Tuesday: flowers

Once again, I attempted to save my flowers over the winter.  It went better than previous years, but still not amazing:

The strawberry plant lasted until about February.

The succulent bucket lasted until early April, with the exception of one that is still alive

The big succulent lasted until early May, when I think I left it outside on a cold (but not freezing) night.  It might survive, but it is not looking good.

Anyway, we went to the greenhouse today to get some flowers.  The kids always enjoy this more than I expect.  I got some dragon leaf begonia because they are a hardy flower that can take some abuse.  We got some marigolds, snap dragons, two succulents, and a few small miscellaneous things.  I gave both kids about $20, and ended up with unexpected plants.  Isaac got something that is hopefully a pineapple plant and Joshua got a tall spiky cactus.  We'll see how it plays out!

Tuesday: semester finished

Grades are in!  It took a bit longer to finish up than expected, but they're done.  

Most of my graders are seniors (which is too bad), but two of them wanted more work during exam week so they graded almost all of the final exams.  It was lovely.

Monday: happy 8th birthday

Today was Horizon and Tornado's eighth birthday.

We got a screwdriver for Tornado.  He is always stealing Ben's.

Horizon just got some normal toys.

Sunday: Mother's Day

After church I had a few lovely presents to open, and then Tornado jumped into be a present too.

After my nap we went downtown to grab some food from a food truck for snack.  Joshua (and everyone else) tried Deep Fried Oreos and we all decided they were ok.  They were yummy, but not something that we would get again.

Joshua wanted to see the tulips, so we walked down the street and then up a street, and then we were at Centennial Park.  I'll be honest, I wasn't feeling it this afternoon.  But the kids kept being excited..."Let's go to the Gazebo and the Wizard of Oz book!  Oh! Let's walk around the statue!  We need to see the fountain!  Don't forget about the flags!"  "You really want to see the flags?"  "Yes!"  By the time we talked about the flags, Joshua was pulling my leg a bit.  I was a bit surprised about how many landmarks they wanted to see in a block of park.  Anyway, we ended up being lucky to only go around the park once - they also wanted to see the tulip windmill after we passed it but I told them it was mostly dead.  They said they still wanted to see it but I vetoed it.

 

Joshua made a fort at home, so we all read for a while once we got back.  Tornado was feeling extra cuddly and went back and forth between me and Isaac.

Saturday: bike ride

I had the kids bike to Lowes with me again today.  We needed to get a screwdriver, but I also wanted to look at curtain rods.  The hardware to mount the curtain rods was surprising expensive, so we just got a new one instead.  I thought this might happen, so I brought velcro to mount it to Isaac's bike.  He was a bit scared it would fall off, but I mounted it well.

Friday: Catnana

Today was Catnana's birthday!  Joshua got him out of a claw machine exactly one year ago and Joshua was so happy after getting him.

We also got this one of Horizon a few days ago.

Thursday: Tulip Time

I ended up walking with Isaac's band today.  The day was cool, but I was only cold a few times.  (I feel like I have a habit of chaperoning cold field trips.)  The sun was out and that helped a lot.  Unfortunately, we were in the last division of the parade so it took about 1.5hrs from when we needed to show up to when we actually got to move.

The band played the first few lines of the Imperial March.  So we picked up some red and black tape on our way to the parade and Isaac made himself some light saber sticks.

Unexpectedly (to me), Isaac also had the job of setting the tempo during the bridge between the song and the cadence.  

When all was said and done, Isaac said it went a bit better than he was expecting.  After walking back, we grabbed a treat from a food truck and ate it in my office.  (The treat was ice cream, but it was a bit too cold to sit and eat ice cream outside.)  Having an office near the parade was super nice - we used it as a base of operations and came and went several times as we also watched a friend Dutch Dance before Isaac needed to be in his spot.