Our neighbor bought some ducklings to raise. They are adorable.
We had an Easter egg hunt with our nieghbors down at the pond in back of our house.
We keep trying to get a good picture of everyone. It's a little tricky! I think we are getting closer!
Watching the dye pellets fizz, so exciting! Decorating Easter Eggs is a highly anticipated event at our house. Our neighbor friend joined us for the fun.
A relatively low number of eggs were broken this year because mom finally got smart and used plastic cups! Why did it take me so long to think of that! Still a few were dropped from such a height that they would have broken no matter what kind of cup the dye was in. Ahh, the fun of decorating eggs. It's no fun if you don't break a couple.
Jonah's birthday was in March. He loves Indiana Jones so I made him an Indiana Jones (lego) cake. This was my first time working with fondant. It turned out ok, but cake decorating is not my favorite. Jonah liked it and Sam had fun helping me decorate.
There goes Bekah, she's awesome!
Cousin Sophie went bowling with us. It was her first time! A few times that ball was going so slowly that it stopped in the middle of the alley and a worker had to come and get it out! It was just too funny! There was also a fair amount of lofting from everyone.
Jonah wanted to do it himself, but Grandpa was standing by just in case!
Sam's first time bowling also. He also wanted to do it himself and did a pretty good job!
"Our" outside kitty brought us a little present! A live bunny! Is this not ADORABLE!!!!
Sam had to hold it too!
Bekah did not want to let him go! He was so sweet. A little shaken up (understandably!) She has brought us dead baby bunnies before (and birdies and mice in abundance). One bunny ended up as two front legs, a colon and a tail left laying on our front doormat! That cat's a butcher!
Monday it rained HARD from 3p.m. until evening. This is what our street looked like! You could not see the street! Those garbage bags are floating down the street! A little later they broke open and trash was everywhere!
Here it is creeping up on the lawn. The good thing is that the pond in back is now full again. It had gone pretty dry this summer so we did need the rain, just maybe not all in one afternoon!
I got this chair at a garage sale for $4.25! It was labeled a sewing chair. The seat lifts up and there is a place for thread. I have never seen a chair like this, but I love it. I had so much fun recovering it! 
Since Rachel posted about recent boys' antics, I thought I'd post this picture that we took on Sunday when they were both dressed up after the annual primary program (when all the kids under 12 have little speaking parts and sing children's hymns for the entire main service).
Sam broke his arm three weeks ago. Now it is time to get the cast off. We went to the Doctor yesterday to get it removed. Sam was not too thrilled with the saw that they used. It was pretty scary! After they got it off, they took another x-ray and it is healing well. He has to wear a wrist brace for 2 weeks and then they will x-ray it again. 
A couple of weeks ago we went on a little family vacation to Branson, MO. We kind of took some back roads since it was the most direct route our GPS guided us to the Talking Rocks Cavern on the west side of Branson. We happened across a happy accident in southwest Missouri on a bathroom stop in part of the Mark Twain national forest.
There's a state park called Roaring River, there was a bathroom we could see from the road and there was a nice, big playground on the other side of the parking lot...perfect after 3 1/2 hours in the car. As we walked to the playground we noticed a guy walk down an embankment and we heard some distant noise of water. There was this pretty, little, spring-fed mountain river that was very shallow, totally clear and moving very slowly (in that part). This turned out to be our favorite part of the trip and made sure to stop there on the way home. We'll put up another post with some pictures from the other days.
The kids liked Talking Rocks Cavern. It's the first cave they've been in. There were some pretty formations. I've never heard of "cave bacon" before, but you can see why, and this cave is famous for it's bacon!
Yes, that fish was alive...though just barely. It was floating belly-up, but I could see it was still breathing. I think someone upstream must have had it on a stringer for a while and weeded it out before they headed home. The kids enjoyed touching and holding it (and it makes a pretty cool mountain man photo!).
The blessings;
After the flat tire and the dentist I said to the kids, "All we need is for someone to break their arm today!" I'll never say that again!!
We were walking around the pond in out in back of our house last Sunday and this is what we saw! Alan and I watched it finish off the frog, so amazing! Don't worry, this snake is not venemous.
Jonah being goofy at the pond. Ready to catch a frog though!
Now on to this week, We caught a big bullfrog for the first time. Alan had to wade into the pond, but he got one. Oh the excitement!! Too bad Sam was asleep (not feeling well poor little guy). This is our neighbor friend. At one point the frog got away and there was lots of screaming and laughing as they chased it down. We put him back in the pond shortly after.
Up close. Isn't he darling?!
