Memorial Weekend: only 3 more visits to the farm until my parents move

I am not talking about my parents moving from their farm, where I grew up, hell, where my dad grew up.  I am not talking about how I will never see it again or how my kids won't grow up playing in the woods, splashing in the stream, running barefoot in the soft grass.  Not yet.

Just enjoy the pics.

Imma gonna have to find a new favorite
background for family pictures!

Girl after my own heart LOVED playing in the water, flipping
over rocks looking for creatures and getting muddy

bench in the woods by the stream

All things are good in moderation, including rain

The weatherperson on the news said that this is our 5th straight weekend with rain and, on this 21st day of the month, we are having our 18th day of rain this month.  The high today, in the last third of May in Virginia, is 55 degrees.  It feels like the school year is never going to end, perhaps because we don't finish until June 16th, but also, perhaps, because it feels like early March and I am still teaching in sweaters and closed shoes, not cute tops and sandals.

We push the kids outside to play in-between rainy times, but often all they can do is ride bikes on the driveway because the yard is a muddy mess.

I love rain.  I could appreciate and be happy with rain 1 or 2 times per week.  It means that I have to drag out the hose and water the gardens less.  It means soft green grass.  It means puddles that kids can jump into and cuddly times inside doing inside things together.  I am worried that once this rainy season finally ends, we won't see rain the rest of the summer as our grass turns brown and crunchy and I am hosing down the plants every other day.

Moderation.

Anyhow, enough complaints about the weather.  I promise I won't complain when it is too hot.

The picture below was taken yesterday, on one of our 3 dry days.
Can you find the bookworm?

Hint:  the bookworm is not the little guy on the right

There she is:

Juney B Jones wasn't around when I was
this age, but I know I did read in trees a lot.
I love this girl!!

Easter and Spring Break

For Easter, the Grandparents came.  Then, as a special treat, they watched the kids for 3 days while Lar and I took our first child-free trip (longer than 3 hours) since Abigail was 2.5.  They missed us and cried when we called, so we stopped calling and enjoyed our vacation!

Cherry blossoms came VERY EARLY this year.
Then they were killed in a frost and it has been freezing cold very since.

Little man is SO excited to find plastic eggs

Egg-dyeing fun, which actually happened about
2 weeks after Easter.  Better late than never, right?

Very excited about Easter baskets

Mama and Baba enjoying some time on vacay.

April Update

April in pictures:

Our Little Book Worm, reading after
lights out

We took the kids to Lantern Asia at Norfolk Botanical
Gardens.  Due to Friday afternoon traffic and a few accidents,
it took over 4 HOURS to get there, but the kids watched a few
DVDs in our new van, had Chick fil a, and were super happy

It may look pretty, but it was SO freezing cold.
We packed pjs in the car so that we could change the kids for
the drive home and carry their sleeping selves into the
house.  It turns out, we are so glad we had the extra layers to put
under their other clothes and help keep them warm!

The family Ox: honest, hardworking, independent
and courageous.

Loyal and opinionated, the family horse

They say dragons are extremely adaptable, conquer evil, and leave
the world in peace.  Our littlest dragon seems to leave the
world in chaos, but he is extremely adaptable.  Our big dragon has
another trait:  high aspirations for ones self.

Boy and Mama

It was a very beautiful night.

Fujisan 

I told the kids that they have too many stuffies.
They said no.
I gathered all that I could find (and I know some were
missing) and the total was 69.  

Joseph started swimming lessons
and Abigail picked up with
her skills where she left off last summer.