Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms and Moms-to-be out there!  Mike and the kids got up early this morning to make breakfast-in-bed for Mom.  The kids also made some fun cards, which gave Mike an idea for the pancakes.  He used a honey bear full of batter to make outlines for a heart and spelled the letters of M-O-M and then filled them in.  Then after cooking them, he buttered them and added the word "we" with strawberry sauce to the heart as seen below for a "We Love Mom" pancake breakfast.  Lena loved the cards and breakfast.

Attack of the Cocoa Monsters!

The day started ordinarily enough.  Mike and the older kids were off to school and work.  Lena was washing the dishes in the kitchen.  She finished up in the kitchen and went to find the kids for their morning walk with Sally.  They were innocently reading books on the living room floor, but all was not well.  The distinct smell of chocolate filled the air.  As Lena assessed the situation, it became clear that Keith and Alyssa were covered from head to toe in a chocolate powder.  Thinking that it was hot chocolate powder, Lena asked where the bucket was.  Alyssa replied sweetly, "It's in your room Mommy!"  Lena's heart sank as her soul filled with dread.  She ran up the stairs to see what damage had been done.

The kids had taken chocolate on your pillow to a whole new level.  The bed was covered in cocoa powder! They must have jumped on it to distribute it so evenly.  Of course, it had to be a white quilt.  Look at their pleased little faces.  Happy Mother's Day Mom!

This picture says it all for how thankful Mommy was for the opportunity to clean up all this cocoa.  Can't you tell how thrilled she was!

So if you are ever washing the dishes in peace and come out to a strong smell of chocolate, Beware!

The moral of the story is, make sure you walk the dog before doing the dishes. 

Putting the cocoa away after your son makes brownies and getting your kids to wash the dishes for you are also excellent ideas.

Gone Fishin'

We recently went fishing at a friend's house who has a pond.  Grandpa came along and helped with the bait and fishing poles.  The kids had a great time and we caught four fish.  Rebecca, Kirsten, and Jon each caught fish.  Keith even had fun casting his little bobber out without a hook.

Father and Son Campout

Mike, Jon, and Ethan had fun at the Father and Son's Camp out this year.  They took their hammocks and enjoyed sleeping under the stars on a nice cool night.  Mike really liked waking up without any stiffness at all.  The only weird part was hearing some small animals foraging around under the hammocks in the middle of the night, but they didn't bother anyone in the hammocks.

 The kids had a lot of fun with water guns and stick guns and a wood shower stall that was made into a fort.  There were always a bunch of boys standing on the bench and looking over the top of the walls for approaching enemies.

 After a service project, we went down to the lake.  Unfortunately, they didn't get out the life vests and paddles for the canoes.  So Ethan picked lilies, Jon went swimming, and Mike took pictures.  It was a fun time.  Now the girls want a camp out with Daddy.

Hammocks

Mike was asked recently to go camping with the scouts.  Since the scouts are preparing for a high adventure this summer with lots of hiking, they were going to do some backpacking and carry everything including food and gear to start practicing.  Mike really didn't want to lug the tent around, which has started leaking in wet weather and is also a bit big for backpacking.  The scoutmaster usually uses a hammock for camping and Mike wanted to see if he could find instructions for making his own hammock instead of buying one.  He found a great site at www.tothewoods.net that had instructions that were fairly easy and not very expensive.  Lena helped Mike with some of the sewing and showed him how to do some of the sewing himself as well. 

Unfortunately, the campout was canceled due to lightning, but the hammock and packed backpack came in handy the following weekend for a tornado cleanup in a neighboring state.  After sleeping in the hammock, which was the most comfortable camping Mike has ever had, he thought it would be fun to make camping hammocks for the whole family.  Lena picked up some more nylon fabric from the store and we spent a couple days making everything.

Mike and the kids set the hammocks up in a series of trees in our yard one night this past week.  Only Kirsten managed to sleep outside all night with Mike.  The other kids slowly decided they wanted to go inside and sleep for one reason or another.  So Mike didn't get much sleep.  They wanted to sleep in their hammocks again the second night, but Mike wanted more sleep, so we hung them from Jon and Rebecca's loft beds.  Here are some pictures of the kids in their hammocks.