Unplanned Holiday Break!!

Well, THAT was a fun week and we are all just a little tuckered out!!

I did not plan to take a week off from blogging, but... these things happen every now and then! Here's a quick run down of what all has been going on since the Wednesday before Easter.

Maundy Thursday we had a lenten tea and read from the Bible and had lovely foods to represent what we were reading... it was fun. I took pictures. They are still on my camera. BUT, you can see an example of all the fun over at my friend Jessica's Blog. We gained another dog for a few days while our friends went out of town. Such a nice well behaved yellow lab to run around and bark at rabbits, squirrels and birds on the yard!

Good Friday we also had a lenten tea and did something very similar to Thursday, but we were remembering the story of Good Friday... yes, my friend Jessica (even with her little baby) was able to get her pictures taken and posted of their day's tea. You can see her tea by clicking here to see what we sort of did. Maybe I will still load all of our pictures... but, possibly not!

Saturday we went to the Easter Vigil Mass on request of our children. It was very exciting for them to be in the dark in the church and then watch the priest light the fire in the vestibule. And it was VERY exciting to get to each hold a small candle and light theirs from their neighbor and turn and light the next one! We were at Mass for over 2 hours and Bump did surprisingly VERY well! Blossom had a few moments when I thought she would fall over and sleep! But, she made it through, too. All of the adults around us commented on the treekids good behavior and I have to say maybe going to church when they would normally be sleeping just might be an AOK kind of idea!!!

Easter Sunday the treekids hunted eggs, ate chocolates, enjoyed the excitement while I prepared a FEAST! Our Easter Feast included a ham, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, pickled beets, deviled eggs, pineapple upside down cake and fresh homemade croissants! We had a nice relaxing day and enjoyed being together.

Monday morning was spent doing a little schoolwork before racing around and preparing our home for our company!! My mom and dad arrived that afternoon and we enjoyed a lovely salmon dinner. The treekids were so excited to have Geemah and PopPop arrive.

Tuesday we went to Guthrie to see what we could see... PopPop took the kids to find a park and have ice cream and Geemah and I wandered in the shops and discovered that maybe we should have chosen a different location to explore sans children!! It was fun none the less. We stopped and picked up a lawn tractor battery and PopPop taught Bud how to drive the mower and mow the lawn! Geemah and I ran to Stillwater (well, we actually drove - but it was a quick trip) to get a few things for birthday surprises the next day!

Wednesday was Branch's 9th (where has the time gone) birthday! We woke her up with the standard Happy Birthday song and a tray filled with breakfast in bed delights! Pops had to work in the afternoon/evening, so we had a little birthday party over lunch with some new friends that we met at our church. She had a horsey cake, western decor and a horse pinata! The kids had fun and had a kick with other children! Our friends came by to pick up their dog in the evening after we enjoyed eating out at a local Mexican Restaurant.

Thursday we went to town, had lunch at the Rib Crib and hunted for a bike replacement for Branch's birthday. We had purchased her a new tire - but it didn't work quite right and actually cost 2/5 of the price of a brand new bicycle! So, hers had been around the block a few times over and we just returned the tire and got a new bike. Running around with Geemah and PopPop and just in general hanging out was the fun for the day.

Friday, Geemah and PopPop were headed to Meramec Caverns in Missouri on their way home to Illinois. So, we let Bud go along for the ride and visit the caves. He had a great time and loved every minute of it - or so it seems when he tells me about every second of the tour! Pops joined them in central MO that night after he finished working in Kansas City and they went out to eat. While all that fun was going on, we went to the HomeSchool park day, errands, a little craft/antique fair down the road and got our house back into shape post-company!! THe girls wanted to do something special, so we had their version of a slumber party... stay up late watching movies, sleep on the floor - in my room since it isn't carpeted in the living room and there were some bad storms predicted and I thought being together would be best! In the middle of the night, my wonderful landlord called from a town west of here and told me their sirens were going off for a tornado warning and that I needed to watch the radar and be getting ready to enter the storm shelter. I struggled and struggled with that blasted storm shelter and could not in my middle of the night stupor get it open, so I made a new plan if the hook echo continued on the radar and would come near our location. (I do NOT do well in a sleepy chaos!) Turns out the hook diminished and the whole storm sort of calmed a bit around our home. We did get a massive amount of wind and rain, but no hail or tornado! After I saw that the whole storm had crossed our area, I went back to bed knowing that I would be dragging on Saturday!

Saturday gave Pops and Bud a day of driving in thunderstorms. Then they were one mile into Oklahoma and they hit a pothole that was very deep and just wide enough that they blew out their tire. They pulled over to the side of the road as the 7th vehicle to hit the pothole and pop a tire! The Lexus in front of them blew out 2 tires. Good times waiting for roadside assistance and then making it slowly and surely to the big city for a new set of tires! They eventually made it home for meatloaf before any storms showed up in our area. He checked the opening to the storm shelter and had no trouble opening it up. (Made me feel a little foolish!) Before we went to bed, we saw that a line of storms was developing on the western border of Oklahoma. Pops set the alarm clock to wake him up to check the radar around 4 am. He got me up to watch with him and to make sure that I was awake enough for when the storms would cross the interstate to our county or I would be of no help! Turns out it calmed a lot and we again only had a lot of wind and rain. Too much sleeplessness for storms this weekend! But, we are safe and fine and our pond is filling up!

Sunday we went to church in the morning and enjoyed eating the Knights of Columbus' breakfast. We had a calm afternoon and I even managed to snag a nap!

SO, it has been busy around here and it surely doesn't feel like I took any kind of vacation! But, I just didn't make or find any extra time to do much on the computer! Now, I am back and hoping to get some of those 600 photos loaded that I have taken in the past 2 weeks!! Wish me luck!