No, I'm not pregnant.
A couple of weeks ago Adam's cell phone magically disappeared. The kids were playing with it after dinner one night and by the time we were ready to read scriptures and say prayers the phone was gone. We've checked absolutely everywhere, including the freezer because if there is one thing I've learned from childhood it is if something goes missing it has most likely been soaked and stuck in the freezer.
I've started deep cleaning and organizing room by room in hopes we'd find it...no luck. Either Natalie threw it away or our kids are going to be expert Easter egg hiders when they grow up.
So what does this have to do with my lack of blogging? Well, lately I've been lazy about taking pictures with our camera since the camera on my phone does a pretty good job capturing the moment and it is very convenient to whip it out for a quick pic and be done. To get the pictures from my phone to the computer we would send them to Adam phone via blue-tooth and then put his SD card into the computer. Wala.
Long story short, no phone, no pictures. We still haven't found his phone but I've been getting desperate to blog so I begged Adam to find another way to get the pictures off my phone. He eventually did. It involved booting up an old version of Ubuntu but I won't get into all of that. It would make an already uninteresting story painfully boring.
So what have you missed? Adam turned 30.
Good thing Spencer and Natalie were there to help daddy blow out ALL those candles!
We celebrated Easter. We kept our festivities pretty low key this year. The Easter bunny didn't bring us baskets full of goodies but he did hide candy filled plastic eggs all over our house which the kids enjoyed hunting. They enjoyed it so much they've wanted to hide and hunt eggs everyday since. We are still hunting eggs at least once a day.
The Monday after Easter I took the kids to Fountains Abbey for some holiday fun. There was face painting. We waited in line for a good 15 minutes only to have Spencer change his mind at the last moment. Standard.
There was also a massive Easter Egg hunt from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. There were 10 giant wooden eggs hidden around the estate. They looked like this:
As I've mentioned before about
Fountains Abbey, it is huge. You could spend all day and still not see everything. And we pretty much did spend ALL day looking for those darn eggs. After four plus hours of hiking around in the freezing cold we only found 7 out of 10 eggs.
Of course you had to pay
£2 to participate in the hunt and you had to find ALL ten to collect your prize
. I am not one to go home empty handed so I did what any reasonable mother who was tired of hiking around with two kids in the freezing cold would do...I asked perfect strangers if and where they found their eggs. Some may call this cheating, others might label it as desperate. I would agree with both of those descriptions, however, I am not ashamed.
It has finally turned Spring which means occasionally we experience a sunny warm day. You don't waste a sunny day in North Yorkshire, we head outside and soak up as much Vitamin D as we can!
As you can see, Natalie is my spunky little girl. Spencer and Natalie absolutely adore each other. They are definitely BFFs.
We've terrorized the toy section at the BX...
(Spencer took this one of me!)
We got to pet-sit a hamster for a few weeks. This is Bob.
The kids loved having a pet to play with. They were a little sad when it was time for Bob to go back home, but a temporary pet is the perfect pet for me. Natalie's growing vocabulary now include the words: Momma, Daddy, Kitty, Cat, Jesus, Temple, Eyes, Pop, Cookie, Uh-oh, Oops, Baby, and BOB.
And finally, we have been reading, reading, reading!
Natalie reading: "Blue Hat Green Hat" by Sandra Boynton
Spencer reading: "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson
The Gruffalo
A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.
A fox saw the mouse, and the mouse looked good.
"Where are you going to, little brown mouse?
Come and have lunch in my underground house."
"It's terribly kind of you, Fox, but no –
I'm going to have lunch with a gruffalo."
"A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?"
"A gruffalo! Why, didn't you know?
He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws,
And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws."
"Where are you meeting him?"
"Here, by these rocks,
And his favourite food is roasted fox."
"Roasted fox! I'm off!" Fox said.
"Goodbye, little mouse," and away he sped.
"Silly old Fox! Doesn't he know,
There's no such thing as a gruffalo?"
On went the mouse through the deep dark wood.
An owl saw the mouse, and the mouse looked good.
"Where are you going to, little brown mouse?
Come and have tea in my treetop house."
"It's terribly kind of you, Owl, but no –
I'm going to have tea with a gruffalo."
"A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?"
"A gruffalo! Why, didn't you know?
He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes,
And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."
"Where are you meeting him?"
"Here, by this stream,
And his favourite food is owl ice cream."
"Owl ice cream! Toowhit toowhoo!"
"Goodbye, little mouse," and away Owl flew.
"Silly old Owl! Doesn't he know,
There's no such thing as a gruffalo?"
On went the mouse through the deep dark wood.
A snake saw the mouse, and the mouse looked good.
"Where are you going to, little brown mouse?
Come for a feast in my logpile house."
"It's terribly kind of you, Snake, but no –
I'm having a feast with a gruffalo."
"A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?"
"A gruffalo! Why, didn't you know?
His eyes are orange, his tongue is black,
He has purple prickles all over his back."
"Where are you meeting him?"
"Here, by this lake,
And his favourite food is scrambled snake."
"Scrambled snake! It's time I hid!"
"Goodbye, little mouse," and away Snake slid.
"Silly old Owl! Doesn't he know,
There's no such thing as a gruffal...?"
...OH!"
But who is this creature with terrible claws
And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws?
He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes,
And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose.
His eyes are orange, his tongue is black,
He has purple prickles all over his back.
"Oh help! Oh no!
It's a gruffalo!"
"My favourite food!" the Gruffalo said.
"You'll taste good on a slice of bread!"
"Good?" said the mouse. "Don't call me good!
I'm the scariest creature in this wood.
Just walk behind me and soon you'll see,
Everyone is afraid of me."
"All right," said the Gruffalo, bursting with laughter.
"You go ahead and I'll follow after."
They walked and walked till the Gruffalo said,
"I hear a hiss in the leaves ahead."
"It's Snake," said the mouse. "Why, Snake, hello!"
Snake took one look at the Gruffalo.
"Oh crumbs!" he said, "Goodbye, little mouse!"
And off he slid to his logpile house.
"You see?" said the mouse. "I told you so."
"Amazing!" said the Gruffalo.
They walked some more till the Gruffalo said,
"I hear a hoot in the trees ahead."
"It's Owl," said the mouse. "Why, Owl, hello!"
Owl took one look at the Gruffalo.
"Oh dear!" he said, "Goodbye, little mouse!"
And off he flew to his treetop house.
"You see?" said the mouse. "I told you so."
"Astounding!" said the Gruffalo.
They walked some more till the Gruffalo said,
"I can hear feet on the path ahead."
"It's Fox," said the mouse. "Why, Fox, hello!"
Fox took one look at the Gruffalo.
"Oh help!" he said, "Goodbye, little mouse!"
And off he ran to his underground house.
"Well, Gruffalo," said the mouse. "You see?
Everyone is afraid of me!
But now my tummy's beginning to rumble.
My favourite food is – gruffalo crumble!"
"Gruffalo crumble!" the Gruffalo said,
And quick as the wind he turned and fled.
All was quiet in the deep dark wood.
The mouse found a nut and the nut was good.
-- Julia Donaldson
