Kindergarten Graduation

Sweet Naomi is now a kindergarten graduate!

 On her last day of school, we all went to her awards ceremony, where she received her certificates for completing kindergarten, an award for good conduct all year, and a special "Handy Helper" award.

 Naomi held up her certificate with enthusiasm!

 After the ceremony she went back to the classroom to take pictures of her buddies with her camera.

And her most important priority was a picture with her teacher, Miss Wren!

  A few weeks later when Kevin called up the recent graduates to be recognized at church, Naomi whispered, "Should I go up there?"  Your turn will come soon, Naomi - sooner than we'd like, I'm sure.  We are proud of you!

Horseback Riding

Our friend invited us to ride their two sweet horses, so Johnathan and Naomi had a great time riding after school.  They learned how to brush the horses, clean their hooves, and feed them. 

After riding, they also got to put out food for the cows and call them in to eat!  Naomi and Johnathan were so excited to ride the Gator and to see the cows running in.  They came home dusty, hungry, and full of grins and stories to share with Daddy and Ezra!



Easter Weekend

A few pictures from our weekend...

 We had a simple Passover Seder, attended by a Roman soldier and "servant girl" (Naomi asked us to call her that!  I told her I could definitely come up with some work for her to do!).

 Our best attempt at a pose with all three!

 Ezra was perfectly content to hunt for one egg and then chew on it.

 Release the hunters!

 Ezra "hanging out" with Mommy

Easter breakfast at church.  Ezra is realizing that there are much better tasting foods out there than baby oatmeal and mushy baby food.  Like blueberry muffins!  And oatmeal cookies!  He will bang his cup and loudly protest if we withhold the good stuff from him.

Piano Baby

Ezra gives new meaning to "eat the mic".  (Sorry it's sideways!  Forgot the camera doesn't rotate!)

Pie in the Face

 It was an exciting night at Awana - Pie Night, when the leaders with the most votes (earned by clubbers who completed their sections) got a pie in the face.  Kevin got multiple pies in his face, one of which was delivered by Naomi while a crowd of Cubbies and Sparks chanted "Pie in the face!  Pie in the face!"). 

Good thing Kevin loves Cool Whip!

For the Birds

I love watching the birds that come to our feeder, so when I looked out and noticed a nest in the rosebush right outside our living room window, I was so excited.  I tiptoed out and peeked in - three little featherless birds in it who poked up their head and let out tiny squeaks for food!  Soon a mama cardinal flew in and fed them, and I was instantly "twitterpated"!  But later that afternoon, the wind kicked up, and I noticed the nest was tilted at a bad angle.  Sure enough, a few gusts later and two baby birds were dumped on the ground.

Now I know that this is just part of life, but I could not bear the thought of them dying there on the ground right outside my window.  Especially when the mama bird hopped over and stood over them, helpless to do anything about it!  So with Naomi and Johnathan standing at the window, I carefully scooped them back into the nest with a wooden spoon.  At this point, I'm sure I had interefered enough, but I was already emotionally invested in seeing these birds make it!  So when the nest flipped them out 2 more times, I pushed up my sleeves, got out some gardening tools, and secured the nest with a branch and got those babies back in it.  

Poor things, they had been scratched by thorns, and I wondered if I had scared the parents off completely.  I'd probably already done too much, so I closed the blinds, drew the curtains, and got my own babies off to bed.  We snuggled on the living room floor and read about how God know each sparrow that falls, and how we are so much more valuable than the birds. 

 But I couldn't resist peeking out the window that evening.  To my relief, mama cardinal was back, sitting on her babies to keep them warm! 

 In the following days, I spent way too much time peeking out at the nest to see how they were doing.  I'm happy to report that a few days ago all three left the nest and followed their parents across the yard to some nearby bushes.  Here's one hanging out, enjoying his or her independence and stubby wings...

 So cute!  And our yard is aflutter with little birds.  Young sparrows are chasing their parents around, demanding seeds, and now we have a nest of baby mockingbirds in a different rosebush.

I'm just glad they are too far away to see from the living room window - some people spend too much time on Facebook, but my current vice is birdwatching!

DOC Update

 Since Naomi had the day off of school this Friday, we all went with Ezra to his DOC band appointment.  The therapist took measurements and said he has had really good growth in the first two months of wearing it.  Depending on how quickly he continues to grow, he may still fit this one for another 6 to 8 weeks, and we'll talk about the possibility of a second band the next time we go, when they'll do another round of measurements. 

 After the appointment, we had lunch and went to Mayfield Park to visit the peacocks and hike the nature trails.  Then we had to try a treat we had heard about - cake on a stick!  They were yummy and kind of like a cakey truffle dipped in chocolate.