Mishmash

Here's an assortment of photos that never made it on here. This post got kind of out of hand, but I'm just going to leave it a long mishmash of things.  

James created a Dr. Eggman costume with things he found around the house. He's a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. 

Reference photo of the character: 

I got my 1st & 2nd COVID vaccinations - it seems like Sam's been done for ages. I was getting over a cold that I caught after Leah's birthday, which delayed mine by a bit, but the Health Department got me in with an excess dose & was just incredibly awesome about the whole thing. 

We had our first post-pandemic illness several weeks ago (referenced above) (I think we might have picked up a surface bug when we rented out the bounce house place) and one of James's assignments when he was at home was to follow along with a youtube video to draw this picture. He was very attentive. 

Ridgeway Funday was virtual again this year - apparently one parent told her kid after last year that if Funday was cancelled a second time that she'd give her $100. She posted to the FB group asking if she needed to pony up, and the consensus was yes. Here Sam, Amelie, and Leah are watching the big raffle (I think): 

James did a homemade pizza bagel party with his old Unit A teacher & they all made pizza bagels (quite delicious with my pickled radishes! though none of the unit A-ers appreciated this fact when James shared it). 

Blurry, but I liked how serious Leah was about the "thumbs up" instruction. 

Leah and I made this darling door decoration for Spring with a take-and-make craft from the library: 

iPad time with brother: 

We watched the Ewoks movie and noticed a resemblance between Leah and the main character. She's wearing James's old Pokemon shirt: 

Cowboy boots and jean jacket on this day in preschool fashion: 

Leah walking softly with a Very Big Stick: 

It took a Very Long Time to get home from the park with it. 

At the park with Spark: 

At the park another time: 

Just another day in preschool fashion with a favorite color shirt, rainbow leopard print pants, and spiderman shoes: 

Video of the crab walk: 

Not many pictures of Amelie in this roundup!

James is as happy as his dad to break out the shorts and flip-flops for the warmer weather: 

Dancing: 

Sam had an argument in front of the Missouri Supreme Court, at the standing desk in his office over zoom. Here's what he looked like: 

Here's what he saw: 

And this is what it looked like to the court: 

Finally, and I include this one on the basis of "likely to be of interest to the kids if they go back through this much later from a historical perspective,"   

Okay, that's all! Maybe I'll be more timely this summer. 

Easter

I almost forgot to post about Easter!

The weather was nice! The kids did an egg hunt in our front yard in the morning.

When we got up, Sam was trying to get the kids outside & said, "I think I saw a bunny outside this morning. I think maybe it woke Spark up. Maybe it was a SPECIAL bunny," and James said, "Oh!  Oh! I know!" (pause) "It was NANA JANA!!" 

They only found 23 of the 24 eggs, though - the last one turned up several days later & must have blown to a new location in the wind. It still had a single tootsie roll in it, which Leah snapped up right away. 

Here they are with their loot, round 1. 

I bought matching dresses again. I'm going to run with this as long as the girls are interested! 

We went out to Sam's folks for a big egg hunt over their large yard out in the country with their 2 cousins, which the kids were so disappointed about missing out on last year. All adults were vaccinated this year by Easter, though! I just love this picture of Amelie and Ellie. 

James was serious about the hunt: 

Though perhaps not as outwardly enthusiastic, Amelie came away with the largest haul. I'm fairly certain she still has some candy stashed away.  

Look how red his poor face is! I did have them put on sunscreen! I think he's just hot, or maybe something weird with the photo quality. James with his loot, take 2: 

We dyed eggs later. Leah put the stickers on, and Amelie did the two-tone/stripes. 

Sam purchased a coordinating Easter mask for himself: 

Here's the link to last year. 

Cannon Dam Cabins

 More things! We got out of the house again!

The Cannon Dam Cabins in Perry, MO, that we went to before are nice for off-season cabin camping. We went before in the fall & this time was in the spring. It even rained all day the Saturday we were there & we all still had a good time. 

Spark got to go with us again: 

I couldn't get them all three to look at me at the same time: 

And those are the only two photos I took the whole time! Ha!

These are from Sam. This is the pond that the cabins are nearby - there were several people fishing & it looked like they were making some kind of improvements to the water - Sam theorized that they're adding more docks. 

He caught this photo of a very very noisy goose & its reflection in the water. 

Here's Leah on the playground equipment, making a face: 

We took advantage of the fire pit for s'mores & Sam grilled hotdogs & hamburgers on the grill. Saturday night, we got an excellent meal take-out from the restaurant nearby. 

Sam got up early to walk the dog & do nature photography: 

Friday and Sunday were gorgeous, but like I said, Saturday it rained most of the day. I told my friend Shauna that we'd be at the cabin in the rain & she insisted on loaning us this game: 

You play it in the dark - the seeker moves the lantern and the other players hide the shadowling creatures from the light. The kids set it up and played with it the day before & I went over the rules, and then we played it the next night - so we got a lot of use out of it! Of course, Amelie and James named all of the creatures and made up stories about them before we even started playing. Amelie was very much into it, but I'm afraid we might have waited too late after supper, since James fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the game. 

We also took & played the bug seeking game that Leah likes, Clue, Battleship, and about a million books. We did an old take-and-make craft from the library, too. 

We did get out to visit the dam Saturday morning when it was just a drizzle: 

There were three huge hawks on top of the observation deck we climbed. Spark was offended at their presence. 

The other big attraction (besides the dam) is the small indoor pool - Sam and James were swimming for about 3.5 hours total on Saturday, & the kids went at least once all 3 days we were there. 

This was Sunday, when things were back sunny again - James at the visitors center (which is still closed due to COVID). 

Here's a link to our last visit there, about a year and a half ago: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2019/11/camping.html