Easter Greetings

Happy Easter! Because of Him, we look forward to being together forever as a family with our loved ones who have passed on. This week saw improved weather. Mike got sick but managed to avoid spreading the love. We got outside as much as possible, even when a little sogginess threatened the fun. 

Landon learned about recycling and looking after the environment this week as part of his science lessons in school. On Monday, he went to school with a bunch of items destined for the recycling center and came home with a handmade glider that actually flies! We went out back to test it out and enjoy the relative warmth.

Fergus must have known Mike was going to be sick on Monday night, because he cuddled up to him before bedtime. 

Hallie had made a lovely dinner that Mike did not keep down and Landon won’t eat since he is now a vegetarian, so Eliza and Hallie ate a lot of chicken all week long.

Early the following morning, Mike was sick and was sent into quarantine in Mom and Dad’s room. While he didn’t get sick again after the morning, he didn’t feel right until Saturday morning. Hallie had a routine doctor appointment, and all is well. On the way home, Hallie ran errands. She has to admit that she enjoys it when she doesn’t have two kids in tow.

Tax day brought snow, again. Three inches worth, so we broke the all-time record for winter snowfall in southeast Michigan. We had to pull out the snow clothes out of the bags we had packed them in for next year. It didn’t last the day, though. In the afternoon Eliza attended her Pipsqueak P.E. class where they learned golf and hockey. The kids had so much fun!

On Wednesday afternoon while Landon was at gymnastics, Mike took Eliza on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Mike was not feeling well enough to take her to our park’s egg hunt. Eliza was thrilled with collecting empty eggs and exchanging them for some jelly beans in the end.  

Mike made it up to work on Thursday. Hallie thought it was a good idea to take the two kids and go to Target to get some deals on pajamas for Landon. In the end she got some good deals, but the time it took at the cash register was something she would not like to repeat again. The kids did not like sitting in the cart for 15 minutes while Mom tried to haggle with the cashier to get a bargain.

The kids had the day off from school for Good Friday. Even though we got rain in the morning, we ventured out to the Wolcott Mill Metropark Farm Center to make friends with the farm animal babies. Landon’s experience getting up close and personal with the calves and chicks confirmed his stance as an emerging vegetarian. Landon (who does not show a lot of emotion when he is excited) said, “This is a very fun place!” We went on a tractor ride, and there was a nice play area. The park is a definite must-see if you live in Metro Detroit.

Made a stop at the wrong place before figuring out where the farm was.

Yup! We found it.

Learning all about the versatile cow

Meeting Clover, born March 17

Mike took Eliza to the Primary activity at the church while Hallie took Landon to gymnastics. She wasn't too thrilled to be there when it started, but she got into the spirit of things.

Once she had her candy, though, she physically pulled Mike to the car, saying "We go home, now!" All right, then. Later, they met up and went out to lunch and a movie (Rio 2). The AMC theater had giant red leather electric recliners. They were so comfy that Mike fell asleep partway into the movie, at least until Eliza bounded onto his lap. The whole family was excited and overwhelmed at this very nice movie theater. The kids had to play with the chairs for a bit before the novelty wore off. Thank you, Hopkins Family, for the Christmas gift card!

On Sunday, we had more mommy/son and daddy/daughter time after church. Hallie got tickets to the Tigers/Angels game from Sara, so she and Landon took advantage. After living here for nearly seven years Hallie believes she has become a fan of baseball. Landon says he likes to go, but only once has he sat through a whole game, and today was not that day. Hallie would have loved to stay the whole time as the weather was PERFECT! As you can see in the pictures, they had a lot of fun as Sunday is family day at the ballpark. The carousel and face painting were free, and Landon scored a free bat too for just being a kid. The Tigers won, and we are a happy family.

Meanwhile, Mike and Eliza took some time walking barefoot in the grass and admiring how nature’s beauty has finally sprouted in the backyard.  

After Landon and Hallie got home, we took time to finish our spring cleaning in the kids’ rooms. Before we knew it, the bell down at St. Ambrose struck 7:00, and it was time for Eliza to go to bed. She fell asleep quickly, which allowed time for Mike and Landon to dye eggs. Landon said, “I never knew dyeing eggs would be so fun!” Landon loves the science part of dyeing the eggs. Mike likes the science, but he appreciates the aesthetic side of the process even more. Next time they do this they want to write notes about the experiments.

Landon discovered the special features on the camera phone and decided to get scary.

Effective. Ooooh! 

The Easter Bunny is coming tomorrow after Mom goes to get some candy in the morning. Thank heavens the kids are still are young enough just to be excited for the candy!

Христос Воскрес! Многая Літа!

The phrases in the title translate as Happy Easter (Christ is Risen) and Happy Birthday (Many Summers) in Ukranian. We has a busy week taking advantage of the warmer spring weather. Mike celebrated his birthday with some Michigan favorites. Here are a few highlights.  

Monday, April 7 – Hallie took the sister missionaries to the Henry Ford museum.

Tuesday, April 8 – Hallie and Eliza went with friends to have some free play time at Extreme Gymnastics before going to Pipsqueak PE. 

Doing the power walk!

Mike attended a pysanky (Ukranian/Polish Easter egg) workshop at the university and made his own pysanka. He’s wanted to attend for the last few years but has always had a schedule conflict. This year he made sure to make the workshop a priority. Well worth the effort. He gained a whole new appreciation for the skill that goes into this amazing folk art.

Basic materials needed: a kistka, beeswax, a candle, and ideas for designs 

Many colors of aniline dye at the ready

Mike's finished product

It would take a long time for him to get close to this good! 

Wednesday, April 9 – Here are pictures of some of the art the kids did in school this last week:

Landon's pinch pot or jelly bean bowl

Eliza's class project based on Harold and the Purple Crayon

Now that we are getting more sun, the kids are getting outside more. Fergus is jealous. And persistent. We have to take extreme measures to get him to stay indoors. Fortunately, Eliza seems to have the magic capacity to keep him from getting too far when he does break out.

Thursday, April 10 – Somehow Mike managed to get Eliza's hair to come out full of ringlets from her last bath. She has had lots of fun hairstyles this week, including these little buns. 

The sister missionaries came over in the evening to help pack up and itemize and pack material in the dining room and kitchen to get them pristine for spring.

Friday, April 11 – Hallie and Landon had a mother-son date watching the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships at the University of Michigan’s Crisler Arena.

Saturday, April 12 – While Hallie and Landon went to gymnastics, Mike and Eliza did a little work around the yard. 

The kids struggled to get their rooms clean, so we missed out on an afternoon movie. Maybe next week. We celebrated Mike’s birthday with dinner at Achatz Burgers in St. Clair Shores and dessert at Sanders Ice Cream Parlor in the Village.

Sunday, April 13 – More birthday celebrations and otherwise just enjoying time as a family. While we didn’t get the sun in the afternoon, we had warm spring breezes in spite of the clouds.

Landon's birthday greeting

Even Google got into the birthday well wishes with a personalized doodle for Mike:

No Foolin'. It's Time to Get Outdoors!

We’re a quarter of the way through the year already. Yikes! In many respects, this week was full of the regular ordinary routines that govern our daily lives. We did have General Conference as the week’s highlight.

Happy Spring!

Monday, March 31 – Hallie ran the carpool for Eliza and Rocco, took Landon to school, and then went to the gym before picking up Eliza and Rocco again. Phew! Landon’s school has a Positive Behavior System, and if you get no red cards in a month then you get to go to a special assembly type of thing. Last month, Landon was able to go, but we chose not to have him go this month. The school chose to show a movie that was inappropriate for Landon’s age, and after a long winter this boy had watched way too many movies at school. So, we decided to pull him out of school early and to hang out as a family. Today happened to be Opening Day of baseball, and it is kind of a big deal here in Detroit. Landon, Mike, and Eliza rode bikes in the alley before Landon and Hallie got ingredients for root beer floats and listened to the game on the radio. Our Tigers pulled off a win. Woo Hoo!

Tuesday, April 1, was Gabrielle’s turn to drive, and Hallie was excited for that. Recently she tallied that taking Eliza to school and back is 80 minutes per day in the car. So it was a pajama day for the most part for Hallie until she realized Eliza had her little P.E. class in the afternoon. It is a good thing she remembered.

Not long after P.E. it was time to pick up Landon. Landon tried his hand at pulling April Fool’s Day pranks by pretending he had gotten in trouble at school. He was so cute about it and couldn’t keep himself from yelling out “April Fool!” before anyone could react.

On Wednesday, April 2, the weather finally improved enough for Mike and Landon to bike down to school. Mike came down with whatever bug is going around (maybe that’s what Landon had on Sunday). Fortunately for him, all it meant was three days of intense heartburn. Hallie came down with something similar a couple of days later. Mike took Eliza on the kangaroo seat to pick up Landon for their ride home. Both kids are definitely thrilled to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

Landon had gymnastics and has really enjoyed it. Adding an extra 3 hours a week hasn’t seemed to faze him.

When they got home, the neighbor kids were out playing, so our kids went out and played too. Everything went great until Landon slipped and fell, scraping his knee a little bit. In his words, it went from "the best day ever to the dark world."

Thursday, April 3, returned to cold and wet weather. Hallie did carpool, Mike walked Landon to school (like most days), and then Hallie and Eliza later on took Mike took work. After Landon was out of school, the Three Amigos picked up Mike early from work because he was feeling ill.

Friday, April 4, started off a bit calm then ended up a bit busy. We sold a desk we have had been trying to part with a while and continued our consolidation/spring cleaning. Hallie drove a super long way for a Thirty-One meeting and then ended the night babysitting for the neighbors.

Saturday, April 5 – We spent most of the day watching General Conference, and it was great!!!! In the morning Landon had gymnastics and with modern technology Hallie was able to watch conference while waiting for Landon and then listen to it on the way home on the radio. President Eyring asked why we were watching conference, and Landon said so he could get to Heaven. We are not sure where he learned that from, but if it keeps him listening, then keep thinking that way, son. Landon has hit a bit of a growth spurt and most of his jeans don’t fit him anymore, so the last two Saturdays, Landon has been a sport and has gone Mom 2 Mom sale shopping with Hallie looking for some new clothes. They haven’t been so successful.

Sunday, April 6 – More General Conference. We watched the earlier session from home and the later session at church. Unlike Landon, Eliza is still too young to sit still, so we hope something about the experience of being there eventually sinks in for her like it seems to have for Landon. All in good time.

Rounding the Corner

In spite of the snow early in the week and cold temps midway through, there is no doubt that we have rounded a corner, and spring has finally come to our part of the world. We have taken the change of season as a chance to purge the house of things we no longer use or no longer plan to use. While we have not yet managed to sell off or give away everything we want to, we’re on our way to a streamlined home.

Monday, March 24 – Snow flurries?! Seriously?! Actually, we’re neither surprised nor dismayed. This week Landon was Star of the Week at his school. He had several special privileges over the week, including being a special helper, bringing in favorite items from home to share, and sharing treats with his classmates on Friday.

Tuesday, March 25 – Tenure Tuesday! Mike was told by his work colleagues that his tenure case would be reviewed today. However, he did not receive any word as to the result. Hopefully he will receive word once all the cases are reviewed. Hallie babysat Elliot. Winter does not seem ready to leave, but the snow that does fall is not sticking to the ground.

The cold brings dry air and static electricity. Hair-raising!

Wednesday, March 26 – We’re doing some spring cleaning to get rid of furniture and other items we don’t use and to give us more space and less clutter around the house. As part of that endeavor, we got items ready to sell this weekend. Right now the two front rooms are full of stuff, but we hope most of it will be gone by Saturday.

Thursday, March 27 – We had parent-teacher conferences for both children in the morning. Both children have shown great progress. We have tried to encourage Landon to practice his read-aloud skills in class. 

Landon has read The Cricket in Times Square in school and at home with us as part of a whole-school reading project. We really enjoyed sharing this charming chapter book together as a family.

Landon's rendition of Harry the cat from the story

Today was Landon and Eliza’s last day at therapy at Kaufman. We will miss working with Sandra and Christina!

Friday, March 28 – While the kids watched their movie, the parents got started cleaning up the Kia to see if we can get a good price for it and trade for another car. Beforehand, we finally took the bikes out for a ride in the alley. City workers had filled in potholes that had developed over the winter, so they could ride without crashing on the rough road surface. 

Saturday, March 29 – After Landon’s gymnastics class, we all went out to see about trading in the Kia for another car. We did not get a new car, yet. We did, however, get creative with the prizes in their kid’s meals.

The crazy crown goes well with this unique picture Landon drew. We're not sure what it is exactly. 

Sunday, March 30 – Landon woke up in the middle of the night again puking. This time Eliza also woke up. Mike spent a couple of hours getting him bathed, laundry in the wash, and both kids settled back down. The buds have finally begun to sprout! 

We sent the kids outside to take advantage of the relative warmth and sun. Of course, this meant Eliza came in covered in mud. Still, we're happy to see them outdoors again.