paper around here. The other day we found a little notebook that she had written: "I have a boyfriend" on one page and on another page she had written: "My mom yeld at me." She refuses to talk about the boyfriend to us, but Kendall says he knows but has been sworn to secrecy. And the yelling, well, I'm sure I did. It's not pleasant to see it in cute little writing though.

Anyway, a couple of nights ago I was trying to get the kids to clean up the house before getting ready for bed. Lynnsey absolutely loathes cleaning and we struggle to get her to do anything. Sometimes it's just easier to do it ourselves. But I'm really trying to get her to be more responsible. So I called her in to talk to her about it and explained very calmly why she needed to pull her weight around here and how I can have more time to spend with her if I don't have to clean up after her constantly. She listened intently, said okay, and then went into the other room where I thought she was cleaning. After a few minutes she came back and handed me a note:

I can't cleen. it is too Hrd. I riLee riLee riLee riLee DOT No hao to cleen. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I thought it was so cute I almost let her off the hook. But I didn't. I ended up pretending to be her kindergarten teacher and she pretended she was cleaning at school. Whatever works I guess.

Work Day

Yesterday was the first day in a very long time that we've been able to spend time at home getting some much needed work done in the house and on the yard. We are completely sore and exhausted today but it feels great too when we see what we accomplished. The day started with Kendall's soccer game. He did great from what I could see in between breaking up one argument after another between Lynnsey and Spencer. Taylor will most likely start his games next week. I'll be sure to get pictures of both boys at some point. Once we arrived home and had lunch, I started inside by attacking a mountain of laundry and scrubbing out our fridge. I figure I'd spare you the pictures of those feats because they were not pleasant--especially the fridge. Let's just say it's been awhile... Meanwhile, Kalen and the boys were out in the yard getting lots done too. After some recent very windy days the yard was full of branches so Taylor and Kendall gathered those up.

Our pond filters were pretty nasty so Kalen got those cleaned and going again. I'm sure the fish are thankful.

Kalen got the garden all tilled and ready for planting. Isn't that beautiful dirt??? We had hoped to get the peas planted yesterday but ran out of time.

One item of business that we hadn't planned on dealing with yet was the fence that supported our rose bushes. Kalen went to check on it to see what needed to be done to reinforce it and realized that one little push from the kids would have them completely buried beneath it. So he ended up taking the whole thing out and is going to have to fix it and then install it properly. Like so many other things we've discovered about this house, we just wonder what the previous owners were thinking! And we had to document this amazing accomplishment. Taylor insisted that he would never, NEVER mow the lawn no matter what we did to force him. He put up a fight but in the end he wound up doing it. He looks mad about it, but actually I think he was more mad that I was taking his picture. I really think he found that it wasn't as bad as he feared.

I also worked outside clearing out the flower beds in the back yard and getting a little bit of flower planting done. No pictures of that either, sorry. Maybe on another post. Anyway, it was a very long and tiring day and it felt so good to crawl into bed. Today we are feeling the effects but like I said earlier, it's a good pain.