Easter and stuff.

 Several years ago my Megan in law introduced the idea of "Funny Bunny Day".  Funny Bunny Day is the day before Easter where you do all the fun stuff so that Easter Sunday can be more about the actual reason we celebrate Easter.  I liked it so much we have done it ever since.  This year was somewhat haphazardly thrown together at the last minute because Grandma and Grandpa and the older kids were all attending Youth Conference until that afternoon.  But since I had totally and completely neglected to dye eggs with the kids or even coordinate some kind of Easter day frock finery, we had to pull something together on Saturday no matter what. 

 We did dinner and an egg hunt at our house with some of the cousins.  I have a little problem with Easter induced amnesia and I forget every single year it we have plastic eggs or not, so I buy some, every year.  Needless to say, even though we had almost a dozen kids running around, their baskets and buckets were overflowing.  And since our backyard is kind of on the smallish side, it looked like someone had just sneezed plastic eggs all over the place.  They were in plain sight and laying about every 12 inches on the grass.  It was spectacular slaughter.

 I am appreciating our yard here in Texas for all sorts of reasons; grateful that in the typical houses-built-on-top-of-each-other scheme of things we have the rare-ish blessing of no houses behind us so it feels more private than it could.  It's lovely but I have to forget about our last backyard.  Let's just reminisce for a moment, shall we?

 Snow, another thing I actually miss.  I just loved the solitude of our place in Virginia.  Again, I really do like our neighborhood here in Texas (and I love our home) but I don't really like being so close to my neighbors that I can hear their dog breathing through the fence or have to worry about whether or not Jimmy across the street is wearing a shirt today or not.
Just sayin.
Clark and I want land.  Not a ton, just enough.  But I will get to that more, later.

Back to Texas.  It is a little bit more of a challenge to find outtings here than it has been in some of the other places we have lived.  Points of interest are not quite so obvious.  You can find them, you just have to look.  Going to frolick in the Bluebonnets is something not to miss each Spring.  We were a little late in the season this year but a few weeks ago we took a short jaunt to Brenham and played at the Antique Rose Emporium which is a beautiful nursery with oodles of space to wander.

We had our darling little friend, Olivia staying with us for a couple of days so we dragged her along.  She fits in rather nicely, I'd say.

 We may have missed the height of the Bluebonnets, but we found plenty of other photo ops.

 With a tear in my eye, I'd say that my kids have rather mastered the art of the jumping picture.  Bravo!

 They frolicked some more, until they started itching.

 And sometimes I just take them in, like oxygen to my Mommy soul.  They are sweet.  And when I see them being together and enjoying it, my Mommy heart could just melt and seep right out of my body, all over the field of wilting Bluebonnets.

 This picture has nothing to do with anything except to document that as a mother of four daughters, I regularly have to buy replacement hair elastics.  I'm not joking, nearly every other month I buy hair elastics and bobby pins and this is why.  This load was confiscated from everyone's wrists in one evening.  They feel a need to carry spares everywhere they go, for no reason at all.  They carry them around until they lose them.  And then I buy more because I am a sucker for a tidy fontanelle.

I am squeezing every single minute of enjoyment out of these beautiful days.  Even though we may not have a distinct four seasons, we get a sampling of chilly to hot.  The fall and Spring are amazing here.  The weather has been perfect as of late.  I am savoring it because I am a little terrified of summer.  Summer is hot, and I sweat a lot.

 So back to the bit about wanting land.  There are lots of options here, near where we live, I just know it.  We live in a cloistered little neighborhood but just 10 minutes down the road you hit country.  The biggest trick is getting the land you want while keeping our kids in the schools we desire.  For Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago, we pestered some friends of ours to let us come hang out on their track of land.  Even though they are only 15 minutes away, their lot could not be more different.  It is quiet.  It is beautiful.  They have bunnies, baby goats and a beautiful garden.

 And a wheelbarrow.

The kids played a rousing game of Red Rover.  It gives me anxiety as a parent to watch - I was just waiting with my fingers gripping the car keys, guessing which one I was going to have to drive to the emergency room with a broken arm.  Especially when the gaggle ganged up on the two smallest girls who ended up by themselves until Uncle Mike took pity and brought them back from certain annihilation.

 We will find our land.  Then someday, we can have our cake and eat it too.  Let's just hope it's before all the kids grow up and leave home and we are left to do all the farm chores by ourselves.  I just want to wear a full apron and rubber boots.  I can't do that here or neighbor Jimmy might just think I've lost it, and we wouldn't want that.

We'll end with yet another hidden talent of mine - pulling teeth.  I have pulled many a teeth in my day.  Hazel came to me with a very wiggly tooth, ripe for the taking.  

I asked if she wanted me to get it out.

(I am a very committed tooth extractor-if I feel it is wiggly enough, by golly, I will get it out on one go of it.)

I did.

She cried.

There was blood.

 But then she quickly got over it and was ecstatic at having lost her first tooth.

In my defense, the bagel started it.