Our Christmas

End of Summer Sleepovers

Sun and Fevers and Laundry

It has been in the 50's and 60's here for the past several days.  The kids have been running outside directly after breakfast to play in the mud and explore the temporary "stream" that appears here every spring.  Yesterday we had school outside.  For the second day in a row I woke up and hung the laundry on the line in the early morning sun.

Aside from our happy spring fever, we had a little scare with Jackson last night having to do with a fever of a different sort.  He had been complaining of a headache and then last night he spiked a temperature of 103.2.  Then he said his neck hurt and of course all we could think of was meningitis.  So he and I spent 3 and 1/2 hours in the ER and several tests later we found out thankfully that all is well.  Today his fever is gone but he is in a lot of pain from the tests and there is a small part of me that wishes I just would have waited until morning to make a decision.  Hindsight I guess.  But in any case he is okay and of course we are so grateful for that.

Our dryer has been broken for a month or so and Ryan and I thinking very seriously about not ever fixing it.  While it does add one more thing to my to do list, I love the idea of being freed of one more appliance and moving just a tiny step closer to our 10 year plan (someday I'll write about that here).  Plus about 50% of the time I really like hanging the laundry up.  I think if I work at it I could increase that percentage.

Everyday when I walk out to let the chickens out I gently tap my boot on one of the garden beds to see how much it has thawed.  I think a few more days of this weather and I'll be planting peas and lettuce.

Jackson's Party

Party Highlights...
~ A very fun group of kids
~ A pinata
~ Building tool boxes
~ Jackson's favorite carrot cake
~ Simple and thoughtful gifts that he loved
~ Watching all of the kids run around long after the party was suppose to end
~ Ending the day with dinner in the barn with Kirsten, Tyler and Maren

Six

{Birthday morning}





Well of course I can't believe he is six.  Jackson's birthday was full of the usual birthday cheer and family stopping over and some really special gifts.  A bird house to build (which he did), a small rocket to launch (which he did), and legos to play with (which he has been doing all weekend).  But maybe the most touching gift he received was from his big sister (well and Daddy)- a kayak.  Grace really wanted to get Jackson a kayak.  Really, really, wanted too.  We don't normally spend that kind of money on birthday presents so we tried explaining that it wasn't an option.  But she insisted on spending her own money to buy it for him.  After all of us thinking about it for a month we decided that her and Ryan could buy the kayak together.  So she nearly emptied her piggy bank to buy this gift for her brother.  Then, to top it off, she made him a treasure hunt to find the gift.  I so, so, so wish I had it all on video.  Grace's genuine excitement at giving her brother this gift and his reaction to it brought tears to my eyes.  My mom did take a few photos...


{Before the treasure hunt}


{The end of the treasure hunt when Grace is reading to him what the gift is}


{His reaction}



We still don't have the kayak yet because we had to order it (we couldn't find any child sized kayaks in stores) so that will be another fun moment.



Another highlight for him was finally being able to try shooting his BB gun that he got from Grandpa Glenn (we had told him he had to be six to use it- which I was initially very nervous about but I have been assured that a BB gun would most likely not even puncture skin AND it will always be kept put away unless under the supervision of a grown up AND each time they do use it will be an opportunity to reteach gun safety, etc).  So Grandpa Glenn brought him some BBs and he got to shoot it for the first time.  He was able to hit a can several times.  I think we might have another hunter on our hands.


Happy Birthday to our lovable, hug-able Jackson!

First Tooth!

Plays, Plays and More Plays

We have had an exciting week here as Grace and Jackson were called back to the 2nd audition... and then on Friday we found out that both were cast in the play!  Grace as the role of Aesop and Jackson as the roll of the bull.  They have had two rehearsals already and really, really seem to be enjoying this wonderful experience.  All that being said, the next month and a half is going to be pretty crazy for us with four rehearsals every week.  Hopefully it continues to be a fun and exciting sort of crazy.

Back at home we have a lot of plays going on as well.  This one, by Jackson and Nora, was called, "How Baby Lion Killed the Dragon".  With a title such as this it probably goes without saying that it was exceptional.

Love