Odds and ends

Life is settling down. I'm not frantically busy - as you can tell by the fiddling that's gone on with the blog layout. When you have time to mess around with that, you've got time.

Here's some fun things from the last week...

The Saturday before Easter we had the aforementioned "Eggstravaganza" at church then drove to Woodbury to hang out with Jon and Abbie. We always love spending time with them - besides being great company, there are many shared passions; Abbie and I share a love of cheese, Jon, Murray and I share a love of single malt scotch (in fact, I think Jon and I can share the blame for turning Murray on to whiskey. Now we're going to work on Abbie) and Jon and Murray share a love of early spring swims. Truthfully, Murray has the passion for the frigid swims but Jon is cool and went along with him. Jon and Abbie have an awesome swimming hole so the afternoon included a walk through the woods to the swimming hole and a dip by the guys. Abbie, I and the kiddos just watched in mingled awe and horror. There was the lure of a crackling fire and delicious dinner back at the house and then home again.

And the week has flown by. Sam Slishman, a friend of Murray's from NM days stopped by for the night - a lot of fun. He's been doing some impressive stuff in Albuquerque - check out Endorphin Power Company. 

Oh, and Murray and I missed our anniversary again! It's tradition. Even when we do remember it, we remember it wrong. We both thought it was the 14th. But the morning of, I checked the towels my Aunt Kathy made with the date embroidered on them and it was actually the 12th. Sheesh. It's been 6 years, you'd think we could remember. Thankfully, we forget together so there's no hurt feelings, just laughter.

Yesterday I dropped Natty off at school and ran errands in Putnam. But it was one of those days when half the places I needed to stop weren't open so I had empty time. Do I drive 20 min to do more errands or get a coffee at Victoria's Station until it's time to pick Natty up? It wasn't even a choice. An excellent coffee and a chocolate croissant - by myself, in silence - is a form of heaven for me. I had Sam in the Baby Bjorn but a) he didn't wake up and b) I didn't spill anything on him so that was a resounding success. I don't need or want to do solo coffee every day, but as an unexpected, occasional treat, it satisfies some deep craving in my introverted self. One of the things I find tiring about motherhood is that I'm rarely alone. Even though Natty is great company, it's still company. But I'll be alone enough when they're grown, so I'll snatch a minute or 2 now, call it good and enjoy our constant chatting while she enjoys it too.

 

Actual Easter pictures

Happy Easter from our Easter Bunny!

We had an Easter Egg hunt on Sat at our church

There was also a craft time that involved silk flowers - Natty was enthralled and collected some for Sam. He's very appreciative.

Here's her princess hat. I remember making these as a little girl. Judging by the "Beautiful Princess" look on her face, I have a feeling we'll be making more of them. 

Here's my goofy kids, hanging out. Sam is wearing a sweater Beth knitted for Alex and handed down to him - lucky Sam!

White Easter

We had a great Easter. After church, we went over to Carole and Murray's to meet up with everyone and some of us went to see the 2 baby pygmy goats that will be arriving when they're old enough - very cute! 

We all had a very nice dinner together at The Woodstock Inn. Unfortunately, there was a pre-dinner panic because Pumpkin, one of the daschounds, went missing (in the house? or possibly outside? That was the issue). A segment of the party stayed with Marmee and Papa to search and Phoebe saved the day by finding her in the attic. Dinner then progressed with the giddy joy that near disaster brings. Sam was an angel, to my great relief. He slept through the whole thing.  

No, we didn't have a post-Easter snow storm. I'm trotting out the photos we took back during winter, when it was OK to have snow.

This was Nattie's last ski of the year, Sam's first ever. We were at Carole and Murray's to enjoy the light a bit longer, their house being on a hill and ours in a valley. It was a beautiful sunset but the wind was bone-chilling. We didn't stay out much longer.

This is one of her first ski adventures - she's getting very solid on skis and enjoys it.

Note the dress over the snowpants. 

These next 3 pictures were taken when the Buttner clan came to meet Sam. He made it outside that day, nestled under my coat. But we didn't stay out long - he was only 2 days old!