Living, Loving, Learning

One of the most fun things we did in Michigan is spend an afternoon with my Mom at the Frederik Meijer Gardens. We were lucky enough to be there during the six weeks of the year that they load up their conservatory with an incredible array of gorgeous amazon butterflies. They have a couple greenhouses there including this one. The whole time I was in there I was dreaming of being able to spend an hour in there alone, meditating. It was one of those rare places that was just so PEACEFUL...minus the rowdy children, agitated adults and occasional employee reminding us to not touch the plants. ;) I guess after all the years I have spent learning and working in greenhouses they feel like home to me. I, unfortunately don't have any pictures of the Amazon house that was hosting the butterflies. We had barely entered the place when a gorgeous blue morpho swooped over our heads and Lucy collapsed onto the floor in terror, screaming, crying and shaking. She spent the rest of our t

Much to our utter suprise and delight my brutha, Erik, had a 18 hour lay-over in Lansing while we were there.  It had been a llloooonnnggg time since I had the opportunity to hang with him and it was so great to see him.  It was fun for me to see my kids getting to know him...hopefully fun for him too!  :)  I know it was exhausting.  Griffin was hell bent on having his Uncle E play ALL the sports with him...basically all at the same time.  Griffin and Erik were able to bond on their shared love of Star Wars.  Here, Griffin is paying homage to Yoda....for those of you who have known Erik a long time - YES,  THAT Yoda. Good times, very good times.

Hey pals, our computer got attacked by a wicked little virus and went down in a blaze of glory on Thursday morning.  This is me, finally back online.  A busy weekend, never the less!  OK...now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I am realizing as I am editing my photos, that none of our Spring Break photos has made it hear yet....so, just in case ANYONE feels cheated that they didn't see my kids with Easter eggs....here you go! We attended an Easter egg hunt at the capitol building in downtown Lansing, MI (the morning of the big final 4 MSU game...there was much home town support evident and Sparty even showed up.)  Then on Easter morning we hid eggs in the Moms' yard.  That was definitly the kids favorite...so many eggs, all for them.  Little did they know I filled a lot of them with raisins and plastic balls!!  Just have to curb the sugar intake where you can. 

Oh man, we are soooo in love.  This little puppy has been a great thing for our family.  She is sweeeeeet!  The kids are loving her.  Lucy loves to hold her in her lap and hand feed her every meal.   Lottie sometimes confuses a running and screaming with delight Lucy for a very fun toy she needs to catch.  I have had to make it clear to Lottie that she can't chase or jump on Lulu.   These are good lessons for her to learn at her tender age.  Griffin loves to sit and hold Lottie, giving her a lot of love.  He is learning good ways of playing with her and we are teaching him how to claim his space so he too does not become a chew toy in her eyes.  She is super young, only 5 weeks old last Wednesday, so I wanted to have her checked out by the vet right away.  Besides the typical intestinal worms that most puppies have, she had a clean bill of health.  She needs two doses of medicine and the worms will be history too.  She weighed in at a whopping 7.3 lbs!  Although she is tiny now, t

Please meet the newest member of our little tribe, Lottie-Dottie Sweetiepie Gast.  Lottie for short. We found her through an ad in the paper yesterday that read, Puppies $10, 270-***-****.  The family could no longer afford to feed her and her 8 siblings.  Her Mama was sweet and pretty and her Papa is a roamer...not around for us to meet.  She is a Lab/Blue Heeler mix.  We expect her to be a small - med. sized with med - high energy.  We also expect alot more coloration of her fur as she grows up.  I love the white fan on her chest, but I really adore the one white toe.  She wasn't what we were planning on, but guess what, I think she is going to be perfect for us.  When I saw her, I totally felt Sunshine give me a little nudge in her direction, giving us her blessing.  The right pup at the right time - the perfect unfolding, perhaps.  She is a lucky pup to have found her self in our care, our love, our family.  So excited to begin this journey with her. ****and yes, she is named

This is Griffin and his best buddy at school, Logan.   Last night the kindergarteners put on a short (20 min.) program for their parents in the school gym.  It was soooooo  CUTE!  Like, hairs on your arm stand up, tears in your eyes CUTE.    Each classroom had their own color, and much to Lucy's delight, ours was yellow.  Here is a little taste... Not sure what exactly was up with Griffin's mouth, but he either looked like that or  was stock still the whole program.  Their teacher had a bit of a poem that she read that totally cracked her kids up.  They ADORE Ms. Jaclyn!! Griffin had a speaking part during the alphabet poem. "H is for happy faces, filled with love and cheer." They ended with "First Grade, First Grade" (to the tune of "New York, New York") and it was pretty darn good.  I can't hardly believe we are almost at the end of kindergarten, it has been such an amazing year!

We are headed off this afternoon for a week of Spring Breaking...and I intend to do just that - take a break.  I am ready to really enjoy friends and family and this gorgeous spring bounty....a welcome respite.   I probably won't be blogging again until we get settled back home again in a week or so.  Until then, here are a few pictures of Lucy attending the egg hunt at the library. I think her favorite part, as always, was hanging out with Carlie. Wishing you a wonderful week.  May we all be heathy, happy, safe and have ease in living. Big Love to you friends! 

I am just not into the big kid/character themed, free-for-all birthday parties.  Not saying that I will avoid them entiretly, but since neither of my children have ever requested such an affair, I have luckily been able to stay clear of them.   This is my favorite kind of party....pretty decorations (mostly balloons), a close buddy or two, and a fun special outing.   Lucy loves our local indoor playscape, Fun4Kids, so we invited her best friend and family to meet us there for a couple hours of playtime.  Of course, Lucy and  Carlie made a beeline for the ball pit - their very favorite thing to do there. For some of the time, they were lucky enough to be the only kids there, and Lucy was able to be soooo BRAVE, exploring terrotories she had previously only dreamed of.  The boys were very excited to have playtime together also.  Here they are being dinosaurs...or should I say DINOSAURS.  We all stayed for pizza (a favorite of Lucy's) and wings and then headed back to our house.  We