The Saturday 7

1. We had a nice Easter - church, then lunch and cards with the VKs. I think I've mentioned before that I want to do a gallery wall of family pictures in our new living room, but as I tried to fill my frames with pictures, I realize we don't have a single good family picture since Levi was a baby. It's mostly my fault - I've gained so much weight that I hate being in front of the camera. Plus, we're usually a rag-tag bunch. So I was determined that on Easter, when we actually put some effort into our appearance, we'd take a family picture. Look how cute it turned out:

Unfortunately, when I attempted to print it as an 8x10, it turned out all grainy. Stupid phone. I guess I need to get someone with a real camera to take our picture . . . for free. 🤣

2. I tried grocery delivery for the first time this week. I got a free trial of Instacart Express, so I just had to pay for the groceries and a tip. It was SO worth it. I despise grocery shopping with my kids, so I put it off until we have nothing to eat, and then I usually say, "Screw it. Let's go out to eat." Not great for the budget. Haha. Instacart only does Aldi and Family Fare in my area. Neither is my store of choice, although Aldi is much more palatable when I don't actually have to set foot in the place. Haha. It was amazing to make an online order and have my groceries show up to my door 2 hours later. What a great time to be alive. I'm not sure how much Instacart is without the free trial, but I might seriously look into it. Just another reason living in town is great!

3. Another reason living in town is awesome: we can walk to the ice cream shop! We hosted small group last night, so on Thursday I bribed my girls with a trip to Tasty Treat if they cleaned their room. It took them 3 solid hours (and the last half hour involved me speed cleaning and sneakily throwing things away), but it's finally livable again! Well deserved treat!

4. At small group last night, our friends were astonished at how different Levi is than the girls. It's kind of a joke among our friends that Lucy and Lena hate them. Everyone tries to get them to engage, but it's a rare occurrence that either girl cracks so much as a smile (especially with the men - they're a little more willing with their friends' moms). And then there's Levi. I was constantly pulling him off the guys' laps, telling him to stop sticking his fingers in their ears, distracting him from giving extremely detailed tours of his room and every car he owns, and begging him to watch TV so he'd give the poor parents a break from his incessant chatter. Lol. Which reminds me that I've become lax in my old age and never did a 3 year update for Levi. It's not going to happen at this point, but I do want to record a few of his funny sayings. He loves to push the limits, so one of his favorite responses to my instructions is "Well . . . how 'bout . . ." or "I just do it one more time." (Spoiler alert: it's always more than one time.) One random word he always says wrong is "bridge." He calls it a "fridge" instead. Lol. Tonight while I was putting him to bed, the girls dropped something loudly in their room and he said, "What was that?" I told him it was just the girls and he said, "I think it was a crab or a tiger." Hahaha. My favorite, though, is how he phrases things so oddly. He likes to add "do" to most verbs. "I do want to go outside" or "I do run very fast." The best is when I say, "I love you, Levi," and he responds, "I do love you too." 💗💗💗

5. Friday morning, we went to our homeschool friend's house to make a coral reef diorama. My sweet friend Kelly painted boxes and cut out tedious shapes of ocean animals, then let all 4 of our girls play with glue and sand! You're not a true homeschooler until you make a diorama, but I just don't have it in me to allow that kind of mess. So I'm glad Kelly bit the bullet for both of us. The girls had a great time, and their dioramas turned out really cute.

It was a little bright. Lol.

These two are the oldest kids in our group of friends. P just turned 9 and Lucy will be 9 two weeks from today. That is so unfathomable to me! Their last year in single digits!! 😭

Be still my heart with these two!!

6. I've been putting off buying next year's curriculum in the desperate hope that somehow they'll be able to go back to ACS. But this is the last weekend of My Father's World's discount, so my Dutch-ness won out over my irrational optimism. I bit the bullet and bought it all. Hopefully paging through it in the next few weeks will get me excited about it.

7. More pictures:

Awana Awards Ceremony:

Lena, pretty much front center

Ever photo-genic Lucy

Proud Lena with her award for finishing her book

Monday was the warmest day of the year, but the kids begged to go for a walk. I'm super paranoid about Ruby in the sun because her mom has extremely fair skin and burns really easily. So I was relieved to find this hat and sunglasses (along with baby-safe sunscreen) in her diaper bag. I could not stop laughing at the sunglasses. But Ruby didn't mind them at all! And they kept her hat from sliding into her eyes, so it was a win all-around.