Zork and I

Seven years ago, John bought a Zune.  He named it "Zork" and was quite protective of it.  These days, it's an outdated piece of equipment, but it's still mysterious to me.  Electronically inept as I am, I've never listened to anything on it, so I thought it was funny when I walked in the sunroom and saw Annie relaxing with Zork.

For the record, she's listening to Michael Owens sing the psalms.

 

Lucinda...

Is that LIPSTICK?

Such Bounty

With wild shouts they called me outside and held up the hat to impress me.





It was a king's share of puffballs to play with.

Hlearning Collages: The Fun Bits

Over the course of a week or so, the girls watched this performance of "The Magic Flute." They loved it.  One evening, I was finishing up supper in the kitchen when peals of laughter drew me in. Papageno finally found his lady love, and I arrived just in time to hear the pair sing, "There is no greater joy than to be blessed with lots of Papageni." Ha! It was awesome.





While studying the Earth, we slapped together a volcano for the first time.  I know the fact that we've never done this experiment before highlights my sloth.  That's okay.  We made the volcano erupt enough times to make up for it.

I wish I had more pictures of this, or, better still, a video.   After our Greek party, the girls put on a performance of several of Aesop's fables for John, Zeke, and I.  They assembled their costumes and made their masks, and all of it was delightful to watch.

A word of caution for anyone making Borax snowflakes.  Don't be too liberal with your Borax-dumping or you'll have a heavy layer of crystals on the bottom of your jars, as well.  I added so much Borax that it only took an hour for the snowflakes to form...and only three days to finally dissolve the last of the Borax from the bottom of the jars.

 

Ribbons and Trim

I had a wonderful Easter morning/night?/morning and got everything finished by the time the girls awoke.  Chief offenders ever since I shot myself in the sleep-deprived foot by first making these, were the chocolate surprise eggs.  This year, I made strange egg people wearing Easter bonnets, and I asked the milliner to make the judicious choice of manly colors for Zeke and John.

One benefit to all-nighters is being present both for the earliest crack of dawn and the excitement of early risers.

The yearly cinnamon rolls.  Gosh, they're good.

I snapped one hasty picture of the half-set table before we left for church.  The world was wintry and brown, so I was happy that John had brought home a bunch of flowers from Aldi the day before.  Also here is a picture of an egg  Luci dyed, cracked, and then tried to tape back together again.  I gave it to her for breakfast.  Yum.

We hosted only my folks, Deb, Luke, and Jae-Ryong this year, so we ate on real plates instead of the paper ones that the usual throng of nearly-40 bodies necessitates.

Someone (I think Annika) took these two pictures of my Dad explaining Something of Dire Importance and the Looks of Rapt Attention on the faces of its receivers. 

Lastly, Luke and Ezekiel looked mighty fine, so I snapped a picture.

Huntin' for a Wabbit

It was frigid and raining, so we opted for indoor basket-hiding this year-- a first.






Luci's basket was in plain sight on top of the records, but, predictably, we still had to lead her to it.  She was over the moon about the note and plastic ring Annika had slipped into it.

Then she tore into the candy like a famished chipmunk.

Piper was baffled because every blanket she looked under held only people, but she finally struck sugar-gold under Debbie's quilt.  (And, yes, we did turn the heat up for guests, but there's only so much heat the house can hold.)

Susie finally found hers stuffed inside a hanging bowl.

 

Millie, like always, had basket-hunting attitude.  She persevered and finally found it inside some coats.  It helped that we laughed every time she leaned against the coat-rack to ask in frustration "where in the world" we had put it.






For weeks, Annika had looked forward to climbing a tree to find her basket and had requested multiple times that I "hide it up so high" so she could climb to it.  On Easter, she opted to wait a day in order to be able to find it outdoors, but I had pity on her, and during a brief lull in the rain, we made Luke climb the pine tree and lodge her basket in the perfect niche.

Luke, Jae, and Deb tromped through the squish so Annika had an audience, and Deb indulged me when I commanded her to stand next to the garden rocks.

 

After quite a few circuits around the yard and close inspection of all her favorite climbing trees, Annika finally found her basket and slid-fell out of the tree.

 

 

The Absolute End.
(Until next year.)

Squirrel and Chickadee

This is for you.  Laugh if you want, but I felt compelled to take a picture of the upstairs once we finally cleaned it.  Our bedroom and the children's bedroom were clean, too, AND the closet, but I stopped myself from taking pictures of those.

You're welcome.  (Just don't ask if it still looks like this.  Just because is why; now stop being nosy.)

For Grandmas:

(Especially the one-- guess who?-- who mailed these fancy dresses just in time for Easter Sunday...)

Rapidfire pictures after church of girls and poofy dresses, 'cause I had a ham to prepare!

Annika was pleased as punch about her Easter hat.

Millie's curl was leaving at this point, which may be why she looks so glum.

And, NO, she's not wearing lipstick.  Sheesh. You should know me better than that.

Our lovely little Goose:

Pip had a sore throat and cough.  She looked pitiful.

Renegade Lu was a running whirl, so I took only this one stunning picture. Wow. 

An Inuit Education

 

Who needs desks to hlearn, anyway?

Luci Eats Mister Smiley

 Luci slept in late one morning, and Annie asked if she could prepare her breakfast plate when she woke up.  Then she asked if she could take pictures of it.  This is what I found on my camera, and then some (and some more and some more and some more).

Heads Up

A quote from the Owen household.

Time: 30 seconds ago.
Scene: The older girls and I scurry around to clean the downstairs, which looks as if a freight train has plowed through it, spilling cargo by the ton as it barreled along.

I make a comment about how my belly hurts, and I'm mad at myself for wasting time.
 
Them, erupting together:  HAHAHAHAHAHahahahaha!  Serves you right!  Whenever you load pictures, you get stressed and eat candy!

I bet you can guess what's in the works.  In case you can't, it's a Monster Post to come sometime within the next few days.  You've been warned.  Take cover while you can.

*EDITED TO ADD*
And the only reason why I'm eating candy, which I try to keep out of the house because of my shameful lack of control, is MOTHER'S DAY, the worst holiday ever invented.  The girls gave me five boxes of dollar store candy yesterday, thanks to You Know Who.  (We love you, McGamma!  Don't worry; I'm sharing....a little.)