Easter Feast

All the Easter baskets in a row...sneakily placed in the night, even though I know for a fact that there were certain teens still awake in the house. I almost got busted when I stepped on a squeaky stair, but I expertly avoided detection. The mystery remains. 

Even Winnie got a little Easter surprise. She didn't love the massive chicken friend. Or the millet sprays. Or the carrot toys. 

She wanted the real goodies in the big baskets.

The girls weren't concerned...Winnie can't get to them from the floor. 

Or CAN SHE??

The classic party toys were a big hit!

AJ loved her "Anna Banana" toy 

And Everly loved her little blue monster so much, it brought her to tears. 

But my favorite was the part where Mark did most of the cooking. Smoked meats for Easter this year!

I contributed a gorgeous bowl of Snicker Apple Salad. 

We ate and played at the Flynns. 

Because that's what we do. 

Happy Easter!

Piggie

One of the best things about a family text group is that one innocent photo of a gumball machine piggie will turn into...

This!

One of the better uses of technology, I'd say. 

70's day...part deux

We are four weeks in to our experiment.

We have learned that unplugging is really hard. We are all tempted to say, "We'll do it tomorrow." But, let's be real...tomorrow never comes. 

Week 3:  We got a late start on it, since AJ met up with some friends after church. But eventually we sat down and painted these little canvases. They turned out cute!  And it was fun to be creative and listen to our favorite old musical numbers from Oklahoma! and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. 

Mine are on the top row, then Everly's, then AJ's and then Laney's.

Week 4: We wandered down to Sunnyside and let the kids loose on the playground. I stayed on that teeter totter for about 14 seconds before my logical brain reminded me that I am OLD.

We wickedly stepped over the orange plastic fencing to climb on some newly installed equipment. 

Back to the house when we got too chilly and we put in a batch of garlic knots for our dinner. (Turns out that was our whole dinner, lol) and we played a game of Uno, made shrinky dinks and taught Everly how to play a proper game of limbo. 

At one point, I had both Megan and Mark talking to me at the same time and when I made that face that says "I'm overstimulated", they both rolled over in shame and despair to give me some alone time. hahaha

We watched "Arrival" (don't judge...people watched movies in the seventies) and sang along with our old musicals. The Shrinky Dinks were mostly a bust, we couldn't figure out how to get them to flatten out after baking. 

It's ok. People got mad and threw shrimky dinks in the seventies too. 

Winnifred the Wild

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that Winnie has sunstantially altered life in our household. 

She is a part of everything we do. 

In short, she's a nosy neighbor living on my shoulder. 

She wants a bite of everything I eat. I mean, she probably wants ALL the bites, but we are working on sharing. She particularly loves bread and eggs and is desperate for cheese (did you know birds are lactose intolerant?) She goes completely mental if she hears a bag of chips being opened in the house. She doesn't approve of selfish humans that don't share doritos. 

She hates the feel of food on her beak, but will let it slide if she has a ripe strawberry all to herself. She will thoroughly wipe her beak all over your shoulder as soon as she gets a chance. 

She is obsessed and infuriated by UNO cards. She loves they way her beak can so deliciously puncture the crisp edge. We have donated this one in an effort to save the rest of the deck.

I clipped a branch off of my ugy lilac bush and brought it inside for her to climb on. She quickly stripped off the leaves. 

Miraculously, it spontaneously sprouts strawberries for her to discover and fling all over the walls.

She can't resist the allure of the dishwasher. So climbable! So full of food tidbits that those greedy people didn't bother to feed her. 

She is not afraid of the blow dryer. In fact, she prefers being right in the eye of the storm all warm and fluffy. 

I've been taking her out in the garden with me, but covering her with the top of her cage to keep her from being snatched by a hawk.  She made short work of my very first asparagus.

She is most at home on my glasses. She uses them as a perch for easy access to my eyelashes, a beak scratcher and a napping place. I don't really mind. 

She keeps things hoppin around here. 

Laney is 16!!

One of the benefits of having your birthday over spring break is having sisters on deck to help make a killer birthday breakfast for you.

Aaaaand....you get to sleep in! Maybe a little longer than you would like, because it's taking your mom and sisters WAY to long to get breakfast on the table. 

But streamers in the doorway are still awesome.

Soooo much bacon!

The day shaped up to be pretty gentle. Dad took them to Minsky's for lunch and then it was a quiet afternoon of diamond art with AJ. 

White Chicken Enchiladas, extra saucy

And Mark with his signature "M'Lady" move...escorting Laney into their birthday dinner. Laney took in stride!

Cheesecake! With eyes!

We finally learned our lesson and called the boys and their sweeties before lighting the candles. Soon we will have learned all there is to learn here on thus earth. This was a big step.

Turtle cuteness basking in the birthday glow...

Happy Sixteenth, Lanaybug! We love you so much!

P.S. Laney decided to really celebrate this year, they wanted all their friends over to watch their favorite movie, Interstellar.  It is crucially important that everyone Laney loves should also have a deep understanding and appreciation for Interstellar. I hope that birthday wish was aimed in that direction!

 

Ethan and Kassie

 The engagement photos are finally here and they are so darling. I love them all, but here are a few of my favorites!

I am soaking up this happy time!!