Resurrection Sunday

We did the egg thing Easter afternoon.

I personally don't like doing this on Resurrection Sunday.

I prefer to keep them separate.

This is what happens when you forget to do it on Saturday!

We tried dying the eggs using kool-aid.

Not only did it work fairly well, it smelled great too! 

Cherry worked well.

As did the pink lemonade.

Mixed berry was the brightest.

Orange turned out good too.

We weren't that impressed with grape and lemonade didn't work at all.  

The polka-dot egg would have turned out better if I had patience.

I didn't want to wait for it to dry.

Then we hid them in the yard.

The one in the peach tree proved to be very hard to find.

And on a sad note, our tree didn't survive the winter.

So sad... no peaches this year.  :(

The second time we hid eggs, we hid the cartons too.

They had to find them first before gathering eggs.

For some reason this carton was hard to find.

Someone even joked that it was hid behind the cat!
~
Overall it was a great day which began with worship of our risen Savior
and ended with roasting marshmallows around a fire.

The Great Outdoors

It's hard to believe that five days before the pictures in this post were taken,

we had over 2 inches of this nasty white stuff.

This past weekend was gorgeous and we spent most of it outside.

We spent Friday and Saturday removing a fence along the north side of our lane.

Casey didn't help with the fence but she's good at sitting still for pictures.

The chicken whisperer.

I told him you're not supposed to hug your chicken.

We went for a walk along this ditch that runs behind our house.

These calves were running to catch up with us... that is until they were yelled at...

by the cows, not us.

Dwayne and I walked along the fence row (pictured above) while the boys walked along another ditch.

We ended our walk where almost all of our walks do.

At the neighbors... Dwayne's parents.

Connor self-portrait.

Connor begged and begged for my camera...

He took this picture too.

Not bad.

The tree in the middle has been there a really long time.

Dwayne's grandpa remembered that tree when he was younger.

Unfortunately the tree has been slowly dying.

It's vertical days are numbered.

The boys having some wrestling time with dad.

By the Fireside

A beautiful sunset.

We inaugurated our fire ring last night.

It sprinkled some but that didn't stop us.

Nothing like the orange glow of a fire.

We could hear the spring peepers in the distance.

It was quite relaxing.

Calf Season

It's that time of year.

The time of year when these guys think they need to be in my yard.

We just finished school when one of the boys hollered that a calf was in the yard.

The ornery little calf went the wrong way when everyone else left the ditch.

He then proceeded to tear down the electric wire in several places in our back yard.

I did learn two things today.

One: Casey doesn't bark when there's a calf in the yard.

I told her that wasn't good and she might get fired.

Rosie would have had a barking fest, complete with raised fur.

Two: Casey makes a great calf-chasing companion.

She obediently stayed with me and did what she was told.

So I guess she redeemed herself for not barking!

Nine and a Minion

If ever there was a toy or character that could

come close to being like Connor,

it would be a minion.

Always happy & smiling.

Always ready & willing to help.

Always silly at the drop of a hat.

Hard to believe our little boy is 9.

Can you tell he's excited?

This turned out to be a lot of fun.

An RC helicopter.

I know you can hardly see it but the helicopter is near the top of a tree.

It's the white blob.

Casey almost pounced on it the first time it took off!

~On a side note, we're minus one chicken.

We came home from church and discovered one of the hens in the yard.

Unfortunately, Casey "discovered" her too.

It looked like a chicken massacre... feathers EVERYWHERE.

We honestly thought she had gotten two hens instead of one.

Once Connor got over the chicken incident

(we call him the chicken whisperer),

he had a great day.

BHG

Big. Huge. Grill.

And you thought BHG stood for Better Homes & Garden.

How silly.

We finally bit the bullet and bought a big grill.

Now we can cook more than 4 burgers at once!

We also recently got a fire ring.

Not the greatest thing to have sitting in your living room.

No we aren't cooking our children!

It looks much smaller outside.

Just add firewood!

It's ready for company... BYOC.

Bring your own chairs!

Shootin' Good Time

It was another beautiful spring day today.

We got our pellet guns and went for a walk.

 I don't have a pellet gun so I make everyone else share!

I did bring my camera for some "shooting" of my own. ;)

Connor insisted on trying daddy's big Silent Cat.

He quickly learned how much of a recoil this had compared to his small gun.

Still using daddy's gun... it sticks out from under his armpit!

One of my "shots".

No recoil.

I love shadow shots.

This is Nolan.

It's about the only time I got him to stand still long enough for a picture.

Connor.

Still using daddy's gun.

He did use his own a few times.

We eventually had some target practice on an old, rusted coffee can.

Another target: cattails.

I'm not sure who's shot this was.

Nolan made several hits in a row.

I hit it on my second try.

We had a great time shooting stuff

and we saw our first turtle of the spring!