Joyful Noise

Each week at community group Mrs. Toll (our hostess and pianist) prepares two songs, one of which is especially for the children. Usually she brings out kazoos (hilarious) but this time she had the perfect instruments for “The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock.” After we sing she takes the children in the other room so the mothers can sit in on the study and prayer time. Bless her heart!

Birmingham in March

I can’t seem to find any pictures of my Lady Banks in bloom, so how about this sensational yellow cascade at the Birmingham Botanical Garden! The kids and I visited my folks for a few days over spring break and enjoyed a chilly tour of the Garden.

One of the most interesting features there is the black bamboo forest (at least that’s what I call it). Someone with real photographic skills could get some great shots here. At least I have cute models.

 

 

 

 

I took each child out in turn for some one-on-one Mommy time: ice cream and sliding at McD’s for Caleb.

Go-karts and ice cream sandwiches for Nate

Shopping and frozen yogurt for Meg.

Chocolate Sundaes and picking up her cousin for a play date for Kate.

And of course there was fishing with Pappy.

Cook’s Helpers

This spring we took another turn providing the meal for about 60 ESL students and teachers at church. Meg, Nate, and Kate did a great job helping me prepare and then enjoyed playing with the other kids, gringos and internationals.

Afterward Meg begged to stay and help wash dishes (amazing how those chores become so fun when you’re away from home and working with friends.)

Lady Banks Arbor

I have always wanted an arbor for my Lady Banks rose. In anticipation of installing one, I let the willowy shoots go wildly unpruned for months (years?) until I’m sure some neighbors wanted to sneak over in the night and clip them all off.  BUT, when we finally put up this arch we could instantly cover the whole thing. It was gorgeous covered with little yellow blooms later in the spring. I’ll try to remember to post a picture when I get to the May pictures.

The Flower Fairy has been here…

 

Actually, we have two flower fairies. Every once in a while a little bouquet magically appears in the house.

March 19–Nate’s Turns 7

 

Good morning birthday boy!

 

Finally, a bigger bike!

 

Finally, another fish!

 

For lunch we had a fun picnic at the park and played on the playground and in the fountains.

 

It's always a special birthday when Grammy and Grampy come to celebrate with us!

(From these pictures it looks like he spent nearly the whole day in his pjs. He didn't, but we had an after-dinner outing planned--see below--and wanted everyone to be ready jump in bed as soon as we got home.)

 

On friend-party years I make birthday cakes from a box mix and try to decorate them in creative ways to match the theme. On the off years, since I don't have to spend time decorating, I decided I will let the birthday kid choose any flavor and I'll make it from scratch. For inspiration, I read aloud the all the cake recipe titles in my cookbook. A few caught Nate's interest, but when I got to Carmel Cake we all knew that was the one. Making the frosting was a harrowing experience, but in the end it turned out great. Garnished with white chocolate chips and served with Moose Tracks it was sickeningly sweet. Perfect for Nate!

 

After dinner it was back to the park to watch the moonrise. March 19 was a "supermoon," a phenomenon which occurs roughly every 20 years when a full moon coincides with the moon being at the perigee point in its elliptical orbit (the point closer to the earth.)

 

Watching and waiting.

 

Young astronomer.

 

See that little orange dot? It was bigger and prettier in person. Not quite a Supermoon in my opinion, but a fun outing anyway.

 

We love you Nate!! Happy Birthday!!

February 21 - Field Trip to Seattle

This winter Erik realized he had two back to back weeks of meetings and conferences in Seattle, so we decided to turn it into a family outing and all go for ten days. We knew there would be plenty of things to see and do, plus two families from church had recently moved to the area and we were looking forward to visiting them as well.

Our first adventure after arriving, settling in to a small rental condo, and doing some school work was to meet the Jacksons at the Ballard Locks. This was one of the few days the distant mountains were visible.

Minutes after arriving at the locks our toes were completely numb (and seemed to stay that way until we returned to Atlanta.) But the locks were fascinating; several boats/ships came through while we watched. Oops, I didn't actually get a picture of one going through.

After watching for a while we went to look at the fish ladder. (See picture below the beach photo--accidentally posted them out of order.) If there had been fish traveling through it would have been more exciting. (On one of my two previous visits to Seattle--in the summer--I remember seeing lots of fish and it was fun to watch.)

Next we drove to the beach at nearby Discovery Park. This was the definition of raw weather. Cold, icy drizzle, wind, gloomy gray skies, damp gray mud, and choppy gray water. We would liked to have stayed longer since it was so different from any "beach" we have been to, but we quickly retreated to the warmth of the car.

Here is the aforementioned fish ladder. (There is also a viewing window below water level.) This provides salmon and other fish a way to travel to and from the Sound, bypassing the locks. They can jump from one weir (section) to the next or swim through tunnels under the divider walls. Because the locks separate fresh and salt water bodies the last several sections of the ladder gradually mix in salt water. The fish can smell the "attraction water" up ahead which motivates them to travel. Fascinating.

When Erik had some time off we went to see Pike Place market.

We saw some of the famous picturesque produce

displays at the market and also the fish throwers.

We bought spiral hair ornaments for Meg and Kate.

We also drove by the Space Needle (too cheap to buy tickets to the top). It was

so cold and windy; we could barely stand still long enough to pose for this picture!

From downtown we drove to the flight museum. We couldn't believe all the huge cranes we passed and thousands and thousands of shipping containers.

Seattle - part 2

We spent several hours--could have been several days--at the flight museum.

We walked through the Concorde and an old Air Force One.

It is funny to think this used to be the height of Presidential luxury and technology.

The most interesting sections to me were the WWI & WWII displays. We also walked through part of the original Boeing building and saw some of the machinery used in early aircraft production.

We hoped the day of our ferry ride would be clear enough to see the spectacular mountains all around the Sound. Of course it was actually quite foggy and windy, but still interesting.

In Bremerton we toured the Turner Joy, a Navy Destroyer. Erik and I both had grandfathers on Navy ships in WWII, so this was interesting to us even though this ship was from a different era.

Between sight seeing and school work we watched lots of tv.

One of the prettiest days was Friday when we visited the Point Defiance Zoo with the Funches and Jackson families. Here's our motley crew of 11 kids: