Big Day Under the Big Top

Circus shenanigans! The kids and our neighbor kids have been working on this circus idea for months! It was an incredibly fun day and we were so thankful the laughing audience was as delighted with the final product as we were :) 



With the pink prop tent filled with costumes and accessories, the time came for the show to begin!

Caelan in her tech corner checking on her performers :)

The birthday girl ring master in an outfit her sister made!

Clowning around

We laughed til our cheeks hurt!

There was some funny business with the crowd :)

The clowns did their job well--they kept us entertained during the lulls in the show!

Free circus crowd :)

Set up for the Egyptian Act

Sleeping Pharaoh

Here come the Egyptians!

When the magician asked for a volunteer from the audience . . . he moved so fast I couldn't get a picture!! :)

Is this your card? Well, unfortunately it wasn't for the first few tries, so the magician's dad signed to him to move on :) However, it was very sweet that this fellow dressed the part and learned a few tricks to entertain the audience!

Never invite clowns to a serious school of dance ;)

Love this creative, homeschool crew!

Cake time!

Can you believe how many people are crowded into our kitchen? Ha! Love it! Buck and Caelan are making sno-cones to accompany the cake in lieu of ice cream. Caelan found a recipe online that called for Kool-Aid, so they sno-coned it up!

Out door seating, lawn games, peanuts, and popcorn--a successful, hilarious circus!

Ten and Three

First pick in the donut box!

Wow, what an amazing day Gabby enjoyed for her 13th anniversary of planetary arrival! It all began with Buck popping out of bed and heading to the donut store. He returned with two boxes of yum, and two cups of coffee--for himself and his mom :) We had a little time til church--which is kind of amazing in itself--and the kids wanted to give Gabby her birthday gifts. I love how excited they are to watch her open what they've selected, purchased, and wrapped. I think they have about as much fun as the person opening the gift!

So excited to see Gabby open gifts!

We attended the church of Gabby's choice . . . enjoyed sitting amongst the deaf crowd. I was literally in tears watching a momma sign beautifully to her little three-month old baby during worship. He was just in awe of her hands and face. I'm about to cry again! So beautiful!

An orange beret from Brennen!

At home once again--party preparations went into FULL swing! The kids set up the tent, loaded it with props, decorated the deck, helped our neighbors set up tables and folding chairs (so great that they brought these over to share with us!). Buck mowed the lawn in hyper-speed--which was probably a big strike two to his lower back, then proceeded to grill probably 50 hotdogs to feed the 30 plus people we expected for the circus party. Oh, he also had the idea of asking our Google Home thingy to play circus music, so we were a festive, jamming, jazzy place!

I'll save the circus photos for separate post, but the party continued til after 3:30 (I know, because we were planning to see a movie at 3:25 if everyone scooted in time, lol :) It was so pleasant to have the conversations among friends and the children all playing together in the sunshine--we couldn't have asked for a better day!

So, with house mostly reset and the party cleaned up from the yard (Chauncey helped with the spilled popcorn in the grass, I hope circus food is okay for dogs . . .) we had some time to open gifts with Gabby. Grandma J gave her a nice set of art goodies and a card full of cash for a clothes shopping trip! Buck and I gave her an Adventures in Odyssey audio book and a Captain Absolutely comic book (also Focus on the Family :) . . . and for the grand finale--her ring!









Well, just because we did all those other things in this one very jam-packed day, doesn't mean we are done celebrating! Not by a long shot :) We tried a new (to us) restaurant in town and found the food very tasty! Grandma's birthday treat to us all, thanks Grandma! :) We bought movie tickets from the table, since we were for sure running late! We walked into the movie theater 10 minutes after our movie was scheduled to start . . . and still watched three previews. Good timing after all :)

Buck and I saw Beauty and the Beast together on a date night awhile back; given some of the rumors, we just wanted to make sure it was cool for the kids to see. The girls' friend had invited them to see it with her, but no parents were staying, so I didn't feel comfortable with that (neither did Buck, I'm not the only "bad guy," ha!) We asked Gabby if she'd rather wait and see it with Grandma and Auntie Z on her birthday, and she thought that was a great idea. As it turns out, Auntie Z already saw it twice, and Grandma J was in the same boat as Buck and myself--a second time viewer. I think I liked B and B even better the second time. Such a beautifully done movie (with yes, a few things I would have edited out if I could).

We arrived home WIPED OUT! Goodness, what a long and entertaining day. So thankful we could, once again, celebrate Gabby in style :)

Spring Break!

We're keeping it local for this year's spring break . . . what with a new washer/dryer in February, a new vacuum in March, and a new vehicle in April, and in (current) good news--the repairman who spent four days with our air conditioning unit decided to repeat the Freon refill of last year, so we can "see how it goes." If that fails, he'll attempt to rebuild the inside of the inside machine--he thinks the outdoor unit is fine, but there may be a tiny leak somewhere in the main unit. Hooo-boy! So here we are, locally and economically, breaking with a couple of guests!

Day 1: Buck and the boys spent some quality time restructuring our retaining wall/flower display. The blocks were getting pretty shifty, so Buck dug them all out, sent the boys up the hill to dig fill dirt, and had Graysen stuff gardening net between the rebuilt stones. We think this is where the decided tweaking in his lower back began . . . However, he wasn't feeling it yet, so he took me to lunch and then jewelry shopping! (Not for me :) We walked into a jewelry store we've avoided because the commercials make it look expensive. Upon entry Buck said, "We've got a daughter who wants a ring and this is our budget," (well, maybe a bit nice than that :)

I could not believe it when the lady said, "Here are our rings, they are in your price range, which one do you like?" Whoa! Buck and I zoned in on the same blue and white sapphire ring, set in sterling silver. Gabby wanted sapphires, she doesn't like yellow gold, and this one was on sale, so we could order the protection plan too--still under our budget! Wow, thanks for that God!

With all this time suddenly on our hands (we thought the jewelry hunt would take at least three store visits), we decided to run over to the Hobby Lobby--Buck's favorite!! I needed a couple of things for a project I am working on; and I had a sneaky suspicion they just might have some circus-oriented decorations for the kids' big weekend production. Bingo! We were able to find what we were looking for and even rent a Redbox (not at H.L.) before returning home to the lovely, waiting children.

Step One: Disassemble (and apparently play with tiny hibernating snakes found within--augh!!)

Step Two: Use the dolly--and teamwork--to haul heavy buckets of hill dirt from the steep backyard  hillock (that's an Irish word :)

Step Three: Apply dirt to seriously sagging wall.

Step Four: Laugh at your goofy wife for taking your picture outside PepperJax :)

Hugs all around! The Californians

have landed!

Day 2: The very next day was yet another day of spring vacation (two in a row! hee hee :) We spent the morning prepping for our company's arrival. Then the kids took another step toward earning their second degree black belts at the spring promotion ceremony. Before we could wrap that up, Buck dashed off to the airport to pick up his mom and sister!

Catching up with the Grands

My Friends Keep Me Young

When you reach a certain age, you kind of stop noticing age--or maybe stop being able to judge it accurately. It's not such a big deal anymore, how old people we surround ourselves with might be . . . until I realize the friend I spend most of my friend-time with is my brother's age! Really? :) FIVE whole years less than me ;)

I was amazed the K's wanted us over for our regular art and ASL lesson on Mrs. K's birthday this week. They had spent Easter weekend out of the state in the home of friends. They drove seven hours and returned to their house--with three tired, cooped up kiddos--like an hour before we arrived for lessons. But, we did arrive with cake, so that probably helped ;)



Happily, Buck was able to join us as we celebrated our friend! And thankfully, she started us out in tune to her own birthday song . . . it might not have gone so well if she hadn't :) I'm glad to have "come as you are, and let me be as I am" friends--they are easy to be with and that is a blessing! Happy birthday, you young thing! :)

Easter Greetings

Between the two churches we've been attending, we had our pick of nine services in three locations :) In discussing it, Buck said, "Whichever one has the 11 a.m. service, that's where we'll go." Well, it turned out that the church plant shares church space with another church just five minutes from our house (the same church where the kids had choir last year) . . . so that sealed the deal :) The late service time and the close proximity also meant--we could take the morning slow!

Even Chauncey is ready to hunt Easter baskets--he knows he usually gets something. In this case, we saved a buffalo stick that Grandma J sent in her Easter package. He literally swallowed it whole and we watched to see if he would puke for the rest of the day--seriously dog?! :)

Buck made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and sausage for breakfast. The kids hunted for their Easter baskets. We always try to be creative and tricky, but the kids seem to go to the same three spots where we always hide them, lol! Our house is not vast enough for proper basket concealment :) Brennen actually discovered one basket (without knowing it) as soon as he came out of his room.



"Oh, the bunny left a basket in that big pot!" he said, jokingly pointing to the chicken-cooking pot on top of the cupboards. Well, this was Buck and my "super hard" hiding spot for Caelan's Easter surprises. So much for our 10 p.m. genius of the night before, ha! Of course, Caelan wasn't up yet, so she did not hear this stash reveal and Brennen was surprised when later a basket actually WAS discovered in said location :)

Gabby doesn't exactly enjoy the challenge of finding a basket and asks for a simple hiding spot. Can you guess where her Easter basket is in this picture? :)

This brother went right to it . . .

And so did this one! Lol :) It took Gabby a little longer, but she did eventually notice the oddly stacked, restacked, and restacked again pillows :)

Once the baskets were uncovered, I decided to grab a half an hour on the treadmill before church. Buck and the boys decided to swap out the snow blower for the lawnmowers in the garage. It promised to be a beautiful day, so Buck knew lawn care was in his plan for the day.





Church was great! I think if the church plant always held services in the church building near us, we'd likely switch teams ;) It was just the right size for us--not as massive as our big church, not as tiny as the original church plant location. However, since Buck needs to get to work, we are limited on what service time and location we can attend.

Anyway, the "new" pastor was excited to see us there, he calls our boys the "pastors." "The pastors have ARRIVED!" every time they walk to the church doors on Sunday mornings :) Tough choice--we have so many friends, fellowship, service opportunities for the kids at the big church, but man, can the church plant teach about Jesus! There's just a stronger presence of the Holy Spirit in worship and teaching. Plus, the congregation answers up, "Preach it! Amen! Come on!" You know they're listening, you know the Bible is hitting their hearts and souls like it should. Ugh--I don't know! Decisions, decisions :)

Easter selfie :)

So after church, the girls and I worked on some special projects for a certain little summer arrival we know about :) The boys went outside to get the yard rolling. Pretty soon, neighbors started pouring out of their doors and the cul-de-sac was quickly filled with kids (ours included). Buck and I were working on our Easter meal--he smoked the ham on his Traeger, yum! But eventually we made our way out to say hello.

Our meal was sooo good . . . smoked ham, fancy eggs (Grey Pompon style with Graysen's fresh chives--still the plant Maga gave us from her house several years ago!), Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade bread and Irish butter (leftover from Christmas--we're all okay, so I'm sure it was too . . . :)

After dinner, the kids played outside while I finished a book I'm re-reading. Then Buck went out and golfed with the boys on our back 18 ;) Their rules were unique, and the day so beautiful--back yard sports on a freshly mowed lawn, a lovely way to complete a lovely day! (Oh, except I guess Buck would say he completed the day cleaning a surprisingly wide variety of knives with my jewelry cleaner while watching the come back of Iron Chef (ala cuisine!!!) on the Food Network :) Just like when we were first married . . . except we're not in California anymore and four kids were wanting to watch with us, but otherwise just the same, ha!

Happy Easter!

Hoppin' to It

With all the activities of the past weeks, we decided to go easy today. Little Buddy wanted to attend the egg hunt at our karate school, so we popped over there for a bit this morning, but the rest of the day has been dying eggs, folding laundry, and listening to the rain. I may have taken a nap ;)

Strategizing with the boys

Too old to hunt, but not too old to hide the eggs (hide is a relative term in this situation ;)

They were supposed to find 23 eggs each.

Making some trades . . . almost better than Treat Night! :)

The girls got to egg hunt after all! I guess the math was off :)

I'm so glad they can do this on their own with no help from me :)

Not Guilty!

What a busy day we had yesterday! Buck only had one day off this week because of a big boss visit, so our school week got a little wonky. On Wednesday, Buck had so many oil change, hair cut, dog vet, etc. errands to run that we decided to just have school anyway, even though we normally take his day offs off too. So that meant yesterday, we didn't have school. Instead--with the help of a bunch of sick and moaning kids--mostly Brennen; we scrubbed this house from top to bottom. Gabby was actually my champ of the day. She feels the healthiest (I think she got ahead of the allergy smackdown with antihistamines and bounced back the fastest); she helped me soooo much!

Gabby wore her Great-grandma Emma's hat

We had a 2:00 deadline, because their friends were coming over to practice for Gabby's birthday circus. What's that? Well, for months our kids have had this idea of putting on a circus for our neighborhood (I think this stems from the circus we saw at about the time of idea origination). They've been rehearsing acts with the neighbor kids (who also homeschool) and expanded their cast to our friends the M's (who also homeschool :) Coordinating schedules has been tricky because homeschool families are crazy busy! So when our scheduled practice time yesterday included a veritable deluge of spring weather--I got a bit concerned.

It ended up they could rehearse in our garage, so it all worked out. Caelan got her sound system (laptop computer, keyboard, and amplifier) set up on the deep freeze. Gabby assembled the props and costumes. And we discovered our magician already knows ONE trick! Lol!

In the meantime, our girls brought out some toys for the little girls (5 and 3, if I remember correctly?) to play with while Stacey and I chatted. So, this was a fun (and challenging) opportunity for me to work on my American Sign Language (ASL) skills! Normally, Stacey and I just write each other notes to converse. However, the kids and I (and Buck when he can) take weekly ASL lessons from their art teacher, Mr. K who professionally translates the Bible into ASL. I've been nervous to communicate with Stacey (knowing that I make silly mistakes, like replace the sign for "buy" with the sign for "cook" . . . "Yesterday, I cooked cat food." No, yesterday I "bought" cat food. I think during our conversation I cooked Easter dresses about three times :) My skills are improving, but are pretty shaky despite my crash course in college. However, Stacey is so thankful and happy that we are attempting to learn her heart language that she was EXTREMLY patient with me. She finger-spelled so slowly, that I could think about the letters in my head, translate them into a word, and then learn the sign that the word letters represented. Whew! Two hours, and I feel more confident--even if slow and grammatically miserable :)

After dinner, the girls donned their 1930's apparel and got ready for their first mock trial. They were two of the best-prepared actors there! And they looked adorable :) Caelan was an attorney for the defense--she had two clients accused of murdering a couple on the R.M.S. Mauritania. Her clients had been held in prison for 20 years without a proper trial. Gabby was a witness against the rowdy brothers (one of whom would lightly tap the knife he had hidden is his boot when certain witnesses took the stand, funny! but Caelan was so annoyed--she was trying to help the guy! Ha!)

Buck and the boys were able to join me as members of the audience, and Brennen kept whispering things like, "How can they find a fingerprint on a shirt?" And Graysen said during a recess, "Just throw them in jail! They're obviously drunk!" (we've been studying drugs and alcohol in Health class this week--he knows the signs ;)

After Caelan's defense partner finished an ENTIRE plate of the brownies that Gabby made, the two of them appealed to the jury one last time. When the verdict came in---Caelan's team won!! The long-imprisoned brothers were set free!! Only . . . they were actually guilty, lol! That fact was revealed after the verdict was read before the *court.* I saw the other accused brother pull out his wallet and pretend to pay the jury dollar bills (lol!) I think if there was a mock trial club around here, the girls would enjoy participating! Either way--when I am

The whole crew

inevitably called for jury duty every other year for the rest of my life, the kids will better understand what I am doing at whatever courthouse I'm visiting that round :)