Shotsnaps

Bride of Frankenstein

Skylark and Zeke made a joint effort with the makeup stash to turn her into someone extraordinary, and I returned to find that they were more successful than I ever could have imagined.

So creepy.

By this point, Zeke had also sprouted a handsome moustache.

They made quite the pair. (Lock your doors tonight. Hang garlic. Whatever you need to do.)

Mired in a case of late-winter malaise, I really, REALLY had no desire to tap trees this year and put it off for a solid week while sap flowed. Since we were fresh out of maple syrup, though, I had no choice!

At least there are always helper-elves in plenty around these parts.

I had no idea this picture was being taken by a small boy. GRUMPY!

Here's a tree-elf grin to balance the scales.

People are More Important than Food

(Millie still had 1/3 of the doughnut dough to roll out, and space was at a premium. It reminded me of Homer Price, so I took a picture.)

I do believe people are more important than food, and yet the only snapshot I took when the Moyers and Halls visited was the row of bread that Millie baked, and here, when we had Purdyville representatives plus Curtis and Michael, I took two pictures of doughnuts and only one of people. BUT LOOK AT ALL THE DOUGHNUTS! We squeaked by with just enough food for guests the weekend before, which explains why we went overboard when Purdys came. Plus, their appetites did not live up to their prodigious reputation.

Evan gave Susannah and Lucinda amazing birthday gifts. Evan had others contribute to this giant pickle jar filled with a fortune's worth of coins and quirky surprises. It was better than pirate treasure, and she had a lot of fun poring over all the little gifts before bed.

It was a good day filled with sledding and company, marred only by a minor altercation between both of my hands and a pot of oil that boiled over onto them, so here's another picture of food.
Leftover doughnuts.

I mentioned that Evan gave Lucinda an amazing birthday gift, too, right?
TEN POUNDS OF GUMMY BEARS.
More food.

I can never top that.
Happy birthday, Luci!

A Fine Day to be Fourteen

Luci and Piper set their alarms for early morning and trimmed the whole downstairs in honor of Susannah's birthday, finishing before the guest of honor even stumbled sleepily downstairs.

They made jello jigglers and a fancy serving tray the day before and served them to her for a pre-breakfast treat.

That's a good thing, too, because Susannah's traditional birthday breakfast (bierocks with extra filling and fresh apple hand pies) is always time-consuming and served later than it ought to be (because the Mama-Chef rolls out of bed later than she ought to)

I have no pictures of that night's guests or the party, other than this picture of undiluted exhilaration. Due to an impressive lack of clarity in my communication with John, combined with a 2-day buying spree, we ended up with all this ice cream instead of the three cartons I had planned on.

Dessert was banana splits with an array of homemade ice cream toppings...for the fourth year in a row, and not one complaint from anyone. :)

Happy birthday to our beautiful Birdie-- a clever, thoughtful, and witty girl. What a delight it is to be here as you stretch upward in mind and body both. We love you, Susannah Wren!

Convalescence

Two weeks before Olivia's puppies were due, she slipped off her line while we were gone at church and ran away with my mom's dog. They didn't return until 10:45 that night, and when I tried to coax her out of the doghouse so I could have a look at her because she was clearly injured, she was too traumatized to move. The next morning, we were able to get her inside, but she was still shaking and struggling to breathe easily. She had a pretty deep gash on the joint of her front leg, and I felt sick. We aren't able to afford a vet bill, so there was no question of taking her to a typical vet who would want to do an ultrasound to check on the puppies, etc., but not knowing what may have caused the injury, and given the state of her breathing, I was afraid of internal injuries, premature birth, and dead puppies. (Yup. I'm my father's daughter.)

The Lord was gracious, and John happened to find the name of a country vet 15 minutes away from us. He was in his mid-70's, mostly retired, and, as his low veterinary fees attested, barely making pennies from his profession as vet. He was a farmer's son, had graduated from Cornell, and employed a no-nonsense, old-school approach. He wasn't sure if there was ligament damage or not, and after telling John and I a string of interesting stories from his career (cows with rabies! cows choking on whole apples! a friend with parasites!), he kept her overnight before sedating and bandaging her up the next day.

Praise the Lord she was fine after 2 weeks of being kept indoors and daily bandage changing, and after a few more "Oh, no! She might be in pre-term labor!" scares, she healed up well enough to walk easily. Just in time, too. The puppies arrived on March 2nd. :)

She learned to read during her pampered indoor vacation, too, so all's well that ends well.

NEWBSANITY!!!

Somebody must have heard Annika telling the story last year of a fellow obstacle course racer who always jumps into the mud while shouting, "Newbsanity!!!"

The story stuck, and now Skylark does things like this into the impressive mound of laundry I've dumped out to fold.

To Remember

My conversation with Lark, with no sausage-finger-typos this time around...

Background: One of the girls came and let me know that Skylark had tried to follow them on their walk down the road, even though The Road is off-limits to her because she has no concept of danger.

To illustrate that, here's our interchange.

Me, emphatically stern: "What zooms VERY fast on the road and can SMUSH you?!"

Lark, sniffling at my sternness, replies, "A lion! [whimper, whimper]"

Me, trying again: "No, not a lion...what can hurt you if it hits you on the road?"

Lark, after a pause for more pitiful sniffles, "...A unicorn."

Sigh. We can't let her out until she's thirty.