Rewind: Easter 2013

We had a very nice Easter this year and it was a pretty low key day all around.  The kids found their baskets from the Easter Bunny in the morning and then the bunny came back and hid the hard boiled eggs that we had dyed the day or two before.

 

I had the kids wear new duds to church that day (of course).  Hudson is getting a little old to be forced into cute little outfits with multiple pieces so he just got a cool new tie.  Claire, on the other hand, is all over getting new outfits so she got a dress with a cardigan shrug and new shoes.  Between her willingness and desire to have new clothes and the fact that I'm a sucker for them, she definitely makes out better than her brother on holidays.

 

 

We were joined by my little brother and his family along with his mother-in-law for dinner that evening.  We had a delicious spread of ham (recipe from my hubby's mom...BEST ever), sour cream scalloped potatoes, fresh fruit, green salad, and sugared orange rolls for dinner and fresh lemon cake for dessert.  I just love holiday dinners.  I'm glad they don't occur more often than they do because if I ate like that every day, you'd have to get a forklift to get me out of the house.

Rewind: Rain Gutter Regatta

I'm ever so slowly getting closer to being current on here...we're talking February now, people! 

 

Hudson goes to Boy Scouts twice a month (plus a monthly "pack meeting") and in February, he participated in the Rain Gutter Regatta.  We made his boat at home over the couple of days before the event...sanding, painting, etc.  Hudson knew EXACTLY how he wanted his boat to look and did a great job on the little details.

 

On the big night, Hudson's little boat (and his lungs) fared pretty well.  He won a few heats and made it to the semi-finals before losing to a boy who ended up going to the finals.  He didn't really care about whether or not he won and was happy just to participate and race.  Not that winning a bit didn't help - I'm quite sure it did.

On a random side note, the guy with the shaved head on the left lives in our area and used to play basketball with Max on Saturday mornings.  He's an anesthesiologist and as luck would have it (and I'm glad it did), the morning of my brain surgery back in 2008, he walked into my pre-op room as he'd been assigned to my surgery that day.  I remember being so glad to see him...it's the little things that make the hard things a bit easier.

Rewind: Snow Fun

This winter...HA, HA, HA!  No, I'm serious.  We got a boatload of snow (actually even more than that) this winter.  We had a very lame, brown, ugly, and un-wintry winter in 2011/2012 so the 2012/2013 moisture was a welcome change.  During one particular storm system in January, we got a solid 3 feet of snow up here in just a couple of days.  After the biggest portion of it came down, we went out and had some good, freezing fun playing.  Actually, Max and the kids played...I stood on the sidelines and took pictures.

After playing around in the snow out back for a good, long time, we headed out front where Max and Hudson were going to start working on a snow fort in the massive snow bank/drift between us and our neighbor's place.  They made some progress but their work was interrupted by an unexpected discovery: when our driveway is slightly covered in snow or iced over, it makes a fantastic - albeit short - sledding hill.  We usually keep the walkways and drive pretty clear but the cold temperatures that day made it almost impossible to everything clear of ice.  The kids took turns going down the drive and loved that the sled would uncontrollably twist and spin around.  I don't know how often we'll have those perfect conditions but you can bet that when we do, our kids will be out front sliding down the driveway!
 

Speaking of winter storms, we had a crazy one back in January or February.  It was the perfect mix of freezing temperatures, snow, and rain and it was a real doozy to say the least.  We had freezing rain and the roads (and sidewalks and driveways and...) were all slick with a thin sheet of ice.  Driving was pretty scary and downright treacherous in some places.  I was worried about having my kids take the bus that morning and drove them to school.  My drive started with sliding backwards down the driveway into a snow bank and ended with my car sliding down into our circle with pretty much zero control of steering or stopping.  Yikes!  I'm glad it only lasted a day.

More to come this month, I swear.  I'm knocking out a few posts and getting them scheduled for every few days.