And there was quite a few theatrical presentations that the kids prepared for our viewing pleasure. They were so cute - they would practice and practice and then call us down to watch their show. Look how excited Ben...I mean Buzz Lightyear...is as he starts off the show!
Love this picture of Ben! And you can see Abbey...I mean Ariel...in the background getting ready for her part.
Here is Abbey's part!
And of course there was a swinging turtle!
Then there were some costume changes before they moved on to Act 2. Now Juju is a tiger!
And I think Batman was saving Snow White here (I'm still not entirely sure what these plays were about, but they were fun to watch regardless)!
And when the weather was nice, we got around to preparing the garden! Paul and the kids worked very hard to get the lawn and yard cleaned up from the winter. And they went ahead and planted some lettuce in the garden (it can apparently withstand a freeze if we should get another one - we held off on all other plants as we still are not yet convinced there won't be another freeze yet this spring). Although this year we did start growing some plants from seeds inside. We have 12 tomato plants under a light right now they have just started to sprout! But, while playing around back by the compost pile, Belle caught a mouse! Ben (wearing gloves) wanted to hold the mouse and protect it, so here is Ben (with the mouse), Paul and the girls walking the mouse up to the field around the block to build it a house and let it go. Paul probably would have gotten rid of it another way, but our animal loving son wanted to make sure the mouse was ok!
There they go to set the mouse free!
Belle was helpful in other ways though. Here she is resting in the shade.
But then we put her to work...her digging actually came in handy in digging up the compost pile!
Other than preparing the garden, putting on plays, and doing crafts, we also just got to spend time playing together!
Ben and Juju played house together while Abbey colored nearby...
And the kids put on the world's biggest tea party (idea taken from a My Little Pony book we got out from the library). They made invitations, prepared the tea and lemonade, set the places and gave every plate some Clemintines for snacks. It was very well thought out (including a list prepared by Ben) and well executed!
Paul and I were both invited (as were a few select teddy bears), but really the kids worked really well together to get it all ready!
Juju was excited about it - look at our tea party!
And there was also baking done during the week. The kids love to help me cook or bake things and we had an important item to bake this week...a birthday cake for Aunt Domi! Aunt Domi likes lemon cake, so we found a recipe online and went to work. I had never made a lemon cake before and I will tell you what I learned...1) it takes quite a few lemons to squeeze out enough juice required for the cake and 2) it takes quite a few lemons to make enough zest required for the cake. So, we had to go out and buy more lemons than what we initially had! It was fun though!
Then we had a lemon left, so we decided to use it for decoration on the cake. Each of the kids participated in coming up with the idea for decorating it. Ben and I thought of the lemon flower, Ben thought of the sun, Abbey wanted pink around the flower, Juju wanted the green grass, and Ben thought to add the pink flowers to the bottom of the cake. It turned out pretty cute! But then I learned another lesson...lemons on the cake make the icing run. By the time we got the cake to the Dells to give to Aunt Domi, it sort of looked like a mess of a cake. Luckily, I took a picture right after we decorated it. Domi, this is what it did look like originally!
We had a great start to the week and then it was time for some real fun with a trip to the Wisconsin Dells with the Acuff family! More to come on that...
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