Spring & Chicks

Happy Memorial Day to you all! I'll see if I can get a whole blog post done from start to finish here in one shot.

First off, I'd like to address the elephant in the room before our blog readers are left too much in the dark...

...we are looking forward to another little one joining our family in November! At this point I am 17 weeks along and feeling pretty well again. The girls are quite excited, especially Clara who is over the moon about babies! I should have some decent helpers around here this time around! For now, I guess this means I am much more motivated to get as many projects done as possible this summer before we are back in baby mode again.

Heading back to February...

Micah turned 8!

Enjoyed a little snow.

Some of the local homeschoolers visited the nursing home to read books to the residents. This woman named Jane got a kick out of listening to Keenan read a collection of Dick and Jane stories.

We had the opportunity to host several of our Schulz nieces and nephews on Valentine's Day when the babysitting grandparents were kicked out of their own house for a Galentine's Dinner. A fun cousin's night!

Another popular co-op day involved building bridges with LEGOs.

Clara indulging her love for babies with cousin Dinah!

Joanna thinks she is a cowgirl now that she has a halter for her bottle lamb:)

Levi made a fishing pole! It looked impressive, but it didn't catch any fish.

We celebrated our winter birthdays with a p-ART-y!

The girls had a coffee date at Jilly's on Clara's third birthday!

Matt and I got to help serve at the annual steak dinner with the Redwood Brothers. A fun opportunity to hear the boys play! 

All the princesses gathered for Charlie's birthday party...

Joanna acquired some tea items and had a couple tea parties to use them...

We enjoyed two play dates with a high school classmate while her family was visiting for a couple weeks. The girls got along well and it is always fun to see their sweet growing family!

Beautiful day at Starr's Cave!

We got chicks for the first time so this is our newest little learning curve! We've had chickens for a couple years now, but they have all been retired hens so we've never exactly had an over-abundance of eggs.

Easter weekend was busy! We first spent Saturday with the Massners who were around...

...and wrapped it up with the Schulz family on Sunday night! This is also the weekend our families learned about our baby news via Clara's unassuming "Big Sister" shirt.

We hosted Charlie for a night and day while Bill & V were in Hawaii. It is fun to see the girls become good friends!

First lost tooth!

Matt took the kids roller skating at Kenny's with local homeschool kiddos. Quite an exciting time!

Our third annual historical character night with the church homeschool families went well! The kids all dressed up as a historical figure and gave a speech. Levi was Cyrus McCormick, Micah and Joanna went together as William and Caroline Herschel, and Keenan was Ludwig van Beethoven.

Our only commemorative photo of Mother's Day was waking up to a mother duck on our pond with new ducklings! We did get to have most of my family here for supper, hosted by the men.

Our kids have gotten a thrill out of a feature on my phone that can put yourself in a photo. I found this on my phone and about had nightmares thinking about what life with TWO Keenan's would be like. Having one Keenan is so fun, but I think two would be more than this world could handle!

Matt got inspired to make a throne for Joanna out of some scraps from other old furniture! 

Graduation came along... Matt's sister Shelby and nephew Connor walked across the stage together!

Congrats Aunt Shelby!

Drake & Connor

I think we successfully caught a swarm of bees that the Wulf family will be adding to their farm.

This four-year-old and his acts of bravery for his mother are just about more than I can handle! For Mother's Day he gifted me a red leaf from the very top of the tree in the church landscaping. I got this apple and letter last week...

Our final co-op day of the school year was a picnic and play time at Lake Geode!

Our little hiker girl:)

In other news, we enjoyed a couple opportunities to host company in March and April, and mainly focused on surviving while I didn't feel real well due to first trimester woes (nothing traumatic) as well as finishing our school year by the end of April. Now that school is done and I'm feeling better, we have been getting a lot of work done outside in the landscaping and working on some indoor organizing that gets put off while school is in session. This weekend has been characterized by projects as well - Matt spent Friday and Saturday helping Seth & Brenda with a roofing project, and Memorial Day at church working on trustee related projects. We are now anticipating a whirlwind of activity and memories as summer rolls in strong!

Blessings to you all!