Random Pictures

The weather was nice last Friday so we put up a new swing in the old apple tree. This makes a total of two swings and a trick bar hanging in a tree which also happens to be perfectly climbable. A natural play structure, and it grows apples too!

This swing goes up and down as well as back and forth. So fun!

The trampoline went back up too. The kids haven't forgotten their favorite tricks.

(Saturday morning the trampoline had 2 inches of snow on it. Such is spring in Vermont.)


We invited the Norwich students over and dyed and decorated Easter Eggs. I can't imagine how anyone does Easter Eggs without feathers and pom-poms and googly eyes!

We tried dying some of our "real" brown eggs too. They don't look quite so pretty. But Gavin was undeterred and made his brown-egg-dyed-green into an army guy.

Last night Lucy and I discussed Anne of Green Gables at book club. The hostess decided it would be fun if we all (including moms!) dressed up like Anne. It was a blast. I wore my German dirndl dress with "puffed sleeves" and Lucy dressed as Anne the Lily Maid with a pashmina scarf as piano cover. (I offered to toss her in the river so she would look just like soaking-wet Anne clinging to the bridge piling waiting for Gilbert to come along, but she declined.) We acted out our favorite Anne scenes. Anne is one of my very favorite books, and I think this was my favorite book club ever. I love having a kindred-spirit daughter with such a "scope for imagination"!

Telling the Easter Story

Tonight Austin read the kids a book about the Easter story. It began by describing Jesus' travels into Jerusalem. Austin explained that he had actually been to Jerusalem and walked in the places described in the story.

Gavin: "No way! You mean these places are really actually real? And you actually walked there with your actual legs?"

Austin explained that yes, in fact, the places were real and the whole story is real. Then he went on to the part about Jesus having his Last Supper with his apostles, which was a Passover meal. Gavin knows all about passover because we went to a seder this year.

Gavin: "If this is passover, that bread must be matzoh. But in this picture it looks to fat to be matzoh. Is it fatsoh bread? I bet they eat matzoh in heaven."

Gavin really likes matzoh.

Austin got to the part about Pilate and the crown of thorns. That made an impression.

Gavin: "I bet those thorns were so sharp they could make a hole right to Jesus' brain. And then He probably started to think that 2 + 2 = 9 or something."

Probably.

When Austin got through the crucifixion to the part about the stone being rolled away from the tomb, Gavin burst in. He had that part all figured out.

Gavin: "I know! Jesus was alive! He was resurrected and that made it so that death won't hurt."

Not exactly, Gav. But he did make it so the hurt won't last forever. So we are all very grateful to Jesus for dying for us, being resurrected, and giving us plenty to celebrate on Easter.

And Gavin, your parents want you to know that this is a story that is really actually real.

Springtime?

Spring is SO late this year, it feels like it will never come! The weather has been mostly in the forties, warm enough to melt torrents of snow but still so chilly that we are all still wearing our winter coats and boots. I thought things couldn't get worse for our poor little bridge, but then they did. Two days before a guy was scheduled to come help us salvage the roof structure and the intact wood for a rebuild, the stream swelled up so the township decided to drive an excavator through my soggy yard to remove the "obstruction." So now I just have a pile of firewood, and eighteen-inch-deep ruts in my lawn.

We felt somewhat more optimistic Saturday morning, a little sun was peeking through and that inspired us to go buy the kayaks we've been coveting. Of course, it was snowing by the time we got them home. But if it ever warms up, we'll have one adult and one kids-size kayak for paddling in our river.

Inside it looks a bit more springlike, largely because we paid off our painting and hung it on the wall. The painting is of our field in the spring, with new leaves on the trees and the old hay barn in the background. We are REALLY looking forward to the day when we can look out the window and see this same scene! Please, springtime, get here soon!!!