Making Money & Making Noise

We had a garage sale & put out a few things to sell. Eli decided to stand out in front of our house & do jumping jacks to attract customers & it actually worked!! He earned a $2 bill for his efforts which he thinks is so cool.
Adrienne was her usual cute self & I got so many compliments on how well the kids were behaving & helping me out. That was worth it right there!
In lieu of a kite a map will do just fine.
The kindergarten classes put on a production of the Little Red Hen this past week. It actually was cute & we enjoyed ourselves. Eli was part of the Brown Fox gang that tries to steal the hen's bread. He was "Lean". The other boys were "mean", "steel-eyed" & "fox". At least they picked the right name for him. :)
After the show we all got to stick around for some refreshments & photo ops during which one of Eli's classmates came up to him & whispered in his ear that a certain girl in the class was in "love" with him. We're up to 5 girls now that send home love notes in his folder. What's a mom to do?

Lots to report

Adrienne loves flowers & can not pass up smelling any of them! She's my big helper in the garden. We planted some seeds together a few weeks ago & the baby plants are finally growing. She's so excited & it's fun to watch her exploring in the garden.

Adrienne went to the movies for the first time. She was a little nervous at first but once the movie started she was fine. We saw Horton hears a Who. (Eli & I went too.) It was enjoyed by all & the scary parts didn't make anyone cry!

Nana came for a visit this week. The kids loved having her around to play games, read to them, & take them out to eat with her! They can't wait till we fly to CA to visit with family & friends.

Tony took his mom on a date to the (GMA) Dove Awards while she was here. It's fun living close to Nashville.

Here's my farmer boy!

The kids were very helpful when we took Nana to the airport. They were fighting over who would get to pull Nana's suitcase. This is the solution they came up with & it worked great.

Gentry Farm

This week I had the privilege of going with Eli on a field trip to a farm about an hour away from school. They got to pretend that they were archaeologists looking for proof that farmers had lived in the area. What's more fun than digging in the dirt looking for cow bones & old farm equipment? They also got to look at chickens & homing pigeons, go through a hay maze, play farmer, play chef, play farmer's market & pretend to be a fly caught in a spider's web. I think the favorite though was visiting & feeding the cows. Have you seen a cow pee recently? Trust me it gets lots of Eeeeeewwwww's & giggles!!!

This is Eli's class & teacher Ms. Brimm.

Spring Break

So for our relaxing week of Spring Break we decided to paint & decorate both kids rooms!



Eli has a pirate room with a new bunk bed (pirate ship)! He sleeps on the top bunk & the bottom has become a landing spot for all the pirate adventures his little pirates have.


We chose a Blue Silver color (the one in the middle) for his walls, but I'm not sure the color translated quite right in the photos.







Adrienne has a new pink & green princess room with a loft bed. She loves having some extra play space under the bed & it really makes her floor look more open.

This is the color we chose for her walls.

Easter

We had some beautiful weather for the weekend & spent some of that time outdoors at an Easter Egg Hunt in the park near our house.
Eli was the prize winner for the family as he won a gift card to Toys "R" Us & his very own set of Resurrection Eggs! The shiny eggs were prize winners & as you can see he's got one in his hand!







We had our services Saturday night & Sunday morning. The people coming to the services split themselves pretty evenly so we didn't get slammed either day with too many diapers or other not so fun stuff. It ended up being around 15,ooo people overall & over half of that was people from the community, not regular attenders. It's amazing being surrounded by that many people praising the resurrection of our Lord & hearing the gospel message preached! On a smaller note, Adrienne was very excited to get to see Miss Pattycake two times!
Eli enjoyed seeing Bibleman again but was more thrilled with being able to go down the super slide on Sunday morning.
With Tony working on all the major holidays it allows us to spread it out over a few days. We celebrated from Friday through Wednesday! I let the kids go to the store on Monday & pick out any chocolate bunny they wanted. They thought Mom was cool & I was able to save some $$.

Busy, busy & loving it

This past week was a busy one for us!
It started out with Eli's class performance at fine arts night at school. He got to be a farmer & sing a lovely assortment of barnyard songs. Who knew there were that many! The kids also got to show off their artwork like puppets & paintings.

Then it was Tony's birthday. We opted not to put all the candles on his birthday cake as I'm not sure how to turn off the smoke alarms.






















He got to pick the menu & chose pineapple upside down cake for dessert. I think it came out all right. Adrienne was my big helper & she put down all the pineapple slices & cherry halves. She was quite proud of her contribution. (She's been very active with the food preparation these last few months & loves to help out with anything in the kitchen!)




































After all that fun Eli attended a birthday party for one of his classmates. They went bowling & Eli scored a 76. Not bad for his second time ever bowling. I can think of a few adults who score in that range. :)

This week is shaping up to be busy as well. Today is St. Patricks Day. The kids & I made sure to all dress appropriately so as not to get pinched as we wander around town & school. Tony will just have to fend for himself at work however! We're having corned beef & cabbage with boiled potatoes for dinner. I can't wait, Yum!

Later this week are the egg hunts and of course Resurrection Sunday! We're going to the Saturday night service as a family & then the kids & I will be back on Sunday to volunteer in the children's department. It should be a good service with Diamond Rio performing for the grownups & Bible Man & Miss Pattycake for the young ones. I know Adrienne is excited to see Miss Pattycake. I will be on diaper duty with about 100 two year olds on Sunday, so pray for me. :P

A real snow day...with snow

The view out our bedroom window was a snowy wonderland.

The kids had such looks of awe on their faces as they watched the snow fall. It was so sweet to see.

It was snowing as Tony got ready for work. Everyone was advised to stay off the roads, but you gotta do what you gotta do. What would happen if we got real snow like up North?

It actually snowed for a few hours & gave us enough snow to go out & play! The kids threw snowballs, made snow angels & even jumped on a snowpoline.Pretty fun to watch the snow bounce with you!

Adrienne finally got to make her "snow bunny" that she has wanted to make for a whole year. She was thrilled to the point of bursting.

Sunny Days, Everything's A-OK

It was a beautiful day today! The kids & I decided to go for a hike & take advantage of the 70 degree weather. It was good to get out of the house & soak up some sun. It's supposed to get back down to the 40's later this week, so this day was a blessing!

Snow Day

Well, it's official, school is closed for the day because of snow. As I write this it is still snowing great big fluffy snowflakes. Sadly, they are too dry to form into snowballs or any other snow creatures. They do make great snow angels though! We're hoping that there will be school tomorrow so Eli can pass out all his cute Valentines he made for his classmates.

The kids were excited to see real icicles on our picnic table this morning!

Chicken Wings

As you can see, we like to eat. Tony took us girls out to one of his favorite places & we got the wings. Yummm! This was Adrienne's first wing, you should have seen her when she finished eating the rest. What a mess. I think wings almost pushed ribs out of first place for Adrienne!

On a sadder note Adrienne's fish died this week. I gave her two "burial" choices & she chose the garbage can over the burial at sea (toilet). It gave me a good opportunity to talk about death with her again. It was especially fitting as a friend of mine lost her 18 month old daughter last week. As we talked about the fish we also talked about Saiah & heaven & all the other family we will get to see when we get there!

Snow White

Adrienne recieved some princess costumes & wigs from our neighbors behind us. Boy does she love being a princess! She is not as fond of the wigs as they tend to itch but the dresses she would wear 24/7 if I let her.


Tony on the other hand is perfectly comfortable wearing the wigs & looks so lovely when he does!

We've been fighting illnesses from everyone for the past two weeks. I guess it's the season for it. If anyone knows of a good "stop the runny nose/decongestant" for kids please let me know. I feel like I'm trying everything & it's not working so well.

Eli is doing well in school & loving learning to read. He's been teaching Adrienne & she likes doing all his school stuff "just like Eli". I've been going to Eli's school every week to help out in the classroom. Every other week Adrienne gets to come with me & "help" too. It's been fun to get to know his classmates & Adrienne loves to eat lunch with Eli in the school cafeteria.

Happy New Year! We had snow on January first & Adrienne was so happy. She wanted to play in it all day! (and night)