Springtime and Daddy Fun

Last week was beautiful, as I mentioned in an earlier post, and Max was home the whole week after getting back from his deployment. Here are some pictures of the fun that the kids had.
Max took JB fishing at a nearby pond. I don't think they caught anything, but I'm sure it was a fun time of casting, reeling in, and having man-to-man conversation.





The kids have been enjoying the swing set and fort together. JB and Max brushed some sealer on the swingset because the wood was rather thirsty and looking worn from the sun and weather. Apparently they had a little too much fun which was evidenced by the turpentine smell in JB's hair and spikes from the effort to wash it out of his hair. The little pool came out several times last week because it got into the 80s and 90s.

Max also built a sandbox (which you can see in the background of the picture of JB in the little pool) for the kids underneath the fort. It's a pretty big one: it is 6x6' and took about 40 fifty pound bags of sand to almost fill it. He also made a cover for it that is on hinges and folds down onto the ground. This way cats won't make it their big litter box.

We bought a self-propelled lawn mower and Max and I took turns mowing our yard, which is about 5 times the size of any yard I've ever mowed (Max claims he's mowed bigger using a push mower). Max did a lot of work getting the sprinkler system working, replacing some sprinkler heads, and trouble shooting the system, since it kept coming on when it wasn't programmed, shooting strange directions, and things like that.

There are beautiful flower bushes bloomings in our front yard. We found out last week that they are called Peoneys. The flowers look like humungous carnations and weigh down the branches so much I had to tie the flowers to a trellis. It's been fun learning more and more about gardening as we plant seeds, water grass and garden, tie up bushes, cut grass, cut branches off of overgrown trees, and just enjoy God's creation.

Weather update: yesterday was my first real tornado siren experience (my first tornado siren experience was just a test and very loud). The past two days have been full of thunderstorms and yesterday evening some tornados were seen forming near Derby and then weakened. Max, the kids, and I went down to the basement bathroom for about 10 minutes and listened to the radio we had in our tornado kit. It was a good "drill" (even though it was a real warning) to get to know if we actually have all of the stuff we need in our tornado kit. I brought diapers down at the last minute, but realized wipes would be useful too. A blanket and more snack food would also be good to have down there in times of another warning, which could be worse the next time around.