Are you sure today isn't April 1st?

The weather seems to think today is April Fool's Day. We've had some bizarre weather today. The forecast called for rain, but we woke up to snow. It's not so unusual for the weather man to be a little off. The snow was coming down hard this morning. It finally stopped about 11:30 this morning and we had a little sunshine. About 1:30 some dark clouds started rolling in. It got so dark that I had to turn on some lights to be able to read stories to the girls. As we were reading I kept hearing a rumbling noise and didn't really think much of it. It got a little louder and then all of a sudden, there was a flash of light and a big boom. I thought, "Oh, thunder, it must be raining." I turned around to look out the window and saw great big fat snow flakes like you expect to see at Christmas time. And wind. Then more lightning and thunder. Then hail. 15 minutes later the sun was out again and the dark clouds were moving off in the distance. It was crazy!

Our Much Loved Friend

On Sunday afternoon, Ellen asked me to read one of her favorite stories from the Friend. It is called Escaping from the Hole, and was in the August 2008 issue of the Friend. As soon as I started reading, all the other kids came to listen. (Noah was taking a nap, or he would have been right there as well.) This is how James found us.

You can see that our copy of the Friend has lost its cover and is pretty worn out. They all get to looking like that. The Friend goes to bed with people at night, it goes in the van, it is read and loved pretty much every day. What would we ever do without our Friend?

Art and Chocolate

Here are a couple of sidewalk art pictures. The kids were out all afternoon drawing with the chalk yesterday, but most of it was actually done on our neighbors driveway with their kids and I don't have pictures of that. I haven't seen it, but I heard that Stephen even made a hopscotch game that goes to 150 and hopped all the way through it.

Annie left this message for me on the front porch.

A very cute little house.



I don't know what this is, but it's very colorful!


And I made some chocolate chip cookies this afternoon and had to post this picture of Noah. He is a big fan of cookies.

Sidewalk Chalk

One of the first sure signs of spring at our house is that we finally get to break out the new sidewalk chalk. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post some pictures of our freshly decorated driveway.

Spring has Sprung!

Happy first day of Spring everyone! Yesterday was one of the first real springy days we have had. And today is just as wonderful. The kids have been playing outside most of the day. Even Noah got to really play outside.

Dancin' for Joy!

It's Spring Break this week and we are excited!

All 5

The other night I got out the cars and trucks to hopefully distract Noah while I made dinner. The next time I looked in the living room I saw this:




I think it was the first time all 5 of them have come together to play on their own. It was great!

Dragonfly

I discovered this poem last week while sorting through some papers. Stephen actually wrote it in 2nd grade, but I don't remember seeing it. It's so good, though, that I had to post it. I'll type it just as it is written.

Dragonfly

by Stephen Mobley

Down, up down and up goes dragonfly.

Rain is falling, but the dragonfly dodges every drop.

A dragonfly is zooming and it's wings are so bright.

Go, go dragonfly high in the air.

Oh that dragonfly is so colorful.

No, no do not fly there. That is a frog

Fly high over the hill and under the bridge.

Light in the air, you are light as a feather.

Yay! Yay! Go do the dragon fly dance.

Happy Birthday James!

Can We Have a Picnic?

Yesterday was beautiful! The sun was shining and it was 47 degrees! Ellen and Naomi played outside for a while and then when it was time for lunch they REALLY wanted to have a picnic.





Today we woke up to this.




We're supposed to get about 6 inches of snow today and the wind is blowing like crazy. No picnics today!