This was David's 2nd year to attend the Boy Scouts Camporee where several troops compete against each other for the coveted Honor Troop award. I hear we didn't get it this year... but from the pics, it looks like quite a bit of fun was had. Chris was able to go with David this year so I may have to pester him to help me on the details of what's going on in some of these:
I hear the Dads eat well at these things...
fire building? I know David was taking dryer lint to make fires earlier this year...
Courtney's girls hosted our April book club for Eleanor Estes's, The Hundred Dresses. This book is a short read but a good one. There is a Polish girl in the story who is singled out and bullied by a group of girls who don't realize how much their words hurt until it is too late to apologize. We had a great conversation with our girls about what it feels like to be the girl standing outside the crowd and not quite fitting in or being left out entirely. We tried to remind them to always be welcoming and that you never know what special gifts and talents a person has until you get to know them. The craft was to design dresses for these adorable paper dolls... brilliant!
Emily was blessed and honored to be cantor the 6pm Easter mass at our church alongside her friend, Rebecca. Oh my goodness, my heart is so full when I see Emily singing on the altar at church. She also attended the Easter Vigil on Saturday night with her brother. This mass doesn't let out till almost midnight so Chris and I let them go together and picked them up after.
My girls with their Momma Mary. I love this new statue but I have not quite gotten used to the new and much larger fountain.
Emily and Rebecca. Love these girls!
Me and my love.
Chris and I and our girls. David volunteered to tend to Isaac so we could enjoy and give our full attention to watching Emily sing at mass.
We typically dye our Easter eggs in those drugstore PAAS kits but after seeing a fun video on my FaceBook feed, we decided to try another technique. It was pretty simple and the results were gorgeous! Super important though: Wear gloves!!!
The steps were simple: Boil eggs, soak for 20 min in vinegar (so the dye will adhere better), put shaving cream in a pan, put blobs of color and swirl with a toothpick, roll eggs in dyed shaving cream, let eggs stand on paper towel for 20 min, wash eggs off in a bowl of water, blot dry with a paper towel and let dry.
Yes, everyone loved this craft. Isaac is so lucky to have older siblings... the world and what they do is infinitely interesting to him.
I initially thought Emily's eggs came out the coolest... she stuck with the blue/green/yellow theme.
In pure David fashion, he wanted all the colors, which usually results in brown or murky green results... however his eggs had the look of deep space with interesting random red splotches. So ultimately, David made the best looking eggs this year.
This is what they looked like while still a little wet:
As they dried, they took on an interesting speckled look and interestingly enough, the colors evolved over time with certain colors becoming brighter and others fading. So fun!!!
Christmas 2017 was a little different than our typical Christmas... We went to mass on Christmas Eve and opened up presents that night instead of Christmas morning. Here is my traditional picture of the kids each holding the gift they want to open first. It annoys them to no end... but they humor me.
Isaac got to open the first gift. He was so excited about the army guys that all he wanted to do was break them open and start playing right then. His siblings wanted to play too... and got to work as soon as the gift opening was done.
My "big" present: a knife sharpener. Yes, a knife sharpener. I'm a lucky gal. ;-)
Chris always gets amazing ties from Courtney!
Even though we own the entire Harry Potter series, I had to buy the new illustrated edition because it is so amazing.
A glowing fidget spinner for David... yes!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas for Isaac, of course.
And all my kids playing army guys together. Yes, my heart is full.
We were super excited to have cousins Lexi and Jed over for a visit right before Christmas. Lexi is also Isaac's God mother and she made sure to spoil him with presents... he hated every minute of it, let me tell you. Emily and David played their instruments and it was all very festive! This little video clip is hilarious on so many levels because so much is happening all at once. David is playing his clarinet and Isaac is experiencing a whole range of emotions and showing butt crack to boot! Ah yes, family life!
