Bunny, Birthday, Blood & More

More pictures.  This time mostly from April. 

It's not often that we get to see Paul in uniform, since he changes at the fire station.  I snapped some pictures when I got the opportunity recently.  Proud of my hardworking fire captain. 

Trap shooting.  Seems it's a thing.  Grateful for a tiny school out in the country that still participates, as Jack has found his favorite sport. 

Meet Tuzi.  ("TOO tzih" which means bunny in Mandarin.)  He's our new bunny, and I love him to pieces. 

We like to take him out to explore.

He looks so cute frolicking in his little harness. 

Bought Jack a Star Wars button up shirt for picture day at school.  Had to chop off and re-sew one of the buttons before he could wear it. 

Eli's a little disappointed that Tuzi isn't more puppy like on the leash. 

I sent this to Miss Adorable, and she laughed and texted back, "Bunny prom pictures!"

Took a picture of the girls before we left for school on picture day.  The last thing I said to them, as they were getting out of the van at school was, "Take your sweater off before pictures."  Pictures came home this week.  One child with sweater, one without.  I made their necklaces.  Note to self, those bows will only be right side up for about 2 minutes after putting the necklace on.  

Miss Hannah had a birthday. 

My baby is now 11!  It goes even faster when they join your family post infancy. 

A few of you may remember that we attended Pioneer Day last year at the school.  This year's history theme day was Renaissance Day.  I took this picture when I dropped the kids off in the morning.  (Cheater Mom confession:  all Amazon costumes, except Jack's "chain mail" hood, which I made.) 

Then I drove to Bri & Eli's school, where I helped with their blood drive.  Paul attended Ren Faire with the younger kids from 10-2, and I told him, "Take lots of pictures for me!"

I got 3.  This is Hannah's spoon catapult. 

And Jack built this sword in wood shop!  He's also made a step stool. 

Meanwhile, at the high school...  Brianna and Boy came by to visit me at the blood drive.  Boy couldn't donate because of baseball practices and games.  Bri has donated in the past but chose not to this year. 

I was super proud of Eli his first time donating!  He looks terrified, but he did great.  Filled his bag in a flash.  (Miss Adorable came and visited with me while he donated.  She doesn't meet the minimum weight to give blood.) 

Katie's class at Ren Faire.  There was a parade, demonstration booths, lunch, tournaments, even archery! 

I volunteered at a Star Wars Day event.  There were a variety of stations/props set up where people could take pictures. 

This was my "set."  I had to text a picture to Eli and as what the heck I was riding, since I've never seen any of the SW movies.  He told me it's a swoop bike.  I took pictures of about half a million guests on it, with and without the characters. 

No idea who that even is, but okay. 

Eli looked at this picture and said to Josiah, "The scariest one is the one in the middle."  I am choosing to take that as a compliment.  I may not carry a light saber, but I have mama powers. 

Got to work recovery in the feral cat spay and neuter clinic again.  It's been a while since I've made it in there.  Still fun to mess with drugged kitties. 


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Photo Dump and Various Updates

I've been rotten about blogging; sorry.  I still have pictures from Hawaii I'd like to share.  Maybe someday.

Jack has done better than I expected with this whole going to school business.  He's grown and matured a lot this year.

Josiah went to volunteer orientation at SPCA recently.  I'm hoping he decides to do Dog Walker training.

Eli is a whole lot of awesome.  Sometimes it's hard to keep it all on the ground.

March was Literacy Month at school.  They had several different dress up theme days.

Katie read the most pages in the Elementary, and Hannah read second most.

We had dinner out with Zach's family recently.

Katie's teacher sent me this.  (It was stripe day, hence the PJs under her clothes.)

Sometimes, when I get to SPCA early on the days I serve at the vaccine clinic, I fold for a while.

It's a never ending task, but I know the staff appreciated those of us who lend a hand.

Volunteer appreciation breakfast at the book den.

On our last visit to Shriners, they asked us to update Hannah's x-rays.

I snapped a picture of her digital image so she could see her bones.

This was the UNO game that lasted forever.  I like playing games with the kids, but Connect 4 goes much faster.

Can't believe we're just a matter of days away from summer break!  Really looking forward to having all the kids home.  Hopefully, I'll be snapping pictures of us doing fun stuff together and feel inspired to blog more. 


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Storm Front by Susan May Warren

If you've not yet discovered author Susan May Warren, you're in for a treat.  I got hooked on her books with the Christiansen Family series.  They're so good.  Susan creates families.  And while each book mainly deals with the romance of a different couple, you get updates on familiar characters from prior books in the series.  In fact, confession time here, when book 5 of the Montana Rescue series arrived for me to review and I realized I had somehow missed book 4, I ordered it that day.  And I was done with 5 before 4 arrived.  They're that good.

If you missed it, here's a post where I talked about books 1 & 2.  My review of book 3 is here.  Book 4, wowza!  It had me on the edge of my seat!  There's a shipwreck, and lots of nail-biting action.  I stayed up way, way too late finishing it because I just couldn't put it down.

But I'm here to talk about book 5 today, Storm Front.  Like all the Montana Rescue series, Storm Front is full of action and adventure.  PEAK Rescue collides with a storm chasing team (Remember the movie Twister?  Kinda like that.) when a tornado rips through southwestern Minnesota, throwing Ty and Brette back into each others lives in a way that creates swirling chaos that rivals the storms surrounding them.

Storm Front chronicles the efforts to find Chet and a group of students after a tornado wrecks havoc and leaves families crazy with worry about missing loved ones. 

Meanwhile as their wedding date gets pushed back over and over, Kacey wonders if Ben has changed his mind about marrying her.  And Pete gets terrible news about Jess. 

Eventually, Ty and Brett find themselves weathering yet another devastating storm together in the library, where they make a vitally important discovery. 

If you've been reading along from the beginning, you're going to want to get your hands on Storm Front right away.  If you're new to the series, here are links for the whole thing:

     Wild Montana Skies
     Rescue Me
     A Matter of Trust
     Troubled Waters
     Storm Front
     and coming in November... Wait For Me

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Prom Pictures - Eli

I got to do park pictures with Eli and Miss Adorable this year. 

Picking her up and putting on the corsage.

The young couple and the parental paparazzi. 

Arriving at the park. 

They're seriously so cute and sweet, it almost gives you a toothache. 

And photogenic?  Good heavens.  Yes, there were some outtakes, but overall, I was really happy with this shoot.  I got better pictures than we did for homecoming. 

Miss Adorable had some pose ideas she found online, and I was happy to accommodate her requests. 

Darling!

This one reminds me of a book cover for a historical novel. 

 

And this guy?  Prom prince!  I was thrilled for him.  He was embarrassed. 

This school year, Eli went from boy sizes to man sizes and put on 25#--mostly muscle and height!  His PE class is weightlifting, and he's made incredible strides this year.  He pushes himself, coming home sore a couple days a week. 

With a couple of their friends. 

Time is thundering by.  Brianna graduates in 4 weeks, and after a blink of a summer, Eli will start his senior year. 

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