Hoppy days...

Busy Easter weekend for the Nockinbirds.  I've only just recovered.  And now we start TAKS testing.  Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.  Saturday started with Build And Grow fun at Lowe's.

We now have a backless bird house suction-cupped to the window so we can see when we have guests.
After a refreshing snow cone, we got the news that the McKinney cousins had arrived!  It was off to the U-pick strawberry patch!

Look for the giant metal strawberry sculpture, you can't miss it.  Really.

Some of us were a little hesitant to embrace the agricultural life.

But we all got into the swing of it pretty quickly.

Little Miss, with the berry stained fingers, is a very productive picker.

Eight pounds of strawberries went home with us.  Not counting the two Lolo had a squishy grip on for the whole adventure.

Lolly came home with us for an afternoon of cousin fun.  Emily often takes advantage of a contorted Twister victim for some kiss stealing.

Which really ruins balance and concentration for all.

An unusual quiet fell over the house, and I realized the fun had moved outside.  They discovered Little Miss's "garden" is full of tiny snail shells.  You never know what unexpected treasures you may stumble upon.

Next, it was shells of a different kind... Easter eggs!

The egg spinner was not especially successful, but it was enjoyed.

FOUR! dozen Easter eggs.  It's worth a week of egg salad and devilled eggs for breakfast for all the fun they had.

We've had some serious family patience issues over the tying of shoes (which she almost has down) and pulling of socks juuuust right.  Sequined laceless sneakers seemed to be an option we can all live with.  If only she could wear them to school.  It's a fight every morning to get the uniform sneakers tied acceptably.  Ugh.  Hopefully a phase she'll phase out of over the summer.

The Easter Bunny came!! With Squinkies, Zoobles and Zhu Zhu puppies, oh, my!  Mr. Bunny went with a lamb this year, since we already have several Webkinz bunnies.

The festivities were at Molly and Papa's.  The half-installed sprinkler system made for a fun Easter egg hunt.

Nothing says Christian holiday like a cold brew at the kids' egg hunt.

Topped off by the best ham EVER and a carrot cake that could make you go off chocolate.  A very good Easter weekend.

She's wheels off, baby!

The stars were in alignment and the training wheels were removed (for the second time) and off she went.  Walking...bicycle...next she'll be driving.  All moving her further away from being my baby and further away from her mother--WAAAAAAHHHHH, sniffle, sniffle. 

Busy couple of weeks...

but aren't they always?

The AP classes made their annual trek to the 6th Floor Museum.

This is the first time in the eight years that I've been going that it was ridiculously cold.  They're huddling for warmth before the traditional grassy knoll photo.

The chill seemed to take some of their high-spirits away.

This was the closest we got to having any of them run out to have their picture taken standing on one of the X's that mark the spots where JFK was hit.  They usually don't grasp that this is a busy road in a busy city.  And we didn't have to push anyone out the way of a DART train this year--all around a successful trip.

Lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse is always enjoyed greatly.

It's a little bit harder to get most of them excited about art museum, however.  Except for those who wander into the African tribal art rooms--they're always struck by carvings with the exaggerated male...ahem.  They're not all like Ma and Pa Kettle's Kids Go To The Big City Museum...just most of them.

In other exciting news of the last two weeks, Molly finally proved she's a genius.

Little Miss and Loverboy made pizza.

MMMmmmm.

And all the Nockinbirds enjoyed art night using the 3D graph paper for drawing and the hypotrochoid kit (like a spirograph--which you can no longer find!) that I picked up at the museum shop. 

We had a Christian Round Up Spaghetti Dinner (Christians, cowboys, spaghetti--of course!) to keep our Friday night lively last week.  Little Miss is belting out a tune next to the girl in the pink hat.  Molly won the class project in the silent auction--a bird house.  Given what she paid for it, we will be displaying that treasure inside.

Last Saturday we started the long process of rehabing the yard.  I found a serpent in our garden and when I yelled "snake!!!!!!" (when I finally realized it wasn't an overly large worm as I first thought) my mother came to my rescue armed with...a stick she had just trimmed.  The serpent has obviously lived to see another day.  But, we also found a horned toad!  I think he was a little dazed having just been raked out of a flower bed along with a bunch of ugly red mulch.

Last Sunday I tried out and adjusted a recipe for vegan (!?) maple oatmeal raisin cookies.  Serious yum.  Everybody loved them.

Tooth #5 (on the bottom) vacated the property Friday at school.  Little Miss was very proud that she pulled it herself.  She just counted 1-2-3 and pulled straight up to her nose.  Followed by lots of blood.  I wonder if Miss Stanley knew what she was getting herself into when decided to become a kindergarten teacher.

The same Miss Stanley who came to Little Miss's bday party and who we saw last night at another classmate's bday party.  Isn't that sweet?  If I went to my student's birthday parties...well, I'd be the only one who wouldn't get a "minor in possession" ticket.  We've had some serious scandals going on with a large number of students this week.  Alas.  But this party was seriously cute!  It was at a costume jewelry/beading store and they all got to make a necklace, which Little Miss is modeling above.

I spent the top half of my day giving the ACT.  FUN.  NOT.  Totally took the desire to snap photos out of me.  I think tomorrow's going to be another yard day--tune back in for some landscape love pics.