The Saturday 7

1. Easter was wonderful. I actually got up early enough to curl my hair and wear a dress.

Church was packed to the gills, I got to belt out some of my favorite songs, and my whole family sat together in two rows. All of my siblings, all of Niki's boys and their wives, all my kids, and my mom (Dad had to teach Sunday School). It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. We went to lunch at Niki's afterward.

Levi's Easter Dinner. 🤦

Then we piled all the kids on the steps for a picture before letting them loose to hunt for eggs.

Dad snuck into the picture

Cove and Lainey were sleeping, so they didn't make the pic. And we added Eliana, a friend from church. Sidenote: isn't Lucy's hair looking so good?? She's finally figuring out how to tame those curls!

Thea rocking some sweet tattoos.

Lena eating a warhead. Lol.

Levi found the golden egg! It had $10 inside!

We spent the day chatting, eating, snuggling babies, and playing cards - all of my favorite things.

Lena and Nova unintentionally matched, but this was the best picture I got. 

2. This week was Spring Break. It was a dismal cold, rainy week, but we enjoyed our time off of school. On Monday, we got to watch Lainey for the day. She's so sweet and smiley. I did a bad job of keeping her on schedule, because I'm out of practice with babies. Lol. But she took it in stride. Lena absolutely adored having her here. She and Lucy were both very helpful. And Levi liked her more than he let on. Haha.

Look at that face!!!

She's even cute with a chicken on her head.

Levi couldn't be left out of the snapchat fun - especially when he saw this dog filter!

3. On Tuesday, Lena had a playdate with a friend.

I spent the day reading another book that I was vetting for my 5th graders: Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (by Steve Sheinkin). It was really really well done. In fact, it was my first five-star read of the year! It was a surprisingly emotional read, and while it's marketed to middle grade readers, it had quite a bit of profanity in it (mostly because the author used actual quotes from real people, so he was remaining authentic). I'm not sure it would make a great read-aloud, because there are a lot of different people (with difficult names), and a lot of technical and scientific aspects. Plus, I'm afraid it's a little too long for me to finish before the end of the year. So it's probably not the book I'm looking for, but I still loved it. Today, I read The Boys in the Boat - Young Reader's Edition (by Daniel James Brown). It was good - compelling and exciting - but I didn't like it quite as much as the Bomb book. (It was really clean, though.) I don't think that's the book to hold my 5th grade boys' attention either. Anyone have any other recommendations for gripping narrative nonfiction that's semi-short?

4. Thursday was our one big event of Spring Break: the gardens with the cousins. 

Look at this adorable crew! Only missing Lucy. I couldn't convince her to come.

They had just released a new batch of butterflies that morning, so there were a ton fluttering around everywhere!

This is what they do the whole time - trying to get butterflies to land on them.

Success! (On his belly.)

I actually had a few land on me, despite my drab gray and white sweater.

With my buddy Saylor.

It was drizzly and cold, so we didn't go outside to the children's garden like we usually do. 

5. I still had to work my regular two days at Once Upon this week, so we didn't have a ton of time to do other fun spring break activities. But we had Nova over for a couple hours after the gardens, and we played a variety of games throughout the week. I also eased up on the screen time restrictions, so there was lots of TV watching and Roblox playing. 

Last night, my mom invited the kids over for game and movie night, so Justin and I went out on a date. Red Robin for dinner, then the Carhartt store for him and Barnes and Noble for me. As much as I love bookstores, I realized I'm a terrible customer. As I walked around admiring row after row of books, I just kept thinking, "Why would anyone pay so much for a book that you can get way cheaper on Amazon?!" I looooooove books, but I'm not a big re-reader, so I almost never buy books new. That's what the library and thrift stores are for. Sorry, bookstores. Please don't revoke my bibliophile card!

6. Today, the sun finally came out and temps soared higher than 50 for the first time all week. Lena and Levi immediately donned shorts and pulled out the kites they got for Easter. Historically, we've never had much success with kites, but this year I splurged on the $5 kites from Meijer instead of the Dollar Store special, and whaddya know? The more expensive ones really are better quality! After getting tangled in the trees and power lines outside our house a few times, we finally wised up and walked down to the school parking lot at the end of our street. 

Eventually Levi leveled up and ran back home for his bike. 

7. Just a few more pics and memes:

Little old lady, crocheting in the sun.

💩

Spotted at the library today. The actual title is "Foraging with Kids," but I feel like "Raging with Kids" could very well be the title of my memoir. 😂