Connor Prairie

We have been itching to go back to Connor Prairie all month. But, Connor Prairie is a living history park that takes you back in time to 1836. Back then, there were no sidewalks and a lot of mud pits when it rains every day for 2 weeks. It finally dried out enough on Sunday for us to journey over there. Of course, our first stop was the barn. It was filled with lots of babies. There were a set of 8 day old twin goats, a couple of lambs and a couple of calfs. Our favorite farm hand brought out this one for us to pet. And can you believe it, the girl who LOVES cows, wouldn't touch this 3 week old calf. The rest of us gave her lots of love.
This little lamb got pretty friendly with Evie's boot.

And by the time we wandered around, we were the last people in the village. This was awesome because all of the olde tyme people gave us lots of attention. in this house, we were making May day baskets to fill with flowers. Later, Evie and I sawed through a log that they will use to build the new Potter's shed. While Evie and I were sawing, Jim and Annalise were chasing chickens back into the coop. It was pretty fun. I'm already thinking making the 7 mile journey back, if it ever stops raining.

Evie's Play

Evie's class put on 2 plays for the parents last week. Complete with costumes and scenery. I have a feeling that Mrs. Burt has done this before because the costumes were excellent.The class all contributed in the program. There was a brief bio of each student and the part that they played.

The first play was the three little pigs. See what I mean about those costumes??

Then we all got to hear a nice song and see everyone. There is Evie, all dressed up for her part "Chorus 2", a narrator of the Goldilocks and the 3 bears play.

Evie proudly saying her lines. She did just great. Actually, I think all the kids knew all the lines because if you watched the ones that weren't speaking, they were silently saying the lines too. Cute.

We enjoyed some post show refreshments. What a great play!

Gymnastics superstar show

Last week at gymanstics was the Superstar Show. It gave the kiddos a chance to show off all their skills for Mom and Dad. And instead of huddling down in a comfy chair while zoning out to a podcast, the moms and dads got to watch all the excitement. Annalise is super into gymnastics. She loves every single part. She follows instructions and tries her hardest.
She has begun to master the backward roll. It's super cute.

And here she is doing the bear crawl.

I just put this one up because I know she would love to see herself midair. Yes, that is a trampoline. This is the ONLY place they are allowed on trampolines. No matter how much they whine.

Evie is also doing really well at gymnastics. she has pretty good balance and was very excited to be promoted to "Girls Level II"

We think she may be taking after her Aunt Laura. She does great on the bars. In fact, when all the other girls are on the lower bars, she prefers the higher ones.

At the end of the class, they were awarded medals for the effort. Because kids get medals for everything now.

Yay for our future Mary Lou Retton.

Team Taller. Watch out, Olympics 2020!

Evie's bar routine.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

The rain let up just long enough on Saturday for us to get the remaining mulch spread, run 9 miles, and for the kids to play outside all day. It was also the day of the neighborhood egg hunt. We rounded up our crew to head down to the hunt by the pool.
Of course, they had to get their goofy on before we left.

Sadly, because of the rain, we haven't been able to get out and pose the kids under our flowering trees this spring. The yard is like a marsh and the poor little grass seeds that we planted 2 weeks ago are probably rotting out in the ground.

Here was the neighborhood turn out when given the green light. Look at those kids run!

Rumor has it that there were 1500 eggs! I think they were all found within 5 minutes and about 100 of them made it back to this house.

Later, Grandma and Grandpa Seibert came down for a weekend of eating. We did put Grandpa to work while he was here and the rain stopped. We needed to remove the half dead tulip tree from the yard. When Jim planted the new tree 6 feet away from this tree, he noticed that there were no roots from the half dead tree. After some discussion, the men decided to just push the tree over instead of cutting it down.

The plan worked pretty well and we don't even have to worry about a stump. The tree was rotting from the inside out. I'm glad we planted the new one. I hope it lives. It definately won't die because of lack of water.

Easter Crazies

Lent is finally over. Let the candy eating begin. We participated in way too many egg hunts and have way too much candy around here. That's the look of someone hopped up on candy.


Annalise shared these off colored twizzlers with me and Jim. Green Twizzlers? Ick. She was pretty happy about the purple one.

Then things started to get a little silly. We started playing with the eggs. Evie had both on her eyes until one fell out.

She wore these ears from school most of the afternoon. I think she is still hunting for more sugar.

Green crazy eyes.

I got in on it. They thought it was hilarious that I couldn't see so they were trying to sneak candy while these eggs were on my eyes.

Annalise couldn't get the eggs to stick to her squishy face. Instead she showed us the baby chick that she found in an egg a preschool. This was my favorite egg all year. She is still toting this chick around making nests here and there.

She did figure out how to balance one on her face.

and Evie got one to stick to her chin

Annalise's sugar high.

After dinner that evening, we colored the eggs. Actually, the kids did all the work. the only thing I did was to measure out the vinegar for the color tablets to dissolve in. The box said the tablets would dissolve in 3 minutes and then you could add water and start dying the eggs. It must have been the longest 3 minutes ever and Evie had to listen to hear if the tablets had stopped fizzing.

Eggs in progress. I did buy one of those kits but only because I was completely out of food coloring from some birthday party science experiments. I also didn't think they would get too excited if we dyed the eggs in onion skins or cabbage leaves.

The work finally begins.

In honor of Earth day, Evie made a cool blue and green egg.

Annalise stickered and colored all the eggs she could get her hands on. Thanks for the rubber band reminder, Aunt Kathy. they turned out nice and striped. A good time was had by all and we have already eaten 6 eggs. Just enough left for a nice egg salad for lunch.

Happy Easter

Our little beauties in their Easter Dresses. Happy Easter Everyone!

Lucky Ladybug

Each week at preschool, a child gets to be the "Lucky Ladybug". Normally it is the week of their birthday. Since Annalise's birthday was the first week of school, she was put at the end of the lists. The teachers said they didn't have their acts together well enough to do it the first week of school.When you are the Lucky Ladybug, you make a poster all about yourself. Stuff you like, pictures of friends and family. Things like that. I let Annalise decorate it all herself.
She put stamps all over it and lots of stickers. The only thing I did was to write the captions on the pictures.

Here is the finished poster. Well, finished as of Friday. Since then, she has added a few more drawings and stickers. By Wednesday, when she goes back to school, you probably won't be able to see the pink at all.

Home food production

A long time ago, when we needed beer, we just went to the store. Now, we make it much harder for a refreshing beer because Jim is brewing in the basement. His first batch was suprisingly not too bad and gave him lots of confidence to start a second batch. With all the investment, though, a bottle will run you about $4.50.This latest batch is not coffee, but coffee colored. It is an Irish stout. I was the lovely assistant for the night. You have to have about 50 empty bottles on hand when you are bottling the beer. All must be cleaned and sterlized. Jim was telling me that maybe we should just invest in a keg and a CO2 tank. Yeah, maybe not.

The bottle drying rack which was also sterlized along with the kitchen sink. At least we are clean.

After the beer gets in bottles you have to cap it and wait for 2 weeks.

Evie built this playing creationary. She's the only one around here not producing food....she needs a skill.

Shlaw and I opened the garden for the season. After I took off the 2 foot pile of leaves that Jim put on there last fall, we made room for spinach, peas, beets, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. We also put in potatoes along the back fence. Since potatoes can grow almost anywhere and the garden is precious landscape.

Some of you heard about the 700 lb tree that is 15 feet tall that Jim planted this weekend. Here is a picture of it--closest to Annalise. We are removing the tree on the left. Just waiting for the neighbor or Grandpa Seibert to come past with a chainsaw.

Jim also planted this bing cherry tree. At only 5 gallons, it was much more managable.

And my beautiful model with the dwindling tulips. Out of the orginal 300 from 3 years ago, only about 20 bloomed. Well, that is one lesson learned. Bring on the dafidills.