Egg Night

Break out the food coloring and food-safe markers . . .

. . . 'cuz it's time to decorate Easter eggs!

Daddy manned the immersion dyeing station . . .

. . . while I helped with the speckle station . . .

. . . and got our egg lathe out of storage.

We decorated a fun variety of hard-boiled eggs . . .

. . . and some blown eggs to hang in our indoor window.

I invited Joy to illustrate one of my hard-boiled eggs, and I really like how it turned out.  I considered calling it "Behold the Power of Cheese," but I think that's copyrighted. ;-)

Also, nothing fixes a smudge like a little humor.

A Trophy and a Tumble

Joy and Anna continued their flurry of artistic creativity this morning.

Joy made an abstract rendition of a twin sunset from Star Wars 4 (you know, the original one).

Anna made a trophy . . .

. . . and then warmed my heart by presenting it to me.  Awww!

This afternoon, we returned to Oak Hill . . .

. . . so Daddy could take pictures from Lookout Rock.

Joy decided to shimmy up and down the cliff I was reluctant to let her climb last time.  She lost her footing and fell ten feet into a bunch of thorny bushes.

Joy and I spent the rest of the afternoon in an urgent care center making sure she wasn't concussed, fractured, or in need of stitches.  She wasn't, but experience has taught me that it's better to be safe than sorry.  Experience has also now taught me to bring a first aid kit along on future hikes.

The World Is Our Canvas

Friday means no homeschool classes around here, and today it also meant . . .

. . . lots of spontaneous art projects.  Anna decided to make something with construction paper and a foam cup . . .

. . . while Joy painted a cardboard box that had been waiting to be recycled.

Anna helped her paint the top . . . 

. . . and I think the eclectic final result looks pretty cool.

Later in the afternoon, the kids all headed out to the driveway with sidewalk chalk (maybe we should call it "driveway chalk"?) . . .

. . . to write encouraging messages by the street for pedestrians to see . . .

. . . and draw collaborative scenes with their siblings.

Joy also drew a cheerful blue elf . . .

. . . and Todd drew Globey.  Of course. 

Lookout Rock

The kids and I branched out this afternoon . . . 

. . . and tried a new trail over on Oak Hill. (Don't ask me why Joy is only wearing one sock; I don't know.)

The trail went up past a large water tower . . .

. . . to Lookout Rock, which is one of the highest spots in our area.

We admired the impressive view, then Joy asked if she could climb down a twenty-foot cliff nearby.  I really didn't want our pleasant outing to end with an ambulance ride (memorable though that would be), so I said no.

Joy and her shirt thought I was overreacting.  I try to support my firstborn's adventurous streak most of the time, but in this case I felt the risk outweighed the fun potential, especially since I was the only parent on hand to help out if something went wrong.  Joy had to settle for the adventure of choosing a different trail for us to follow back down to the car.

Then we drove home and ate sliders in the screened porch.  Hooray for warm spring weather!

A Puzzle and a Park

At some point in the pandemic, our library acquired an interesting new feature:

A puzzle swap table.  You can drop off a puzzle you're done with, and choose a new one to try.

This afternoon, we picked up a new puzzle (the horse picture is beautiful, but I suspect all those little twigs and water ripples are going to be hard to piece together) . . .

. . . on our way to the park.  Joy arrived barefoot, as usual, then grimaced when she saw all the woodchips she would have to walk on to play on the playground.  She asked if she could borrow my shoes . . .

. . . then ditched them a minute later . . .

. . . and never put them back on.  She has tough feet.

This evening, we watched a wonderful musical broadcast with performances by Latter-day Saint youth and adults from around the world.  My favorite number was "A Fonte" by a soloist from Brazil.  It's funny how you can find a song incredibly inspiring even when you don't understand the words.

Illustrated Syllables and Jumping through Hoops

Lessons in our homeschool curriculum are often multifaceted.  For example . . .

. . . this little exercise was designed to teach both spelling skills and syllable structure, then Todd added an artistic component.  'Cuz why not draw squishmallows on your spelling assignment?

Ivy came over to play after school, and the kids encouraged her to jump through our Frisbee ring.

Anna: Nice job, Ivy!

Ivy: Treat please?

Growing on Sunday

What did you do this Sunday?

Todd read The Friend magazine.

Daniel played the piano.

Anna and Joy bonded while playing Frisbee with a tree (the trees in our yard catch the Frisbee ring about as often as the people do).

I admired the crocus sprouts poking up in our berry patch . . .

. . . the mini daffodils blooming cheerily in our bay window . . .

. . . and the broken succulent that really did grow back, just like the Internet said it would!  It's funny how something can make you smile, then make you cry, then make you smile because you cried and then things got better.

Spring!

Hooray!  It's the first day of spring!

Phillip tuned up our bikes . . .

. . . then took the kids for a nice ride (while I attended a virtual training meeting--sigh).

And this photo is totally random and unrelated, which is why it's fun.

Happy Spring!

The Daffodils Won

 When I walked into Trader Joe's this afternoon, I told myself, "You DON'T need any more plants!"

Then I saw this box of mini daffodils and thought, "Oh! They're so cute!  And I can reuse that box for other plants!  And . . ."  I think you can guess where that conversation went.

Then I headed over to the cheese section to choose a wedge or two . . .

. . . and, well . . .

Final score: 

Trader Joe's - 2

Self-restraint - 0

On a different note, someone in my extended family shared this sweet picture of my grandparents this afternoon.  They passed away a couple years ago, and today would have been their 73rd anniversary.  I feel so grateful to have grown up seeing their example of deep love for God, their family, and each other.