handsful

And, here are the beds with their new occupants…we’ve added 2 holly trees (at the far right end and middle of the right side), pink knock out roses, and gardenias.  We nixed the hydrangea idea when I realized I could do gardenias.

I love gardenias!

We also added hosta behind the japanese maple…it had always looked so barren back there, and now it’s gonna be green and beautiful!

I’m so anxious to see those blooms open up!  I know it looks sparse now, but our landscaper planted sparingly, to allow for growth through the years.  When we first moved here, the plants were CRAMMED in and completely overgrown.  Don’t wanna do a repeat of that.

And, one of the best parts?  He said we could chop at those roses however we wanted and they wouldn’t die.

Not that we ever would.

Ahem.

And, he also gave us a 1 year warranty on all the plants.

So, they’re safe for the time being…

We’ve been busy doing fun stuff.  It’s been Spring Break, afterall.

First off, the boys had 4 friends over for 3 days/2 nights.  Lots of running around in the woods (in the rain), games on the trampoline, tent camping in our open field, and a TON of food now gone.

I’m just about recovered from it all.

We also colored eggs.  The pic above is from our experiment.  Apparently, using shaving cream and food coloring is the way to go, so we tried it.

They turned out great.  Here are two of them still in shaving cream.  After they chill in the fridge for a while, you use paper towels to wipe them off.  I think my “after” photo is on my phone, I’ll post that later.

Field trip time!  Marley tagged along as we took Lainey and Dylan to a farm owed by another homeschool family.  They held and played with lots of animals, saw a just-hatched chick, rode their horse, and had a fun egg hunt.

Lainey holds Peggy Lou :)

Next up…Annual Easter hunt at Gram’s house on Saturday.

We had a couple of extras join in this year.  We brought Kylie and Daniel, and Caleb’s girlfriend Anna came as well.

Gram and her grands

So many watchers this year…we’re down to only 3 egg hunters this year, and next year it’ll just be Lainey and Dylan.

The big kids read their first clue for the hunt…

Finally, it was Easter Sunday…

Payton, get outta our shot…

And, that covers  our Spring Break.  I think I somehow missed the concept of “break”…but we had a blast.

These would be the bushes that used to grace the front of our house.  Last year, we decided to trim them back and got a little over-zealous.

And, we might have used a little weed killer near them, while trying to…

Well.  Kill weeds.

Too add insult to injury, we had an unusually cold winter.

None of this was very appreciated by our lovely bushes, and as spring began, we noticed that there were very few green leaves on our bushes.  Hmm?  In fact, we saw a lot of brown.

We scratched our heads.  Did our bushes usually die off and then spring back to life?  We’d not really noticed before.

So, we called our friend Larry, who also happens to be a landscaper and has done work for us before.

He took one look and declared them dead and/or dying.  Likely, from a combination of the above mentioned trim / poison / cold.

We had no choice.

The bad news?  Having almost every bush in front of your house yanked out costs more than you’d think.

The good news?  Planning the house front landscape ourselves, rather than adopting what the previous owners put.  Which was ALL green.

Looking forward to seeing some knockout roses and hydrangea in there…

In the end, keep this in mind.

Don’t ever let us tend your bushes.

It’s that time of year.

The weather is turning warmer (finally), the pollen is beginning to build up, allergies are flaring up, my lilies are peeking out of the ground…and, teenagers are busy renting tuxes, buying dresses, getting their hair and nails done, and posing for tons of pictures.

In fact, three of my teens did just that last night…attended our local homeschool prom.

And we’ve spent the last few weeks getting ready for it.  After a relatively quick search, we found Abbey’s dress, shoes, and jewelry.  We rented the boys tuxes from a gentlemen’s clothing store downtown, ordered corsages and boutonnieres (am I the only one who can’t spell that without checking first?), and spent the day of the prom taking Abbey for a mani/pedi and a beautiful up-do.

Hope you enjoy the pictures…

The boys were ready first (shocking, right?).  I told them I wanted a picture of them in the doorway.  This is what they gave me.  Goofballs.

Yes, I’m that short.  I don’t mind…I’ve got two very handsome boys.

And then, Abbey was ready.  She looked stunning!  Her boyfriend, Daniel, was already at the house waiting.  Before taking pictures with him, I wanted a quick sibling shot.

We then drove to a park to meet the boys dates, and their friend Trevor and his date, to take photos.

Flower time…

Here’s EJ and Kailee

And, Payton and Elaina

Abs and Daniel

Ladies

Gentlemen

Because this is Abbey’s Senior Prom, here are a few extra shots :)