Grace's Actual Birthday

More than a month later - because, as you can tell, I'm catching up on my posts - here are more details about Grace's actual birthday.

Even without a party, her actual family and friends made sure she had plenty of loot to open at the breakfast table, as has become our tradition.  (I haven't zoomed in, cropped, and edited these photos like I usually do before I post - I'm just trying to get them posted.  :)  )

The Graces and Bonbon were excited.  Here are some of the gifts she opened.

And here's the first batch of birthday Legos that she built.

We went to Red Robin for her birthday dinner - her special request - and I can't decide which of these pictures I like better.

 And, one final note about Grace's birthday.  The day that we took Grace to the AG store, we had a birthday party to attend when we got home.  We missed most of it, but caught the end of it.  Our friends who were hosting the party had baby goats.  Grace loved those goats.  We had a lot of fun celebrating Grace and her birthday this year!

About the Boys

I don't remember celebrations of Pi day when I was a kid.  However, it's celebrated now, and Jonathan enjoys it!  In preparation for Pi day (or the day before it, anyway, since the 14th was on a Saturday) he and his classmates had a contest to see how many digits of Pi they could memorize.  Jonathan already had 20 digits memorized - just because he's that kind of a kid.  But for the contest, he took it upon himself to memorize 40 more for a total of 60.  This was his idea - we certainly did not push it.  (We actually encouraged him to stop at 50.)  On the day of the celebration, the kids who had worked on memorization took a written test to show what they knew, and he had memorized the most digits - barely.  There were a couple of other boys who had also attempted 60, but they had each made a mistake, leaving them with 59 correct digits.  (The contest was not very popular with the girls in Jonathan's class, for some reason.)  Since Jonathan had memorized the most digits, he came home with his prize...a pie.

We surprised him with this T-shirt to wear to school in his favorite color, and he was thrilled.

Just look at that joyful face!  (March 9.)

Outside After School

We thought a smaller backyard would hamper our kids' play, but it hasn't, and I'm thankful.  I'm not sure why Grace needed to put on the cutoff footie zebra PJs, but they seemed to work for her playtime after school.

(March 6)

A Quiet Afternoon

Some afternoons - not all - can be pretty quiet around here, if J and G get absorbed into their books.

But not totally quiet.  Benjamin usually finds something interesting to do and lets everyone know about it!

(March 9)

The Beginning of March

Just a few snapshots, mostly from March 1...

The kids got a painting craft at Sunday school, but not the right paint to finish it, so we finished at home.  Thanks to Art for Elementary Teachers, I knew how to do straw painting.

Luke and Maddie needed to have a picnic.

Grace and Benjamin had to do some freestyle Lite Brite - ing.

Here's the finished product.  This is a really fun toy!

Snow bear, Maddie, and Princess Unikitty all share Maddie's new bed...

and Ariel and Baby Stella are happy in the cradle.

Jonathan still does not like to have his picture taken...and he's still very absorbed with origami.

Here's a note from Grace...as sweet as "shuger."

At Least I Know What's On His Mind...

(from March 6)

The Two-Wheeler

Near the beginning of March, we realized that it was time to remove Grace's bike pedals.  Yes, that's right...around here, when it's time to learn to ride your bike, Jeff (my bike-mechanic-craigslist hero) takes off the pedals and training wheels, turning the bike into a Strider, and you learn to balance for a bit, then put the pedals back on and ride like you've always known how.

When we got around to it, Grace was definitely ready to learn to balance.  And she loved it.  I can't remember who introduced me to this method of learning to ride a two-wheeler - probably a blogger I don't know somewhere - but it was brilliant.  Grace and Jonathan both took to it right away.

And just a few days later, Jeff put the pedals back on - but no training wheels - and she got it.  Amazing.  Starting took a little practice, but she could ride on her first try.  She was so proud, and so were we.  It's so gratifying to see your kid learn to ride a two-wheeler.  Not as wonderful as when the kiddo learns to read - at least for me - but still really great.

She loves speed!

The Doves

Early in March, we notice a pair of mourning doves that were hanging around our side yard a lot.  They were very sweet, and the kids loved watching them.

They seemed particularly interested in our hanging baskets.  If you haven't been here, I should explain that we have one on each side of our little outdoor eating spot.  Here's the basket to the left...

and here's the basket to the right.  After awhile, we were pretty sure that the doves had chosen the right basket for their nest.  Unfortunately, I needed to water the flowers, and in doing so, I scared the female dove nearly to pieces.  She banged into the window as she tried to escape me, and I felt terrible!

We saw that she and her husband had an egg...and we prayed that she would come back and warm it up, despite the big scare I had given her.

Thankfully, she did.

She was a very good mama.  She almost never left her egg.  She didn't seem to mind the water line wrapping around her nest!

She did leave it once, and I got a picture.  She had a second egg.  I thought the little eggs were so beautiful.

The kids and I did a little research on doves and estimated the date that we thought the eggs might hatch.  We watched the doves all the time - which wasn't hard to do, because we could see the mama at our own meals.  The kids just loved her and were so excited to see baby birds!

And then one morning, just a few days before we thought the eggs might hatch, she was gone.  I looked at where her nest used to be, and there were just clumps of feathers, with clumps of feathers on the ground and a dusting of little downy feathers.  And eggshells.  I was so, so disappointed.  And it was not fun to break the news to the kids.  The younger kids shed tears over the small tragedy.  Benjamin convinced himself that she flew away, but we were all very sad about the loss of the eggs and the mama dove.

Photos from February that I Just Couldn't Skip

Yes, it's April...but there were some memories worth noting in February...not cropped, not edited, but I just need to (finally) get them posted.

"Look at the giant word that I made!"

Grace, wearing the hat Jeff brought her from Nebraska.  Sleeping under Ginny.

Jonathan was inspired by the How to Train Your Dragon movies and made this mobile for his room.  The clouds were his own design.  

The plum tree bloomed like crazy this year!  Jeff has his pruning and thinning job cut out for him.  It was beautiful, the bees were so happy, and it smelled so good!

Grace decided it was time to put her binoculars to good use and watch the birds.

We had a feeder (thanks, Jen!) and a nesting kit up for them.

And Grace decided to write a message to them in bird language.

I forget what she wanted to find out about them, but of course I had her pull out an encyclopedia.  Because that's how I am.

And, in other news, I made new bedding for Maddie and Luke's beds that Todd and Corinne had given them for Christmas.  Both mattresses and blankets are made out of extra curtain material from each of the kids' rooms.  Because that's how I am!  Maddie doesn't seem to mind.  Benjamin was so anxious to have Luke's mattress and blanket that I didn't get the buttons sewn onto the mattress, and I didn't get a picture, either.