March: The Winter Half

When I come to tell him goodnight I'm either greeted by a nerf dart or this face. 

James got to spend a couple of hours with Justin's parents while I had a hair appointment. He is defintiely in that phase where he wants a picture taken of everything he makes before he has to put it away.

This is one of the trees we planted last fall. It is a hackberry tree. I hated how the nursery pruned it but I had to wait until early spring to do any shaping. The first day the snow melted I was out there with my pruners.

Okay, it's hard to tell in these pictures what I did but I trimmed the trunk up to that lower white tape and then cut off any branches growing down. I basically made it look more like a tree and less like a dishbrush.

The egg on the left is a grocery store large egg. The egg on the right is from Justin's coworker's chicken. Amazing, right? I love it when Justin brings home eggs from work. Not enough to get our own coop, mind you.

For two days Erica and James worked on this elaborate game out on the patio. It was a cross between hopscotch and a board game. I played it with them and besides being totally magical, it was also confusing but I just went along. To move you close your eyes and think of a number between one and ten, say it aloud and then move that many spaces and do what the square tells you to do. There's not exactly consensus between the two of them of what each space means though. Sometimes you get to pick someone to move back to where you are or you get to pick up an item that has special powers that mostly don't help you win, they are just a fun power like flight or invisibility. I did not win.

Erica finished up her second round of gymnastics. She had to abruptly end the fall class when she dislocated her elbow. She really liked going but wasn't sad at all when the 8th and final class came. She thinks she wants to do it again in the fall if she can get a brother to go with her.

Henry woke me up one Saturday morning to show me the huge pancake he made and then he wanted to send a picture to Justin who was at the church. (Justin got called to the high council and he's in charge of baptisms so he spends second Saturdays at the stake center)

Sarah played in her spring concert on Thursday. She surprised us all with a solo during one of their songs. I was so proud of her! She is loving the violin and orchestra is her favorite class and her orchestra teacher is her favorite teacher. I hope she still loves it at the junior high next year.

If I ask James if he wants to go on a walk he'll say yes. But to him that means riding his bike around the block to play in the Finch's yard. That's his idea of a walk.

Me: How did you learn how to pump?

James: The way Sarah taught me is to pretend to kick Henry in the face and the way Henry taught me is to pretend to kick Sarah n the face.

Coming up this week: St. Patrick's Day but I barely acknowledge that and I guess there's some basketball going on this weekend. And I hope to get some furniture delivered. 8 months is a long time to wait for a couch, especially when they tell you 4-6 months.