A Crocus at the Church, Fairies in the Kitchen

Holy Springtime, Batman!

There's a crocus blooming outside the church today!

Joy gives springtime a big thumbs up.

In other news, Pink Grandma sent us some toy fairies recently, and the girls and their new fairy friends helped me bake a cake this afternoon.

The fairies helped out by gathering ingredients we needed.

Anything tastes better when a fairy helped you make it. :)

Tennis and a Big Puddle

Joy recently started a tennis unit in P.E. class . . .

. . . so she asked Daddy to take her to a tennis court today and give her some pointers.  Naturally, everyone else in our family wanted to come too.

While Daddy and I each served to two of the older kids, the third one collected stray tennis balls until it was their turn on the court.

Todd spent most of our outing stomping around in an enormous puddle, where Anna eventually joined him.  Like any good mom, I advised them to stop splashing because wet, cold socks are very uncomfortable, but what kid cares about future discomfort when there's a puddle to splash in?

The Invention Convention

Todd and I attended the 4th Grade Invention Convention at Daniel's school today.  The kids had identified real-life problems they encounter, then invented things to solve those problems.

Daniel was tired of his pencil rolling out of his desk, so he wrapped a paperclip around his pencil, stuck it to a strong magnet, then stuck the magnet to his desk.  The assignment called for him to give his invention a name, so he called it "I don't have a name for this."  Concise and catchy, right?  OK, maybe not . . .

. . . but Daniel did a great job of describing how it worked and why it was useful.

Some of the visiting adults thought it was pretty cool.

Other inventions included a pet food distributor, a chicken wire structure to protect seedlings, and this toothpaste squeezer.

And what, you may ask, is the purpose of this fancy rolling pin?

It's a massager, of course!  It felt pretty good, too.  I suspect that Daniel's pencil magnet will get the most actual use of any invention I saw today, but if I was going to buy one of them it would probably be this one.

Modern Monopoly

Daniel invited his new friend Erik over for a play date today.

They let Anna and Todd to join them for a game of Monopoly (this 21st century version apparently includes debit cards).

While the younger kids invested in real estate, Joy tried to turn Erik's transformer back into a car.

It's harder than it looks.

Natural Highlights

A couple weeks ago, Joy was shocked to discover what I have known for a long time:

My hair is slowly but steadily turning gray.  It's not that noticeable most of the time, but catch me in the right light at the right angle, and you can easily tell.  Joy thinks it's really weird that her mom has gray hair.  I prefer to think of it as natural highlights. :)

Mini Golf at the Library

Littleton's public library holds an annual fundraiser in which they turn the entire library into an 18-hole mini golf course.

How fun is that?!?

Many of the holes had themes related to the hole's sponsor.  This one was decorated by a dance studio.

Aaaand this one was sponsored by a local septic service company.

One of our favorite holes was basically a pinball chute down the stairs.  Another favorite was the last hole, where the staff handed out delicious cake pops shaped like golf balls.  Alas, I didn't get any pictures of those, because we ate them so quickly.  We'll definitely be back next year for another fun afternoon of golfing (and hopefully more cake pops).

Signs of Spring at Last!

It's officially spring!

The trees haven't figured that out yet . . .

. . . but the daffodils have . . .

. . . and after months of looking like a motionless sheet of ice, Lake Nagog is once again a vast expanse of rippling, sparkling blue.  The wind is still chilly, and there are still patches of snow here and there around town, but it is encouraging to see signs that Nature is waking up at last.  I look forward to getting to know Massachusetts when it isn't cold and barren.

Daddy's Little Helpers

Daddy decided to bake some Tollhouse cookie bars this afternoon to take to a family we wanted to get to know better.

Whenever Mama or Daddy start to bake something sweet, a few little Hendricksons usually volunteer to help . . .

. . . and lick the bowls and spatulas afterward.  How many spatulas does it take to make one batch of cookies anyway?

Looking on the Bright Side

We're trying to find a good home to buy in our new town, so our family has visited several open houses lately.  Today's house definitely didn't make the cut . . .

. . . but at least it had a cool rock to climb on. :)

Pi Day, Paint Night

Today was Pi Day--that marvelous combination of geeky humor and good food.  Naturally, I decided to make chicken pot pie for dinner.

How has it taken me this many years to figure out that if I have to make slits in a pie crust, I might as well make them festive!

After dinner, Joy and I went to a Relief Society paint night activity.  While I followed one video about painting cute daisies . . .

. . . Joy learned to paint the most colorful wisteria tree I've ever seen.

As is usually the case with paint nights, everyone's painting turned out differently, but they're all lovely.  Much like the people who painted them. :)

And now Pi Day is gone, and it didn't take long.

Pigtails

Notice anything different?

I mean other than the headphones.  Or the fact that Joy has started wearing her flashy, sequined skirt again.  OK--I'll just tell you.

Joy has decided that she wants to start wearing her hair in pigtails.  When I asked what prompted this change, she said that when she leaves her hair loose, she looks too much like an adult.  She'd rather look like a kid awhile longer.

Savor your youth, Joyful. :)

Winter Archery Party

A friend from church invited us and a few other families over for a winter archery party.

We took aim at target blocks, powder-filled plastic bottles, and even some dollar store Christmas ornaments (I wouldn't recommend that last one--the shards were a pain to clean up).

While the three older Hendricksons fired our compound bows, the younger ones had fun playing track ball toss and other games.

After shooting a few rounds of arrows, Joy decided it was time to throw some snowballs.  Actually, those look more like snow slabs to me.

Model Shots

Good news:

Joy's fragile model survived the bus ride to school, and she got full credit for it. :)

Dude, quit photobombing!

Books and a Paper Arm

The kids decided that this was a nice day . . .

to relax with a good book.

Daniel opted to read The BFG, and it was fun to hear him chuckling every few minutes.

Also, Joy used paper, cardboard, string, and one of our table knives to build a working model of the human arm for extra credit in her science class.

Pretty nifty, huh?

Breading and Blogging

I know a man who likes to go "breading."  He makes several loves of bread, then brings them to the homes of friends or people who could use some extra sunshine in their life.  I felt like going breading today.

The girls helped me make some challah bread . . .

. . . then Joy came with me to deliver it to some of our neighbors.  We had a really nice chat with one of them. :)

The kids also spent part of the afternoon reading old posts on our family blog.  After 12 years of blogging, and over 1300 posts, if my only readers are my kids and their grandparents, it has been worth every bit of effort.